Skaterboys
Sunday, April 23, 2006
Sunday, April 16, 2006
New Balance New Vest
Look what I brought home in that brown paper bag!
I registered for the NB-PACM 15K today at Pacesetters counter at Bukit Aman. To my surprise, the vest and running bib were ready for collection. What a great Sunday! The vest is very nice and comfy to wear. The design is simple yet elegant – NB logo in front; one more NB logo, Milo logo and PACM 15km text at the back (as shown in pic). I am wearing it now as I blog. Don’t feel like taking it off until the run day. Heheh! There is also one 30% off NB voucher in the brown paper bag.
What? New Balance Pacesetters 15km 2006
Where? Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur
When? 21 May 2006 (sunday)7:00am
Highlights: Finisher medals for all, yummy breakfast, a very comfy vest.
For more details on NB-PACM 15K and IPBR, please click http://www.pacesetters.com.my
Running With Cops
What? Larian Mesra Rakan Cop 2006
Where? Padang Merbok, Kuala Lumpur
When? 16 April 2006, 7:30am
Why? In conjunction with 199th National Police Day celebration and official launch of the Rakan Cop (cops and friends) program by our beloved PM. COP stands for Community Oriented Program. Under the program, the public would act as police lookout and provide info on crime to the police’s Command Central Center through its hotline or SMS.
Top Left and right : Majestic Sultan Abdul Samad Building. Bottom right: Our policemen favourite past time ;)
According to today’s Sunday Star, more than 10,000 were expected for run. Wow!. Where did all these humans come from? Normally, the organizers would be laughing themselves silly if they could get some 2,000 humans to turn up for a run.
I arrived about 6:45am at Dataran Merdeka. Sky was still dark but the Sultan Abdul Samad Building was stunningly lit. I love taking pictures of this building. As I walked to the starting line, I was surprised with the amount of people already in the waiting pen. Not many regular faces around in their drifit vests and skimpy shorts. Mostly crew cut young men wearing the event Tees and long blue track bottoms. Police cadets, I supposed.
So, I inched my way from the back of the pen to the front to get a better view for my shots. I found a spot among a bunch of police cadets. Short hairs. Petite bodies. Smooth complexion. Wait a minute! Smooth complexion? When I looked properly, they were not guys. They were girls. A bunch of tomboys. Yikes!
Half an hour to go. Thank God I brought my Sony MP3 walkman. I was entertained by Roxette from their Baladas En Espanol (Spanish Ballads) CD. All their ballads sung in Spanish – something very familiar but yet so exotic. Nice! By this time many of the police cadets were seen sitting down, chatting incessantly or playing with their mobile phones. These humans will be our future police force? (Insert Hmmmmmmm….here)
Run, Cops Run!
Human traffic jam! We couldn’t actually run without running some police cadets over. So I grab the opportunity to take some pictures while the crowd disperse. Anyway, I was not in a hurry. The route? Same old same old beaten path. So there was nothing much to write about here. Just another fun Sunday run. Skipped through the Roxette folder to Pulp Fiction soundtrack! Excellent surfing tunes to cruise down the road. I saw many familiar runners doing their LSD on the opposite direction. Training for the NB-PACM 15K perhaps?
Rescue 991 Part 2
The runner in me pushed me to keep running but the inner photojournalist screamed to stop and take some pictures. Heheh! The photojournalist wannabe won! I stopped a briefly to take some pictures before continuing my run. He seemed to be in good hands of the 991 rescue team. I hope he would be OK. (Insert silent prayer here)
Goodies
I was given a certificate of participation upon the completion of my run at Dataran Merdeka. Not interested to stay on for the lucky draw. Went straight to Bukit Aman to register for NB-PACM 15K and then home sweet home.
After running with COPS this time, the next coming event will see runners running with CORPSES. Heheh! I kid you not. Jogathon Warisan (Heritage Jogathon) or more aptly dubbed by local runners as Larian Kubur (Graveyard Run) as route passes through some KL’s oldest Chinese cemeteries and crematoriums too. I survived last’s year run but I don’t think I would like to do it again this year. (Insert Chicken sh*t here. Heheh!) I run wild but my imaginations run even wilder. Watched too many Kiong Si (Chinese Vampire) flicks. Heheh!
