Scary Bear or Bear Is Scared?! Timid Bear...

This has got to be one of the funniest video I've seen. But pity the bear though, poor thing!

My FOOT!!

I've been having a nagging foot pain, near the arch. Not sure what's causing it, but got it when I was going out for a run after Chinese New Year break using my Brooks ST3 racer. I think the inside sole has worn out a little plus I think planting my foot wrongly when I hit the ground causes it. Anyway, it's been weeks now. It's not really that bad when I run but it does bother me a little bit. Especially when I wake up, I do get some pain in my ankle as well. But after walking off a bit, it's not that painful anymore.

My FOOT...excuse the koyok ya!

Anyone got solution? Not too sure whether it's plantar fasciitis injury. It's nearer to the arch of my foot. About time for me to get a new pair of shoe I think. As I've been wearing my Brooks ST3 racer since Aug for races (plus one marathon) and training. Usually my shoe can last for about 2 years, but that was either a trainer or cushion shoe. This is the 2nd time I had this and both times it was after using a racer for training after a layoff.

P Diddy Buying Crystal Palace Football Club??!!

Interesting to see that rap star & hip hop mogul, Sean John Combs a.k.a. P Diddy is putting up a bid to buy over struggling Crystal Palace FC (The Sun).

I can imagine if the bid were successful, every football players in the club will be wearing Sean John clothing line and each player will certainly wear a HUGE *Blink* *Blink* around their neck, walking out from the dressing room! 

And the way they walked out from the dressing room will also be the hip hop style, wearing a big sunglasses (photo below).

We'll just have to wait and see.....

Races Anyone?

Lots of races coming up in the next few weeks/months :

1. Jogathon Warisan (Larian Kubur)
    Distance : 8km & 11km
    Date : 25 April 2010

2. New Balance Pacesetters 15km

Distance : 4km (Charity Run) & 15km

Details : Click here

Online Registration : Click here

3. Centro Klang Run 2010
Distance : 6km & 12km
Details : Click here

Standard Chartered KL Marathon In The News..

Marathon: Organisers promise smoother event
2010/03/17
Devinder Singh
devinder@nst.com.my

THE Standard Chartered KL Marathon organisers have vowed to deliver a smoother event on June 27 while targeting 18,000 runners this year.

Last year's race, the first run under the Standard Chartered banner, descended into chaos with problems plaguing the event from start to finish.

Water points lacked water, runners were led astray, inadequate route markers and timing malfunctions were just some of the weaknesses observed last year.

Even the organisers could not be sure who won the local category for men with the wrong winner initially declared.

Datuk Seri Ibrahim Saad, representing organisers Golazo, assured that lessons have been learnt and will be taken on board in the handling of this year's event.

"Based on last year's experiences, there will be many changes in the organisation structure, in the route and in the co-operation between the various bodies.

"DBKL (Kuala Lumpur City Hall) will be a more active participant this time and I'm sure this would make this year's race better," said Ibrahim during the official launch of the marathon in Kuala Lumpur on Monday.

Golazo, a Belgian-based sports event promoter, takes over the running of the KL Marathon from Octagon Asia, which has closed its Malaysian office.

"Octagon has shut down its event management section but the same people from Octagon have set up Golazo's Malaysian office to run the marathon," said Ibrahim.

City Hall Director of Culture, Arts, Tourism and Sports Muhammad Sidek Khalid said last year's shortcomings will be discussed at length when the working committee meets.

"We will hold a meeting as soon as possible to look into the setbacks in the last marathon. We will look into ways in avoiding long queues when collecting bibs, among other things," he said.
                                                                          & NST, 17 March 2010

************************************************************************************
Comment : Aiyo...still the same people organising. Hopefully no repeats from last year!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon Registration Is Open!

The word is out, 2010 Standard Chartered Kl Marathon registration is now open. You can now visit their official website to register for the run. Last year's organiser, Octagon, after earning a bad reputation in staging last year's event, has been replaced by GOLAZO. Hopefully, there will be huge improvement in the organising front for this year's race.

For those interested in signing up for the event, please visit their official website. Race day will be on 27 June.

Looking at the price money offered and also the categories, it doesn't look too appealing except for the top 6 prizes in the Marathon Open category. The half only offers cash prizes up to 5th placing. And only one veteran category which is for 40 and above.

