A Piece Of My Time

Layan

2012-01-27T23:08:00.001+08:00

Hi.
Sorry for the late post.
This week was/is sick week.
Four days of the holidays were mostly spent indoors. My little girl got sick up to the point where we had to take her to the clinic where they did a blood test on her. Don't get me going on the whole blood taking process.
Luckily everything came out normal but she's still having fevers on and off.

By Wednesday I caught the fever and fatigue-ness hit me on Thursday.
The funny thing about running/working out is, when you're not feeling well, it's hard to differentiate whether you're skipping the exercise because of the sickness or because of the laziness.

But I hate being down in the dumps. So I have this video to share.
~~Perempuan ni takde modal la tu asik post video je~~
Takde, betul, video ni serius kelakar.
I remember the last time I caught Rambo at the movies a few years ago, I turned to WW and whispered loudly, " You drag me here to watch this?"
But this version is clearly better. In the sense of less harsher swear words. Huhu

This Faradyable guy is really something.
He's the same guy who posted the Teh Ais videos on Youtube.and that Louis Armstrong Gosok Gigi thing that I posted on FB.
His voice overs are dead on.
This guy is either talented or he's got too much time on his hands.

Wote

2012-01-20T21:16:00.000+08:00

Sorry to disrupt your holidays, peeps but this I gotta share
It's too cool.
It's overplayed at our house.
Even then kids join in, " Somebadehhhhh." at the end.

It makes me miss my Paul Smith.
I haven't touched my guitar since my failed attempt to serenade my friends at our reunion.
I chickened out last minute.
That was a month ago.
I don't even know where I put my capo

Nevertheless, Happy CNY.
Now I have 4 free days to relight the fire.

Skully And Mu(r)lder

2012-01-16T22:38:00.001+08:00

I was getting my usual evening run done when it was rudely interrupted by a phone call from one of my staff. Apparently apart from being a clinician and an administrator, I am also a counselor.
So as I was listening to the other end pouring her heart out about work issues, I noticed something weird lying at the back of my treadmill.
To my horror, it was a decapitated mouse.
And it looked fresh.
Gross.

I glanced at my children, who were on the computer playing some games. Luckily they hadn't noticed. Had they did, they'd be in hysterics.

Where the heck did it came from? I figured it must have either been brought in by a sneaking stray cat or it must have gotten in by the sewer hole from the ground floor toilet. The latter seemed more plausible at first as the treadmill is only a couple of meters away from the toilet. It must have sneaked in between the machine and somehow got snagged by the belt or something. But then I thought, there should be traces of fresh blood, wait, sprays of red mouse blood on the mill and the wall but there was none.
So I deducted it was maybe brought in by an unsuspecting cat.
Bodo punya kucing.

Trying to keep my voice steady and avoid panicking ( while left hand still holding the phone to my ear), I grabbed an empty plastic bag. The initial plan was to pick up the mouse with the plastic bag but then I got queasy. No way was I going to hold a mouse, berlapik or not.
Then while the other end was babbling and me uh-huh-ing, I got a dustpan and shoved the decapitated carcass into it with a broom, put the poor animal in an old shoe box and it went straight away into the outside bin.
After ending the call, I mopped the whole area around the treadmill to konon disinfect the area.

Then I went back running. (ha)
But in the middle of it all, it suddenly came to mind.
What if the mouse really got decapitated by the belt or the motor.
The head should be lying somewhere. Exclamation mark.
Then , right there and then I started to panic.
About leptospirosis, about the possible stench of decomposition in the house, about the possibility of other mice getting in the house.
But what I panicked most about was the THOUGHT of finding the mouse's head

Okay, I consider myself as an independent woman but when it comes to finding decapitated mouse heads, I simply had to call the man of the house.
" We have a serious problem" I told my husband who's miles away.
"Why don't you lift up the treadmill and look under it?" he suggested.
" Who me? Never."
" How about getting the pakcik next door to look for it?"
" Are you kidding? He'll think we're living in filth."
"So what's your suggestion, genius?"
"You find it. When you get back." And that would be a mere 18 more hours to go.
So he agreed.
And the thawing chicken on the kitchen counter made me sick and me and the kids ended up having take-outs for dinner.

But hey presto, after 18 hours there was no stench of rotting flesh.At all.
And no, I did not Febreezed the house.
WW took a peek under the treadmill and found nothing but dust bunnies.
Weird huh.
Wuuu wuu wuut wuut wuut wuuuut ( okay, that was supposed to sound like the X-Files opening theme)

So you'd think after learning the possibilities of my dreadmill being a rodent decapitator would stop or at least cease me from using it?
Wrong.
Out of sight, out of mind, baby.
A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.
And this girl needs to run.

Even if there is a little skull lodged in the machine somewhere.
Wuuu wuu wuut wuut wuut wuuuut .

Love Is A Losing Game

2012-01-10T21:34:00.004+08:00

I can't remember half of my patients' name but with a name and character like Jimmy Teca, it's really hard to forget.

Jimmy is actually the husband of my denture patient.I can't remember her name. She came in with him one morning, last June, a couple in their mid 70's, walking hand in hand.
She was a bit weak and frail, always smiling and polite and counting on Jimmy for support, physically and emotionally. Jimmy was jolly, constantly cheerful with everything positive to say and thinks the world of his wife.
Jimmy would charm us with his joie-de-vivre. He would often enlighten us with anecdotes of his early years. He would walk in with a steady gait, left hand firmly holding a walking stick and when asked why, he would say it was for the 'look'. Jimmy would often act as a translator as he could speak perfect English, perfect Malay and perfect Chinese. He would never forget his 'Good Mornings!" and 'Thank Yous' and would always know how engage us in the most interesting conversations..
He would proudly remind us of his only son ,married and working successfully in Singapore . Jimmy always made sure that their visits with me would always be pleasant. It is hard not to love Jimmy.

All Jimmy Teca wants is to enjoy the rest of his life with his lovely wife in this so-called-retiree town.

The last time I saw Jimmy Tecca, he was doing perfectly fine.

Until today.
I noticed his name in my appointment book. My assistant informed me she saw him as an outpatient, an old wheelchair bound senior citizen and didn't have the heart to put him in our denture waiting list. So she immediately booked him under my appointments.
Wheelchair bound?
I was confused.

When they wheeled him in, I almost didn't recognize him. He was frail, a little more skinnier than I last saw him, his right leg in a cast and left arm in a sling. His right eye had that crossed-eye look and he came in sans dentures which made him look ancient.
" Uncle Jimmy, what happened?"

He told me he got struck by a car, almost a month ago. Near the Lake Garden. While jogging.
He is now wheelchair bound, his right hand which has always been weak since he was a child is almost useless now, and his left arm is broken. He needs someone to do the simplest tasks for him. He can't even put food into his own mouth.
He is now alone in Taiping, living in an old folks home. He sent his wife to Singapore to live with his son.
But he is fortunately, still mentally sound.

I guess my face crumpled a bit when he told me his story.
" It's okay. It's not so bad." he smiled his toothless grin.
And I resist the urge to give him a big wholesome hug.
" Life's like that." he told me.

But I'm so mad. I'm mad at that person who ran him over.
It was a jogger's path. In the Lake Garden. It was a 30 kmph road. The signboard made it clear. I know because I've ran past the signboard many times.
But he was ran over at an estimated speed of 70kmph
His caretaker told me that accidents like that happen all the time.
" Some people just don't care about joggers there. They don't even care if it's a one way street."

I'm so angry of this carelessness. A man's life is almost ruined just because some stupid sod thought he would get away bending the rules.
I hope the perpetrator will get what he deserve. I hope karma will bite him back hard.
Or at least, at the very least , he has learned his lesson.

Jimmy laughed as I took his impressions. " You treat me like a kid" he said.
My brows furrowed as I worry.
" It'll be okay" he reassured me as he is wheeled out of my surgery.
His hand limply flopped on his lap to imitate a wave, "I'll see you in a bit, eh Doc?".

I sure hope so, Jimmy Teca.
I hope by God's fate, somehow you will bounce back.
I hope for your sake and for everybody else's sake, that we will ALL be more careful behind the wheel.
And I convey to all pedestrians, runners, cyclist, please make your self visible while on the road.

We can only try.

New Year Reads!

2012-01-03T21:49:00.006+08:00

So how was everyone's new year ?
Mine was spent stitching up a poor man's face who got split open when his mouth snagged on a nail ( or some other metal object - he wasn't sure himself) while falling down two flights of stairs. This was done with the sounds of new year fireworks booming in the distance sebagai muzik iringan..
Another mini episode of kari ngeri.
No worries, he's okay now despite probably being stuck with The Joker's trademark all his life.

Wahh, kemain lagi korang ek, baru sehari dua tahun baru dah ada race report bagai.
I have nothing for now. No plans. Nak boh tentative kat left hand side of the blog untuk 2012 pun takbleh lagi.
Though I am thinking of a race in early March to celebrate my birthday but we'll see how it goes.
Training is just on for now. Training for what, beats me.

I am told by WW that he gave Penonton's address to a friend of ours ( a newbie) to check out for local races. If he's into blog hopping, I'm sure one of these days he'll find himself landing here.
In advance, I'd like to day, " Hi, Nan!" " Hi Jemer jugak!"( wave). Welcome to the club.
Kalu hang tak baca ni sampai bila-bila, hang memang koman.

Anyway, what I'd like to do today is to review a few books.
Two to be exact.
Kenapa?
Ntah.
Saje.

Book No 1: Inspiring, Motivational and A Damn Good Read.
Title: Becoming an Ironman.

Ok, triathlons aren't my forte ( as if running is) but I really LOVE this book. Although, I can't fathom being on the bike for hours on end without getting pressure sores on your manly/womanly areas. I myself can't stand being on a bike for more than 60 measly minutes without feeling nauseous and jiggly. I can't also imagine swimming for 2.4 miles because, well.. easy, because I don't know how to swim. I saw Titanic on TV a few days ago and thought, " Boy, if I were on a sinking ship, I'd be the first poor loser to go straight to the bottom."

Anyway, this is THE book that first triggered the idea for me to race. WW got it on discount in some book sale someplace a few years ago and I read it out of curiosity 3 years ago.
Ok, honestly the last time I read this WAS 3 years ago but seriously, I'm now back on the 1st page to relive the moments.
This book is basically a collection of personal stories about the experience of completing one's first ironman-distance triathlon ( I took this from the book jacket)
But really, in one book you'll get more than 20 stories from different people, some whose names are familiar and some are just ordinary people like you and me ( or only me to be more accurate).
Macam baca race report pun ada. Ada yang terer, ada yang tak. Cerita dari first timer fast finishers,first timer slow finishers, cerita dari wargatua, cerita dari OKU. Heck there are even stories from those who DNF.
Their anecdotes are funny, tear jerking, amusing, motivating dan macam-macam lagi. Baca buku ni cam tengok movie. Serius. Ada satu part tu aku teringat aku ada nangis sket.

And, by the time you reach the end of this book and you're still not motivated to at least go for a run ( at least la), well, hati keras macam batu ke apa?
Pi la cari. Really worth the read an money.
Pi. Cari.
And I guarantee you it'll be far better than that Murukami book or Once a Runner.

Book no 2 : No Brainer
Title: Girl on The Run

Okay, I'm not much of a chic lit fan. You'll almost never see me in a book store browsing and flipping through novels with cartoon figures of thin girls with titles like, " I Need A Hunky Man Right Now!" or " Shopping Psycho But Still Cute ( And At The Same Time Still Need A Man)"
But the word 'Run' on this book caught my eye somehow ( I'm still a geek) and after reading the synopsis, without thinking much, I tossed it in my shopping cart.
Okay,sure it got all those chic lit cliches like hopelessly successful girl unaware of her attractiveness despite being called 'beautiful' constantly by others or girl in dire need of a handsome man and finally realizes that she's in love with her best mate who is hey, by coincidence is also a handsome man . Ala cam cerita novel Melayu yang tak boleh lari dari watak-watak gelaran Dato/Datin/ Tan Sri. You get the picture.

Tapi on the running side, it's okay. Behind the chic lit facade, the book relates on newbies in running, and first timers in racing.The heroine starts off as a bum, forces herself to train for a race to raise money for a Multiple Sclerosis fund ( this is inspired by her staff who has MS) and succeeded in actually completing a half marathon.
Ada la the author threw in some running technical terms here and there. Which may let you think that she might actually be a runner herself ataupun she had a good kajian. But overall, it's strictly for light reading.
The kind of read that you don't need blood flowing in your brains.

Tapi at some parts, it can trigger off a sensational feeling to run and join a race, girly -girl style.
And for guys, you can read it but try not to snort too much on the chic- lit-ness of this novel. Kalau korang malu nak beli, hadiahla kan kat gfs ke wife ke, pastu buat-buat la pinjam baca.

Ok, itu saje review kali ni kawan-kawan.
Babai.

Nasihat Nenek

2011-12-26T15:40:00.006+08:00

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.

Malaysian Army International Run 2011 - Edisi PCPJ Zon Utara

2011-12-19T12:20:00.003+08:00

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!

Larian Rakyat Penang 2011 aka Pulang Modal

2011-12-12T22:05:00.002+08:00

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.

HS Balls

2011-12-08T22:00:00.006+08:00

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?

First Food Review..Ahem

2011-11-28T22:23:00.001+08:00

For starters, I've never been a fan of meat. With this I mean authentic 100% beef and not those beef burger patty kind.
And if I do order real meat, it'll be so well done, it's crispy on the outside and inside, taste nothing of beef and salty. And there's a particular place in Kampung Baru we go to every now and then to get this daging bakar.
Other than that, I usually avoid beef dishes.

They kinda have that strong smell especially really fresh beef. It's worse if I see the actual animal before being slaughtered off because sadly I'll be too squeamish to ever be able to stomach it. In short it's okay if I don't see it alive beforehand. So every AidilAdha, I'll be that sad loser moping around poking at my nasi impit and kuah kacang while everybody else is polishing off the 'so-called' delicious beef rendang and sup tulang and rubbing it in my face.

But after watching show after shows of Gordon Ramsey marveling on how delicious a good piece of steak is, I felt that I gotta be fair and give a real good steak a try. A. Real. Good. Steak.

And not the ones you usually get from your local restaurants listed in the menus under 'western food' and their idea of a steak is a thin piece of beef, cooked to the core and is so tough that it distorts your fork while you cut into it. Or a tiny piece of beef that tastes like what my husband calls slipar berperisa black pepper. Or as they sometimes spell it 'Black Paper' or 'Black Pipper'.

Alas, when we heard about this quaint little restaurant called Me'nate Steak House that promises real fresh wholesome steaks and that their beef are fresh from the farm, chilled not frozen, we thought we ought to give it a try. Somewhat in an attempt to restore my faith in locally prepared steaks.

Masuk je , ambiance ok. Some patrons even took the liberty of dressing up to eat at this place. Which to me is kinda weird. Tapi mungkin they dress up like that on a daily basis and I'm just an out of town hillbilly so who am I to judge.

Layan Gambar :

This arrived first, Curly fries. A whole mother load of them

Next: Real fresh beef sausages. No beef smell ! Presentation-wise: could be improved. They look more like kopok lekor. Taste great though.

WW's wagyu tenderloin .

Cooked medium. Cost a bundle. Worth every penny.

And no, for the record ,the wagyus here are not fed beer.

I could never in my life imagined I could stomach meat with a little redness oozing out but surprisingly this tasted great and without the beefy smell. Hurrah!

The beef was really, really tender. And you get to choose your meat before they cooked it for you.

My grain-fed ribeye. Besaunya mak ai.

Cooked well done la, apa lagi.

It was so tender and tasted really good even without the brown sauce.

Perfect. Almost converted me into a beef lover. Almost.

I couldn't finish the whole portion because it was too large and I was getting dizzy from all the beef.

That's what husbands are for.

The kids' beef Olio. Big portion

Sorry, sangat kusyuk makan sampai lupa snap gambar bila mula dihidang.

Sedap but I imagine my mom would've commented that we just ordered an overpriced plate of fried noodles.

Some coffee to finish it all off.

Best thing is the beverages are, get this..FREE.

And they're free flow. With the condition you finish it or they'll charge you RM 8 per glass.

My verdict 8 out of 10. Layanan Ok. The Executive Chef goes around to ask about the food. The waiters are helpful enough. You have to get your own drink at the drink station though, but that's okay for me. It's quite pricey tapi bukan tiap-tiap hari nak makan a great good slab of meat kan?

But if you're a little bit on the queasy side like my son and I, better avoid looking around as the walls are full of pictures of cows. Real, big fat cows. And you might want to have a seat facing the main entrance because you wouldn't want to eat facing a large meat chiller stacked full of fresh bloody meat, of all size and portions.

But then if you're not a wuss like me, then feel free to be seated anywhere and look at everything.

Tapi at the end of the day, after all that juicy delicious steak that made me finally believe there is such a thing as a melt in your mouth piece of beef ( and I thought Chef Ramsey was always bullshitting), I still prefer my Kampung Baru daging bakar. Well, well done, Crispy from the outside and inside, taste nothing like beef and salty.

Yum.

(with this, my husband slaps his forehead)

***Hey, wait a minute, you might say. Sejak bila dia ni jadik food blogger? Saje je. Sejak ada handphone that allows me to discreetly take pictures of my food and it would look like I'm just nonchalantly texting. Hehe

I'm shy shy like that.

Konon.

And with that I end my one week holiday.

Back to working out.

DNS Tapi Pulang Modal.

2011-11-22T21:09:00.001+08:00

Ha. Didn't think there'll be a race report, kan?
Yes, as some of you have read in FB, I couldn't quite make it to PBIM.
The night before the last day of school, my son complained that he had a stomach ache and felt nauseous. I was quite sure it wasn't food poisoning as he ate the same thing as the rest of us did and we were all fine.
Well, he started vomiting that night, and continued to feel bad the next morning. He couldn't stomach in anything solid for the rest of the day but felt fine on Saturday.

Manala nak tau it was actually the stomach flu and it was contagious. After my race that Saturday morning (tell you about that later), I had a nap, konon nak get some snooze before PBIM. It was funny that I tossed and turned for ages before falling asleep because everyone who knows me close , knows that I fall asleep easily. Lepas tu after an hour of napping, bangun je , pening nye mak ai. And suddenly I felt sick.
I tried to brush it off. Said to my WW that it's probably something bad I ate at the food fair that morning. By 7.00 pm I was vomiting my breakfast and lunch and felt crappy but I still had my hopes high. We thought that by 10:30 pm, if I felt a bit okay, we'll head out to Penang and see how it goes from there. But after staring blankly at my McDonalds dinner, and feeling nauseated after a cup of sundae, the only thing that I can force myself to eat that night, I made a decision to abandon the thought of racing altogether.
Macam suicide je pon kalau pegi. Not much fluids in my body. Carbo-loading jadi more like carbo-dumping. It'll be like me running on empty.
Kang tak pepasal ada orang bergolek atas jambatan. Hodohnya pemandangan.

So racing plans aborted.,balik rumah terus tengok bola Indon lawan Vietnam. Pastu went to bed, and woke up at 2 ish with tummy cramps and I thanked God Almighty for giving me some common sense.

Oh ye, this is supposed to be a race report jugak kan?
Okay so on Saturday I raced for my department in Larian Kesihatan Perak. It's a 5K race held once in every 2 years and the participants are solely KKM staff from all over Perak.
Aku masuk suka-suka je. Boss aku suruh masuk untuk menang.
Aku pikir, kalau tak menang pun takpe sebab the coming Monday tu aku cuti, so takdela dia nak membebel. Heh heh.

Gun-off bajet race kecik pukul 8:15 am. Cuaca nasib baik ok. Tak panas, tak mendung, sejukk je. Participants tak ramai, dalam 100 orang. Yang paling best apa tau, korang? Yang paling best my family was there to support me. Nothing beats standing at the starting line with your spouse and children screaming words of encouragements at the sidelines. Baru semangat nak lari.

Majlis tajaan gomen takkan lengkap tanpa senbamrobik dan skirting bunga raya

My main rival (cheeeewaaaahhhhh) during the race was one particular girl from Hospital Teluk Intan, a KKM state runner called Anu. Now, I've been in 2 races with her prior this race and twice I fell to second place. But don't get me wrong, it's totally friendly rivalry.We're good friends and for 2 years, she's been trying to get me to try out for her team. ( macamla aku layak)
Tahun ni, jeng jeng jeng, to her dismay (because she loves a good competition),she saw that I'm in a different category.Yaa , tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, saya finally masuk kategori Senior Women..huhu. And she, being only 27 is in the Women Open.

Anu dan err..pakcik enterprem kat belakang

Satu lagi benda best , this year's run is held at Taman Tasik Taiping. So route yang agak familiar. Like I said, lepas gun-off maka larilah kami. Me and Anu initially paced each other and had a bit of a conversation about races at the first 500m, pastu seperti biasa she eased her way in front dan saya seperti biasa malas nak kejar awal-awal , biarkan je sebab saya takut kepancitan
Sepanjang race, I noticed Anu asyik pandang belakang to me je, I'm not sure whether to see if I was okay or to see whether I was close enough to overtake her. At some point when she glanced back, I gestured for her to go on ahead sebab perut ku senak. Sakit jugak wo lari laju (sket dari biasa) and trying to maintain it for 5K, but I remembered WW said that a 5-10K race is supposed to hurt so I pujuk diri je.

Seperti biasa dalam 500 m nak abis baru teringat nak summon turbo tapi bila Anu nampak aku dah makin dekat, dia pun pasang turbo. Dan..seperti biasa, I lost to her by 10 seconds kot. Tapi sebab kami different categories, dia dapat nombo satu dan saya juge dapat nombo satu..hehe.

Women Open leader kat depan. Senior menyusul di belakang sana nun. Maklumla, senior..

Best tak? Team Chiam and Adik tukang sorak.

Deme ni senyum sebab lega akhirnya kami dah sampai.

Yang bestnya bila tengok Garmin, I got my PB in 5K 27:35. For you guys out there mungkin tak laju benor, but for me kira okla tu (by my standards la) Huhu. Dan at her defence, sebab korang mesti pikir , takkan KKM state runner standard 5K 27 mins je kot. I truly felt that she held back and wasn't running her full potential

Yang tak syoknya bila dapat placing kena tunggu dapat hadiah, lamanyaa . Biasala, tunggu all the formalities and ucapan pembukaan. Katanya majlis serah hadiah pukul 9:30, alih-alih nak dekat 11 lebih diberinya hadiah lepas VVIPs makan-makan. Hadoi. The kids were getting a bit cranky but lepas dapat hamper saiz dinosor, depa happy balik. Dapat la jugak a bit cash money, pulang la jugak modal tak pi PBIM..alhamdulillah..hurhur.

Ada jugak Walkathon held at the same time as the larian in a different location.

Budak PLKN pun ~~dipaksarela~~ dijemput masuk. Huish macam berpiket pun ada.

Itu je la kot. Now for that one week holiday..

Retro, Pseudo and Pocoyo

2011-11-15T22:34:00.012+08:00

A few days ago, my childhood bestie posted a picture of our gang back in the day.
I cringed when I saw this pic.
Ugh.

Thing is, this wasn't me at my biggest.
Sure, you can say that it was like 13 years ago. Justin Beiber pun tak lahir lagi ( eh, yeke?) But on bad days, after I'm bloated from all the food that I practically inhaled, or when the numbers on the scale goes slightly up, I still feel like I'm the same girl times 100.

Last two days, I was almost shocked when I saw I've gained almost 3kgs from the weight I had during marathon training. I say almost because well I kinda expected it due to all my eating and comparatively less training but I was hoping the weight gain wouldn't happen. Pocoyo kan?
Trouble is, I'm still in my marathon carbo loading mode, even after a year.
Trouble is, back then, my running was complimented by weight training and strength exercises.
Trouble is, a year ago I was a health freak, counting my calories and almost became a pseudo-vegan (?).

I'm eating everything now. The once banned nasi goreng in my diet is back on the menu. Sure I still watch my portion ~~sometimes..~~ But all the food around me seems soo gooood, it's kinda hard not to indulge.
Right now, as I'm writing this, I crave for an ice-blended cappuccino topped with vanilla ice-cream from Nelson's. Argh.

You may say, " 3kg is not worth all the drama" but for a person who was once overweight, this is kinda an issue.
I'm baring it all when i confess that sometimes I run just to keep the weight off. When I feel bloated, I run 6 times a week. Sometimes, after a 'heavy' meal, I'd go for a 2 mile run even after I've had a run earlier before. I know it's just junk miles, but at least, I think to myself, it'll burn some amount of calories.
How do I put it? It's like being unhealthy in a healthy way. It's not like I don't like running but it's like I like running for the wrong reasons.
Or is it the right?
I dunno.

