2008 Goals Update (Feb)
2008 Goals:Distance To Run: 1168km
Races To Run: 6 Half Marathons
Weight To Lose: 6 kgs
What I've Done:Distance Run: 289km
Races Done: 1 (KL Int Towerthon)
Weight Lost: 1 kg
What's Left To Do:Distance To Go: 879km
What's Left To Race: 6 Half Marathons
What's Left To Lose: 5 kgs
Am I On Track?Still doin' fine...
I had a dream...
I had the weirdest dream last night.... It was like a scene out of Supernatural.. It was unreal... surreal.. and it felt so real.. And its still giving me the shivers.. [wipes sweat off brow..]
Let me share it with you... every detail... every single detail.. it was as if it just happened yesterday... [umm... which it did.. ahaks..]
.... I was happily munching on pineapple tarts, sitting on my comfy sofa watching reruns of Wong Fei Hung when suddenly the lights dimmed and there was a blinding flash of light... [I'm sure you can imagine it.. its just like what you see in B-grade movies..] And there, in front of me, was Choy San Yeh!! [God of Prosperity... for the uninitiated]..
In his booming voice, he said [in Cantonese]... "My dear boy, you have gone thru hardship and suffering these past few months.. Today, your fortune will change... Your life will not be the same again... and all you need to do, is to... retire your running shoe. Give it the proper send-off it deserves... give it a proper ceremony... give up your shoe and you will gain something better in return..."
And before I could close my gaping mouth and slurp back my dripping saliva... Ah Yeh disappeared as abruptly as he appeared..
Believing that he would bestow upon me riches beyond my wildest dreams... I proceeded to take my smelly old running shoes (Brooks GTS 6 btw) and dumped them into a plastic bag for scrapping... Suddenly I remembered Yeh Yeh's words.. "give it a proper ceremony.."
OK, OK... I took the shoes out of the plastic bag and placed them properly into an old shoe box, with wrapping paper for good measure..
And to do things right, I remembered that Chinese ceremonies always required offerings...
And with the lighting of joss-sticks, offerings of 100 Plus and pineapple tarts complete, I proceeded to nail the box shut. Permanently.
... Phew. Completed. Done. Now... where am I supposed to bury the box? What do I need to do next? When will I see my fortune? The more I thought about it... the more I realized that this was all a load of crap. A bucket-load of shit. No way was Uncle Money gonna give me any of his loot... He was just probably doin a gotcha call on me...
And with my senses straight... I decided to rip open the box and take my shoes back out..
Oh my god!! I mean Ah Yeh!!
Choy San Yeh was the real deal!!! He gave me....
The all new Brooks GTS 8!!!
Introducing..... Plum..
Bunny and Plum after bouncing around Lembah Kiara..
Plum's a regular reader and long time friend... Did a training session run with him yesterday morning at Lembah Kiara, TTDI (place had fabulous views) to get him ready for his virgin long distance run in March.. He's so psyched up for it... Haha..
Plum, say hi.
Vah-len-tyne Dei
I was going to write a post slagging off the commercialism of Valentine's Day last night... something along the lines of...
"....Why do flowers cost so much more on 14th Feb? Do they bloom prettier? Smell nicer? Come in funky colours like no other? Why do dinners come in sets and priced like the annual budget of a small African country? Why do little gift boxes and fluffy white teddy bears swap hands at the rate of fungi growth on a moldy piece of bread?.."
But then I thought.... This blog isn't for complaining. This blog isn't for bitter thoughts nor frustrated rantings... nope.. this blog is about all things happy...
So here goes.
I'm
HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY is over.
KL Tower International Forest Towerthon Challenge 2008
Aka
The Ultimate Stress Test...
Phew. Double phew.
Woke up this morning at around 6am, and got ready to go out together with J. Needed J to come along cos she's the one who knows KL like the back of her hand... Me? I've never been to Menara KL, and I'd prolly drive round and round and never get there.. haha.
Left KK at 6.45am and it had started to drizzle slightly. Crap. Hope it doesn't get heavy, I kept praying inside. Arrived at Menara KL at about 7.15am and proceeded to get a parking spot and I went inside to the Start area.
Gloomy morning1st wave of runners was to flag-off at 8am, and my wave was scheduled for 8.15am. Around 15 mins before the start, it started to drizzle, and the drizzle began to get heavier and heavier.
Before we even got to raise a sweat, we were practically drenched.
