A Runner's Journal

In Memoriam of Les Chang (1968-2008)

2008-02-19T17:14:00.003+08:00

Honestly speaking, we have never met before but by posting this news would only mean one thing in me, my respect for a photographer whom had been very active and helpful in the island of Penang. Not to mention, his gifts for extraordinary photos and skills in post processing is beyond many people's capability. Well, my condolences to his family and may you rest in peace Les.

For more: pls click below

1) Fotokrazy.com
2) His Flickr Photo Album

Badminton is pushing my knees to destruction?

2008-02-19T16:16:00.003+08:00

Yes, as the heading suggests, I had been playing badminton and I am suspecting this game is destroying my knees. Why am I playing badminton? Well, it was one of my favourite games before I joined running and now I had found partners to play with. Now the question is why am I suspecting this game is pushing my knees to the edge? It all came about when most of the time when I had finished my game, my knees tend to be very sore on the next day thus, swelling occurs. So I thought why not I track this issue for two weeks and to my surprise, it does occur after every game! So...the mega question is should I stop? I am still giving some thoughts ok? Meanwhile, what say you on this issue?

First Run

2008-01-01T23:03:00.002+08:00

Yes, I had begun my first serious run and it is only a 3K! Haha! What a joke. I was lamenting last night on how I managed to run 20K's on one single night (and that's 10pm!!) while right now, I am panting heavily after 3K.....However, the feeling of running long distances had not left as if I had just ran my 21K's a week ago. The feeling of breeze and freedom that came with it was quite comforting and not to mention, the sound of breath whooshing in and out from my mouth was ever melodious.

I am restarting my programme and since Friday last week, I had ran four days in succession (not bad for someone whom had stopped running for quite sometime!) and I had limited it to 3K's. If not for the protest from my knees, I would have pushed my lazy butt to another km or so but the pain was quite bad, so stopping after 3k was a smart move for me. Anyway, talking about my knees, yes it had gone thorough some really bad patches since the last few months. It was swelling on and off and I am suspecting that general weakness on my knees are a contributing factor in addition, my bloody weight had ballooned to a level I am not comfortable with (don't bother asking me what is my weight now as I am pissed with myself for enjoying so much food...NOT! Haha!) How about my timing? Well, my Timex strap had just broken (due to months of neglect) and I am using this excuse to avoid running fast! But, I am sure it will come to a point where my new Timex watch will reappear on my wrist with lap times emblazoned on it's screen everytime I shoot past my running lap....hhhmmmm am I dreaming?

A break from Running

2007-09-03T14:33:00.000+08:00

Hi guys, it had been some time since I had made an entry in my blog. Well, to be exact, I had taken a hiatus from running since month of May as I was concentrating my efforts on my job, or 2 jobs to be exact. My saturday's are replaced by a full day working and it was also since June that I had seen my parents back in PJ. I had been working for 2 companies i.e. my present company in Johor for full time and another in Singapore on a consultancy basis. My initial aim was to make some extra cash in working for this Singaporean company but it seemed that now I am moving over for good. The boss decided to have me joining their operations and to assist in the Operations Director in overseeing factories in Johor and Singapore. My initial thoughts were happy but also, I can sense the burden that I will be shouldering 4 months from now. Well, as of now I am still busy but manage to have a breather and will be returning to running soon. Of course, the number of races may had to be reduced but will not disappear altogether. I will see you guys in races!

Updates

2007-05-31T11:01:00.000+08:00

Updates at the photography section had been posted!

Updates

2007-05-23T11:22:00.000+08:00

It had been sometime since I had blogged anything about running and therefore you should have known that my running had taken a backseat these days. For my work, the pressure is mounting which would explain all my late night working and I am evaluating my current position against the salary offered. I believe that with my current skills, I should be able to make it in Singapore where the salary scale is way higher and like all the Malaysians living in JB, I am prepared to travel every morning at 6am just to get across the causeway. Anyway, this may only to likely happen somewhere in 2008 after my current company had stabilised.

On my weekends, I had been helping my gf a lot on her ACCA exams (I’m a CIMA final Level student, so I am somewhat qualified to do so he...he...) which she will be facing this coming June. She commented that I am like a drill sergeant asking the soldier to march like nobody's business. Anyway, I just told her this is the only way to study in professional courses and I kept on drilling into her mind that professional courses are all about concentration and commitment to study. There are no other alternatives.

