Badminton Delivered, Cycling Delivered, Athletics still Fails

Azizul Hasni Awang won another gold medal in Keirin event, in World Championship recently. Same goes to Badminton, where Lee Chong Wei and men doubles pair, won their respective event in Malaysian Open.

But our athletics team is still in the state of denial, that they are not in recession. It's clearly shown and proven that the national athletics team if screwing up in international arena.

MAAU is adamant that nothing is wrong and I am more than willing to accept that but isn't it only fair for us to ask what is its targets for the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games this year and, more importantly, the long term?

Hope some really sportsman will take over the association, other that politicians such as the current president.

Training at different locations

It has been the same place all the year for my trainings. Be it Kg.Pandan, Lake Garden or Mont Kiara and even UM those days.

I tried Padang Sultan Sulaiman last week, the track. Thanks to my client who was at Klang for last week. Yesterday, I ran at City Park, Seremban 2, as I will be based in seremban for this week and next.

For a change of enviroment and momentum, every athlete needs a change of venue, where I feel I'm doing a double job by exploring the place and also making myself fit. There were different people, running groups and the envitroment itself.

Hope to explore more places in future.

New Balance 20km - 17 Jan'09

Last year, I took part in 30km, but this year just 20km as I'm not concetrating for marathon races. I didnt take any breakfast as I wacked 5 pieces of pizza yesterday. Just tookm Red Bull and started the race.

I started slow as I wasnt rushing to do better timing. Thus I followed Suresh. After 2km, he slowed doen as he needed to pace another person. Thus I started to break from the slow moving group. Upon reaching Hoki Stadium, I broke from the slow moving group, but that left me alone because The font runner was 200M away from me and behind runner was 100M away. As I entered into hartamas, meet a malay dude, Syafiq and we paced each other from there till Tugu Negara.

At bukit Tunku, we joined the 30km and 10km runners which made the road to be crowded. But we didnt bother and just overtook them.

When we reached Tugu, Syafiq slowed down, and I had to run alone again. But I knew that Im just 1km away from finishing lane. Thus I increased my pace and maange to catch another guy in front of me. But he started sprinting, when he saw me. But it lastet only for 100M. Then, I overtook him and sprinted till the finishing lane.
I clocked 1:35:39.
There were no isotonic drinks distributed after the race or even power gel during the race.
The medal looks like car number plate.
My next race will be Putrajaya night race where i will take part in the relay. Gearing for it.

Happy Pongal

Typical Malaysian Politicians

Do you know or still remember about the Engine loss case from Military forces. most of us forgotten abt it as our attentions were directed towards the church attack case.

This is how Malaysian Politicians are. They are scared abt the engine issue, thus to direct our attention, they created another issue.

Lets' wait if there's another mega issue going to pop up in 2 months time.

8 Churchs are attacked, but Hishamuddin says, situation is not serious

8 churches were attacked with Molotov cocktail since last Friday. When the whole country, especially Klang Valley people are afraid of arson attack, our Home Minister says, situation is not serious.

Damn it's already 8 building attacked and all of them are religious related places, and he can still say, things are NOT SERIOUS.

This is what you will hear from "tak apa" minded people. For him, only if you attack 50 buildings, then things are considered serious. He itself a racist by raising his Keris 3 years ago, which caused big havoc among other parties and public.

I think we have to re look on our leaders on who we vote for. Hope to see a peaceful Malaysia.

The churches are:

1.Sidang Injil Borneo, Seremban

2.Metro Tabernacle Church, Hulu Kelang

3. Assumption Church, Jalan Templer, PJ

4. Life Chappel Church, Sek17, PJ

5. Good Sherpard Church, Miri

6. Durian Daun Churc, Melaka

7. All Saints & St Louis Catholic Church, Taiping

8. SMK Convent, Taiping

Kelab Penembak Run 15km - 10 Jan

Another race in Klang. I have never been to this area before. So, I just wanted to explore Meru (Klang). This race is part my New Balance 20km(17/1) training.

I had lack of sleep as I went to bed at 12am due to my job workload and Toastmasters. I had to wake up at 4.15am as I was worried if i go into different route.

I didn't had a proper dinner the day before and just took half of the power bar as breakfast. When I reached the place, I started to feel hungry again. Luckily, I saw banana, so I grab 2 piece before my race.

The place was cold as it was surrounded by estates. Damn, the place got no street lights, I didn't even know wheter the road is stable or not.

As the race started, I went slow, thus I followed Kei Ming. He really paced me well. Certain points, he left me at the back, that made me to put in extra effort to catch him. The runners were saying that it's a hilly route.

But when I went through it, I really the hill was really steep. There were 5 of them for one way, so we had to U-turn and come back on the same way, which added another 5 slopes.

Kei ming got tired at mid point, thus this left me alone running for the next half. Thus I used people in front of me as my pacers . When I saw the 2nd last hill, I increased my pace and manage to overtake 5 of them towards finishing line.

I couldn't sprint at downhill as it was really steep. Anyway, it was good experience, exposure and training for me for the upcoming run.