Check out my last year’s Larian Kubur in my April 2004 archive
http://runwitme.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_runwitme_archive.html
What? Jogathon Warisan 2006
Where? Tien Hou Temple, Kuala Lumpur
When? 30 April 2006
More info: http://www.pacesetters.com.my/resource/forms/index.htm
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Running With Muruku
Water, Muruku and T-Shirt
Deepavali kinda comes early this year courtesy of Mydin, the major sponsor for Larian Mesra Rakan Cop. I collected a bagful of mixed crunchy and spicy Muruku (400gm) and a bottle of water along with my T-shirt and running bib this evening.
I rushed to the Police Headquarter in the city center to collect my running kit after work. I reached at 6:00pm on the dot, another minute later they would have close the collection counter. I was sweating like crazy after dashing from LRT station to another and then up the hill towards the Police Headquarter building. Seeing me sweating and panting like a mad dog, one of the policemen over at the counter actually offered me a can of H-TWO-O (lemon line flavour). How very nice of him! So “mesra”! Heheh!
The t-shirt motive is colourful. A tri-colour eagle wing spans from bottom right to top left. I actually quite like the design and colour. Not gonna be arrested by the fashion police with this tee.
I left the Police Headquarter only to be greeted with rain. Sharks! I hope the weather will be sunny this weekend for Friendly Run with Cops (Larian Mesra Bersama Polis).
Monday, April 10, 2006
The International Penang Bridge Run 2006
The Longest National Pride
After an absence from the local running scene for a couple of years, IPBR is back this year. It is one of the oldest and prestigious run in the country. Nobody knows what happened to IPBR for the past two years. The race director was abducted by aliens perhaps. I have marked my calendar for this event and have even applied for leave for an extended weekend in Penang. Not everyday you get to run on one of the longest bridge in the world without traffic! (Penang Bridge is the 6th longest in the world and the longest in South East Asia if you into this length thingy). Yes, they actually close the bridge just for this marathon!!!
IPBR sure brings back lots of memory. It was my very first half marathon. (a bit longer than 21km; the actual distance was 22.3km) in 2000. I earned my very first finisher medal. I remember smiling ear-to-ear walking around and showing it off. It was a big medal too, the biggest in my collection.
At that time, I was already started running with a camera, my point and shoot - Minolta Riva. It was loaded with film, not memory card. I couldn't simply snap because the film was limited to 36 exposures, unlike now - I could easily take 500 pictures with my digital camera. I am not sure where I kept my PIBR pictures now. (They should be in some shoebox somewhere in my store room). I remember watching the break of dawn while running along the bridge. Simply breath-taking.
Event : International Penang Bridge Run
Date : 30 July 2006
Distance : 42km, 21km and 10km
Tel : 04-2262959 or pick-up the form at Stadium Bandaraya at Lorong Kulit
Some of the bridge facts....
Overall Length: 13.5 km (8.4 miles)
Length Over Water: 8.4 km (5.2 miles)
Penang Island Viaduct & Approach: 1.5 km (1.0 miles)
Prai Approach: 3.6 km (2.2 miles)
Carriageway: 2 lanes per carriageway except in the central span where it is 3. Work has started to widen the entire bridge to 3 lanes a carriageway.
Height of Tower Above Water: 101.5 m
Height of Bridge Above Water: 33 m
Main Span: 225 m
End Span: 107.5 m
Other Span: 40 m
Speed limit: 80 km/h ...Marathoners, please adhere to the speed limit, OK? Heheheh!
In Penang, the motto is RUN to EAT
Note: Running is just part of the fun of going to Penang. The other is makan! Char Koay Teow, Asam Laksa, Pasembor, Rojak, Cendol, Nasi Kandar, Lo Bak, Mua chee, Ikan Bakar....The choices are endless.Yum! Yum! Some other must-buy items are Tambun Pneah (biscuit) and nutmeg (preserve or oil).Please come back for updates.
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Beep! Beep! Here We Come!
What? Alamanda Carnival Walk Hunt
Where? Alamanda Shopping Mall, Putra Jaya
When? April Fool's Day - 1 April 2006 (Saturday).
All my weekends in March were filled by road races – KL Marathon, Orange Run, ING Thailand Temple Run, Guardian Charity Walk and Saberkas RH Marathon. March indeed was a busy month. So, in April I decided to “take a little break” by joining a treasure walk hunt.
