Last race of the year: Penang Starwalk 2009

A change from the occasional running, this morning I was at PISA for Penang Starwalk 2009.

This is another family outing for me, signed all my family members up. Unfortunately dad didn't manage to make it. I signed everyone up under 'competition' category, another available category is 'non-competition'.

Race started at 7am sharp, well, according to my watch anyway. Couldn't get up to speed until after 2km from the starting line. There were just too many people, it's almost impossible to find a clear way to pick up speed.

Walk walk walk...check watch, ah only covered 4k? Don't know how accurate is the reading from my watch, it is after all calibrated for running. Not sure if the mileage shown will be correct for walking as well.

Walking is so much more harder than running. I need to push forward for each step I take, unlike running where a tiny bit of the energy comes from momentum and the 'spring' effect of shoes.

I can feel the tired muscles at my calf and thigh not too long into the race. The toughest part is at Jln Tun Dr Awang, the road from airport to Sg. Ara. There is a part of the road where it is not flat, that little elevated part is a tough climb, especially after 7 or 8k of walking.

Throughout the course, I just kept charging forward looking out for women with red font bib. People with red font bib is in the same category as me. When I spotted any, I have more reasons to push harder and try to catch up with her, hoping to overtake her before reaching the finishing line. That is a fun thing to do you know, it keeps my mind off the pain of continous walking.

This year, I managed to finish the race in 1hr 14mins, it was a 4 mins improvement compared to last year. Me happy! *grin widely

Got a 10th placing with this finishing time. Prizes was a bit disappointing though, got a towel, a RM10 voucher from Sakae, a coupon for head and shoulder massage and a coupon for facial treatment. Both the coupon for massage and treatment are only available on weekdays and I'll have to drive all the way to Tg. Tokong for it. In order to utilize the 2 coupons, I'll have to take a day off from work and drive more than 20km one way to reach the destination. Worth it kah?

Last year at 28th place, I think I got more useful stuff than this. If I remember correctly, I got a Digi RM60 reload coupon, a set of hair and body shampoo, umbrella and some other simple but useful things.

Luck is not on my side again this time. Got nothing from the lucky draw session. Some of my wanted list includes air-condition unit, the Modenas motorcycle, GPS and the Nokia phones. Well, I could use the netbook and notebook too. My laptop is getting old.

The whole thing finished around 1.30pm.

I wish the organizer (The Star) could cut short some of the performances and let the event finish earlier. We, poor souls, were smelly, cold and hungry sitting around in the PISA indoor stadium waiting for the lucky draw, and most of us go home empty handed.

Related post:
My Starwalk 2008

ww49 in summary

Monday
External training; back to office after that for Yoga; bad mood

Tuesday
External training; plan to run after that but then it fucking rain; bad mood continues

Wednesday
Trying to uncover port N0's affair with buffer C1, C2, C3 and C4, and figuring how the hell Res and Cap got themselves involved too?; tried new approach during evening run, bad idea!

Thursday
Half of the working hours spent in various meetings and CEO's site-wide sharing; swimming plan canceled due to work load; had an unsatisfactory dinner but fortunately it was compensated with good companies

Friday
Pretty productive day at work, had some new discovery in N0's affair although still not quite there yet; rush to shop, rush to run, rush to party, rush to sleep

In short, ww49 sucks!

Bridge Run 2009

Event date: Nov 22, 2009

It's another year of the Penang Bridge International Marathon. This Marathon event will always be close to my heart as it marks my very first loooong distance running. I have been doing it ever since I started working in Penang. This year is my fourth time running on the bridge in a half marathon category. 21km sounds and feels really long then, almost impossible to complete on foot. How things has changed in 3 and a half years...

Women half marathon starts at the ungodly hour of 3.45am. The earliest category, full marathon starts at 2.30am. It's more like a midnight run than a morning run.