My running freinds results:
1'02.18 - Casey Lim Khon Seng (6th)
1'08.32 - Naresh Kumar, Pm37 (13th)
1'11.14 - Stanley Cheong, Pm53 (18th)
1'14.04 - Gunaselan Rajagopal, Pm39 (20th)
1'17.30 - Meyyappa Manickam, Pm58 (25th)
1'23.23 - Wong Kei Ming, Pm55 (41st)
1'24.50 - Ghejanthran (45th)
1'26.15 - Suresh, Pm47 (50th)
1'40.56 - Nazib Ngainin, Pm14 (102nd)

Pacemaker New Year Run, Jan 1, 2010

As I finished the year with a bang, I wanted to start the new year with a bang also. After coming back from new year celebration at 2am, I had lack of sleep as need to get up at 6am. I just had a glass of Long Island as I didn't want to have the same misery as last year of dehydration.

The route was definitely challenging with the staircase, striving till 7th floor. I started slowly and knew 4th place was already in my had as the favourites were Richard (Malaysian Negro). Jasni and Wern Tien. However, I was out of top 10 at the beginning as I started slowly. I picked up my pace and overtook many at 2nd loop and even overtook Wern Tien. But he caught me back at 3rd loop and vanished after that.

Then came Kenny Tan, at 3rd loop going towards final loop, but he also vanished after the water station. Thus I was alone. I used the back runners as my pacers and finished off the race gallantly at 4th placing.

Thanks to the vest that I was wearing, which was given during Shah Alam Race. It was fitting and sweat just flow down.

The route was good where it manage to break the pelathon. As usual the goodies were there, plus trophy for me and beautiful medal. Perhaps, the race could have been held at evening or night as it allows people to enjoy their New Years' eve more purposefully.

Whatever it is. it was a great start for the New Year. Hoping for more victories to come.

Year End Review of 2009

This year definitely an exhausting year as overall for me. But some how manage to pull through with achievements and some minor setbacks: here's the summary:

Achievements
A. Running
1. Completed my first marathon
2. Achieved 26 medals in 1 year (personal best)
3. Took part in more than 25 tournaments in 1 year
4. Took part in 1st ever night race
5. Took part races in Klang for 1st time (4 races)

B. Toastmasters
1.Achieved Distinguish Toastmasters Status
2.Achieved Distinguished Area status
3. No clubs died during my term as Area Governor
4. Made Universiti Tun Abdul Razak TMC to achieve its 1st ever Presidents Distinguish Club Status
5. Manage to finish 1st runner up in Area Humorous speech contest ( prior 3 attempts were 2nd runners up)

C. Career
1. Achieved promotion as Senior 2 (after lapse of 2 years)
2. Worked for 24hours till the next day 9am
3. Manage to lead a audit team for 3 times during the year.
4. Handled 4 jobs concurrently

Others
1. Became MC for a Malay Wedding
2. Became MC for EY Division Appreciation Night
3. Appeared in ASTRO again for 2nd time for the same programme called "Alaram"

However, there were some setbacks during the year, which I hope it wont be repeated in future

1. Disqualified in Club Evaluation Contest for exceeding the time
2. Lost my gold medal in IAFG2009 and settled for silver behind the guy whom I beat a year ago.
3. Fail to achieve President's Distinguish Area as there were no new clubs chartered.
4. My weight increased to 62kg at year end

Adios 2009, Welcome 2010

These were my targets for 2009:

1. To be a Chartered Accountant (Application still in process)
2.To complete a marathon race within 6 hours (Achieved with timing of 4:01)
3.To achieve Distinguish Toastmaster (DTM) (Achieved)

Here's my targets foryear 2010:

1. To be a Chartered Accountant
2. To obtain promotion to Senior 1 position (Super senior)
3. To be Division Champion in (Humorous/Evaluation/Table Topics/International Speech)
4. To get back my gold medal in IAFG 1500M
5. To reduce my weight to 57kg

1 Mile Dash Run - 31 Dec'09

This is my 1st time taking part in such race. As I missed the Malakkof and Chin Woo Biathlon, I wanted to finish the year with a bang.

I reached Dataran Merdeka and parked my bike there and kept my stuffs at Royal Selangor Club. I changed to my running attire and started jogging at the middle of the city, running towards, Sheraton Hotel. Some of the passersby looked at me like one kind as I was jogging at middle of the city at night.

I didn't bothered about that. Before the race, though i knew the race going to be tough where my age category contains stars such as naresh, Murali, Guna, Ronnie, and Stanley,I still had the feelings that I can be placed in top 20.

When the race started, The front group led by Jasni and Murali broke from the crowd and sprinted all the way. I tried to pace Guna, but some how couldn't push myself. But I still maintained my pace and increased it when I reached Coliseum.

Suddenly, 2 guys came from the back and overtook me at the final 100M.

However, I finished 11th and manage to get my final medal for the year. Upon announcement, I realised that I'm in 10th position as Jasni was disqualified.