Irony is, I know what's wrong and I know how to solve it. I just wish the numbers on the scale wouldn't be an issue throughout my life.
Even after 9 years of being in the 'normal' range and having a healthy (?) lifestyle, 8 years of marriage, 7 years of being a mommy, I sometimes still feel like the fat kid I was once before.
And it sucks, even it it's only for a millisecond

Okay, I feel better letting this out.

On a lighter( no pun intended) note : Remember the graffiti In Taman Tasik Taiping I've posted before. After raya, we noticed that they've changed the graffiti to a Hari Raya theme. But last 2 weeks, somebody vandalized the whole graffiti and the creepy rabbit had the word f**k sprawled across its poor face.
Bodo punya mat rempit atau sape-sapela yang buat.

Before vandalism - creepy rabbit masih tulus, suci dan murni

But last Saturday, when we were out running for the so-called 10 miler turned 10K in the rain, I've noticed they've re-done the graffitii. Yay! Bless those RUN TPG people, whoever they are.

After - and they omitted the creepy rabbit!

Itu saje.

No Harm

2011-11-08T19:52:00.001+08:00

2 weeks from a big race, baru terhegeh-hegeh nak training. I'm doubting these two weeks will make any difference, but hey, no harm trying right?
Last year I had a planned schedule magnet-ed on my fridge door , dammit. Even for a half marathon.
This year, the only schedule on our fridge is my son's jadual waktu.

After weeks and weeks of 20 ish K mileage per week, last week I succeeded in getting 35K. Tu pun jenuh nak tweak my daily schedule. This week, with my longest LSD of 10 miles (je?), it'll be twice as hard to commit especially during the weekend. Dengan jiran tetangga nak buat party barbecue nya, dengan nak servis keretanya, dengan nak send back WW to stesyen basnya. Nasib baikla my son has finished his exams, boleh la take a breather sikit sebab tak payah bertukar profession jadik cikgu waktu malam

Why am I semi-committed of training this time? Be-cause believe it or not, I have two different races on the same day (almost) and I can't decide which I will pour my commitment to.
The first run, my larian jabatan will be held on the 19th. There's not a day gone by where I am not reminded of this race by my staff and colleagues. My boss points to my forehead and says he's counting on me - exclamation mark. Now what am I supposed to say to that? Sure, it's just a 6K, but it'll have to be a fast 6K - and very painful.

And then on the 20th, not even the next day after , rather the following early morning, I have PBIM's halfie. I feel that I have to do my best in this one too because it'll be my last race for the year as I've reserved December for vacations, reunions and back to school shopping sprees.

I'm thinking will I be able to complete both in the timing I've planned? Ke I'm setting my hopes too high? Being too optimistic? Being too analytical ?

Kalau tanya WW, he'll say " Hantam saja la" but this is coming from a guy who thinks that training for a March marathon starting from November is still 'not enough'. Hantam saja la? Alih-alih aku yang kena hantam. Pitam pun ada.

Poyo je kan? Pocoyo pun ada.

Bole ka tarak bole?

p/s A big thank you goes to a certain Mr FS , who kindly decided to take over WW's bib. If you see a guy wearing a bib with WW's name on it, give him a big cheer and a pat on the back.

The Rise And Fall Of The Urban Fixies

2011-10-31T19:23:00.003+08:00

Once upon a time, in this part of town, there lived a small group of young riders fondly (or secretly) known to the locals as ‘the urban fixies’.

As said, they were riders, free-spirited and young ( late teens to early twenties)with their DIY fixies spray-painted to perfection. They did not ride but rather flew through town, with their dreadlocks,afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. Their tanned faces sometimes glistening with sweat under the warm sun and their calves rippled to every crank. They came from nowhere or anywhere. You'll see them when you see them. But when you do see them, either riding in the sun or gliding through the night, you will be awed.

Awed by their simplicity. Awed by the way they carry themselves. Calm. Collected. Focused. Too cool to care. You seldom see them talk. They say , the urban fixies communicate by gestures, by grunts, by eye twitches. They will stop long enough, not to hang around, but to regroup. Once they are one, they will flock elsewhere.

You could tell, sometimes from afar, that they were happy. And they were peace-loving beings. Non- believers of nuisance and nonsense. They were law abiding citizens, only an eyesore to old folks who fail to understand their self expression.

But one day, like black clouds creeping in on a beautiful sky, a small new group of riders infiltrated the town. First in small groups of 5s, then 10s, then 20s until it seemed that they were everywhere. It was understood that they were initially imitators. As mimics of the urban fixies. They came into town from miles away, riding their neon coloured generic fixies readily available from Kedai Basikal Ah Ba. These bikes were pitifully tasteless but deemed awesome by the new riders now known to the townspeople as 'kampung fixies'; no disrespect to the kampung people.
But as uber cooless could not be replicated or imitated, the kampug fixies failed to carry themselves wisely. They were simply wannabes. Not trend setters. Everything was overdone.

They spun into town making a racket. Flocking the streets as nuisance.They were ruthless, rowdy at times. Loitering and tastelessly hogging parking lots and conquering the roads. An eyesore, an ear sore and a stick in the behind.

What happened to the urban fixies in the mean time? They stood watching as their town was taken over. But as peace-loving beings, they did not reciprocated. Instead, to avoid territorial conflict,they dispersed. They disappeared, one by one into the masses.

Until one day, they were gone. All of them, dreadlocks and all.( **cue dust and debris scattering and rolling bushes for dramatic effect)

And to this day the kampung fixies still roamed the town. Terrorizing people with their hazardous wheelies and lameness. Most are only young ‘uns, not even through middle high,clueless ,trying so hard but alas, are greatly annoying.
God help us.

I believe one day, when the craze has ended and the madness has ceased, the urban fixies will be back. Emerging one by one from the crowd. Slightly older, slightly worn, but they will come back. With their dreadlocks, afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. With their beautiful DIY-fixies, spray-painted to perfection.

They will be back, flying into town, coolness oozing from their ears.

Sekian sessi bercerita saya pada hari ini untuk melepaskan geram kepada kampung fixies yang sangat menyakitkan hati di pekan saya yang terchenta

The Mysterious Watcher

2011-10-25T13:41:00.000+08:00

Short post
No time.
On call.

Quick question.
Would somebody please tell me who runs Penonton.blogspot.?

I know Bro Haris runs Run. Mix. Burn and I think I have a vague idea who's running Chap Ayam website but who the heck is in charge of Penonton?
Puas aku cari kat blog dia, talak jumpa ma.

Takde la, bukan nak saman ke apa.
Just want to say that you're doing a very good job.
What will we runners ( or cyclists or triathletes) do without Penonton.
Gigih cari pelbagai race untuk di upload almost everyday.

Syabas, sir/madam.
You, my friend, are truly appreciated.

Hugs.
JJ & WW (ok, he offers his handshake)

Bonkety Bonk

2011-10-16T23:11:00.003+08:00

Hi.
You read it right. I bonked.For the second time this year. Heh heh. It's SCKLM Half revisited minus the hot sun.
But difference was, this time I had fun.
Serious.
It's kinda weird how you could feel so bad and have fun at the same time. I guess last week was a good week. Maybe that explains it all.

Pre-race I guess I was kinda asking for it. We had a late breakfast and then decided before dropping off our kids at my sister's, we'd have our lunch late at Bangi. Manala nak tau semua orang Bangi nak makan Domino''s jugak at 3 :30 pm. As a result pizza sampai lewat, so we ate at around 4 ish. Pastu we polished half a can of my brother's "slimming mixed nuts". I don't get the concept of eating nuts to make you slim but hey, who can resist eating really expensive roasted almonds and pistachios especially when it's not yours.

Anyway, we got to Putrajaya at about 7. By that time, perut rasa kenyang lagi from all the pizza and nuts so I just ate a quarter of my prerace snack, a cream bun. Pastu, because during my last half, I didn't take any gels and only ran with a bottle of Gatorade, I figured I'd do the same in this race and managed to talk my husband in doing the same. Ya, satu lagi bad choice.

At about 8 berlegar-legar at race site and we bumped into our old schoolmate . Sembang-sembang, kutuk-kutuk, gelak-gelak , last-last terlepas nak cheer on the Full marathoners. Aisey.

Then at 8.10 pm , we went to line ourselves at the gantry. Baru la nampak the famous KakJune with her fans. Gile semua beratur nak tangkap gambar ngan dia. Tinggal diorang nak mintak sign autograph je lagi, Kak June oii..hehe. Had a quick chat and then we were off lining ourselves behind the starting line cam cattle.

Mak ai panasnya. Tak padan ngan malam cuaca lepas hujan. Tak start race lagi pun kiri kanan bau ashem.
Aku konon nak try pace 10:15/per mile. Up sikit la dari last HM.
Huh, hareeemmmm.

Mula-mula start lagi takde countdown apa pun. Sedor-sedor je 'pom' bunyik gun.
The thing I don't like about big races is, there's too much crowd (duh!)
Dia ni himpit dia ni. Dia ni pijak kasut dia ni. Dia ni pasang muka saiko nak menang. Dia ni siku dia ni.
In small races, everyone is friendly. Almost everyone is like, " Hey, have fun". And the runners are more cheerful.
Yang ni, mula-mula race je pakat pasang game face masing-masing. Adoyai.
Tapi not everybody la. Korang yang baca ni aku tau tak buat..heh heh.

But the thing is in big races, you'll meet all different kinds of interesting people on the road. Ramai gak yang tegur WW's barefootedness. WW pun pantang tengok rakan sekaki ayam, mesti pakat sembang and then aku pun terkial-kial nak catch up.

Anyway, frankly speaking I didn't really like the route. Sebelum ni pi Putrajaya tak penah pun perasan the rolling hills. Mak ai, route dia asyik naik turun je. Well, WW claimed dia naik turun but I felt that It was like 60% naik je. Naik elevation banyyaaaaakkkk, pastu turun ade la ciput pastu naik balik sampai kadang-kadang tu aku ingat diorang ni nak suruh lari sampai Genting kot. Define your inner strength konon.

Somewhere along the way I said hey to AzHana. Azza, I have this ability to 'cam' people from their backs. Don't ask me how. I just know. I can even cam some of the regular runners by the way they run. Anyway, man, she was doing so good. Aku ni macam separuh mati nak kayuh lagi 10K , dia steady je. Tabik!

After 10K mark which I felt took forever, my legs felt like jelly and I suddenly felt hungry. So walaupun, I was guzzling Gatorade every 2 miles or so, I downed half a pack of Powergel and washed it down with Gatorade lagi. Dapatla sugar rush dalam 5 minit pastu hancus balik. My tummy started churning pulak pastu side stich ada datang mari pulak. It was freaking hot and there was no breeze. But you know what helped?
The random conversation with strangers and fellow runners along the way. Best jugak sembang-sembang sambil lari-lari anak ni. Bila sembang-sembang buat lawak sambil bitch about the hills, sedar-sedar je your already on top of the incline and you're your way down.

What I loved most about this race is the support crew. Fuh, memang tip top. Dengan kumpulan gendangnya, dengan cheerleaders nya, dengan music Pittbull pasang full blast tengah-tengah God-knows-where, dengan metalic-mime people ( I don't know what you call them) sitting creepily atas jambatan cam hantu boncengnya, dengan volunteers yang sangat cheerful if not very helpful and committed nya.
In short, memang BEST GILE.
Aku yang separa nak tergolek atas jalan pon sangat terhibur.

Anyway, I lost count how many inclines we had to go through because I sucked at all of them. Tu la, sapa suruh tak training hills. Padan muko. Dekat nak habis pun ada bantai kasik incline lagi. Masa tu aku redha je la. I promised myself this time, tak larat camne pun taknak jalan We met Kam Kasturie along they way, who gently said, " It's okay, jalan je la". Haha, that's really easy to say coming from a guy who walks with the same pace as my running.

I hate hills shows on my face

(pic courtesy of Kam Kasturie)

Racing towards the end was the nastiest part. It was a long straight road where you can see that you have to run towards the digital clock but it seems like it's light years away.

So lari lah daku pada tahap kura-kura with WW running backwards to support me. Dekat end of the line, bila ada banyak orang at the sidelines cheering us on, baru la aku pasang turbo anak penyu nak masuk laut.
Maka bolehla dapat timing sub 2:30. Haha

End of the line, One nice volunteer said to me while handling my finisher's shirt,
" You're an S"
" Nope, " I said. " I think an M"
" Takde la kak, You're definately an S"
She made my day the most.

With Azza and KakJune. Get to finally chat with you guys. Sorry as usual got to go early for the kids.
Sorry gambar blur sebab pakai C3 jo

I finished at 2:29.
I wouldn't call this a personal worst. It's a all out effort in a condition that I can't control. I guess I just can't handle overheatedness and too many hills. That's all there is to it.
And the idea bijak bistari Gatorade made it all worse.
Because when I got back, I threw up all my Gatorade. One whole bottle of it.
Heh

Song Sung Blue

2011-10-04T22:32:00.000+08:00

I have yet to write about my other interest.
Yup, I like something other than running. Thing is, I can't commit to it fully (partially?) like I do with running.
Last month or two or probably three months ago, I purchased a Paul Smith guitar.
After my younger sister tricked me into giving her one of my guitars, I thought it was better for me to upgrade. And since WW was also thinking of buying a new amp, he contacted his musical acquaintance, Melvin.
I go, " I'm supposed to buy a guitar from somebody called Melvin?"
Because to me Melvin sounds more like a guy who would understand what E=mc2 is and actually cares about it.

But Melvin proved to be quite the opposite. Melvin the music guy/salesperson/musician extraordinaire pushed a Paul Smith guitar in my face, strummed a few notes and I was instantaneously in love. With the guitar la.

Thing is, now Paul Smith is on its stand with me staring at it and it staring at me. Sure, I'd learn some new songs on UltimateGuitar 1 or two days but after that , Paul Smith will be back on its stand, capo still on the 2nd fret and gradually going out of tune.

Bilakah saya akan commit fully?
The callous on my fingers have gone soft.
This is not supposed to happen
Argh

Sekian, drama untuk malam ini.

Hometown Glory.

2011-09-26T22:00:00.006+08:00

Masa mula aku dapat tau ada orang nak organize Marathon kat Taiping ni, aku antara yang skeptical
Aku pikir, sapelah manusia yang sanggup jadik lab rat untu marathon yang bukan dianjurkan oleh runnning club mahupun runners dengan cut-off time yang ntah pape.

Pastukan, pada suatu hari sewaktu bersiar-siar di shopping mall, I saw a registration booth and I thought, what the heck.
So we registered for the half.

Manala nak tau the same weekend would be very busy for us. A month after registering, we found out that there would be a gotong-royong kenduri kawin next door on the Saturday of race weekend. Pastu, somebody at the office came up with the idea of having the department's family day on the same Saturday.

Wah, sangat kelam kelibut.

Saturday, pre-prace day, kalut-kalut bangkit pagi to go the family day. As I was in the committee, I had to be there early to make sure nothing was in shambles. The golf club where we held the event suddenly decided to put us in the back seat just because some royalty from Perlis decided to have some function on the same day. As a result, the food arrived 1 hour late and the drinks weren't replenished smoothly as promised.
I was practically on my heels the whole day with my baju kurung drenched with sweat trying to make sure things won't fall apart..
Then at noon bila balik, takkan masuk buat donno je kan? Kena la tolong jiran tetangga jadik bentara kat kenduri. Angkat pinggan, basuh pinggan, kemas meja, sengih-sengih. Pukul 4.30, baru bleh rehat n kami terus zonked out sampai 2 jam ..ahah. Malam tu pulak pegi open house. Hamik kau.
So due to this, and the fact that we would be running in an event organized by inexperienced people, we braced for the worst.

But the worst never came.
Sure, ada a few glitches here and there tapi overall it wasn't too bad.
Aku bagi point form la

The Good:

Small town race, small crowd, no fuss, no lines.
The route was nice. 3 uphills but mostly flat. Weather was good although it got a bit hot later.
Pakcik dan abang polis traffic yang baik lagi penyayang.
Good flow in goodie bag collection, no hassle for race kit pick up. It was so easy getting your race kit, Ian. Contoh my conversation ngan budak jaga race kit,

" Kawan akak tak sempat balik amik bib dia, boleh akak tolong ambikkkan?"
" Boleh, akak tolong bagi no I/C dia"
" Alamak, tepon akak yang simpan no I/C dia dah kaput. Akak ingat no 74 je"
" Takpela, cari je nama dia pastu kami bagi bib"

Puh, tak payah bagi a copy of I/C bagai.
5.Enough water stations. They even had energy drinks macam tin power root tu and bananas.
6. Supportive aids at the water stations - they serve you water and they cheer you on.
7. Oleh sebab small crowd la, I managed to get podium. Dengan timing yang tak seberapa. Hantam sajala
8. They gave me 4 different medals. One participant medal, one finisher's medal, one qualifying medal ( I have no idea what I qualify for) and one 8th placing medal. And a trophy! Makcik kayo! ( kayo medal jo la, duit tak dapat pun)
9. Plenty of Milo and post run food. Goodie bag ada banyak harta karun : 1 isotonic drink, 1 energy
drink, 1 balm ( macam tiger balm thingy), salonpas ( wajib ada) 1 mineral water, instant white coffee
powder dan 1 lolipop berbentuk tapak kaki ( so appropriate!).
10. Cheap! Registration for half marathon is only RM30.

The Unexpected (Saya ikut cakap sifu saya)

1. We were mostly running on our own. Traffic was manned only at main junctions. Yang lain pandai-pandai
korang le. Rasa cam LSD pun ada. Nasib baikla most Taiping motorist adelah bersopan santun, kalau tak ramai jadik roadkill.
2.Insufficient route markers. At times we had to rely on the police and water station aides for directions. Route marker untuk kenduri kawin serius lagi banyak dari route marker race ni. Distance markers pun yelek.
Mostly we had to depend on runners in front of us to see where the route was going.
Tapi according to full marathoners, they were well taken care off. I guess officials tumpukan their whole attention on full marathoners kot. Nama pun Taiping International Marathon.
3. A few race officials acting more like pakcik keypoh rather than being proper professional race officials. Puh geram sungguh. Pagi-pagi lagi, spoke to me like I'm in standard one.

"Eh nombor awak tu selit la belakang tudung, haa baru nampak" ( padehal aku memang tengah buat pun)

" Ni apa ni bib pon senget. Tadak orang tolong ke , girl?" (Takpela uncle, lain kali saya bawak protractor untuk ukur)

" Girl, you boleh ke lari ni?" ( takdela, saya nak lompat bintang)

Yang paling best, just as I was crossing the finishing line,
" Girl,ada lagi ka orang belakang you?"
Ayuhai uncle, betapa hinanya daku dimatamu.

4. The race officials claimed that the cut off time was 5 hours and a half for full marathon but nobody was there at the finishing line when Ian crossed it at 4:40. Kesian gila. Nasib baik he such a nice guy.
5. Tak nampak pun medical aid mana-mana along the route. Agaknya kalau kau pengsan tengah jalan, teruskanlah pengsan sampai the next runner finds you.

Ok, kali ni ada gambar. Wanwon at last ingat untuk bawak balik kamera.

Timing 2:14 je. Like I said, race kecik dapat la.

Budak nombo A020 tu senyum jo walau apopun torjadi.

Sapentah pakcik sebelah tu aku pun tak perasan.

And yup, you saw it right. The grey pants are definitely back.

Run as you can

2011-09-21T20:41:00.001+08:00

I have to admit it. It's been tough to properly train this year.
This time last year, my fitness was the best it has been in years. Weekly mileage was 40-50 Ks per week.
La ni kalau dapat 20K per week pun kira alhamdulillah.

Truth is, I have other commitments. I lack the time. And maybe, just maybe a little bit lacking of motivation.
Last year, when I'm back from work, dead tired or not, I'll lace up my shoes and go for a 6 K.
Now, I'm so pooped from work that sometimes I just laze on my sofa, doing nothing but watch the kids play from inside and wish somehow, magically, just maybe by watching my kids run around, I'll burn the extra calories as well.

When I run on the treadmill, my kids won't allow me to go for more that 40 minutes.
" We bored!" they'll say
" How can you run for so long and call that fun?" they'll poke.

And I'm caught in between.
But I'll always favor my children. I will always be on their side.
I guess that's the dilemma of a running mom.
You have to make sacrifices most of the time.

But I guess it's okay. I'm not training for anything big. I'll be lucky if I get a PB for any half marathon this year. It no big deal. A PB is nothing but a PB. You don't get a prize, you only get to gloat for a few months, tu pun kalau orang lain paham..
Contoh:
Cik Bedah: saya punya PB half adelah 2:06
orang lain: huh, lama nya hang lari

See?

Hurm, actually scratch everything I wrote above. Who am I kidding?
Actually, most of the time I don't miss the extra mileage. I just miss the eating-everything-without-gaining-an-ounce-of-weight part.
Ha.
That's more like it.
Baru bunyik cam JJ khennn?

saya harap anak dara saya tidak dressing macam di atas.

Right as Rain

2011-09-14T23:34:00.000+08:00

Hi.again.
Somebody commented recently that nobody ever really blogs regularly now 'cept for me and Diket.
If you can call blogging once a week as 'regular'.
So I'm wondering if anybody still reads this anyway.
Anyway, I replied that this comes naturally to me, I've been blogging since I was 17. On and off.
And then, I realized that statement made me look like a dork.

So what if I'm a dork?
Arf.
?

Anyway, since you're here, I guess I should tell you what happened at Taiping Heritage run.
Like I said earlier, ni run main-main punya. Letihan cam hampeh. Weekly mileage rarely exceed 20K. I just ran during Ramadhan to see how much weight I could lose.
2kg, by the way.
Which I easily gained back in 4 days during raya..
Hi.

So sebab lari main-main, makan pun pulun-pulun. Mind you, I usually watch what I eat pre -race. I stay away from food that will most likely make me feel funny during race. Tapi sebab main-main kan, the day before we went to an open house.
Makan.
Uuu, rendang kaler hijau. Apekah?
Makan. Makan.
Jemputla, kak. Ni rendang itik spesel.
Ha? Itik? Alamak. Dah selamat dah masuk perut. Redha je la.
Then pi rumah Ian.
Makan mii kari sedap. Mana-mana mi ngan kuey teow anak-anak aku tak habis, aku pulun.
Gelak-gelak. Makan-makan.
Balik rumah parents aku. Makan lagi atas niat carboloading.Late night plak tu.

Esoknya, my tummy don't feel so good. But ignored it.Amik air sembahyang siap-siap konon
Sampai race site, tummy agak memulas. Nampak port-a-potty. Ingat macam kat PBIM.
Bila masuk tadak air. Terus takdak selera. No1 je sempat, tu pon sebab ada air kat singki.
Did I mention hujan? Hujan mak oi.
Tapi biasa la tu, Tepen.
Amik air smayang ngan air hujan, first time.
Abis solat, simpan barang dalam keta, tetiba dengar orang dah flag off.
Semua orang lain dah lari, aku baru terhegeh-hegeh nak mula.
So we started at the back of the line.

So lari je la.
Route agak sama ngan tahun lepas.
But it was still raining. Best pe. Sejuk je.
Sambil lari sambil sembang ngan cik abang. Pok pek pok pek.
" Manyak pandai ooo," kata sorang uncle dari Penang ni. " Lu banyak tenaga lari oo"
I get this a lot from uncles.
Diorang encouragement memang tip top.
Padehal diorang lari terer,umor dah cecah 60'an and steady je potong aku.

Sampai Kamunting, lori banyaknya mak ai. Sekali dia lalu tepi, cam ribut.
Ingatkan U-turn kat Sekolah Bukit Jana, rupanya nak dekat sampai Changkat Larah nun (okay, I'm exaggerating)
On the other side, nampak Yim pakai baju trademark dia, Ray ngan kawan dia ( tak prasan plak sapa) pastu tetiba je Deo potong kami. Ni mesti dah 2 kali round.

So larilah lari ( cilok syed punya jap). La la la lu di du.
Sapa nak potong , potong la. Aku siap bagi, " Sila, sila"
Semua ok je, tapi bila 4K lagi nak habis, tetiba rasa adehh lemaunya.
Larian gila-gila santai, jadi gila-gila struggle plak.
Rasa cam nak jalan je. Tapi dah dekat. So lari la dalam kelembapan siput sedut.
Abang dan pakcik polis dok bagi encouragement, " sket je lagi, sket je lagi"
ada mamat rambut afro dok tepuk-tepuk tangan.
Luar aku sengeh, dalam,' otak hang aihhh"

Last-last abih jugak. Takdak la rasa nak pengsan tapi penat jugakla.
Cross je finishing line, nampak sorang pompuan dok senyum kat aku.
Rupa-rupanya my Oral Surgeon's wife, one of the head nurse in my department.
She was diagnosed with cancer last year and had just finished her course of chemotherapy.
" Hi, " I said, " Who are you waiting for?" Assuming anak dia dipaksa rela masuk race bajet budak sekolah.
" I've just finished racing, " she beams.
"What?"
" 10k " she smiled proudly .
And I'm baffled. That's so inspirational.
I tell almost everyone at work about it ( she's still on sick leave)
But everyone's more interested in asking if I won.
prffft.

