Hookers and Rats

Pic - Hooker's Cup team 2006

No, there is no correlation of these two terms. They are perhaps a "side" distraction to me in the forthcoming weeks. That is if I decide to go ahead and participate in the two events.

The first is Hooker's Cup. This year, it will be held together with a company wide gathering in Rompin next week. My lady colleague referred it wrongly as Hooker's Club, and my response was, no, I do not belong to a hooker's club, do you? :-)

Well, Hooker's Cup is the annual internal company golf tourament - it is a friendly tournament and over the last three years, I have taken the ladies champion trophy. Let me first explain a few key points for inference of my skills :

1) The first year there was only one lady participant - that was the first time I had played in a tournament, it was almost like 1 year after I picked up golf and my score was a bit pathetic

2) The second year there were three lady participant and one of them was the ex-champion. I beat the ex-champion!!!!

3) Last year, there was only one lady participant again and I won a Michelle Wie book - haha!

Why Hookers? Well, in golf, you either hook or slice and since golf is such a man's game and the people in my company are so creative with names the hooker's name was coined many years back when the tournament started, and it stuck! Except that it does not sound good for females to be in this tournament....

Pic - Rat Race Team 2006 - will I be doing 2007? Can you see we were so game for the fun we did the t-shirts and poses during one of the "practice runs"

Rats is for the Edge Bursa KL Rat Race 2007, to be held on August 7th this year. This is my most enjoyable race (Read September posting last year) - I have taken part in the Rat Race for nearly 3 years in a row. This year, since KC (RHB, the champ!) is injured and won't be taking part, there is hardly anyone I know who runs and enjoys this race as much as I do, so maybe I will give up the slot for other colleagues.

Except that no one really pushes the race preparation and marketing like I do!!! The team needs my goading...!!! So far I've been successful to persuade my MD to go for the CEO race.... Sigh, where are all the young enthusiastic exuberant people who pushes the extreme in ridicule and props carrying when I need them.....

Luck... or lack of luck?

This was my race bib on Sunday for the Penang Bridge half marathon. When I got back on Sunday late afternoon (around 5pm+), one of my family members went to buy this number - okay, it goes like this.

How did you do in your race?"

"What was your race number?"

and suddenly, a pen flashes out, jots down the number and in a moment later, a car goes out to buy the 4D!!!

Guess what??? The number hit 4D consolation prize (see below the right most column, 4 rows down 5689!!!)

Guess what??? We did not buy 4D, bought another company's draw!!!!

Sigh... I guess all my life, despite at whatever position I work, the life marker is always "work like a cow or a horse for your money" (err, translate in chinese and it makes sense)....!

21km vs 22.3km

According to my Nike+ running connector who took the trip to the bridge with me on sunday, I only ran 21km approximately.

I had set the "online" device to 22km for this "workout" and it was annoying to hear the machine count 1-11km (halfway point) and then reverse count-down the remaining. I guess it is not inspiring in a race to be reminded every km how much more you have to go!! I wrote some notes on the screen capture of the race as an analysis of the pace I took for this half-marathon.

Yes, I am looking for a new stop-watch too ....

Penang Bridge Run - 24th June 2007

What a great and tiring weekend it was!



Driving There
My friend (who was not running) and I started off with a 3.5 hr drive down to Penang after a sumptious breakfast early Saturday morning, and had lunch at a great seafood village at noon just before crossing the bridge to Penang island. The same bridge which I would run over the next day (Sunday 24th June!) for the Penang Bridge run half marathon category.



Collection of Bibs
The first job on arrival was the collection of numbers and bibs at Queensbay Mall. I was the driver for Saturday, I was a bit tired when we got there, but was I surprised - Queensbay Mall was just like 1 Utama here - after parking the car, we were directed to the front of the mall where the collection counters were doing roaring business. The best thing about runs was that there was always so much atmosphere before and after a run - I could see people doing brisk sales of powergels and powerbars and there were also all sorts of promotions of other "state" runs - ie. Kuantan and Langkawi was doing their own runs albeit smaller scale.



What equally surprised me was the many people from all walks of life who turned up to collect their t-shirt, though not knowing what category they are running in, most did not even look like runners - thus looks can be so deceiving! Not forgetting there were tons of school children signed up for the race, probably in the 10k, category. And there were buses ferrying the out of towners in - I gathered the pacesetters team was probably one of the buses, bringing in a strong team from KL/Selangor, hurrah for the spirit !!



