Mohammad Izul Amirul Mukmim placed fifth in the 10km Men Open at the TM80 Heritage Run Taiping 2026, a day after a hilly 5km event in Pengkalan Hulu and on 3 hours and 54 minutes of sleep.

His time of 34:29 and his placing come from his Instagram post, as the official results have not been published online. He told ToughASIA he missed his target time, and that his actual average pace was 3:32/km because the course was under distance.

“I really struggled because the day before the event I had a 5km event in Pengkalan Hulu, and the route there was quite hilly,” Izul said.

He said he slept only 59 minutes before the Saturday event in Pengkalan Hulu, and 3 hours and 54 minutes on the Sunday morning.

“It made my body even more exhausted. I couldn’t go all out because I didn’t get enough rest,” he said.

From the first kilometre, he said, his whole body and his legs were signalling that he was worn out.

“Somehow, in the final moments, past km3 heading into km4, when I was about to stop and was very close to walking, my mind told me, ‘at least finish it’,” he said.

His momentum came back after km5 and through km6. He said that was what he meant by “God’s help in the final moments”, a phrase he also used in his Instagram post.

He described the weather in Taiping on race day as very good. The route had a small hill at Taman Suria, he said, followed by a slight downhill that let him win back some of the pace he had lost.

“For me, I’m one hundred percent for short-distance routes of 10km and below that are really flat,” he said.

On pacing, he said it depends on race day, but 90% of the time he follows his own pace, the one he has planned and built up in his daily training.

“Trusting the pace we have trained for is the key to finishing strong, insyaAllah,” he said.

For Izul, the hard part is not race day.

“Staying consistent from day to day and getting through all kinds of weather in Malaysia, that’s what is hard. Consistency is what’s truly valuable. You have to do it in any situation, even the ones you don’t like,” he said.

He said he used the Taiping race to move back to short-distance running after focusing heavily on 21km and 42km, with the goal of regaining 85% to 90% of his short-distance performance.

In his Instagram post, he said he wanted to return next year and do much better. To get there, he said he will sharpen his training further and make sure he gets enough rest.

His real target is the Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Nazrin Shah on 22 November, where he is aiming for a sub-34-minute finish if everything goes smoothly.