Wrapping up December 2011

December 2011, how do I wrap-up the last month of the year. The PLAN was to run the Malakoff Run like last year, it was suppose to be my last run for the year and wanted it to be my yearly running closure (or something like that). Alas the plan did not workout, the event clashes with Nurman's family event. Which we had to attend and had to spend the night there (only today I found out in details why we had to be there ... still a sore point)

In a way December was still a lot of fun because:

1) Angah came back for a visit ... have to teman her and ate a lot of things which will make my trainer work harder for her money next year.

2) Accompany Angah to Shang Hai which to my  surprise was a very clean and beatiful city. I would recommend everyone to visit the place and would love to go back and finish my site seeing. The only thing that could be a little difficult is (A) the language unless you speak mandarin communicating is going to be really hard. Be prepare to use lots of sign language, sound effect and some visual aid (B) If you are a muslim the food. This is due to the language barrier because on our last day we did manage to find a Halal restaurant.

3) Visit Singapore twice, on the first visit we finalise a lease on an apartment in Pasir Ris. It is about 45min away from the town but I guess, is not a big deal. On the second visit we went shopping to furnish the house. My Along is coming over this weekend to help me put on the finishing touches, I need a miracle. The house is a rainbow this is all I am going to say.

4) In between visit to Singapore I went to Medan with extended family member had my fill of Nasi Padang over there. I am pretty sure the workers at Ruman Makan Famili can pick us out in a line-up LOL. Shop in Pajak Ikan Lama bought lace and telekung. Since it is my second time there I don't think I will be visiting the place again anytime soon.

5) This is one I what I didn't do. I did not exercise, the last time I ran was for 1hr in Shang Hai and that was it. Since I have a 12k run on Jan 8, 2012 this is not a good thing. Oh well I can always crawl to the finish line.

6) As for my running goal 2011, I manage to run 14 races this year exceeded my 12 races per year resolution and finish my first half marathon within 3:06.

So that is my December 2011. I am currently find tuning my next year running resolution. Not so sure on how to go about it. Should I go for distance or should I go to improve my timing ....

THE BIG RACE - PBIM 2011

I finally did my first 21k aka half marathon, been planning for this event for the whole year. Lame I know 21k need 1 year of preparation but who care. I finally did it. Anyway our journey for begins earlier Saturday morning on November 19, 2011.

I woke-up at 4.30AM when Tina call asking what time would I come to pick her up so I said at 5.30. Giving myself 30min to prepare and 30min travelling time and Tina 1hr to prepare. Alas when I reached my mum's place Tina have yet finish taking her bath and have not even packed her  bags so I have to wait for her to get ready. Hish.... well that is Tina for you. Before went off to Penang we pick up 2 other running buddies Kak Sue and Yana. There was suppose to be 3 others joining us but they all cancelled last minute.

Anyway we reached Penang around 11am and went straight to Queensbay Mall to pick up our race kit and afterwards had our lunch at Subaidah (Nasi Kandar + Telur Sotong. What else ?? Hei we are in Penang after all!).

Finished with lunch we drove to check in our hotel rooms where Tina book us in Eastin Hotel. It was expensive but the starting line was just in front of the hotel we figure this will save us the effort of waking up extra early and trying to look for a parking later. Sadly something must go wrong somewhere lah kan since everything went on well so far. Tina book us from 20th Nov instead of 19 Nov !! So we did not have a room for the night. Panic ... we call every hotel near by but all was fully book except for B Suites. They have only 1 room with 2 single beds available and we took it. Can't ask for anything extra at all even the pillows :-( everthing was not available and was taken, so we had to make do with the 2 beds.... Tinaa !!!!!!

Anyway the at 2.30am on November 20, 2011 Kak Sue and Yana drop us at start off location. We lepak for a while, saw the men half marathon went off first at 3.00am and the women categories was off at 3.15am.

Everyone came for the race ..... Digi, another major sponsor of the event chartered and this is what we saw 32 busses to move the people. Everyone who came for the fun run got the Yellow t-shirt sponsor by them. We met a guy that came from Kuala Terengganu, he also came in a bus chartered by a Kuala Terengganu based running group and 1 bus was from a Klang based running group. Yups lots of runners in Malaysia ... this is so cool ..... kan

The run was fun, the weather was windy and cooling it was just lovely. The route was a bit hilly but it was gradual so it was manageable. Lots of water stations and portable toilets station throught out the route but I still saw a few runners going in and out from the bushes. Neanderthal !!!. Anyway I finished within 3:06 waited for the others at the finishig line with a cup of Milo. Yeay me ......

