Friday, June 26, 2009
This is not a spam!! :) its true!
Till i see You once again..,
Time: 11:51 PM
Friday, June 5, 2009
TGIF.
Hello to all who reads (i really really doubt anyone reads..but thats fine!)
haha, its been a lazy friday. actually its been a lazy week.. i wonder why but i know why but yet i still wonder why. hahhaa.
i wonder how tonight is going to be like..
i wonder how tml is going to be like..
i wonder how church camp is going to be like..
and i wonder how after camp is going to be like..
no answers, no answers..
all wonderings..
perhaps, an answer will never be given ahead in time? haha. perhaps perhaps..
TGIF.. :)
Till i see You once again..,
Time: 5:30 PM
Thursday, June 4, 2009
SUNDOWN 2009!
YESS!
its over..
haha honestly i never prepared much for it.. not the usual amount of effort that i've put in for the last 3 marathons.. firstly, exams was in the way, more time was spent stressing out / thinking than running around in the middle of the night with a focus. secondly, i failed to keep to my training schedule!! :( all the alternate day runs, long runs on sunday morning were conveniently overlooked by the lack of sleep the previous night. my mental preparation wasn't there also, in terms of visualising how i would run, which water point i would stop and grab something to drink etc. and my carbo loading started way too late. usually i'll start carbo loading at least 5 days before, but this time round, i only started like 2 days before the race!
bad.. so bad. and ya lah, at the end of the marathons i've ran so far, the sinking feeling always comes at the end. i mean, sure of course im happy that i completed the race, endured the 42.195km etc.. but its the same feeling. haha but that won't go away soon and that won't deter my passion for the run.
my number tag
haha took at picture of this after i ran.. i actually do keep all my number tags for every single race that i've taken part in, starting with the Standard Chartered Marathon 2007, i know to a few people its just numbers, but to me, its really alot of what i thought i couldn't do before and now able to do.. and usually i write my timings on each Tag to remind myself of how far i've come..
well, this Sundown wasn't easy at all. It is always hard to run when the past fears/memories constantly come to haunt you from behind. Last year, i remember being better prepared for this and trained almost every night, clocking as much as possible but in the end giving in to the thoughts of hopelessness and fatigue, i mean what more this year right? with the challenge of being not as well prepared. and oh yes, my mp3 player died halfway last year too. -_-"
This year ah. i left Senette after FX's surprise birthday party.. wanted to take a train to pasir ris and then take a shuttle bus there. but i realised that since many runners were going from tanah merah, just might as well follow them.. Lesson learnt, always always always go there at least 1/2 hour earlier, i know nothing much to do but it was better than getting caught in the jam and having NO time to warm up at all.. i got off the bus only at 2350 (1150pm) and quickly made my way to the race area, dumped my bag and did very veyr little warm ups.. and the race kicked off at 2359.. haha talk about worse possible start huh?
but there i went off, running and making good use of Roland's Heart Rate Monitor and watch, it's really really good. i now understand why people use HRM to pace themselves. after running for about 5 km, i realised that for me to run at 7 mins / km, i have to maintain my HR at 165 beats / min. something new that i learnt that day. :)
ooh at the 10km mark, STITCHES came in. T_T was really like that man. so bad that i had to bend over to breathe and slowly get up to maintain my posture.. at this point, i thought "that's it la, give up, walk all the way, drink alot of water / 100 plus and see the sunrise".. but ya, its really a mental battle to stay focused. Having quickly brushed off those thoughts, i sought to walk as fast as i could, trying all the techniques i know to stop the stitches from getting worse. at this point in time, my HR was dropping to about 130 BPM (beats per minute) and meant that i was slowing down.
then at the 15km mark, it wasn't that bad and i begin to start running again.. from 130 BPM slowly to 145 BPM, then to 157 BPM and then again to 165 BPM.. thank God. :) at the 21km mark, i smelt lots and lots of chicken wings -drools- and came to my mind that i did NOT eat the whole day at all! other than the few silces of bread, nothing else! haha. so stupid right? well what to do.. i was so hungry that i promised myself to eat 2 packets of instant noodles when i got back to senette. :)
so i ran and ran, stopping at the water points to get 3 cups of water, resting for about 2 minutes then taking off again.. i was listening to my MP3 player on and off, to save battery and to prevent any numbness ot the effectiveness of music. :) at the starting part, i listened to music but after the bedok reservior part, about 25 km, i started listening to sermons by CSCC. and there was this particular sermon that really impacted me, it was by Ps Glyn Barnett, Audacious City Church and his sermon was "Yes and Amen", do check it out if you have time ya?
Ps Glyn was talking about the promises of God in our lives. and man, i listened to it, and identified with it so much till i almost cried while running, cause every thing that he spoke was really so touching and life changing. at one point in time, i even lifted my hands cause i couldn't just do nothing about hearing what he said.. after his sermon was one by Ps Yang (oh!) and that was a scary one.. haha.
at the 31km mark, there was bananas! :) grabbed 2, ate 1 and held one in my hand all the way till the 36km mark.. where i consumed it quickly and proceeded to get muscle rub! haha. its amazing la, how they only provide muscle rub only at the 36km point onwards where everyone could really do with it at the 21km point onwards.. sometimes i really wonder.. haha. but yea, just kept going on and on. i had intended to achieve sub 5 timing but once the stitch came in, it was close to impossible to do so.. so i gave myself a new target of beating last year's timing of 5hrs 55 minutes.
so ya, kept on running and running and running. the last 4 km, my legs were crying out to stop but i just had to keep going, otherwise i'll never run properly after the aches take over. and interestingly, for the last 4km, my heart rate was ranging from 170 to 175 BPM. but yet i was so tired.. interesting huh? ok la to me at least..
and at 5hrs 26 minutes, i completed Sundown 2009! haha. not a great achievement la, but at least complete i guess. :) and it'll be 1 year before i can get out of that shadow of the poor timing. sighs.. haha. oh well! that's all for Sundown 2009!
Till i see You once again..,
Time: 5:22 PM
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday..
haha. woke up with a nightmare today.. oh man. so weird and so badd.. hmmm.
oh well.
thank God Sundown is over.. what a race. mental and physical.. haha. i'll blog more about it tml..
gonna sleep soon, work tml! haha. heard pay is peanuts but its better than staying home and rotting away.. and please Lord, let the tuition jobs come in soon! :)
later!
Till i see You once again..,
Time: 12:27 AM
