Malakoff 26K Penang Done!

I hafta post this race report real quick as hub wants to pack up the computer ASAP. Those TM people didn't cut the line yet so I betcha we will be internetless in our new home for about a week.

Anyway, we just got back from Malakoff 26K Penang at 10 just now. After bathing, we packed up the things to be hauled in the moving truck tomorrow so you can guess we're pretty tired. Dah la tak makan lagi.
Okla, enough babling. Let's get on with the report.

We arrived in Penang this morning at 5.10 am. The race starts at 5.30. So we were quite in a kalut state as the race bibs weren't pinned on yet , and we still haven't had our pre race roti. Kaki pun pakai slipar lagi. Kedebuk kedebak, we managed to arrived at the starting point in time and after like 5 minutes we were gunned off.
I had to wear my longest sleeves shirt ( usually I would wear  3 quarter sleeves) as we planned to do our subuh somewhere in the middle of the run. And as we were all running so close by especially at the start and I was in Wudu', I had to hide my hands in my sleeves and hope nobody accidentally  socks me in  the face. Hehe. I was a warm morning and I was getting hot hiding my hands in my sleeves, I kept asking my partner in crime, " When are we gonna stop?"
We ran uphill and downhill to a route that reminded me of the hills of NB 30K, but not quite as treacherous and long. It was like we were heading to Balik Pulau. Interesting to say, I quite enjoyed going up those hills this morning and going downhill without no brakes was super!
As there was no surau/masjid in sight, we first decided to pray off pavement in a secluded area. But we heard dogs barking left and right so we decided to stop and do our Subuh under a street lamp. Orang tengok pun tengokla, bukan buat benda salah ye tak?
After our salam, dengan segeranya I rolled up my sleeves. It was so hot!
So we continued. The weather got better once we hit Gurney Drive. The sea breeze accompanied our run and it was a reminiscence of running on the Penang Bridge.  Things got back hotter when we ran into the middle of GeorgeTown. Every time I reached a water station, I gulped down two cups of water. And each time after leaving a water station, i almost immediately anticipated the next water station.
By the time I got to the 22K mark, it was so hot, my mind screamed " Whyyyyyy? Why do you like to torture yourself?".
By this time, I let hub run at his own pace after being my pacer all this time. So off he went ahead. I noticed 4 women overtaking me . I didn't care anymore. I cared only to finish. I wanted to get it over and done with the heat. And did I mention I had a stomach ache throughout the run? Whateverla.
At the final turn into Taman Perbandaran, I know we had to climb a last hill to get to the finish line. I looked at my watch. I had 4 minuted to get up the hill before my target time ( I plan to finish sub 3 hours) . And although by this time many runners were walking up the hill, I stubbornly wogged on.
Persistence pays as I clocked 2:59:30 (unofficial time). Haha. Takpe la, still sub 3 what.

 tu diaaa, tangannnn

What peeved me the most is that as I was about to cross the finishing line, a Rela guy said to me " Alah, akak lari lambat la" . Eleh, dia tu laju sangat ke ?. Nak je aku kata " Kuangggg ajaaqqqqq" but I sangat malas berdrama hari ini.
Anyway here's  goodie bag (or should I say, plastic bag). Kelakar pun ada kan?

                                                        Seriously

But I did it. I vowed last year that I would come back and finish the 26K and I got it done, despite all odds.

  The medal and the innocent and un-intimidating looking dreadmill at the background ( sila jgn tertipu)

Best of all, I got Milo at the end of the race.
" Ya Allah, sedapnya" I sighed much to an Indian uncle's amusement who laughed at my remark.

Ok, I guess for real I'll be back blogging after a week. I'll be reading the Sundown race reports at my new work place, so get up and write real soon, guys.
And I will be oncall next weekend! Horrors! Please  Mat/Minah Rempitans, stay home and duduk diam-diam okay?

Of Feeling Old and TMR!

We've brought all books and the kids' toys to the new house so my kids are left with nothing to do but watch tv and write in their exercise books. Look what I found scribbled in my son's book.

 When I first saw this, I looked at hub, " Did you write this?"
" Who?" he says.
We looked at Chiam, and almost immediately he buried his face in the cushion pillow.
" Chiam suka Selena Gomez ke?"
"Arghh..argh..awww Mama, taklaaaa"
And then he went running off to the back of the house.