Carbo Loading and Reconnaisance
Deciding that I am staying in a hotel out of town and to my surprise the early start time (Marathon - 2am registration, 3am start, Half Marathon (Ladies) - 4am registration, 5am start), I bought my bananas, Milo and powergel/bar for a good start before doing the unusual "reconnaisance" of the route, as we were still wondering how I was going to get to the starting line since there was limited parking and my car was too new to be parked on the side of nowhere! By the time we checked in, it was almost 430pm, and just timely for a good shower, short rest and then we headed out for a foot massage at 6pm (heheh) and then to MacAlister St for the sumptious hawker fare (my fake carbo loading!!!). Next table, I spotted these bunch of singaporeans (I think), chiselled frame, proudly wearing tshirts proclaiming conquering the singapore marathon and the bintan triathlon. (So, I did not fake the carbo loading - the pros are gorging hawker fare too!!!)



Early AM
My friend drove my car and dropped me off the furthest point I could imagine at RECSAM - a teacher's trainning college (which was supposed to be the spot we had surveyed) as roads heading close to the Penang Bridge was blocked. In enthusiasm, I did not realised that this was almost a good 2km+ to the starting point. So, I jogged, walked and made my way there in enthusiam, only to be kept in a pen area within Sekolah Gelugor before the flag-off - once we were released from the pen, the flag off was like 1 minute the moment the "women" were released from the pen! (The men half marathons were flagged off 15 mins earlier!). I spotted Yufang, our national walker warming up in the pen.



The bridge in the early morning
I was a bit dizzy at the start as there were too many people. But eventually when we got onto the bridge it was a good smooth run. The initial uphill was a small challenge but I was actually my fastest during that period. The first 5km was just after the second arch of the bridge. Then it was a good downhill, so it was a pleasant run. This was where it was weird- the distance to Perai was much further, it was a good 5km all the way to the other end (the toll - so I did run the WHOLE distance of the bridge - it is not 13km one way as claimed!). By the time we made the turn at Perai toll, it was still dark (Thank god for the early start), and the small path where the turn was made was really bad and everybody walked! By then, I realised my watch had stopped, so I relied totally on my ipod for the distance info.



Coming back, I started to get tired just before the slope up, because of the longer Perai distance. By the time we were back on the arch, I was a bit worried as my watch showed I may be late. The concern I had was that this half marathon was 22.3 km, I had set my ipod to 22km, but my watch showed I did not have enough time.



Finally I saw the 1km to go sign, and believe it or not, I was so relieved I actually almost sprinted the remaining 1km to the finishing line just under the qualifying time. When I checked my ipod, I actually probably did my best 22.3km distance, better than my KLIM time. Maybe the malfunction watch helped to scare me!



Postscript
It was a good run - I enjoyed the bridge, the flats and the slopes and I think maybe next year I can attempt the marathon here. I am still in need of more practice to get my timing better even for the half, but I am glad I made it, it was a fun run all in!



For the organisers, I would definitely wish they were more organised in the drinks - the poor marathoners and half-marathoners are dying of a drink at the finishing line - but there was no free mineral water, and the lines for milo was so long and across the field at the fun-run finishing. Come on, give me a break, I was struggling in daze looking a good 15 mins for the drinks station, and I saw many people similarly NOT holding onto a drink after the race.



Thanks to my support crew, my friend who did the long drive back - my foot was sore after the race, but we did have our last look at Gurney Drive (after my 1.5hr nap) and had lunch before we headed back to KL.



See you next year, hopefully I could train for the marathon then!

Leaky Valve

When was the last time you went for a full medical checkup? The last time I went was I think approximately 2002? How could you remember, you may ask? And then, how could you not do this annually!!

I remember because it was April fool's day, it was Chin Wee, one of my ex-colleagues' birthday. It was also the kickoff of the first project we did at my client. I called up one of my bosses and told him I was not able to work for the next 5 days because I wanted to go on MC. I remembered his response was an immediate no problem, then followed by the realisation of why I am taking 5 days of MC.

I walked into a dinghy shoplot medical center the next day, and did a day surgery to remove a small lump found in the most at risk part of the body, fortunately benign. 2002, I remember clearly, after a full medical checkup for my prudential insurance.

Today I went to collect my full medical checkup results from the Subang Medical Center. The physician gave me an almost clean bill of health, except as a last point, she took her stethoscope and did a check and found a potential "leaky valve" in my heart.

