Jogathon Kesihatan Perak 2009

Last Saturday, instead of joining the Shape Run at Putrajaya, I engaged in my semangat ke' jabatan'an and ran in the Jogathon Kesihatan Perak.

I ran in the women's junior category for 5K ( that's the longest run they got)

So it was a chilly morning, chilly because the route was a few metres from the beach. As I was in the starting lineup with all those other doctors and nurses and pharmacist and dieticians and paramedics and..( you get the picture), I got a bit jittery and intimidated to see that half the route was all uphill and most of the participants were 19 year old nursing students.

When the gun went off, as usual everybody pecut like there's no tommorow. Lantak korang la. But  at 1k, seperti biasa most of them start walking and I took advantage.

Lari punya lari, I got knots in my tummy going uphill for so long. Then, funnily enough I felt hungry pulak. Halfway I thought I could finish top ten.

Then bila route went downhill, I accelerated. I guess by that time, they were all tired by the hill that they simply slowed down kot. So surprisingly, at almost 4k I couldn't see anyone in my category in front of me. Haik?..bior betik..cam twilight zone pulak. Other runners in other catogory tu adela ( cth men's junior, men's senior 4k, women's senior 4k).

So I crossed the finishing line at 27 mins 14 secs dengan terperasan dapat nombor satu la..wah! But when the officals handed my finishing number, it wrote number 2. Kahkah ..padan muka aku.

Rupa-rupanya ( as told by hub) the first placing girl smoked me by 1 minute. Patut pun tak nampak. But then, she's a young girl and I'm 29 with two kids..so there. Haha. (And I got 2nd out of almost 200 people in my category. )

So all in all kesimpulannya :

1. My timing improved ! Yay!

2. JKN Perak staff are not that fast ( including yours truly la)

3. I got my 5 minutes of fame when Dato' Pengarah asked me twice " Betul ke Dr ni?" when he was handing out my prize.

4. Jgn harapla dapat even top 30 in other races. Sigh.

5. I'm RM200 richer. Makcik kayooo....

Stuck in a rut

You know what's dumb? The prices of so-call healthy food here in Malaysia. They urge us to eat healtier but the choice of healthy food are so much pricey compared to the unhealthy ones.

Contoh ? Banyakkkk

Cereal : Whole wheat cereal bapak mahal compared to those choclatey, sugary ones.

Vegetable produce : They're so called free from pesticides and chemicals and are grown organically  so secara teorinya supposed to be more cheapla kan? But no.

High Fibre/ whole wheat bread :  the main ingredients are pulp and hampas kan? Why more 

                                                            pricey compared to white bread?

Unpolished Rice : It's unpolished for God's sake! Less work but more RM?

Ayam kampung : Claimed to be healthier. They are grown as free-range chickens and are fed 

                               organic feed. They are not given shots to fatten them up tapi still lebih mahal.

Drinks : Those that promote less sugar won't cost less. 

And then, there's this issue of local fitness magazines that only copy the articles of their Western counterparts. Tak buat kajian to fit the local needs langsung. There's this one magazine under the article titled'Quick 100 cal Snacks' which lists the main ingredients as 20 rasperries, Greek yogurt, and fresh figs. Dey, mana nak dapat la. At your local pasar malam? I know you guys in KL can go to one of those fancy organic markets ( but I can guarantee they'll be as expensive as hell) but what about the rest of us?

Buat research la, people. Takat cut and paste aku pun boleh buat.

WHO has been promoting MakeThe Healthy Choice The Easy Choice for years. At this rate, my response is : my foot.

Pay up.

So I officially signed up to run 21k in Penang Bridge International. Can I run 21k? Sure, I can. 

But can I finish in the cut off point of 3 hours? Here's where I'm trying not to choke.

I'm really trying to train but it's kinda hard when all I got is Sunday mornings for my long runs. Itu pun kalau tak hujan like last Sunday. I can only train to the max of 35mins of my lunch time on my working days ( and try to squeeze in eating, praying, bathing and resting in the remainder of time) and an hour or so on Fridays.

So as you can see, I'm really hoping on that long Sunday run to get me all ready for that 21K. But sometimes Sundays don't go as well as planned. Mom got something to do and can't babysit the kids la, hujan la, Hub has to work la, malas la...hehe.

Tapi I can't really whine now,can I? I've already signed up and paid. It'll be a shame to waste that RM50 for nothing.

Come to think of it, it's so funny that I have to pay people to run.