If I were able to find sometime left, usually I’ll just run off to any nearest scenic place to hone my photography skills. Anyway, I had taken an about turn in my choices for photographic equipments where instead of further investing in digital photographic tools, I had reverted to analog tools. Meaning, I am shooting photographs using a 35mm Film SLR instead of a Digital SLR. Just last Saturday, I had invested in a Sigma APO DG 70-300mm zoom lens f4-5.6 MACRO (capable of even seeing your nose hair from distance of 15ft) and the remarkable thing about this lens is that it is forward and backward compatible (ie. suitable for digital and 35mm film SLR's). Not only that, I had bought a Canon EOS 500N SLR (35mm film) from my brother to match this lens. I had done this with hope that it will improve my composition skills. I am now currently drooling over the Sigma 24-70mm f2.8 APO DG EX lens which is also capable of forward and backward compatible. This is the Pro version lens where the f-Stop does not change throughout the entire zoom range. It is priced somewhere between rm1500 to rm1800.

I know it is strange that with the widespread availability of technology, I choose analog imaging to learn photography but I guess it is the right thing to do. Without the convenience of digital imaging (unless you scanned your photo's into digital form) the photographer had to get things spot on (like exposure, composition, colour, framing, story, mood etc) before the shutter button is pressed. In that way, the skills of the photographer is more or less preserved while for amateurs, they are forced to learn the essential rules in photography and if pictures are awful, it is our fault of not getting things right in the first place. For the past couple of weeks, I only knew how weak my skills were when I began shooting 35mm films. With exception to colours (it depends on which type of film a photographer uses) all the rules with regards to photography had not been adhered to while not to mention, the pictures were uninteresting.

Anyway, it is the 'kick' factor of shooting a 35mm film and the need to improve my skills that had prompted me into investing in these accessories. The Field of View (FOV) in an FILM SLR is simply larger compared to any DIGITAL SLR's in the market (with exception of digital cameras like Kodak Pro SLR/c [discontinued], Canon EOS 1Ds-MkII and Canon EOS 5D) and when a lens like 70-300mm is fitted into an SLR, this is the true distance that you will get. Unlike a DSLR, there is FOV cropping factor (depending on camera model) and when any type of lens is fitted (with exception to specifically designed lens for DSLR ONLY) the images appear to be 'smaller' because the 'size' of the sensor (the medium which is used to capture image) is not as large as the 35mm film where a typical sensor size can range from diagonally 5mm to 28.4mm in contrast to the 35mm of a film.

On running wise, I had only begun to train for the upcoming Penang Bridge Half and I am not hoping for any smashing result rather, I just want to complete the course. I had gain weight (there is too much TLC from my GF) and my training schedule is somewhat stale where everyday it is the same 1hr run. However, from this week onwards, I am slowly edging towards the 1 1/2hr run and I am getting a new pair of Mizuno Wave Rider 10. Mizuno Wave Rider is still the best shoe I had used so far and I am not planning to change to any other brands as yet. Already, I am feeling the rush from this race as most probably, it had been quite sometime since I had entered any races in Klang Valley. Well, will post more during the coming weekends on what's happening in JB here. See ya.

Kampong Senibong Photography Series

2007-05-08T11:09:00.000+08:00

For more info, please refer to the photography section!

Of running and Photography

2007-04-14T23:24:00.000+08:00

It had been 10 days since I had posted anything. I was supposed to run the orange run but unfortunately, something crop up the last minute. Anyway, I am glad that I trained consistently since the past few weeks and it seemed that my momentum is going strong. However, there is one thing that I needed to learn and that is how to run fast. This is something different altogether. Although I can see an overall improvement in my pacing but then, I would not consider it to be fast. Well, there is one thing that I know and that is, in order to race fast, I must train to run fast. Sigh..it's going to be another painful weekend.

As for photography, right now I am concentrating on night shots only. I had completed my first night shot project (idea is adapted from 'Practical Photography Magazine') and I had named it City Abstracts. Below are the samples of some shots that I had made.

City Abstract

City Abstract 1

One of the key challenges in taking the photos above are my lack of proper equipment where I was supposed to use a wide angle lens of 17mm for this shot instead of 28mm lens. Not only that, the f-stop is slow in comparison of f-11 which is required to create better effects. The worst is that, I did not have a proper tripod where the legs are supposed to be flexible. Anyway, fixing the camera to the front passenger seat proved to be a tough task and I had to make sure that all the framing, focus is done before setting out for the night shots. Well, the result turned out to be pleasant enough and I am considering doing another round of this. Wish me luck.

