My First Full Marathon - Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon 2011

I remember there was a saying that white boy can't jump and by this, I thought that a Chinese boy can't finish a full marathon. 

Hell, I eat and drink this low esteem. Probably genetic, or even a paradigm from my ancestral stereotype that Chinese are not genetically born with good stamina. Smoking cigarette and drinking beer surely doesn't help naturally. 

I did train as many hours spent running near my neighbourhood on a 10 km track, but not extensively, doing like 3 or 4 reps in a week. I did, however did just 2 or 3 20 km about 2 weeks from the event day, but hey I surely did not finish a 42 km in a single session. 

A friend of mine whose is a pacer from derkeenrunner.com for the event even warn me that if I did not train "enough" I would be coming back in an ambulance (as there were no sweeper bus for this event). This did not spell a motivation for me either.  

But hell I did registered my place early bird, so I thought to myself... just give it a go... I'll bring 50 bucks in my pocket in case I really can't finish the race.... "TAXI"!!!!

The race started at 5 am. I was there at the event at dataran merdeka on board the shuttle bus provided by the event organiser. I parked my car at the Kelana Jaya LRT station, and board the bus at about 4.00 am with 2 young and charming young ladies volunteers ushered me to the bus after I parked my car at the station. Seeing them, I had a really good feeling that the event was surely gonna be a good one, compare to the one that was not-so-organized which I attended earlier in April at the Sepang International Circuit.  

The race started after the gun and there we go. 

As this is my first full marathon, I was only hoping to finish the race within the 6 hours qualifying time. As I hoped, it was indeed one of the most professionally organised event I have ever attended. There were so many water stations, at the end of the race, I just needed to pee. There was also a banana station at KM 16 and another power gel station somewhere KM 26 or so.

Pain is inevitable, suffering however is optional. I found this is very true on KM 30 onwards. I believe this could be different for every runner, but my pain started then at the upper thigh muscle which forced me to take a break every 1 pr 2 KM just to stretch and apply some Perskindol lotion (minty lotion), which didn't work for me after a few applications, I didn't feel the minty sensation at all after. But hey, maybe it's just me. 

The last few KM before the finish line was really a struggle for me. Every step was a pain and even walking hurts. Pain was coming from muscles which I didn't know they exist. I notice that even my sweating has stopped, my body was becoming dry! But at the final kilometre, I have experienced something that I have never experienced before in my entire life. 

Just minutes from the finish line, where you could see finishers walking to their cars at the opposite directions, there were actually crowds of people, ordinary people, cheering at the finishers. This was the greatest motivation for me to finish the race and somehow, I found some sort of emergency pack in my body to race to the finish line. I ran without looking back.

With the crowd cheering, some of them even reminding me to "Smile for the camera!!!"

I finally finish my very first FULL MARATHON with a time of around 5 hours and 22 minutes. And some radio DJ was right, it definitely feels much better than waking up on late Sunday morning drinking coffee on my lazy couch.  

Thank you Standard Chartered Marathon, I will surely see you next year!!! 

   

The Energizer Night Race 2011 - Saturday, 16th Apr 2011

I have made a decision to go for the 2011 Energizer Night Race few months ago. I utterly surprised when my wife told me that the registration for the race has closed and another friend of ours could not get a place. Apparently the race have received very good response and all allocated places for runners have been taken up for all categories, 5.5 km, 11 km, 21 km and 42 km. Get the link to the web site here.

Well, looks like there are some other unexpected benefits for signing up early other than getting that 10% off.

The race starts at 7.45 pm, but I wonder why is the event organizer is asking us to "register" at 5.00 pm. I wonder what am I expected to do between that 2 hours and 45 minutes at the SIC (Sepang International Circuit). Yes! The race IS going to take place at one of the most renowned land mark of Malaysia, the Malaysian F1 circuit. I might not drive a car fast enough to drive on this track, but at least I can run on it. The other running events that I have participated did not need to register as we already have the timing chip. We just be there, and start at the starting line by stepping on the timing platform.

The runner's goody bag which I collected from the event organizer contains the singlet, timing chip and also the running bib looks like the below.

Now its only waiting for the event to start on Saturday.

Segamat Flood 2011 - The Aftermath

Just a week before Chinese New Year, days of unrelenting rain has hit the sleepy town of Segamat and causing the Segamat river to swell, and subsequently the repeat of what happened 4 years ago.

As many braced themselves for the worse, many have tried to find ways on how to even enter the quiet town to visit their loved ones only to find their efforts in vain as flood waters cut off main federal roads which connects the town to the highways.

The flood water has brought devastation but fortunately, as quickly as the flood came into the homes of thousands of people in the town, it left in a hurry as well, leaving the people some time to prepare themselves for the festival.

The flood started on a rainy Sunday on the 30th Jan 2011, and the water started receding on the next day. Taman Segar and Kampung Abdullah, the worse hit was free of flood water on Tuesday, 1st Feb 2011. Power and water supply was restored on the day as well.

Mud stained furniture seen left outside houses aat Taman Segar, waiting to be collected by local council workers. 

 A Chinese ethnic burning joss paper as a normal local ritual here after prayer, and another younger member of the family looks on in despair.

 The local secondary school which was hit by the flood.

 

A debris and garbage covered local nursery's playground.

Sections of asphalt road seen swept off by flood waters to the side of the road.

Malaysian army were seen in many areas of the town helping civilians and public establishments.

Playground at a nearby park being flooded.

Part of the railroad foundation was being excavated to make way for the flood water, which caused the service to be out for few days.

Within the next days, railway workers were seen fixing the rail road. And on the 5th Feb 2011, the service was already back to normal. 

Early after the flood, Malaysian government has announced the use of early warning system assisted with satellite technology and funds allocated which its cost exceeds as much as billions of ringgit. My only hope that with these large amount of funds, which are tax payers money could be effectively used to curb and totally avoid such occurrences from happening again.

Although we have seen the swift actions of government departments and the royal military in actions, working quickly to assist those who needed help and in the rebuilding of public services, but from what we have seen in 2006 once with 60,000-70,000 civilians were evacuated and RM 1.5 billion reported loss, and the current 2011 year with 47,000 evacuated with the losses still being calculated, what actions from the current government to avoid these disastrous tragedies from reoccurring will be served as a important consideration to win the people's support in the near future.