Val D'or - Valley of Gold

Twas the last race of the year.
I found out at the last minute ( my mistake actually) that for Women's Open, we're only to run 8 k.
I found out the week before, my parents wouldn't be available to babysit on race day as they would be off to the East Coast sending my sister back to campus..
So one of us had to bail racing.
I got to race!
Hauled the whole lot on race day at 5 am to Nibong Tebal.
Sorry, but the venue reeked of chicken smell from the chicken farms.
But nevertheless, it was a small quaint town. Kinda like mini Bidor.
Aimed to finish 8k sub 50 minutes.
So good to hear my family cheering for me in the sidelines.
Race started fast. Everybody went running.
Race route was super, just like mini Bidor. ( minus the killer hills)
At one point, the chicken smell was alternated with the smell of palm oil husks.
But we kept running anyway ( did we have a choice?)
As we were nearing mile 5, I noticed the men still ran the same route as us women. I thought they were supposed to do 11k. Guess not.
Finished the race feeling good.
Hub welcomed me at the end of the line with a, " What happened to your sub 50?"
I said, " I did. Finished 8k in 48 minutes." The race was  actually 8.4k.
Yay!
Found out I got podium.
Huh?
Yayyy!
Got no 10 overall.
But had to wait 2 more hours to get the custom medal. Kena naik pentas daa..selang selit ngan cabutan bertuah.
I heart small races.

That evening went out for a 25 minute bike ride.
Naik incline, turun incline, kayuh laju, kayuh pelan.
Mak aih, sakit peha, nyah.
Came to work today kengkang sakit inner thigh.
Padan muko.

Great weekend nevertheless

Can also register on race day itself.

How cool is that?

Good luck charm

Model ikon Bomba Sukarela

Bila lagi?

Ratu kebaya - I'm the blue dot.

  The medal.

Sekianlah  .

Totally random

Of all weeks in a year, I love the 2nd last week of December the most. Mana taknya, I have my son's birthday, my husband's birthday and our anniversary all crammed in that week. Best part is, everybody get presents!
This year, I've asked hubs for... jeng jeng jeng.. a bike!
Er, no. Don't get any wrong ideas.
I'm not getting myself into triathlons, duathlons or any other thlons there is. Ishhh..
I just wanna ride a bike.
What suddenly sparked this?
Well, 2 weeks ago, while moving our stuff into our new home, I decided to take one of my husband's bike for a ride. Mind you, I haven't been on a bike since I was 11. So there I was wobbling, trying to get my balance, trying to remember how to balance. I managed to pedal two metres before freaking out and trying to stop the darn thing with my feet. In my panic I forgot that the bike was a bit too high for me, so as a result, my 'middle part' hit the bar - hard and I hurt my as Pui San would call it 'lady bits'..harhar.

I didn't like that at all. Not about the hurting my lady bits part. I didn't like that I , an adult, can't ride a bike. This will be in my 2011 to do list. To re-learn how to ride a bike and be decent at it, like a normal person.
So we're going bike hunting this weekend. Wish us luck.

I want one just like this - minus the complicated gears and the pricey tag,

can or not?

On the running side, I can't get my regular running routine in check as it rains here almost every evening. Before this, my weekday was like :

Monday - run
Tuesday - run
Wednesday - rest
Thursday -run
You get the picture.
Now it's like :
Monday - hujan la- no run
Tuesday - hujan lagi - no run
Wednesday - hujan lagi dan lagi - no run
Thursday - yay! no rain - run ( then it starts to drizzle tengah jalan)
You get the picture.
As a self proclaimed so called runner, I didn't like this one bit, And I told my other half this.
" Hah!" he snorted. "During your marathon training, when it was all sunny outside, you were constantly mumbling ' Rain, dammit, rain!' , remember?"
Ye la, ye la.

Ok, one final cerita. A day before my son's birthday, I asked him,
" Chiam, tomorrow, we'll go for your birthday dinner. You can have anything you want. Anything at all. Your call."
He looked at me, his brown eyes wide with innocence.
" What will it be , darling?"

"Biskut."

Did she really do that?

Today, I was inspired. And got a wee bit jealous.
A colleague of mine showed me a blog of this girl she knew, who finished her first marathon in 3:16. She was a normal person who self trained everyday. Entered small races and got PBs along the way. I was like in awe. Were she to race locally, she would have bagged the top 5 placing. Unfortunately, she ran her marathon overseas, which means you can only get a podium finish if you score a sub 3.