Bareno 15km Run & Matta Fair

I was looking foward to the 15km run as it'll be my first race since Tiger Run (well that was just a short race). I went to Bukit Jalil on Sat to pick up my bib. Friend of mine passed me the bib and I didnt realise at that time, I was going to run the 10km (details later).

Race day

After a short warm up, I was ready to go into the "cage" only to find out from a friend that my bib is actually for 10km!! Instead of running as an illegal runner, I thought I'll just do the 10km as I needed some pace workout too. Besides maybe I get less "pro" runners in that category.

The start - Me on far left behind the guy on white

It started ok for me, till Jasni heat up the pace after about 400m into the race. 5 runners took off with him including Murali. I stayed a distance 6th place for the 1st half of the race, until I was overtaken firstly by a younger runner and then Lionel passed me not long after. I had no response to Lionel's pace as I was already slowing down quite a lot. Looking back at my log, I only had 7 runs since Tiger Run so I can't expect myself to do well. But I was still hoping I can be competitive. Guess I was wrong.

I still got a lot of work to do to be race fit. Got 2 more weeks before taking on the 4 x 10km relays. Hopefully I can do well in that as I'll be a disappointment to my teamates if I'm slow. I won't be as fast as I want to but I should be performing a lot better if I can get in a few more runs these two weeks.

I won a lucky draw today, a medium size bike for kids. There were a few bib numbers left for me by Carol as she had to leave early. Well, one of her numbers won it. Since I got no use of the bike, called her and check if she wanted it as I wasn't sure whose number was it. As she told me her friend has children, I drove the bike to her place after the run. Too bad I didnt get to win the jacuzzi tub sponsored by Bareno. Rumoured to cost around RM7k! Where am I going to put it? Mmh...maybe take away my sofa and put it in my living room if I had won. Haha.

Is this the bike that will take me to an Ironman finish line?

(Just kidding! I won't be dreaming of finishing one! LOL!)

Pushing the bike to my car

Men Open 10km

37.37 - Jasni Khairil (1st)
37.50 - Murali Nathan (2nd)
41.11 - Lionel Lee, Pm52 (7th)
42.28 - Khoo Yit Kiat, Pm28 (8th)
43.42 - Fauzan Ismail, Pm24 (10th)
 
Men Open 15km
0'52.30 - Lim Kien Mau, Singapore (1st)
0'5x.xx - Ahmad Lamchannak (2nd)
0'57.55 - Casey Lim (6th)
1'04.39 - Gunaselan Rajagopal, Pm39 (10th)
1'05.23 - Kenny Tan, Pm27 (11th)
1'05.25 - Barry Lee (12th)
1'05.34 - Ronnie See, Pm1 (13th)
1'09.16 - Zulazlan Shah, Pm43 (17th)
1'09.37 - Naresh Kumar, Pm37 (19th)
1'11.12 - Stanley Cheong, Pm53 (24th)
1'13.45 - Suresh, Pm47 (39th)
1'15.08 - Byran Lee (42nd)
1'16.58 - Mohd Rujhan (54th)
1'29.05 - Jamie Pang, Pm5 (85th)
1'00.00 - Ryan Teoh, Pm17 (00th)
1'00.00 - Lee Yin Fook, Pm40 (00th)


Men Junior Veteran
Goh Choon Aun (1st)
Ong Chin (2nd)
1'05.05 - Alam Shah (5th)
1'09.50 - Moey Wooi San (6th)
1'16.15 - Fong Sai Siong (22nd)
1'17.30 - Lee Yee Sum, Pm12 (24th)

* Don finished first 59min+ in the category but was disqualified as someone complained because he can't beat a 51-year old guy. Don was gracious to accept it as he says it was his mistake of not checking the category properly earlier as entry form says Junior Veteran (age 40-49). Someone registered for him for this run. Too bad for him. But he'll get his chance again in Towerthon.

Men Sr. Veteran 15km
1'05.41 - Vincent Wong, Pm10 (3rd)
1'48.23 - Yap Chee Ching (90th)

Women Open 15km
1'48.23 - Fiona Lee (43rd)
1'00.00 - Kong Yen Erl, Pm41 (00th)
1'00.00 - Carrie Teong, Pm61 (00th)

Women Veteran 15km
1'22.00 - Geraldine Low (4th)

Men Open 5km
24.11 - Meyappan Manickam, Pm58 (4th)
24.32 - Lee Weng Khong, Pm35 (5th)
25.44 - Wong Kei Ming, Pm55 (6th) Amkan!
 
