Happy Deepavali

Putrajaya Night Marathon - 15 Oct

I was my worst run for the year.

This is my 2nd night run after Energizer Run. I knew it's going to be humid due to lack of trees and open space buildings.

I just bought "K-Swiss" last month and I knew it's a bit heavier compared to a normal racer. But one of my running friend told me to try it for long run so that the shoe will get adjust to my foot step.

As I left the house in a rush due to house works and Toastmasters, I forgot the muscle plaster for my ankle, to avoid the pain to increase.

As usual, I took my bike there, so that I wont have problem in parking, and I was glad that I just got the parking at Perbadanan Putrajaya which is few steps away from the start/finish line.

I was one hour early before the gun-off, so I had adequate time for warm up and stretching. I just went for 2km jogging and I started sweating as if I ran 10km.

Then, went into the cage and push myself to be in the 1st 5 rows so that I won't stuck with the slow runners and medium slow runners. I didn't really wanted to push myself but wanted a decent finishing of 1:45.

When the race started, I quickly moved away from the slow runners group and had adequate gap behind. I knew I was in top 25 at least. I overtook Hong Zhi Shen, Bagwhan singh and few other my running friends.

Upon reaching, 10th, I started feeling tired and I couldn't push much. Then, I saw Hong Zhi Shen overtaking me, followed by Stanley Cheong. I tried to maintain the gap but I couldn't. My ankle started aching and I started to feel dehydrated.

Though there were water stations and they gave banana and water melon at certain points, I just felt like running in an oven. Reaching 12km, I was going on jogging pace and my leg was getting heavier. Then I realise, it was due to the shoe.

Bagwhan Sing and other runners whom I normally think it's peanuts to beat them, it was otherwise yesterday. Even, some veteran ladies overtook me.

The scenery was nice with lighting's on the building and musical instruments at certain juncture which boosted my run.

Upon reaching the finishing line, I just went to medical camp and took ice for my hamstring.
They did gave finisher T-shirt, mineral water and snack pack which contains bun, puff, cake and banana. But no milo or 100+ as they were shaking their legs.

There were also no proper distance markers to ensure we are at correct pace. I clocked 1:54, which is one of my personal worst.

Now I new how to prepare for night marathon and what shoe to choose for racing. I will come back stronger on the next race. Watch out for me.

Sri Garden Charity Run - 9 Oct

After going easy at Adidas KOTR, I thought of pushing myself for this run. Furthermore, with few other races in Malaysia which separated the crowd, I was in thinking of going for top 10.

When I reach the place, I saw Stanley and Ghejan. Then came the nightmare when I saw Kenyans (Negro). There were 8 of them. There goes my chance of getting top 10.

When the race started, I allowed the main group to go first and followed Ghejan. The route was all flat except for 1 part where there was slight hill. There were marshals at most of the junctions except for 2 confusing junction where luckily we manage to follow the person in front of us.

Ghejan was pacing me till the Gurdhwara (Kg.Pandan). Then , I realised that there's only 2km more to finishing lane. Thus I increased my speed and overtook the white man in front of me and never looked back. Going towards finishing lane, it was at field and it was like paddy field.

I got num 15 with timing of 25:10. If minus the Kenyans, I would have been in top 10. Damn.

The goody bag was filled with 7up revive, mineral water bottle, stress ball, pen holder and sandwich.

Know This Sports Person - A.Jayakanthan

This mad was a deadliest winger during his heydays. His combination with P.Maniam(current Selangor coach) at the wing made our win against Australia on 1992.

He has represented the country from 1990 till 1993 and his major tournament was Asian Games (1990), Sea Games (1991), Medeka Cup (1993) and few other international friendlies.

As for local league, he was with Selangor till he retires. He was also in the team when they beat South Korean team at Vietnam Independence Cup in 1992.

For him, stick with your love but never mix with money and politics. Currently, he is a staff of Royal Selangor Club (RSC) and actively plays football for veteran categories representing the club along side with K.Gunalan and Santokh Singh.

I had pleasure to be his jogging partner recently at RSC and upon that we had long chat about sports scenario in our country and also methods to keep up our fitness level. Wait tll i catch a picture with him.

Malaysia's Cash Pool

For the past few years, Our Prime Ministers has announced that Malaysia is in deficit which means more cash outflow compared to inflow.

When we are planning how to generate funds for our country's development, we forgot where are our cash is going too.

This year, it was clearly stated, Malaysia's cash pool was in English Premier League. Our pride was there when 4 companies (Genting, Air Asia, Malaysia Airlines and Berjaya) sponsored teams such as Aston Villa, QPR and Cardiff.

Definitely, from tourism perspective, its and attraction to get Europeans to Malaysia. Furthermore, to prove that a small country like Malaysia to show that we can be great nation. It's also a chance to get our home grown players to feel the sense of training and playing method at European soil.

But my question is, do we want such huge investment now when we are still struggling with deficit.

Adidas King of The Road - 2 Oct

Adequate training cum adequate recovery is the recipe for succesful outing of a competition. I'm still bucking up on my training. Therefore, I wanted to take it easy. As usual to show I'm taking it easy, I wear my specks.

This is my only 3rd time I'm wearing specks to run (after 10/10 run and Malakoff last year). I was stuck in the middle of the crowd and it was around 60M from the starting line. When the race started, it took around 1 minute for me to reach the starting line. Then only I started my timing. Yet, the crowd was slow and I had to jog till I reach the U turn.

Only then I started to run and followed Jeff ooi whom was dressed in his sleeping dress with duster. I followed him till the 1st toll and realised that he was slow, so I overtook him and tried to catch Hanna Bobice.

Upon reaching half mark, I realised that there were few pelathon in front of me which would enable me to move forward.

So I pushed and over took the pelathon. I even got past Gejhan and he was also slowing down. Upon reaching final 6km, I was pacing Brian Lee and followed him till the end. I got more motivated when the 10km joined us at 4km mark.

Finally, when I saw it was 800M to go, I pushed myself to max and finished the race.

The timing was 1:19.22.

The water stations were adequate at every 3km. I just felt that RM50 is too expensive though we get branded vest. At least, there should be breakfast upon the competition, rather than just the cereal which finished quite fast.