My brain was a bit rusty for treasure hunt. My last hunt was in September last year. I spent Friday night reading my “past year questions” like a student trying to cramp everything up to my brain last minute WHILE watching American Idol. Yikes! I knew was in trouble.
I arrived at Alamanda Shopping Mall about 11:15am after commuting by KTM, KLIA Transit and Nadi Putra Bus. Phew! That was alotta commuting. Met with BW and YPH on the KLIA Transit train. YPH was still groggy as she just got back from Bangkok late last night. One the other extreme, BW was bursting with energy, roaring to go for the hunt. I think this dude was high on something. Heheh!
We went to RASA Food Court for a snack after registering. The goodies bag was nothing to shout about. There were some food vouchers, a copy of BLOOM (Alamanda guide which came in handy as it has the floor directory) and last but not least an event sticker. No event t-shirt. (What?) Hunters found many creative ways to paste it on their bodies. Some placed it on the thigh. Some placed it on the shoulder. Some pasted it on the back. Some pasted it on the chest. Some plastered it on the biceps. Some pasted it on the tummy. It couldn't stick on my tummy. My tummy getting rounder and rounder each day. It is difficult to stick a flat sticker on a round surface. Heheh! So, I put it on my arm instead.
We were set off at 12:00pm after a short briefing session. Four sections to complete within 2 ½ hours – hunt questions, treasures, spot the Alamanda sticker and Alamanda logo puzzle.
We scurried to QS photo to duplicate the question sheets. Sharks! The Photostat machine was out of order. That called for Plan B – divide and conquer. I took the G floor section while BW and YPH took the LG floor and the rest of the questionnaire.
Being runners indeed give us some kind of edge. We did not tire easily. We were aware the importance of hydration (which contributed me walking in and out of the loos) At times, I had to keep reminding myself not to walk so fast that I could have missed some important clues or answers.
I got stuck with a few questions on the G Floor after going a few rounds in the mall. Time to change. I called up BW and swap floor with him. Went LG. Good strategy. Managed to solve a couple more questions on the LG floor whole BW managed to get a few more. YPH was busy looking for the stickers. We only got 9 of 10. YPH had to be very careful because there were some “dummy” stickers which design look similar to the actual to confuse the hunters. Good job guys!
Hung Up on Puzzle
2:00pm. ½ hours to work on the logo puzzles. The puzzle pieces were hanged high up to the ceiling of the tents outside the mall. Thank God, I brought my camera. So I took all the pictures and we went back inside to the comfort of air conditioning to solve the puzzle.
What about our treasures? BW already taken care of the first one, which was quite straight forward – we just have to buy something within RM1 and RM2 from any shop in the mall. The second one really got us guessing. We arrived at an executive decision to “tembak” the answers. ALAMANDA cut out (clue= scissors) the MAN = ALADA. What is ALADA? A lada!!! A chili?? I ran to Carrefour to buy something “chili”. Chili sauce? Chili paste? Chili Powder? Chili Boh? Was there an “A” brand for chili? Went to the spice rack to check for possible answers but finally decided to buy ONE fresh chili. (A = One; Lada = Chili)
Sharks! At the counter, the sale girl refuse to sell me ONE chili. I had to buy at least four to tip the scale. Desperately, I ran back to the vegetable section and pick up another 3. I am not sure if Chili was the right answer but to submit something is better than none.
We submitted our answer just a couple of minutes before 2:30pm. (Insert Phew! Here)
A Minang Lunch
Had lunch in a cozy place SARI INDAH restaurant - Minang food. Made use of the RM10 voucher. Food was OK, a bit on the pricey side. One miserable piece of cold and hard Telur Dadar cost RM3. The gado-gado however was yummy. Chicken and fish were just OK. A+ for the deco. C- for the food. It was raining very heavily outside.
Decided to go to Speedy rummage through the bargain bin since we have lots of time to kill before the result announcement. Found a Brownstone CD for RM9.90.
Hot Stuff
I was elated when our team name was announced as one of the winners. Yay! We were in the Top 20!!! Good enough for small time hunters like us. The midnight oil was worth burning. Most importantly, we had fun in the hunt and had a good workout for the legs and brain too. Hmmm..what should I buy with my RM50 Parkson vouchers? Another Nike drifit T-shirt perhaps?
P/s. The winner of the day was a team of I supposed seasoned "professional" hunters who called themselves “Cari Makan”. How disgustingly apt for a team name!!!
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