What is a leaky valve? It is also commonly known as a heart murmur, after a bit of surfing on the net just now. According to the physician and my current read-up it is quite harmless but needs to be monitored regularly and also got to be careful of infections ie when going to dentist (!?? this part I did not understand, no time to read also, later).

http://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/guide/heart-valve-disease

I will be doing a follow up echocardiogram, I guess do it while I am still able to, sometimes I have given my body such an abuse that I got to learn how to take care of it in this second half of my life. Wish me all the best of health and hopefully it is just a harmless murmur. The physician actually said, it is generally ok for those who are healthy like me, but better to check it further.

However, the docter also said, this has nothing to do with the blood into the heart or the heart, it is the mechanics of the heart. I hate things I cannot control or understand, but I have faith that I am both healthy in heart and mind!

All Set to Conquer the Bridge

Photo excerpt from someone's website.

Can't believe I am actually both excited and nervous. Running my 5th 20km and above race - the first two was last year Pacesetters 20km, KLIM 2006, then this year, the same Pacesetters 20km, KLIM 2007.

I just wanted to be different this year. This is why we always believe that living in the fast lane, you push the adrenaline level up one level each day we feel the need to challenge ourself. So I am driving to Penang tomorrow for the Penang Bridge Marathon on Sunday 24th June. Ever since the Penang Bridge Marathon came back a couple of years back, I've always wanted to run the bridge - it was a novelty. It was also a good test of the "jaguh kampung" concept - that I could only run in KL. It will be a pleasant and refreshing change indeed.

(Aiyo, I am reminded of the uphill now by looking at the picture...)

PHD 1997

No, this is not the year I received my Phd, in fact, I do not even have one. I was just quite intriqued by the cars I saw in penang last weekend. I did not realise that it was quite fun.

PHD - yeah, the year would be good
PEN - short for penang?
PET - your car, your pet
PEY - surname of someone I know last time
PFT - sounds like a fart
PGA - golfers anyone?
PEE - what color?
PEW - judge
PTA - school anyone? (this one not out yet!)
PIA - well, the runners thing
PIT - in a rut?
PIM - organiser or mother hen?
PIN - maybe this would be a good pin number?
PIP - faster than you
PEA - little one

wow, this is endless... I guess my brain is really like a processor sometimes...

From Designing Systems to Designing Kitchens

Ever realise the similarities of designing systems and designing kitchens? Well, if you are like me and bought a kitchen from IKEA, you can appreciate the satisfaction on seeing a piece of item be transformed into a functional "system" - a kitchen!

Indeed, the picture here is a snapshot of a half completed kitchen I am building at my new house. This design was a version 3 - and I am sure it has its flaws too eventually, but currently I am in love with just a few pieces of wood placed together!

It all started when I first tried to engage a contractor to do the kitchen. He came, did some measures, showed me some pictures and kind of sketched out roughly what it should look like. Before he came, I had already drawn out some samples of how I think it should look from my research from IKEA. A week later, he reverted, and drew out on a piece of paper with the quotation. The fact was that, he drew with a pen and gave me the original!

After two more weeks, only he tried to contact me again and asked me when I wanted to start. During those two weeks I had already despatched my "temporary project family AKA family member who remains undisclosed" to IKEA to do further designs.

IKEA has a really cool kitchen design system. They could draw the exact design and model it in two and three dimensions and best of all, they could generate a BOM and quotation for you from this drawing. The only problem seems to be that they don't do this online, otherwise I am sure they will have more business!

So, back to my contractor, and I was photocopying his original and drawing my revisions on it as though I was reviewing my co-worker's proposal document! And then my colleague casually asked me, why am I doing that, if he is a designer, he should earn his money. That just about sealed the guy's fate, I took a day to refine the design and brainstorm it around, and by version three of IKEA design, I could even be pro enough to choose the wood.

Wait for my housewarming lunch ya? (Rest assured, only the microwave oven will be used to heat up the ta-pow KFC :-) haha)

Together in Separate Cars

Today we had a conversation about discouraging my treasure hunt team mate on going for a treasure hunt with her boyfriend. It was not because we think lowly of the boyfriend, it was just merely because we worked together better as a team whilst her boyfriend was relatively untested. So, I abused my power of a superior at some point after working hours (timing is important) and spoke to him about the demerits of doing the team game with your other half. Fortunately or unfortunately there was little resistance to my POV of being in separate teams! Ah, if you are in treasure hunting, you will understand the context...

