Guess His Age

Some of you may know I don't spend time on FB as much as blogging. But, today was different. I am yet to think what kind of race report I want to write, so I spent some of my free times on FB (somehow I feel weird myself as I don't normally do FB). As I was looking around, I saw a photo of a friend (started to know him as a reader of this crappy blog). He's a triathlete and has just completed IM Langkawi last February. Last Sunday he clocked his PB in KL Marathon with an awesome timing of sub 4hr15min. It was his fifth marathon, and he worked hard for it.

Come on guys, put your guess on his age.
This will be interesting.

I don't even know his real age, but I know he has the same birth date (different year lah) as mine. At a first glance, don't you think he looks like a 23 years old?

That's what being actively involved in sports do to your body, in a way or another. It makes you look younger than your real age, as a side bonus of keeping your body healthy.

P/s: Paul, I hope you don't mind I put your photo here. But really, what's your age eh? Email me ok! hihi

Evidence Of Determination

It’s true when some people say doing endurance sports can teach you a thing or two about life.

Running a marathon is one of them.

KL marathon last year was the arena where I first did something that I initially thought I couldn’t. And I’m glad in this year edition, some of them, namely the FMVs, managed to go against many odds.

Yesterday, they all crossed the finishing line of that grueling 42km distance, bringing upon their own stories (which I’m eager to read). I’m sure among the key words of their successes yesterday would be in the essence of ‘determination’.

Well done to all of you!

Marathoner Syed aka Crusshio.
With an impressive finishing time!
(Lepas ni sure kena lambung peringkat ke-8 ni)

Marathoner Yim.
Albeit suffering from a bad knee injury, still managed to get himself a very good finishing time.

Marathon Ziff, (sitting, second from right).
Bro, sub-6 marathon is not a snail pace lah. Now, don't you feel glad you were lambung-ed the previous weekend?

Marathoner Azza (seen here being encouraged by our King Mambo).
I think she doesn’t have any blog, but she’s a FMV no more.
Well done sis!
(Sorry, the photo is badly glared. My bad.)

Marathoner June.
It was a pleasure for us to be there to witness you crossing the finish line.

I know there’s one more guy donning the FMV vest yesterday but I didn’t manage to get his name or photos. Anyway, well done to you too!

And somehow I believe, through reading inspirational blogs of other runners and athletes (except for this crappy-full-of-nonsense blog of mine), the power of inspirations triggered their inner spirit and made their dreams came true, in their own effort.

That’s why, we should encourage more runners and athletes to blog (Dett and KA, yes, I mean both of you! hehe), and more bloggers to do sports.

P/s: Malasnya nak tulis race report. Nak turun tangga punyalah sakit kepala lutut wei!!!

Tribute to Full Marathon Virgins (FMV)

At this moment, you’ve done what is best for your body to prepare for your first ever 42.195km running event, known as the marathon. Some of you might have been running for 6 or 7 hours per week, or clocking anywhere between 30km to 60km per week during your peak time. Every couch potato will fall in disbelief upon comprehending the amount of training you have to put, just to run a marathon.

By now, you have to consider that your physical preparation has come to an end. Nothing much can be done, with about plus minus 40 more hours to go before the gun off time, come Sunday 5am. What you should start doing now, is to build up your mental strength. You need all the positive thoughts locked firmly up on your brain, and a little courage in your heart to be standing there at the starting line.

Trust me, that is the real energy you will need, to get to the finishing line. The positive energy.

“No matter who you are, whether it’s your first time, or tenth time, you are going to suffer out there.”

“The physical pain is surely going to be there, no matter what. It’s going to hurt.”

You’ll come across some thoughts like above, and it is almost for sure, pain during a marathon is unavoidable. But, is pain what you are scared off? For all we know, we’ve been living with pain since we were first born. And I think you would agree with me when I say, the bigger the pain you can endure, the stronger you’ll become.

And deep inside your heart you know, you are strong. Or else, you won’t sign up for it.

My normal rituals before a big race, is to watch inspirational videos. Something big, much bigger than what I’m doing. I’m watching few Ironman triathlon inspirational videos now as we speak, because it is my BIG dream. And as I mentioned earlier, if we focus on something bigger, anything else will appear smaller. I’m not saying marathon is easy peasy. This is going to be my 4th time and I’m still pretty nervous. I’m just saying that, there’s a way to make it ‘feel’ easy.

Think about the longest distance you’ve ever done during your training sessions. Going one meter further will already be your personal best. How much better could that be, for you guys the FMV? It’s going to be your first experience ever. There will always be ONE first time in your life.

“Once you’ve crossed that finish line, it can’t be retracted. You did it, and you did it on your own.”

“You’ll find out what you are really made of. How strong you really are. So when you cross that finish line, you know more about yourself.”

“Even when you feel like dying, you actually haven’t.”

“You’ve been dreaming for this for months, and now you only have few more hours to make the dream comes true.”