I couldn't sleep the night before the run. Took dinner at 4.30pm and I tried to take a short nap around 7pm. When my phone rings at 8.30, I feel like I have not slept at all. It was my mum calling, I need to fetch her at the bus station. Mum is here for PBIM 10km Fun Run. Continue to sleep after that, but end up tosing and turning on the bed until 11. I think I did catch some sleep after that, but it sure feels like I din sleep at all.

Walked down to the starting line in front of QBM. It is so convenient that I can just walk there, don't have to worry about road closure and parking. Full marathon runners were already flagged off. Waited around for half marathon to start. The emcee lady irritates me. The way she talk was so monotone and boring. The Digi guy talks 10x much better than she did. Can't wait to be flagged off and get away from her voice...must be the lack of sleep that caused all the pekchek-ness

Started the run real slow, my watch shows 6:40 to 6:50mins/km pace. I have had some experience with starting too fast and end up exhausted half way into the run. I wanted to prevent recurrence of such bad experience, so I just ran as relax as I can at my own slow pace.

There were plenty of water this time around. Water were served in 500ml bottles. Too much water wastage...along the way, I must have thrown at least 4 bottles with more than half bottle of water left in it.

I ran and I ran, still at the slow pace...I refuse to push harder fearing I may puncture too early. Up the midspan of the bridge, down the slope, make a U-turn at km2.8 on the bridge, up the midspan and down again. This is when I decided I want to run a little bit harder.

Saw Peng Chee around this time and I call out to him. It's an enjoyable moment to see some familiar faces, though his face doesn't seem enjoyable at all. He told me he was in pain, I forgot where. "It's all in the head, Peng Chee. You've completed more than half way now, you can do it!" Say goodbye and I took off...

Around this time, I get a slight stomach ache. The pain subsided after awhile so I continue run. Get off the bridge heading towards E-Gate, looking out for the turning point back to QBM. Ran past the 2 runner statue beside the Jelutong Expressway. At this point, I was 5km away from finishing line. Stomach ache was on and off but manageable.

Stomach ache got really unbearable as I reached Villa Emas. It was the last km. Damn that stomach ache, so many people overtook me in this last km.

Finished 21km in 2:21, 22mins improvement compared to SCKLM 5months back. Ranked 53 out of 768 participants in my category.

People I met:
Peng Chee-during the run and at the finishing line
KCLeong-at the finishing line
Hong Yann-500m to the finishing line, I was walking back home at that time

A photo with part of the WWW, this photo was taken after I went home for shower and went back to the event ground

A big congrats to sis for completing her maiden half marathon with an injured leg, and still manage to finish within the cutoff time. Well done!

Cheers to many more long runs to come :)

Diving in Manado

After encountering multiple flight reschedule by AirAsia, which leads to hotel room cancellation and re-booking trouble, we were on our way to Manado, Indonesia for a dive-only trip.

Resort: La Rascasse Dive Resort
Stay Duration: 5days 5nights (arrived in Manado in the evening)
KL-Manado Flight duration: 3hrs++ (almost 4hrs)
Sunrise & sunset: approx. 5am & 5.30pm
Dive package + AirAsia return flights PG-KL-Manado: RM2156 per person

Location of La Rascasse Dive Resort and dive site around it

What's cool!

• Watching the dolphins swimming around our boat. The dolphins were performing for us, jumping high out of the water and racing beside our boat
• First time seeing how Mandarin fish mate
• A lot of lion fish
• Satellite TV in the room, a lot better than Astro
• WiFi available, not the fastest connection but it's good to have
  

This is the best I can get out of my point-and-shoot, check out the Manado album (link at the end of the post) for a better photo from DSLR

What's not :(

• There's no beach around our resort
• Water are not as clear or as blue in most of the dive site, not even around our resort
• It probably a low season in the month of Oct with partly clouded sky, and rain comes on and off, causing low visibility at some point
  