The truth be it, well better written than spoken - I have first hand experience in this matter during my first few debut trips on treasure hunts about maybe many years ago. Time has passed by such that I don't really remember when, but it was the Kiwanis Hunt to Penang. I was in the same car as my boyfriend then, and I think there were two others in the car who were my friends, whilst his sister hunted with my other friend and a few girls. Though we did not argue, it was more the after the hunt which gave me the bad experience. The team was really my friends rather than his, so he actually stuck closely with his sister and friends during the trip. And this overnight trip and his preference to be with his sister whilst I wanted him to join my friends as we were in the same car really drove us both to the edge, even all the way driving back.

I guess I was young then, but this really taught me that it was not too good to do team events if you really want only one person's attention, you may as well take it private and enjoy your team events!

Reconnaissance Trip to Penang

I checked out the route last weekend. Actually, that is not true, but I did have a reconnaissance trip to Penang last weekend. It was actually as a last minute guest entry to the Maxis Team Golf Tour, playing at the Penang Golf Resort.





The Penang Golf Resort was situated on the mainland side of Penang, in fact at Kepala Batas constituency - Pak Lah's homeground. In fact, on the day of the game on Saturday, we spotted a helicopter patrolling the skies and heard the loud ceramah's around the corner, and our team heard that Pak Lah was in fact nearby having a function and probably also showing off his new other half to the kampung folks.



This round of golf has definitely nailed the interest back to the game. Watch out, I'm back, and with a more fun and stable game. I don't really curse and swear at every hole or run to look for the ball anymore, I am a lot more relaxed and also really enjoying the game and company.

Due to short notice, I flew into Penang last Friday night and came back on Sunday. After the game on Saturday, we took a cab back to the island and stayed at this comfy place called the Northam.

Back to the Reconnaissance trip - I actually had two opportunities to size up the challenge, despite it being a half marathon. I am a person who is focussed on my objectives once I commit to it - enroute over from the island to the mainland, I noticed with dismay, the bridge has this terrible uphill slope in the middle - and then followed by downhill (what did you expect, it is a bridge for goodness sake!). On the taxi on the bridge I could almost picture myself running the span - I may be even faster than the car, it was always jammed up at the bridge on both occasions crossing it!

On the island, there were many marquees bearing the run and the publicity which accompanied it for Visit Malaysia Year 2007 and more so at the tourist routes. I was on Gurney Drive and it was a pleasant surprise to see one of these marquees every other street light.

This is in fact reputedly the largest race in the country if the organisers can hit about 20000 participants. I am indeed looking forward to the race this weekend. Wish me luck!

Nike+iPod - Part 2 - Interactivty

In interactive marketing, the first thing that strikes you is always the human experience. When Nike+iPod got married, they did not envisioned the phenomenon which followed in terms of publicity and marketing success of the product. I hand it to the Nike and iPod marketing folks to really package the interactivity into the shoe, the community and the ipod sensor.

Running is really very addictive. It takes a runner to understand this statement. Runners tend to respect each other. When I met one of my clients, a very senior executive in a Singaporean company, and he confessed of running as a hobby and admitted to making the trip to HK specially to do the marathon. I looked at his wiry stature and his age and immediately my respect for him went up a few notches.

Thus, when Nike and ipod build these Nike+ shoes and ipod sensors, they did not count on that this will be a global village - though it is not as though you can run virtually, every runner respects the distance and is proud to show each other what they can achieve. It is really cool when I can review my running mileage online and throw out one or two challenges across the virtual world to friends who are in the system - then we motivate each other to roll in the miles!
The other cool feature I found out more about is the vocal reminder of the distance achieved, and the Lance Armstrong or Paula Radcliffe telling you at the end of the workout that it was your personal best. Short of saying my name, this was a surprising gimmick which bodes well at the end of a good run.

There is no finishing line. Indeed.

My Running Calendar

It is indeed running season!

Together with my seasones nike+ shoes, I plan to undertake the following challenges, and to get up to speed with 20km races- my target is 6 this year, then followed by 30km in Pacesetters next year and KLIM marathon next year.

