Monday, December 26, 2011

Nasihat Nenek

Hi kids.
With 2011 closing in, I noticed that my postings for this year have deteriorated to half the amount of the postings I wrote in 2010.
In which I concluded, banyaknya cerita aku taim 2010!
Apa ntah yang aku bebelkan?

Looking back, I'm glad I managed to complete my full marathons in 2010. Little did I know back then that I wouldn't have the time and commitment to fully train like that for years to come.
No, I'm not exaggerating. When you're a working mom with two kids going to school and a spouse working almost 300KM away from home, sometimes training takes a back seat.

Funny thing is, I was able to participate in more races this year than I did last year. Okay, one more is still more. Despite the mileage being shorter la.
But I like this. Being in the middle. I'm neither a middle distance nor a long distance runner. I'm the in-between. I guess for now, as in this moment, I'll settle with that.

Come 2012, with a whole load of other life plans, I want to improve my 10Ks and 5Ks. If I can somehow juggle the training for a half marathon, maybe I'll throw in an aim for a new PB in the mix.
And maybe, just maybe I'll take up that offer in trying out for KKM's track and field team just for kicks. This year, Sukan KKM buat kat Sabah, ba.

And next year, we plan to focus on races up north. There will be races in KL/Selangor here and there but mostly we'll be up north. So kalau hangpa mai kat sinin utagha, and you see an unassuming lady wearing normal PJ pants with a male barefooted partner, say hi whydoncha. Kami kampun-kampun saje.

For 2012, let's just run. Be it short, middle or long distances, just keep running. For fitness, for socializing, for racing, for getting that 15 minutes of fame, whatever. You can choose to write about it, FB about it, Dailymile  it, or not, whatever. You can run alone, with a partner, in a group, with your family, whatever. Just run. Don't stop. Be better.

And be nice.

But those are just plans. Things will get in the way of plans. Good things, unsuspecting things, apa-apa je la. I know somehow I will be okay with that.
It is, after all, just a piece of my time.

Great year everybody! Let's hope for more.
See you guys anywhere.
I'll see you when I see you.

Monday, December 19, 2011

Malaysian Army International Run 2011 - Edisi PCPJ Zon Utara

So 2 weeks ago, WW told me that his boss pulak paksa him to enter a race in PD.  Pulak,
We were reluctant at first as we were going to be very busy with a reunion in Lumut later in the afternoon on the same day tapi permintaan boss, macamla boleh tolak, kan?
So somehow WW's people got me signed up in the Kor Kesihatan DiRaja team. Which was quite an honor really. Siap bagi their running vest to wear ( which I didn't wear, macam biasa).

 Baju KKD


Baju larian berwarna ke-askaran. Jangan main.


Sangat Grand

Race day, we arrived at about 7 ish since the race was scheduled to start at 8.00. Lewatnya, korang mungkin kata but this is an army organized race la, biasala tu, kate WW.

I was to be in the Women Open 10K which i was a bit nervous about because
1. my last 10K was ages ago
2. training tak sesungguh dulu
3. In the rules and regulation, siap cakap " . Be properly attired during the race taking into consideration that the race will take you through jungle tracks and trails." Aduii, aku berdoala takde trails, but WW told me not to worry as the rules and regulation part was a copy paste version of SAS International Eco-Challenge punya. Cit
4. Tapi knowing it's organized by the army, WW warned that of course the route is going to be challenging.  Kalau tak, tak askar la, katanya. Great.
5. Bila berkumpul, baru nampak ramaaaiiiiinya askar, from all different states, from all different divisions.Dari Sabah ngan Sarawak pun ada turun mari.
6. Muka depa-depa ni semua jenis gaunt, tanned and chiseled. And I'm only talking about the girls !

lagi gambar abang askar tadek motif

During the race briefing, and while scanning for familiar faces (takde sangat sebab tak ramai civillians joining this race), tetiba nampak Deo di depan mata tersengih-sengih seperti biasa. Puh, power la Deo. Esoknya nak buat MR25 lagi. Sungguh gigih.

Dalam pukul 8.00 bila WW and Deo bersama-sama pelari Men Open 22K yang lain di flag off, kami Women Open dan Men Veteran lepak-lepak sambil dengar MC membebel dan merapu. Siap pi interview pelari at random sementara membuang masa ( we were to be flagged off at 8:15am). Tetiba dia interview a Kenyan Woman runner
" My best timing for a 10K is 34 minutes" kata akak Kenya tu.
Dengan otomatisnya, dengar suara-suara sumbang,
" Jom, kita semua balik!"
" Jom balik sebab dah dapat sijil dah tadi!"
Heh heh.

Sempat jugak sembang ngan satu prebet pompuan ni yang based kat PD jugak.
" Adik, kita punya route ni masuk kem ke?"
" Masuk!"
" Ada bukit ke?"
" Ada, kak. Tinggiiiiii, curammmmm"
Dem.