We rested, went back to the hotel and check out.

Love the race ..... will be back next year and do a full marathon .... Hopefully Tina will get the hotel booking right next time around.

 





 



Terry Fox 2011 - Padang Merbuk

This will be a short post, as mention in my earlier posting I have decided to do the Terry Fox Run / Walk instead of the CICM Run.

It was for a great cause and the turn out was wonderful. However I wish next time the organiser choose a different location. Padang Merbuk park simply can't cater for the amount of people that turn out that day. A  few issues on that day:

1. Parking space. The space was so limited, people parking at both side of a 2 lane road, narrowing the road even more. It was a not good but wasn't exactly a nightmare.

2. The crowd was huge but the road was narrow can't actually run so mostly people walk. Everything was so sempit.

3. The run/ walk start at 9.00ish so during the walk / run it got really hot and not so nice at the end of the day. Wish it was a little less sunny. Maybe next time can start at 8.00am

Anyway the company was nice Nurman and Yana was my running buddies that day. Afterwards we had nasi lemak with kari kaki ayam at Kampung Baru. Yummy .....

Getting Cold Running Feet

The Penang Bridge Run is less than 2 weeks and I am getting a little scare. The furthest I ran so far is 12k and I read somewhere that you should have at least run 18k. This week there is no races schedule may be I will manage to run the distance.


As for the CICM run I will most probably miss it as I am thinking to join the Terry Fox run instead because:

1) Most of my running buddy fail to register for the CICM so I don’t want to run alone

2) The starting time is 9.00am much better then waking up at 5am or 6am

3) Nurman said he wants to join this run since he did it last year and it was fun.

BSN Putrajaya Night Race 2011 A+

BSN Putrajaya Night Raya organizer should held their head high as it is very well organised (as far as Tina and I am concerned anyway). Before I jumped ahead a brief details of my run are as follow:

Run Name : BSN Putrajaya Night Race

Date : 15th October 2011

Time : 8.40

Distance Ran : 10km

Running Buddy : Tina , although ZCAT was there did not manage to see him as this time around we went on separate cars

 
As earlier mention the race was organise smoothly , BSN as first time sponsor should be proud of themselves . They really make sure everything went well. Things the made the race an A+ in my book was:

Race Location & General Logistics
The race location was in Putrajaya, this is not the first race I joined that was held here but somehow the organizer took the extra effort to ensure everything is well coordinated. There was RELA assisting / directing us on where to park and they where also accordingly placed on roads that were closed just to make sure no one remove the cones placed there. Yes, people this does happened before.

Forgot to mention parking was free.

 Luggage Keeping Facilities

Although it was a bit further down than where all the activities where taken place, I think it is a bit more secure as there was no crowd at the location and the person in charge can focus and not be distracted. They also decided to segregate the booth according to the distance you run so there was no queue when I went to send and retrieve my bag.

Water

The was lots of water. They gave mineral water bottles both before and after the race. The during the race there was 3 water stations; normaly they put only 2 water stations even though sometimes they advertise 3 . Feel so cheated when that happened.

Cheers and fireworks

They started the race with fireworks how awesome is that ... not much can goes wrong in event if you got fireworks :-)

Anyway along the way again strategically placed cheer team. The first cheer group encounter was probably; if not mostly BSN workers. Don't know if it was volunteer or instructed but they all were such good sport cheering us on going up the hill. Then there was the marching band; loud speaker was place in some location blasting songs and some tradisional indian drums was played. It was all  good keeping the energy level high.

Food

At the end of the race they gave us packet  food; currypuff and remember anything else.

Anyway Tina finish 1hr 43 min this is a huge improvement from her last race which was 1hr 55min. I did not improve as much my last race was 1hr 33min and this time I clock in 1hr 31min. Hope next time I can clock in 1hr 25+ish min.

PIKOM CHARITY RUN 2011

Running Details

Event Name: PIKOM Charity Run 2011
Distance: 6km
Running Buddy: Adzman aka ZCAT, Yana was suppose to join us but her alarm clock fail her that morning as for Tina her class schedule clashes with the running date. No worries ALL the afore mention running buddies will be running for the BSN-Putrajaya Night Race this coming Saturday (15/10/2011) and the Penang Bridge International Marathon (20/11/2011)



THE RACE ROUTE

The race started at 7.30am from Capsquare, what fun about the race is the route. We had to run up the KL Tower Hill; going up it was a battle as the hill steep but going down was a different story. Almost everyone got a huge smile going down the hill, I know I had one.
As for the race event, it was small compared to other races I had participated but it was well organised. No long que for anything, they had food and lucky draw grand prize was a Laptop and Ipad 2.