Haha. He's five and he has his first crush ( although he profusely denies it).
Patutla hari tu when I was watching V, he was sitting there in a trance like state watching her music video.
My little boy is growing up.
Just last two days, he changed the language status of my handphone to BM and I was fumbling to change it back to English. I ask my son to change it back and he takes 3 seconds to get it done.
" That's a sure sign you're getting old," hub snickered. " You have to get your son's help with a gadget."
Ahh Selena Gomez, if you only knew how ancient you made me feel today.

my bakal menantu? Apakah? 

But my hub was still like " Who?"

Running wise, I haven't been running since Saturday's LSD. Sunday was my rest day, Monday was skipped due to a slight knee pain since the LSD and some sniffles, Today woke up feeling feverish  and weak, so I went back to sleep after Subuh (but knee is already okay)
Takpelah kan? Resting is a part of training.
Now that I'm feeling a bit better, I swearing to TMR.
Tommorow Must Run

TMR! TMR!

P/S Ok, after this post you'll only see me back here in a week. Those TM people are gonna cut the line tomorrow for our relocation.
pp/s I've seriously been thinking of FM PBIM. FM setahun sekali kunun, puiiiii.

Busy busy busy

Argh, it'll be a busy week. It will be my last few days in my current working place and I have to get everything done before I leave. And I've still got tons to do.
I'm still taking 3 days off to arrange my children's new nursery and kindergarten. Then, go furniture shopping. Then have to haul the whole lot into a 3 tonne truck for the big move. My God, you may say, a 3 tonne truck? Takdela, our stuff is not that much. Just that, that's the only size truck available for moving purposes from hub's employer. I bet, it'll only be half full.

Our current house is a large half furnished government bungalow. When we first moved in, 5 years ago, it was almost like a mansion. It's so  large, we got one special room at the far back of the house for our drums. It's so large the kids can bang on those drums like crazy without the neighbors complaining of the noise.Now that we're moving into a double storey terrace, I'm sad to say we're probably gonna have to put those drums away. Worser yet, maybe we have to consider selling it off as my Mom wouldn't hear of keeping them at her place. Boo hoo.

And in all that hoo haa, the Oral surgery Department called me to comfirm my oncall date for next month. On call! Argh. I haven't done on call duties since 2 years ago ( when my then boss told me I lived too far from the district hospital and my mileage claims were costing him more than my oncall allowance). Now that my new place is only 5 minutes from Taiping Hospital, oncall is compulsory. What do we do during oncalls you say? Emergency filling? Emergency extraction? Hah! I wish. You know all those bashed up jaws, lower facial injuries, dislocated mandibels during accidents? We'll that's our job during oncalls. We stitch people's faces up,make sure their jaws don't fall off, take out any broken teeth that they may swallow or choke on and make sure they're fit to be presented to the Oral Surgeon the day after. I missed that these past two years. Now, it's back to hanging on to my handphone like my life depends on it. Phone on the dining table, phone on the praying mat, heck even phone in the toilet. Argh!

Hub's major bummer is that he'll lose his daily running route. He'll have to come up with a new route in our new place.Main concern is the presence of dogs ( our kampung got no dogs, just cows). How do you scare them off from giving chase? Any ideas?
Of course, our LSD route will still be the same. We'll still balik kampung for our LSD. The kampung route is too precious to live or rather run without. Futhermore, we discovered a new kampung lane last Saturday to include in our LSD. Saturday morning's weather was perfect for running. Cool, cloudy and in the last few kilometers, it drizzled a bit. And the sawah scenery was so breathtaking, I almost regretted not taking my camera along. Next time, when I rajin, I'll snap a few and post them here, okay

Ok, here's for another hectic week. Good luck for Sundown, you beautiful people. And for those running in Malakoff Penang 26K, see you guys there.
Toodles.

Cerita tiada kesinambungan

These few weeks I'm experimenting with a new training regime ( Not another one, somebody groans). In order to be better, you must build a base and gain your mileage,and speed will come automatically, says a book by running expert Jack Daniels ( Don't laugh, it's really his name. No kidding). And in order to build my base, I'm running 5k daily for 5 days and an LSD on the 6th. Daily mileage will increase in time.
1st week: Task completed.42K mileage complete and it felt ok.
2nd week : mileage was cut in half. Wasn't able to do my LSD as my parents were vacationing down under.
3rd week: (this week la) Karutttttt...It's Thursday and I only achieved 11K so far. And I'm still pondering whether to run or cross train this afternoon.

Thing is, to run everyday means I have to hit the dreadmill at 5- ish am. And it's so hard to peel yourself from the lovely comforter to pound on, when your children and spouce are blissfully snoring away. Like today , for instance when Hub got up at 5.20 am and saw me still under the covers,he said " I thought you're gonna run this morning"
" Tengahhari lah" I replied and went back dozing.
Apakah? Am I bitten by the M bug?