Anyway, I ran it in 2:20. Finished 20th.
Wawasan 2020.
Medal besau, berat tak hengat.
Serius kalau libas mat rempit boleh mati.

Sekian terima kasih
p/s kali ni tadek gambar sebab
a) Wanwon lupa bawak balik kamera
b) gambar nak cilok dari orang pun nunjuk tudung kelepet

Huhu

Temporary Fix

2011-09-05T21:21:00.002+08:00

Malassssss..tolonggggg!
And still you guys keep coming here.
Thanks :)

You know what irony is?
Irony is a jar of lime green kelapa pandan cookies sitting next to the treadmill.
And I still can't figure out which one I'll choose.

My significant other has started his letihan. Seems that some others are on the bandwagon as well.
Argh you running nerds.
Huh.
Ack.
Erk.

Hmph.
Sorry, sugar withdrawal.

Okay, treadmill wins.
But I get ice cream afterwards, okay?
Today's running mantra will be " Almond pecan praline, almond pecan praline, almond pecan praline.."

padan muko

Cha Cha Cha..

2011-08-24T07:06:00.001+08:00

This is how technology savvy I am.

While running recently, my Garmin bleeped loudly and I glanced at the screen. The words scrolled,
" Low foot pod battery"

I looked at my husband,
" Darn, these things run on batteries?"
He rolled his eyes at me up to the point where I thought I heard eye ligaments snapping from their sockets.
" Course they do."

Huh, and all this while I thought they ran on the power of kinetics.

On another note, I'm posting the running route for Taiping Heritage Run's Half Marathon.
You know, just in case you're not one of Kevin Ooi's 4 million friends on FB ( kidding, boss..hehe)

Seems like we'll be running through Taiping and Kamunting right up to Bukit Jana. But don't be intimidated by the word bukit, cause it's mostly flat there. I'm guessing traffic control will be good. You don't have to worry about motorists in Taiping. They're mostly passive-aggressive or should I say aggressive-passive. They can cut into lanes and lines like nobody's business but nobody ever really cares. If you go through Taiping town, you'll see everyone cutting lines but nobody ever bothers to honk,really. Just as long as you give your signal or a hand wave, they'll politely let you go ahead. Kalau kita lambat jalan lepas lampu hijau pun, usually they'll just politely wait for you to go. Kalau ada kasi itu horn pun, most probably orang luaq la tu.

I plan to enjoy this race. No plans for any PB. I want to just enjoy the scenery and the crowd and just let go of any personal goals. Habis dalam 3 jam pun 3 jam la. I'm just using this race to run off the calories I'll take in during raya.
Training pun cam caca marba. Tak kuase la pulak nak treneng sungguh -sungguh bulan pose. Haha. I was singing a different tune pre-puasa kan? Cam aku kata la, plan baik punya..tapi execution? Hancuss..hehe.

Lagipun this raya is the time I want to pulun eating raya cookies. I'm a real kuih raya hantu.And it's the only time of the year where you get to pulun 20 cookies in one day and no one looks at you like you're a glutton.
Right?
Err....right?

Post-Call-Traumatic Stress Syndrome

2011-08-18T19:16:00.001+08:00

I think I've just encouraged some of my colleagues to sign themselves up for their first 5 K race.

Now if I can only pry my butt off this seat to run a decent 5 miler...err 5 K.

See, being in the fasting month doesn't mean you have to stop your postings, people.

Even if it is a useless entry.

Isn't this grotesque? It's so creepy to look at.

Killed off your appetite for that iftar watermelon, didn't it?

Bike -Yay, Rempit- Nay

2011-08-11T10:37:00.001+08:00

While I’m writing this, I’m trying not to doze off. I was called on an emergency case at 3.00-5.00 am this morning and as I was making my long drive back, terserempak la ngan budak rempit 5-6 ekor ni.

As far as I could see, I was a lone driver on the road. Just me and those rempit boys.

Dengan tetibe nya, one of them jumps on the seat of his bike and does a one legged stand stunt. Pastu diselang seli dengan aksi superman.

And I cursed. Mendentah. Nak tunjuk kat sapa aksi tu? No spectators, no crowd. If you ask me, I’m more impressed watching aksi kucing berdiri di FB ( yup, still not over that)

I stiff the urge to run them over. Kang susah-susah plak nak basuh keta. Pastu , if anything happens to their faces, I’ll still be the one oncall.

Why do they do this? Why risk getting a faceplant on the hard tarmac for nothing? What’s the thrill? I don’t get it. And I think, takbleh ke dari mensia-siakan bakat, they try their luck being professional stuntmen. Dapat gak duit. At least, if anything happens, ada jugak duit nak buat treatment. Kalau mati pun, ade gak insurans nak tinggal kat makbapak.

Ntahla, Labu. This needs more critical thinking.

Right now, I’m trying to stifle a yawn .

p/s Sorry, nothing interesting about running except I’ve done that 8 mile run on the treadmill and yesterday, I found out nothing beats going on a stationary bike for 30 minutes while watching tv and reading a paper simultaneously. I love multitasking.

But the but hurts.

Ke dia marah aku panggil dia kakak?

2011-08-04T13:42:00.001+08:00

Why I should reconsider boycotting PARAM ( pasar Ramadhan) this year :

Adegan 1 :
Di satu gerai jual kuih tu kan:
1 kuih = RM 0.30
Beli 3 kuih untuk RM 1
Mari! Mari!

Adegan 2 :
" Kak, bagi kerabu kacang botol ni dua ringgit"
The kakak takes 2 spoonful of kerabu and ties it in a plastic bag.
" Saya nak dua ringgit, kak"
" Ni la dua ringgit"

But what about on days when I'm too exhausted to cook?
Apa? Bukak posa dengan telur goreng je?

.............................
..................
..........
Baiklah.

Ke Sebab Aku Nampak Blur?

2011-07-26T22:16:00.001+08:00

So I went to this sporting goods outlet kan for no particular reason, just looking around with the possibility of buying something interesting and this budak salesperson started following me around.

Don't you hate it when they do that? I hate it especially after you've taken something from the rack and then put it back, they'll immediately try to rearrange it back even though you've put it back at EXACTLY the same spot and the same arrangement as it was before.
Annoying gile.

And some of them will follow you around without even saying anything. They just follow and watch you as if you're gonna stick that yoga mat up your pants and run away with it. Sheesh. Have some courtesy and let your customers shop in peace. We will ask for assistance when we feel the need to, dammit.

Back to my story kan, so this boy followed me.
I told him that I was just looking around.
He nodded, smiled and backed off. For 10 seconds. Then he was right back breathing down my neck.
So what the heck, he might just be a good salesperson, I thought.
" Erm, seluar ni takde pocket ke?" I said.
" Eh, mana ada poket. Ini seluar sukan, kak. Bukan seluar jalan-jalan,"
Ooooooooooo, yee keeee? Aku ingat guni tadi.

" Memang la seluar sukan, tapi bila saya lari, saya nak poket untuk boh kunci"
" Mana ada orang lari pakai kunci, kak"
Oooooo, yeee keeee? Abis bukak kereta dengan batu bata tepi jalan kot.

I sighed loudly. And went to take a look at the new line of running shoes.
" Is this the newest one out?"
"Itu kasut larian kak. Mahal. Kak try ni lagi cantik" Pushing a pair of hot pink aerobic trainers in my face.
Argh.

But not all of them are like this.
My best shopping experience was at a Brook's outlet at The Curve. The girl let us do all the looking around as long as we liked and she just sat there doing her inventory / accounts or whatever it was she was doing and only went to us when we called her. And she was especially friendly and nice and kinda know her sporting goods stuff.
They all should be like this. Respect your customer's privacy. Get to know the stuff you're pitching a sale for. If you work at a sporting goods store, then know your sports, know your products. Jangan hafal je skrip pastu bila kita tanya soalan advanced sket dah terkebil-kebil.

There was this other person at another store, when I asked her the price of some energy gels,she quickly took the gels from my hands
" Ini ambil untuk lari punya, bukan macam gula-gula untuk makan saja-saja."
Ooooooooo, yeeee keee? Aku ingat ubat gigi.

Here It Goes Again

2011-07-20T21:59:00.003+08:00

The thing is ( macam Shuk plak), WW's work schedule has once again changed. And due to this I can't do my weekday outdoor running as much as I'd like to anymore. No one to look after the kids la.

If this were to happen last year, I'd most probably freak out, or be a pain in the ass about it. But through time, I've accepted this as just another turn of the page and move on with it.

When I started racing two years ago, my short runs would be mostly on the treadmill. I could easily do an 8 miler on the treadmill without complaining much. Then when we moved to Taiping, I ran out more, enjoying the routes in our Taman. My treadmill soon collected dust and cobwebs and was just merely an ornament standing sadly in the corner.

Earlier this year, when I decided to go for shorter distances, I began to go back pounding on the darn machine. It squeaked here and there but it was still working good. And I began to think, this neglected dear little big machine is not so bad after all.

So here I am, back on the mill. Yes, sometimes it gets so boring pounding on and on looking at nothing but the digital screen and the blank wall ahead,that you feel like bashing your head repeatedly at the side bar to the rhythm of your steps, but I guess you gotta make do with what you have for the moment.

And I tell myself it ain't so bad, this is only temporary. This is only on weekdays. Come weekends, I'll be back on the road for my LSD. I tell myself, this is cool. I can run wearing anything. I can run at all times. I can run in any weather. And the fact that WW is promising me an LCD screen on the treadmill (kannn?) mengujakan saya lagi.

So the plan is, punch out at exactly 5pm (keje banyak boleh carry forward esok). Pick up the kids, let them enjoy some tv while I run. Then baru let them out outside to play at 6-ish. Malam baru dinner and homework and belajar and apapun lagi.

Untuk membuktikan keberkesanan dan kebolehpercayaan plan ini, I've signed myself for Taiping Heritage Half Marathon and Taiping International Marathon ( Half je la), which requires me to train solely on the treadmill during Ramadhan. I plan to somehow go for a 10 miler as my furtherest run on the ~~dread~~treadmill

Plan sikit punya bagus.. Execution ? Heh heh.

Know what? Pushing all theories aside, I am here to prove that I CAN improve my timing while training on a treadmill.
Tengokla nanti..hins hins ( dengan muka bertekad).

Flying dogs

2011-07-14T19:26:00.000+08:00

Okay, I have nothing interesting to say this week.

But, seriously, this is cool.

And more.

OK Go makes the best music videos.

That's all.
Have a great weekend.
Oh, wait. We got one more day to go.
Oh, well.

Participants WILL GET to the finishing line. Mengertik?

2011-07-04T20:46:00.003+08:00

I love this.
I went through Ipoh International Run's website a few days before the race and found out that they still didn't change their quirky directy-translated sentences in the Race Information section. Yim pointed this out last year. I guess they don't read blogs, Yim.

You can read it in full here.

I love these the most :
...
4.List and provide a 'running tag' estimate (?)
8. Participants will be tied up with wrist bands to confirm their participation in the competition.
9. Participant's emission's released by category .(prutttt)
10. While at the checkpoint, participants will be hanged by ribbons to confirm he has been through the right path (uish)
11. Participants will get to the finish line.(ada paham?!)
14. A formal report will be the winner. (yay!)

Hehe. Priceless.
See, tak payah bersusah payah pun. Siang-siang lagi dah bagitau korang akan diseksa dan korang takkan menang punya.

Anyway, after a week's course of antibiotics, 1 day MC and a whole week's rest, I decided to let this run be my recovery run. Just a 10 K. No pressure. No real aim of PB. No pacer ( WW had to do some field work). Just run as best as I could.
Same as last year, pagi-pagi lagi sampai dah dengar suara makcik ni shouting at people to get in their categories la, to stay at the field la, to get registered la. As annoying as it is, I had a good laugh.

Michelle Yeoh is supposedly the ambassador for Ipoh International Run. Cheyy , macam glamer je. But last I heard, she was deported from Mynmar so macam mustahil je tetiba ada kat Ipoh. Turns out, depa ni canang je dia ni duta bagai, tak janji pun dia nak ada kat situ. I guess, she's a bit nervous about being tied with ribbons in case she got on the wrong path. Hurm.

So some politician gunned us off. I didn't catch which because I wasn't paying attention.
So lari je la kan?
First half of the race, I was a bit careful with my pace, takut terkucil macam minggu lepas. But then it felt good. No cramps, no shortness of breath, no coughing. NO COUGHING!

And the best thing about running in Ipoh is it's familiarity. I know what's coming after each bend so I know when to floor it. Konon.
But as it is with other races, still ada brader-brader, pakcik-pakcik, abang-abang dan datuk-datuk yang tak bleh kalah, tak bleh blah langsung dengan pompuan. Adoyai, come on guys, it's not as if your privates will fall of if a girl overtakes you. Just let it be. We're all not going to win anyway. ~~A formal report will.~~
Sheesh..

Ok, so I didn't really monitor my pace a so I was quite surprised to see I finished at 56:36. My placing card showed that I was the 33rd female to cross the line.
Nampaknya saya masih belum tahap internasional dan hanya tahap Kg Kubu Gajah, Semanggol. Huhu.

Post race, I got to catch up with Yim, Deo and a few Cap Ayam runners. Sempat la enter prem cam-whoring ngan banner Cap Ayam walaupun saya bukan ahli ( lagi). Ntah kamera sape-sapentah. Tayang je muka.

Then, because I was too lazy to queue up for free drinks, I bought a mocha with whipped cream and totally blew off the 630 calories I burned.
Should I end that with Oh, crap or oh, well?

My Other Half ( SCKLM 2011)

2011-06-28T22:06:00.000+08:00

I'm really glad almost everyone enjoyed their SCKLM 2011 experience.
I hate to be a stick in the mud but it was horrible for me.
It's all about bad choices, bad timing and a big large dose of padan muka.

Oh, and I forgot to tell you the most important advice in a series of so-called-advices in my last post.
Listen to your body.
That's the one I failed to follow.

See, I had this terrible cough since a week and a half ago. Dah telan dah Bena Expectorant, Ubat Batuk Cap Ibu dan Anak, KK's Dephenhydramine Expectorant, macam-macam lah. I even tried a friend's petua of drinking really chilled coke- bad, bad advice.
I even had short bouts of chills and fatigue during the last week which I dismissed instantly cause I thought it was due to the sudden change of temperature from freaking cold in my clinic to scorching hot outside.
And by race eve, the cough was still there but I told myself it will get better and downed a few cups of hot tea.

WW also had a fever 2 days before the race. He was still on anti pyretics on Saturday and was contemplating on crashing the 10K run. Instead he got sucked into my dumbness and decided to run the half marathon anyway. Sayang duit punya pasal.

The weather that morning was superhot. Gile. Pukul 6 pagi pun humid sungguh. And it got worser when WW pulled me to the middle of the pack. Macam sardin. Belum start race pun ada bau -bau yang kurang best dari kiri dan kanan.
Then we were gunned off like cattles in a herd. And it felt like running in a sauna.Worser yet, in the first 3 K of the race, you have to weave in and out to avoid being sucked into the crowd.
By this time my nightmare started. I started coughing. Again and again. Every 5 minutes, I'd start hacking. You know the phenomenon when one starts coughing, others in the same crowd will start coughing too. Well, I could hear echoes of coughs after I started but when it all died down, I was still coughing.
And it hurt. My tummy ached. And I was in fear that something would get herniated.
My breathing got erratic. So was my pace. Kunun nak try to stick to a 9:30 min/mile pace- huh, hancuss.
Berangan saje la , labu.

I felt so tired, my legs felt jiggly, perut senak, peluh dingin.and it was only 5Kin the race. Orang lain nampak cam enjoy, aku muka cam nak terkucil.
As early as 7k in the race, I felt like giving up. I felt like, " Screw this." But I felt llike I was letting WW down. He was so eager running in front to get me to follow him. So I promised myself that I will not quit, not this early. And it's also only a half. Lagipun kalo berenti, pastu nak hala ke mana? Mampuih sesat. Heh Heh.

So I went on shuffling for it seemed like ages, only to come up to a distance marker showing 10.5K.
Argh. Gile frust.
And then my legs felt like they were on fire. Not in a good way. My calves and feet felt like they were burning up and every step I took was a hard stomp on the tarmac. Then, I got side stitches.
Heran betul, tak penah-penah time race kena side stitch.

Whatever I did to ease the coughing, got it worse. Pandang atas, terbatuk. Pandang bawah sangat terbatuk.
Minum, terbatuk. Lap sponge kat badan pun batuk-batuk.
There's this one time I thought I saw somebody I knew pass by and I called out his name but it only came out as ," Uhuk uhuk uhuk"
Tensen, beb.

The only time I smiled was when we saw Ian and his client and said hi, then everything went really downhill. For real.
The inclines of Bukit Bintang killed me. I was weak to the max. I remember running this route last year and I felt really energetic and good that time. This year, rasa cam nak quit pastu usha barang kat Low Yatt je.
And when the route went downhill, I thought I was in my element. I love downhills. But it didn't do me good. My pace was still erratic. My calves were still burning.

Nak jadi ceritakan, 1 mile to the end of the race,I felt so tired and hot, I couldn't go on running anymore. In fact, it go so hot, I began to see coloured flecks and spots. Right in front of Globe ( according to WW la- I don't remember this), I began to sway like I was on the verge of losing my balance. So WW asked me to stop and walk. Usually I would protest, but I was glad this time.
WW had to hold me to get me to walk upright. Bila dia lepas je, I would swerve involuntarily ke tempat lain.
Nampak cam lovey-dovey but seriously he was keeping me upright to avoid me collapsing onto the street.

Dia pujuk, lagi 500m je lagi. Aku sumpah seranah, bodo la diorang ni buat finishing chute jauh-jauh. Hehe.
Sampai je finishing line, WW called out , step on the mat, press the stop button on your Garmin. But I was in confusion, I saw lots of mats. I tired to run again, but was attacked by a sudden cramp on my right leg. Sakitnya yang amat.
Terpaksa berhenti . Kena sumpah seranah mamat ni. Best betul nasihat makan diri sendiri. Heh heh. Tapi sakit daaa, kalau ko cramp teruk cam tu ko pun berenti la, mangkuk.

I don't really remember the details as I crossed the line. Sedar-sedar je aku dah duduk atas kerusi. Aku ingat aku ada sembang ngan minah sorang ni. But I remember the conversation in bits and pieces. Then first aid volunteer came to me looking concerned. I remember she was very pretty. She took the trouble to get me a can of 100 plus and water.
I know by that time I looked like a mess. People passed by looking at me with concerned faces. To tell you the truth, I didn't have a clue what was happening. I was dizzy and every time I attempted to stand, I not only felt woozy and nauseous, but I also felt cramps creeping in both my legs. Then, my stomach acted out too. Cramp jugak.
So I went to lie down. Lantak la org nak tengok pun. The volunteers told me to put up my legs. Some other people came and asked if I was alright. I told them I was good, with a smile but I was really disoriented. When I sat up, I looked at my arms and they seem extraordinarily long. Then when I loosened my tudung, aku jadi lupa macamana nak lipat balik tudung and pasang balik kerongsang. I took off my specs and they seem really small. I looked at WW's hands and I thought I saw 4 fingers je on them.
" What?" he said, " What's wrong?"
And I couldn't answer. Instead I looked at my extra long ape arms and fiddled a few times with my tudung trying to figure out how to fasten the brooch.
Gile kelakar when I think about it now tapi at that time I was scared to death.

When I finally got a wee bit better to walk across the field and back to our parking in padang Merbok, I really hoped I didn't meet up with anyone. Mana la tau, kot-kot tengah sembang , aku sembang merapu ke, aku termuntah atas korang ke. So WW, who was now having chills from his unrecovered fever led the way. I wasn't really sure where exactly we were at the time.
On the way back, my feet kena cramps and buckled a couple of times. Then kami balik, mandi and tidor. Not before me downing 1 bottle of rootbeer and 1 bottle of Spritzer Pop.

I guess I got dehydrated. All the signs were there. Ingatkan WW je asyik kena. Heh Heh.
And I guess the batuk made it worse. Or was it the other way round.
Ntah la.
Anyhow I made it in 2:19 which I'm really thankful about.
But this is just luck. Next time, I'll listen to my body.

Tak best oo jadi bengong tak reti kelepet tudung sendiri.

From A Small Town Girl.

2011-06-23T22:37:00.003+08:00

Kak June dah buat dah entry pasal running a marathon. Diket pun dah gebang.
So aku rasa tak salah jugak aku nak tumpang eksited kat korang yang nak buat marathon SCKLM ni.

Ramai gak dok mai kat aku tanya aku buat full ke. Yang lebih cemerlang tanya aku, " Hang lari marathon berapa K?". Heh heh. Apapun jawapannya sama ja : Aku terjebak dalam half je. Tadek masa training la. Nak-nak bila anak-anak aku dah mula sekolah.

Tapi tu tak mematahkan kegigihan aku nak tulis entry ni untuk korang. Diket dah bagi tip cara dia. Bes jugak tip-tips dia bagi. So aku pun nak nyebok jugak la bagi tips

But what I'm conveying is more to my personal experience la. Ceh, pengalaman konon. Baru lari 2 marathon. Ptuii..

Anyway, this is all I can offer, small town -style.

Tapir
That's taper to the rest of you. I guess by now, you've done all your training, your LSDs, your speedwork and what nots. It's time to tapir. Jangan nak gatal lari tiap-tiap hari this week. It won't make you faster, it wont make it easier. Take it easy, ideally today should be your last run before the race. Do not try new exercise routines this week. Kot la, kat gym nun, diorang ajar the latest way to zumba ke, give it a polite pass Try to stiff the urge to increase the weights in your strength training. This week is a bad time for an new injury. Next week can la.
And on race day eve, please try to refrain yourself from walking too much at a shopping mall ke, expo ke, dll. Actually, this one's for me. Heh.

Carboloading
Makan nasik je! Nak cari pasta bagai. Kalau orang rumah tak reti masak spageti, satu hal la pulak nak perabih RM18.80 untuk makan spinggan spageti ciput kat kedai. Take it from us, rice is enough. Nak-nak kalau dapat nasi ayam. Pergh. Murah pun murah. Sedap pun sedap. FYI, one of Lance Armstrong's favorite carbo loading meal is rice and eggs. Okay, so he's not a runner but still..
But skip la on those sambals, tomyams and masak pedas. Angin yang keluar ikut belakang semasa berlari tidak boleh dianggap sebagai daya tujahan ke depan ok.

Race Day Attire
Basically to me, you can wear anything you're comfortable with. There's no rule saying you're obliged to wear the official running vest or shirt. Kami penah tanya masa jadi newbie at a race, " wajib ke pakai Race T ni?" Akak organizer tu cakap, " kalau kami cakap wajib, kang berdosa lak kalau tak pakai." Ok, noted.

There's also no rule saying you have to really wear those state of the art technical shirt or short/pants to be faster or to get your PB easier. All that needs proper, well planned training. If you've trained well, you can wear anything to get your PB
Don't save a recently purchased shirt or pants to try out at your marathon. A marathon is no place to start trying something new. Anything bad that can happen will happen. Who knows, maybe that sleek looking running tights might cause a major blister to God-knows-where. Or maybe that cute sports bra can graze the skin of your you-know-what.
And no, I've yet to find a dry fit tudung and anak tudung.So to all those tudung clad ladies, wear any tudung that fits you best and you're used to in your training runs. Tak kira la cap Wardina ke, Aryna ke. Aku pakai tudung cotton, tak pun bawal je. Tudung manik-manik labuchi simpan untuk makan kenduri.

Race Day
Arrive early to get a good parking place. Keep your I/C and some money wrapped in a clear plastic bag in your pocket. Don't leave anything valuable in your car. Kawaq-kawaq la ni dah pandai. Pi acara lari sambil pecah masuk keta orang. Memang tahap ungka.
If you have to do a no.1 or no2, or have the slightest feeling, do go. Especially when the lines aren't long.
Do whatever rituals you do prior a race. Kalau takde prerace ritual, toksah dok start skarang.
Make sure you have evrything in your pockets. If you don't have pockets, make sure you got everything fastened on your hydration belt ke, tucked in your sports bra ke, apa-apa je lah yang korang biasa buat taim LSD dulu.

If you're used to running with a bottle, I personally think it's better to do that in a marathon. Save you a lot of time from stopping at water stations. Lagipun, bila nak gulp je, you can gulp and not exhaust yourself wondering where the next water station is. Bila air habis, refill je kat water station or grab another bottle. Tapi kalau tak biasa, toksah dok start skarang.
Same goes with whatever energy gels or bar you're used to. Kalau selama ni telan satu brand gel ni taim LSD, jangan tetiba plak rasa nak tukar selera try gel brand lain taim marathon tu jugak. Ye la kan, takut perut tak serasi. Taim tu plak rasa cam nak terberi.
Personally I don't like gels. Or bars. They taste weird and chemical-ly. Unfortunately I never train myself to anything else pulak. I read before that Scott Jurek refuels with bean burritos during his long runs. Wah, alangkah syoknya kalau sambil lari refuel dengan karipap ke, ais krim ke. Wah, bestnya. Tapi mungkinkah makcik-makcik kepoh kat kampung akan mengadu kat mak aku mengatakan aku tidak senonoh semasa berlari. Dan, sekiranya ini terjadi, maka akan bertambah modallah mak ku untuk memperbaharui permohonannya untuk cucu ke 3.

