Bidor Half Marathon 2009

What? Bidor Half Marathon

Where? Bidor, Perak, Malaysia.

When? 26 April 2009; 7:00am

Who? Organised by Bidor Runners Sports & Recreational Club

How Far? 10km

We arrived in Bidor town about 3:30pm on Saturday. Bidor (美罗)is a small about one hour and a half drive from Kuala Lumpur. Amelia, Yew Ting and I joined Mohan and Hazel from Singapore for this trip. It was our first "eat and run" trip together!

Check out hotel! See Foo Hotel in Bidor. Can you see the START/ FINISH gantry from the window of our room? That was how near out hotel to the start point!

Took this while the ladies went shopping at the supermarket opposite the hotel.

Doraemon! This ought to add some cuteness to this blog. LOL!

Frankly speaking there are nothing much to do in Bidor in this trip except eat, run and eat!

After resting for a while in the hotel, we went to look for the famous herbal duck noodle at Pun Chun Restaurant!

Yummy! I love the soupy Chinese herbal duck drumstick noodle. The portion was generous. I like the soup. Not too bitter or medicinal. The duck meat was so tender that it loosen with a slight poke of the chopstick.

Slurp! Slurp! I found many blogs by runners who ran the Bidor Half Marathon posted about this famous dish! Slurp!

Then, we walk over to the Ta Thong Biscuit shop and watch them make the chicken biscuit and mooncakes in front of our eyes. Freshly baked!

Amelia was attracted to the cute mooncakes in the shapes of little animals.

Fancy some Tricerotops?

Snake and mice, anyone?

How about some bugs?

I found those mooncakes are too cute to be eaten. LOL!

We also check out some fruit stall along the main road.

Petai (stink bean)....are sold outside the stores.

Guava - seedless, sweet and full with Vitamin C goodness.

2009 marked the 5th edition of Bidor Half Marathon. From its humble beginning of only 200 participants in 2003 to last year's 1200 runners, Bidor Half Marathon has become one of the well received half marathons in the country.

According to Mr. Leng, the race director, a total of 1,600 runners registered for this year's run.

Check out the medals over the years....(I don't own these...took some snap shots of the displayed medals at Tukang Jahit Mexico, where the race kit collection was).

2003

2004

2006

2008 - I've got one of these Eagle thingy. Heheh!

The size has grown bigger. The design also got better!

Dinner by the roadside stall. Some simple dish and rice. We kept bumping into Uncle Sonny and his entourage who joined us at the next table for a drink and later we met them again at the Guardian Pharmacy.

My breakfast. Milo and pussy bun. LOL!

I took part in the 10km event only. Same finisher medal. LOL!

The route was rather enjoyable to run except for some stinky shit smell around the plantation area. I didn't notice the awful smell last year. Probably they had just fertilized the oil palms. Heheh!

Check out the Bidor Half Marathon video here. Had to "press on my brakes" many many times to capture our friends running at the opposite side. For those who didn't appear in the vid...you were way too FAST and FURIOUS for my camera. :)

ENJOY!

Note: Background music - Oakenfold's "Ready, Steady, Go" Korean Version from the Collateral Soundtrack. I love this song!

Feel free to embed this video in your blog. Don't forget to link back. :)

Breakfast is served! I love Nasi Lemak. Yummy! My only complain is the Tau Foo Fah was reserved for the 21km runners only! Hey! Not fair! :P...

2009 Medal. Ain't it gorgeous? But how come two of the runners (first and second from right) running wearing underwear in the outside? Superrunnermen? LOL!

What's in our goodies bag?

Acknowledgments: Thank you to Mohan for his makan treats and being our driver. Traveling runner friends - Amelia, Yew Ting and Hazel who made this trip fun and makan-licious! :)

Run Your Race Running Clinic

What? Back to Basics - Running Clinic for Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009.

Where? Lake Garden, Kuala Lumpur.

When? 19 April 2009, 8:00am

Who? Speaker - Elite Runner, Mark Williams

This is the first of a series of running clinics organised for the Standard Chartered KL marathon. Basically, it covered all aspects from training, diet and nutrition to injuries and safety tips.

Actually I kinda missed the circuit runs that FTAAA used to do for KLIM. Because it beats the hey out of training alone for the marathon.

But anyway, new organiser, new events!

This morning speaker was Mark Williams - a Briton, family man and elite runner. He used to run professionally for Hong Kong and had won some roadraces in New Zealand and in KL too!

The way he speaks kinda remind me of Paul Moss (minus the sarcasms and nasty comments) of One In The Million reality show. LOL!

The session went very well and very informative, especially to new runners who are preparing for their first KL Marathon!

I particularly like the demo of stretching excercises. The clinic was rounded up with a Q&A session after a run around the Lake Garden.

Yin was seen busy with her phone. I thought she was sms-ing but she sworn that she was taking notes. LOL!