PD Half report

2007-04-04T14:25:00.000+08:00

PD half report is out! Please click the race report section for more action!

New postings for Photography

2007-03-22T10:23:00.000+08:00

Hi All, there are new postings on the photography section and please do click on the Photography icon to visit!

KLIM 2007

2007-03-20T16:07:00.000+08:00

Der race report is out! please click onto the race report section.

New Postings!

2007-03-15T19:19:00.000+08:00

New postings on my photography section is up! Feel free to visit.

SMART Tunnel Run 2007

2007-03-12T12:10:00.000+08:00

The race report is out! Just click here

New Postings!

2007-03-07T19:06:00.000+08:00

There are new postings on the 'Photography' Section. Feel free to visit!

Blog restructuring

2007-02-26T20:20:00.000+08:00

I had been having a hard time trying to integrate both sites (petalingrunner & Simbh.com) to function as one unit. However, upon inspecting Jamie's site further, it gave me the idea to have the petalingrunner site to be structured according to carboman's site namely having all the reports and other reviews to be hosted at simbh.com. For the next few coming weeks, new sections will appear on the sidebar and race report would be one of them. Thanks carboman for the great idea!

Fujifilm Finepix S6500Fd

2007-02-23T02:36:00.000+08:00

Fujifilm Finepix S6500Fd

This is currently the latest gadget in my inventory and it is the Fujifilm Finepix S6500fd. In the first place, I had bought this camera 4 days ago to replace my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FX7 which I HAD LOST. Yes you have read it right, I lost my camera. It was stolen and there is no one else to blame but me. Anyway, I need to thank Tey a lot if not for his posting of this camera on his blog, I would not have come to know that there is such good price for a camera with SLR like functions.

Profile View

Firstly, this camera is not an DSLR although it seriously looked like one (thank the designers at Fujifilm for fooling you guys). The S6500Fd is classified as a bridge camera where it has a fixed lens (28-300mm) in a single package plus, it houses a 10.7x optical zoom! For the price of RM1600, I get SLR like controls and not to mention, one of the best performing camera (for ‘bridge’ cameras) in terms of picture quality at the ISO output (in dpreview's opinion!) of ISO200-800 thanks to the critically acclaimed 6.3MP super CCD sensor. Although, there were significant artifacts appearing in its picture but then it wasn’t really that noticeable. Built wise, it had a solid feel to it although it is completely encased in plastic. The things that were missing in its total package was a hot shoe for an external flash and the use of an electronic view finder instead of an ‘optical’ one which is completely useless for focus checking. Anyway, for the price of RM1600, I really can’t complain much about that.

Top View

I had been doing weekend shooting on my Lumix and had always found that I needed something more. It is not to say that the Lumix is a bad camera, it is just that I needed more control over the camera as opposed to point and shoot only. As for the Fuji, I had been doing some shots of my own and it is a testament that with more controls, you can do more with pictures. However, I still needed more practice in composition and also learning on how to use the manual function.

Picture taken at 1 Utama

Picture taken at 1 Utama

Picture taken at 1 Utama

Leafy...

Woven Cross...

Ronnie Arumugam...

Bright Lotus...

For more reviews, please go to www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilms6000fd/

Chinese New Year and Running

2007-02-23T01:14:00.000+08:00

I had started my journey going back to PJ on Friday after lunch and already, the traffic is showing signs that it is going to be bad on Saturday. There were many cars and throughout the journey I could not help but noticing that there were many like me whom chose to travel back on Friday. Reached home at around evening and was totally pooped. On Saturday, I joined Lai, Ronnie, Kenny and Loong for the pre-Chinese New Year run. I felt good today and for quite a long time, I had not clocked 54mins for the double hill route and I was feeling satisfied. As usual, my parents went early to the market and throughout the day, it was shopping and shopping all the way. At evening, it was time for our family reunion dinner and we had a great meal. On Sunday, it was CNY day 1 and as usual, it was all eat and sleep. In the evening, we had a heavy bout of drinking session and unfortunately, I was drunk. End of the day.

