1st Marathon

Completed the 1st marathon in my life already. My timing was way way way way off the target I set. Based on my own time, it is 6hrs 55minutes.
Now, both AmK and me are lying in bed and could not get anything done. Though hungry, our body are just too tired to move. I sustained several injuries. Some I think which is not normal. :p
Blister at my bottom of my left foot. All thanks to the stupid sandy cum stony stretch at the Bedok Reservoir. My right ankle suffered "break skin" (translate from chinese-now my mind not working. cant figure out the real name) The place besides my balls are very painful now. Due to the abrasions with my underwear. Then, my armpit also suffered the abrasion from my singlet. The worst one is the one beside my balls. I can't even walk properly now. These are beside the muscle pains which I am suffering all over my body. haizzz..... I AM HUNGRY!!! =p

Sundown Marathon

Tonight 11:59pm, I will be flagged off to start my first marathon. Thanks to everyone who wished me good luck and also advice me on this run. :)
Don't know how long I will take to finish this. My initial target was 6hrs to complete this. Now, I think I will try for a 5 1/2 hrs. Really hope I can achieve this one. The weather is not bad actually. Although it seems like it is going to rain soon. It is not too warm.
On the "Athletes Guide", there are 4 portions of the route:
1) String of Lights (22km) - should be a straight forward run of half the distance.
2) Heartland Twist (7km) - have 3 overhead bridges. Should be very challenging after the 22km
3) Waterfront Trail (6km) - should have nice view around the reservoir
4) Home Run (7km) - quote the document ".. runners will face a 300m uphill battle.."

I just think the organizers are a bit sadistic with this 300m uphill before reaching the finishing line. :p

Okla.... will relax a bit before preparing to reach there for the run. Hope I still have the energy to blog about this after finish the event. :)

Itinerary for June 09

For the month of June, I had counted that I should be working less than 10 days in office. =)

First week, 1st June, I will be on leave so recover from my Marathon during the weekend. So, work day starts on Tuesday till Friday (4 days). Then, I will come in on Monday before flying off to Swiss for some training on that night (1 day). The next week, I should be in Swiss the whole time (0 day). I will be back to work on the Monday after that and will work for 3 days before flying off again for my KK trip (3 days) and will be back on 30th June (but only back to work on 2nd July). So, in total, I will only work for 8 days for the month of June. Hehehehe

I had never imagined my life to be so hectic. I think this will be the month with a lot of firsts happening in my life. 1st time attempting to run a Full Marathon. 1st trip to Europe. 1st trip to East Malaysia. 1st time travelling to 2 places in one month. Its getting really exciting. =D

Now some info on my Swiss trip. So, I'll be flying off from Sg on the night of 8th June and will arrive back to Sg on the 21st. Hard to imagine that I will be away for nearly 2 weeks for this trip. For this trip, I will be going to Riva San Vitale in Ticino. It is at the south of Switzerland. The place which is surrounded by Italy. So, my flight will be reach Milan, Italy instead of going direct to Switzerland. Yeah!!! For those which does not know, Milan is at the North side of Italy and should be the nearest International Airport going to south Switzerland. Though I don't foresee any extra time being able to spend at Milan, but, it is still stepping foot to Italy. To add on the "1st"s happening to me in June. I will be arriving in 2 European countries within a few hours time. From Google Map, I will be across the border within 1hr+ from the Milan airport.

For those who have any suggestion on what to buy in Swiss. Please drop me a note in the comment. Till now, I am not sure of what to get yet. A bit too rush for me to do gather greater info on Riva San Vitale and also Swiss. Maybe can also include the Milan Airport. For those who know of how to get around at Riva San Vitale for the weekend. Please also suggest any interesting places or nice places to take photos there as well.

Run - TPY 26 May 09

Tuesday had been set in my company's calendar as a "Jogging Day" thanks to Freddy. He had initiated this run when we had to work for 4 days previously. For now, although only the minorities are joining, there are always around 4-5 ppl everytime. Not a bad turnout for a weekly event. We had decided that the venue will be at TPY stadium cause it is the closest to our office.