Last few weeks Hub trained in the wee hours of the morning, which makes my morning run better because I have motivation to get up so early. Recently his daily runs are done late in the evening, while I'm at home cooking dinner and taking care of the kids. And I envy him so much because he can do his daily runs outside while I'm stuck on the dreadmil. Not that I can't run outside. But when it comes to running outside alone, I'm such a chickenshit. There, I said it.

Cluck, cluck, cluck. I'm a chickenshit.
 I hate the catcalls. I hate the weird stares. I hate the orangtuas tsk tsk tsk-ing.
Can't people mind their own business?

I have to serap aura berani from Kak Haza, Kak June and Kak Kash.
I need a good bashing in the head.

Ntahpapela aku ngarut hari ni. I need a good long LSD.

Glory days

Growing up,badminton was the only sport we played at home. Our dad was an avid badminton player. Every afternoon after work, he'd put on his white shorts and shirt and before Mom could say anything, he was out the door to play with his colleagues at his teaching place. So naturally, we took it up.

I remember when I was 10 and my sister was 12, we would play outside with the front gate as our net. My little brother who was 5 at the time would be our budak bola.

" Oi, pick up the shuttlecock for us and we'll let you play the next game" we would say, snickering .

And after 3 games, we' would still be playing and he's still the budak bola.
After being tired of getting bullied, he'd go inside and snitch on us.

Then we would realize that playing badminton without a budak bola is such a pain. The hitting part was fun but we hated to bend down and pick up the darned shuttlecock.

Lepas tu, mula la:

"Sape jatuhkan bulu tangkis ni, dia kena amik sendiri" ( even though it's at the opponent's side)
or better yet.
" Sape jatuhkan bola, dia bodo".

And after that , we would get annoyed with each other and quit playing all together.
But no worries, this will all be repeated the next day.

                                         

Good luck Malaysia! China is beatable. Give us back the glory of Thomas Cup '92 ( I heart Rashid Sidek at the time..kihkih)

p/s Shuttlecock..hmm..what a funny word.

Don't la be like that.

“ Dapat nombor berapa, dik?”, she barked at me from behind. I spun around, too quickly much to her annoyance. I showed her my placing card. She eyed it for a while , pursing her lips.

“ Eee..kalut la urusetia ni. Tak teratur langsung” she complained loudly. 

“ Tak salah diorang sangat , kak. Tiba-tiba je MC announce suruh nombo 4 sampai 30 amik medal kat kaunter urusetia. Agaknya, MC ni memandai-mandai je”

“Slowlah!” she complained again.

Meanwhile, a giant crowd had formed at the urusetia counter. The three race officials manning the medal pick up counter were trying their best to get everything in order.

“ Eh, berasak-asaklah. Busuklah” the woman said again, fingers pinching her nose. ( Alah, macam ko tu wangi sangat)

Suddenly she marched to the front, pushing everybody ( including yours truly aside).

“ Eh amoi! Amoi!” she banged the table rudely. “ Mana saya punya medal dan duit!”

“ Sikijap ya. Biar saya atur dulu”

“ Ini line cakap untuk F, kenapa budak sekolah mau beratur sini!”

“ Sikijap cik. Semua olang pun mau cepat. Nanti saya ambil. Jangan mara mara.”

“ Eh cepatla ambik saya punya. Sudah lama tunggu,” She shoved her placing card in front of the official's face.

 Mak aiii, talk about being rude. Baru dapat no 10, but acts as if she’s Flo Jo. Honey, just because you paid your fees, doesn't mean you get the green light to step on other people's head.

I’ve posted about this before. How we take our race officials and volunteers for granted. Keyword. VOLUNTEER. They do it sukarela, geddit? They’re not paid to give you water or to sponge your sweaty legs. They’re not paid to hand you medals or take care of your belongings. They do it for free. For the love of the sport.

So for crying out loud, please be polite to them. At least give ‘em a smile and a simple thank you. Yes, you’re tired. Yes, we know you ran that far. Doesn’t mean you can boss them around. Do you realize that they’re there long before you arrived and they’ll still be there while you’re in the car on you way back home, happily yakking about your race adventures?

Okay la, maybe some races aren’t as properly planned as others. Some aren’t even handled by people who run. But can’t we still appreciate the effort? Shitty races don’t justify shitty treatment to the volunteers. You wanna be mad, be mad at the organizers. Go write a letter, make a complaint note in the papers, go to Karam Singh Walia for all I care.