Try to practice good racing ethics throughout the race. Smile whenever you can. Greet people if you feel up to it. If you feel great bu the 35th K, try not to annoy the walking zombies by rubbing it in their faces. Rather, give words of encouragement. "Looking good!" Just might do the trick. If they flash looks of daggers at you, try to hasten your pace. LARI!
To me, it's not a good idea to challenge somebody in a fast footrace in the early part of the marathon unless you're sure you can keep that pace throughout the whole race. Nanti pancit buat malu je. Beria potong orang tu, last-last kat KM 30 dia potong balik. Kalau hang potong sorang, ingat ada la 500 orang depan hang. Bukan nak menang pun. Not that I'm saying, it's not cool to pass other runners. You pass who you can pass. But do it with grace.

Again, end your race with grace. Don't be kiasu and try to block other passing runners 100m to the end of the line. Don't stop abruply. Don't swerve suddenly. What you do can affect another person's stride. Tak best la, syok-syok lari the whole distance, nak dekat habis kena sumpah seranah.
End your race with finesse. Smile at the cameras even if you feel horrible. Post race bila orang tengok gambar, depa bukan tau pun korang penat ke, cramp ke, nak pengsan ke apa. Janji nampak enjoy. Haha. And if you have a sudden surge of overwhelming emotions, do cry. Be in the moment. Bawl you eyes out. Be melodramatic. Feel lucky you felt this.
Me, I never had those feelings. I never had that meaningful finishing moment. Ake lebih sebak tengok TBL punya contestant finishing a marathon distance ride on a stationary bike. Serius air mata berderai tengok episod tu. At the end of my 2 marathons, the only feeling I had was relief. Sebab aku penat.
And I wonder why is this. Didn't I try hard enough? Didn't I give my best? Or is my heart calloused due to work related stress?

Apapun peeps especially FMVs, enjoy your first marathon. Anthing you achieve will be a glorious PB. Don't be surprised to see me clapping/ patting your back during the race if I happen to see you. I give you, full marathoners, my full support. You are truly super.

See you guys in SCKLM. I'm trying to convince my calloused heart to wear something in a girly color for a change.

Then again, maybe not.

***Oh yes, Good luck to all the Sundown 100K runners, Yim, Kak Kash ( I'm not sure if she even read blogs anymore), Ray, Zacky, Pui San and last but not least Zul ( who I'm not sure is running or not) All the best! ***

Alice in Wonderland

2011-06-14T21:59:00.001+08:00

Punya la gigih pi lari kat tasik petang tadi nak tangkap gambar ni untuk korang.

Ni la graffiti tercool aku penah tengok kat Tepeng ni. Ada kat salah satu gate sampah kat belakang Zoo Taiping.
Kalau lari keliling taman tasik sure mesti nampak punya.
Sangat epic dan harus menaikkan semangat bila langkah dah lintang pukang.
Tak tau la status dia halal ke haram tapi yang pastinya Majlis Bandaran tak padam lagi la.

Ini arnab sangat creepy tatkala berlari pukul 6 pagi.

Dan, aku baru teringat kenapa aku tak berapa gemar lari sorang-sorang kat tasik waktu petang. Banyak benor bunyik-bunyian dan sahut-sahutan yang tidak diundang.

And I'm not talking about the animals at the zoo.

RUN TPG

2011-06-13T21:14:00.001+08:00

I was truly looking forward to this race organized by KKM Perak which was supposed to be held tentatively on the 2nd of July in Taiping. I told my Matron to hand me the entry form the moment she gets her hands on it.
Tunggu punya tunggu , dah nak masuk mid June pun sepatah haram pun tak dapat lagi.

So last Friday, at a management meeting, dengan muka tak malunya I asked. What happened to Larian Kesihatan?
It's postponed to another date due to unavoidable circumstances.
Such as? I pressed.
Shrugs all around.

Then on Saturday, while reading a newspaper, I found out.
Nak buat acara Larian 1Murid 1Sukan 1Malaysia rupanya ( berrrapa banyak 1 daa)
A one mile dash involving school kids around the country. Peringkat kebangsaan will be held right here in Taiping. On the same date. Same location.
Some big shot politician will come clad in a sponsored windbreaker,trackbottom and sneakers and will shuffle/pretend to run-walk also lah.
And konon an attempt for a record apakebendantah will be made.

Ooo, padanla race kami ditolak ketepi kedebuk cam tu je.
Dush.

But it got me realizing for the 2nd time. Banyak pulak race in Taiping ni ek this year.
Taiping International Marathon la.(hmmm...)
Taiping Heritage Run la.( Yay!)
Larian 1Murid 1Sukan 1Malaysia la.(ha..)
Then my Larian Kesihatan la.(bila?)
Hui. Banyak betui. For a small town.

Kinda make me proud to be a so-called runner from Taiping.

So people, come September, do come and race here ya.
It's nice, and cool in the mornings. The scenery is beautiful. The food is still cheap ( comparatively la)
And best of all, we're here!
Haha.

But seriously now, jokes aside,the question is:
Can I pass as a student this 2nd July?

:) / :(

2011-06-09T22:19:00.000+08:00

This week has been, is and will be overwhelming.
If you want to read another posting about running, better skip to the next blog.

Last Saturday, my only brother got married. And I'm sad in a happy way and happy in a sad way.

My brother finally got it right. Found himself a nice sensible pretty girl to settle down with instead of the hags he dated before. But in a way, I feel like I'm losing a part of him.

You see, when I'm with my brother, it's like we're forever stuck in a time warp in which I'm always 10 and he will always be 5. We tease each other a lot. We play pranks on each other. I bully him and I guess just because I'm his big sister, he lets me get away with it ( most of the time).

When my husband got into the family, he thought we were weirdos. Macam budak-budak, he used to say. But he got used to it and now when I smack my brother occasionally on the forehead( and he smacks me back), hubs joins in laughing.
But now, if I go on like that, will my new sister think , " Is she mentally retarded?"

To me he will always be this way.

And then, 3 days after the wedding, my tokwan passed away. My only remaining grandparent.

He used to get sick before. Had serious heart problems. But he fought back attack after attack. Usually, a day after being discharged from the hospital, we'd find him chopping wood somewhere, or tending his chickens, or digging up something for his orchard ( despite my dad's protests)

A day before his demise, we even talked about fixing in new dentures when he gets well.

He loved reading. He read everything. I remember, if you buy the day's newspaper, you had better get your hands on it first before he did. He'd have it for ages. He read every article. Page by page. If you wait for your turn, he'd ignore you. Berjanggut la tunggu.

He loved his family. All 9 children. All 34 grandchildren. I don't even know how many great-grandchildren he had, but I truly believe he loved every single one of them.

He passed away 3 days after the wedding of his favorite grandson. How sad is that? Or is that supposed to be a happy ending?

Life is weird that way..

~~Worser yet, this week I'm on call. And it's only Thursday.~~

**Normal JJ will be back next week**

Fatigued

2011-05-30T22:33:00.000+08:00

Had a bad week in running last week.

A day after the Kuala Kangsar run, I caught a weird flu bug that left my nose runny especially at the office ( air cond sejuk sangat kot) and me feeling fatigued for 3 days.

On Tuesday, after I got home from work, I accidentally fell asleep at 6 pm and zonked out till 8 pm. Tu pun sebab my kids woke me up saying they were hungry. Alahai. Cooked my family some dinner, then went back snoring at 9.30.

On Thursday, still feeling out of the weather, but pushing it aside thinking that it's just me making up excuses, I ran on the treadmill for half an hour. Post run, I felt good but then later that night, had to telan a few panadols because I felt a fever coming.

The day after, ran again on the treadmill and announced to hub that I was okay to go for that 12 mile LSD on Saturday.

Saturday morning came, I was up early, excited to go.This time, we decided to run at at the Tasik. We figured, to complete a 12 mile run we need to go round the normal loop 6 times. If we use another hillier route, we can complete the 12 mile run in 4 loops.

I thought 4 loops seemed better than running 6 loops. And I better stop bitching about hills and do something about it.

So we ran. We went up inclines and hills 4 times. I got parched. I gulped down almost 3 litres of water. My quads hurt. My left toe hurt.

When Wan Won suggested to push for a 13th mile, I said," NO!"

I love running, but not that much.

After the run, mentally I felt wonderful. But I couldn't ignore the sores. My quads hurt every time I went down the stairs. Tu la, orang suruh training hills pelan-pelan, aku hantam buat sekali 4. Padan muka.

But on Sunday, I was back running 4 miles. I HAD to complete 4 days of training in a week. Sore or not, fatigued from flu or not, I picked my sorry ass up and ran. When I got home, I felt like I want to lay in bed all day and do absolutely nothing. And then, my sniffles came back.

So today, I rest. My quads don't hurt as much. My sniffles are almost gone. I feel almost normal.
I plan to rest for two days but who knows, maybe I'll run again tomorrow. ..

It's weird. I'm weird. I know.

Oh BTW, you guys read about the Taiping Marathon they plan to have this September?

It's too early to say anything and I'm nice enough not to judge but pleeeeeeease organizers, if you're reading this, open more categories please! I for one, who swears off marathoning this year, would happily do other shorter distances. But the Open Category is ONLY for 42K.

Ke you're suggesting, kalau nak lari shorter distances, hang join la Taiping Heritage Run seminggu sebelum tu.

Ntah, pekan kecik camni pun banyak plak acara larian ek? Tetibe.

Baibai

Larian Hari Keputeraan Sultan Azlan Shah Kuala Kangsar 2011 ( that's a mouthful..hins hins)

2011-05-24T21:24:00.003+08:00

I love this race.
I love it so much, I'll tell you again.
I. Love. This. Race.

They made everything easy.
Snap, snap, snap, done.
I wish all other races would be like this.

Last year, the Kuala Kangsar Double Bridge run was a small affair. I remember there were only 10 of us girls in the Women Open Category. They only had one water station and a truck would follow us runners with men standing at the back offering, " Water? water?" and hurled bottles if we agreed to some.

This year, initially I thought it'd be the same.
Tapi bila tengok guestlist di FB, wah, kemain lagi.

Picking up the bibs was hassle free. No lines, no glitches. They got my name right.
Perfect.

Race day morning, mak ai, ramainya umat.
It was nice seeing familiar running faces in a small town all together racing.
Blogger pun ramai. Cap Ayam pun ada. Not to mention the usual running people you see in FB.
Meriah woo.
Pastu buat aktiviti biasa la. Mingle mingle.

Starting line: Raja Nazrin was on time. On Time! I guess you're only fashionably late if you're a politician. Ha.
So he gunned us off with a smile. I'm not actually sure whether it was he who horned us off because I didn't actually see who held the air horn, but I can be certain I saw his face before the air horn went off . ( what a useless piece of information) .

Ok, let me tell you one thing. I was really sure that they were going to use last year's double bridge route. I mean, this is Kuala Kangsar. Small town. How many routes can they come up with?
I even took a picture of the running route but didn't even bother to look at it. But then again, I'm useless at map reading anyway.

Mari berjoget

Last year's route was flat like your grandmother's lempeng. But ladies and gentlemen, leave it to Pacesetters to actually find a HILLY route in small sweet Kuala Kangsar.
It's like , 'Give them hills, after that more hills. Make sure on top of those hills, got hills some more!."
Okay, I'm exaggerating. ~~You know how I hate hills~~.

They made us run up the new Kuala Kangsar bridge ( can't remember the name) two times. Then after a nice stroll in the pekan, they made us run up Bukit Chandan.We had to run up and up and up and up and the drums and gamelan that they nicely arranged by the side of the road synchronized with the pounding of our feet.

We ran up and around the Istana. I was looking up at one of its windows and imagined one of the royals pointing down at us and chucking, " Look at those idiots."
.

I had no major aim for this race. Like I said, participation was overwhelming and I see fast female runners all around. So what I planned for, was to maintain a 9:30 minute/mile pace throughout the race. Wan Won agreed once again to be a pacer as he was still a bit sore from the whole SASTIEC thing. I thought I could do this sebab ingat route cam lempeng kan?

Tapi bila itu hills mari, cam biasa la. Berterabur.

Pujuk hati ni. Relax. Jangan tensi tensi. Naik je.
Tapi penat wo.
Wan Won makin ke depan. Signalled me to follow.
Aku plak makin ke belakang.
Bila naik incline, mamat-mamat askar potong laju je.
Huish.

When we came back into town, I seriously thought the race would be over soon. But the kakak volunteer told us there was 3 K to go.
Longest 3K of my life.
Did I mention I felt bloated. Did I mention that I felt a flu coming a day before but blocked it somehow with my trusty antihistamines.
Well, that all came back to me in the final 3 K.

Pastu nak tambah best lagi, final 1K matahari keluar dengan sangat teriknya. Adoi.
Then I saw the Finishing line.I saw Yim with his green sarong from afar snapping pictures.
My husband said, if you can smile, you can definitely step up.
I smiled but my feet felt too malas to bukak langkah.
I felt, what's the use, it's not like I'll get podium ke hape.

I crossed the finishing line.
And the officials congratulated me.
Handed me a no 5 placing card.
Ha? Really?
Korang pikir, bosan la minah ni.
Balik-balik, tak sangka.
Tapi betul la, I was really surprised. Wan Won lagi teruk, siap cakap kuat-kuat, " Aik, betul ke?"

Tapi betul la kot. Dapat la jugak aku amik hadiah dari anak raja yang putih melepak tu. Isteri dia lawa woo. Korang mesti cair tengok. It's the closest we can get to Prince William and Kate Whats-her-face..
Okay, stop rolling your eyes.
Almost closest.

I seriously don't remember smiling that wide

Nice, huh? I think it's pewter. Heavy as hell.

Tapi best la race ni. Bukan sebab aku dapat hadiah. It was genuinely one of the best organized races I've ever participated in.
After race food and drinks were aplenty. Goodie bag collection went smoothly and prize giving ceremony was done really fast and early. Not to mention the good company.

Gambar senget-senget ngan Pui San mesti ada.

With Speedy Doris. She got No 8 in her category but she was 4 minutes faster than me.

Shows how fast the girls in Jr Veteran and Veteran categories are. Wow.

With Yin but no Milo Ais..heh heh.

I went straight up to Kak Ida Izumi and told her I loved the race ( she was part of the organizing committee)

Best thing was : A finisher's shirt! Brooks!

And I have no idea how they managed to pull all that off with only RM35 running fee.
Congrats Pacesetters! You guys are the best - except for your hilly routes.

Tapi hari ni saya tak lari lagi. Saya demam dan tersumbat hidung. Saya rasa tak larat nak bekerja.
Bila rawat pesakit, saya akan berbunyi syrott syrott.
Gross kan?
(Nasib baik saya pakai mask)

Sekian.

Untung 3333%

2011-05-19T22:23:00.003+08:00

My turn. My turn.
Although a bit stale.

I had to do some running last weekend. Can't waste a weekeng doing nothing when I'm in the middle of training.
Miraculously, we found out about a small run in Parit Buntar the same weekend of hub's race and I thought,'What the heck".
And the entry fee murah gile. RM 3 beb. Skarang beli nasik bungkus kadang-kadang 3 ringgit pun tak lepas.

So that morning, I arrived at 6.30 am because the poster said that they'll start at 7.00. Tapi tarak sapa maa..So I waited in the car and contemplated on trying to aim for one of its limited medals . I thought, it's a small race, in a little town- tak ramai orang kot. But as I was thinking this, I saw 2 cars pulled in full of runners from the Nibong Tebal Running Club. Hah, there goes any hope for a medal.

Reporting started actually at 7:10-ish. Aisey, ramai pulak dalam kategori Women's Open. Dalam 50 lebih ada kot. Ingatkan tak sampai 10 orang. But hey, it's a 3 ringgit race kan? Sape tak nak masuk?

Lepas reporting, kena paksa buat senamrobik pulak. Biasa la, program sukan gomen. Kalau takdak senamrobik tak sah. This time, they called it senam seni. Ada stail joget la, ada buat kuda-kuda silat la. Layan je beb.

But I really thought it'll be like only for 10 minutes because by the time the senamrobik started , it was already 7:40. Rupa-rupanya, depa bantai sampai almost 30-40 minutes, and we were all roasted already.

Finally, they let off the under 12 category. And that was already 8 something. The MC happily announced that other categories will be let off after these kids come back from their run. Huh. Pukul berapa tu? 10?

Long story short, women and men's open were gunned off at 8:40 am.
Yup.
Lapan empat puluh.
Panas. Terik. Silau.
Lari against the sun.

My first thought, get it over with quickly.
Serius panas.
4K ( je) feels like 12K.
Tambah budak-budak sekolah suka benar brek mengejut. Panas hati beb.

Women/Men's open kena lajak sket and make a u turn at a roundabout. I saw a few men coming back, but no women. Eh? Ke aku silap route?
At one point, the traffic was so heavy, I couldn't see anybody in front and can't look back, so I didn't know where to go, so I was like calling out to the Police guy, " Encik, mana, mana?"

When I came to Parit Buntar's famous clock tower, I knew I was almost near the finishing line. Bukak langkah la beb sebab nak menyelamatkan diri dari terus dimasak. I swear, these transition lenses are the best investment I've ever made for running but if I get tanned, they'll leave white circles around my eyes and I feel like a gibbon.

Sampai end of a line, an indian boy called out," Cikgu, cikgu! Ambik ini nombo."
Cikgu?
Bolehlah.
Selamat hari guru.

And I won.
Biar betik kan? - korang pikir.
Aku pun pikir cenggitu.

Dapat RM100.
Untung beb.
Lepas race dapat air mineral ngan free breakfast lagi.
Not to mention a nice, heavy coloured medal.

very karerful.

I'm one happy gibbon.
Uk uk uk.

Ternyahhidrat

2011-05-16T21:52:00.005+08:00

Cemana nak mula ekk..?

Let me just say that it's the toughest run I've ever done (yet). If I can call it a run la. Sebenarnya, rasanya part yang aku lari tak sampai 1 kilometer kot. Serius tak tipu.

Meh nak cerita dari awal. Aku sebenarnya join buat jiwa murni kat Tioman nu sempena event SASTIEC 2011 ni gak la. Pegi Tioman naik kapal navy dari Tanjung Gelang. So alang-alang join tu, masuk la skali race ni. Kalau ikut website yang tak siap tu, katanya dalam 30K la, which is about 18 miles. Cut off time dia bagi 7 jam. I thought it was very doable, and I was going to treat the event as my LSD. Really taking it easy.

So my plan (or lack of it) was therefore very simple. Just bring a bottle of plain water, with some energy (in the form of cloud9 and a roti krim jagung) in my left pocket. Poket kanan ada sunglasses and a ziploc bag containing a few plasters and my phone. Slow run along the trail and refuel along the water points. Hey, I survived longer distances using that trick, so it can't fail right?

Wrong.

My buddies had already recce'd the race route (they were part of the medical support team). And some of them had to stay overnights (!) at the checkpoints due to the rough terrain.They'd already warned that the route is tough. But I thought.. "It's OK kot.. It will be just like a trail run with rolling hills. Lagipun ramai weekend warriors join mende ni. Takkan la diorang nak buat susah sangat kot. It will be just like a simple trail run." Anyway, I was already there, it's really too late to do anything about it.

But I forgot a tiny detail. Askar yang pegi tebas trail tu. I should've known better. Memang takde ampun maap punya.

Kat starting point tu jumpa la Yim ngan Ray. Itu je la yang aku kenal nama pun sebab pernah sembang sebelum ni. Runner lain biasa la tengok muka tapi nama tak tau. JJ mungkin tau la kot. Plan pun sama. Just to complete the thing in one piece. Flag off je.. mula la berlari. Aku memang stick to the plan la. Rilek-rilek duluuu.. Yang lain banyak gak aku tengok take off berdesup laju depan aku. It's either they're really good, or they didn't know what's gonna happen. I guess for most of them, probably it's the latter. Aku pun lari le ngan sebotol air kat tangan, pastu standby roti ngan cloud9 tu dalam poket. Tak sampai satu kilometer pun lari, dah masuk hutan dah. And the torture began.

Masuk je trail tu terus panjat bukit. Memang singletrack punya. takde ruang sangat pun nak selisih. Merangkak la naik atas tu. And it went on and on and on and on.. The thing was, the terrain was slippery (wearing the wrong kind of shoes did not help at all), I had to grab onto something when scrambling up and sliding down. More often than not, I grabbed hold of the thorny pokok nibong and akar rotan. The next scene after that was me imitating Wile E. Coyote plucking out the inches long thorns out of my palms. Yang kecik-kecik tu are still embedded in my palms at this time of typing. Kejap lagi kot baru nak cungkil ngan pin.

Oh, and my water bottle? I had to hold it between my teeth during the intense ascending and descending maneuvers.

Hot and humid conditions made me sweat a lot. So instead of drinking every twenty minutes as per my initial plan, I gulped every 5 minutes or so. The first checkpoint was A1, which was also a water point. The marshals manning the checkpoint distributed a bottle of drinking water per person. With a very specific instruction: Ration the water and keep the bottle, the next water point was a long way to go. I guess very few followed it as a lot of bottles were discarded not very far along the route towards A2.

Walking towards A2 was more climbing, more scrambling, more thorns, more rock hopping, more tripping, more of everything other than easy. One woman asked me if I had any plasters with me. It happened that she stubbed her toe and had some bleeding. I happily gave her two strips of plasters and went on my way. So far I felt okay-ish, but water supply was running real low. I hoped A2 will have a water point. It had one alright, except you had to refill yourself at the nearby stream. We were told during the race briefing that the water is safe to drink so I had no hesitation at all. What other choice did I have anyway?

It was at the stream where I bumped into Yim and his friend. Cramp started to set in and I had to stop a few times to sit down and let the feeling pass. Yim took the opportunity to snap photos of me and asked how I was doing. Seeing that I had only plain water, he offered a packet of ORS and his friend gave half a gel. Thank you guys very much! Yim's friend, sorry I didn't catch your name but you're my friend all the same.

During the river water drinking and the hike between A2 and A3 where I had to jam and squeeze myself through the rocky sections, scenes from the pages of Ralston's book flashed in my mind. I'd seen the movie too, so it made the visualisations really easy. I used a lot of 'chimneying' technique described in the book, as my shoes provided no traction at all. Kengkadang rasa cam Jackie Chan pun ada. Anything to distract my mind. This section was where I ate my cloud9.

A3 towards B1 was done in zombie mode. My arms and legs were a mess. Calar-balar. Palms full of holes. Most of time I was alone, with just the route markers guiding my way. Dehydration effects really made its presence felt. Kat sini makan roti separuh tapi minum kena jimat sebab air dah tinggal sikit gila. Kena berenti every 10 minutes sebab cramp. Glancing at my watch, it showed that I had barely covered 10K (6.2 miles) in almost 4 hours. Karut ni.

The strategy changed from finishing to just to make it to B1 and see how I feel there. Jalan punya jalan, panjat punya panjat, golek punya golek.. sampai la B1. Really disappointed when it looked like B1 was just a checkpoint, and that was it. No water, no nothing. Sambung la jalan..

Less than 50 meters past B1, I felt lightheaded. Relaxed for a few minutes and during this time I reached into my right pocket for my phone in the ziploc bag. Sekali itu ziploc bag sudah masuk air peluh derr. Lingkup tepon aku. Sunglasses pon patah sebelah tangkai. Morale memang down gila masa tu. I glanced at my watch again. It had been slightly over 4 hours, and I was nowhere near halfway done. It's impossible to finish the race before the 7 hours cut off time. No point in risking my life over this. Logic said that I should let this one go.

Went back to B1 feeling lightheaded and nauseous. Told the marshals there that I'm done. Waited there for some time and soon there were about 7-8 other runners there throwing the towel too. Met a hardcore bomba guy who cracked his ankle. Seems like he used to do adventure races like this a lot. Also met a vet named Erni (I think) who sprained her left shoulder or something, and a barbed twig got caught in her hair.

From B1, we were shown the escape route towards Jeti Genting pastu naik bot bomba balik Jeti Berjaya ke start/finish area. So that was it. 6.65 miles done in 4 hours, 11 minutes and 6 seconds.

Got my arms cleaned at the medical tent there. Kaki melecet sebab pakai kasut masa race, sebelum ni dah lama gak lari barefoot. Lepas sembang dan minum air lebih kurang, went back to my room and took a bath. The soap stinged my open wounds but at least I was freshened up. Solat and then try tido. Except I couldn't.

