Allergic Reaction

I woke up early today at 5.45am as the drops of rainfall startled me. Looked out the window and saw that it was drizzling. Part of me wants to go back and sleep but part of me says that I really need to get out there and build up my mileage. My plan today was to do a 24km run in a medium pace, targeting a 5:00-5:30 pace. It took a while before I made the decision to put on my shoes and head out.

Started feeling pretty tired but the cool weather plus drizzling rain helps. There were quite a few runners out there running despite there was an event over at Padang Merbok (Pacesetters 4 x 3km race). Dutamas Runners group were a 10-k run today.

As I reached Hartamas, I felt a sting above my chest as if an insect stung me. My normal reaction was brushed it off, and felt my finger killed an insect (felt like an ant). I didnt take a look at what was it and ran on. I started to feel the itch in my body after a while. As I look at my arms, there were rashes around it. Checked a couple places around my body and indeed I have developed rashes. At that time I was already at 12km, only halfway of my targeted distance. 1km on, I decided to head back home as I felt the rashes has spread across my body.

When I reached home, to my horror, my whole body showed some kind of allergic reaction. Took a shower as soon as my body dried, I took a quick shower and took some anti-itch pill and applied some tea tree oil I bought last time on the affected places. Luckily, it subside after my breakfast outside. Went back home and took a quick nap as I was sleepy due to the anti-itch pill.

I checked my upper chest again, and the swelling was still there.

Hopefully, it's nothing serious and will get better by tomorrow. Anyway, managed a 20km today in 1:49. Still need put in more runs for me to improve the timing!

Training Run - LSD 24km

I will be doing my longest run thus far for a very very long time. A 24km run. I hope my legs can survive it. Will not be pushing the pace, as I aim to finish this run strong, so will pace myself accordingly.

Those who are keen to follow, please meet up in front of Anggunpuri Condo / French International School at 6.25am. I won't be sure who will be joining but I will start at 6.30am sharp. (Note: I forgotten to put in the date of this run. It will be this Sunday - 19 Feb)

Some things to take note:

1. Please bring along your own hydration/money as there won't be any water station along the road, except if you want to stop at 9.5km mark to buy water @ Bestari, Solaris Dutamas. 
2. Please memorise the route well as there won't be any markers to tell you of the direction.
3. Do it at your own pace, fast or slow. I will be looking at running it at about 5.00 - 5.30/km pace.

Here is the map for your reference. Make sure you have Google Earth plugins for this one. If you can't view it, pls click on this link.

Salomon Sponsorship

I know there has been a delay of what my last post was all about. Well, it was still Chinese New Year & long holiday break! Of course, there's also work commitment.

I couldn't think of a better title for this post, so I'm just going to be straight forward here. YES! I've got sponsorship from Salomon. A big brand to those adventure racers or enthusiasts out there. More so the recent champion of the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon, Kilian Jornet is sponsored by Salomon. Here's a short video of him running the Mount Kinabalu.



I know what is going through in a lot of people's mind is that how can a road runner be getting a sponsorship from world's leading manufacturer in trail running apparels & footwear? You may call it pure luck or maybe I wrote in at the right timing. Whatever it is, I am thankful for the sponsorship. It is not a multi-million dollar sponsorship but I am still proud of it.

Been injured for throughout the 2011 season, I thought I might need to change my training a little bit more this year and that is by adding in trail running into my schedule. It is hard to find soft grounds to run around my area, unless I travel out to FRIM, Gasing Hill or the nearest...mmh...could be Kiara Park. There are many groups out there organising trail running these days. It seems like it is gaining popularity not only to the usual "On On" by Hash Runners but also to the road runners seeking an alternative training route.

How I Got The Sponsorship
Since I decided I needed to get into trail running to mix up my training runs, I thought it's best that I get a trail running shoe for this purpose. After getting to know a friend of mine is working in Amer Sports Malaysia, which happens to be the distributor of Salomon products in Malaysia, I thought I give it a try to write in for sponsorship. I've sent in my running profile to my friend who then helped me forward my request to his counterpart in Salomon, Mori Hiroshi. It took a month or so of patience before Mori, Product Manager of Salomon contacted me, bringing me the good news that I will be getting sponsorship from Salomon. I was thrilled! I was quite surprised by the support Salomon has given to me, judging from my lack of competition last year due to injury. As for trail running, I've not done much of it in Malaysia but I am not new to it. When I was studying in New Zealand, trail running is already a popular sport and I've done a lot of runs in trails and also in cross country races around NZ.

Salomon History 
Salomon originated from Annecy, France in 1947. The company started by François Salomon together with his family. You may not know this, but in 1997 it actually became part of Adidas group. But in May 2005, Adidas-Salomon announced that it had agreed to sell the Salomon Group to Amer Sports, one of the leading sporting goods companies in the world, for €485 million. In the Annecy Design Center, it's the heart of their progressive movement, with 800 people working at the center. This is where the development, marketing & communication for footwear, apparel and equipement takes place.

The Meeting 

I met up with Mori one fine day during lunch at World of Outdoors (which is under World of Sports Malaysia Group) @ The Gardens, which is the main distributor for Salomon products. This is where he presented me with all the sponsored products and also a walk-thru on Salomon products. There were a lot of new stuff I've learned about Salomon through Mori. 

So What Do I Get From This Sponsorship
When I met up with Mori, there were already two bags of products he was carrying to hand over to me. In it were plenty of apparels, jacket, headgears, tees & fuel/hydrapack bags. Best of all, I get the latest XR Crossmax Neutral CS. The XR Crossmax was voted the "Runner's World Top Debut Shoes" award. Click on this link to read more.

That's not all, I got to choose a second pair. I had all the ranges to choose from. Just check out the next few photos below. If it's not clear, well, just walk in to The World of Outdoors located at 3rd floor, The Gardens. You can also head on to their newly opened concept store e@Curve. Kilian was there to launch the event.

As you can see photo above, there are different ranges of shoes you can choose from. XA - Cross Adventure which caters more for hikers, the XT - Cross Terrain catering for runners for all terrains, while the XR - Cross Running, are the hybrid of shoes. It's basically a door to trail running shoe.

But since the thought of doing a trail race is in my plans, I got myself a pair of trail racer, the Salomon S-Lab 3 XT Wings. It's not the latest model, but it does serves it purpose, a lightweight trail racer.

Funny how the shoes I chose are all red....not that I'm a big fan of the colour RED. Ok with an exception, Liverpool is my favourite team.

Some of the other items I got:

Twin Belt - Do come in handy for my long runs!

Skin Pro 3 Set - This bag is amazing. Always wanted one and now I got one!

There are a lot more other apparels I received, but will do a product review soon. Salomon as a brand will be going more aggressively on customer centric activities & increasing consumer engagement with their World of Sports partners. I hope I can make my partnership with them work, to promote both the Salomon products & also trail running among my group of running friends as I continue to explore & learn about trail running myself!