This race restore my excitement in running which I loss some a few months before Raya. A huge reason behind this was someone close to me said he sees no fun in running and finishing a run. He can't understand why I am running and writing about running; his exact word was "nothing special in running". Well I can't change his mind. The important thing is, right now I like running. I don't know if I will be doing it in 5 years time so for the time being this blog will continue to be about my running escapes.... So up yours!

Ok picture time

Me with Zcat proudly showing
off his medal

Women Open B

Runs Updates

I did the Siemen Run with Tina clock in at 1hr 30+ min do not have the exact time. The organiser only display up to 300 names and the last time stated was 1hr 23min, I was 7 min to late .....

Anyway for the Shape Night Run I clock at 1hr 49 min for 12k, got the time from the organiser website. Am thinking of the Penang Bridge International Marathon which I will be running 21k . I probably finish within 3+hrs. Hopefully there will still be people around...

Anyway latest updates of of running events

Month	Run/ Walk Name	Distance
January	One Utama Fun Walk	5k
February	No race
March	Bareno Run	5k
April	NewHam 10k Classic	10k
	Energizer Night Race	5k
May	Borneo International Run	10k
June	Kordel Charity Walk	7k
	Standard Chartered KL Run	10k
July	NTV7 Feel Good Run	7k
	BHP Orange Man Run	11k
	Shape & Men Night Race	12k
August	No race - Ramadhan
September	Siemen Run	10k
October	Adidas King of the Road - Did not participate was in Ipoh	10k
	Pikom Charity Run	6k
	BSN Putrajaya Night Run	10k
November	CICM Responsinle Care Run 2011	10k
	Penang International Marathon	21k
December	Malakoff Run	12k

Fasting & Eid ul-Fitr

Hmmm ....... during fasting month did not do anything much actually only manage to go to the gym twice during that month and then came Eid ul-fitr aka Hari Raya was so much worst. Ate everything twice and overindulgence during Raya open houses, Fuad's wedding and office pot-lucks I am lucky did not gain anything fuhhhh .... 

Anyway in September I have 2 runs , Siemen and Adidas. However I will not be attending the Adidas because of family obligations (hubby's cousin is getting married). I don't really feel like going for the Siemen run, my running bug is still on leave balik kampung for raya I guess. Tina register as well and is looking forward to run this weekend so I guess I have to go and be supportive . Which is actually a good thing because of the run   I am back to the gym not 4-5 times a week as I used to but better then none. 

Next week I promise my trainer I will kick-start my training with her; this remain to be seen as I change office and is now in Mines. The Wangsa Walk gym in Keramat is a long distance to travel even if it is only for 3x a week. 

Update

Just an update on the races I have done. To tell you the truth becoming a bit lazy and don't know if I am going to finish this thing .....  hmmmmm

Month	Run/ Walk Name	Distance
January	One Utama Fun Walk	5k
February	No race
March	Bareno Run	5k
April	NewHam 10k Classic	10k
	Energizer Night Race	5k
May	Borneo International Run	10k
June	Kordel Charity Walk	7k
	Standard Chartered KL Run	10k
July	NTV7 Feel Good Run	7k
	BHP Orange Man Run	11k
	Shape & Men Night Race	12k
August	No race - Ramadhan
September	Siemen Run	10k
October	Adidas King of the Road	10k
	BSN Putrajaya Night Run	10k
November	CICM Responsinle Care Run 2011	10k
	Penang International Marathon	21k
December	No race schedule yet - probably Malakoff 18 December 2011	12k

More Races Ran in July - BHP Orange Man 11k & Shape Night Run 12k

First Race - BHP Orange Man Run
Distance - 11k
Location - D'Curve Mutiara Damansara
Running Budies - Tina Zahani (aka Fudgy Fingers)

This race was organise by BHP where Arif work so he assisted us the registering as there was no online registering available ..... (which I think is weird). The best part is the registration fees is only RM5 ...yups very cheap considering other event usually will charge RM40 - 50 per race.

Anyway, July have been a busy month for me with my trip to Redang and taking charge of my company Teambuilding trip I did not have much time to train or go to the gym.  But I figure, what the hell I have run 10k before so this should not be a problem.

