Intensity

Many years ago, I said this to someone :
If we meet each other once a year, for one hour, and we live another 20 years, this will only be 20 more hours in our lifetime.

What I did not say at that time was :
I would rather lets just spend the 20 hours now.

It is an irony that I was reminded of this today back by the same person I said it to - it kind of means that we have very little time, if we just spread them over a number of years and waste it, it will be meaningless, whereas if we spend the time within the right frame, all at once, it is worth a lifetime more than it being dots in the ocean.

It is like making an agenda of people you would like to spend time with before you die, except that you are in control, and when it is all done, you get to be free...

I thrive on intensity.

Last Race of the Year 2009 - Malakoff 12 km Run 20 Dec

Photos excerpt from Tey's album, thanks bro...










































I have race fatigue over the last 3 months! This was a really interesting race as it was a new route - Jln Beringin x2 = 12 km!!! Ever stampeded across the millionaire row early in the morning and doing the 3-4 hills?


I could almost imagine Yong Sun and Lum stepping out of their house to have a laugh at how I'm pushing myself. But hey, this is my personal goal. I am ALIVE!


Great race, fun to pant up the hill (FUN??), and really run down the hills, and my 2XU helped a lot with the compression... 1hr 23mins - nothing to shout about time, but I did push myself a bit here and there...


After the race, met up with many fellow racers - thanks for 2009, and I will be back with a bang in 2010.

Alumni nite .. 11 Dec 2009

Excerpt photos. Probably the event I look for every year.

Among some of the people who played a big part in my career. Enough said.


HKS - the person who hired me, and in my mid-career assignment in Taiwan, you were one of those who stood firm with my capabilities when I was nearly a casualty

JH - dont know you as well as I wanted to, but your level headed-ness, and diversity leadership inspires me

MST - did you remember you met a young university student in Melbourne many years ago, and asked - what is wrong with you, when I wanted to understand what I was getting hired for?

MYS - not in picture. taught me that anything is do-able in crafting a deal.

LP - not in picture. smart. balance. shrewd. can't describe you better.

MXH - not in picture. got me into the phone business and cannot forget my singapore trip to meet the boss instigated by you. changed my alignment.

CT - clients respected you because you could get them to program. even when they are already way past their prime.

LBC - you have your teachable point of view indeed.


The rest, not in photo - my fellow journey men, its like an unsaid fellowship. May we have many more such ring gatherings in the future...

Buy you a beer, coffee or dinner anytime. I have a lot of unsaid respect for all of you and more.

Celebrating Dad's birthday at SCSM with a 21km redemption race - 6th Dec 2009

Very late post - 6th December 2009 was my dad's birthday. Happy belated birthday dad, despite my old age, I do hope one day I can be as "amiable" as you are - I know you will always look at your youngest and only daughter with pride for what I have achieved over the years, by what you compared yourself to, but also you do not know what I feel about what I have not achieved. I am thankful for those rare quiet drives when I drive you and you listen to me rant because yes, I need to express some things, and yet, there are still so many things unsaid.

I took my parents to a trip in Singapore for a break, a holiday they could not afford now with the higher price per exchange for Singapore and also the expensive hotel room. Coincidentally it was also the weekend of the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009. This year, I signed up earlier and signed up for 21km. I knew after KL Marathon I had no capability to train and run a full marathon and I was just tired of failing to run a better race. Two weeks earlier, in Penang, I had run a terrible race, and it resulted in me really very upset with myself for the poor timing. In the weekend in between, I powered up two 10km double hills and I felt I was ready for a better timing.

Arrived in Singapore on Friday morning, and collected the race pack at Singapore Expo - waited for Boone & friends, but was very tired waiting, because their flight was delayed, I was severely dehydrated, and tired from the early morning flight. Went back to hotel after meeting with them briefly, and started feeling the onset of a sore throat. By night of friday, I felt really uncomfortable, and ate the Tony Romas (a must do) with my parents in significant discomfort.

As such, the next day was purely about resting. I passed out on a trip to visit the singapore zoo, and instead opted to shop and visited the Singapore Flyer. The flyer was a really peaceful ride as I managed to take photos, have a relaxing spin and also appreciated the route I ran on the next day, although singapore is sorely messed up with the construction of a million and one things.

Race day, I got up early, for the 645 start time, and the walk from the hotel to the starting point was less than 5 mins about 100-200m, how cool is that!!! The race atmosphere was electrifying, and after visiting the loo and warming up, I was ready to go... As strange as it is, the races in singapore has always been me against myself, even though I seem to come with or know people who would run. I fault myself for being so crazy sometimes, but running... has given be a new perspective on peace... and something I - an ordinary girl who was once more of a brainy nerd than a sports person can claim fame to and enjoy as well...

Race route was very friendly, even though I was really surprised there were so many people at the 21km... I will definitely never run the 10km race - it must have been worse!!! I was not used to having so many people at the 21km race, that it was completely crowded all the way from start to the end. The route went passed the marina sands building, suntec city, then onto nicoll highway and turned back, came back through the f1 pits, the floating field, etc. The last 5km was a common finishing for all race categories, so the split start times suited very well, at least I did not hit too many 10km racers, as it was too slow for the men, and almost too fast for the women. Heheh...

It was cool that my company's singapore office managed to get us some adidas vests for the race, but it was really strange that they opted for the standard Stan Chart colors, which made me miss all the photos... so the photos above are from someone's iphone..

And though not a PB, redemption was 15 mins off Penang time, and a good comfortable run.

To next year's SCSM - now I itch for the 42km again... where you get roasted but at least treated well !!!

You Raise Me Up... (Putrajaya 12 hr Walk 12-13 Dec 2009)

Josh Groban, "You Raise Me Up" in the middle of the night, and I was walking and walking...

You Raise Me Up to More Than I Can Be

This is such an up song!

When the time to sign up for the Putrajaya 12 hr Walk first came up, I remembered this was my new year's resolution post last year. In hindsight, as I sit down to blog this four days after the all night walk, I have to say this was the most extreme endurance event I did this year.

One week after 21km in Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon, I have to admit this was no mean feat. Having said that, I raise my hat to the 42km marathoners in SCSM who continued on this event, some having known since last year that this was indeed an endurance event.

The day started with having to get to Putrajaya by 7pm for collection of the bib, and the race started at 8pm to 8am the next day. I liked the way the banner printed Dec 12-13 - it was a great pleasure to say that I have walked across two physical days!

Drive to Putrjaya was smooth - I was wondering during my drive there how it would feel like to drive back 12 hours later. Not knowing what to expect, except that there was buffet and imagining I was going to meet and chat with the whole town, I was very enthusiastic. Bib collection was smooth, and a while later, I met up with Boone and his colleagues - a very big hats off to him also for having managed to persuade a whole group of people to turn up for the race. I only managed myself, despite having claimed to be the sponsor for the company running club..!

After picking up the bib, I was slightly worried seeing people brought tents and camps - I was not sure if these were regular campers (?) or actually walkers who were smart enough to bring their own sleeping mat! The turnout and the carnival like atmosphere was very encouraging.

I had before the walk started, targeted to walk 42km - the distance of a full marathon. I realised how foolish this target after the first 6km, when I found out happily that I managed to do the first 6km in 1hr, but it also meant I had to walk a freaking 7hrs at the same pace!!!

My pace dropped significantly after I made my first stop approximately 2hrs after the race started. I made a mistake and ate some of the dinner buffet, after grabbing a banana initially. The dinner at 10pm sat really badly in my stomach for almost 3km. Who really takes a long walk immediately after dinner, and also walked another 30km after dinner!!!!!

