Nike We Run KL 10k

I'm bored...when is this going to end, Mummy?

Yeah, the finishing is in view!!

In the beginning, it felt like a daunting thing to bring two AIRs with me along to this 10km run. I have ran with only either one before, and the most recent, probly a month back, with AIR2, 9+km. So the thought of 2, and 10km?? Kinda scarry.

I asked Fong to join us. And she gladly came. Looking forward to this. And of course, time was immaterial, but up to 6+km, we were doing good. Then the hiccups started to set in. However, it was not important. It was 6 of us finishing the run and enjoying every bit of it that counted. :)

Let's walk to the finish together

Thanks to Kam, Jason & Victor for the photos.

Penang Bridge International Marathon 2011

Alright, this is one run I've taken a break from since I did the 42km. That was in 2006. And finally this year I decided to sign up due to the arrangement of events which somehow I ended up in Penang. Plus I ran with my god-sis, her bestie and well, it's one run which I think I've taken alot of photos before start. Ok, 3 only lah, but then again I usually don't take any ;p

Anyway, starting at 3.15am, I think it is the most absurb time it could be. But anyway, for the heck of it, I took the challenge. Quite optimistic after a good outing at the PJHalf (ok, pirate pun pirate lah ;p), I was aiming to just finish, and perhaps clock a decent time. No targets, knowing I'd not be able to do anything less that 2:30. I wasn't prepared.

As I ran, I looked out for people whom I know who would be taking part. Met a childhood friend and she was surprised to see me. Started the run pacing two white chicks as they seemed to be or reasonable pace. Somehow, at the 1st toilet stop, they stopped so I had no pacer. I ran keeping to the earlier pace until one fit-looking girl came up next to me. So I ran alongside her, until we reached the mid-span, and she started to breathe so hard and fast, it was distracting. Seriously. I was surprised and how calm and consistent my breathing was compared to hers, that at one point, her breathing was so distracting that I had to push myself to run ahead of her. I was running out of breath just listening to her breathe.

Crap. And I thought I was the un-fit one. OK OK, cannot compare this way.

BUt anyhow, we were somewhat the same pace, but surprisingly I was faster on the hill/slopes. hahahaha I am amazed. I'm always the slower one compared to anyone when it comes to hills. So I have Fong and Alvina to thank for this improvement.

Anyway, I was glad when we U-turned at 9.8km and approached a water station. BUt WHAT?? NO WATER? I was dying of thirst. I wanted to down my gel and finish with water, but no water? I was already regretting not running with my pals cos they had water in their fuel belt. One man actually begged the volunteers for whatever leftover they may have as he is dying of thirst. Decided to leave that drama, I ran. then I saw those small mineral water bottles on the siderails of the bridge. I scouted as I ran and there were a few almost full bottles. I just grabbed it and down some of the water while running. AAaaaaah life saver!

All that happened when I was also experiencing an onset of calf cramps. WHAT?? I've never experienced cramps ever while running!! This is not good! Change my stride but then my toes hurt. Changed it back, stopped to stretch then continued. 1-2km down the road I had to stop again. I was cursing just before the 17km U-turn. But when I reached, the isotonic water station was DA BEST!! Iced cold 100-Plus to clear my mind off the pain. Then the checkpoint and maybe bout 100m away was an icing-station. It was quite a relief when my calfs were iced. Then I took a slow 5km run back. The thoughts of stopping and icing them legs were very very strong. BUt I kept running till the end.

The sight of the finishing line seemed to take forever. I was glad I finished despite clocking a slower time. Truthfully? Kinda dissapointed that I had to experience cramps. BUt oh, did I mention that from KM6 or so onwards, I had indigestion. It was not pleasant. This translated into stomach cramps bout KM12 onwards.

Oh well, now I've experienced all the pain! But I will still come back again!!

What's the big deal?

The football match Malaysia vs Indonesia during the Finals of the SEA Games was perhaps the most highlighted event of the entire SEA Games for Malaysians.

But what's the BIG deal? Yeah, the fact that we won it now for the 2nd time in a row is quite a big deal, but wouldn't all the other GOLD medal winners feel somewhat shunned by all the extra publicity and praises/compliments the football team got compared to them?

I would, if I were them.

It is the same gold medal only in a different event, so shouldn't all be equal? Did the return of the Yoong siblings received such a grandeur celebration? Not to mention Aliyaah Yoong is the youngest ever gold medal winner in the SEA games. Isn't that even a greater achievement, not to mention for a 8-year-old!! And between the 3 of them, they brought in 5 golds for the country.

The football match was the talk of the whole office the very next day. But did anyone talk about Heidi Gan's 2 gold medal efforts in the 5km and 10km open water swim? And when Kimberly Yap won the women's triathlon in the previous games, twice consecutively, was she the talk of the country? No, only the triathlon community.

Biased? I really think so.

Plus all the money that goes into training these athletes....somewhat wrongly focussed and channelled to the wrong people.

Oh well....I think there should be some fairness in treating our athletes who have put in so much effort in their own ways to bring back the medals for the country!

16Nov2011

Phew! It was a tiring holiday.

The whole family, kids n grandparents included, and close family frens decided to take a cruise. So off we went on Superstar Libra for a 4D3N cruise Pg-Phuket-Krabi-Pg.

Indeed it was quite nice, minus the kids...but if kids included....its just not suitable. Well, technically not suitable for kids below 5, I'd say. Otherwise it'd be a perfect holiday. To make things worse, AIR1 just has to be at his 'best' at throwing tantrums in the morning daily. Until the staff there has recognized him. And then AIR2 wasn't too well with a stuffed nose and poor lil' girl was not comfy at times.