I vomited. Went out to borrow a buddy's phone and called JJ describing my DNF situation report. She was worried because I cannot be contacted. Nak contact cemana, telepon dah lingkup. On the way back to my room. I threw up again on the grass.

I called the medical team's room requesting for a normal saline drip. An IV line was set up. And then I vomited. Again. Some minutes passed, and I vomited for the last time. Dr Zaki came over to see my condition and we talked for some time. Penat ooo muntah banyak-banyak kali ni. Nak sembang pun tak larat sangat pastu aku tido le. Akhirnya.

Esok pagi bila bangun, alhamdulillah, I felt better. Rupanya sudah 3 botol air masuk daa.. 1 normal saline, 2 lagik glucose 5%. Patut la kenyang.. Rasa pahit tekak ada lagi, tapi tadek rasa nak muntah la. Pagi tu belasah gak 1 nasik lemak bungkus. pastu lagi 1 nasik lemak boh dalam pinggan makan kat kedai sementara tunggu kapal kat jeti. Balik naik kapal APMM pegi Tanjung Gemuk.

Come to think about it, this was my third time dealing with dehydration issues. Memula kat ENR 2010, muntah. Pastu kat PBIM 2010, muntah gak. Pastu kat sini, yang paling teruk la sebab siap masuk IV drip. Tak belajar-belajar lagi.. ekeke.. Yang tak muntah waktu PBIM 2009 je, tapi tu siap ITBS pastu lutut kong dalam sebulan lebih.

Tips for weekend warriors attempting this next time:
- Don't assume. I underestimated this thing and paid the price for it.
- Start trail running. Actually, this is not your usual wide open trail through the woods. Think of it as bushwhacking but without the parangs.
- You have to do hill training. Even after you think you've done enough hills, do more hills. Hills hills hills. Without training on hills, this race will trash your quads faster than you can say "quads".
- Wear gloves.
- Long sleeves and pants if possible.
- Wear proper socks and shoes. Trail shoes. Not aqua shoes sans socks like what yours truly wore.
- Plan for hydration and nutrition. Self-sufficiency is the key here. Carry them during your training runs.

Itu la dianya..

-wan won-

L

2011-05-10T19:33:00.006+08:00

Just to share.
I went running this evening. The weather has been bad these past few weeks for running outside after work, but today somehow the sun wasn't so cruel and gave way to the clouds.
During my 3rd mile, I heard a call from some random guy at the side of the road,

" Oi, saiz macam tu pun nak jogging lagi."

Okay, I may act like a tough cookie, but underneath all the logic and practicality, deep down inside, a part of me is still that insecure teenage girl and even just for a fraction of a second, sometimes I do ponder over useless comments like that.

And I think it could either be interpreted into 3 things:

I'm too skinny for running
I'm too fat for running
I'm too old for running

But like I said, this was only for a millisecond. Because after that, for all that matters, I'm running.
And I feel sorry for the guy because he just doesn't get it.

no captions needed

Swim, Bike, Run and Eat

2011-05-05T19:23:00.000+08:00

Not particularly in that order.

Swim
Hah. Not me. Bertuah. The kids. We went on a short holiday in a resort by the beach in Penang. At first I wanted to expose them to mandi laut. But the beach wasn't the way I pictured in my mind. The water was murky and the waves were crazy. So we went to plan B.

Yup, clothes and all. No worries, everybody there jumped in the pool like this.

Cool.

Bike

Again, not me. Just saw the guys from the Interstate Ride passing by my kampung before we went for our Penang trip. I even rolled down my car window and went , " Yay, Interstate!" to one of the solo riders, who looked at me like I'm a loony bin.

Yay, Interstate. ( Takat yay je la, nak join kirim salam.)

Run

Me. Me. Usual story about running. Bla bla bla.

Building up my mileage for SCKLM. Trying to reach a certain goal. Am really worried that my training won't be enough. Last Saturday baru buat 8 miles. Ni dah masuk May. Sempat ke ni? Hoih.

Eat

Haa.. yang ni paling best. Bes ooo makan.

We googled some recommended places to eat in Penang. Yo yo je. There was this website about great eating places in Penang. Kami pun bulat-bulat la percaya.

For dinner we went to this mee place. Website gave them 9/10 in flavor. Their specialty was mee kuah ayam. So we ordered that along with mee goreng ayam and mee goreng extra pedas.

But it's either orang buat website tu tak reti rasa makanan, or they were out of cili boh, or they changed their cook.

Tak. Sedap.Pun.

Malas la nak boh nama kedai apa sebab pakcik and makcik jaga kedai tu sangat baik.

Eleh, tak sedap pun abis jugak. Choih.

Tak puas hati punya pasal, we went to another place this website recommended. Konon best nasi lemak ayam in Penang, sanggup kami dinner 2 kali.

This one was a bit better. Tapi not the best in Penang definitely.

Pembuat website tu kan, baik tutup je fooodie's blog dia tu. Tekak tak best langsung.

Pastu kan, we thought about having dinner the 3rd time later that night at Nasi Kandar Beratoq. But kesian the kids la, I heard that you have to put up with a long queue (hence the name) before you get your nasi kandar. Plus it opens a bit too late.

Next time, Gadget. Next time.

The next day, we went out early to get our nasi kandar breakfast at Kampung Melayu. We felt a bit guilty watching Penang runners doing their LSD loop near our resort. Rasa cam nak lari je.

Not.

Sebab ni lagi best. Heh heh.

Ok, itu sudah crita basi. Today is already Thursday.

Back to square one.

Bidor Half Marathon/ Err...10K.

2011-04-26T18:33:00.000+08:00

Uhh..sebenarnya aku taktau nak tulis apa.
Lepas race berkobar-kobar nak tulis, pastu dok buat itu dan ini, last-last idea kering ma.

Uhh, taram je la.
Ohh yee, I really would like to thank Mr Koo, who I guess is the main organizer for Bidor Half Marathon. There were some glitch to our infos in their database and we did not receive the mailed in receipts. He took the time to sms us and even personally called me to make the corrections.He even made my bro in law's last minute entry possible.
I know I've thanked you many times, but here's another one. Thanks Mr Koo. You rock.

So again we pledged ourselves to Bidor. I'm reminded of last year's treacherous 21K. Did I ever mention I hate hills? I did? Well, I'll say it anyway. I hate hills. I don't do hills. I hate it so much that I don't train on hills. Even if I'm super slow on hills. Which is why this year we chose to run the 10K. Bidor's route to me goes up, up, up and although what goes up must come down, I only notice the up part and it's pretty painful.
And considering the half marathon starts at 7.00 am ( which is a pretty late start for a half marathon), I estimated that I will still be running at 9.00 am. Ouch! Paneh la yeop.
Ngengada kan saya?

So this time round, we were joined by Din, Wan Won's brother. This was his second 10K race and we hoped it would be minus the whole fainting-ambulance fiasco. And by golly, he did well. Paced him self pretty good and finished a good 2 minutes before me.

I told myself, I have to get this sub 1 hour. Dah banyak kali cuba dah ni, asik sipi-sipi je dan bukan sap sap sui. So I ~~paksa~~ convinced my other half to be my pacer/motivator/beg coach/teman lari instead of getting his sub 50 mins.

So at 7:00 ( ikut jam saye), they gunned off the race. Syok punya lari, pacing macam bagus tetibe nampak the first incline. Alamak! Takpe, naik je. Shorter strides, swifter movements, bla bla bla prong prang prong prang. By the time we reached incline yang kaw-kaw punya, hah! hamik kau, semua dah berterabur. Aku la. Orang lain relax je.

Aku ni, kalau dah tak larat, mula la nak cranky. Wan Won was getting me to hasten my pace. " Up, up, up" he went. And I'm like, " Shut up, shut up, shut up".

Bila nak kat U-turn kat kampung orang asli tu, legaaaa . Sebabnya? Downhill! Downhill suka la. Time ni la nak zupzap semua uncle-uncle dan those will knee problems. So we went flying downhill.
Tetapi tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, nak dekat last 2 Km tu, ada satu lagi jambatan apantah kena panjat. By this time, some people were starting to walk. I managed to push through.

Last mile, I really wanted to slow down, but my husband was really taunting me. I know he meant well, but he was really getting on my nerves. He kept running backwards, facing me and saying, " Go, go, go" to my face.So at one point I said, " Oh my God, you're so irritating ".
He stared at me straight in the eye, gritted his teeth and said, " You will get this sub 60 (mins)" . Puh, drama.

And I did. I pushed and I got 56 mins. On the dot. Ingatkan kalau sekor mamat sesat ni tak silap masuk lane Women Open (J) dan patah balik masuk lane dia yang menyebabkan aku terpaksa brek sekejap dan memberi dia laluan agar kami tak eksiden, boleh kot abis dalam 55:5something something. Haha, tapi apakan daya, 56 is good enough kot.

Tetibe deme bagi aku kad gantung no 7. Hek? Really? Comfirm tak ramai orang masuk race ni.

Okay, kalau taim lain aku syok gile naik podium (no 7 pun kira naik podium la jugak ok). Tapi this time, I really had to get back to my parents' early. They had some business to attend to at 11, so I kinda promised them I'd be back to pick up the kids at 10. Ni dah naik podium sah-sah pukul 10 baru balik. Tu la sebabnya, incik-incik dan cik adik manis nampak saya macam kucing nak beranak dok round-round dekat area pentas. Kononnya dengan menepek muka kat situ, organizers dapat mencepatkan proses pemberian hadiah. Ntah apa punya teori ntah. Ternyata teori aku fail.

With Ray ( vroom) and Deo ( ngiuuuu).

Tapi dengan menepek muka disitu dapat jugak terserempak ngan membe RBU's and muka-muka familiar larian. Wendy, Deo ( nama cheetah tak best la-pocket rocket's more like it), Ray, Lily dll. Orang lain mungkin aku tak perasan atau masa tu aku sangat runsing memikirkan bilalah depa nak bagi hadiah memandangkan aku kena gerak dan sampai Taiping (? which is 2 hours away) by 11 am.
Tunggu punya tunggu, tepek punya tepek, last2 hadiah diberi pukul 10. Tu pun lepas 2 orang winner kena disqualifed sebab tak lapor diri. Agaknya selalu sangat dah kot dapat hadiah sampai tak heran dah diorang nih.

My trophy. It's been 14 years since I got my last trophy

Some people signed immediately for IIR 2011. Nah! Punyala nak tunjuk betapa internationalnya race ini : penuh ngan gambar omputeh. Fuyoo.

Anyway, despite my personal drama, Bidor was a nicely organized race. I highly recommend it. Except to people who hate hills.
But as I always stress out: Choose your races, people. And not let the race choose you.
Whatever that means.

Have a great Labour's Day weekend. I, for one, really need this break. Al-maklumlah, tetiap hari keje cam buruh. Huhu.

Sengal Weekend

2011-04-11T20:03:00.000+08:00

Last weekend started out with my first race of 2011..tu dia tu dia..kebasian yang hakiki.
And it was just a mere almost 3K race. Tapi okla, because I managed to run a good steady pace despite having major stomach issues which made me almost want to squat and do some unthinkable stuff by the side of the road.
My 8:35 minute/mile pace ( which is considered good by my standards la- orang lain yang think ," Chih, lame" , sila sheddap) got me 2nd place, still unable to beat the same girl who beat me in a KKM run in Manjung 2 years ago. But then, 2 years ago she beat me by a minute. Yesterday, I was just 5 seconds away.
And she has a coach! ( she told me). Saya beg Coach pun tadek.

Tadaa!

Seminggu tak payah bagi budak-budak makan

I also got a hamper and cash money. Because of my malas-ness to snap pictures, take out your wallet and fish out an RM 50 note. Ada iras-iras my prize money.
Cukup le bayor balik tol ngan duit minyok ke Ipoh, yeop.

Anyway, after the race, me, the hub and kids went for a major makan-makan fest. Ayam gojeng, nasik lemak, karipap, kuih lapis banana, keria, tea, milo ais, oh my.
Sambung balik dengan lunch at Taiping with Pakcik Ronel Mekdonel. Pastu dessert with the blocks of cheesecake hub got me from his recent trip.

Walaupun nampak lemau, these cheese layer cakes are DELICIOUS!!

Buat penat lari je daaa..

So that evening, while accompanying hubs completing his run at a nearby Rakan Muda complex, I coaxed the kids to complete a 1K run with me around the park's loop. The kids ran and ran but almost halfway, my little girl stopped , having a coughing fit. So yours truly gave her a piggyback ride dan jeng jeng jeng, dengan bijak bistarinya ran all the way with the extra 13kg on my back.
Then genius here decided to impress her children by climbing up the climbing wall at the complex. Konon terer la. Almost halfway up, I remembered suddenly of my fear of heights and almost had a panic attack figuring how to climb down. Turun punya turun, 1 meter from the bottom I lost my footing and had to jump all the way down.
Kedebuk, macam nangka da.

The next day, still delirious from my race, I decided to go for a 10K run. Even though my body was aching from the race + piggyback run + wall climbing gedebuk, I was still sengal for a run.
So I went running.
Sungguh best.
Until this morning. Wah , aching muscles all over.
Padan muko, sengal.

Sekian cerita saya untuk hari ni.

Gigih!

2011-03-30T21:24:00.000+08:00

Gigih!
Tu komen membe-membe bukan pelari aku bila aku bagitau depa aku lari atas treadmill.
" Gigihnya hang menapak atas benda alah tu lebih dari setengah jam!"

Aku rasa tu tak gigh lagi. Alah! Peserta The Biggest Loser lagi selamba berlari atas treadmill lagi lama dari tu sambil membuat aksi juggle diselang seli somersault.
Gigih lagi korang semua yang lari beraun-raun taim Twilight Ultramarathon Challenge kat Singapore baru-baru nih ( Zaki, Yim, Kak Kash among others). Puh! Aku takbleh imagine cemana korang buat. Mental woo nak pusing-pusing camtu sampai 100K. Mak aih, gigih betoi. Tahniah dari aku. Serius cakap, aku tak mampu nak buat.

Tapi yang super duper crite paling gigih aku penah dengar ialah dari sahabat aku, Incik Solja. Incik Solja ni bekerja sebagai Mat Tiarap ( panggilan manje untuk askar). Dalam bidang kerja Incik Solja, dia kadang-kadang terpaksa dihantar untuk membuat khidmat bakti di hutan-hutan.

Ada sekali tu, Incik Solja dihantar untuk selama seminggu ke hutan untuk memberi khidmat bakti kepada orang-orang asli di sana. Sebagai pelari tegar, Incik Solja seperti cacing kepanasan kerana tidak dapat lari. Untuk menyelesaikan masalah ini, Incik Solja akan bangun pada waktu yang sangat pagi selepas subuh dan akan berlari trail di dalam hutan selama sejam sampai naik matahari. Hutan ye kawan-kawan, bukan trail run seperti di taman-taman rekriasi.
Setelah hari keempat dia berlari, adalah seorang membe dia tegor,
" Ko lari-lari tengah gelap tak terserempak ngan Pak Belang ke?"
Incik solja sangat inosen. Dia padang membe dia dengan wajah blur.
" Ko tau tak semalam kat trail ko lari, kami jumpa tapak harimau. Taik gajah pun ada"
Mulai hari itu, Incik Solja lari keliling padang sekolah orang asli sahaja.

Incik Solja masih lagi gigih. Baru-baru ini Incik Solja dihantar ke satu negeri seberang laut untuk memberi khidmatnya. Yelah kan, pilihanraya di negeri itu semakin dekat dan usaha-usaha membeli jiwa perlu dipertingkatkan.
Incik Solja diarahkan ke sana dan kemari ke kampung-kampung dan lokasi di ulu banat di mana dia kesukaran untuk mencari tempat berlari. Oleh kerana sekali lagi dia seperti cacing kepanasan, dia begitu gigih berlari sekeliling padang sebesar padang netball di kampung tersebut. Untuk larian sejauh 5 mile, Incik Solja terpaksa membuat larian berpusing-pusing sekeliling padang tersebut selama 90 round. Yaa adik-adik. 90 round.

Tak ke gile keje nya tu?
Agaknya orang pribumi di situ tertanya-tanya, " Ko pehal mamat?"

Apapun, aku sangat salute Incik Solja.
Sangat, yang amat gigih.
Lu memang hero.

Unforeseen Circumstances ( Konon)

2011-03-23T22:25:00.000+08:00

Ha Ha Hampeh No 1:

Due to a recent allergic reaction, my dermatologist advised me to go on a vegetarian diet for 2 weeks to rule out the cause. He suspected that it was something I ate.
Okay, if he told me to do this last year, when I was training gila-gila untuk my marathons, when I was at my fittest level, when I was a health freak, I would gladly comply without the slightest hesitation. But on that day, in the doctor's room, I was like, " Err..."
But I wanted to be a good patient. And I wanted my condition to get better. So it all went well, for like a week. Until last weekend, on an unplanned trip to Bangi, to an 'unplanned' visit to my favorite restaurant there.
Jeng jeng jeng

Nah ko!

Hambik!

Rasakan!

Dush!

Mana tahan beb!

Ha Ha Hampeh

Guess I have to reschedule that appointment for about a week.

Ha Ha Hampeh no2

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, me and hub will not be able to make it for our beloved Malakoff Run in Penang this coming weekend. And to think I was so looking forward to running against the sea breeze and killing myself over the steep hill at the end of the course. I will however pick up our race kits in Penang on Saturday sometime in the afternoon . Rugi woo, bayar mahal-mahal. Hey, at least we'll get the shirt and the personalized bibs. My dad tried to convince me to go by myself to the run on Sunday, but I don't trust myself driving in Penang traffic. Even if it's 5 in the morning.

Ha Ha Hampeh.

Ha Ha Hampeh no 3

After all the hampeh-ness, watching this made me laugh till I cried.

Okay, so if THAT didn't make you laugh, I don't know what will.

Your Pace/ Run happy

2011-03-15T19:50:00.000+08:00

First of all, thanks all for your birthday wishes. I really appreciate it and truly feel loved and blessed.
Secondly for those who have been asking, I'm 31.
31 years old and feeling great about it.
A friend asked, " If you were given a choice on what age you want to be on your birthday, what will it be?"
I'd say 31. I wouldn't want to be any age younger. Do you ever look back when you were young and cringe at the things you said or did. I've made a couple of stupid/weird/bad choices way back then and suffice to say, yeah, I'm happy being where I'm at right now, thank you very much. Not to say, I'm so much smarter now but let's just say that it'll take me at least 10 years to look back and say to myself, " I did THAT( insert stupid behavior) at 31?"

I haven't much to say today. I'm just killing time waiting for my other half to get the car serviced.But I really want to write this down before I change my mind.
I'm really sad about the way running has turned out for some of us. It has ceased to be a hobby and become more of a burden. Running is supposed to make us happy but don't you think something is wrong when we're not enjoying it as much as when we first started? We used to enjoy taking our time, listening to the pitter patter of our feet shuffling to the rhythm of our runs. Now it's like we're more into how fast and how far we'd go, that 10-11 minute/mile is not good enough and this mileage has to be done no matter what or we'll deem ourselves doomed.
This is a hobby. A mere thing we do to fill up the extra time. It's not a job. We're not professionals. We don't have the extra 4 hours a day to complete that dreadly mileage we intend to do. We won't die today if we don't do that 15K. We have our careers, we have our kids, we have our spouses. By doing this, running on and on for hours and hours, we're not only taking up our precious spare time, but we're taking theirs as well. Their time with us.

What I'm saying is, find that balance. That thin line that separates us from falling over the edge. Or leaving us feeling burnt out.

Don't stop racing. Oh no, I'm not even remotely suggesting that. And don't stop running. But do it at your pace. If you can only afford the time to train for 1-2 marathons a year, that's good enough.If you can only train for little races here and there, then good for you. If you can afford the time to train for a marathon every month and it makes you happy, then do that. At your pace. If it makes you happy. Secukup rasa.

But if it's starting to feel like a chore, like not once in a while, like in most of the time,every day, every time then slow down. Take a breather.
You're not racing anybody but yourself. It's called a PB because it's a PB. Don't fret, somebody already got the 2 03 marathon record. Somebody already did 50 marathons is 50 months. One more or one less, nobody's worried.

At least that's what I think.
I'm not a preacher and I'm the last person in the world to do this. This is a gentle reminder to myself
And I'm not good in conveying my thoughts in words. And this may get misinterpreted by some.
But that's what I think . For now.
Who knows, maybe 10 years from now, I would read back this post and cringe and think, " I wrote that at 31?"

Jaguh-jaguh

2011-03-02T19:08:00.000+08:00

My boss called me up to his room and said, " They're gonna have this run somewhere in June,"
I scrunched up my nose. Oh no, I thought. He probably wants me to be in the commitee.
" I don't want you to go to the meeting this afternoon. I don't want you included in the AJK. Matron will go." he said as if reading my mind - or my expression.
Huh?
" I want you to enter. I want you to win this"
Aik?
Sejak bila jadi manager aku nih? Tetibe.
Macam Jaguh-Jaguh. Macam Maero Attack.
Apparently he heard from someone/somewhere I got 2nd place in the run held two years back in Manjung. But that was TWO YEARS ago. Before the running buzz started nationwide. This year, the competition will be fierce, man.
" Ha, tengok la boss. Bulan enam tu jauh lagi. Kot saya naik pangkat kena posting ke ( heh, dream on). Kot saya pregnant ke taim tu. Tengoklah."
" Tu lain kira. Skarang hang bagi nama masuk. Tengok-tengok, aku sekeh kepala hang sat gi."

Haduu..

Ini pose jambu Eizlan Yusuf. Ingat tak dia dalam spektra Jaguh-Jaguh. Masa tu dia kanyaq lagi. ( Please refer your Kedahan friends for the meaning of this word)
Huh. Tetibe.

Haywire Week

2011-02-20T19:26:00.000+08:00

Inside my mind, I'm chanting , " Only 12 hours to go, only 12 hours to go, Only 12 hours to go."

Truth to the matter is, I hate oncalls. I hate anticipating the telephone to ring 24/7 (literally). I hate pulling back the ER curtain and seeing the surprise they have waiting for me. I pity the way new FYDOs ( that's equivalent to houseman Drs) gasp after seeing for the first time the aftermath of a motor vehicle accident as if realizing for the first time that this is also in their their job scope as a dentist working in a public clinic/hospital.
Most of all, I hate the stench of blood on me after a rough call and the fact that I have to deny my children's welcome home hugs because I don't want them to remember me smelling that way.
Tak baik la, mak aku kata. It's part of your job.
Yes, it is. But I still hate it.

And during oncall week like this la, I hit a rough patch in my workout routine. Monday and Tuesday started out great with 11K of mileage. Lepas tu, hancusss.
And I think today, after almost 3 hours of reviewing the patients in the ward-on a weekend, screw it. Lantak la. Tomorrow's a new week.

On another note, I'm proud to say my husband's hard work this whole week in training Chiam to ride a bike without training wheels has been a success. After a whole week of encouraging, short temper flare ups, cheering and clapping, I am proud to say that Chiam can now ride a bike on two wheels. It's been a tiring week for him and his father, every evening after work, they'd be off training till sunset, and I guess it all paid off. I'm even tempted to belanja them KFC because of this ( Chiam's favourite) but bila teringat workout this week cam hampeh, maybe that will be postponed to next week. He he.

Oh yes, last two weeks (cerita basi) I went on an official work related visit to Pui San's work place in Ipoh, in conjuction to some Healthy Setting thingy ( please, I won't bore you guys by getting into what that is). And just as I was thinking what are the chances of me bumping into Pui San in a hospital as large as hers, I saw her gawking at her working log (?)/ bulletin board (?)/ duty roster (?), at the main building.

(permission to reproduce this pic from your blog, Pui San)

See, she's nice enough to hide the kelepet of my tudung.

Surprisingly her hospital is one of the nicest I've visit. I didn't really see that coming what's with it being a mental hospital and all ( no offence, Pui San dearie). But really, it's like a hospital in a garden. And the wards are so well kept with a cheerful ambiance. And the staff greet you like they're really genuinely happy to see you. You know, like the people at McDonalds. Haha.
Apa aku merepek ni.

Anyway, signing off. I'm ready for a great new week ahead.
Just 12 more hours to go, 12 more hours to go, 12 more hours to go.

I'll see you when you get there

2011-02-08T22:34:00.000+08:00

Okay, I may have blurted out unintentionally to a few friends the real REAL reason why I plan to mellow it down this year. It's no secret really. Because I remember posting about it in one of my 2010 post- in which I forgot which one and when. No matter - sape rajin dan tadek keje pi la belek tengok.

Anyway, due to that, me and hub have been really slacking off in our runs. I personally wanted to maintain running 4-5 times weekly with a mileage of 24-32k a week. Ni bukan training mode ye kawan-kawan. Ni maintenance mode. Tapi apakan daya, kita hanya merancang, banyak alasan mendatang. Busy la, banyak keja la, hujan la, panas la, kursus la, meeting la, tadek sape jaga anak la..yada yada yada.