Friday break time

Contrary to other people's beliefs, it is ok to run with a stomach full of nasi tomato ( ayam merah +dalca+acar), 2 small peices of moist chocolate cake and air sirap.

Did 6.1K of it to be exact. 613kcal burnt ( according to the treadmill la).

Dengan syarat : lift up your hands when you hit those side stiches and have Regina Spektor and Mika on the iPod as motivators.

Orang kata Gila. Aku kata Lagi.

Ipoh International Run

My day started at 4.15 am. It had just started to rain. My hub reassured me that it will drizzle by race time. Boy, was he wrong.

Dressed up the sleeping kids and packed their basic needs. Ate what was available in the fridge ( apple pie), geared up, hauled the kids in the car and rolled off. 

It rained heavily along the 1 hour trip. Hub was still confident that the rain will stop.

Arrived at 6.20 or so, saw a couple of Kenyan runners doing some warm up running in the rain. Hub said if he couldn't get the car parked, I should run off in the rain to the venue. By that time, everybody was running in the rain to the stadium.

6.30 sharp, I hopped off the car and ran blindly towards the stadium only to be shouted by the pak guard that 10k and 21 k runners are supposed to wait at the MSN building. Geez,dude, everyone else in eefing wet too, you don't have to be bitchy about it.

I ran to the MSN building which was next to the stadium, at first avoiding puddles. Halfway,my shoes were soaked and I thought, what the hell.

Had a few conversations in the rain with some random people. Went to the toilet 2 times to do #2. Apple pie was a bad choice for pre run breakfast. We all waited for 20 mins for the race to start. The officials kept postponing because of the rain and we were all getting restless. Why wait soaking wet and cold when we could be better off running?. The rain didn’t look like it was going to stop anyway.

At 7.30 I guess, the gun went off. This was my first experience running drenched. My shoes felt heavy and all that was on my mind at the time was " I guess I'll be taking an EL from work tommorow..theehee."

 I was kind of intimidated at first when it seemed everybody was passing me but then I pujuk-ed myself into remembering that I'm not an athlete and I don't intend to win any prizes. Lagipun, half will be exhausted once they hit the 2k mark with that pace. I concentrated with my own pace and my footwork. Then I got bored and opted to people watching instead. 

There were all sorts of people running around. Some ran with umbrellas and risked poking others in the eye with it. Some even wore crocs (?). Some schoolchildren ran barefoot. Most teenagers stomped while running, but they're teens, they'll recover, who cares. There were senior runners who looked older than my dad but ran faster than me. There were heavily built women who ran faster than me. There were muscular guys who ran slower than me. There were also women clad only in short shorts and tank tops who were freezing to death but guessed it was better to be fashion savvy instead of sensibly warm that morning.

At the 2k point two lads with ' Engineering' printed on the back of their shirts turned to me and asked " Jauh lagi ke kak?"

' Isk adik..jauhhhhh lagi". And they looked like they were about to collapse.

So I ran and ran. I promised myself never to stop and walk. I didn't stop at the water station for fear of getting cramps. I didn't stop at the sponge station cause I guess it was no help. Lagipun it was raining (it drizzled by that time) for pete's sake. 

The route went uphill and downhill, past a hospital and shopping mall, past houses with gigantic dogs barking like mad. Past annoyed looking drivers held up in traffic because of the run.

When I saw the 7k mark, I found myself smiling. 3 more Ks. I sped up, surprised at the sudden surge of energy. Tried to pass these two tudung ladies, who wore the words Perak on their jerseys: assumed that they were Perak athletes. Managed to keep in pace with them until the last 500m, when they suddenly went sprinting to the finish line. 

So I crossed the finish line with 3 other ladies. Decided to collect my certificate ASAP as hub and kids were probably waiting somewhere. Surprised that the line for my category was short and eased my way to the booth. I was extra surprised to see that they gave me a medal. Sure wasn't expecting that. I thought medals were given to 21k runners only. 

I criss crossed my way to my waiting family. There were hundres of people but I managed to locate them. My son greeted me with not a congratulation but with " Mama, kami pi makan Happy Meal tadi." Kids, heh.

Hub was really proud but was a tad bit jealous of my medal. I didn't want to rub it in as he sacrificed his place in the IIR to take care of the kids for me. It'll be my turn when he goes for Manjung Dualathon sometime this year.

All in all :-

Venue : ( minus the rain and initial sucky officials ) Great!

Time : My time 10 k : 64 mins

Will I race again? : Hell, yeah.

p/s I did not take that EL.