Posts

Showing posts from October, 2013

Our future Olympian, Zachary's first 1k run

Image
Zachary, my 3 year old son always asks me to take him for a jog. So last Saturday, I took him to Aspire park and ran 1km with him. He loves running, well maybe he was influenced by his papa and now mama too. I want to register him in the 1k mini marathon during the upcoming Ooredoo Marathon in January, but I was sceptical about his ability. I am not a pushy parent. I wont force him to do anything he does not like, but since he kept asking, lets put him on a time trial for 1km. He was so excited, he just ran and ran non stop. I was running beside him and kept asking if he was tired or if he wants water. But he kept saying No!. He only stop once at 600m to have a sip of water before continued running. I observed his running form and found out that he has a perfect running style. Mid foot strike, high cadence, shoulder in front, legs behind, in short, I was a total opposite when I first started 2 years ago. He completed the 1km in 9:21. He was actually faster than me when I did my 1st run

Munich Marathon 2013

Image
This is it. The race that I have been waiting for. The race to redeem myself from the disappointment of my last marathon in Paris, and more importantly as my first stop to Boston qualification. I hired a personal coach, Sarah Whittington, and trained through the summer for this race. I was mentally and physically ready to fly along the course across this beautiful Bavarian city; and I won't be alone. My coach will be pacing me and she had planned for a sub 3:40 finish for me. Everything seems perfect. I was injury free, been on gluten free and cleaner diet and and I even slept well the two nights prior the event.  I even dared to asked Sarah to revise the target and aim higher for a sub 3:30. I may sound over confident, but I felt so ready and well prepared. Perhaps I was too over confident that I forgot a marathon is a long 42.2 km (it was 42.5 in Munich) battle and anything can happen in between. With Coach Sarah before the start It was a cold and wet morning with a temperature a

SP Half Marathon 2013

Image
13 September 2013 I came to Sungai Petani with an aim to finish the race in the top 20 based on my current form and their last year's result. It was a very realistic target and for that very reason I was willing to embark on a 10 hours bus ride from Johor Bahru to participate in this race, despite all the negative reviews I heard about them in the 2012's edition. I arrived in Sungai Petani at 6.30 am  on Friday and I was lucky that the hotel allowed me to check in early at 7am instead of the normal afternoon check-in. I had one full day of rest after collecting the race pack at Dewan Penjara. Clockwise: 10 hours bus ride; Dataran Zero the Start / Finish area for the event with the town's famous clock tower; gear check; race kit collection at Dewan Penjara The hotel was only about 400m from the Starting line, and this time I arrived 30 minutes before the flag off and started right at the front alongside the elite runners. As this was a manually timed race, we were required t