For yesterday's run, I think it is one of the best ones which I had did. Not in timing, but in distance. I could not have imagined I could complete a 20 round (19 run non-stop + 1 warm down aka walk). I think I actually still can go a few more rounds. (hehehe) Not sure if it is because of the events happening in office yesterday. It could be that I finally got hold of my own pace and are able to maintain it in the track. This is from a guy who previously could hardly complete a 2km run a few months back. Could be a psychological push on myself for the marathon this weekend. But I was really satisfied with my run. Although it took me 1hr to complete the 20laps which will make it similar with my previous 10km run events timing. But I am already satisfied with achieving this distance.

As for now, I will be resting for these 2 days (today included) and will probably go for a light run on Friday. Don't look down on my commitment for daily run for now. Cause I felt the sore and a little pain on my knee already. So, I think my body is telling me to rest a bit first.

Good or Bad? Yet to be decided!!

Something shocking happened to me in office yesterday. I was suddenly called by my old boss for a meeting with him and another colleague. Shocking cause, I had nothing much work related stuffs to discuss already. So, shockingly, he says that he suggested to big boss for me to be involved in one of the supposed to be established "team". I was shocked and had wanted to reject him for this already. I think he had already knew I would have rejected this and had prepared the "carrot" before hand. Before starting this new thing, there is a training which will need to be attended. Training Location : Switzerland.

How to reject? I had never even dream of venturing into Europe within these few years and suddenly I am given the opportunity to travel there. Besides, the supposed training was supposed to last for 8 days. Thus, meaning, should have a weekend there for me to explore around. The travel bug in me kept biting me to GO for it. But there was something which held me back.

So, I discussed this with my boss and she is really supportive. Basically, she ask me what I wanted and adviced me to get more info before deciding. In the end, the bug won. But, my position will still remain but with an extra role of being a supporting role for this new team. But, one thing someone told me:

"There is no such thing as assist. Assist is doing the job without recognition"

For now, don't care first. Swiss, here I come =D

Run @ 24 May 09

Till now, I have been able to maintain a run everyday for these past few days. Quite proud of it. =D Really hope I can maintain this. But I think I better cut myself some slack before such a full commitment. =p So, I think, I will try to maintain a run everyday when I am in Singapore. For those holidays when I go for holidays, overseas or go back to my hometown, I will not need to commit myself. Come on, these times, I have better use for my time than to run around. =p

Back to this post, today, I went on a run alone at the Serangoon Park Connector. The one which I normally have my run during the day. A little bit on Park Connector. There is a "canal" along this park connector which I really love. There are quite a number of birds and fishes along this canal which makes it very enjoyable to have a run in. I had told myself to find a day when I will go there to just take pics of the birds and the beauty there but had kept procastinating these few weeks. So, the below are the pics which I had taken when I first tested out the 1000D quite a while ago. Trust me, the below pics says just very little of its beauty. Besides, the views at night is nothing to be proud of.


Back to the run, with all the run that I had been going through these few days, I think I could have pushed myself further in the distance that I am capable of. Although this may be a bit too late as I will have to go for my run this Sat evening/Sun morning. But it really felt good to maintain a run for a measly 6.4km (total 8km with additional cool down walk). Quite an improvement from my normal 2.4-3km run. Let's just hope I am capable of completing the Sundown this weekend.
Wish me luck. =D