June 2007
17th June 2007 - F.T.A.A.A Walk Circuits II – Lake Garden, KL / 730am
24th June 2007 - Penang Bridge Marathon – Padang USM, Penang / 22.5km / 5am

July 2007
8th July 2007 - Siemens 10KM Run – Dataran Merdeka, KL / 10.7km
22nd July 2007 - Larian Kuala Lumpur 10K – Taman Melawati, KL / 10km

August
5th August 2007 – Adidas King of The Road – Sunway Pyramid, PJ / 21km
12th August 2007 – PJ Half Marathon – Stadium Kelana Jaya, PJ / 21km

September
9th September 2007 - Mizuno Wave Run – Padang Merbuk, KL / 10km

The Puzzle We Could Not Solve

Well we almost did - this is an excerpt from the Kiwanis Hunt treasure questions. There are actually two questions here :

Treasure 4 - As written there - read it la...

Treasure 5 - Well, just a bunch of pics (this was the reason why I mms'ed this sheet in the first place)

Care to take a guess? Of course if you participated, don't need to try as you would've already known the answer.

Seth Godin - The Dip

I chanced upon a book by Seth Godin, the Guru of Marketing - he writes about the dip.

Note : Picture and info are all taken from his site above linked.

Below is the excerpt from the review of the book (original review here)

It's a mind grenade, a little bit of insight that will help you see what's causing your organization (or you) to get stuck. Here's the official description:

The old saying is wrong-winners do quit, and quitters do win. [PS The Dip just hit #5 on the New York Times bestseller list.]

Every new project (or job, or hobby, or company) starts out exciting and fun. Then it gets harder and less fun, until it hits a low point-really hard, and not much fun at all.

And then you find yourself asking if the goal is even worth the hassle. Maybe you're in a Dip-a temporary setback that will get better if you keep pushing. But maybe it's really a Cul-de-Sac, which will never get better, no matter how hard you try.

What really sets superstars apart from everyone else is the ability to escape dead ends quickly, while staying focused and motivated when it really counts.

Winners quit fast, quit often, and quit without guilt-until they commit to beating the right Dip for the right reasons. In fact, winners seek out the Dip. They realize that the bigger the barrier, the bigger the reward for getting past it. If you can become number one in your niche, you'll get more than your fair share of profits, glory, and long-term security.

Losers, on the other hand, fall into two basic traps. Either they fail to stick out the Dip-they get to the moment of truth and then give up-or they never even find the right Dip to conquer.

Whether you're a graphic designer, a sales rep, an athlete, or an aspiring CEO, this fun little book will help you figure out if you're in a Dip that's worthy of your time, effort, and talents. If you are, The Dip will inspire you to hang tough. If not, it will help you find the courage to quit-so you can be number one at something else.

-----------

Reflection :

Least of all am I thinking of quitting purely because I am in a rut - I am in a fortunate position in my company. I am just thinking if my ambition of doing things differently at the same scene has caused me to lose my edge - maybe what I need is another playing field or another view of the playing field.

Having lost many times, I wonder whether I really know how to quit ahead of the game?

Lost and Found

Laksamana Point in Melaka - one of the detours in Melaka after the Kiwanis Hunt

I have not been blogging for a while. I am at a mini dip - this is what the Seth Godin calls it - a mini dip is a period where you are at a chasm and cannot get out of - work has had its ups and downs and currently at a mini-lull where the future is unknown.

On a broader note, I have been hooked onto something more exciting.... treasure hunting! The pic above was part of a trip to Melaka for the Kiwanis Hunt on the 26-27th May - this was the grand prix of all treasure hunts in Malaysia.

We went with spirits high for the hunt and it turned out to be a great lesson learnt. Somehow I was not too perturbed by the "lesson of defeat" but I suppose my younger team members felt really defeated that we were disqualified out of time penalty after arriving late in the finishing point. Not only did we arrive late, we also did not answer the second half of the questions due to time constraints! The great consolation was that we had "potential" because we aced the first half of the questions but took too long!!!

The Kiwanis hunt has always been for the creme de la creme of treasure hunters in Malaysia - it was good to take part in this round's drive to Melaka and also a good lesson learnt for us to know our strengths and weaknesses. Rest assured team Rapid or "lookalike" will be back with more to offer, because we were wisely offered some tips from a wise man and experienced hunter.

I always like to think that, to have potential and lose is better than knowing you have no more potential and still lost.

This is as well a lesson in extremes - the day job that I do demands me to be a leader to others but most of all demonstrate the ability to offer more each day as the bar is raised constantly.

To know that in this instance of reference, treasure hunting, I have assembled the best team with the potential to win is a great feeling, rather than dwell on the lesson learnt this round in Kiwanis, I would like to declare that we have "found" ourselves.

What is lost will eventually be found when you do what you do best.