Bila flag off, aku rasa cam aku dok barisan paling belakang. Mana boleh saing ngan perempuan-perempuan berupa lelaki kat barisan depan tu. Dan, ramai betulla perempuan-perempuan berbentuk lelaki dalam askar ni aku perasan. Sampai kadang-kadang kena tengok kaler bib untuik tau dia pompuan ke lelaki ( bib pompuan kaler pink gitu)

Cool kan bib ni?

The first 400m I noticed my Garmin showed only the timing and not my pace or the distance. Double dem. Time ni la nak buat hal. I fiddled with the thing a couple of times tapi still tak boleh jugak. Last-last I decided lari ikut instict je la. My plan for a PB by this time was aborted.

At about 1K we hit the first hill. Gile curam. Triple dem. Almost everybody at this point started walking. Kalau yang run pun macam myself, sebenarnya buat gaya run je tapi pace cam orang jalan jugak. Yang mentalnya, masa mendaki bukit curam ni boleh nampak ada lagi bukit kat atas and you can virtually see the other faster runners making their way up the incline. Gile! Bukit atas bukit.
Masa ni, aku kata bye-bye kat sub 1 hour timing,

Lepas panjat bukit, panjat bukit lagi dan lagi. Sampai ada satu peringkat tu macam ada tiga tier bukit. Orang kat bawah nampak orang kat tengah, dan orang tengah boleh tengok orang kat lagi atas bukit. Ada jugak jalan yang kita baru nak turun downhill sket tapi kat depan nampak ada lagi incline yang lebih tinggi. Mental gila.

Tapi nasib baik geng Mat Tirap ni sangat friendly. Ok, dalam race lain, biasanya runners akan pasang game face dan muka tak bleh blah, tapi what I like about this race is almost every one of the army runners are really-really friendly and funny. Ada je komen-komen yang buat aku tergelak sampai terlupa nak menyumpah bukit. Encouragement sangat tip top.

Dan nasib lagi baik aku bawak air sendiri. Sebab water station ada satu je. Tapi sponging station ada 3-4 kot, which is a lot. And thank God for the sponging station because it was getting hot along the way. Ada kadang-kadang tu, ahem, sebab air sponge tu sejukkk sangat jadi aku pun tergoda take a sip sikit. Mmmm, somehow ada rasa a tinge of Milo. Macamana tu?

Bukits aside, best jugak lari masuk kem ni. Bukan tiap hari depa nak bagi civillian masuk kem. Walaupun aku sebagai army wife pun jarang masuk kem. Baru tau, besau betui kem askar ni, Siap boleh buat 10K race course.

Anyway, almost 1K upon finishing, kami bertembung the faster pack of the 22k Men open runners. Depa baru nak masuk course 10K berbukit bakau gunung ganang  after 12K of pounding on relatively flat route. Adoi, kesiannya.

So I crossed the finishing line at 64 mins at position no 23. Haha seperti dijangka. But I found out from Moey ( finally met Moey of Penonton!) that it was actually a 10.7 K distance. Sebagai pembenci bukit, I'm kinda happy to keep a 5:58 pace at a hilly course like that. Lagipun seperti dikata, mana bleh calen army man-girls dan atlet army yg laju.

Lepas tu tunggu WW balik pulak. Sambil tu lepak-lepak, ambik gambar, sembang-sembang ( remember, abang-abang askar sangat ramah-tamah) dan belek-belek goodie bag. Sebelum race dapat goodie bag ngan sijil, selepas race pun dapat lagi seketul goodie bag. Malangnya, no finisher medal tapi bila pikir nak medal sangat pun tak perlu sebab kat rumah dok berbelen dalam beg dan kat but kereta berlambak lagi tak hangkut dalam rumah.

Tetiba WW sampai with the timing of 2:00:24. WW in his futile attempt to convert from barefootedness to Vibrams for this race, somehow forgot his Vibrams that morning and ran barefoot jugak with no injuries. Glamer sekejap sebab ade oarng ingat dia geng komando.

Military  PCPJ ok

Tak dapat medal tapi dapat ayam goreng ala KFC. Macam race omputehs gitu

Anyway, it was a fun race despite the tough course, Will I join again next year kalau ada lagi? Semestinya.
It was very well organized, traffic was manned brilliantly not only by the military personnels but also the police,and the post run food was quirky but awesome. Despite all the drama of Garmin-not-working-well, bukit-bakau-course, lot of man-girls, sipping-on-milo-flavoured-sponge, I really had fun.

Lepas tu kalut balik sebab nak berangkat pi Lumut.

Well that's my final race for 2011. Phew, what a year!