Tup-tup 5 times weekly deteriorated to 4 and last week,hohoho, I only came out with 3 runs.

And the weight is creeping in.
And to somebody who has been fat before, an increase of the scale would mean a silent blood curling scream inside.
Huh..tak boleh jadi ni.

So last Saturday, as we were belek-ing the latest issue of RW, we both got our pencerahan agung moment when we saw the words scream , " SIGN UP, ALREADY!" in one of the articles.
So I decided ( selaku the manager) we should sign up if we wanted to keep motivated. What the heck kan? As long as it's just short races.

So I went to ENR's website. Excited nih. Saw that the 11K category was just RM5 cheaper than the HM. Grimaced. Takpela. Kalau nak murah masuk la Jogathon Sekolah Parit Haji Ali ye dak?
As I was about to click it, hub pointed out, " Opps, it's full already."
Turned out we were too late..kuang kuang kuang. Kemain korang ek. Laju benor korang register untuk race ni, ye.

So we turned to option B. Penang Malakoff run. This will be our third year participating. This year, they've decided to have it earlier than the previous years. Usually the race would be in June or July but I guess they wanted to get this over with before the big PRU. Heheh..dengarlah JJ meng'speku'.
Anyway, it's a bummer I won't be able to meet up with you guys in ENR (again) but I guess you'll see me when you'll see me.

This was 2 years ago. First road race. Hooked since

Satu lagi before I sign off,ye. When I was small I loved watching Sesame Street. ~~Okay I still catch it on Youtube every now and then~~. And I remember watching this one short cartoon segment about a day in the life of an Indian girl. At the end of the clip, she was tucked into bed by her mom and was given coconut milk to drink before sleep ( as opposed to regular milk by the anak mat sallehs). And at that time, as a child I thought, " Tipuuuuuuuu!" Mana ada orang minum coconut milk cam tu je! It sounds exotic tapi mana adaaaaaa.....
Well, I thought I've seen it all until I saw this ad :

bukak kelapa ada Jillian..pergh

Laaa...really?
Kita punyala nak substitute santan with milk and they're doing the opposite.
Go figure.

Laparnyaaa...

2011-02-02T21:30:00.000+08:00

Being sick sucks.
I hate this, not being able to do my normal routine, not being able to go out to jamuan makan-makan at my neighbour's (rugiiii...)and I hate especially being hungry and not being able to eat ( or drink) anything.
Yes people, I caught the stomach flu.
Today I couldn't get anything in without barfing it all back out. Ingatkan nak amik cuti je , but then I thought of my appointments. I know how I hate last minute changes and I wouldn't do that to my patients so ku gagahi jua. I felt nauseas the whole time, not because I was staring constantly into people's mouth. Funnily enough I can stand that ( you just get used to it) and I thought nasib baik I'm not a proctologist.
Anyway, everytime I thought about food- and that's constantly, I get bouts of stomach cramps that's able to buckle an elephant over. And let's not mention the queasiness.
So last-last, after barfing out my sad lunch ( 2 bottles of vitagen - petua bijak bistari sapentah), I decided to go to the doctor one floor below my office. He looked at me and asked whether I'd mind a saline drip. Yes I would , I said almost too quickly. You see, the irony of it is, although I give injections to my patients on almost a daily basis, I hate HATE being poked at. And to think that I'd probably have to stay there for another hour or so to finish the drip and risk being freezed to death ( the clinic I work in is so cold sometimes I anticipate snow), I gave the idea a pass. The doctor wasn't convinced. " Stick out your tongue" he commanded. I did and he told me it was moist enough ( which strangely sounds almost dirty).
He prescribed me some medications, and advised on some bed rest. Then it was all up to me to ask Big Boss untuk leave early.
" Hang sakit apa?" he said.
" Food poisoning la boss"
" Tu la, malas masak lagi. Sapa suruh hang makan luaq? Padan muka..Hahahah" ( dia gelakkan aku kaw-kaw punya..ciss)
Gelak punya gelak last2 dia bagi jugak balik awal. Not before I got some annoying comments from some other person.
" La..sakit camni memang tambah kuruihla. Dahla tak makan, asik lari je."
Alah, dengki. Sedap-sedap je kata orang tak makan. Apsal, ko pasang kamera ke kat rumah aku?

buwekkkk!

It's now nearing 10pm and I haven't eaten. I can't stand the aroma of fried egg in the house ( my kids' dinner courtesy of hub before he went to jamuan makan-makan taman). I almost hurl, but there's nothing to hurl.
I don't feel like eating but I'm hungry.
Lepas ni nak try test makan ais krim tengok. Ada jugak alasan makan ais krim malam-malam.
Gamaknya esok tak lari lagi.
Hai..

Bai bai.
Oh, ye. Gong Xi Fa Chai.
Eh, it rhymes!

Stubborn

2011-01-19T22:17:00.000+08:00

The sun is very bright. It's 6 o'clock but it seems more like 3. But the air is cool
I put on my red shoes. Suddenly they look too red. But debating on the right colour of shoes is a lame excuse.
I have to do this today.
I don't feel like smiling to anyone. So I look mostly down. I hear my son calling out for me as I'm rounding the street corner. Too late.Too far to go back. Whatever it is, his father will have to figure it out.
As I move, I hear voices from left and right. I hear cars and motorcycles whiz by. Occasionally, I look up but I stare ahead, not looking at anything in particular.
I spot a regular pakcik who creepily calls out, " Running again? Who's taking care of (my) grandchldren?" every time I run past him. Today, I make no eye contact. I don't even lift up my head. He's smart enough not to say anything this time.
I'm nearing mile 1 but my chest feels heavy. Suddenly I can't breathe. Of all days, please not today.
But it's happening. My bronchioles are closing up. It's been a while since my last exercise induced attack.
I try to suck in air. But they come is gasps. My feet are still moving. I don't want to stop. If I stop I'll never get this done with. If I stop , it'll be too far and too long to walk back home.
I'll run this out. This will pass.
I keep moving. More slowly. My breathing labored. I see my shadow on the street, following. Its shoulders are slumped, spine not straight, butt jut out too much. My body is automatically posturing itself to get more air in my chest. My shadow looks like an old woman shuffling.
I can't breathe. I can't breathe.
It's annoying how some people spell breathe as breath. You wanna bash them on the head.
I concentrate on my inhale and exhale. In, in, out, out. Sometimes, it's so tight, I have to go Innnnnnn, in, in, out, out a couple of times.
I'm rasping. I hear a slow moan escaping me involuntarily.
My stubborn head tells my feet to go. Brains to feet : Go!
Feet to brains : Lungs won't let us.
Brains to arms: Pump harder!
Arms to brain : Can't! No air.
People whiz by. Boys laughing on their bikes. Girls giggling of their catcalls. I look down. They won't see me panic. They won't see me in desperation.
Mile 2 is nearing. Lilac beeps.
This usually passes. It'll eventually go away. Your bronchioles and alveolus will take their sweet time to open but they will open.
Left, Right, left, right. Put one foot in front of the other, rinse and repeat.
Boy, this is unusually taking a long time. My hands are clammy and I notice I've rolled them in tight fists.
I see a guy on a bike. It has a lovely green frame. Like Granny Smith apples.
Why are green apples Granny Smith's. Who the hell is she?
Last mile. Lung is clearing, Finally. That took too long.
I gather my steps. Try to make myself go faster. I want this over with so bad. Faster is not helping.
I turn into my corner. My neighbors smile at me and I try to smile back.
They had no idea I almost collapsed on the road.
I open my gate. Suddenly realizing I'm breathing almost normal. Almost.
" How was the run?" he asks not looking away from the computer.
Bad.

Sedap tapi takleh jamah

2011-01-12T21:41:00.000+08:00

Aku baru terbaca latest posting dari Penonton.
Aku eksited gile. Satu lagi larian di Taiping. Dibuat taim CNY pulak.
Sedappppp...tapi dalam was was. Ibarat coklat chocmint aku nampak kat kedai tadi. Buy 1 free 1. Tapi takdak tanda halalan toyyiban.

Itu hari taim hari raya ke dua pun depa buat jugak. Anjuran geng-geng yang sama la.
Taim tu Mr JJ a.k.aWanWon join. Raya tak raya dia join je. Alasan dia larian tu start awal dan abih lebih kurang pukoi 9. Sape nak datang rumah awal-awal cam tu, ye dak?
Anyway, hati terasa macam nak join. Tapi tak tak besnya start dia pukoi 6.00 pagi. Subuh pun agak-agak taim tu masuk dalam 6.15 minit. Maksudnya nak kena solat tengah jalan. Kalau LSD dekat-dekat ngan taman rumah kami tu boleh le singgah rumah solat. Ni tengah-tengah Taman Tasik, lalu taman perumahan banyak anjing yang kiri kanan dok nyalak woof woof.
Lain le kalau aku boleh pulun buat 18K dalam sejam. Sempat la solat Subuh lepas abis lari. Tapi kasut merahku tu bukan kasut bionik dan aku pun takdela rupa macam Bionic Woman. isk.

Pastu kalau ikut route taim raya hari tu, puh boleh tahan woo. Wan Won penah bawak aku ke route tu ( ngan keta la). Naik turun bukit curam ntah berapa kali. Ngalahkah NB 30K tahun lepas yang amat menyerikkan aku.
Pastu sebabkan ini kira group LSD , route ni takdak marker. So hari tu kan, ade orang tu kan, dia sesat sampai Tesco kan...heh heh.. ( Jangan marah ye )

Tapi bab air n refreshments tu mmg tip top. Penganjur ni memang bes. Ala-ala KakJune gitu sebab bagik je air/isotonics/refreshments for free kali ni. Dia nye ketua tu mmg otai in running. Walaupun otai ,tapi timing marathon dia biasanya 3:30. Agaknya kalau aku komplen route tu bukit bakau, mesti dia kata , " Where got hills, meh? Route flat like pankek what?"

Tapi yang interested nak join , jangan la berubah pikiran lepas baca post ni. Ni saje je gatai-gatai aku cari alasan. Kalau korang nak buat, boleh je. Jangan jadi macam aku. Aku ni bila tak sign up untuk race lagi mula la jadi pemaleh. LSD skarang ni jadik SSD. Takat 4 mile je. Kalau dapat 6 miles pun kira alhamdulillah.
Larian Taiping CNY ni kan route dia mencabar, company dia bes, air disediakan dan yang penting semua free. Heh heh.
Aku banyak alasan kan?
Nak join, join je la ye dak?
Ntahla, yang penting larian tu free.( agak aku dah ulang 3 kali dah)
Who knows, maybe I'll change my mind.

* what? 2 postings in 2 days? JJ sudah maju.

Super Short

2011-01-10T18:54:00.000+08:00

What a hectic Monday today turned out to be. Work was hell. I had to remind myself I signed up for this so apa2 pun I have to bear with it.
Sigh.

Anyway, it's really screwed up among orang-orang kita when somebody goes to work riding a bicycle, people will pity him, call him quirky or assume that he's too poor to buy a decent vehicle.
But once he dons a helmet, he is automatically the uber awesome urban dude, too cool to care,with a sole mission to save the planet from the green house effect.

I don't mean anybody in particular here.
I'm just saying.

And it's really screwed up that just because I run, people in the office expect me to sign up for games like badminton, volley ball and even karom (?). They claim, " You're an ATHLETE! You should smoke this."

(Athlete? Ya Rabbi, memalukan aku je)
Yeah, right.
Next time there's an opening for water polo, sign me up please.

Mom gets emotional.

2011-01-05T09:33:00.000+08:00

And it's another new year.
( Sorry it took me 5 days to post this)
I've been busy with settling the kids' school stuff.. It's weird but we parents tend to worry too much about our kids when they're really doing fine.
My mom tells me, " Leave 'em. If they cry, nanti penat diorang diam la tu."
And I remember when we were kids, my parents could never take leave to get us settled at school as they were teachers themselves( in another school), so they just took us to our classrooms and left us, trusting the teachers. And we survived.

But with my boy I had to be sure. I mean, he just turned 6 ,two weeks ago and he's the youngest and not to mention one of the smallest in his class -in an all boys school. I had to be sure he knows his class, where to go pee-pee,that he remembers his lunch is in the lunch box, that wandering during learning time is a no-no..etc etc.

We didn't stick there long. I know teachers are annoyed of the parents ogling at their kids and giving out loud instructions on how to color the octopus from the classroom window.
So we got him to his seat, told him to be a good boy and went home, hoping for the best.
When we went back at recess, he was running around with his friends, bolting up and down the stairs and having a blast at it.
" Did you take your sandwich?"
" Yes."
" Where did you keep your lunch box?" his dad asked.
" In my bag"
" We're going home now, okay." I said, a hint of sadness ached in my heart.
"Okay, bye." And off he went running.

He's fine. I know he is.
I'm just sad that he grew up so soon.

Yesterday I planned to go back to work today but I thought what the heck, today I'll spend one more day off for some bonding time with my little girl. I figure we'll go out later for lunch, get a haircut and go shopping. She'd like that.
At least I owe her that after she quietly busied herself while I spent 45 minutes on the thrillmill just now.

Dia paling rendang ( as in the tree and not the hari raya dish)

Sorry, Ben 10 bags are for nerds..hehe ( kata papa la)

Laa...makbapak pun sebok la nak beratur sama

His beginning of 11 great years at school.

Val D'or - Valley of Gold

2010-12-27T19:35:00.000+08:00

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

2010-12-22T19:57:00.000+08:00

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?

2010-12-15T19:54:00.000+08:00

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)

2010-12-10T21:43:00.000+08:00

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

2010-12-06T09:45:00.000+08:00

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!

Zero Week ( Entry basi)

2010-11-30T23:07:00.000+08:00

I'm kinda not happy with my running or rather, lack of running lately. Zero week has come and gone swiftly and according to plans, I'm supposed to return to my normal running routine sans the looonggg LSD weekends.
But by the looks of it, I may temporarily return to the thrillmill as it rains here, heavily EVERY evening.
It's all sunny , loodeedoodee doo but then at about 4 ish pm, the sky will suddenly open up and it will not stop pouring till the day's end.
But I guess, I shouldn't complain much. My marathon is over and I'm only running for the heck of it.
Until my next race, that is. Hee.

Here's some pic from my zero week. We went on a tiny cuti-cuti makan-makan. I'd love to set up a foodie's blog like KOG but when it comes to taking pics of the food at an eatery, I always shy-shy cat one.

ayam penyet - sambal pedas gile

st. cinnamon- my favourite

the best goreng pisang in Taiping- seriously

sinful nasi goreng kampung- tapi sangat settap..haha

air amra- kusyukkk dan masyukkk

the best burgers are the local ones ( provided they're Ramli's)- sangat sloppy dan menjilat jari

oh, noww I remember why I'm so anal on running post zero week.

must.lose.extra.weight.

Oh and, konon sebagai hadiah ( konon) for our marathon. Jeng jeng

his and hers - okay, the purple one's not new, but the stand is.

goreng macam nasik goreng kampung.

Sekian, terima kasih.

pebim doplohseploh, cerita satu lagi

2010-11-23T08:57:00.000+08:00

Daha lama gila dah rasanya aku tak menulis. Bukan apa, ~~malas~~ takde masa nak update. Lagi pun rasanya takde apa yang menarik nak cerita.

Hari Ahad aku lari maraton Jembatan Pulau Pinang. Aku rasa persediaan untuk event ni memang agak bersungguh-sunggh jugak la. Gila apa tak bersungguh kalo dah sampai training memalam buta, sebelum subuh, tengah panas, bulan posa, hari raya.. Orang kat tempat aku ni pun agaknya dah boleh cam dah kot aku ngan bini, the looney couple.. heheh..

Target aku untuk PBIM 2010 ada 3. A: sub-4:00, B: sub 4:30, C: sub-5:00. There, aku dah bagitau dah. All my previous race results points that I can achieve sasaran A tu, provided that I did proper training. Dan waktu training pun kebanyakannya, >90%, aku buleh buat ikut pace dan jadual yang telah diset. Yang tak dapat ikut sebab life got in the way atau pun mungkin masa tu hari bodoh aku.

Tapi apa boleh buat, aku cuma mampu merancang, Allah yang menentukan.

Untuk dapat maraton sub-4, strategi aku cuma perlu maintain average 9:05/mile pace all the way, no time-banking, with gels every 6 miles. And that's exactly what I did, up to mile 17, kemudian semua neraka pecah keluar..

Mile 1-7: semuanya berjalan lancar. berjaya kontrol tak start laju sangat, lari ikut pace seniri, tanak lumba ngan sesapa pun, cuma lumba ngan diri seniri je. Macam biasa, sampai je kat tempat volunteer, aku ucap terima kasih.

Mile 8-16: dapat kejar pacer untuk 4:00 kat awal mile 8 tu. kira ok la tu, on target la kununnya. Pastu cadangnya nak maintain je la ngan pacer tu. tapi aku perasan kan, geng pacer 4:00 ni (yang lain aku tak tau), diorang suka surge, pastu slow sebab nak minum, pastu surge balik untuk build time cushion kot, pastu slow lagi. Laju, pelan, laju, pelan. Pacer guys, even pacing laa.. kesian kat orang yang ngikut korang tu. Masa ni moral masih tinggi lagi. Lepas U turn kat tol pun masih steady. Hollered at bini at the other side of the bridge around the 13 mile point. Tengok dia lari pun steady je, kira ok jugak tu. Pastu merge ngan geng 21k, busy la sket. Tambah pulak tengah naik bukit kat tengah jambatan tu, pace terpaksa la dislow kan, tapi aku dah expect dah.. no big deal la. Angin sejuk sudah datang membelai, aku dengan peluh-peluhnya, lagi la tambah sejuk. Rintik hujan pun dah mula terasa. Bajet ujan la kejap lagi.

Mile 17: And then it rained, HARD. Struggled to keep pace. Pastu ada aura nak kejang perut ngan peha. Rasanya buleh shake it off bila turun jambatan nanti. And I was wrong.

Mile 18-26.2: Turun je jambatan masuk highway Jelutong, itu kejang perut sudah mari. tapi takleh lawan aku punya kejang kaki. Frustrating gila! Cemana nak cakap ye? I didn't bank time. Aku tak penat, tak mengah, tak semput. Tapi cuba la sedaya upaya pun, tak buleh jugak nak lari setapak pun tanpa otot peha tu mengancam untuk tarik betis sampai tersimpul buku sila. Maka bermula la death march aku sampai ke habis. Aku jalan kejap untuk ilangkan cramp. Lepas 1-2 minit jalan, aku try lari balik. Tapi setiap kali aku lari, paling jauh pun setengah batu je, mostly lagi pendek dari tu. Itu cramp just wouldn't let go. Pace jangan cerita le. Bila berlari 13 min/mile, bila berjalan 20 min/mile! Air pun dah tak lalu minum, pisang pun tak lalu makan dah. Itu la dia ceritanya sampai ke habis. Lebih banyak masa berjalan dari berlari. Bila lari je cramp tu menyerang dari peha turun ke betis sampai la ke jari kaki. Buleh berjalan-jalan pulak cramp ni ekk?

Masa berjalan ala zombie tu perasan la a few fast guys yang aku perasan selalu buat sub-4 (ada yang sub 3:40) pun berjalan gak. Makna kata bukan aku sorang je la yang kena geget ngan zombie ni.. Sesungguhnya aku memahami perasaan diorang. TENSEN SIOT!

Ingatkan dari bulatan Queensbay tu sampai ke tamat buleh lari, tapi tetap kantoi. Berjalan kejap. Nak habis sub-4:45 jugak. So dari traffic light ke garisan penamat aku belasah struggle lari.. Kalo terpaksa merangkak macam dalam video ironman tu pun gasak la.

Dan aku berjaya habiskan dalam masa 4:40:35 (chip time). Habis je suda ada datang aura mau pitam. Aku terus carik railing barrier nak support badan. Ada sorang budak St John tanya "Encik ok ke?". Aku tak sempat nak jawab terus dia letak aku kat atas kerusi roda pastu sorong aku pegi medical tent.

Sampai kat medical tent aku kejang lagi. Geng medical kat situ baringkan aku kat atas stretcher, tanggalkan kasut pastu letak la ais kat kaki. Sebenarnya aku takleh nak pikir clearly masa tu. Diorang tanya sakit kat mana pun aku kena pikir dulu baru buleh jawab. Ais punya ais, aku pun kata dah ok kot dan mintak nak kuar. Diorang tolong aku berdiri dan aku pun ngan pening lalatnya pegi tunggu bini kat finishing line. Pastu decide nak gi amik medal dulu sebelum aku terpengsan kat situ. At least dah amik medal dah. Kalo pengsan dulu kang, medal abih plak.. hahaha..

Lepas amik medal je baru nampak la bini aku dah beratur kat situ nak amik medal gak. Ok la tu, aku pun dah ada aura nak muntah gak. Berapa banyak aura daa.. Aku pun dah start wheezing dah masa tu. Kitorang duduk kejap. Pastu bila dah buleh bernafas macam biasa dan paksa diri minum milo, pegi tengok khemah makanan. Serius cakap, aku apa benda pun dah tak lalu dah masa tu, nak muntah punya pasal. Kaki pun dok kejang lagi, tapi perut dah tak kejang sangat. Ingat nak balik umah terlentang je.

Sampai je umah, memang terus baring. Dapat gak lelap dalam sejam. Dannn.. aku muntah. 2-3 kali.

Looking back, aku sebenarnya dehydrated gila-gila punya waktu race tu. The signs were all there. Chills, cramps, disorientation, wheezing, nausea, vomiting, super dark urine, among others. Bini aku kata mata aku sunken gila, pastu ada black rings macam panda bila aku bangun tido tu. Dia cuak gila. Taim dinner aku paksa diri makan extra, walaupun tak berapa lalu. Bila aku timbang badan lepas dinner, aku hilang 4 KILO dari berat pre-race! Itu timbang lepas aku dinner tu.. Kalo timbang immediately lepas race mau lagi parah. Hambik, kalo tak gila lagi tu tak tau la. Alhamdulillah tak jadi apa-apa yang lebih teruk.

Lebih kurang macam ni la rupanya. I kill you!

The day after the run (Isnin), other than lenguh kaki macam lepas long run, surprisingly I felt fine. No aches, no problems going up and down the stairs, no nausea, appetite back to normal.

Apa yang aku belajar? Salah aku la beb. Weather and terrain is definitely out of my control. But for the things that are within my jurisdiction, aku rasa ada tiga benda yang menyebabkan aku tidak mencapai A target:

Dehydration. Dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb mistake.
Tak biasakan diri ngan gels, thus causing GI distress. Masa training aku guna 100+ ngan roti krim jagung je untuk long run.
Long runs yang too slow for me (negligible factor. ni tak kesah, bini punya pasal. really glad to help her blast her target).

Feel free to learn from my mistakes. Hope you guys achieve whatever your goals are. Nothing substitutes real, consistent training. But watch out for injuries.

Hiatus perhaps?

-wan won-

PBIM 2010- Blood, Tears and Joy ( macam bagus je)

2010-11-22T07:47:00.000+08:00

Hi kids..
My legs hurt and I think I'll develop a couple of black toes but otherwise I'm super.
I had a great morning running in Penang and I love ~~almost~~ every moment of it.
I have to get this written down ASAP because I'll be a wee bit busy this week and the longer I put it off, I might end up not writing this at all..heh heh.

Macam biasa le ekk? Point form is fine kan?

Pre Race

We spent most of the time trying to get some sleep in the car. I got 1 hour. Hub got none.
Went to the starting line at about 15 minutes before gun off. Chatted a bit with Ijam. Couldn't locate KakJune and the gang,
Starting was quite slow as there is an increase of full marathon participants ( >1000) this year. Had to pujuk myself not to weave in and out to conserve energy. Cheyy.

Totally misjudged the bib. I thought it would be lunyai at the end of the whole 42K but it survived even the heavy downpour

Mile 1-10

I always have problems with stiffness of my left leg in the beginning of runs. This went on for like 4 miles and almost felt painful but luckily it went away.
Saw Pui San and said hi. She was running with Mo Maniac and some other friend I don't know.
When we got on the bridge, I was hoping it would be windy like last year but it was freaking hot, man. And it was worser on the first incline. That stretch seem to go on forever. Got my first gel out, my first experience with the apple flavoured kind. Tasted like medicine-yuck. Telan je la.
At the middle of the bridge we went downhill. At first I soared down, but after a bit my legs got tired and I couldn't wait for the route to get flat again.
To get me through to the first end of the bridge, I paced with this crazy guy wearing a baju melayu. Didn't get to catch his face though as he was in front of me all along. But we managed to exchange some remarks. He commented my red shoes and I commented his attire. Funny guy even farted and hooted about it. But I lost him at the turn around.