Running

I had gotten hand on my iPod nano. Hehehe....
Love them. Just that I am not used to having to get iTunes to "synchronise" the songs and movies into this little baby. =D
Besides the iPod, we have also gotten our hand on the silicon casing and also the armband for iPod nano. Not that cheap though. T.T
I had taken them for 2 trial runs already. The 1st one, I just set the shuffle into shuffling ONLY one song throughout the whole run. Wasn't paying too much attention to the songs though cause was worried it will rain. Which in the end, it did rained. So, had to cut short of the run from the intended distance. Then it was just now (started my run around 11:30pm), had much better run. Although shorter distance (only around my area), which based on the timing, would mean around 2km. This time round, I had learned to set the whole playlist to be repeated which is quite nice. The night run is nice and cooling, not like how it was in the afternoon. There were also less people around. So, you don't need to avoid the people around you or the aunty/uncle which walks in the center of the path which makes you need to run into the main road in order to pass them. Besides, I had been hooked on for sometime with Macross Frontier's OST songs. I really love the voice of the singer. Especially so, after I saw the last episode of this anime. It is so touching and it just boost you up to continue on the run.
Now, I'm hoping I can mantain to at run once a day. Did not set on the minimum distance yet. But I think, a daily run around my area should be quite suffecient. Let's just hope I can maintain this. =D
Oh, on this running, end of this month, I will be joining the SunDown Marathon with AM and also CS. Had just gotten the Running Pack today. Maybe today I reach quite early (6+pm) at the Millennia Walk, there was only 7-8 people in front of me. I think I settle it within less than 10 minutes. Shocking compared with the Stand Chart and Nike Run previously.
It is really a big jump for me to go for a Full Marathon after only having taken part in 10km "competition". But, it had been done and there are no more turning back. On the bright side, even if it does takes me 7-8 hours to finish (I'm trying for below 6hrs), it will only be 7-8am in the morning. So, at least I do not need to run under the hot sun. =D
Wish me luck ya. =D

EQ

Nowadays, I seems to have easily lost my cool. Not just personal stuff but also works.
I do not seem to be able to contain my sudden burst of dissatisfaction. How come?
Haizzz... I also don't know how come these stuffs are happening to me now.

Someone used to comment on me saying I am old for my age and could look at things in a different perspective. However, the me now, I do not think I could take a step back and look at myself and also the other party before saying anything. I hate the me now.

New Toy

Just made a decision today. Not sure if it is too hasty or not. But then, there is no more turning back.

Been looking for a nice new MP3 for a while already. Although not looking for it seriously. Considering my old one is a creative ones which I think should be at least 4-5 (AmK says my initial input of 3-4 years are wrong. Forced to change [PS: can't add a striketrough at my post]) years old. (bought a panasonic one which does not last long at all. so, I only consider the creative one as my only MP3 player) I think it should be time for me to get a new reliable MP3 player. This is much so because the rubber protecting of the USB connection had reached its age of service.

After see-ing my colleague's friend had it on when he was running, the initial idea was to get an iPod shuffle. Upon browsing and looking around, I noticed that there is a newer generation of iPod shuffle coming/came out to the market already. This made me re-think of what to get because I prefer the older generation of shuffle. Looks more attractive and have a fresher look. To me, it suits the theme of iPod more. The new generation, though get a better review on the sound, just does not feel like an iPod. I think it suits more for the professional markets.

So, the end product that I am going to get is this
This is the preview of the item I am scheduled to receive by this Thursday (21/05/09). Though I think the color purple is nicer, but we (AmK as well) opt for the red color one. This is to support for the Aids Foundation for South Africa. Thanks to NK for his help in us getting this.
Btw, the below will be a preview of what is AmK's (Noticed the Engraving? :D)

Travelling

I've always wanted to travel around and go venture around the world. Though limited by the very all time insufficient item, $$$, I could not get around as I wanted to. Last night I was browsing through Wei Wei's photos from her trip to Bali, Indonesia. I think this will be the next location I want to head to. Incidentally, my 2nd bro will be going to Bali this year too. So, need to save up the vitamin M before heading out.

The other location I believe should be on the list will be Cambodia. Dolphin had strongly recommended me to go there ever since her trip there. And from the pics taken by WW and Fei Hung, it will be a great trip as well.

As for now, I am eagerly waiting for my trip to KK next month. Just hope my stamina does not fail me. Had not been doing anything at all to "increase" my leg power and also my lung capacity. :p Wish me luck. :D