Bidor Half Marathon/ Err...10K.

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

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.