On Monday, we visited our relatives in Banting and again, it was all about eating and drinking. Again, I was drunk on this day and needless to say, the day had ended just like that. Tuesday, I was supposed to run with Ronnie but then I guess I was too drunk to run in the morning trying to recover from the hang over. However, before the recovery actually started, again I consumed alcohol and strong doses of coffee. By midnight, I was already feeling dehydrated and weak. Shit, this is not going to be good for my run next day. Indeed, the effect was really bad where I suffered really bad on Wednesday’s run at the double hill. Not only I felt very hot but then the legs just refused to move. Not only that, the lactic acid build up on my legs refused to clear and by the 6^th km after the run started, I had to walk already. By the time I reached the car park, it was 1 hr plus and I was reaching for water. Anyway, this is a good lesson for me that I should not be drinking at least few days before any runs. I am not sure any of you guys out there experience this but it really sucks big time.

On Thursday, I fared much better. Kenny decided to introduce to us the ‘extreme’ route in the lake gardens and by 9.15, the pia kaki’s were already there at the parking lot. I was the last one to reach and after a brief warm up, Kenny led the way. The first 1-2km’s were ok but then when the hill arrived, I was shocked to see that it was really steep. Imagine we have to go through that for 3 rounds and already, I felt like wan to pengsan!! On the first lap, we were generally going slow in order to familiarize with the route. When it came to the hill I knew I am going to lose to all of the runners today as my weakest link in running is still running up hills. I had no choice but to really slow down and my thighs were burning from the accumulating lactic acid. I noticed that I had difficulty setting a pace as there were many twists and turns while not to mention, there were many steep downhills. But it had been a good run and it was only towards the end that I had not managed to catch up with Loco Lai and Siau Lang Ronnie because they really pushed hard in the 3^rd lap. In fact I was kau kau lat overtaken by Lai at the hills which would only confirm that I need a lot more hill work. Anyway, my thighs are sore but then the training still had to go on. As for my Friday menu, it would be a kau kau lat cross country run at Bukit Gasing followed by a 10k run in lake gardens on Saturday before resting for my drive back to JB on Sunday.

Updates

2007-01-31T19:06:00.000+08:00

Catch more updates at simbh.com!

Run and Run and Run

2007-01-24T13:25:00.000+08:00

I had missed this year's edition of GE30k due to some overtraining injury that I had sustained on my Achilles. However, after much resting, it got better and currently I am back on my feet training as usual. My main races this year would be 10k however, I will incorporate several 20k's in between. After talking to Ronnie previously, I had learned that I ran too many speed workouts and it really stressed my system out. True enough, every workout that I did it was very stressful but I guess, I had only one aim in my mind and that is to break my PR of 44mins for 10k. However, those speedwork is well worth it as currently, I manage to hold a 5.1min pace for the distance of 10k with a lot of fuel in reserve. My next phase of training would be to improve my pace to a sub 50min with reserve in fuel.....I am praying now that my heel would be ok...

Achilles Tendonitis

2007-01-08T18:42:00.000+08:00

Yes, I am suspecting that this injury may surface very soon as I had been experiencing pain on the lower portion of the Achilles tendon. For the past 2 months I had been neglecting the pain on my heel area and it was last week (which i had my most intense training week) that my heel became painful. And when I pressed the Achilles tendon area, there was a sharp pain as well and this had forced me to adjust my running gait to accommodate this problem. At this current moment I am approaching my training with care and trying to follow the program that I had drawn up as closely as possible. I am not sure but I guess the main culprit would be the shoe and my program where for the past 2 weeks of training, I had only rested 2 days. Not only that, the majority of my training program is centered on speed work (on Racing Flats!!) and not enough mileage. Right now, I am readjusting the schedule and hopefully, when march comes, I could run a consistent 48mins and below for my 10k. As for the GE30K this weekend, I don't think that my Achilles would be in the condition to race and hence, I would be giving it a miss. However, I would be there to support you guys and see you there!

Email Address

2007-01-02T11:37:00.000+08:00

Hi All,

Due to the inability of my browser to access my Lycos Mail, I can be reached from this new address:

sim@simbh.com

Final Posting for year 2006

2006-12-31T21:56:00.000+08:00

To read more please click Simbh.com

Updates

2006-12-25T01:48:00.000+08:00

Hi guys, it had been sometime since I had updated the website at all. The truth is that I was very much occupied with my work and as you know, year end is looming and it is this time that there are new targets etc are to be set for the company. Anyway, I manage to obtain a very much needed break for this holiday season and I was glad that I could just update my reports, catch up with my family and most importantly, rest. Anyway my reports are up and you can read them at simbh.com.

