number cruncher

In the 25km Newton Run 2010:

My bib number: 2345

My ranking number: 111

My gun time: 3:45:41.58

My chip time: 3:43:20.13

:)

All this beautiful play of numbers make me smile despite the fact that the lovely bib number didn't help make my run any faster, the ranking number means I'm nearer to the bottom of the rank than to the top of it, and the timing says I walked more than I ran.

It was the longest distance I ever tried so far, and what a gruesome first-time experience this one was! That Sunday was indeed a sun day, which seemed like the hottest day of the hottest days in Malaysia that you could feel the sun clawing your back and you'd feel just like being flipped in a frying pan when the course then changed facing the sun; the whole route was all hilly it felt like going through a roller coaster ride on foot; there were no distance markers could be seen except for the last 5km; only a small number of medals  were available for the superfast runners and no finisher's medals given to the more slow-but-steady majority; and there were no goodies, no food/fruit/refreshment/drinks (except for a bottle of mineral water. And we later found out the Milo lorry was long gone before even half of the runners were done), no nothing offered to exhausted runners upon finishing albeit the RM60 'roller coaster' ticket paid. :(

But yay the finisher's tee is cute and we the back of the pack rembat 2 each to compensate the absence of a finisher's medal! Hah! :D

"2 helai", kata Sang Perembat.

Oh but now seeing that the :( paragraph is much more long-winded than the :D paragraph, I wished that I had snatched 4 tees instead...huhuuh.

chicken run

I'm such a chicken shit.

I've been wanting to try racing a half-marathon for ages, but never had the gut to join any. Dari zaman kurus-dan-fit, kepada kurus-tapi-tak fit, kepada gemuk-tapi-fit, dan kini menjadi gemuk-dan-tak fit. Haih.. I always doubted that I would be able to finish a whole 21km.

So when I found out about Putrajaya Night Marathon in which there'll be a half-marathon category as well, I thought this would be a good opportunity for me to try my first 21km run, since this race will be held at night  time (so I won't have to deal with the beating heat of the sun, thus reduce the possibility for me to pass out somewhere along my run...errr do you get the straight-forward thinking as such?).

But as anxious and nervous as I always am to go through such a long run, my training log (not that I really have one though,,it's just a mere calculation in my head ;p) barely recorded not even half of the race distance though I've already registered for the run since early this year! Huhuhuu..

For tonight's race, I hope all you hopping bunnies out there will kindly cross your fingers and pray that I will survive the 21km. As this will be my first attempt, I certainly don't put any time target to score. I just hope that I will make it to the finishing line on my own two feet, and not in the sweeper vehicle or worse, in an ambulance. Any better achievement than that would be sweet :)

Okayy,,now my feet have already gone cold and there's a farm of butterflies fluttering madly in my stomach.. Fuhhh!!

night runner

I went to KLCC Park after maghrib for an evening after-work jog/run. It's a good place since its not-so-far from office (okey laa), got vast parking lots (though the only setback is that they aren't free :p), a mosque just beside the jogging track, drinking fountains, safe (there are security personnels scattered around to watch the place) and plus, I don't think it'll be a lonely workout as I always see people running around there until night.

That was the first time I run at night, and I think it gives a different kind of a nice feeling compared to running in the dark of an early morning, though I like a morning run as well.

I had only finished the first lap and already I felt that my legs were going to cramp huhuuh. Yeah you guessed it right, I jumped straight out from the car onto the track without proper stretching. The pessimist side of me already begging to go home, but the cheapskate in me won the war, rationalizing that I'd already been charged a parking fee for the first hour while I'd only been there for a mere 15 minutes. So that pushed me to another lap.

Slowing down as I neared the end of the second lap, I was ready to call it quit when suddenly a guy ran past me, marching to the rhythm of his MP3 player. I noticed that his pace was not so fast but constant with short strides, and I thought I could catch that. And suddenly I found myself already on his ass tailing him closely, one stride behind.

It was a surprisingly nice run! Focusing to him and being careful not to step on his feet, I just tagged along mindlessly that even the leg cramp disappeared halfway through the circle.

But noticing that he sometimes slowed a bit and glanced to his sides to check on his stalker, I feared that he would suddenly turn around with a fuming mad and annoyed face barking to me, "Why are you following me?! Are you some psycho??!". Anticipating such scary moment, I cooked up so many excuses in my head from a plain "I just need someone to pull me through the course" to "I have low blood pressure and worry that I would faint, so I need to run closely to somebody" to even "You look like my ex-boyfriend, I just can't get you off my eyes" (ok the last one indeed sounds like a psycho huhuhu)..

Hence my heart almost skipped a beat when he did turn around to me when we came to our starting point! Except, to my relief, not with a fuming mad and annoyed face, but with a wide grin, eyes twinkling, calling out to me, "Last lap!", and sped off forward for another round.

I surely didn't expect that..I was so stunned that I just stood there and laughed out loud, before screaming back to him "Are you really gonna sprint the whole lap?!" and got back on track to catch up. Luckily he slowed down halfway, so we rejoined and sprint the last 100m together (though of course I was far behind heheh). Huff-puffing and panting, and face beaming with joy, we smiled and thanked each other for the fun workout together, and parted.

It's amazing how we can so much enjoy a company of a total stranger, though only for half an hour and most of the times in silence, that it motivates you to go through a course that you already thought of quitting.