But don’t vent at those poor people at the water stations.

“ Oi, my Gatorade isn’t cold enough!” ( while hurling the cup back at the table)

Don’t be rude at the people during race kit collection,

“ You’re so stupid. What do you mean no more XXL shirt?”

Don’t be mad at those poor St John/ Bulan Sabit people

“ I said, sapu the ointment here la. HERE!”

Come on la people, we’re better than that.

Note1 : Segala dialog diatas bukan rekaan semata-mata.

Note2: This is just a reminder. Kalau tak penah buat , takpe la. Don’t forget your thanks yous, you beautiful people, you.

Kihkihkih..kuhkuhkuh

I've posted earlier that I won't be running fro Kuala Kangsar Double Bridge Run due to unavoidable circumstances kan?
Well, on Saturday evening my dad announced that he had to settle a few things at home the next day so he and mom are able to  take care of the kids after all while I run. I was like " Great!'.

Thankfully early that morning I decided to accompany hubs for race kit collection in Kuala Kangsar. I've registered earlier and decided then that if I couldn't take part, the least I could do is collect the T-shirt and check out the atmosphere. When I approached the urusetia desk, he eyed me and said " Category H?". It took a while for my mind to register but when I realized he mistook me for a school kid, I was flattered. " F", I corrected him, beaming. Only after that I considered maybe he thought I was picking up Category H because he assumed I was a teacher picking up race kits for students. Darn it. Perasan kejap.

Anyway, on Sunday we arrived at roughly around 7am. We seriously thought they were going to start the race early but they stuck with the initial plan: at 8 am. Here are the highlights of the race

• Before starting , we all had to sing Negaraku. That's something different. Some teenagers who thought it was not cool to sing the national anthem, talked throughout. That's seriously rude but hey, they think they're cool. Buduhs.
• I didn't have my usual pacer. Hub who was in category B ( 15K) was flagged off first. The rest of us 12 K ( Category A, F and C) started 10 minutes later.
• When we ran up the first bridge ( I have no idea of the name), my left foot was heavy as a log and I felt I was dragging it along. After 10 minutes, it was ok.
• All through out the race, it wasn't as hot as I anticipated it to be. The route was rather shady. 
• A girl in a cute running skirt took over me in the first 3rd km , so I decided to make her my pacer. I followed her pace until the water station at km 5 ( or 6?) but she dropped back when she walked to take a drink. 
• On the 2nd bridge, I had to find another pacer. A tall skinny guy ran past me so I decided to make him my 2nd pacer. I ran behind him the rest of the race but on the last stretch of the route, he suddenly fell back and I took over him. No matter. Only 500m to go.
• The finishing line is similar to Bidor's. You take a final turn and suddenly the end is smack right in front of you. This time I am able to give my final kick.
• All through out the race, I only saw one woman jauuuhhhhhh nunnn in front of me. Others were all male. But I convinced myself, probably the rest of the women in my category have already finished the race. But upon approaching the final kilometer, a police officer called out to me," Kayuh laju sket , cik kak. Awak tu tengah no 3 skarang". I was like " Whaaaaat?". Apa lagi, kayuhhhhhh.
• But when I finished, they handed me no 4th placing card and an envelope.. Kuangkuang. Perasan kali ke 2.

                 
              

• I forgot to press the stop button on my stopwatch again. Good thing, the urusetia suda catat daa..

• After berlegar-legar, baru teringat nak bukak envelope. Inside is a note saying I won RM200. Wah! 4th placing pun dapat RM200! I was only aiming for a medal since they said only 30 people in each category are qualified for a medal.
• This is the 2nd time menang duit. First time was a year ago. Makcik kayo.

• Hubby qualified for a medal. He got 30th placing! Barefooted! 

                                         
                                                             It's not as bad as  it looks. It doesn't even hurt. ( Dia yang cakap)


The downside of the race :

                                                                                                   Chaos during medal collection

• Milo Van out of Milo so soon ( ni budak sekolah punya pasal la ni)
• No post run makan-makan? ( but that's what you get for a RM10 fee kot)

                                                                      Post run meal - hang la ni Sun, asik sebuk nasik kandaq ja.

                                                                                                    Never knew they existed. Heh.

Well, that's it about the race. It was a wonderful weekend. What's even better? We got our house! Sealed the deal on Saturday. Yaaaayyy. Berkat Mother's Day kot. hehe
Happy Mother's Day peeps.