So on the day I pick up Tina and we manage to just in time, Arif had to meet us at the starting line to pass us our BIB which he help collected. There was no t-shirt provide for the run ..hey RM5 where can get  t-shirt ...:-)

Anyway because of lack of preparation, the race was hard on me and knowing my Damasara roads I was thinking "man this is far" and "jauh nyer lagi.... die lah like this"   But I finish the race. For RM5 there was lots of food. Arif was in charge of the Nasi Lemak counter where we got extra nasi ... thanks Arif

First Race - Shape Men-Health Night Race

Distance - 12k
Location - Putrajaya
Running Budies - Tina Zahani, Adzman (Zcat) and Ct Roziyana (Yana)

This race was really hard ... why ? Mainly because I did not prepare anything. I have been busy at work, just came back from company Team Building as participant and organizer which is very tiresome.

Anyway I ran and finish but my timing was bad I finish  1hr 40min so the guys that did 5k had to wait 1hr for me..... sad ....

Picture .... will upload later ... I only have pictures for the Shape Run, Tina the fudgy fingers cuold not manage to take any pictures for me at for the BHP. Her fingers were to fudgy for my phone camera ... Hampeh ... hampeh .....

Done Standard Chartered KL Run & NTV7 Feel Good Run

There is a lot of run in the month of July. I guess everyone wanted to organise their run/ race before the month of Ramadhan which is in August. Hmmmm did they forget there is October, November or December ?
Anyway as the title stated, I done The Standard Chartered KL Marathon a 10k and NTV7 Feel Good Run (running with the stars) a 7k.
On both occasion my running Buddies are Tina and Adzman. Tina ran/ walk the same distance as me and as for Adzman he did 5k for the SCKL and 3k for the NTV7.
Nothing much to say, a run is a run.

Yeay - Found Another Run in November

Yeay ..... found another race in November 2011. This is so great I am on course. Can't wait to collect my Standard Chartered KL Marathon race kit.

Month	Run/ Walk Name	Distance
January	One Utama Fun Walk	5k
February	No race
March	Bareno Run	5k
April	NewHam 10k Classic	10k
	Energizer Night Race	5k
May	Borneo International Run	10k
June	Kordel Charity Walk	7k
	Standard Chartered KL Run	10k
July	NTV7 Feel Good Run	7k
	Shape & Men Night Race	10k
August	No race - Ramadhan
September	No race schedule yet
October	Adidas King of the Road	10k
November	CICM Responsinle Care Run     2011	10k
	Penang International      Marathon	21k
December	No race schedule yet

Kordell Charity Walk 2011

This walk was held on June 12, 2011 at Padang Merbuk (my first time visiting Padang Merbuk which is near Tugu Negara. Anyway basic details of the walk:

Time: 7.00pm
Support System aka Walking Buddies:
1) Tina Zahani Zainuddin
2) Kak Muzi
3) Adzman
Distance: 7km

We arrive on time, found a cool parking sport very near to the starting line .. yup it was an illegal parking spot but as long as it is not my car I am totally ok with it ..... (sorry Tina). Lepak around the starting line; took some pictures one of them with Fred Flintstone and friends.

Nothing special about the walk. All of us finished the walk, collected our goody bag and went to Park Village for breakfast; where I had Lontong Kerang...yummmyyyy

New Year Resolution Update - 1 Race Per Month

For 2011 one of my new year resolution was 1 race per month. However, in February I realise that this can't be done because I can't control the race schedules so I decided it is ok a long as I participated in 12 races this year. Therefore on average I still meet my new year resolution .... yeay me......

This is my race schedule thus far

Month	Run/ Walk Name	Distance
January	One Utama Fun Walk	5k
February	No race
March	Bareno Run	5k
April	NewHam 10k Classic	10k
	Energizer Night Race	5k
May	Borneo International Run	10k
June	Kordel Charity Walk	7k
	Standard Chartered KL Run	10k
July	NTV7 Feel Good Run	7k
	Shape & Men Night Race	10k
August	No race - Ramadhan
September	No race schedule yet
October	Adidas King of the Road	10k
November	Penang International   Marathon	21k
December	No race schedule yet

As you can see the one in red are the races I have register for. If I ran and finish all the races listed I am still short of 1 race to complete 12 races. Hoping Malakoff KL 2011 is on in December or something come up in September BUT highly unlikely as Raya falls on that month .... sigh .... despair .... so near but still uncertain