“You can usually think of at least a hundred reasons why you should actually stop. But there’s only one reason why you should keep going.”

For me, I’ll try my best to do another PBE – Personal Best Effort run, insyaAllah.

My finishing moment last year. I suffered big cramps on both calves, 2km before finish line.

With my running buddy, Kash.
Hopefully this year we can all gather in a big group for a post-race photo session.

Good luck to all of you.
Enjoy your race!

Last Weekend LSD – In Pictures

I’ve promised myself to post these photos, despite of not having much time to blog about it. So, here goes some of the pic, out of total 99 shots taken. And to save time (uploading big amount of photos on blogspot drives me crazy), I’ve created a photo album on my Picasa account, with beautiful captions at each photo to make you better understand the story behind the scene.

For more stories from those who participated, visit Shakhir, Syah, Rayzif and Ziff's blogs.

Click here to go to my Picasa album, and you can leave your comments there too.

P/s: Sapa yang kena lambung lebih-lebih tu, sendiri tampal plaster kat telinga lah ye.

Bob Oh Bob

Sorry, I'm very busy to write down anything at this moment.

Luckily, there is Bob.

Click them to enlarge.

I am wishing all the best to all runners participating in KL International Marathon event this weekend.

Good Luck, and Have Fun!

Nervousichology

No. Don’t waste time to Google or Wiki the above title. I’m sure the word doesn’t exist. The nearest match you’ll find on the net will bring you to “Neuropsychology”, which has nothing to do with what I’m going to write today.

No time to dramatize anything much today. Just trying to make use of a little time left off my lunch break time. Then, back for more eye-drooling-on-the-spreadsheets-and-drawings activities. I just simply want to say that I’ve started to feel nervous.

Nervous with next week’s KL marathon. Heck, I even feel nervous to do the 20km long run this weekend.

And, I'm nervous with PD triathlon, next month. Standing by the shore prior to the swim start in a triathlon never failed to give me jitters, big ones.

Why am I nervous?

Because, I keep on thinking that I lack of training. Nowadays I train every evening after work, for as much as I could possibly do when the weather and time permit. I think I'm doing fine with training, but I just can’t feel the ‘umph’, yet. And I rest my self well while sleeping. But that too has started to show some degree of deficiency. Asyik tido lambat je lately.

However, it always work well for me to think big. It helps keep my nervousness at bay. For example, I'd think about a marathon when I’m in for a 10km or 15km race. Or, I would be thinking about Ironman triathlon when I’m preparing my mental for a marathon or an OD triathlon. When I think big, smaller things may appear, well, small.

And that helps, for me at least.

All About Shave

I'm in the midst of squeezing my head for any kind of idea of writing something on this blog. For all you want to know...

1) I never shaved my head bald. Never. And never have plans of doing so (except for haji or umrah lah).

2) I shaved my legs more than twice I guess. All in the spirit of becoming a triathlete (konon). And I'm going to do it again, next month.

3) Since I like to wear sleeveless tops during my training or racing, I guess I'm compelled to keep shaving my arm pits for not giving aches to others' eyes.

4) With the upcoming marathon in few days time, I'm not sure what kind of target I should set to myself. Just finish another marathon, or finish it strong and shave some more times to get another PB. I'm in no mood to race for the time being, to be frank.

5) Based on last weekend's plan, we were supposed to spend time being out of town (balik kampung). However, due to some unforseen health conditions that suddenly attacked my daughter and wife, the plan was shaved off. So, I just did a slow run on Sunday late morning, burning and toasting my skin from 8am to 11am. Straight from my doorsteep, towards Kiara park, 2 loops inside the park, continued towards Petronas Hartamas for refuelling, and straight back to my doorsteep the same way, minus the rounds in the park. 23km-ish done, solo (macam nak pengsan).

6) I think I'm kinda late to start my triathlon training regime. PD triathlon is approaching fast. But people say, better late than never. Lots of bad swimming habits need to be shaved off my subconcious mind as I noticed I was struggling once again in the pool. And I seriously need thousands time more the motivation to start clocking more mileage on the bike.

7) Some people say I look younger than my age. I thought that was because of me doing sports. It may be true. But it may also due to the side effect of me shaving my moustache and beard everyday. If I don't shave for a week, I look like I'm 38 years old or elder.

8) I think I'm the kind of person who have difficulties in accepting self weakness. If I can't shave off my previous timing even by a mere seconds, my mood will swing. I need to keep on reminding myself that, "I'll get there one day, if not today".

9) If I don't get to complete what I promised my customer today, I think he'll fly all the way from Qatar to shave my head bald. I'm not worried about that though. I'm worried if I have to stay back late to complete this one deadline job, I will miss the evening time that I need to train today. So, I need to get back to work now.

10) Actually, I didn't really know what else to write today other than just to let you know that I never shaved my head bald (can't remember when I was a baby though).