My New Website

2006-11-17T11:37:00.000+08:00

Hi guys,

As you all know, I had always loved to tinker with all these internet language writing stuff and for the first time, I am moving forward to be a full fledged Webmaster. I had sign in with Powweb for hosting services last month and just last night, I manage to upload the files to the server and my new website is officially running now! You can visit my site at simbh.com but then I had not manage to find or operate a 'comment' system as of now. Maybe, i'll include a 'Buletting Board System / Forum' just to enable the comments. Therefore, if there are comments from you guys you can drop a message to me at sim@simbh.com.

As for the Petalingrunner site, it will be still be retained at this current moment as I had no intention of moving it to my website as yet. However, I am migrating the data's from this site to my official site. As of today, my site is currently 60% completed and there are pages yet to be uploaded onto the server.

Hopefully, this site would be able to bring enough info for you guys so that you can visit it regularly! Happy Reading!

2006 Bidor Half Marathon (Race Day)

2006-11-08T12:57:00.000+08:00

My alarm rang at 5.15am. I was still lazing around. Looked at the alarm again and it was 5.30am and I told myself it is time to wake up. Washed myself and got all my things ready by 6am. While drinking my race beverage, I could not help but thinking how this race is going to be. I had surveyed the first section of the route last night but it seemed to me that I will do badly in this race. My thoughts started to drift towards finishing the race just outside 2 hours based on my current fitness now. However, the more I thought about it the more fired up I was because I refuse to believe that my timing is drifting back to my pre-July fitness where I was finishing half marathons outside of 2 hours. With this in fighting going on between my thoughts and believes, at last I chose not to have any expectations from this race by not expecting any finishing timing. So, I started out this race by having a blank time and I will run based on how I feel.

It was already 6.15am when I reached the starting area and had my car parked near the starting line. It was a simple affair and car parks were plenty during the early morning hours. I called Ronnie and he was also there by then. After a brief 5min search, manage to locate him and passed all the runner’s bibs to him. Chen was already there at the starting line when I passed him his numbers while commenting how cold the morning was. Indeed, the morning is as cold as ice and not even my jacket sufficiently insulate me from the chilling temperatures. Surprisingly, I wasn’t Kan Cheong at all most probably due to the fact that I had not attached any expectations on the outcome of this race. As usual, Ronnie does his business and I was already in the Kandang area. Rachel was there too and I met Ai Ling. I asked her how her stay was and she said it was great. She was surprised too by the hospitality of the locals and she refused to believe that anyone would have invited her into their homes to stay. Saw Draco too and he mentioned that he is carrying a camera to run. He is at it again.

Before long, we were ushered out onto the streets and into the starting line. Well, the number of Half Marathon participants weren’t many and the starting line wasn’t crowded at all. Met DK at the line and he mentioned that he had forgotten to obtain the bibs of his friends in which he had to run back and get them. From the way he sweats, I guess he is more than warmed up. While chatting, the countdown began and before I knew, all the runners were gone! There I was, starting from the back of the pack.

I slowly made my way through the tight corners of the road and before long, we were on the first section of the road. I took things easy and just let my legs stride by themselves. Slowly, I overtook the slower runners one by one and by the time I slowed down to conserve my energy, I was running against a lady. This lady is worth mentioning because of her pace. She was much shorter than me but then, her muscular arms shows that she is no pushover. Not only that, her strides looked strong and her running form are good. Slowly, I made my way running beside her and she must have sensed my presence where she pushed her pace further! Wa sai! This is only 4km or so and she is already pushing such a fast pace and so, I decided to follow suit. But then, I had always been following her rather than outrun her as I am trying to conserve as much energy as possible for the second section of the run. Just before long, there was a major incline (overhead bridge) and so, I decided to slow down in order for me to have a smooth transition from flat route to an inclined one. She was running ahead of me and so, I slowly made my way up to the inclines and leaned slightly towards the front to gain a greater momentum forward in order to chase her. By the time I reached the summit I started to power away overtaking her in the process. From what I had read in ‘the book’ (yeah you guys would know which one) whenever an opponent started to pull hard on the up hills they are actually spending a great deal amount of energy compared to running on flat route. By the time they reach the summit, they would tend to slow down to recover and this is when, we can make our moves to overtake them. I did that and it was true enough, by the time I had reached the flats, I was already more than 300m in front of her without spending a great deal of energy.