Matta Fair - Saturday

I bought my return bus ticket to Singapore Sundown Marathon. Only RM63. It's not one of those full of services bus, kind of no frill bus. To Singapore only cost me RM15 and coming back ticket is RM48. Coach service offer from Transtar. I'll be using the Classic Coach. I was quite tempted to use the Solitaire to Singapore as they were offering it at only RM48.

At the Matta Fair it was packed with holiday makers. Talked about economic downturn. Guess what? I bought my ticket to Germany. I will be heading there on 14 Sept and come back Thru London on 14 Oct. The ticket was a lot cheaper than those I searched online, so I thought it was a good deal. Plus I'm flying back from another country. Mien Yee will be joining me on 30 Sept.

Berlin Marathon here I come!

A Revisit To Old Training Ground And Another Run With A Veteran!

!On Tue, I had a great training run with Don Khor. I was feeling a little lazy to run on the way back home, but decided to stop by Taman Tasik Permaisuri. This place brings back a lot of good memories as it was here that I met a lot of wonderful people who are still close friends of mine. And this is where I joined the Permaisuri Pacesetters area group. You can always ask Kelvin Ng on how I ended up in Pacesetters or in Permaisuri Pacesetters and he can still repeat the story over and over again to everyone!! It was also my first training ground after coming back from a long layoff since I moved to KL. Below is a map showing the location of Taman Tasik Permaisuri if anybody is interested in going there (Geographical Coordinates are 3° 5' 54" North, 101° 43' 11" East).

View Larger Map

Some of the photos taken at Taman Tasik Permaisuri (Photos courtesy from Alden)
-Alden, sorry I didn't ask for your permission ho...don't sue me ya?

There a few young runners who were training with Don (pic below). Since he was there, thought it would be a good idea to run with him since I need someone to pace with. As always, I like to tell him to take it slow. He said he was tired and he wants to take it slow, but most people who knows him, the word "SLOW" probably has a different definition in his dictionary from everyone else's. Yes, we did start slow, but somehow the pace went up a notch (I wasn't surprise). Me being a "younger" runner here, well, I kept quiet and never asked him to slow down. Hey, how do you feel when you are asking a 51-year old runner to slow down? (Everyone has a little bit of ego lah). Well, we finished the first lap and I thought he was done when he stopped. But my watch was only showing 25mins of run, so I went off by myself. Two laps around the lake, then near the end, I heard footsteps nearing me at a fast pace. I didn't look back as I thought it was a friend of mine whom I've just passed trying to have a little fun trying to pass me. I stopped to end my run, and there he was, Uncle Don. Haha. He "scolded" me, saying, "Why you went off yourself? I was chasing you like mad. I was only stopping for a drink!" Oops, guess I didnt hear it. We stopped for a drink and I was getting ready to do some strectching, when he asked me, "Let's do another big lap big lap around the park". Me, "Gulp...!". So off we went. Again, he wasn't slowing down when I told him to take it slow before we started. Maybe it was his new pair of "Newton" shoe that is making him fast. (I'm just trying to find some excuses on why he is running faster than me lah). Anyway, it was a great training run with him which I needed. Glad that I didn't give up like I used to.

Anyway, he is usually there on Mon, Tue and Thu. So if anyone is keen to train with him, be there at 5.30pm at the carpark in between the football stadium and swimming pool. Then you will know what's it like to run with a "PRO" veteran. I'm not sure I can still be at his fitness level when I'm at his age.

His quote of the day (when I questioned him whether he has injuries to his knees):

"If you are having injury to your knees, that means your running style is wrong" - he was referring to how most runners run these days. He says, we should run like we are running barefooted, as we mostly likely to use mid/forefoot landing rather than heel strike.

Well, there are still a lot of debates on midfoot vs heelstrike running styles. Some articles provide interesting findings & comments.

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2008/04/running-technique-footstrike.html

http://www.sportsscientists.com/2007/12/running-economy-part-iii.html

http://hastenministries.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/the-great-midfoot-heelstrike-debate/

Will let you readers decide which is right......

For me, I think I am a midfoot, but when I get tired, I think I'm a heelstrike runner. I don't know, never really did taped myself running. From photos, I can see that I'm a heelstriker, but I don't have a lot of photos of me in action or to see how my foot is landing.