Patience

Nak lomba lari ujung minggu ni.
Tekak ada aura nak batuk.
Hidung tersumbat, makan piza pun dah rasa cam makan kertas kadbod.
Tang nak jaga taknak batuk la, dok teringin macam-macam.

Bila makan lunch ngan Chiam tiap-tiap hari, dok tahan je dr mengoder air sejuk.
" teh O  panas" kataku dengan muka ketat.
Sedangkan air bandung chiam begitu menggoda.

 " Hai, kak. Akak nampak cantik harini" katanya.

Hari Isnin haritu, masa stock up groceries, tetibe je tangan capai Mocha Crumble.
Serius tak ingat the last time aku beli ice cream dalam carton. The last chocolate mint flavoured aku beli pun dok ada lagi dalam ice box.
Skarang ni every time bukak freezer dok tahan je.
Tahaaaannnnnnn jeeeee.

Tadi lepas sessi letihan membuang peluh toksid ( ni ayat keji MLM) , aku dok meng contemplate je nak bukak that chilled coke light. Dok terbayang the glistening of condensation on it's silver exterior ( macam keta pulak).
Ingat dulu taim uni, membe aku cakap, mak dia kasi dia minum coke sejuk untuk hilang batuk. Coming from a family  history of asthma, aku rasa kalau mak aku buat cam ni kat aku taim kecik-kecik dulu, alamat masuk ER je la.


Bertenang. Tarik nafas. Berusahalah.
Buat masa ni, teh o panas satu.

Plan B : Bukit Cinta Sucks

Or to be more politically correct : I suck at Bukit Cinta.

As usual, when I'm in town, I like to kill two birds and try to scout for minuscule races around the city.
I had two choices last weekend. Larian Care For All UM and Larian Syapadu.

Memandangkan the latter tu sampai kat Shah Alam dan hari Ahad, dimana saya telah berjanji untuk ke rumah mertua pada hari itu, maka saya pun memilih untuk berlari anak di UM.
Furthermore, they accepted registration on the spot for UM, so I thought what the heck.

 Note artis undangan : Sesuai ngan cuaca pagi tu -grey sky morning.

 Chiam tekun mengkuti sessi regangan.

Bajet budak U bangkit lewat, registration didn't start until at least 7:30 am.Lepas register, lepak sambil layan anak-anak makan roti sweetie sambil mengkaji siput babi atas tanah.

Pukul 8, aku mula warm up. Tu pun sebab nampak geng mamat-mamat laju mula berlari-lari anak. Terkujat jugak sebab nampak geng yang slalu bajet menang masuk larian kecik ni . Adakah tarikan Bukit Cinta atau aweks -aweks UM nan bergetah?

So at 8:30 am race bermula. Sorang budak pompuan sekolah yang aku perati slalu dapat podium di mana saja anda berada dah memecut laju ke depan. Okla tu, sebab seperti biasa route marker haprak takde, so kami yang lain follow je la. Kalau budak tu masuk longkang, agaknya kami pun terjun sama.

 Untuk mile pertama, kami dihidangkan dengan route yang relatively flat la. Tapi traffic horror. Who knew dalam kampus, traffic cam kat Chow Kit . Takde sape nak halang traffic sangat so kena pandai-pandai sendiri angkat tangan tahan kereta yang lalu lalang dari godaan nak langgar kita.

Anyyyywayyy...sebelum larian aku dapat tau yang race route kali ni lalu kat Bukit Cinta.
Teng teng teng ( bunyik lagu cite P Ramlee bila ada adegan terkejut) .
Serius tak tau langsung Bukit Cinta tu tahap dia cemana sebab ramai bagi nickname Bukit PutusUrat la, Bukit Kayuhan Maut la apa la. Bila aku google image, dia tunjuk gambar Bukit concrete yang ada tangga tengah-tengah. Serius ingat dalam larian tu ada panjat tangga. So aku buat la letihan naik tangga sambil berlari sekali dua.
Poyo je.
Masuk mile kedua baru aku kenal itu Bukit Cinta. Incline dia mula-mula gradual so I thought, Okay, not so bad. Tapi hakikatnya tak naik tangga langsung. Ntah gambar bukit manantah google search bagi kat aku. Bukit Cinta yang kami panjat hari tu memang bukit ada jalan tar seperti biasa la.