I have to say, the highlight of the middle portion of my walk was the distractions - from talking to people, from Tey and Chee Hon taking pictures, Chee Hon bringing us delicious Krispy Kreme donuts (which settled much better than the dinner), and just from walking and not walking. 11-2am was perhaps the most difficult of the middle distance portions. After 2am, I think it was just ploughing through the 30km + portions and trying to just do 3-5 km each time I had rested.

Finally, just before 10hrs, I believe I managed to make 42km, and I stopped. Not sure if its really I managed to make 42km - its either 40 or 41 or 42 or 43 km, because guess what, you cannot count after 15km, the mind numbs itself! I did not however make it to 12 hours, I made only 10 hours because they were giving out medals at 10hrs, for a min of 20km / 26km for women/men. I took my medal and left, from 35km-40km thereabouts I was thinking - people train for a marathon, and this is a marathon distance, what do I think I am to attempt this without training !

Let me pause a moment and do a Haruki Murakami - what do I think about when I am walking (running)...?

- I was thinking about happiness and was deliriously happy just enjoying the night air and thinking about nothing for the first 3-4km. It reminded me of the "nothing box" - a metaphor used to describe a man's brain when he is watching TV..

- I was thinking about what lap to do the food when the food first came out at 10am. I was also disappointed with the food when it came out - it looked very "dinner bland".. or rather a bland dinner

- I was thinking about how soft someones arm was ... (don't ask me who)

- I was thinking about when Tey and Chee Hon was going to turn up to take our photos

- I was thinking about disco music and how I would dance all night long when I was younger (ahem), giving myself a skip in my walk ..

- I was thinkng if it was possible to change into my 2XU shorts in my car, and not lose so many laps and still manage to do it in the dark of the back seat. I was wondering if it would be worse or better than my shorts

- I was thinking about people holding hands during walking or running competitions

- I was thinking about how many hours of sleep I would need to do the next day to get up for a friend's wedding

- I was thinking about how big the thighs were of one of the foreigner ladies who walked so well

- I was thinking about how good a husband John was, who accompanied Wai Mun all the way (1st runner up) (I've been seeing these two around pacesetter events)

- I was thinking about who else I would talk to - for the record, besides Boone and his colleagues whom I spoke to and I knew before the walk started - I spoke to Haza (a couple of rounds), Sook Ying, whom I suddenly recognised after a few rounds as Pacesetter committee, one indian man who was from putrajaya (who asked me to take powerbar to match the top walker!), one chinese lady who was walking with her son, one red dyed hair lady who was walking non-stop until almost the whole night on and off, said hi to Weng (KC's brother) and to my amusement also listened to a lot of funny banter from the familiar faces..

- I was thinking about 42km every km I walked after 30km.. and how it resembled a marathon - hey I walk during the marathon as well on and off after 30km...

I told Boone that walking was a very solo thing, I am wrong. It is a very personal mind over matter thing - if being solo focusses you, then be solo. If having to chat with people focusses you, then chat with people. I found both of those and a great amount of determination is what it takes to walk all night.

One day, I will do the 24 hour walk. This will be my biggest mental challenge...

Footnote - I suffered in 3inch heels the next day at a colleague's wedding dinner - it was pure torture for me but strangely on the joints of the knee. Normally walking takes it out on the calves but not sure why I suffered on the joints... The next few days, 3 days later, my body was fatigue beyond any feeling I've ever encountered. Not easy....

Photocredit - first 3 photos - Chee Hon - lonely walk to nowhere, reminded to Buat Kerja every round (and fed like an inmate!)

Penang - KL - Manila - Clark in 15 hours

My surreal experience continued the next day after the Penang Marathon - suffice to just summarize the unreal experience Penang - KL - Manila - Clark in 15 hours :

- Nov 22 Sunday - Left Penang at 5pm, reached KL at 6pm, left KL for Manila at 120am, reached Manila at 515am, left Manila at 545am, reached Clark airforce base / freeport at 830am (with 1 hr stop in between)

- 645am, Nov 23 Monday - I was eating pancakes for breakfast on a highway stop (2 pieces + sausage) north going to Clark with my colleague Ambe. The place was filled with people in less than 45 mins, which included COINCIDENTALLY 6 people we knew who were going for the same workshop!!

- 830am, Nov 23 Monday - I arrived at Clark airforce base, only to find a small cute hotel in the middle of a long road to no where, we did not find the hotel because they were constructing a casino in the front!

- 930am, Nov 23 Monday - the client offsite workshop started with a PRAYER.. this is the first time I actually stood for a prayer before a workshop .. wow

- fast forward 9pm, Nov 23 Monday - we had nothing to do at night and I was watching Amazing Race in a room in Clark in remote nowhere, with my colleague Ambe - I had missed the last 4-5 episodes of this show... and to be watching it in remote hotel... unreal... slept before 11pm, dead tired from the LONG weekend

- 6am, Nov 24 Tuesday - client invited me to run at 5am, I got up at 6am and felt crossed with myself, and still remembered my poor Penang time - stepped out in my Puma sneakers and ran almost 10km in the middle of a damn straight road to no where - luckily I avoided the airforce base heheh

- Tuesday whole day workshop, busy like hell, and 330pm, back to Manila, then 855pm, back to KL... what a whirlwind two days

Penang Bridge Marathon 2009 (22nd Nov 2009)

Pic 2 - B Suite Hotel welcomes all runners!! Peter and Boone in front of the hotel, Peter holding up the jco doughnuts Chee Hon bought for us... :-)

Pic 1 - Kangaroo courier delivers ... (though the pack a bit filled with useless stuff..) (little did I know I needed the poh-chai pills then...)

I have had a whirlwind of a week and barely had enough time to sit down to write this, and also I did not feel compelled to write it... this is the most surreal experience of my running career.

8pm Sat 21 Nov - we got back from dinner, driven by Chee Hon. We had gone to a Red Roof Inn hawker stall area at Jalan Penang (or something like that) and I had consumed my 3rd plate of Char Kueh Teow. That itself was a surreal experience... since I just arrived the night before and I was nursing a diarrhea case the week before... my knowledge of the methods and quality of char kueh teow had improved over that weekend by 1000% thanks to Boone, who could literally recite all the best CKT places in town in his sleep..

10pm Sat 21 Nov - just managed to get to sleep after arranging all my things...

220am Sun 22 Nov - Boone comes to eat a jco doughnut before we rolled off from B Suite. In the lift, the runners were dead serious in the middle of the night, we went to the lift where waft smells of deep heat filled up and Boone joked lightly but everyone was dead serious as though we were aliens from outer space...

230am Sun 22 Nov - My way or the highway - we took the highway ... walked from B Suite to Queensbay mall.. on the road, my fears of the highway taking all my energy out eased when I saw a stream of runners walking the route there, since B Suite was the Kenyans place to stay (!!!) - actually we coined that because we saw some kenyans there, but then later I realised KC and Running Mom was at the hotel too. This has got to be the most surreal experience in my running career - to be walking to the starting point, crossing a highway, seeing streams of people walking at 230am, and wide awake and excited... unreal...

300am Sun 22 Nov - we reached the starting line, despite halfway walking, we realised we were on the wrong side of the road, and only one other chap (was it Zahri?) was with us, and we consoled ourselves that we were hopeless dumb runners from KL attacking Penang grounds on foot on a highway in the middle of the night. Along the overhead, we saw the front runners of the full marathon passing through the road below, heading from Seagate to the bridge - that was a adrenaline sight...

330am Sun 22 Nov - The mens half marathon was flagged off - Boone, Chee Hon and Tan went off with this group. The women were told to not cross the line by a stern MC who told us we will be punished if we did by the greatest sin of DQ if we crossed the line..

