Sometimes, I’m glad to be born a Chinese. We get to celebrate 2 new years in a year ….. hmm…. if that ever make sense. (-_-“)
Anyway, every corner that you go to, you’ll see all the Chinese New Year deco is up. Splashes of red with sight of dragon, because it’s a year of dragon!
Time to “Dong! Dong! Chiang!”
It’s a known fact that in Malaysia, eating out means you’ll be eating a lot of oily stuffs, which is bad for health. Sometimes, I’d rather pack my own lunch.
Today, I brought along my homemade Tuna Sandwich, with generous amount of mixed lettuce leaves. It’s easy to prepare and pack with all the basic nutrient that the body needs.
Time does fly when you’ve reached a certain age. LOL! In a blink of the eyes, it’s time to close the chapter for 2011 and welcoming 2012. This year, rather than spending time at party, or spending time at home due to tired of partying, my friend, Alex has suggested to join a trip with a few others to the villages of the Orang Asli (Native People) to help bring them medical supplies and other things that we may help. Sort of like giving our blessing back to the community. I thought, what a good way to spend my new year differently and meaningful.
We set off to Kampung Sungai Relong on NYE. There’re 3 doctors with plenty of medicine supplies, use clothes and some food. There were around 4-5 kampung that we went to.
The village is at the foothill of Cameron Highland. So the weather is pretty cooling and very cold at night.
It’s truly a well-spent new year day. Wouldn’t mind doing it again!
As I didn’t have any plan for Christmas’ eve, I got invited by a friend to this place for Christmas’ eve dinner. Really grateful for his invite. It was a good time to hand around and catch up with people.
… not forgetting the turkey!
We had a great time singing Christmas carols when Jason and Paul came later that night. We were surprise that Jason could actually play well on double bass.
I’ve always believe in breakfast being the most important meal of the day. Whatever you consume on the first thing in the morning will affect your body’s performance for the day.
For a person on the go, I need something simple, easy to prepare, easy to consume, and no messy clean up job thereafter. Hence, smoothie has been a perfect wholesome breakfast for me, before i head out to work.
Fruits and vegie…. I chose mainly cucumber, celery, carrot and apple. They’re high in fibre and have all the necessary nutrient we need for our body. Furthermore, our body can absorb all the nutrient best first thing in the morning.
Wheat biscuits to give the added fibre and carbs, so that the body will feel full longer. Protein powder for muscle built and recovery after all the runs and workout. Low fat milk for leaner body. and yogurt to boost immune system and smoothen the testure of the smoothie.
And lastly, can’t go without frozen banana. It helps to chill the drink and give extra boost to the perfect smoothie texture.
Simple blend all of them together for about 45 seconds.
… and there you go! A wholesome healthy and filling smoothie on the go!
Christmas is around the corner, so does my Christmas tree! LOL!
Finally brought out my Christmas tree and put it up in time for the coming Christmas. That’s like within a week’s time. I could already feel the holiday mood!
The final race of the 4-weekend back-to-back races, and it’s none other than the well-known Singapore Marathon. Kind of think back, this would be my 10th full marathon race and my 5-year-straight of running for Singapore Marathon.
This race down south has always been special and close to my heart. This is the race where I first started my full marathon 5 years ago. I’ve also have the privilege of having gone through 3 rounds of route changes since I first join.
Since last year, Standard Chartered Marathon event has been felt even better simply because I’m now staff of Standard Chartered Bank. The perks includes access to the special staff tend during race day. Apart from this, Singapore marathon being the biggest marathon race in this region, we also get to go for the special staff carbo loading party during the day before the race, and as well as being the selected few for complimentary hotel stay for the marathon event.
I arrived in Singapore on the day before the race day. Touched down at Singapore airport by 8.30am. Had some time to move around in town before heading to the staff carbo loading party. This year’s carbo loading party is no longer in Fullerton Hotel, but at Raffle’s Convention Centre. Somehow, the crowd is less overwhelm than last year’s.
We were treated with wide variety of food. It’s nice to go for a marathon race not needing to worried about getting myself fuel up for the race.
After that, walked around a bit with my friend and head back to Ibis Hotel to rest early. (but can hardly sleep at all, probably too much coffee during the day and the bed being too small)
With little sleep till the next morning, I knew the race gonna be screwed. However, I’ve signed up for it so I’ll go on no matter how much it’s going to be tough for me.
The Singapore government recognised that this marathon event is going to be massive, so they have allowed the MRT to extend their operating hour non-stop overnight just to accomodate the runners getting to their various starting line. We were glad that we didn’t need to take taxi this time round.
The day was cool, thanks to the non-stop rain for the past few days. This make the major part of the route cooler to run until the Sun rises.
I caught up with the 5hr pacers and was able to keep with their pace until 22km point where my lack of sleep started to give way. I started to feel to sleepy that if given a bed at that moment, I’d just collapse and sleep. My left tight also started to feel heavy and cramp up. I had no choice but to slow down and walk for the next 6km.
I managed to pick up my speed and effort a little bit when i was approaching 28km mark, where I started to use the run-walk-run strategy. As soon as I gain back my momentum, I pick up my pace further and started to run again for the next 14km.
It was really tough running under the Sun. At least I was still haven’t hit the walk and kept to the pace as far as possible.
This year’s run wasn’t as great, as I’ve slowed down my pace and hit a slower finishing time compared to last year’s. Anyhow, there’re up’s and downs in all races. I guess the strongest thing I needed to improve is to get myself more rest and sleep on the day before the big race.
Before I work in Stanchart, I kept telling myself about how crowded and crampy the Singapore marathon has been and vowed not to run again next year. But seeing how it’s became my annual marathon “pilgrimage”, I think I’ll continue to sign up and try to hit 10 years straight running for Singapore marathon.