Mile 11-15

While running back on the bridge after the toll area, I saw a distance marker stating that it was already 20.3 K and I glanced at my watch and saw my timing was 2:03. Aik, biar betul. Laju la pulak. Just as I was about to go to perasan mode, I noticed Lillac showed that it was only just 11 something miles which is about only 18 K.. Cis, penipu punya marker.
I commented to a Sabahan girl that it's unusually hot that morning and that it's supposed to be cool and windy on the bridge. Me and my big fat mouth. Right after the 13th mile, it started to rain- HARD. It pelted heavily on my face and I was like, " Ouch, ouch, ouch" but shut up when people around me looked weirdly at me.
Only after a few seconds, I was drenched inside out. My whole attire felt heavy, my shoes were like blocks and I couldn't see a thing in front of me. Plus the wind was blowing hard against us runners. And the fact that at exactly that time, the FM route merged with the HM route didn't help either.
I trudged ahead with poor vision, but then suddenly I saw pacer balloon floating in front of me so I followed the balloon to get through the crowd. But that wasn't long because it was a 4.5 pacer baloon. Tak larat aku nak ikut all the way.

Mile 16-20

Turun je jambatan, I naively thought that the worse was over. I hastened my pace because seriously I thought the turning point would be at Tesco. Boy was I wrong.
I've written down some posts ago that PBIM is a flat route kan? Well, I take that back. We had to go through 3 flyovers before the turning point tau. And we had to go over the same flyovers on our way back.With fatigued legs!.
Saw hub as he was running the opposite direction. " Jauh lagi ke turning point?" I shouted from across the road. " Jauuuhhhh lagi". I thought he was kidding. Argh.
Saw Kak June from across the street and managed to croak a hi. I planned to singgah at her kedai runcit on the way back but mysteriously, on the way back, I couldn't see her or her car. Pelik kan? And she SMSed me afterwards and told me she was there all along and missed me on my turning point jugak. Aik?

Mile 20-26.2

On the turning point, I pujuk-ed myself, " Okay, only 6 miles to go ". It's so easy thinking in miles cause 6 miles seems so much less intimidating than saying " 10 K to go".
I ran almost all the way from here with this boy from Ipoh. He told his friends I was his motivator. I kept him as a pacer. But it was nice to have someone to talk to , to get the miles go by.
Sedor tak sedor, we only got 4 miles to go. I told Ipoh Boy, " Ok, 4 je lagi", kunun I was encouraging him la padehal tengah psaiko diri. At this time, I had to practically pujuk myself not to walk.
Wei, the last 3 miles seem to go on forever. Tambah bila bertembung the 10K runners. Some were inconsiderate enough to go into our lane and made us stop abruptly a few times to avoid a crash. Hey, I was tired, I got crancky, so I shouted " Tepi la!" at a few boys. Heh heh.
Ipoh Boy made a sudden surge at the last 1 K. Siot je. Haha. Tetiba je ada power to give a final kick.
Last 1 K was pure torture, I was like " Where the hell is the finishing line?!". My tudung all kelepet from the rain, my attire drenched and I didn't care to smile or pose to any photographers because I know I look like a nightmare.
Finally crossed the finishing line at 4:51:52. Ni ikut Lillac la. Alhamdulillah.

Post-Race

Spotted hub at the medal tent. Told me he had severe stomach and leg cramps and had to alternate walking and running right after the 18th mile. But against all odds, he was still able to complete his marathon in 4:40. So proud of him. He'll tell his side of the story afterwards in this blog. Tengok tahap kerajinan, katanya.
I learned something new today. I never knew that rib muscles could get cramps. I coughed out loud to clear my chest and suddenly I felt cramps in my ribs and the pain was excruciating.
We lepaked and ate the post run meal in the car as it was still raining and our feet were still wobbly.
Met Shahnaz. Cute gal. She's what I'll call a pocket rocket woman, so small but so fast.
Mom called to inform that the kids are having a tantrum so we had to head back early so tak sempat jugak meet the rest of RBUs and FMV. Next time , Gadget, next time.

The parking lot sudah macam bendang daa

The jam to the ferry terminal.

The medal. I wish it had a nicer color.

The finisher's tee. Kuning pun kuning la.

Damage done.

If you think this looks bad, try smelling it.

So all in all, PBIM 2010 was still a great race despite the weather. I had loads of fun but if you ask me, I don't feel like doing another marathon in a long time.Or is that the muscle soreness talking?
I'd like to thank hub/coach who endlessly encouraged me to train even on days I felt too tired for any letihan and to my parents for willingly taking care of the kids on my LSD days even though they don't get our craze for long distance running.

Congrats Ijam ,Yim and others ( sape-sape saje la) for their sub 5 or any other personal achievements and thanks Zaki for cheering me on ( 2 times!) and bringing up my spirits while I was feeling a bit crummy at the time. You had no idea kan?
You guys exude awesomeness!

Sekianlah.

dag dig dug

2010-11-19T08:20:00.000+08:00

Okay, on Monday I said I was less jittery.
Well, I'd like to take that back.
I'm a nervous wreck and it's getting worser in increments.
Like yesterday morning when I was dropping off the kids to school, suddenly I felt my heart fluttering. And I wondered, " Kenapa ye? kenapa ye?"
Then, I remembered the marathon. Then the flutters became palpitations and I had the sudden urge to go to the toilet ( okay, too much information).
I'm scared. But at the same time I'm excited.
Eh. macam nak kawin pulak.
Heh heh.

Good luck runners of PBIM. Let's all torture ourselves and wonder what we were thinking when we signed up together.
See you then.

T-6 days?

2010-11-15T21:07:00.000+08:00

I can finally heave a sigh of relief. My on call week is over! No more antsy-ness when my phone rings. No more hanging on to my phone like my life depends on it.

Luckily, on call week has been kind. I only got 4 calls all week and none of them were really that gory. The only case that came with an exclamation mark was a 20 year old girl who woke up Saturday morning ,yawned a bit too wide, dislocated her jaws and couldn't get her mouth shut. Sure, it may sound funny, but I heard it hurts like hell. The poor girl had tears in her eyes when I reduced the dislocation by pushing the joint back into the socket.
But then on Saturday, I had to spend almost 3 hours in the hospital discharging patients from the ward. I swear, paperwork here takes more time than seeing the actual patients.
Wait a minute, some readers might think. I thought she's a dentist.

Yeah, tell me about it.

Anyway, I'm happily tapering. Dengan jayanya tak lari for 2 days due to my chesty cough. I was hoping I could run today, even on the thrill mill, but I guess I better take care if myself these few days. I hope I get better come Sunday.
Did I forget to mention that my brother is getting engaged too? And it's on Saturday, the day before PBIM? He's 25 and he's getting engaged. Sigh. My baby brother is tying the knot ( well, almost). And although I think he's still young the take the plunge ( nevermind the fact that I got married at the age of 23), I'm still happy for him.
And thank God, his to-be-fiancé's house is only 45 minutes away and the majlis will be held just before Zuhur. Sempat-sempat je lepas tu ke Penang. Fuh! Nevertheless, I predict it'll be a super busy day. Heck, this week will be a super busy week what's with hari raya and all.

And I hate to admit it but I'm less jittery now compared to my first marathon.
But it's just Monday. Too early to tell. Don't jinx yourself.
Just shut your gob, Julin.

Crappy Run

2010-11-07T18:45:00.000+08:00

I can simply describe this morning's LSD in one word : Ugh.
But that wouldn't be much of an entry kan?
It's not even a proper word.

Anyway, this morning I planned to run a simple no stress 14 miler. After last week's 20 miles, this one seems like a breather for a change. Or so I thought.
After a pre-run snack of a bun each, we were out the door by 4.30am and the first 8 miles seemed to go okay. Usually, I would munch on a small box of raisins at the 6th mile but after considering the brief Subuh prayer stop at the 8th mile, I chose to eat the raisins then. And because I couldn't find any other powergel flavor except chocolate the day before, I decided to forgo on taking any gel at all. What difference would it make, I thought. Besides I just ate a box of raisins. I should be alright.
Big mistake.

Right on the 11th mile, I suddenly felt my energy level plummeting down. My pace deteriorated, my legs fatigued and I got frustrated. On the 12th mile, I was practically dragging my feet. " Pick them up! Pick them up!" I half shouted in the darkness, which startled my husband a bit.
And because I couldn't run like I wanted to, I began to get snappy.

"Maybe we should cut the mileage" husband suggested.
" No!" I snapped.
"Maybe we should change to course to cut the monotony?"
" No!" I snapped
"" It's okay if we go slower"
" No!" I snapped.
Cough, cough
" No !" I snapped.
Breathe, breathe.
" No!" I snapped.

Thankfully he was patient with me. And accompanied me home until my 14th mile ( in which he turned back to complete his 16 miler). My legs felt like logs at the end of the run. I couldn't even stand straight. It wasn't because I was winded, it was more like I was tired to the core. But when I got myself some cold sarsaparilla, I felt almost 70% better. And wouldn't you know it, not even by noon, all the fatigueness was gone. Hub even joked and called me Wolverine. Kuikui..

So lesson learnt. Jangan belagak. Fuel up. I need sugar in my runs.
And oh,
Train your race, but don't race your trains.

Borak-borak lunch time

2010-11-03T14:10:00.000+08:00

Hai,
Bes gile semalam kena bambu ngan Big Boss Negeri. Bukan apa, ada kesalahan sikit la kat jadual junior officers ( macam housemanship la) kat sini so aku point it out la kat dia sebab kalau tak buat camtu. benda ni akan balik menyusahkan keje aku jugak.

" Dr, sorry nak tegur tapi jadual ni salah"

Tup-tup dia tetiba defensive. Aku naik heran jugak la. La, tolong bagitau benda alah tu salah pun nak marah ke? Aku pun bagitau la kat District boss aku. Dia kata , " Laa..yang hang kata dia salah tu buat apa. Hang tau dak jadual tu dia yang buat"
Mana la aku nak tau. Setau aku, benda-benda mangatur jadual ni PA dia ke, kerani dia ke or orang kanan dia buat. Ni mesti kes pulun nak buat micromanagement.
Satu lagi, kalau salah tak boleh nak point out ke? Orang besar immune kepada kesalahan ke? Ego? Perangai orang tua?
Ntahlah.
Saya yang menurut perintah.

Anyway, ahad lepas aku buat la LSD peak aku. Semua orait walaupun slow. Tapi okla mandangkan aku survive on air, 1 peket powergel dan satu kotak kismis. Lepas ni, it's all downhill, bebeh. ( dalam mileage la). Minggu depan taim taper ( ke tapir) pun aku oncall kat hospital, so ok la tu. Kalau kenal mana-mana orang di Taiping ni, tolong pesan ye sila pandu kereta elok2, naik moto pakai helmet, kurung anak-anak yang ala-ala rempit tu dalam rumah minggu depan. Kata aku yang suruh.

Oh ye, masa aku buat LSD hari tu, pacer baru aku, Si Lillac tu buat hal pulak dah. Lillac ni korang kenal dah kot sbb aku dah perkenalkan kat korang taim race report Tanjung 10K lepas. Anyway, aku perasan Lillac ni dok bunyik 'beep' kat tempat yang aku comfirm tak sampai lagi 1 mile. Pastu bila banding ngan Garmin laki aku, macam lebih laju lak pace dia. Mula-mula aku konfiden Garmin laki aku yang salah. Sungguh-sungguh cakap, benda alah tu abis bateri la, season la. Check balik, rupa-rupanya memang salah Lillac ku. Memang nak kena calibrate la ni. Hadui.
Duhai Lillac, hang memang la macam tuan hang. Nak lari laju pada masa lebih singkat pada mileage yang lebih pendek. Pendek kata, sama-sama perasan.

Padan muka aku.

Takde keje

2010-10-26T16:13:00.000+08:00

For the first time in months..MONTHS, I'm not busy today.
I gape around my table, trying to find things to do ( other than my appointments) but I can't find any.
My to do list items are all scratched. And I'm writing this from the office. Gasp!

My LSD last Sunday went okay. ( tu dia, cerita basi lagi). Went running with hub as I can't fathom running alone at 4 in the morning. Yep, we ran at 4 am to beat the heat. It's so freaking humid nowadays that running at 8 am would be unheard of ( to me la). And it's funny when I found out it rained everywhere else in Malaysia that morning except Taiping. Imagine that! Boleh masuk X-Files ni.

And after our LSD, I was craving for a waffle at some fast food joint. So we ordered one with a root beer float. So the cashier person punched the order immediately without asking much.

Hub: Make that a one scoop ice cream float.
Cashier person: But I already punched the two scoop one.
Hub: We didn't say we wanted the two scoop order.
Cashier person: Well, I already punched it in. I can't undo it.
Hub: Why?
Cashier person: Because it's been punched in. I can't unpunch it out ( talks as if that's the most ridiculous suggestion in the world)

Huh?
I guess a normal sucker would shrug and be okay with that, you know to avoid confrontation. But we called for the manager instead.
And he changed the order in 2 seconds.
Ha, boleh pun.

Argh. Weird kan? Benda senang nak disusahkan.

Ok. Abis cerita. Let's enjoy the takde keje mode for today. Because this won't last forever ie tommorow busy mode is more likely to be back on.
Tata.

Rave Run

2010-10-18T19:15:00.000+08:00

I've posted about my old running route, last year I think. We still run there, when we balik kampung some weekends. But now we prefer our new route near our residence.
Yes, of course we have to run in loops to complete the mileage but we like the familiarity of it. Besides, people there are getting used to two crazies running round and round the neighborhood And we noticed that there are more and more people (as in two or three)around the taman are taking up running occasionally. Ke kami yang perasan? Hehe,
Oh well. Some running is better than no running at all.

Last Saturday morning, I went for my LSD and got a few pictures. Please be reminded that I suck at photography.

It's 6.45 am and it's not even dark. I love the hills.


This, I call the Orang Kaya Road because most houses here are huge. See? Hardly any cars on a Saturday.


This road gives me 1.5 miles. It got inclines, downhills and a mini bridge. But it's kinda creepy sometimes because there's a couple of abandoned houses and there's this tree with bras hanging from one of its branches and that really freaked me out but now the bras are gone ( I guess the Majlis Bandaran people took care of it)


I love this road. It goes downhill and I always feel like I'm flying here for a couple of seconds. It leads to a mosque and the abandoned airport - my turning point. Okay, I deliberately took pics without passing cars because people tend to honk naughtily and pose if I aim my camera to their cars. Bengong.

On the 1.5 mile road again. It's now 8.30 am but scorching hot like it's noon. And naturally, for the 11,000th time, I forgot to wear my sunscreen. Sigh.


Hub took this pic. He surprised me waiting by the side of the road with the kids handing me a cold 100 plus on my last 4 miles. 100 plus never tasted better. Here's the mosque/turning point.


I experimented running on this abandoned air field. It's really huge.A few years ago, some mat salleh made a crash landing here and died with his legs torn apart ( gory!). But the ATM and Fire Dept people uses this air field 2-3 times a year to practice parachuting. It's really cool to see raining men. And at that time of the year, it's like a freaking air show here.


The trail route on the abandoned air field. On most days, people use this field to play kite, exercise, play remote control planes or just go walk and lay down in the middle of the field for nothing. See, somebody is sending me a smoke signal beyond the hills.

That's it. My LSD done before our carbo loading session at a family gathering for the rest of the weekend afterwards. Precious.

So there you have it, part of my running route. Not exactly scenic scenic but not an eyesore either. To me it's an A. But doesn't receive an A plus because people here don't refrain themselves from open burning and it sucks inhaling black smoke while you run

On another note, I read in the latest issue of RW that Deena Castor's definition of hitting the wall is 7 minute/ mile. That's the wall for you??
All I can say is : Otak hang aih. Aku kena kejaq anjing pun belum tentu dapat 7 minute/mile. Puiii..

terms and conditions apply

2010-10-13T20:31:00.000+08:00

I have come to terms that at times like these , when we have to take turns taking care of the kids, I have to run alone. Even if it's 12 miles or 14 miles or 16 miles.

I have come to terms that, although I know there are some people cheering for me, more people are making fun of what I do, plodding almost everyday in the scorching sun.

I have come to terms that, some mothers are looking down upon me, saying that I don't spend enough time with my kids, even if my weekday runs seldom exceed 1 hour. I think it is better that I do this, rather than let my brood off out in the neighborhood, being mini mat rempits and only come home when " they feel hungry' while I'm watching La Usurpadora or whatever crap soap opera that's the in thing right now.

I have come to terms that the sun, the heat and the rain aren't barriers but rather the natural elements of my runs. If people tease, " How the heck are you going to run in a weather like this?", I'll reply, " Just put one foot in front of the other. Rinse and repeat."

I have come to terms that, teenagers will laugh as I run by but then, teenagers will laugh at anything. They will probably laugh at a blade of grass. For nothing.

I have come to terms that sometimes, due to unforeseen circumstances, I have to tweak my running routine. Like today, the office meeting ended late and my parents announced that they are coming over so automatically I have to cancel tomorrow as my rest day, fasting or not.

I have come to terms that, there will always be somebody faster than me, even though they seem like they're slacking off. I'm okay with that. I'm running for me.

I have come to terms that, in races, people will always want to take over me because apparently , it's too embarrassing to lose to a tudung lady. It's okay, I'll take that as a compliment somehow.

I have come to terms that, even though my heart wants to race so bad, and postings of races here and there are tempting, I have to back off to concentrate on my mileage buildup. Ye, saya memang nerd.

I have come to terms that, on most days, I'll be so busy with work, family and my runs that I'll take 2-3 days to get this thing written and finally post it.

So there you have it. Amidst all the race reports, here's my breather entry. heh heh.

One Long Entry

2010-10-04T22:11:00.000+08:00

The finishing line was just 100 metres ahead. I could see Hubs waiting for me at our car parked by the roadside. I thought I caught a glimpse of his brother Din, sitting on a metal bar behind the car, wearing his gray post run shirt grinning. Hubs joined me in my last attempt of a sprint, encouraging me to push a little more.
I crossed the line happy.
Then I said, " Where's Din?"

Where was Din?
I told Hubs that I thought I saw him towards the end. Nope, Hubs was doubtful. How could he change in his post run attire when the car keys was with me all along.
So we waited.
Maybe he was so fast, he got a bad case of runner's high and forgot that he was supposed to meet us at the car.
But he's a sensible guy, he won't do that.
And we waited.
maybe he got cramps and decided to walk the whole way.
And we waited.
But even after the oldest uncles, veteran of veterans came shuffling by, even after they took down the Start/ Finish banner, even after they stopped giving away medals, we couldn't find Din.

We went to the officials.
Excuse me, I can't seem to find my brother.
I suddenly realized my voice was one octave too high.
My mind suddenly flashed to that poor boy missing during last year's run in Shah Alam.
Our brother is missing.

Oh, yes. Him. He was sent to the hospital.
What? Why? When?
He was running. They sent him on an ambulance. He's not warded or anything. Just an outpatient, I think. He's there at the hospital.
And then they talked to each other about something else.

We ran to the hospital. It was that close. Not even a kilometer away. The race was over but there we were still running. We went to the A&E.
Is our brother here?
Yup. He ran a marathon, and then there was an accident. He was jogging.
What? Who ran over him ? Is he hurt?
Ah, wait ah. I'll go check.He's in the Yellow Zone.
We looked around the ER. Every room was yellow.

Dr Geetha attended us. After I identified myself as a Dr. She produced all the medical jargon mumbo jumbo about syncope, ST levels, ECG, arrhythmias,dopamine,MIs while I was trying to remember all this from my 3rd year Medical class in Dental School.
Anyway, his BP level was really low but now it's getting better. I'm doing some tests to rule out MI since he's a young, fit fellow. I suggest a full cardiac assessment after he's a bit better.
We took up everything in exclamation marks.

A hour later, we were called in again. Din hollered out to us, grinning as always.
What happened?
I blacked out. Then, I'm on the ambulance, then I'm in the ER. It's like in TV. The whole fuss is real. I got wires all around me. And they won't let me take pictures.
I ran hard, they didn't have markers. I thought every bend was the last bend. Then I saw a minah salleh with a stroller running past me. Then a few minutes after that, all I saw was black.

But he was okay after that. We even got him discharged. It was a case of dehydration and overexertion. He ran a 10K PR of 45 minutes back in UK a few months back and planned to repeat the feat here. Without proper training. Especially in this weather.

The things that baffled us were :

The organizers didn't provide medical assistance along the way. No St John or PBSM. Thank God, Din fainted near a hospital. In the middle of a race. In front of policemen. What if he was unlucky like the boy in Shah Alam. Who was dehydrated post race , and in his disorientated state, wandered to a secluded spot and fainted and nobody found him and he died.
They didn't accompany him to the hospital. They left him with the hospital staff. They didn't make any announcement.
No water station along the way. Yes, it was an RM10 race but not all runners are capable of going the whole 10K without water.

And the take home note from this would probably be :

Organizers need more organizing. Please, please be more careful in future races.
You can't cheat running. You need proper training. Don't ever jump head first. Even if we feel we can. Latihan is letihan but the letihan makes it work.

Din, I know you're reading this. Like I said, it's not the end. Do more cardio. Do more on road training runs. Get that cardiac assessment done once you're back home. Just in case.

You'll do fine.
One day, we'll race again. And you'll be so fast, you'll get your runner's high and forget about meeting us by the car. But just for a moment.
Because after that I'll see you, waiting for us, grinning as always.

Tanjung 10K - The Huh? race.

2010-10-03T17:12:00.000+08:00

After 2 months of not racing, this was our first race post ramadhan and raya and our last before PBIM. Just a simple 10K.
Or so I thought.

Race kit collection was such a breeze. I love small races.
It was also our first race with my brother in law, Din. And his first race in Malaysia. Previously he used to participate in races in UK.
Din innocently asked whether they'd have water stations and I replied ," It's a 10K race, they'd probably have two." Boy, was I wrong. They had none.
And no St John's either, because I could see none, and because none attended to Din when he collapsed ( But that's another entry, I promise),He collapsed just in front of Penang's General Hospital, Thank God.
I ran, noticing the same people in races in the Nothern States. There was ' Uncle tak pakai baju', 'BM Leopard Runner who had cramps in Taiping Run', our friend Bakri, and a few dozen familiar faces we've seen more than once.
Hubs zoomed ahead for a PB. I thought I zoomed too, but I guess I didn't zoom enough.
Overall course was in Penang City itself, us weaving in and out from this road to that,inhaling carbon monoxide along the way from passing cars who don't give a f about us runners. But we had a long incline of almost 1 mile, which slowed most of us down.
Slowed most of us down except this one lady mat salleh runner running with a baby stroller who whizzed past the rest of us up the hill and made us feel like burying our heads in the dirt.
Ontahlah, rasa cam winded sket in this race. Probably due to lack of training outside ( just started two weeks ago) and lack of racing? Or maybe because I wasn't wearing my gray pants? Nununununu ( lagu twilight zone)
So I achieved PB in an official 10K race. 61 minutes. It was actually 10.2 K

But I've recorded better 10K time in a 15K race and a half marathon. But who cares. A PB is a PB is a PB. Bukannya menang pon. Kuang kuang.

Hubs got his PB : 49 minutes. Here's a proof running slowly everyday helps.
Din got his first experience in the ER but like I said, I'll save that for later and let him rest.
When I got home, my daughter played with my medal and somehow 'lost' the darn thing. I'm still searching for it in the TV room.
Haish, ni mula la doubt berbunga-bunga untuk timing marathon PBIM nih.
Pastu, kenapa bullet ni lari ke tengah pulak dah.

Isk.

Exhibit A : Di depan Kolej Pergigian Penang. My legs look freakishly kurus like alien one and pose like Ultraman taro. Spelled p.o.y.o.

Exhibit B : Err..none sebab camera kaput lepas tu.

Sekianlah.

Get your barf buckets out.

2010-09-30T20:48:00.000+08:00

When I went out running today, waddling my way, sweating like anything and panting like a rabid dog, a young driver in a flashy sporty spanking new Mercedes flashed me his lights and gave me a thumbs up.

And for a millisecond there, I felt like I was Kara Goucher.
I really did.

Okay, you can puke now.

Note: What's with the short entries? I'm still on call and my next race is this weekend. You'll have a race report and gory on call stories by next week. Till then, I'm still shutting up.

Bardebi

2010-09-26T09:01:00.000+08:00

Yesterday's LSD was fun.We balik-ed kampung and used our kampung route. All was well except for the dead wild boar lying on the side of the road en route.

And oh, while we ran on the opposite side of the road ( of where the boar was sprawled) , we almost got ran over by this driver in a BMW who took an overestimated swerve to avoid the pig.

Huh. Sanggup langgar orang dari langgar babi. Ye la, kalau langgar orang tak payah susah-susah nak samak kereta.
Haduuu..

I'm on call this weekend and so far everything is ok. But I don't want to comment much because I'm afraid it'll jinx me so I'll shut up now.

