Taman Bukit Jalil & A Few Good News

I had my first run in Taman Bukit Jalil on Tuesday. I was supposed to meet up Keat Seong for run in Puchong. Also invited the great French runner, Peter out for a run (too bad he wasn't free). Anyway, KS had to work late that night and couldn't make it to the run. I wasn't too sure where to run in Puchong, so decided to head over to Tmn Bukit Jalil. When I reached the place, it started drizzling, so I stayed in the car and waited. Thankfully, it stopped. Since it was my first time running there, I didn't know which route to take. Ended up doing small laps around it, couldn't take it in the last lap, so I turned off to another junction to make it a longer run. Ran for about 40 mins and went to look for a slight slope to do my hill repeats. Fortunately, short hills are pretty easy to find it there. So I did about 10 reptitions, but I wish it was a straight line and I didn't have to run in a curve.

The place was pretty dark at night, so I went to check on my car after the hill repeats and I only saw one or two cars there. Scary! I knew there were still a lot of runners running around, so they must be parking somewhere else. I decided to move my car nearer to another entrance to the park.There, I saw a whole group of Tmn Bukit Jalil runners (with chairs somemore), probably gossiping about coming by-elections? Haha. It was nice to see some familiar faces such as Sally, Tan and Farid. Also, some are familiar faces in the road running scene but I didn't know their names. I got bitten by some insects on my arms and neck during the run, and it swelled the next day. Must put on insect repellent next time!

Anyway, the park is actually a nice area to run in but wish I had taken a longer route, so that I won't be running so many small loops. I heard from Sally that even one of the Bukit Jalil runners commented, "Why you never show your friend to a longer route?" She told me there's another route which is about 4km in distance. Next time lah.

One fine day, Kelvin brought me to try out  the spa and jacuzzi in Mines Resort. I can't believe the water in the jacuzzi is so so hot. Took me a while before I was able to dip myself in the pool. Then I tried to cold water pool and that is icy cold. You put your legs in, won't last 5 mins! Anyway, now I know where to go after a hard run next time. Anyway, ice is always used to reduce your inflammation to your injuries.

Quote of the day:-

"I tell you ah, you know how they make chicken rice or not? First they dip the chicken in hot water, then they dip it in cold water. That's how you get the chicken skin so smooth when they serve you. So, you must dip yourself in hot pool, then the cold pool to make your skin smooth smooth!" - The wiseman, Ng Ching Her.

So ladies, you can throw away your beauty products and listen to this guy!

I learnt from Moey on Wed that Energizer (after our appeal) have decided to give us an exclusive adidas cash voucher. What a great news!

"This cash voucher is different from the discount voucher you received in the goodies bag during the race. For one, there’s no minimum purchase required and the validity is up to 6 months. In addition they are also valid for a wider range of adidas merchandise. The cash vouchers will be in RM50 denomination and the amount for each winner is listed in the table below."

Marathon winners will get RM700, RM600, RM450, RM300 and RM150 respectively

Relay and 21km winners will get RM600, RM450, RM300, RM250 and RM150 respectively

10km winners will get RMRM450, RM300 and RM150 respectively

Glad that Energizer took our feedbacks seriously and we are grateful to that. Hoping that organisers of other runs will do the same, accepting feedbacks from runners, act on it and improve themselves.

Eventhough I was the one sending out the appeal letter, I didn't get the news in email. The rest of the winners did. Haha. I think for relays, they sent out the emails to the respective team captains regarding the matter. Our team will be getting a RM450 cash voucher. Man....RM450 divided by 4 person, I'll be getting only RM112.50?? Aiyo, how to divide leh. I hope each will get RM450! Anyway, this will be confirmed once Ronnie receives the cash voucher! Good timing for a new running shoe. Hopefully, that will help in my left foot arch problem.

I went to register for Bomba Run 10km run today and you are given a choice to choose the colour of your T-shirt. At least still got a lot of sizes to choose from. Bomba Run is on May 2. Clcik here to download the entry form. Since Subang 10km has been postponed, I thought it will be a good tune up race.