The route continued to be undulating although not a mind breaking one. Manage to see grace and fook also (after the u turn) and I cheered for them to go on. I just keep on focusing on my pace and guess what, ‘the lady’ overtook me from behind!! Wo hooo!!! She was powering away on the flats just to catch up with me! Wa Sai!!! This is one heck of a runner. By the time I reached the first u turn, I was already running neck to neck with her. She started to push her pace again and without realizing, we were overtaking many runners in the process. Again, we reached the same overhead bridge and so, she powered away on the way up. Shit, this time her gap was more than 400m away and by the time I reached the top, she was already trying to enlarge the gap by running even faster. I used the down hill to increase my speed where I powered all the way down just to close up the gap and when I reached the flats, I was around 100m behind her. This time, I decided to stay 100m behind her, waiting for her to get tired and it was when we were approaching the second section of the run, I manage to overtake her.

This second section of the run proved to be the most hellish I had ever done. There were very long inclines and not to mention, they are steep too. It started from the very beginning and already, a climb greeted us winding itself into oblivion. I could not even spot where the ending of the climb was and all I could remember it was endless. The lady that I had been mentioning was not seen at this point and most probably, she is trying to conserve energy to finish off this section. I maintained a constant ‘climbing’ pace and not trying to do anything foolish at this point. The road suddenly lead into a steep downhill and it was really difficult to maintain my form. Nevertheless, I kept to my tight principle of ‘running up hill slow’ and ‘make up all the time during down hills’. In a more simple term, run up slow and come down fast. Yes coming down fast is hard on the knees but then, it is only very brief if you run it fast. As we are heading towards the waterfalls, we were greeted by the longest climb I could ever imagine and to my estimate, it was several kilometers in distance. I think I would not be wrong to way that the length is somewhere 3km or so. Then there was a longgggg downhill and this is when I decided to slow down. It is getting harder on the knees as the distance is long and my ITB’s are hurting. Nevertheless, I just maintained my pace and the road ahead becomes narrow, only leaving enough space for two runners run side by side. Not long after, the u turn was in sight and there were sounds of waterfall. I slowed down considerably at this point to fuel up on liquids and isotonics. Already, Mr PR (LFS) was already 1km ahead of me...

As I was loading up, ‘the lady’ suddenly appeared out of nowhere and grabbed a quick drink on the way back up. Shit!!! I was overtaken by her again!!! This time, I gave chase and she was strong on the way up where she was maintaining a 200m lead ahead of me. Judging from the route, I decided against making my move so early. I persevered on the way up maintaining my pace but then, I was suffering too. It was a very long climb and the route is winding too in which, it throws my momentum out. There is nothing much left for me to do except to hold on to my pace and hopefully, my body could sustain the effort. Saw DK on the way back up too and I guess he too knew how hard the hills were. Then just as I was about to breakdown, relieve came at last. It was the downhill and I just powered down relentlessly pursuing all the runners in front of me. I overtook one by one and at last, ‘the lady’ was in sight. I pushed even harder knowing from her running form that she was getting tired too. By the time I reached flat road, I was again running neck to neck with her and manage to overtake her after pushing my pace a little further. But then, I had made a mistake of forgetting there was another hill to traverse through and that was when I broke down and walked for a good 100m or so. ‘The Lady’ overtook me and then just powered away. I manage to regain my composure and continued my run while maintaining a distance of 100m behind the lady runner.

After suffering for the last few kilometers, we are finally heading towards the town and by the time I reached the final turn, Ronnie was at the junction to see who the finishers are. I shouted at him and asked how many kilometers more and he mentioned it is about 1km or so. This time I just push kau kau lat at the final km, overtaking the lady at the same time and never let go of my pace. I was aware of nothing but the speed at which I was running and before long I was heading towards the finishing line. Rachel and Lai were there to cheer me and it was when I crossed the line, I only realized I had PR on this course with the timing of 1hr 52mins 54sec! My card had indicated my position no.27 and I was more than happy with the results. Before long, ‘the lady’ finished the race and I saw that she had a card hung around the neck indicating she is one of the top finishers.

I got my drink and walked towards Lai and Rachel. Not long after that, Fook finished the race strongly under sub2 while grace and Ai Ling followed suit. DK finished after that and lastly, it was Draco. It was a good race albeit I was very tired. After a brief chat, I headed back to hotel to clean myself up and had breakfast with the bunch of guys. It was around 11am when I decided to head back to hotel to sleep before driving all the way back to JB which is another 650km trip. All in all, this is one memorable race to me and also it gave a sense of renewed confidence to race well in Singapore Marathon.