345am Sun 22 Nov - Was flagged off the starting line, together with Su-Ann and Claire. A few cheerful Malay ladies in front told us they were from KL and we helped them take pictures before the soundless gun went off. I did not manage to catch Lim Guan Eng.. I was told he was driven up to the Full Marathon in his Merc... like moses parting the red sea...

0-10km - the 10km marker was the turning point on the bridge... this was quite a relaxed run for me.. I really loved the whether this year, clear skies, no construction on the bridge, cool breeze, passed a troupe of lion dance drummers on the middle span of the bridge and ran to the momentum of the drum beat. Just passed the mid-span, going down, I heard a person shouted my name across the barrier - realised it was Say Kiat, but I had no way of verifying as the slits were slanted the other way.. but I was motivated as it got me running faster in the dream of catching him... at just about the 10km marker, Running Mom Haza caught me (once again!!) and passed me, and I remember checking my watch 1:12 at the tracker - hmm, this is a fast 10km... at that point I actually felt I was about to get a personal best from this race

10-21km - don't know what happened, but from the turn all the way to the end of the bridge, I was much slower in pace, despite the ups and downs, I still felt very very good. I was still running strong, where typically when my watch showed 2hrs, I would've been drained. All the way, off the bridge to the turnoff where the IJM runners are, and then back to Queensbay mall to the finishing line. Realised in the last 4-5km that I was no where near my Personal Best, but actually it is a Personal Worst!!!

What happened?? I think I ran the second half of the race not as motivated as the first, and tried to focus on running without injury downhill and also running continuously when I should've paced and walked if I was tired. Instead I slowed down completely, and when almost home, met with the 10km runners, quarter marathon, I actually was slowed by the traffic as they stampeded the majority of the road, and the back of the mens 21km who walked blocked the rest of the way, despite I still managed to shuffle through.

Still, its no excuse, but a very mixed feeling, I loved penang, ran a great race feeling very good and ran all the 21km for the first time in my 21km experiences, and had good food, good company. I just wished I had run faster, but it was not to be. Maybe next year it will be blazing hot, raining or even poorly managed, but I will be back, and grab that personal best, marathon or half marathon category.

It was the most surreal experience :

- Walked to the starting point at 230am

- Race started at 345am and finished when still dark

- Ate 3 CKT over two days BEFORE the race

- Flying to-fro Penang for a race

- Clear pretty peaceful run on the Penang Bridge at 4am+ in the morning

- Met a marathoner (Peter) who could do a 3hr 39mins and still eat more CKT than me before the race (tabik)

- Stayed at the "runners" hotel

- Took public buses Rapid Penang and to the shock of my friends, did a serious concall on the bus.. (sorry guys I could not avoid it)

- Being offered doughnuts jco as a pre-race meal and declining it (only to have it for lunch later!)

- Feeling so unreal about a race because I did a personal worst time in good feeling (!)

- Asked to jump across a drain after the race to walk home which I did not dare to test the stiffness of my legs, so I chickened out (and we took a longer path which led to a cab)

There was a finishing line, I reached it, and I want to run more... to the next finish line...!

Back to Penang - and discovering good food and no finishing line...

I am back at Penang after one year away from the Penang Marathon. There is a certain feeling from running .. that level of anxiety mixed with excitement, nervousness to step on the starting line and also the can I really finish this race feeling.

I cannot express the moment, but running to me after two years of being in Penang, ran 22.7km, I will still get to the starting line tomorrow at 345am, and all nervous to run another race.

It takes a runner to understand what a runner feels, and even though I do not really class myself as a serious runner (yet!), I am very glad this time to continue to have the camaraderie of friends to be at that starting line with me.

The feeling - butterflies in the stomach for a 21km race?

I am in love with this feeling just purely because it tells me I still have a long way to go, a great level of appreciation for running, and to discover this tells me most importantly, I am very much alive and hope this self discovery will continue for many years.

There is no finishing line.

The Sun Motor Hunt 2009

This has got to be the only type of activity in life where you never want to get promoted.... Do you know what it is?

Treasure hunting!

I am not sure how many hunts we did this year, but it probably has to be less than 3 - I think I participated in all of them - Australian Alumni hunt, Uncle Chong's Economy Hunt and this one - the creme de la creme of all treasure hunts - the Sun Hunt. We got a decent 28th position for this hunt - from 57 in 2007 to 83 in 2008 and now 28!! It seems the lesser we participate in the better we are! Some highlights :

- I no longer believe in outsourcing - we outsourced one treasure question to our fifth man CG and he got a decent answer - except that the outsourcer -ie. us in the car, did not spend enough time thinking about the answer, if we had, we would've gotten the right treasure!!!

- We have a great team - WY, JS, NY, myself, CG, JS2 (backup) - this is 5+1 persons, but somehow, we could never make the same event, so we are all pretty happy with the 5 person thing. JS could not make some of the items last year, I could not this year and last year at Damian's wedding for mensa hunt, and WY when she was away, JS during the christmas hunt too.

- What I really love about our team was the great spirit of team work - we never duplicated each other, we lived with each others strengths, interchange thoughts and in general have a great time at each hunt - with lots of jokes and humor. I used to be the anchor for the team in figuring out the questions, but we have grown so adaptive nowadays (and me a bit degenerative too) that we all know we are all capable of solving the questions and treasures, and we work together well - yesterdays event was such - team work made everyone solve some big questions, even the driver whilst driving!

- I am easily satisfied to believe that we have a long way to go before we are masters, but we do have the potential of a great team. It is my honor to serve with great people.

Back to the reason why you never want to get promoted - the Sun Hunt is indeed the most punishing of all reasons. The Sun Hunt has gotten so big that it caters for up to 270 teams in the open category and a limited masters category for 20 cars. This is itself a major logistical nightmare every year, for the sponsors and organisers to manage traffic, the wrath of the non-hunters and in general, organise a full day event - hunting for 6 hrs and then a dinner because you need a couple of hours to mark at least 270 papers! The poor masters had a tough time - the questions were tough, and all of them got rewarded but what is usually a top 3-5 position is now a 15-20 position for some of them and after a tough day, only a miserable mp3 player, and the whole dinner is dedicated to questions for the open category!!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday!

Pic1 - Having my cup cake and eating it too

Pic2 - Pretty cupcakes from my sis-in-law

Pic3 - Halloween Candies... (fingers, thumbs and RIP chocs)

Pic4 - The hand makes its appearances on my guests..

Today, Nov 1, is my birthday. I am rarely so self appreciating, but this time I thought I would go all out to celebrate, even at minimum, if not, write myself a celebratory blog.

I will do one of those ala facebook style of factual about myself for my birthday :
· My name in Chinese means everlasting beauty. I look in the mirror and most of the time I don’t see the beauty. But I see beauty sometimes in my style, my persistence, my love for the simpler life or what I call simple enjoyments. Where does beauty end in the exterior and where does it start in the interior? Is it true that in order to be beautiful, and to have everlasting beauty, one has to be able to see that beauty themselves more?

· In Philippines, Nov 1 is a holiday every year. It is All Saints day. I am a saint!!! I have never been called a saint before, but then I realized today that saints are DEAD people! I do not want to be a saint! All Saints day is like All Souls day in Chinese – they celebrate by going to the cemetery!!!! This is so sad…. I am alive, not dead. Celebrate me as I am as alive as you are.

· November is the month of the beautiful but deadly scorpion, the star sign for Scorpio. I am a true blood Scorpio, though not much a believer in horoscopes, the interesting thing is that Scorpios are intense creatures. Vengence is high on the list. And passion too... (how do you mix that?)... heheh, do not cross me. You will not like me when you cross me. You will like me a lot if you love me :-)

· I love pork. I am also born under a chinese sign of a pig. This means I am lazy and a self serving bastard, eat a lot and also sleep a lot. What I love about being under the Chinese pig sign is that the pig, being lazy has to learn how to be lazy. Most of the time, I think I’m a half breed as I really got to learn how to be lazy more!