Free finally

2010-09-21T00:47:00.000+08:00

Today in the menu was supposed to be an easy 3 miler.
Easy? Not quite considering what I had to go through at work today. Y'see, my department was scheduled for an audit from SIRIM today, with the auditor coming straight from Shah Alam.
And as a neurotic key player, I was bracing myself for the worst.
Thankfully, they found nothing major, just some glitches here and there that are correctable.
And after 2 months of patching things up and worrying my ass off, I can finally heave a heavy sigh of relief.
Glad to cross that one off the agenda finally.

Unfortunately, the closing meeting ended late and I had 10 minutes to do my Asar then hit the tarmac at 6.30 pm. It was dark post rain and twilight was creeping in but I ran anyway. Halfway, my left leg felt heavy and then it drizzled. By this time I was getting harassed by senja weirdos left and right.
That wasn't the worst part.
The worst part was on the last stretch of my run, I saw one of my neighbors releasing his dogs from his gate. Okay, I have no qualms about people having dogs as pets. Dogs are cute, yes but please, for goodness sake, don't have dogs if you're too lazy to take them out for a proper walk. I mean, this guy lets his dogs loose and they roam freely in the residential area like they run the place. Sure, most of the time the dogs hardly bark. They're comparatively well behaved dogs behind the gate but well, accidents can happen kan?

So anyway, I was running and I noticed these two huge dogs running towards me. I know they weren't charging at me, and they did turn into another lane but it freaked me out to think that I may have to practice the Ape Effect so near to my house. Jiran-jiran mesti blacklist. Hehe
So I ran faster and faster towards my home, praying all that while the dogs won't catch up with me.

When I got safely home and checked my Garmin, it told me I did the last stretch with a 7.09 min/mile pace.
What's cool was I did that minus the conscious effort without even wheezing, gasping for air (much),collapsing and dying (not necessarily in that order)
Now if I can only maintain that as my race pace.
Sigh. A girl can only dream.

Oh, and to the people of my taman who are reading this ( probably not), for Pete's sake, I'm RUNNING not jogging. Consider this your first final warning.
Huh.

Bananas

2010-09-15T18:18:00.000+08:00

Hi kids! For today's lesson, I will introduce you to the action-reaction theory of The Ape Effect.

Okay, so imagine yourself in a zoo. You'll most likely see a bunch of kids gawking in front of the ape cage, hooting and making weird noises to attract the poor creature's attention. They will continue doing so until suddenly , the ape roars. This is the action. The reaction that follow will probably be : the kids will stop, giggle nervously then slowly disperse. This, is the Ape Effect.

Hail fellow runners, we can apply this theory in our daily runs.
A runner, while running in his/her running route will most probably get the occasional rude or smart alec crack from uninvited roadside spectators. What one should do is, one should make weird noises ( such as a caw or a bleat) or better yet, make a 'back-atcha' wisecrack, confidently to the spectators while maintaining direct eye contact. The usual reaction from these people to this would probably be : stop, nervous giggle then look/walk away. Thus, The Ape Effect.

I have tested this many times and can give my sound testimony that it works. Sure they'll think you're weird but at least they'll stop bothering you.

Anyyywayyy...I've entered my 10 week training period this week. And let me tell ya, after a month of running on the thrillmill, I've lost sight on how hard it is running on road. On the machine, I could do 10 minute/mile for 5-6 miles easy. But on the road, nak maintain 11 min/mile pun macam apa ntah. I was wheezing like anything, and coming across a slithering snake on the road doesn't help either. I hope I can improve in time for my next 10K race in 2 weeks time. As usual, my ~~hub~~ manager says, " Boleh, boleh" while eyeing me as I munch on raya cookies. But I guess, if he's confident with me, then I should believe in myself too eh?

Oh and on the 4th day of raya, manager and I went out running and it rained halfway but we ran anyway. When we got back to my parents place ( we ran at our kampung route), my mom shook her head dissapprovingly, " You ran in the rain?"

Well, sure beats walking in the rain.

Berdialog

2010-09-07T07:08:00.000+08:00

Pelik betul. Masa mula Ramadhan, berkobar aku nak treneng.
Badan tak larat sekalipun, aku bantai jugak paling koman 2 mile. Walaupun ~~laki~~ manager aku kata tu junk miles je
Tapi sejak aku demam hari tu, tetiba jadik malas pulak nak panjat thrillmill tu.
Rasanya sejak recover ada la sekali aku lari atas benda alah tu.
Pastu, hampeh.
Malam ni plannya nak lari. Kunun tercabar ngan manager yg dalam itinerary nya malam ni 10 miles. Malangnya aku mendevise plan dalam kepala otak geligaku ini untuk mengemas rumah untuk mengelakkan lari.
Kemas sini sikit, sapu itu sikit, lap ini sikit, sedor2 dah pukul 10 malam. Bed time! ( kununnya).
Tapi sekarang dah pukul 10.20pm dan secara magisnya aku dok depan komputer tengah type entri nih yang ntah pape.
Anyway, aku tetibe cuak sebab full marathon ku lagi 10 minggu. Macam tak cukup masa je nak treneng. Manager aku cakap, " Cukup, cukup" ngan sinar mata yang tak berapa konfiden dengan target time aku. Boleh ke ni? 10 minggu beb. Tu tak kira 2 minggu aku kena oncall. Adoi.

Aku teringat time aku abis first marathon dulu. Ada membe tanya, " Eh, ko abih 42K tu dalam masa berapa hari ek?" Hehe. Ada jugak ye soalan begitu.

Anyway, aku sebenarnya tulis ni saje nak ucapkan SELAMAT HARI RAYA.
Sori ek geng kalo apa2 aku tulis mengguris hati korang. Sesungguhnya aku tidak bermaksud begitu .
Lepas raya ni, kita pulun habis-habisan. No more thrillmills, lari luaq je ok ( kecuali hujan)

We can we can we can.

Sick

2010-09-01T12:46:00.000+08:00

I have been under the weather for 2 days now. I guess I saw it coming after the 10th time my son sneezed on me.
So yesterday at sahur I swallowed 2 pills hoping that it would get me through the day. Unfortunately by 11 am, the effects wore off and I was left with severe chills despite hub telling me that it was scorching hot outside. Thank God it was a public holiday ( btw, Happy Merdeka everybody!).

But anyway, I suffered. The whole day, I was sort of bedridden. No wonder when they were sick, my children just laid on the couch and and made fun of each other from far, not wanting to move. Otherwise they are usually up and about bouncing from wall to wall.
I was fatigued. I had a splitting headache and every time anyone mentioned food, I felt nauseated. Plus my temperature was running really high.

But dunno why, despite all that, nauseating as it was, I still decided I wanted to have a burger for iftar because nobody can resist a good burger ( at least not me, anyway). So we went to the nearest McD 5 minutes away, splitting headache and all.
When we got home, hub asked what I wanted to have first ( we ordered a whole lot, puasa la katakan),and all I could think of was two panadols. I gulped down the meds, laid down for a while for the antipyretics to kick in and tried to enjoy my Spicy McDeluxe ( yes, with a gazillion calories, I know).
Enjoy? More like forced fed. I can never recall a time I've ended a meal with , " Thank God that's over!" until then.
~~Tapi habis jugak~~.

Anyway, I didn't have enough strength to ignore the sluggishness and go through 2K on the thrillmill to complete the ~~newly~~ targeted mileage of 80 KM for August.
I guess 78K is still good.
( tapikan, kite baca kan, ada orang tu kan, dia buat 90 ish K in a week, puh! Kaki gazelle ke apa?)

Takdela hebat sangat

2010-08-26T23:04:00.000+08:00

I have a confession. If I have the time and the kids aren't watching Astro Ceria, I like to watch E!

Don't cringe. It's true.

I watch The Kardashians. My dream run on the thrillmill would be a 50 minute run at 10 min/mile pace watching Jerseylicious. Unfortunately the tv is upstairs while the thrillmill is downstairs.
Why would I expose my mind to such crap you might ask? Well I find it's the only channel that I can turn off my brain to.
Seriously, once you set your eyes on Giulianna Rancic, you can set your mind on sleep mode and gape away.

Anyway, last few days I caught on The Daily 10 where Sal Masakaela ( or however you spell his name) was interviewing Jillian Michaels of the Biggest Loser.He nonchalantly mentioned that he'll be running in the NY Marathon. " I'd rather die" Jillian replied. When Sal gave her a puzzled look, she told him,
" The two things I fear the most are running a marathon and drowning ". (Or was that childbirth? - see what I mean about switching my brains off)
And I'm like, " Well, I'll be. She's normal after all!"

So you're not so tough after all, lady.

And that's about it.
Itu je nak cerita sebenarnya.

Aduhai Ahmad Jauhari

2010-08-24T00:01:00.000+08:00

Just got this in the mail a few days ago. It's the Malakoff Penang 26K Finisher Certificate.

Once again ( sigh), my finishing pic is a mess so you won't get to see it here.

I'm allright with the timing, I'm happy with the ranking but the category?

Ermm.. ( staring blankly at the ceiling)..ah..ooh-kay.

Yang ni lagi kesian. Muka pun tadek.

Ha ha ha hampeh.

Kenapa saya malas update minggu ini

2010-08-20T09:40:00.000+08:00

Writer's block.
Very busy with work
No races.
Not much patients ( so tak banyak ' kejadian menarik hari ini')
dan saya digeget M-Bug of blogging ( which brings on the question : who first coined the term Mbug? Nik ke)
today I the very malas-malasan ( I'm blogging from the office despite the high probability of big boss appearing from nowhere to catch me red handed)
It's only 10 days of Ramadhan and I'm already craving for kuih raya ( " Saya nak order kuih ini, ini, ini, ini dan itu, oh dan ini juge" what I said to the staff taking kuih raya orders)

Oh, oh, but I only got 12K to go to reach my 50K goal. Should be done by this weekend, InsyaAllah.
So I guess I should change my target mileage for August, huh?

Eh, already on the 13th line? See, malas-malas pun ada entry jugak. Hehe.
Happy weekend!

Ice cream flavoured dreams.

2010-08-15T00:25:00.000+08:00

It's been a tough week at work. I'm super busy and I think I need a P.A. In the mornings, I turn on my computer, log in my FB account, don't even read through anyone's updates or messages, then proceed on writing up reports for either the department, state or Putrajaya. Then I have to shuffle and reshuffle everyone's weekly schedule and try to devise a plan on how to reject some people's cuti raya ( untuk kepentingan jabatan) without them hating me to bits. Everyday, people have to line up to talk to me or give me updates, literally. And I'm like pointing to so and so and say, " Okay, you. Go!" while trying to get some filings done at the same time. On top of all that, I still have my clinical work to attend to.

So you can see why I've been so quiet this week. No blog updates, no comments on other blogs. I've been missing out on some of you guys' entries. Sorry bout that.

And I'm really happy to read ( once I caught up) that some of you are logging on some impressive mileage. Good for you! Can't say the same for myself, though.

Since the 1st of Ramadhan, I've only been running 3 times and that only accumulates to roughly 14K. My justification? Well, I don't run outside during Ramadhan. Where got time, meh? After work, I cook for iftar ( boycotting pasar Ramadhan for 3 years now), then bukak puasa, then after our terawikh at 9 ish pm, I get the house in order, then tuck the kids in at 10 ( with yours truly zonking out also). I try to squeeze in my runs at lunch break time, but I can only get roughly 2 miles.
Tonight I managed to selit-selit 4 miles, starting at 9.30 pm, finishing at roughly 10 ish. The kids were angels while I was on the thrillmill ( psaiko diri jap) for 40 minutes, the boy reading and doing activities on his preschool magazine and the girl drawing little female caricatures she fondly calls Bar-de-bi ( that's Barbie to the rest of us). I was parched on the 2nd mile but dare not stop to take a drink in fear that my kids will think I have finished and whine for this and that. So I sucked it up and got it done. I know I could do more but kesian la budak-budak tu. Oh and where was Papa all this while? He went off doing his 24K outside till 12 am. ( which I don't really mind because I wouldn't want to do the same during Ramadhan)

So after the run, I fed them some late night snack, brushed their teeth, and tucked them in, their hair smelling sweet like ice cream ( courtesy of the strawberry scented shampoo their dad bought earlier). Sigh. My babies.

Sometimes you can't be a runner and a mom at the same time.

And I think at this rate, cemana nak capai 5OK accumulative mileage for August ( tiru goal Sun)? Hohoho.
~~Or should that be huhuhu .~~

Running in Baju Melayu

2010-08-10T00:54:00.000+08:00

Me? Ha! Fat chance. Not me. Him.
And this wasn't his first time. I think I've blogged about Larian Merdeka last year.
Let me check. Oh, ok. Here it is.

Anyway, last Sunday was Larian Merdeka 2010 in Esplanade Penang. It's pretty much the same as last year. Same organizers. Same sponsors. Same route. Almost the same shirt design. Difference was, I wasn't running. Hehe.

Hub has given up a couple of races to take care of the kids while I ran. So this time, I decided it was my turn to be the supporter. Rah rah.

And same as last year, hub decided to run this race in a baju melayu. Kira menghayati semangat kemerdekaan la ni. He planned this like for days but only took the effort to search for his baju melayu the night before the race. Of course la tak jumpa. Turns out he left it at our old home so pepagi bute we had to go there to get the darn thing.

When we arrived at about 7 in the morning, it was quite cloudy and we couldn't tell whether it was post rain or was just about to rain.

" Butang baju aku mana, Pah?"

Whatever it was, 5 minutes before guntime, it poured elephants and tapirs.

Gile lebat. Worse than Ipoh Run 2009. But the officials were smart to gun off anyway.

Okay. You're dressed for a run. All geared up. Dah datang pun. So RUN ALREADY! But some people so manja, don't want to get wet. Thing was some had the audacity to demand the officials for certificates even though they didn't run with the argument that they paid. Dey?And then when the officals brought out 100 plus for the finishers, guess who helped themselves first. Dey?

( Gambar adelah contoh, takde kaitan sama ada hidup atau mati)

The kids and I waited for their dad to cross the finish line. The kids were in awe with everything. From the rain, to the crowd, to the DJ ( they kept staring at him). But they were captivated when they saw runners making a dash to the finishing line. Nganga. Kagum.

Hubs came in so fast, it was all in a blur. ~~Or, maybe I'm just a bad photog.~~

Apapun he came at 31:47 for that 6.5K. Not bad for running all clad up like that, plus barefoot.
You go, honey!

And it only stopped raining after the race was almost done.

Post race 2010

Post race 2009

Kantoi takde baju melayu lain dah...kuikui.

And this may look like bad parenting, but I let my kids play in the rain.
Hey, you only live once. Let them have fun.

All in all, a very much recommendable race for larian geli-geli. Top organizing. Fees sangatlah murah. No hassle pre and post race. And I know somebody in particular who would love to be there last Sunday. It was raining. The official shirt was white. It was raining.
You do the math.

Oh, and selamat berpuasa everybody!

Walk-Walk Find Food.

2010-08-06T22:56:00.000+08:00

So we were a bit stressed out from work so we decided to have a mid week holiday. It all went fine except a few things ;

I went a bit overboard at the buffet desert section. Note that this is my second plate. My first plate was piled with cakes.
When we decended down the hilly resort, my ears popped so loud, half of my face hurts.
A 20 year old-ish boy called me makcik. Adoi.
We watched a movie about a boy moving into a new place, sangat berlagak, tried to get the local belle then got beat up, and then has the nerve to learn some chops to beat up the locals pulak. Huh. Penjajah betul.

But all in all , our short break can be summed up by this:

WOO-HOO!

And best of all :


Sayang, kita ketemu jua

"Open the box. Peel back the tissue paper. Behold those pristine shoes. Then lift the box to your face and breathe deeply.
Mmmm..Smells like potential.
And possibly formaldehyde. But mostly potential "
Mark Remy.

But because we mutually agreed on a no hoarding policy when we moved in our new home, once new shoes go in, old and seasoned shoes go out.

Old. Seasoned.

Out.

Cuma, saya berharap ianya tidak menulis karangan " Saya sepasang kasut" kelak.
Huhu.

Prevention vs Intervention

2010-08-02T20:30:00.000+08:00

Lemme tell you a funny story. Not funny in the ha ha ha kind of way, but more of funny quirky way.
So we were at this Majlis Menyambut Ramadhan thingy at our neighbourhood last night. Apparently, the community here are close-knit so they celebrate almost everything together. Anyway, at the end of the gathering, the host gave each adult a parting gift- a 1kg packet of sugar. Beats me what it's supposed to symbolize.
I accepted my gift and piped out loud :
" Jenuhla nak perabih gula nih "
The women sitting around me gave me weird looks. I was like "What?"
" Honey, take it from me, the sugar will be long gone before Ramadhan" said somebody in the group.

Not in my house.

The packet of sugar we bought when we first moved here ( 2 months ago) is far from finished. Heck, half of the packet is still in its plastic stored away in the freezer. The other half stored in a small container mmg tak luak pun. I guess we're not much sugar eaters.
This wasn't planned. It's not like when we decided to get married 7 years ago, we pledged to reduce our household sugar intake. I've always been lazy to bancuh-bancuh air manis and turns out he's the same. So we don't have our tea/milo/coffee breakfast, afternoon or evening. I only occasionally make kuih ( occasionally means like once in 4 months). I don't do cookies, cakes or whatever ( that's what bakeries or borang pesan kuih raya is for) and the sugar is only for cooking-sometimes.
So you see, it takes forever for our house to run out of sugar. Especially in Ramadhan.

So I told this to hub once he got home ( He stayed back for some neighbourhood men meeting -whatever that is). " It'll take us eternity to finish all that sugar" I said.
"I know," he replied. " That's why I left it behind" ( The poor host was like, " Whose is this? Whose is this?")
Hee hee hee.

Ok, satu lagi cerita. I ran with a Garmin on, leisurely for the first time. Usually, I run with my koroi watch but as I plan to purchase a Garmin, I might as well get used to running with one ( hub's). It was weird. First, it was so huge, it covered my whole wrist. And even after I tightened it to the maximum notch, it still slid freely on my wrist. So as I was running, it was jiggling up and down in the most uncomfortable way. I decided to ignore all that as I ran.
It was quite cool to see my actual pace. The Garmin records my average pace per mile. Before I was quite sure I ran 10:00 per mile on my easy runs so I was quite discouraged when I saw 10:45 before reaching my first mile. Oh well, I thought, kalau dah perasan tu perasan jugak.
After a while, I was startled by some vibrations on my wrists. I knew the thing buzzed every mile but I didn't knew it vibrated. Cool.
So lari dan lari dan lari,34 minutes and 3.39 miles later I glanced at the Garmin. Wah, it showed my pace as 9:51. Puh! And I thought I was slowing down on the last mile.
Kembang kempis idung.
Tup-tup, after Hub downloaded the data from the Garmin to our PC, the 9:51 was just the avearge pace for the last 0.39 miles. My average pace was actually 10:15 mins per mile.
Huh, kalau dah perasan tu perasan jugak.

Wah, I'm getting technical! ~~And I'm counting in miles.~~

p/s: the title comes from my public health talk this morning. I sweated myself out trying to convince people I knew what I was talking about. Boy,I suck at public health.

Denial. Revisited.

2010-07-30T19:40:00.000+08:00

So as it was raining and hub wanted to do his 4 miler anyway, I decided to run on the dreadmill instead. To tell you the truth, the poor thing has been neglected these past few weeks, sitting there in the corner, quietly collecting dust and cobwebs(!). I found segala mak nenek on the tread in bits and peices, dried rice ( the dining table is next to it), color pencil stubs ( little boy likes to do his coloring there despite my repeated warnings not to) dan lain lain lagi.

I decided today, I'm bored of doing the usual 5km at such such speed. I'm bored of such monotony, bored of waiting when the run will end. I noticed there were 6 preset programs and I don't remember the last time I tried one of those. So, I chose on of the incline programs for 40 minutes and just followed the routine while little boy busied himself doing homework and little girl sat there nibbling on her snack.. And whaddya know, it was quite allright. I huffed and puffed on the incline especially the maximum 10 but it wasn't as hard as I dreaded it to be.And although it was less than my usual mileage, according to the digital screen, I burned twice more calories. Tapikan, to tell you the truth the thing hasn't been calibrated since we bought it 5 years ago so leh caye ke? heh heh.
But anyway, 40 minutes felt more like 20 so it wasn't that bad. It kinda reminded me that running on the dreadmill is not such torture once you get it over with. So could possibly dreadmill turn to a thrillmill?

Err..I still seriously doubt that. But I shouldn't kutuk2 sangat my dreadmill kan? It was my savior when once I thought running alone outside was imposible. Dulu boleh je buat kan?

Ngengada betul.

On another note, some junior collegues have shown interest in running . One even wanted to run her first marathon in PBIM. Thing is they're all talk and haven't done squat. I've given tips and stories. I've even suggested joining the FMVs. I've even handed one of them a form for a run nearby for 6K.
But when I ask for their progress they give me truckloads of excuses : we couldn't find the right gym, I'm asthmatic, it's raining, too tired from work.
And it's beggining to feel like I'm the only one enthusiastic about it all. Cam poyo je.
So I've stopped asking. Ive stopped hoping.
.
.

Lantak ko le labu

Our town ( Taiping Heritage Run)

2010-07-25T22:26:00.000+08:00

It is now 9.30 pm and I'm trying to get this done before my kids' bedtime and before the week starts as I'll be busy at the office. Hins hins.

Go!

Prerace

During race kit collection on Friday, the volunteers took 30 minutes to get my bib as my name wasn't in the list. So at last they came up with a bib with hand written numbers for me. Sedihnya because I registered early and hub had no problem with his. But they were apologetic enough so whatever.

keshian kat shaye

Hub just got back from his week in the hutan so he was lacking of rest and sleep but insisted on going for this run, barefoot. Told him the least he could do is take it at a slower pace (mine) and be my pacer.
This is my last race before Ramadhan!
Did I tell you I loved the goodie bag. By far, this race has got the most goodies in a bag. My brother pointed out that I paid RM30 fees, so I'm supposed to get those things. Thing is, some RM45-RM60 races don't give out anything more than a banana post race.

banyak oo..and we got 2 shirts in the bag. Notice the rubix cube.

The Race.

We were supposed to be flagged off at 7.00 am but they made us wait at the Majlis Perbandaran Taiping building. There were so many participants for a small town race and everyone was talking and ignoring the poor uncle on the megaphone. At 7.20 am, when the iron gate opened, naturally everyone started running only to be stopped a few seconds later. Rupanya there was another starting point. Cis, buang karan.
So after some VIP stopped blabering to himself, we were gunned off slightly over 7.30 am! The route started at Taman Tasik Taiping. We knew this route like the back of our hands ( eceh) so it was quite okay. I planned to go at 6 minutes/km and anything below 1:30 would be good.
Tapikan, after two flat races ( SCKLM and Ipoh Run), I couldn't get the hang of this quite hilly route. I was quite struggling on the hills but forced myself to keep up with hubs. Hills suck.
To get my mind off the fatigue-ness and my palpitating heart ( now what's up with that?), I tried to concentrate on getting past the girl, any girl in front of me. Ini bukan kiasu, ini adalah motivasi. heh heh.
The motorist here are nice enough, just quietly waiting for us runners to pass without honking or cursing or anything, unlike in Ipoh. The RELA and Police did a superb job.
What can I say about the route? It's our town, we're familiar with the route, we know what to expect and when. What can I say more? It 's Taiping, it's beautiful. Oh yes, except it's quite hilly.
When I reached the 10K marker, my watch showed 58 minutes. Woo hoo.
Hub acted as motivater/pacer/traffic watcher. It was nice running with him again. Except I did wish his elbows didn't bump onto mine that often and he'd stop singing sometimes.
I let him run ahead at his pace on mile 8. At this time , the 15K route merged with the 7K route. Banyak nya budak sekolah lengang kangkung and I had to weave in and out through town.
Finally sampai. Got no 27 in my category.

Like I said, anything below 1:30 is good. Backround go green oo

Bolehlaaaa...

Postrace:
Gambar je la ek? Layann...

Post run meal. Okla kan? Banana pun dapat.

Post run feet ( hubs punya la) Still clean!

Post Run makan. Walaupun kureng, tapi bedal je laa..

Post run sengeh ( berkelah on the lawn ala omputeh aa)

Post run Mat Kol Mat Kol Kawan Kol


Post Run medal ( presentation ala Vana White)

What on earth?

2010-07-22T19:07:00.000+08:00

Okay, can somebody please decode this?

So I was reading a novel, when my son comes up to me and showed me this.

me: Where did you copy this from?
son: I wrote it by myself.
me: Clever boy. But, seriously, where'd you copy it?
son: I made it up. It's mine.
me: Are you trying to tell me something I don't know?
son: heee heee heee

Okay, I understand the Selena Gomez bit, but this baffles me. I've been trying to make sense of it since Monday.
It's creeping me out