Monday, December 12, 2011

Larian Rakyat Penang 2011 aka Pulang Modal

 2 weeks before the actual race, I got a call from the organizer:

Organizer : Ni Cik JJ ke? Saya call ni sebab baru dapat fax borang penyertaan cik ni. Betul ke dari Taiping?
Me: Ye saye. Betulla tu.
Organizer: Taiping, Perak? Race kami kat Penang.
Me: Tau. Eh, tak boleh ke? ( memandaangkan tajuk larian adelah Larian Rakyat Penang)
Organizer : Boleh je, tapi Larian kami ni larian kampung-kampung je la
Me: Takpe je.
Organizer: Bukan taraf Penang Bridge Marathon ke ape..
Me: No hal.
Organizer : So takpe ke datang jauh-jauh?
Me: Haha, takpe la.
Organizer : Kalau cam tu kami nak ucap terima kasihla sebab nak join kami.

Haha. Sweet tak? Dahla larian free, siap telefon untuk comfirmation.
Ya, you read it right. It's FREE.
Apa? Tak dengar? FREE
Tak reti eja?
Ianya adalah F.R.E.E

Di kala dan waktu racing fees makin lama makin meningkat, di kala semua benda naik harga, di kala nak pi jamban pun kena bayar tiga ploh sen, this free race is a blessing.
Aku pun gebang la kat staff aku sapa yang teringin take part in a race tapi kedekut nak bayar untuk join race ni. Beria 5-6 orang tunjuk minat.
In the end, sorang je turn up. Hampeh.

Anyway, race kat Sungai Dua, Seberang Perai. 5K je. Okla tu untuk aku yang separa train, separa keretapi terbabas.
Kami sampai agak lewat sebab kegagalan mengkaji race site sebelum race. WW tanya ada race map tak? Beria aku kata takde walhal aku tak scroll down page Penonton sampai habis..thehee ( cue kaum suami menggeleng kepala)

15 menet race nak start baru terhegeh-hegeh nak pi daftar. Cute gile nombo bib letak dalam plastik kuih pastu kita pinkan saje kat belakang ngan depan baju. Sebelum race mula ada taklimat dulu, MC pesan hati-hati masa lari, tengok kiri kanan sebab hari tu hari Sabtu keta banyak. Polis pun buat ucapan cakap kita bila lari nampak orang tapi orang tak nampak kita. Ok, noted.

 Note bib diperbuat dari plastik kuih. 

 gambar tadek motif

Flag off pukul 8: 15 pagi. Organizer race ni jemput Persatuan Olahraga Amatur Penang untuk kawalselia race so race agak teratur la. Mana nak dapat race 5K ada 2 check point.

Mula start race, budak-budak sekolah meluru laju like there's no tommorow. Aku pun mula-mula terikut sampai aku jenguk Garmin nampak pace 3:30/km..hoih ngarut. Ni 100m dash ke hape. So aku slow down.
So lari la lari. WW dah lama kat depan sebab nak lari pada pace dia.

Sampai KM 1 kebanyakan budak-budak sekolah dah mula jalan. Tinggalla kami orang dewasa terus lari. Tengah jalan ada sorang  budak sekolah tanya aku, check point no 2 jauh lagi ke? Aku cakap jauh lagi , dia terus cakap , "Ayoo, aku suda tak larat la kakak" So aku ajak la dia lari ngan aku. Ada la dalam 30 saat je, aku  kalih-kalih dia dah jalan pulak. Aisey.

Depan aku nampak ada sorang amoi kategori veteran ni. Waa, agak laju jugak . So aku cangkuk dia. Nak cangkuk punya cangkuk pastu dalam hati pasang niat nak reel in tapi malangnya aku pasang turbo lewat sebab perut seperti biasa buat aksi senak kalau nak lari laju sket, so last minit walaupun hanya 5 saat kebelakang, aku tak dapat potong dia ( laa..nama pun kebelakang). Masa nak cangkuk ngan aksi senak perut sempat lagi aku tengok Garmin yang kata setakat tu dah 24 minit berapa saat ntah berlalu so aku bajet boleh cross finishing line dalam 25 minit beberapa saat.


 Bila aku cross je finishing line, aku tengok jam tunjuk timing 25:35. Magiknya grey pants aku ni !
 WW pass air Sunquick perisa apantah warne oren-oren kuning merah. Masammm tapi sebab dahaga sangat ku bedal jua. Masa tu kami diarahkan dengan sangat bersistematik untuk ambil sijil dan goodie bag. Wah, larian free pun dapat goodie bag. Taim aku amik goodie bag disambut penuh senyuman dek pekerja majlis daerahlah yang depa bagitau aku dapat nombo 2 kategori Women Open. Alhamdulillah. Minah amoi tadi agaknya dapat no 1 veteran women. Women Open no 1 melunjur laju bajet pelari USM. Beza ngan aku dalam 4 minit jugak la. Kuikui.
Aku tanya WW, timing dia berapa, dia kata 21 minit beberapa saat. Aku tanya dapat placing tak? Dia kata dia pun taktau sebab kat finishing line sape-sape pun tak dapat placing card. Agaknya nak menambahkan elemen misteri kot.