· 111 – There are too many ones in my birthday. I am as always, your super kiasu number one, although sometimes my poker face hides this kiasuness. In reality, I shy away from the limelight, but never have I not looked at something I consider a challenge, and back down. Number 1.

· Previous birthdays have been not great experiences for me. I cannot remember one which I can say is worth remembering. The only one I can remember is the one when I had to work overnight on my birthday. That just about gives away how terribly overworked I am.

I would like to say, I had a great simple halloween, birthday, house warning little cosy meal yesterday. Thank you for those who could make it. I am learning to be older, wiser, simpler and above all, the ever humble servant of the greater mysteries of life.

Pensive thoughts

Today I sms'ed him and he called back. I have not spoken to him for two years at least, I cannot remember when... we are, still the same... there is still the same wall between us, but I have to relearn how to really know my old friend again.

All of a sudden, meeting a whole bunch of people over dinner made me think of that short 5 min call again this afternoon. If we are the same, how do we become friends again? I am not sure, but I am also not too disturbed over this.

Somehow, in the stories of me and my oldest friend, I am always the one who over-dos, over-thinks. I am not sure why, but even now, when I am not over thinking, I still feel ... disappointed.

Can men and women never be friends in a platonic nature? I'd like to say... no.

Pensive. I guess it comes with growing old.

Mizuno Wave Run 25th Oct - My first time on this UPM route

I had a good run this morning at Mizuno's Wave Run. Kind of missed Tey and familiar photographer, so did not have a chance to get my face snapped. There were a few photographers on the road but few of them really "snap" random people's pictures. (Photo from Chan Wing Kai taken from pacesetter's albums)

- First time I ever drove my car to a race for a long while, usually there was Kell Jay or I would drive my Toyota. Its either that or I have really not run a race proper for a long time during the day.
- Arrived at a good time, around 640+, leaving plenty of time to ease into a good parking. Picked up SK along with me, so I had company as well as a decent navigator.
- Started to see the crowd around 7am, luckily I queued for the toilets early. Lost SK somewhere along the way, but I realise he likes to start at the back, so I spiced up the challenge a bit with a bit of a soccer bet, asking for 5 mins. In hindsight, I should've asked for more. Either that or he responds better to challenges than my legs could.
- Could not find Ai Leen or Boon along the way, but saw Philip. This obsession with the pretty vest of stark yellow made it difficult to recognise people in the crowd, though I got to admit, the vest was pretty nice
- The starting point was too crowded for a 4000+ people race. There was too many people, and since this race did not have the chip, the starting was a bit of a disarray, there was no gun even. And the people just started randomly running, cutting across the grass to make ground, and the rest literally walked or shuffled for at least 100m, then slow painful traffic like jog downhill.
- The initial part of the race, at least the first 1-2 kms was a painful slow crawl. The roads were pretty narrow, and at one point, I was even wondering if we were in UPM grounds!
- The most jialat part was the last hill, which incidently was the first hill we climbed, when going from car to stadium, the first hill we ran down initial 500m, and also the last most jialat hill we had to do before arriving back for a quarter stadium finish.
- The race was probably a full 11km as claimed. I arrived around 1.23, if you count the time the first guy sped off and I was still standing around. Got a card which allowed me to claim a medal for 69 position in the category... whee!
- Eventually coming out of the race, I saw Ai Leen who walked mostly.

All, in, I thought it was a decent race, but slightly disappointed with my timing. And, I lost 10-12 mins to SK, which is literally impossible!

Blown Away

Image courtesy of internet surfing on flickr. Not intended to reproduce for commercial use. This was the underpass at ayala avenue (the underpass was about 15 feet deep at the bottom, including the stairs probably at least 20 feet, all underwater)

Blown away not by TNT, but typhoons...

For those of you who know me, I've been working on and off in the Philippines since Chinese New Year this year, two engagements and a load of opportunity chasing. This blog is purely personal, and about how I missed the typhoons.

I was not blown away, but nearly. The first typhoon, Ondoy in Philippines, but Ketsana globally (whoever said Filipinos do not have nicknames for everything!), hit on Sept 26, with menacing disaster. The first instance of it was the weekend when my brother's filipino maid told us her family was ok, and she was glad I was not in Manila. Then the photos started coming on in CNN on the floods in Manila, how it hit with 1 mth of rain water in one day. Sept 26th was a Saturday and my mum's birthday. Mum has blessed me that I missed the typhoon, not that I stayed a lot of weekends in Manila anyway.

The disaster which wrecked through Manila was quite real, but I was surprised by the resilience of the people. They basically shrugged it off and those who were well to do or able to volunteered and helped. When we visited our client (a telco), they shared incidences of how they mobilised on the Sunday itself. And how innovative telcos were that they helped in the best way they could by offering free load (people unable to topup in a prepaid dominant country) to the phones of those trapped. How they were able to setup mobile charging units and relief centers and call centers almost within a day. Something the government could not even do. These were brave souls who just shrugged off and told me that their family was ok, but the houses were underwater. About personal items lost in the floods. And then there were also many lives.

The second round was Typhoon Parma, labelled a supertyphoon for its wind speeds, and it started spinning to shore on Oct 2, when my big boss came down to philippines for a talk to the client. He was from Chicago, and basically I was heading off to Chicago as well on the next day on Oct 3rd, Saturday morning. He left in a haste, taking a Singapore-London-Chicago flight, which apparently left much faster. The afternoon, people were let off at 3pm, as the residents had their share of disasters and everyone left early to take their family home. The residents of fancy CBD of Makati were scurrying around buying rations!!! I wondered out of the apartment to take dinner at the shopping center given it was one of my early nights, and found most of the shops closed, light rain and many people scurrying to rush rations from the supermarket. My colleagues told me that I would likely miss the flight. I told them "have faith". I believe I could avert disaster as I have always been lucky.

Lucky I was. The typhoon slowed in the ocean and when it hit the shores it was Saturday afternoon, almost 6 hrs after my plane departed. The typhoon was also much more north, and it did wreck havoc to the northern states, and stayed for a week(!!) as a tropical depression (which I assumed brought depressing rain).

During this second typhoon, our malaysian SMS system texted the warnings. Only two of my friends sms me, concerned I was going to be trapped. Even my parents did not sms me. And of the two who sms'ed me, you know who you are - one was a colleague, and another a new friend. Thank you. I would have been blown away and nobody knows better.

I wonder, at what point does someone think about these situations, and reflect upon themselves? Is it only when they are trapped on the roof for two days or when they are two seconds to drowning. At what point do I realise, that it does not matter who or what I do, why I am in philippines, but the fact that I have many friends, family, colleagues, hold a respectable job, at what point is it that only two people bother to ask me how I am, blown away or still standing?

I am once again, caught, blown away by the simple fact that there is indeed, not much to be said about who I am, who I matter to, and that makes me, incredibly sad.

Have Vehicle will Travel ...

My "vehicle" parked for the photo at Lake Michigan. To understand why running is such a big thing in the US, you have to see the kind of places they run ... wow ... Lake Michigan makes me want to run the marathon there ...

Too bad, I missed the signup of the Chicago Marathon 11 Oct 2009.

I had great fun biking on the scenic trail of Lake Michigan, besides the runners - at some point, I was "racing" with some of them with my rented "comfort" bike. Heheh.