Today I received yet another great news from Nuffnang, saying that the cheque I've been waiting for so long for my Tiger Run win is finally ready to be collected. I didn't know they were going to issue the cheque under individual's name as I thought they will reimburse whatever we have spent. Anyway, thanks to Nuffnang an Tiger Beer for this! Thanks to June Yew too for his effort in following up with the status of the cheque payment. He is the grand prize winner for the Tiger Run.

I went straight to the office to collectthe cheque once I've found out it's ready. Upon reaching the office, I registered myself at the security counter. Then the security guard asked me, "Itu Nuffnang buat apa punya? Semalam, fuyoh, ramai ah moi macam model datang office. Dari China ada, macam-macam lah." Haha. I told him I go check it out. Their office is pretty cool, no partition kind of office, kind of like Digi's office. Everyone seems to be on their computers (some I saw facebooking)! I met up with one of the staff there to get my cheque. When I got back down, the guard asked me again, "Adakah?" I said, "Tak ada lah boss." "Aiyah, sayang you tak datang semalam."

My biggest winner's cheque ever!!!

Anyway, Im glad it came in a good timing as I was stressing myself so much on how to pay the credit card bill. I've already charged my air ticket and registration fee for Berlin Marathon to my credit card! Then Euro and Sterling Pound has dropped so much in the last few weeks, that it's also a good time to buy the currency.

As for my training today, I had to abandon my plan to do a 10 x 400m, and managed only 8 sets. I was getting a little tired and my timing was getting slower and slower. Started off with a good timing of 77secs but end up in 83secs after the 4th set. I wish there was someone pacing me so I don't give up that easily. My average HR was at around 164 bpm. Still not that high as I wasn't doing that long distance. Some of the Uncle Chan's disciples, such as Jack, Phua and Wei Khong. They were there but Uncle Chan didn't come today. In spite of this, they went on with their training of 1km repeats. Pretty good bunch. Too bad they weren't doing the same thing, otherwise I can have pacers.

Tiger Year Wishes Came Early!

I'm pretty sure most of you know that I won the RM8,888 worth of dreams from the Tiger Run just last Saturday. Of course, most of you thought that I won RM8,888 worth of cash, right? Well it's not. But hey, it's similiar, just that I don't get to touch it!

Tiger Run - What is it? And how the hell did I get into this run?

As a matter of fact, I'd only got to know about the run just a few days before the event. I wasn't sure what was it anyway. Besides, I had signed up for Putrajaya Night Run which was held on the same evening. However, the half marathon only starts at 8.30pm. However, I wasn't feeling too well on the eve of the race day, so decided I might try out the Tiger Run, but wasn't sure whether I will get an entry/invite to the run. No harm trying, I submitted my blog entry - "My Dream in the Year of the Tiger" hence, what you see in my last post.

Some of the prizes given out for this run:

Grand Prize

RM8,888 worth of dreams + RM1,888 cash prize

1st Runner Up (Male)

RM8,888 worth of dreams

1st Runner Up (Female)

RM8,888 worth of dreams

Consolation Prizes :

RM88 + 6 Packs of Tiger Beers 

Anyway, I can count my lucky stars in winning this and of course there were "curses" too of not getting the top prize.

Lucky Star No.1 - Kelvin was the one who informed me about the run just 2 days before event. Without him telling me about it, I won't have known about it.

Lucky Star No. 2 - Nuffnang  & Tiger Beer accepted my entry.

Lucky Star No. 3 (but not so lucky in getting sick!) - I was still feeling unwell on the morning of the event day, so I decided not to take the risk of running the Putrajaya Night Run. But I was still ok for a short run. So, Tiger Run it is.

I knew we had to do some tasks in our run, and looking at the map of the Jaya One running perimeter, event should over quite fast if it was a run only event, but unfortunately that's not the case. (Maybe we can label this as Curse No. 1)

The route taken by runners

Well, I already sold off my bib for Putrajaya Night Half Marathon category to one Japanese guy. I asked Kelvin to help me pass it to him. Julie and Pueh Tian were the familiar faces from running scene at the Tiger Run. PT as always, will have his camera ready to shoot! Julie as her happy self is all raring to go.