Ale Ale Handro

When we were kids, my parents sometimes would leave the house, just the two of them, for a few hours and leave us with the maid. We would whine, kick and roll on the floor protesting their actions, but they were adamant, saying they're off for some " Grown up" time. My siblings and I cooked up some pretty serious drama, but poof! out they went out the door sometimes without even looking back. What grown up time? we protested. They had their grown up time at work with their meetings and all. Why do they need more ?

And now, fast forward 20 years, now that I'm playing the parenting card, I fully understand the need of adult time. I adore my kids. Love them to death. But sometimes, on certain moments, they drive me up the wall.
On most days, their repetitive questions, their constant control of the remote control, their childish squabble and banter would seem oh so cute but on some days,  when you're really tired and they won't listen if you ask them to just put the cereal bowl in the sink, it can be really challenging.
Oh stop judging me, sometimes you feel the same too.

After months of not taking our grown up time, we took ours today. Our dating day. Took our leave.Sent the kids to school and nursery. Had my parents pick them up for the afternoon. Off we went.

The day ended up like this :

Had a nice lunch together. We missed eating with the kids. Watched Ironman2 ( We want the old Rhodey- okay, I want the old Rhodey, he's more good looking). Chiam would love the movie. Went shopping. Ended up buying mostly children's clothes ( Adik got 3 new dresses). And the whole time in the car, most of our conversation centered on the kids.
" Chiam hari tu takbleh tido so dia kira dari nombo 50 sampai 1, tapi still lepas tu dia takbleh tido"
" Adik hari tu cakap dia nak pegang jari mama satu je, dia dah pandai kira ke?"
" Ni pau ni mesti budak-budak tu suka"

Haha. Some grown up time.

Okay, something on running pulak. As this week I'm not able to do my LSD, as my parents had other business to attend to the whole weekend, I'm hoping to cover up the weekly mileage by running 5K every morning for 6 days. I'm now on my 4th day and I guess I feel okay with it. Lunch break leaves me with Pilates and although I'm only doing Pilates on DVD, it's damn tough, man. Kathy Smith made it look all graceful and easy but I was like a living pretzel. And after that, I had to go to work with wobbly feet and achy arms.

One day, I will have those Madonna arms instead of these penjual pau arms.

 

Preferably this

 

Not this

And this Sunday, rather than participating, I will be hub's crew in Larian Kuala Kangsar. After watching the kids for me for three races, I feel that I'm obliged to so the same for him for this race. Be a wife for a change and rah!rah! rah! at the sidelines, eh? Yo la tu, padehal it's because there's no one available to look after the kids. Kihkih.

Fingers crossed

Last weekend, while some people took part in the Borneo marathon or the Bomba Run, I participated in the Road kill Run. It’s a planned run of 11 miles and the catch is to run at easy pace while counting how many road kills we encounter en route.

There were 8 in all, ranging from frogs, mice, snakes and one large monkey (!). Thank goodness there weren't any boars involved. A few weeks ago, while on an early morning run, hub had to maneuver over three crushed boar carcasses on the road. It was a mess. Thing was, he didn’t know then what they were because it was pitch black and prayed it wasn’t human. A few hours later, when I was on my way to send my son to preschool, they carcasses were still there. Pity the nasi lemak lady whose stall was just a meter away from them boars.

Anyway, Road kill Run was cut short to 7 miles due to unavoidable circumstances such as

1. We had one full day of house hunting ahead so we wanted to start early.
2. Sluggishness
3. Malas ( okay, this one is avoidable but blaaaahhhhh)

Our prize for completing the run in just over one hour is nasi lemak ( menambahkan lagi mandom) and cheers from the kids for getting back before 8. Even my mom exclaimed, “ Wah! Finished so early!”

So we inhaled down our nasi lemak and rushed to town for our house hunting session. And OMG, nobody warned me house hunting in Taiping is such a pain in the rear. We went through 2 days of search and we’re still left empty handed. It’s so mentally and emotionally exhausting. I’m so grateful that the kids weren’t whining or anything. They went through it like it’s just another jalan-jalan session and only piped out “ Kami lapaq” during lunchtime and took naps when they were bored.

Anyway, just this morning an angel in disguise called up saying he’s got a house available for me. The location is fantastic, the price negotiable and after the weekend’s nightmarish search, this seems all too good to be true. I’m trying not to keep my hopes up but I CAN’T HELP IT.

We’re off to see the house this evening so everybody keep your fingers crossed.

Unnnnhhhhhh ( bunyi semua orang meng crosskan fingers sekuat hati sambil menutup mata).