My 13.5 hours date with an Apple engineer

Got to break the norm of not blogging and start blogging again, without the burden of the emotional bits. Thought it was funny to start with experiences - this one is one which is close to the end of a whirlwind trip to US recently for training which I stopped by San Francisco and then headed back.

The bad news was that we went through the once in a year storm which delayed the plane after it got out of the hangar with all the passengers, and then it went back and we had to reboard again a few hours later and missed the connecting.

Met a young engineer on the plane sitting next to me on the way back from San Francisco to HK recently. Normally the more you travel for work or business, the less chatty people are - everyone does some courtesy chit chat and then they pour into their work, all believing they are doing the most important thing in the world. This was no different, however, after 3 hrs on the flight and getting unboarded and then getting back on another 4+ hrs later, the tiredness broke the silence. So I chatted up the young dude - he was an engineer from Apple. His earlier first attempt (1st boarding) of being chatty was pretty much a few lines.

Round 1 (1st boarding)
He - "I always forget to bring a book" (on seeing me throwing out a small novel - one I bought at the airport drug store together with some Reeses)
I - "Well, you can always see 4 movies or more..."
He - "You know, one has to diversify"
I - "Ok, maybe different types of movies..." (duh - clearly I was jet lag)
He - "Yeah, the only book I brought is engineering books" (duh - clearly a pretty nerdish reply!)

Round 2 (2nd boarding) - he was very late - and he was sitting in the inner seat, so I stood around wondering if the dude has absconded the flight (after waiting 4 hrs+). Then he strolled in.
I - "I thought you have given up"
He - "Well, not apparently not yet"

After settling down and asking plesanteries of where he was heading out to whether HK or somewhere else... found out he was heading for Shenzen, and he proceeded to tell me about jet lag... eventually...
I - "So, are you an engineer? I saw those engineering books you were reading... " (duh...)
He - Actually I work with Apple in the hardware side. (Me... **ting ting, the most beautiful job** if I were 10 years younger ... now rapt with attention)
I - "Oh, thats interesting... do you guys have a lot of people in Shenzhen?".... and the question I asked twice -- "by the way... what is the next big thing coming out from apple...?" heheh.. of which he twice answered "... now I can't tell you ..." heheh..

Did not find out what the guy's name was. He was quite decently handsome. Found out he had worked 3.5 years in Apple, probably still single, looks around 28+ out of college. Polite young man. Said his please and thank yous and did not ask for alcohol or heavy food or beverage from the cabin service. What was more interesting was a couple of cool things we chatted about in summary, started and was more on iphone purely because I told him I do not like the typing, and he started to explain to me how the pixels worked (!duh... really a pure engineer, even I could not understand!)

Anyway, some other things I thought I'd share here just for fun :
- One interesting experience he related to me was how they would do all sorts of test, one test had been that they found there was a lot of returns of the iphone saying the headpieces sound was not good. What they found was that the headphones had a defect in being very prone to shorting out due to sweat (!!!). The sweat would crystalize in certain parts causing a short and the poor sound. The lab boys apparently tested sweat on a few components and finally fixed it making it more resistant to sweat.
- He said he never got to get a iphone because Apple has return policies and honors them, thus the engineers have boxes and boxes of the phone which are returns - so he has two phones - one hacked jailbreaked and one original.. (and he was so proud of it heheh!) - I reconsidered and did not ask whether the licenses were checked like microsoft does when you login online (this was my biggest curiousity as I owned a apple macbook)
- He agreed with me that Snow Leopard was a bug fix but yet people queue up to buy it... (there finally someone agrees!)
- He explained to me the different types of drop test the iphone goes through (duh!! - heheh)
-I told him where I worked but he seemed to have no idea (!! duh!!! - this guy is really young or katak di bawah tempurung or something!). I proceeded to talk about how we really related to our clients about Apple's customer experience and the store experience - of which he had no idea what I was talking about - heheh...
- I told him about the concept of content is king to software and apple was just shipping hardware consoles to enable this - he also could not understand this (heheh), but proceeded to tell me he knows of friends who now makes a living coding apple applications, but he could not do it as he was an employee, and would probably have to sell it through a middle man... (wah, so innocent!)

This was my first really young experience with a fellow passenger - typically the older dudes sit in the business class or those really yuppie ones who pound on their notebooks. This guy was just so funnily innocent and engaged and it was one of those moments that I thought - I got to tell people that I sat next to an apple engineer - this is really cool. Heheh

Well, I thought I would diversify and be really young about this blog. I am obviously not attracted to this guy. But I was definitely enriched in listening to him talk about his job, especially with a company I thought would be a who's who on the employer's list!

After departing in HK, I reflected that this dude was perhaps one of the most engaged young engineer I've ever met - most of the people I get to hire or work with nowadays are really so dis-engaged, and expects the bosses to shower them attention, but few are engaged, polite, and speak passionately about their work with the light of innocence of this young chap.

Perhaps, there is indeed hope for Gen Y and also hope for Gen X in understanding Gen Y.

Melancholy

Tonight I am melancholic.

What does it take to survive the Rat Race?

I had the concept of service, but I realised that service which is not valued is not really service at all. Or even if it is valued but not appreciated. I am teaching my people to watch their back and for them to help watch mine (ie the internal organization) more than to service the client. Watch their back and also those they work with. What have I become?

I fully believe hard work does not cut it anymore. And yet, I cannot detach myself from the need to service, push harder, yearning to achieve the impossible because of...? What have I become?

I look around me, my gen x friends, and I see everyone is working so hard, so this is the new norm. I sleep only 6 out of 7 days nowadays due to travelling once every week on a night flight. Whilst catching up on sleep the other day, I wondered which person wants to achieve the kind of balance I have at my level - I should be sipping coffee and wine instead of losing sleep!!!

It was never my doubt on my own personal intellect, my enjoyment of the work I do and how it helps our clients, or how my esteemed organization is able to bring the best out of us all and deliver the type of high performance service. The problem I have struggled with in my entire working life and more so in the past few years is that this is not yet the best I can be. The best I can be to myself, the people I work for, the clients I service, the family I have. Still not the best.

There's always one person who will eventually break you. That person I've just found out is really my own self. Everyone else, every other action is reflected in me but I am still not at peace with my ownself.

The 3 Seconds Rule

Have you heard of this 3 seconds test? I am not sure where I read this from - but if I'm not mistaken this is based on the book "Mind Gym" on relationships. The authors spoke of the 3 seconds rule for relationships - and I guess it applies to nearly everything.

Have you ever seen someone familiar or not have enough guts or feel shy to chat up someone whom you thought could be interesting or you are bored in the line and you are observing some people or children and wanted to say a friendly hi?

Well, I will advocate to the 3 seconds rule in the following instances - its quite practical - give the thought 3 seconds and just go do it, whatever the gut feels right at that moment. Don't think too long about it. A lot of times our "shyness" or mind barriers kick in after 3 seconds. Here's where I thought it worked for me or could work for me :

3 Seconds Rule to Sending a SMS
- This has got to be my most successful attempt to beat the fear of communicating. I applied the 3 seconds rule over the last few weeks to a couple of items. From my time spent in the philippines I've generally become a more keen texter - here was where I felt, if you have thoughts, just text, and since texting was already not a responsive type of communication, what harm could there be?

- I texted one of my staff who wanted to quit to ask her to chat - I've never been much of a chatter for people, but recently I've been a lot more approachable. It tired me to speak to people who wanted to leave in distress but I knew I needed to at least try. Why delay - I could easily talk or meet up with them - 3 seconds told me there was no harm of talking to them to convince them to stay. At worse, I would've another good ex-colleague friend and given them the "release" they would need before they leave.

- I texted someone I hardly know to meet up. What harm is there? I was bored and needed some new friends, it took me 3 seconds to say, what the heck, this is better than not even trying. Who cares about first moves what ever... does it help me get anything in return? 3 seconds, do it, send. What does it matter if it was a yes or no?

3 Seconds Rule to Smiling
- It is funny how one has to think for 3 seconds to smile. Well this is not as it is - I've been out of town for so many rounds that sometimes just culturally adapting has proven to be a bit tiring - so I've learnt the new Philippines communication tool. Good intents are usually expressed just by smiling. Why make the doorman, the taxi driver, the client, your colleague whoever stressed - we all have our demands but what harm is there to smile?

- Take the 3 seconds rule to smiling and one becomes more comfortable to smile and after a while it becomes 1 second and eventually, it becomes part of your internal composure. I found that smiling made my entire thinking mind more positive and less tension is created, even in a tough environment. Well if there is no one to smile at, smile internally!

3 Seconds Rule to Sending a Email
- This can sometimes work and sometimes not. I usually advocate people to think about the email they want to send, especially in distress or emotional state. But I've found the 3 seconds rule applies well to times when you want to respond or feel there is not enough info, hesitate, or try to over analyse non critical notes - this is when the 3 second rule works - send that email and respond! You do not need 200% information. Well, this applies only to those who are like me, getting 50-100 emails a day, and sometimes people wait for me, but I always want to do a full job even responding to a mail. To be treaded with care on this one....

3 Seconds Rule to Action
- Get to action on that thing you have been procrastinating on? Just think about it for 3 seconds and action it - your gut feel is the right decision. And taking action is always better than not taking any action!

PS - 3 Seconds Rule to Procrastination - The bad part of the story is that it takes 3 seconds to procrastinate as well.... oh well, you can't win them all!

Stop, Pause, Rewind, Forward...

I have not blogged for a long long time.  I can somehow understand how writers suffer writer's block.  I on the other hand am just burnt out at work. 

I read this book, it said, when you make it a habit, it becomes a habit.  So, here goes, welcome back to the blogging world, and please bear with me, I need to warm up.

Strange photo to post, you may think?  Well, I just bought a new camera lens yesterday, and as usual, I like to point and shoot just about anything.  

They said the sign of a clean table is a sign of a sick mind.  Mine just has permanent clutter.  This part of my table which I deemed publishable is indeed been there for a long while, but peering at the picture quality led me to think about how it so aptly describes me.

"Not a Mess but Unorganized Clutter"

Who would claim their desk resembles a mess and hence similarly their lives?  Look at the photo and you would see a vision of a 0.001% view of the person I am - language - chinese, culture - philippines, how to simplify your life (!!!), thomas friedman, accenture golf tournament pewter card stand, ipod in an airport clear liquid bag (!!! not used?!), random pieces of small petty cash from last trip, some hydration gel I bought at SCSM last year, old mouse, headphones, border card, even mars and venus book... (!!!).

Go figure... an organized clutter, not a mess... don't you think?

"Read Me"

I like to read as much as I enjoy books which are short, sweet and my biggest secret is that I never finish reading the books I buy anyway!  Who could do so when we now have so little time?  But yet, I love book shops and hanging around book shops never bore me, it relaxes me tremendously.  

"Needs Time Out"

This is indeed my main problem and the main reason why I have not blogged for a while.  Just as much as my desk has been the same view for the last 6 months, some of the books there in the picture probably has been there for the last 6 years and maybe more.  The picture is just as much as my state of writing and expression - bland, slightly disorganized - I have thoughts nowadays which I cannot hold for more than 5 minutes, and sometimes I have thoughts which I am trying to block my concious mind from thinking so that I can avoid problems or things to do at work.

I am at a burnt out stage - not miserable but just monumentally tired and out of juice.

Standard Chartered KL Marathon - 28th June 2009

When all is done, and the people have packed up and gone home, the barricades are down and only a handful of really supportive full marathon runners are still around - I was completely pumped up and overwhelmed when in the last 50m, people actually clapped... despite finishing at a lousy 6hrs 42mins.

June 28th, 2009 - my first marathon in Malaysia. See how happy I was at the finishing line :-)....

Pre-marathon

I wonder if there is a day when I will say, I have had enough training. You see, it is all about passion, mental and also the determination. Each marathon target I go for, I regret not having enough training before the race, during the race, and after the race. I tell myself never to run another marathon during the race. And I tell myself when is the next one after the race.

For SCKLM - I had the least amount of training compared to previous marathons - Sundown and SCSM Singapore Marathon - both last year. For Sundown last year, being my first marathon, I did not know what to expect. I did my first daylight race for SCSM and got fried for not having enough practice. For this race, I had little / no training in the gym - I did a lot of road running and training - almost every weekend, and for 4-5 months, I accumulated at least 4-5 21km+ runs during weekends, much better than I did before, and at least 10km+ every weekend though with some lapses. This is definitely not sufficient for marathon training....

Marathon day

I was kind of upset to find the company's running club vest did not fit me - it was almost 2 sizes larger!!! But I was more comfortable in my nike whites... this time I tried to do tights instead of shorts wary that the last two marathons, I suffered chaffing badly that I nearly could not walk for a day....

First time I drove to a race!!!! I drove early and was fortunate to get a parking below the Dataran - brilliant strategy - do not have to crawl far to go home...

0-10km

Pace was good, I ran a comfortable race. At 10km mark, Kit jogged past me - he had a slow grinding pace which was decent - I could see him finishing ok with his style and pace, continuously.

This was the first year I had no idea where the route was taking me. The key advantage I had however was that no one else knew much as well, since it was a new organizer this year. It was definitely a tour KL de-force despite all the organizers shortcomings. The first 10 kms went to Sentral, Loke Yew, Cheras... (I had no idea I was even somewhere in cheras - just saw lots of flats)...

11-20km

At some point in a race, I lost count - the km markers were not very clear. The route I was looking forward to was inevitably Jln Tun Razak. Today when I was in my office in KLCC and I stared down to Jln Tun Razak - it scared me that I had actually run the WHOLE Jln Tun Razak... wow....

So somewhere along here, after Cheras and somewhere, we ran the entire Jln Tun Razak (the lower portion) and went somewhere to turn at the end, and inevitably end up headed back towards Jln Sultan Ismail via Jln Raja Abdullah. Again familiar roads, and I was thinking of work. This is where it got dodgy, as somewhere in 17km when I took my gel, the drinks station started getting dry and disorganized. The 17km station had bananas and 100plus but the 100plus was in large bottles - the organizer asked us to take and pour into our mouth directly (uuurggghh - i did not remind them i came back from h1n1 country... philippines).

21-30km

At 20km, I realised the drinks station became an aid station, and people were packing up - something was not right. At 22km, almost near KLCC, I saw the damning evidence finally - strewn cups empty and no more water and a poor St John guy trying to honestly answer my question "I dont think there is any more water anywhere up ahead"... after about 5km no water. I started getting worried...

So, I popped into 7-11 (life saver) in Wisma Central to buy a drink 100plus and grabbed another-tropicana orange as afterthought on exit (IN THE MIDDLE OF A RACE!!!) - I saw some singaporeans having a chat outside, casually - and how to run with a drink in hand, so I walked a bit. After turning back around KLCC - I saw Philip - he was spent, and I think injured maybe. He tried to jog a few m's with me and then gave up.

This part of the race I started to walk jog - and what disturbed me was the lack of drinks and my distraction and excuse of buying something and running with a orange juice in my hand. I wished I had done better this part, as it was clearly "my territory" and also rat race territory.... but a lot of turns and changes really did not like this type of race...