 

The Race & Tasks involved?

There were 5 participating outlets where tasks will be performed. Cafe and Bars involved were, Bar Madrid, Frontera, Heaquatrs (HQ), Chulo, Frontera and Royal Oak. Each runner is required to run 2 laps of Jaya One, starting from HQ. After 2 laps, runner will go in HQ to perform the first task.

The race started in a fast and furious fashion. 2 or 3 runners, sped up at top speed. One of them was the eventual winner, Eugene. I just followed them behind as I knew they would not last with that kind of pace. Well, so much of following the lead, we went off course! Lucky for us, the people who overtook us were not quick runners, and eventually before the end of the 1st lap I was able to catch the lead guy. From there onwards, I was running practically alone. (Lucky Star No. 4 - Lucky I had a competitive running background).

Task No. 1

Curse No. 2 (Mother of all curse) - You are to tweet about your Tiger Run. I do not have a Tweeter account and I had to sit there for maybe 5-6 mins just signing up for an account. The guys who came after me, just tweet and went off like a rocket. From that point, I thought I'd lost it already. But I just went on with it, smiling each time I see Pueh Tian trying to take photos or to the passer-by encouraging us or the marshalls.

Task No. 2

After the 1st task, we just need to run half of Jaya One cutting through the shops to reach out next station. Royal Oak was next in the list. The marshalling girl asked me to put my hand in the ice box and grab a bottle of Tiger Beer. And I thought I was going to have to drink it. Luckily, that is all we had to do, just grabbing it out from the ice box. So off I went to do another "half lap". Oh, in each lap, we need to collect certain tokens as our checkpoints proof. If any of these items are missing from the bag, we will be disqualified. (Oh, I didnt mentioned that we need to carry a Tiger paper bag along).

Task No. 3

Next pit stop, Frontera Cafe. When I got into the cafe, I saw baskets of chicken wings and I thought, damm, you are not serious that each of us will need to finish up one basket (You know, those tiny baskets you usually get in cafes when you order fries). Well the marshall did say, "Pls take one". But I checked with him again to confirmed it. He meant, just take one pc only. Whew! So for me, I thought, "Piece of cake lah". I was wrong. The chicken was covered with chilli, I think it was Tabasco. And my lip/mouth was still burning after the run. Yeah it was that hot! On with my next lap.

Task No. 4

I ran into Cafe Chulo and found laptops awaiting. I was hoping something easy this time. Luckily, I had a facebook account and we just need to accept Tiger Beer as a fan in our page. That was easy. So onto my final lap. I ran as fast as I could on the final lap and just hope for the best, as I do not know exactly what was my position. There were many runners that I overtook but the slow runners are also taking the same route. Therefore, I could not tell who were in front of me, but I did see the guy who won it finishing when I was just starting my final lap. Well, I crossed the finish line, feeling a little cursed that I didn't have tweeter account and even informed a few of my friends thru sms that I didnt win as I failed on my first task, which costs me placing. 

However, it was quite an entertaining run and I really had fun meeting new people. We had complimentary drinks and dinner from the organiser at Bar Madrid. Free flow of Tiger Beer too! Too bad I was sick, so I didn't drink, only plain water!

There were lion dance peformance during the dinner too.

While eating, one of the committee member, came into the bar and was asking for me. So I went out with him and he informed me that I am the 1st runner-up! I was shocked and happy at the same time! I can't believe that I'm getting my dream all paid for (ok, only RM8,888 worth but it's still worth a lot).

After the dinner, it was the prize presentation and hearing them calling me out my name, unbelievable. More so, because of the events that have happened till I made it to the starting line of this event.

Wow...Europe or US are the places I like to visit one day and run, but the price of air ticket and ground arrangement have always been the major deterrant for me to travel there. And now it's going to be made possible with this prize! So big thanks to Nuffnang and Tiger Beer for this!

More photos at : Shaolin Tiger Flickr or Shaolin Tiger

(Shaolin Tiger, hope you don't mind if I used a few of your photos here. Thanks)