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.