Runners waiting under the tents from the rain..When the gun went off, I started to run at my own pace, knowing full well that it was going to be an uphill run, and not wanting to burn myself out before reaching the tower. The +/- 1km route to the tower took me 6:19, and we had to run up a flight of escalators before rounding to the back to enter the stairwell.
Now, this was an emergency exit stairwell, and the width was only the size of 2 guys shoulder to shoulder. There was practically NO ventilation, and the structure was concrete, concrete, cement, concrete, cement, cement and more concrete. The railings are metal tho.
Unless, you're the 1st (or 2nd) person up the stairs, all the view you're gonna have is of someone else's ass. A really sweaty piece of ass. And since we were running in gender based categories, all you're gonna get are male asses. Nothing to look fwd to man...
I managed to skip, hop and jump 2 steps at a time past a couple of runners who were slowing down (presumably for putting their NOS on before the tower) and I was feeling pretty good. Most of the time though, I was down to a walking pace as there was just no room to overtake.
However, faster than you can say tired, ... I got tired. From being in an aerobic state, it was like an immediate jump into an anaerobic state... I started to huff and puff and I was breathing real hard. I could feel my heart beating like there's no tomorrow and I was starting to get out of breath. My heart rate went up exponentially.... and I was practically lugging myself up the stairs. The sight of runners sitting down and doubling over at the side of the staircase didn't help motivate me much either.
Before the race, I seriously thought that my knees and quads would give out way earlier than my heart, but it was actually the other way around. My legs didn't feel tired, my knees were OK, but my panting grew louder and heavier.
At the 16th floor, I had to come to a complete stop to collect my breath and I took about half a minute's rest before I continued the journey up. The next 2 floors were OK, but then the tiredness crept in again. It felt worse than running for 20-30kms, it was the kind of feeling you get after you sprint all out for 100m...
4 floors to go, I had to take another breather. I was starting to feel kinda dizzy and I didn't want to pass out there, so I stepped to the side and took about a minute to get my breathing back in order.
With renewed vigour, I pushed up the remaining floors and finished the 2058 step tower in a total time of 28:35 (taken with my own stopwatch; official timing will be mailed with my certificate).
I was quite pleased with the timing as I didn't set myself any expectations. I guess I will train on stairs more in the future and better my own timing next year.
The view from the top of the tower was nothing short of dismal, mainly because the windows were kinda fogged with all the raining going on. After taking a couple of shots, I went down to collect my finisher's medal and goodie bag.
I think that's the Maybank Tower
Foggy foggy...
My finisher's medal..... nice..
Stuff from the goodie bag... beats me why they gave pantyliners (!!?!?)As I was walking back out to where J was waiting, another wave of runners (men's/women's senior category I think) just reached the tower area. Clapped and shouted words of encouragement to them and snapped a couple of photos too...
Motivational...After meeting up with J, I took some customary pics with the event banner and left the place fully satisfied with the event.
I did it!
And NO, for the last time.... I did NOT win RM100,000.00!!!
Breakfast was a sumptuous affair, with the famous pork noodles at Jalan Imbi. A great end to a way cool vertical running event.
It really is good.... Yummy..Note: Pics taken with camera phone. Forgive the resolution.Update: Official results from Menara KL website - I finished in 332nd position / 514 participants in the Men's Open Cat with an official timing of 28:34.
Up, Up and Away!
I'm all set!
Taking part in my first race for 2008, albeit a vertical one...
I'll be running up Menara KL in the
"KL Tower International Forest Towerthon Challenge 2008" ... (what a mouthful..) tomorrow morning at 8.15am.
If you see me, say Hi!
Collected my race number and championchip from Wisma OCM this morning, and with my number being
A205, I'll be on the 2nd wave of runners in the men's open category to flag off. Reason being the stairwell is kinda narrow and can only accomodate limited runners at any one time; that's why we're being flagged off in batches.
Race times and positions will be determined using the Championchip, similar to the one I used in the 12-Hour Walk previously in Pg.
I've never taken part in a towerthon before, and I'm pretty sure my quads and calves will be burning when I'm done... And since this is my first time, I'm not setting any expectations or targets; just to complete, get a finisher's medal and make sure nobody pushes me down the stairs!
Wait for my updates!
2008 Goals Update (Jan)
2008 Goals:Distance To Run: 1168km
Races To Run: 6 Half Marathons
Weight To Lose: 6 kgs
What I've Done:Distance Run: 147km
Races Done: None
Weight Lost: None
What's Left To Do:Distance To Go: 1021km
What's Left To Race: 6 Half Marathons
What's Left To Lose: 6 kgs
Am I On Track?So far so good.