31-42km

Last 10km.... was an absolute haze. It went somewhere through the middle of town in Petaling Street Area, guess what, when I passed - I hallucinated about air mata kuching... damn!!!! My orange juice could only ration that far, and somewhere at the end of the stretch, I found another kedai and decided to grab my last orange tropicana. In this center of town stretch, I also almost ran the wrong path a few times as lack of marshalls.

I had followed this malay lady for a while - she had a steady slow pace, and at the free gel part, she slowed, she was quite upset there was no water, so when I exited the shop, I saw her and gave her my change.

After that we ended up somewhere near stadium, jln pudu, and finally on the highway, mahameru or jln damansara somewhere. I only remembered crossing a lot of roads with a lot of cars.... this is very bad...

On the highway, I turned back on my ipod and listened to a long road to eden by Eagles admist the blaring horns of the highway, and continued to walk jog, wondering what on earth motivated me to be on a highway, next to blazing cars, damn hot, no water and trying to walk some part of it....

Caught up with Adrian from my office at around 35km, and paced walked with him - I did not have enough energy to push, and unfortunately he gave me an excuse of walking without being last.

We finished the last 1km together in a jog - I was ecstatic that I was pacing a guy who was doing his first marathon... and flashed great smiles for Tey and Jason near the finishing line.

I got to do better next time.

Nike's motto - there is no finishing line....

I am really trying to smile ... after the fall but could not ...

This was a mobile phone pic of myself in the mirror of my fall, with swollen and bleeding lip, blemishes.

Luckily I have recovered.  My front teeth is slightly crooked but I am not sure if it is just my impression. 

  

Three weeks later, I am finally back to hot drinks without a straw, but the front lip is still quite "stiff"...

And I've not put on any lipstick for the last 3 weeks since as the healing made my lips dry, and beginning to like this lipstick free look!!!

(See earlier blog post on suey and luck.. but I am back on my feet within a week and running the streets like no tomorrow again!)

Suey comes in twos, threes, fours...

Do you believe in luck? I had luck laughing in my face for the last two weeks. But I am blessed to believe that luck comes in good and bad, sometimes in between the bad, there are a lot of good stuff, and we miss them because we always think otherwise.

My first spate of bad luck came when I went back to Philippines last monday. After the funny escapade of the treadmill challenge for SCKLM at 1U, and the Pacesetters Night Run on May 23rd the same night, I was completely pooped and only made 8km the next day on Sunday. But I felt my momentum was back, so when I got back to lovely Manila on the monday after, I decided - I must go and run and get my rhythm back. So on the following day, Tuesday, I got off earlier, waited a good 30 mins for a taxi to the Fort (Fort Bonifacio, the hippie running ground).

I thought I wanted to do 10km, have a good dinner and head back, great way to start this trip to Philippines. 2km, my legs were sluggish, and I tripped and fell. Right smack in my face. My legs were ok, but my hands were clumsy or something, only my right hand managed to scrape the cement but the hit was right on my lip. The scrapes on my hand and lip was quite deep, but other than that I was actually ok. I was on the ground, touched my lip with my slightly bloody hand, and shocked myself to see blood!!! Two kind lengchai's helped me to the sidewalk to sit down, and I was immediately feeling the swollen bloody lip. They passed me a box of tissues from their car nearby and proceeded to continue chatting!!! Some pickup, dudes?? Damsel in distress also do not bother?? This damsel, after swabbing the wound and still seeing blood, decided to go to one of the car side mirrors nearby (maybe it was their car!) and check herself out in the mirror. Shit, I looked like a mess....

And so began this funny trek to the toilet to try to stop the bleeding from the lip - damn, those lips are the blood vessel zone... and then trying to go to the pharmacy with my mouth half covered with my hand, and like showing the lady over the counter quickly because i looked bad... she must've thought I was a domestic violence case - ah the husband beat you up?? well if the husband beat me up, I would'nt be going to a pharmacy near a mall, and also dressed in jogging shorts and all... but still the queue in the pharmacy stared at me big time.... and then I quickly grabbed some other disinfectant and got into a taxi, mumbling with my swollen lip and got back to the apartment.

When I got back into the apartment, I told the concierge at the front door, to get me a ice pack, and flashed my wound for him. He panicked!!! After all I was the notorious girl who got her hand injured in exploding hair dryer (see below last story footnote). The 5 men arrived less than 5 mins after I reached my apartment, and to my shock realised that the not bleeding lip looks worse as it was really swollen and the red blood clot was there.

The 5 men- one with a first aid box, one with a ice pack, one with a radio, one rang the door bell, and one tried to help me with my hand wound using betadine, but dare not touch me because I looked like I would scream once it stung me. What I did was grabbed the cotton from the man with betadine and pressed it against my hand (like a hero). I obviously could not speak for a few minutes in stinging pain. Ok, the wound was not that bad, but it was obviously painful. I chased them out after two minutes, and took the ice pack on my lip for a good 30 mins. That was probably the best call I did to myself, cause it helped to reduce the swollen lip.

Next day, Wednesday, I had to endure the nasty stares all over the place, did not eat anything at all except for milo, and with a straw. I also had to explain myself to the client whom I saw in the morning, and my colleagues later of the day. I also went to see the docter at the office clinic. The docter gave me some antibiotics and asked me to go back 7 days later!!! Geez, I thought this is going to be a long ugly episode trip...

The next day, when I just managed to be able to talk a bit more properly, I presented to a group of about 10+ very senior client people, almost all of them whispering what happened to me... and if this is not bad enough, during the lunch presentation, I could not eat lunch, so I drank water with a straw, and spilled the glass on my notebook!!! As though not suey enough.... and the notebook blinked blinked... but survived. But for the afternoon, it went bonkers because the mouse was short circuited. And me after the presentation, with a broken lip, and wet notebook, went to the toilet to blow dry the notebook... hilarious!

My excitement was not over yet... after all that, I endured daily drinking coffee on a straw and finally two days after that, I could not tahan and decided to go for more solid food. At the weekend, decided that I was going to get back to running and signed up for a race. Still with a bit of scab, I ran the 13km race, and then ambitiously tried to do the 1km loop 7 times for 20km - this was the same loop I had the accident!!!

So that sunday morning, after bad accident number 1, water on notebook accident number 2 and prelude accident number 0 (footnote), after running one lap, I stopped and pulled out my bib number thinking maybe I should wait for lucky draw... and guess what... "915" called the announcer, and it was my number!!! I ran to the stage, grabbed the prize from her, in triumph!!! I had good luck at last!!! (well it was only approx RM100 mizuno vouchers)....

And happy me, went home, to find I had stomach virus. This was ongoing and got worse over the weekend....

And guess what - the virus was due to the antibiotics. I postulated that, and got off the antibiotics yesterday, and voila, the virus was gone.

So there you go... do you believe in luck? My life has been hilarious!!!

But in any case, if I find that blue tooth thing, I will download the photos for all the sadistic Facebook fans / pals I have of my beautiful scarred face. Thank you all for your concern!

Three Deep Breaths by Thomas Crum - get this book

My father loves motivational books. For a person at his age, he reads a lot more than me. Every year, I have no problem doing my tax returns claims for books - not that I do not fulfill all the rebate quota of RM 1000, but my dad has way more than this in books and he's retired.

I grabbed this book from him last week when I was having a virtual break. It grabbed my attention because of the short blurb besides the title - "finding power and purpose in a stressed filled world".

I read the first chapter while having a foot massage (!!!). Of course, this being a rather thin book it comes in form of business parables. It started off with a character called Angus, who was a type A character, always impatient, did not attend his daughters school sports sessions, is always late and annoyed when the alarm clock rings, etc. Classic stress-maniac stereotype.