However, the trip also turned out to be a real workout for hub n I. We went to Patong Beach in Phuket and went to the Patong Ceylon Mall (can't really remember what exactly it was called). Almost 80% of the time, AIR1 wanted to be carried. And so he stuck to me like a semi-permanent attachment ;p Even slept on me throughout our 1.5-2km walk from the complex to the jetty. And AIR2 stuck to hub...and together we had out weight workout. ;p Thank goodness my knees are still intact and not sore...and hopefuly ready for PBIM this sunday.

But anyways, so what's so special on 16Nov 2011?

Got back to good ol' Pg and shortly after all the chaotic disembarkment etc etc and reached home, I got a call from a strange number. Thinking it was from True Fitness who was for the umpteenth time trying to give me a 2-week free pass and remind me to go collect it as it was almost 2 weeks since my appointment. I answered and there was this Chinese sounding guy trying his best to speak broken malay to me. I was almost annoyed, but when he told me he was calling from Dumex Mamil, I listened a bit more. At the back of my mind I thought he was trying to get me to update my info on their database or something of that sort.

Then he mentioned something which caught me instantly...which I didn't pay attention initially. He asked if I joined the contest, but I heard if I had joined the Mamil Club ...hahaha then by then I spoke English to him and I guess he was relieved. He proceeded to congratulate me. And said I've won. I expected him to say I won RM500 for AIR2 (cos I put her name there) and RM500 was the consolation prize, but he said congratulations, you won RM5,000.!!! I was like 'WHAT? Oh, ok...' pretending to be cool. And now, he is talking!!

So info n procedures were mentioned. Thank God I answered the call. Now I wonder if he had tried many times to call me earlier but failed.

And when I looked at the contest details again, I was surprised...RM5,000 is actually the 1st prize for the weekly winner!!

Woweeee! 1st time ever winning a first prize in contest of this sort....(Fear Factor doesn't count, ok.) ;p

Now can't wait to get the bank acc set up for AIR2! Yipee!! (aptly said and pun intended! - am supposed to open a Yipee savings account thru Maybank) hahahaha ;p

Now time to go zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

New routine

Oh dear...it's driving me nuts!! Testing my patience actually.

The moment AIR1 cries because of some menial thing and runs to me, AIR2 will for some reason or other cry too and come rushing to me, fighting her brother off, just to get to me.

And when there's no valid reason to pull a fuss, AIR1 will somehow think of a 'reason' to do so. The most common so far - say his toe/finger hurts.

Oh well, he is one creative boy, I'd say....hahaha

It's cute and entertaining watching their antics, but can be seriously stressful especially when AIR1 just can't stop making a fuss out of nothing. THE worst part is it always happens when he is sleepy!! And almost daily!!!

Adoi!!

Test of patience.

And no amount of diversion from Daddy would take AIR2 away from me so that I am onle left with one of them at the same time. Crap! The only way to 'calm them' is to carry both and eventually AIR2 will be satisfied.

Hmmm does your kids behave like this?

PJ Half Marathon 2011

Finally another run event but this time, Fong & I 'pirated' it.

I was fed up of signing up and then later something crops up and I can't make it. Yes, the timing can be freaking bad, and it HAS to be when there's a run I really want to go for, hub's time will be taken for some work. Oh well, so there goes the run. NB15km and Shape Night Run are few to mention.

Anyway, one lacks training and the other mid-way through pregnancy, so we decided to take it slow and easy.

Surprised that we managed to get parking easily (kind of) and we car-pooled. At 6.30am sharp (almost) we were flagged off. SO we started slowly. Starting from really at the end of the pack, it was the first for us. Usually we're stuck in the middle or near the front.

Caught up with Stupe and Aileen, took a snapshot and we trotted along. That was before the turn off to Federal Highway. As we entered Fed Highway, I was surprised that this time we ran in the motorcycle lane. Easy job for the police and marshalls. After a few minutes into it and it was no longer dark, I thought the guy next to us was Boone. Took a while to look and re-look before calling out to him. Looking great out there.

I was on a high. I felt good, but that was only 5km into the run. 16 more awaits and I didn't want to spoil it. So I stuck to our current pace. After the u-turn and alot more gossips, Fong was more quiet now. I took it as a sign and checked if she was ok. She said she was breathing heavily but still fine. Slowed down a little. Up the ramp towards Subang Airport and we slowed down a bit. Fong told me to go ahead. I went. Then came back to check on her before the flyover at Ara, just before the 12km mark, and Fong wanted to pit stop. Nearest pit stop would be BHP some 1.2km away. We initially wanted to u-turn at the Ara Damansara turn but since BHP is after that, we went ahead. I went on and came back to check again. Then another round. After that pit stop she had, she's now more energetic and ready to go!

So off we went again. She told me to go ahead so I agreed only after the u-turn we did. We turned at the roundabout and not at the designated u-turn, which was perhaps in total 1km less than the actual distance. Then off I went. The return had us run facing the bright sun. Not ideal. Glaring. Where there was motorcycle lane, we were running using it. Finally, like all runs, the last 1km seems toughest. But I enjoyed it this time because there were a few other ladies pacing me and wanting to run ahead of me. I guess they didn't notice I didn't have a timing chip on my shoe nor a number on my shirt. I was amused. :)

Finally arrived just before KJ stadium, where I stopped and backtracked to look for Fong. She was doing great!

The best part of it all - I felt great after the run. Knees were weird but they were not swollen and that weird feeling went off the next day. Only sore muscles.

I guess I'm pretty much ready for PBIM now. I thought I'd not make this 21km but now I'm more sure of myself. BUt then again, there are those good days and the bad days. Now let's hope 20th Nov will be as good as 30th Oct. :)

Salute to the preggy mummy!! She was fantastic! But I forgot to take photos of us again! ;p

Don't ask me who that ang moh is....;p