Mana nak tau, makin lama makin tinggi, makin curam. Dari pace 8 minute plus per mile decline ke brapa minit mile pun aku taktau sebab dah malas nak tengok Garmin.
By this time , aku tau korang boring dah dengan aku b**ching about hills but going 1 mile up a steep hill is dead torture, man.
By the time turun pulak, memang la kita diajar to let go going downhill but kakiku hit the brakes automatically sebab curam sangat. Kang tersembam, glamer haram pulak.

Lepas Bukit durjana tu, ada lagi lebih kurang 1.4 miles to go. Aku dah kepancitan. Serius sabar je aku nak abiskan race ni.
Naik incline lagi. Turun. Traffic gile. Budak UM tunggu kat hentian bas tersengih. Makan asap karbon monoksida lalu kat bus stop. Naik lagi. Turun lagi. Tanya budak jaga jalan, lepas ni nak hala ke mana, dia pulak tengok kita balik buat muka blur. Naik lagi. Turun. Dengar Chiam ngan Adik dok sorak dari kejauhan. Dengar WW suruh aku bukak langkah.

Cross the finishing line. Ahh..legaa.
Sakit tau route ni.

Post race :

Kat US ada hotdog man, kat UM ada waffle boy.

Serius banyak. Makan sampai muntah. 

Sebenarnya eksyen je ni. Hakikatnya kami boring tunggu 2 jam untuk dapat medal.

Tapi tak seteruk orang-orang yang dapat podium 1-3 yang kena tunggu sampai lepas penyanyi Aiman perform.

Aiman tak kisah. 

Saya malas tunggu Aiman. Sebab tu la saya dapat no 5 je. 

Hahaha.

Sekianlah.

The sad state of Malaysian distance running

by wan won.

I was just browsing through the race results of the recent Larian Bendang Teluk Intan. The timing recorded by the top three in the male open (21km) category were: first - 1:05:25; second - 1:07:00; third -1:07:31. All Africans, presumably Kenyans. No surprise there. By the way, the race is allegedly underdistanced, but not too much at 20.35km as measured by GPS. GPS can be inaccurate too, though.

I don’t know if anyone figured this out yet, but the current Malaysian record for half marathon is 1:07:59 set by Muniandy Arul Thevar back in July 2004 in Ipoh (source: Wikipedia). And all three Kenyans beat that during the Larian Bendang.

According to McMillan running calculator, which predicts reasonably accurate race times for different distances based on current race performance, the top Larian Bendang guy has the potential to run a sub-2:20:00 marathon. Other factors such as terrain and underdistance issues aside, that also means that he can easily beat the current national marathon record of 2:26:38 set on a downhill course or 2:28:36, both done overseas by Chan Yew Woo (same Wikipedia source as above).

So, what’s my point?

The point is, unless the nation take a very serious effort to take distance running, or even running in general seriously, bringing in Kenyans to compete in local races will just ruin the sport. All the top prizes will go to them, and there will be no motivation to go on for local runners. Bring the Kenyans back when we have runners that can do 4 minute mile on a regular basis.

One of the reasons I say that our distance running is not taken seriously is because the race courses here don’t seem like they were designed by runners for runners. If they are designed by runners, or someone with an athletics background, all I can say is this: get another job.

Let me explain.

Distance running is mainly about pace management. Start too fast and you’ll blow out. Start too slow and you’ll never catch up. To manage your pace you need two things. Number one: a watch. Number two: distance markers. Unless you can really dial in with your paces (which may take months or even years of steady practice to get it precisely right to the second just by feel), you can skip the watch. But without distance markers, how will the runners know where they are at a specific point of time? If they don’t know where they are, how can they calculate their pace? Not everybody is blessed with the money to buy a GPS enabled watch. Distance markers = basic requirement. So please race directors, mark every kilometer (or mile) properly. And I do mean every kilometer/mile. You will really help the runners with that simple gesture of putting correct distance markers at the correct places. Placing markers every 5 km does not count. Same goes to signs saying xx kilometers to go, that is just plain stupid.