The major learnings of the book was very simple, and presented in a very logical manner - it was all about focus and breathing which drives the focus when you are surrounded by manufactured stress :

The first breath - A centering breath - a breath to calm you and bring you back to the present

The second breath - A possibility breath - to imagine the you that you want to be

The third breath - A discovery breath - to discover new things, to not pre-judge, to learn...

I thought I needed the book.

Running in Philippines

I have now done 3 races in Philippines on my assignment there.  Who knows, there may be more.  To give the Filipinos (Pinays/Pinoys) a lot of credit for some of the uniqueness I appreciated about the races in philippines - I thought I wanted to drop a short note on some of the most appreciative things I had encountered.

1. Top one - last Thursday, I received a SMS from Vince Mendoza, from www.finishline.ph - they were the organizers of the Greenfield City Run in Laguna (see last blog post).  He SMS blasted to inform that some 21k runners may not have received their medals, and for those who did not to SMS bib number back to him.  This was what I received roughly :

Vince - "Some runners may not have received their medals for 21k Greenfield City Run, if you have not please sms your bib number and we will send it to you"

Myself - "Bib number 7883, thanks, it was a great race"

Vince (less than 5 mins later!) - "Thanks May.  Where should we send it to?"

Myself (very surprised he addressed me by name) - "

... btw where can I see the photos especially those on the route?"

Vince - "Sure, no problem, photos at www.photovendo.ph"

Wow - this is true customer service!  The organizer having a conversation with an individual runner!  Great job, Vince!  I will definitely join more races if I have the opportunity in the future.  I liked the free bus service, by the way.  And if the medal does come in the post a few days later, I would be so impressed!!

Many credits to finishline team, who not only setup a portal for running, organize races, but also personally answers questions and queries on the comments, and personal mobile.  No race organizer has had the patience or courtesy to entertain in such a personal manner.

2. Second one - I love the signup processes allowing bib, and event t-shirt to be collected at Nike stores.  Despite this may not be the most far-reaching approach, I preferred this and online rather than some weird location somewhere, where not many can get to go to signup.

3. Third one - Enthusiasm.  Just like the bloggers community here, the blogging community for running is crazy in philippines.  I have just yet to convert and start pinging all of them, but I am so impressed with these guys.  They are mostly not very old, and just new runners all.  

A few notable ones are :

www.takbo.ph (first forwarded to me by Ellen from SMART, apparently takbo, i guess by now, means run)

www.bullrunner.com

www.finishline.ph

www.runrio.com (one of those young dude coaches around)

4. Fourth one - Race results.  Ok, on the bib there is a slip to tear off the bar code when you finish.  The "tear-er" person slings this on a hook.  But 2 days later, the results are out for the race, where did the automation come from!??  I am so impressed, because it comes out published in an excel, with race finish time, pace, and where did the automation come from?  Why can't the local races in Malaysia do something similar?

5. Fifth one - the race and the runners itself.  Damn hot.  Guys, I respect all you crazy pacers - running in the early morning sun is not easy, I have a lot lot of respect for all you fellow runners, despite coming from a tropical country myself, the philippines summer is not easy for running in exposed barren lands...! 

Greenfields Run, Laguna, Sta Rosa (Philippines) 19 April 2009

All photos as taken from photovendo.ph site - thanks - just posted here for illustration

Photo 1- see we are at a banana plantation :-) (greenfields of lallang and banana- though the plantation portion was actually decent running track as there were no cars!)

Photo 2-the scorching sun @ the barren lands!!!

Photo 3-this was near the starting line - the greenfield city was quite a "designer" city at some areas where nice rich apartments were built.

Photo 4-Greenfield was on the way or near Tagaytay (home of Taal volcano, the first tourist place i visited in philippines... it took us 2.5 hrs to get to tagaytay the last time!)

Photo 5-The start/finish shot

Who would've imagine I would get up at 2:30 am for a 21k run?

This would be the last 21k I would run in philippines, for the time being. We signed up for this a few weeks back, but JS could not make it because she had injured her knee.

The race starts at 5am, and unfortunately after I had signed up and the subsequent weeks after, up to yesterday, I found out the location was very far away, in fact on the way to Tagaytay (the Taal Volcano trip we went on our first weekend in philippines) - that trip took us about 2.5 hrs to reach tagaytay! With a lot of reservation, first I tried car hire, then taxi booking, both were a bit unsuccessful, so finally since I was the only person going I decided to signup for the free shuttle bus service - luckily for me the shuttle bus was still available the day before even though the signup had closed two days ago!

I slept at 1040pm - this is really a trying one for me to getup at 2:30am. The bus schedule was assemble at 3:30am, leave around 4am, and ETA around 440am - I was a bit worried about this, as the various people had said this place was between 1hr to 1.5hr away despite it being wee hours in the morning....

I somehow managed to get to the bus assembly point at 330am, right on time - and found the bus (in the strange darkness) - got on the bus, it was full, and luckily one more spot left. The trip there was in silence with a Singapore Marathoner sitting next to me, and tried to catch some sleep, despite the bus was really cold.

Got to the starting line with 20 mins to go, the bus left at around 345am, and had time for a toilet stop, which was a must because the bus was SO COLD!!!

Greenfield City, Laguna was indeed another attempt of the local government to create a "holiday" looking vacation city close to Tagaytay on the outskirts of the Makati city center. The race starts at Paseo Greenfield, which was a outlet mall, so already it had a very american feel even as we assembled in the starting area.

The race started promptly at around 5am. This was when it got interesting. Suffice to say that this race, I really really regret not training for it, I only did one 20km @ bukit aman, and 2 6km spans one each week. Regret also because I am terrible at waking up early, and for such a small race, the lack of pacers really bogged me down.

At about 10km onwards, at 630 am, the sun was scorching hot. This is so different from Malaysia runs. The other problem I had was the route was barren - we were running next to literally "green fields" - they were fields of green "lallang"... and no cover for sun. Stretches of long barren land in the blazing sun was not easy without a pacer. I took off my shades on the return route from 14km onwards. The shades made me feel shorter due to the optical effect, and my stride felt heavier. I guess when I reached around 17 km, I was almost done and started to walk. All in a very very bad time, not my worst but still not good. But good training under the blazing sun...

Some observations :

1. Everyone started rather casually on the starting line - no one pushed forward. I guess because it was 21km, nobody was really rushing. Moreover, there was perhaps around less than 150+ people for 21km. Again, I got a bit worried...

2. Unique for the event was the route, before dawn (dawn was around 515?), the route on the first 5 kms was lit with torches (interesting huh... like a tribal function...)

3. Another unique for the event was the eagerness of the organisers to be a running event for runners - music pipping from loud speakers in non-residential and stretches of the road for the first 10 kms, some even with a bit of zen like music!!!

4. The provision of rush (electrolyte water like 100plus uncarbonated) was a good call, I survived on rush. Water stations aplenty.

5. They ran out of medals - I was not happy, but too heat treated at the end of the race to even bother too much.

6. The photovendo guys who offered free photos at end of race, and a long line to do so - that was not smart, and not cool.

7. Between starting so early and having such a closely starting time for the race meant some people sat around and waited for the 21km runners. I guess it is just difficult to cater for everyone (2k, 5k, 10k, 21k - what a range!)

8. The route - flat, nice countryside running - but VERY VERY hot... sigh....

9. Providing ransport is good, but they could've got the bus to run on the return trip earlier. Everyone was really tired when the bus left... (3 hrs after i finished 21km!!) - and the shops were not open!!

10. I did love the scenes of families bringing their kids for the 2k run, and getting up early for a family day. This is one great thing about running in philippines - its good family affair - and not just for avid runners but social runners as well