• Food are so-so, not much choices to choose from
• Food are not served on time and drinks (like coffee and coffee) are not provided 24/7, sometimes there are nothing to eat when we are hungry in between meals
• No land time during surface interval, we stayed on the boat whole day long!
• No other entertainment in or near our resort; pool table, WiFi and satellite TV is basically all we've got. Being 'trapped' in the resort all the time other than dive trip does not help make the trip more fun
  
• I don't see conservation effort, at least not by our group of Dive Masters from the resort. Feeding the fish? Touching corals, catching crabs and shrimps and other sea creatures? Human are merely visitors to the great underwater world, any form of contact should be avoided as much as possible

This is when I said there is not enough conservation effort...catching that poor little Pufferfish and making it 'puff' is not cool

My overall honest opinion:
Trip rating 5/10. It is good to get away from work for almost a week. It is an eye-opening vacation traveling to a new place but I feel like it's not a truly enjoyable trip, though I believe this is my own problem because the rest of the group says they have a satisfying and pleasant trip. Something is missing from the trip and to this day, I have not figure out what it is.

All of us, with one of our Dive Master

Etc:
Traffic condition is really bad in Manado City. Public transportation for locals are blue-color-Suzuki ERV-type vehicle. The way these taxis operate are equivalent to tut-tut in Thailand. They stop as they like to pick up or drop off passengers. Main road of Manado City are wide, but due to cars stopping as they like, traffic jams are common sight. Some drivers drive really really slow and some drive really really fast (for example our impatient van driver). Our driver would honk his way from the start point all the way to the destination, it's really stressful to be in the car.

One of my favorite underwater photo of the trip

Photo album of the trip:

Diving in Manado, Indonesia

Off to look for adventures deep under

Yay! It's the time of the year again...I'm off to a 6 days holiday trip starting tomorrow.

After last year's scuba diving in the breathtakingly beautiful Sipadan waters, I'm venturing to the next dive destination. This time, I'm heading East towards Manado, Indonesia.

In case you have not heard of Manado before, it is located at the Northern tip of Sulawesi. Here's a simple map of where Manado is.

(image source: http://rampuun.wordpress.com/2009/02/19/manado/)

The Sunday right after I'm back from diving is PBIM 2009. I'm going to do some light running on Manado beach if possible. Or any road I can find there.

Bring on the adventure of the deep sea!! Sun, beach, fishes, turtles and corals, here I come!!!

Let's check if Manado is comparable to Sipadan...

World of Techy

It's amazing how technology advancement changes the way we live.

Last weekend, I was traveling with 3 guys who have fully embraced technology. One of them had a Nokia touch screen phone (don't know what model), another with a HTC Diamond and the third guy with an Apple iPhone.

From the starting of the trip till the end, the guys were busy playing with their phone. The one driving had his GPS navigation turned on even though we're on the highway, and it's not like he didn't know the way. At the same time, music playing in the car was broadcast from the phone to the car speaker, not from CD or FM radio. Then the one with iPhone was busy Twittering, checking Facebook status and playing games. Er, as for the guy with HTC? God knows what he's doing poking on the phone.

While we're in Ipoh, we pretty much rely on the GPS navigation, which I think sucks big time! GPS signal is really bad in Ipoh, or maybe it's the phone or probably the map. Throughout that half day trip, I have heard uncountable times of the GPS lady saying "Lost satelite reception" and "Re-calculating". Anyway, I think it's unnecessary to use GPS coz they sort of know the way already.

When we're all sitting in a round table for roti canai, they spend time looking on their phone and socializing with friends far far away rather than talking with friends that exist physically beside them. Isn't it odd? Twittering and updating Facebook status is what they did.

Ok, I am not complaining about the trip. I had a great time in Ipoh makan-makan and they are great company. Nor am I against people who owns high-tech touch screen 3G phones and fully utilizing it. I was merely stating what I observed.