And I was instantaneously inspired. From feeling lethargic and actually malas tu run, I felt I wanted to run off my fever.

Okay, maybe a sub 4:30 can't be achieved this year ( wei, tinggal berapa hari je lagi da bulan Disember), or next year, or possibly the year after that but someday I will achieve it. And even thought right now, my head is filled with things to do at work, meetings, Chiam starting school, Adik starting pre-school, the in laws coming over, this and that, this and that, this and that, I am not deterred.
I will do this some day.

I really don't mean to sound pretentious. I swear I don't. Don't misjudge this entry. " Eleh" some may think.
Because I truly believe a 4:30 marathon can be achieved by anyone, a normal person like you and me who really, really put their heart to it and with their training.

And with that, with my stuffy nose, and 10% of fever, and phlegm-my  cough, and the clouds casting funny dark shadows, I went for my evening run. Who cares if it's just 3.1 miles.
It's a start.

Macam Robert ( bak kata Dato' Ct)

I hope nobody gets offended but this is effing hilarious.



Okay, stop sulking. Don't give me that.
You know you wanna laugh.

What's Next

Morning, peeps.
Phew, what a crazy weekend.
Guess what?
We moved! For the 2nd time this year !
Yep, had to do it all over again. And you betcha it was tiring. And not to mention emotionally and mentally draining.
Nope, I will not lose my running route. We just moved one house away. Haha.
Our previous landlord announced last month that they wanted to move back in the house so what were we supposed to say, kan? Through the help of our dear neighbors, we were able to seal the deal with the owner of our current house, who initially had no plans to set this house on lease. Thank God.
And although, it is just one house away, we had to hire a whole lot of people to clean and angkut-angkut our stuff. Then we had to rearrange the whole mess back up again to make our new house home. The silver lining to all this is, we can declutter our junk and start anew!
Banyaknya exclamation marks in this entry. !  ! ! !

So as a breather, I went for a celebratory run this morning. My other half couldn't take the day off. He has to work through the week - dental screenings for new recruits. So it'll be a busy week for him. I sent the kids to the nursery and ran. And boy , did it felt goooood. FYI, I haven't been running since last Monday's measly 3 miler on the thrillmill (due to this moving business) and to have my legs fatigued, chest heaving and my face burnt in the sun, was pure satisfaction as weird and ironic as it may sound.

Anyway, as this evening will be the starting of the Muslim New Year, it got me thinking on my future plans. Most of this year was dedicated to my work and running. Next year will all be about family. My eldest will be in standard 1 and the second will enroll in toddler kindergarten. They say this will be the real beginning of the super mommy year. My friend once forewarned me that I'll permanently have this chant echoing in my head ,
" Pick up, drop off, do this, do that"

But, yes, there is a but, I won't forget about running. Next year I will go on a mission to better my middle distance timings. A marathon is fun to be in but my God, looking back, sometimes I loathe the training for it. I don't mind the daily runs but sometimes the 18-20 mile LSDs are too much. The early mornings! Post run head ache( sometimes)! Getting back to the kids at 10 or maybe 11 am! . Getting tanned! Argh

 I will try, repeat , TRY to only enter races with the relatively small numbers such as 10K, 12K, 15K or the most 21K. Because I truly believe, to achieve a better marathon timing, I will have to somehow achieve better  half marathon or middle distance timings. Once I achieve this, my marathon LSD will be done in  a relatively shorter time ; less distress and drama for me, and more time with the kids.

My next run will be Valdor 11K Run in Penang. Valdor..doesn't it sound so grand? Macam one of those characters from Lord of the Rings ( which I slept through half of the movie). Or one of Voltron's nemesis. Anyway, I read from Run.mix.burn that it's a well planned race and most important -post race food!

     

 Adakah ini Encik Valdor?

atau inikah Encik Valdor? 

Now, if only I can hand in the borang before the closing date and train for it. Hmm..

Ok, I'm off to reignite the inner princess in me ( which has been on snooze mode for the longest of time) by catching Rapunzel in 3D. Hey, Ian, did you know that we have a movie theather here in Taiping. No, not the old one yang tayang cite Tamil je next to Taiping Medical Centre. And new modern one.
Gasp!