 Dapat lagi hamper dinosor


 Medal  berat tapi tak seberat Taiping Heritage Run punya. Tapi kalau libas Mat rempit boleh cause permanent damage jugakla. 


 Bahagian depan ( ke belakang?)
Ada kaler.
Cantik walaupun mamat tu tangan kudung sebelah 


 Alih-alih, rupanya WW secure tempat no 7 Men Open.
Tepuk tepuk tepuk.

Syok disebabkan taiming, tak lama ,sebab bila kami berdua kaji Garmin, tengok-tengok distance 300m short of 5K. Hampeh.Alih-alih timing aku hampir sama je ngan my previous 5K race kalau di calculatenya. Nak laju pun dalam 5 saat je.

Tapi apapun race ni memang best. Organizing ok, race route ok dan traffic di jaga dengan elok, volunteers sangat friendly, air free banyak ( ada sunquick, ada Vico, ada air kordial layan diri free), goodie bag lagi, medal cantik, hamper besar cam dinosor.
Serius aku kagum.

Layan gambar :

 Ada sunquick ( takpayah beratur)


 Ada Vico ( tak payah beratur!)


Mula-mula ingatkan ni van Milo ( tak payah beratur!)


 Lepas acara larian ada acara sukan rakyat. 
Ada bola sepak, ada lari dalam guni, ada lari kaki tiga.
Serius panas terik, aku heran depa ni nampak ke dak bola tu.


 Hamper dinosor hampir menyaingi ketinggian Adik.
Budak dua orang ni la paling best.
Malangnya mama suruh opah sorok kat kampung..haha.


Sekianlah.

Thursday, December 8, 2011

HS Balls

I accidentally caught an episode of  Scrubs last night. The one where Cox experienced his first day as Chief of Medicine and I thought to myself , hey I totally get that!
Not that I'm Chief of Medicine or anything but the scene where Cox sighs as he sees staff coming in and out of his room for all kinds of requests, favors, and complaints while tons of paperwork are piling up on his desks and in the mean time, his personal assistant/admin officer (?) shoves papers to his face for him to sign, I can totally relate.
Except I don't have a personal assistant slash admin officer.

If you ask me 2 years ago, I would have never fathom being in this position. Back then,I was in my 5th year working in a small rural clinic with 10 staff and average patient load of 10-15 patients a day.
But then I got bored.
And so I applied to  be transfered to a bigger clinic. Konon nak challenge la konon.

Mana la nak tau at the time the current head of clinic's application to further her studies got approved and guess who was next on the hierarchy?
I almost choked.

Cox put on a bored face on his first day as chief. My face had pure horror painted red.
How was I going to handle a main clinic, with almost 70 staff with average patient load of 60 on a good day and  120 people on a bad hectic day? And with 20 schools lined up for incremental treatment with almost 10,000 schoolchildren and preschoolers to attend to?
I had schedules to plan.
Schedules to follow.
People to dictate.
Answer to complaints.
Smile to praises
Student nurses and dental assistants as well as first year dentists to train and grade.
Kiss up district and state bosses.
Kiss up medical counter-parts.
Kiss up specialists
KPIs to achieve.
Leaves to approve.
Leaves to disapprove.
Programs to plan
Programs to attend.
Meetings to plan.
Meetings to attend.
Paperwork to complete
Paperwork to sign
Schedules to approve.
Filings to do.
Audits to plan
Undergo freaking stupid audits
Patients to treat.
Answer  no to ridiculousness such as patients who think they will get special treatment and their maids ( maids!) will be wavered from the waiting list just because I had a nice conversation with them ONCE.
Staff to counsel
Staff to motivate
Inventories and assets to indent
Accounts to verify.
Do my work.
Do people's work.
and 70 freaking SKTs to grade.
or as Michael Buble would say,
holy shit balls.

Did I leave out anything?
Oh yeah, lots.

But after a year and a half, I'm getting the hang of it.
I'm not going bald.
 Most of my staff are tolerable and I go home with a headache only once a month. I still despise audits to the death and meetings bore the hell out of me but my staff and colleagues make me laugh.
Best  of all, they're supportive of my running.
Even managed to motivate 2-3 to take up running
Hey, 3 outta 70 ain't that bad. Heh.

Sorry to rant about work.
I got nothing this week.
If I'm able to race this weekend, you can expect to see something about running next week.
Till then, keep your fingers crossed.

And I'm off for some me time tomorrow.
Me and retail therapy.
Oh and some food. Om nom nom nom.

p/s Hey, someone from Scranton, PA visited this site.
    Is that you Jim Halpert?