Another scene that is getting more and more common is when a small group of youngster, each have their own notebook/netbook sitting together in a WiFi-zone coffeeshop in the same table but they don't talk to each other. Instead they were chatting in MSN, probably to his friend sitting just right beside him!

21 or 42?

After Sunday run that day, we had breakfast at Mt. Erskine market. The economic fried bee hoon I usually ordered weren't open. The curry puff stall was not open either. So I end up eating wantan mee, which doesn't taste very good that day. As a consolation, the coffee tasted really good!

As we were sitting there chatting, we came to the topic of PBIM. We talk about training and the weeks leading to the run. Btw, this will be Thomas's first 42km race. Nervous eh, Thomas :P

After awhile, the focused suddenly turned towards me. SP said that I should be running in the full marathon. He and Sam have numerous time tried to persuade me into changing my run category, but I was persistent to stick with half. This morning, it was Thomas and SP.

SP even said he can find me a full marathon bib if I agree to change to full.

...conversation goes sth like this...
Me: "Ok SP, I'll think about it IF you manage to find me a full marathon bib"
SP: *Grin "I can find it for you"
Thomas: "Actually, you should commit to full marathon if SP can find you a bib"
Me: "Errr......(couldn't think of what to say)" :-|

For the past few times when SP or Sam tried to talk me into changing category, I would say NO to them. No doubt whatsoever. But today, I actually find myself considering about their suggestion of doing 42km. Why am I even considering that crazy big 42 number? Freaking 42km leh!

Running: Listen to the body

One thing I've learn today, is to listen to the message body is sending to brain. Know my own limitations and never ever try be too ambitious. Aggressive is good but anything too much will have a bad result.
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Today's planned LSD distance was 18.99km. This is the 3rd time I'm running this route.

I love this running group for their punctuality. Everyone was there before the start time. We started off the run on time at 5.48am (3mins later than planned time is consider on time).

Not many people in the running group today, some went for the 'Ride with CM', a cycling event to promote cycling and getting bicycle lane on the island. Participants get to cycle with the Chief Minister of Penang. Cool rite? Our Penang CM ride a bike too :)

Debbie was the lead of the pack this morning, she was running at quite a fast pace. SP and Thomas can keep up with her, but I was not feeling comfortable at that pace. I pushed myself to stick with the group. That was a mistake, not listening to my body. I guess my logic at that time was that I don't want to be running alone at the back at 6am time frame, the sky was still very dark.

While in Sri Tanjong, I started to slow down a little and the distance between the group and I gets farther. At that time, I realise that I can't keep up anymore. SP seeing me drifting away, he slowed down too. Being the gentleman he has always been, he ran with me. Sometimes I feel bad that he had to do that, running slower than what you are capable of is not an easy thing to do. I am always the slowest in the pack almost all the time. Paiseh paiseh :P

When we reached Subaidah, I'm so burnt out that I planned to turn back at the end of Gurney Drive. But SP tried to talk me into extending it to Wisma Leader. Guilty of the deep fried yong tau fu I took in Ipoh yesterday, I agreed.

On the way back to car park at Jln Perak, I started to feel the pain at my ribs. That's not something I get very often. I think the pain was from too much upper body movement. My legs was truly tired and I was using body to help move forward. Still have 2.5k to reach car park...

In the end, reached car park at 7.24am completing only +/- 14k. What a bad run to start the day. At the beginning was pushing to keep up, at the end was pushing to reach my car. Sigh :(

One good thing about not running in loops is that there is no way you can give up and stop the run anytime you like. Die die also must run/walk until you reach your car, or else you'll be stranded where you are. Unless there's somebody willing to pick you up and drive you back to your car.

Despite the 'Ride with CM', I saw many runners this morning. There were unusual increased of people on the road. A sign that the 2 marathons, Penang Bridge Marathon and the Singapore Marathon are approaching.

On another matter, hey hey, my running shoe has hit 500km mileage! It takes about 1 year, 3 months to cover that distance, not including casual walking.

The Asics running shoe that has served me well