One more thing, why do most races in Malaysia make it hard for the participants? The course designers seem to have a fetish to design the hilliest course possible. Why? It sucks the fun out of the casual runners. We want the people to enjoy running and participating in races, so they can do it again and again. Not to satisfy the race directors’ masochistic desires.

Many of the overseas races I browse on the internet and magazines proudly advertise their race as a ‘fast course’ meaning the course may be flat/cool/have a nice surface/well managed or even ‘downhill’. This makes the race particularly appealing to runners who are looking to set their personal bests. But here in Malaysia, it is as though the high temperatures and humidity are not challenging enough. The hillier the race, the better. Then after the races are done and the race results published, we wonder why Malaysians have poor timing? Why Malaysians are slow?

In a nation that just paints the track on the school fields once a year, you can count on us staying slow. We have the potential if we start early enough. It’s not just about genetics (even though the genetics play a major role). It is also about the opportunity, the desire and the direction.

Here, everybody focuses on football, because it’s a national sport. It is good that we have grassroots programme to deal with that. But what happens when our football players grow up? Yup, they become crap. Whose fault is that? Athletics is going the same way too, but not too obvious, because we don’t have a grassroots programme (we just pick whoever is inherently fast at school without giving everyone a chance to train, unlike football). And there’s not much money offered in the sport, again because I guess the sponsors think we are slow.

Shift some of  the focus to distance running. We can do it. Start them early with proper guidance. Good runners don’t always make good coaches. We need coaches with proper knowledge about the science of the sport. Coaches who know what is the specific purpose of each run. Coaches who can motivate. Certainly not politicians, not even polo players. And don’t get me started on the ridiculous turf wars. We’re not even fast to begin with. Shut the hell up and work together to get fast.

Until we can mass produce 4 minute mile runners, expect local races to be dominated by foreigners for years to come. A lot can be done to make Malaysians run faster.

Start by putting proper distance markers, please.

-wan won- 

Not Again

I was sleeping on the bed, next to my new born, exhausted and confused of the alien feeling of  motherhood, , when my husband gently woke me up,
" Did you feel the tremors?"
I didn't.
He who was sitting on the floor, quietly reading a book, felt them and saw us swaying in our sleep, mother and child.
We learnt later that day of the quake and of the thousands of people who perished in the 2004 tsunami.

Flash forward almost 8 years later, today, as I was lying on the sofa with my 4 year old daughter deep in her afternoon slumber beside me, I felt them. The tremors my husband felt years ago.
Confused at first, thinking that it was just a rumbling of a trailer truck on a highway nearby or my princess having a fitful dream, I ignored it.
But when it continued, the earth moving, the strange feeling of vertigo, the stale tea in the teapot on the coffee table swinging to the motion rhythmically, I grew alarmed.

And it's human nature, in the state of panic, we call on our loved ones.
I called out to my parents and son in the house ( my daughter still sleeping soundly). I called my other half who was 300km away living in a 10 storey apartment to stay safe. To be safe.
My brother called his wife who was away at her kampung a few kilometers away from the sea, worried and then rushing off to get her.

Images of the tragedy 8 years ago from the newspapers and tv flashed in our heads.
But it has been better. Since then, the world has been better prepared. We are better informed.

 I hope all is well.
I hope all will be well.
And if it's fated that some will perish, I pray that Allah will have mercy on their souls.
Moga mereka ditempatkan di kalangan orang yang beriman.
Amin.

Plan B?

Ok.
Larian Keputeraan kat Kuala Kangsar dah kena batal. Walaupun aku sedikit kaciwa memandangkan aku rasa event ni merupakan event paling best bagi aku last year dengan routenya masuk kawasan istana dan naik Bukit Chandan, dan makan-makannya yang ibarat kenduri, namun nak kata apa kan. Ajal maut di tangan Tuhan.
Berilah ruang untuk the royal family berkabung.

So,
Kita kena beralih ke Plan B.
Apakah Plan B itu?
Ntah la, aku pun tak plan lagi.
Mungkin rembat memana larian runcit cap sadin.


I super 'like' this.
The ultimate underdog,
Never fail to put a smile on my face. Although, watch behind your back in case your kids are watching.

Tu la, yang terer tu, jangan dok belagak.
Looks can be deceiving.

Ta.