I posted some of the useful tips from the clinic on stretching before running. Do check out the video. Comments are welcome.

Note: If you have heard carefully, there was elevator music playing in the background when Mark was speaking. I didn't put those sleep-inducing background music in the video. LOL! It was actually played by the music people at the clinic throughout the session. (Insert yawn here!).

They better play upbeat, get-your-spirit-high kinda music for the next event, otherwise everyone will fall asleep! BTW, I decided to shake it up with a song by Metro Station at the end. My favorite running song at the moment! :)

Happy training! Shake shake shake shake shake it!

For more info about the next running clinic and Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2009, please visit

http://www.kl-marathon.com/

Putrajaya Night Run in Preparation for Sundown Marathon

What? Putrajaya Night Run

Where? Putrajaya, Malaysia.

When? 18 April 2009 9pm

How Long? Very Long..LOL!

I was there to support my friends (Amelia, Mohan, Frank etc) who will be running the night time marathon - Sundown in Singapore on May 31. Also met Carboman who came to do some night shoot with his new Canon SLR. :)

I did Sundown last year and I am not going back any soon. Night running is not for me. Beauty sleep is more important! Heheh!

Anyway, I will be heading north on the same weekend for the Penang KOMTAR Tower Run.

To all my runner friends who will be going to Sundown, GOOD NIGHT!..erm, I mean GOOD LUCK! :)

Enjoy the video!

Check out my last year's Sundown Marathon race report here.... http://runwitme.blogspot.com/2008/06/sundown-marathon-2008_04.html

A Date With Raymond Lam 林峯

What? A Date With PowerRoot Premium Gold Alicafe Ambassador

Where? Sunway Pyramid Mall

When? 18 April 2009, 2:00pm

Who? Raymond Lam Fung, a HK TVB Chinese Series actor.

Whoa..check out the crowd. Mainly of screaming teenage girls and also aunties...LOL!

I think by PowerRoot made a good decision to introduce "Tongkat Ali" and "Kacip Fatimah" enhanced coffee to the Chinese market by signing up Raymond Lam. Great marketing strategy I must say.

I wonder if the "Tongkat Ali" worked for Raymond Lam. ;)

Work or not work, I bet he is laughing his way to the bank. :)

Want an autograph? The catch was to buy two packs of PowerRoot products and get a poster for autograph! Products were seen flying off the shelves.

Too many autographs, Raymond? Pout! Pout! LOL!

Personally, I don't really like PowerRoot products. The smell is too strong. Not sure what they put in the coffee that makes your piss smell like coffee too. LOL!

I'm a die-hard Nescafe drinker anyway. :)

Smile!

Drink more PowerRoot coffee. Instant power for stay longer and stronger in bed..I mean, autograph signing session. :)

Check out the video below.

You can see in the video that he was sitting right directly under the hot sun. Although the event was held indoor, Raymond get plenty of Malaysian sunshine from the sun roof at the Orange Concourse. But that didn't stop him from smiling.

What an ambassador! :)

David Archuleta - Live In Malaysia

What? David Archuleta - Live in Malaysia

Where? Sunway Lagoon Amphitheater

When? April 12, 2009 (Satuday)

It was my first time watching an American Idol contestant in flesh. Chris Daughtry was in Malaysia last year but we have to buy a friggin' phone just to get entry to the show. So, I didn't get to rock with Daughtry. I missed Elliot Yamin show too in "Live and Loud".

I got an entry pass to the Archuleta showcase by purchasing his eponymous debut CD. Not too bad. It was still far more affordable than buying a phone!

David Archuleta is simply cute, a little bashful but he loves to jump! Hop he went around the stage! Hop! Hop! Hop! :)

He opened his show with "A Little Too Not Over You", followed by "Touch My Hand", "Don't Let Go" and "Crush".

Anyway, I didn't get many good pictures of him as I was standing like miles away from the stage. Moreover, I was blocked by a huge mist spraying fan. It was the best spot I could find as the theater was already packed to the brim when I arrived around 1pm.

The show was scheduled to start at 3pm. There were people who came at 8am!

The smile that melts thousands of Malaysian girls! :)

David Archuleta came back after Crush to perform stripped down versions of A Thousand Miles (originally by Vanessa Carlton) and Angel (originally by Robbie Williams). Just him and the piano. Brilliant!

I was struggling with the white balance setting of my camera. How come David Archuleta looked so YELLOW! Stupid yellow spotlight! (Insert curses to the light technician ala Christian Bale! LOL!)

Then it dawned upon me.....

Damn! They turned David Archuleta into these Yellow Coverage Fellows! LOL! Well, it was a DiGi event after all.....

He will follow you....(You wish! LOL!)

Finally a video presentation from the show. Check out the "warm-up" sing along before the show, a cute little girl singing "Crush" and a full length David's cover of Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles.