Team Miracle Mile - Blog

First Race Of The Year!

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 19:43:07 +0700

On 26th of July 2009, 3 miracle milers including myself took part in a run organized by PSDC in conjunction with their 20th Anniversary in Penang. The route was fairly short, only 6.5km and it seems like goodie bags are our reward or motivation factor to make us run the race instead of having a cool morning walk around the factory trade zone. I know this marathon would seemed like kacang puteh to most of the runners out there but I'm would think otherwise. Regardless of what others may think, I still think that this is a race to achieve my miracle mile (although it's just 6.5km..) in a good time. :)

So I woke up at 6am (I wouldn't say I'd had any sleep at all..seems like I could not sleep at all before the race...maybe I was too excited or too anxious..mixed feelings perhaps..) and went to fetch Justin as the organizers encouraged carpooling. We got there at 7am and mingled around the registration booth while waiting for Syarizan, our new miracle miler member! Our first bumiputera member! Hehe..

At about 7:15am, Syarizan arrived and 3 of us started warming up before the race. I took no breakfast, only drank milk + water which means not much energy for me. Last time worse, just had curry mee for my dinner and the next day I ran my first half marathon at Penang Bridge. :) The race started at 7:30am sharp when I started my ipod nike + to keep track of my race and my Street Fighter 4 soundtracks started jamming in my ears for the extra motivation boost!

The race started off relatively fast for me because my goal was to finish the race within 30 minutes so Justin and myself could make it to church at 9am thus we have a mission at hand! Justin was following behind me for the first 1 km but soon dropped off following his own pace later on. Lost Syarizan at the starting point. I guess I'm all alone and it's all about speed. No strategies needed. Just run as fast as you can.

I paced myself at 5 mins 20 secs per km for the first 3km and after that I find myself slowing down a little to catch some air as I was running under the influenza influence...Thank God, it's not H1N1..:P I ran with a group of indians and with some hardcore running aunties + uncles. No matter how fast I sprint or do a fartlek, these aunties and uncles always seemed to be faster than me.Pai seh..(When I told my friend that I lost to aunties and uncles, they wanted to 'un-friend' me straight away)

There are 3 runners band to collect throughout the race although it's only a short distance but however, I guess there are many short cuts in that area. That's why they need you to have 3 gelang tangan if you want to claim their goodie bag. At the 4th km, I was given the 3rd gelang and I started sprinting because my Ipod tells me that I'm 1km away from achieving my new 5k record. (I set 5K as my distance in my ipod so I can gauge my time for my 5k run) After hearing Tiger Woods congratulating me, it dawned on me that I still have 1.5km to go for the real race. A reality check on myself, I found myself stopping and slowing down after that sprint and some of the runners started overtaking me.

Inspired by the spirit of Pia, I decided to give it all and run! Picked up some pace and overtook some of the indian runners. As I approach the finishing line, I decided to sprint all the way and I managed to clock a 36"37 for my 6.5km run. Insignificant to most of you but to me, it was mind-blowing because I never ran a marathon to record any time as I usually run just to complete marathons.

After crossing the finishing line, grabbed my goodie bag and sat down resting and waiting for Justin to arrive. He made it at 45 mins and we just went off after he grabbed his goodie bag. Nope, we was not gentleman enough to wait for our final miracle miler. However, she smsed me that she did it in 55 mins later in the night. It was a good run and all of us did it under 90mins! (That 90mins mark was set by the organizers in order to motivate all the runners to run below that time stamp if they wish to get the goodie bag..)

Next stop: Adidas King of the Road!

*Note: Forgot to mention that the route was nice and flat.*

Purpose Driven Strife

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:44:31 +0700

"What are you running for?" - that is the official tagline for the Siemens Run 2009. Say it with attitude in front of the mirror and you can feel the human spirit rise to the occasion, pushing me to break my limit and claim the victory prize. Sing: Weeeee, are the champions, my friiieeennnds.

Inspired yet? Though I must admit my tag line became more like "What for you run?" as I bulldozed through a hectic week. Driving home after a work-related dinner function at 11.45 p.m. before race day, tired, half-opened eyes and brain shutting down, I couldn't help but wish for the run to be held another day.

I managed to prepare and train for the race a week before, taking on the concrete outbacks of Mont Kiara after work. All that running, the pain, the strife and wobbly knees just to get from Point A to Point B within a set time. Sore feet and out of breath, but I must get "that thing I am running for".

Fast forward to race day, I reached Dataran Merdeka at 6.45 a.m. with barely four hours of sleep. Hwei and I looked for the TMM dynamic duo of Andrew and Danny who promised to meet me by the flag pole. I couldn't wait to meet them and get my t-shirt. I'm a total noob when it comes to race freebies but that is not "that thing I am running for".

Race time

The race officials called and there I went standing two metres away from the starting line. I looked up towards the clock tower showing 7.08 a.m. Race time? 7.30 a.m. Good thing I had my trusty earphones and handphone / radio player to keep me company. Always good to run with some great music.

Then the DJ played Beyonce's "If I were a boy"... just the adrenaline pumping music I need to get myself motivated for the race. Next song. Maybe they'll play "Eye of the tiger" after this.

No luck, up next was Rihanna's "Take a bow". Hmmm, it'll be difficult to motivate myself when listening to these beats.

....

7.15 a.m.       15 minutes to go. Maybe I can finish top 200.

7.17 a.m. This race is not so long. Maybe I can finish top 100.

7.18 a.m. Ya, I've run this route before. Maybe I can beat those behind the starting line.

7.29 a.m. See you all at the top 10. *Bang! Run run run.

7.37 a.m. I'm not tired at all.

7.49 a.m. I feel great. I could run forever.

7.51 a.m. A hill? Look at me skipping.

7.53 a.m. ....

7.55 a.m.       Tell me again why do people torture themselves for this?

8.04 a.m. Why can't people just drive? It's much easier than running.

8.07 a.m.       What for you run? What for you run?

8.08 a.m. No one slowing down. Must... not... lose....

8.09 a.m.       Maybe I should take up cycling. Lance Armstrong makes it look easy.

8.16 a.m. Hill? Jog slowly. Lots of trees around.

8.26 a.m. Civilization! I see the main road now. Say hi to the nice policeman.

8.28 a.m.       Go up and down the hill and I'll be at Dataran Merdeka already. So close.

8.29 a.m. Hey guy, I see you have brand new lime green jogging shoes. Show off. Watch me overtake you hahaha *evil laugh.

8.29 a.m. Ooops, almost tripped. OK, just look up and smile. Nothing to see here.

8.32 a.m.       Alright! I can see Dataran Merdeka already. This race is funtabulous.

8.32 a.m.       ....

8.33 a.m       Why are we running the other direction?

8.33 a.m.       We're heading to Sogo????

8.38 a.m. It's that guy from the starting line. Run faster! Must ... maintain ... position ....

8.43 a.m. Out of breath. U-turn. Finally.

8.44 a.m.       Must get "that thing I am running for".

8.45 a.m.       Guy in veteran category slowly overtaking me. I really need to train harder.

8.49 a.m.       Why are people playing Chinese drums by the sidewalk? Is there a sale going on? Kamdar looks closed.

8.51 a.m.       Cheerleaders!

8.54 p.m. Nearing the finish line already. Legs don't fail me now.

9.04 a.m. Finished! I'm the king of the world.

....

So I didn't finish in the top 10 as I imagined. Probably took 1.5 hours to complete the course. Not quite the Olympic material you might expected. Well, at least the other TMM members had fun.

Danny is having lots of fun. So is the guy doing the peace sign.

Natalie and her hair posing for the camera.

Andrew getting ready to fly. The guy on the right seems ... deeply stunned.

Natalie and Danny showing off their top 100 finishing medals. Earlier I was wondering where was mine hahaha. Better luck to me next time.

Andrew and the sweet taste of victory.

They got their medals. All I got was a purple necklace.

Kudos to Siemens for organising a great run to aid the underprivileged. May the funds raised be a blessing to the beneficiaries as they reach out to those in need.

I headed straight to the goodie bag section after finishing. No, this was not "the thing I was running for". I moved from the goodie bag line and went straight to get ...

A thick cool cup of iced Milo. Minum Milo anda jadi sihat dan kuatttt. I can't imagine a more satisfying reward after a good run. So, "what for you run?"

Special thanks to PM Tey and Danny Chan for the pictures.

Shoe Consultation Testimonial - by Natalie Ng

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:32:01 +0700

At first I did not intend to buy new running shoes as I thought one enough already. But then after the Larian Sinar Amal at Bukit Jalil, the goody bag super generous, they gave Brooks discount voucher 40%. Being the smart consumer, so I bought my Brooks running shoe at a reasonable price. Another typical Malaysian. Hehehe…

Oh… I must mention Joshua here as he was the one who brought me to the Brooks shop at The Curve. He wanted to buy some illuminating vest because he plans to run early in the morning.

Being a fussy person, I couldn’t make up my mind as to which shoe to buy. All very nice designs. Luckily for me, Joshua did some research for me, (normal arch and slight overpronator), he suggested I get Brooks Axiom 3. The description goes like this, extracted from their website:

Got MoGo? The Axiom 3 does. For the slight overpronator, this Guidance shoe provides a fast ride, lower-to-the-ground feel, and is so light you won’t even know it’s on. The split DRB post provides just enough support, while the MoGo midsole allows you to get lost in the run.

I have been having blisters on both my feet after using New Balance 692 (for neutral feet). I bought the shoe because it was cheap during clearance sale. I didn’t know what my arch type was or the function of the shoe was. That was really dumb of me until I became the member of Team Miracle Mile. Ever since I’m using Brooks Axiom 3, the blisters did not become worse but it's still there. Put on some medication, but it's still there unless I stop running completely. Don’t think I will do that. Me, scared of becoming fat. Hehe…

I would say I love the Brooks Axiom 3. So much lighter. Been using it for races and hope many more to come. Though dirty, it still looks elegant. I will definitely support Brooks in the future (got discount voucher ma….).

……The End…..

Seremban Half Marathon - by Natalie Ng

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 03:15:57 +0700

Two weeks after Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Marathon, and I’m proud to declare that I ran my first full marathon in …*ahem*... in less than 6 hours (cut off time 6 hours). I donned my running gear again, high in running spirit, and off I went to Seremban early on Sunday morning. Even though my eyes were in disagreement with me, but it was my semangat “PIA” that really pushed me out of my REM and made me get ready to meet my friends at Taman Midah, Cheras. Ahh… being a girl has a lot of advantages. No need to drive. Hehe….

Reached the destination at 6.15 am. A bit “kap jio”, searched for the toilet and FUYOH! …queue very long and mission abandoned. After reporting, the urge to wee wee was still there. Back to the queue and now even longer. Plan B, cut queue. Reason: race start in 5 minutes and telling how sorry I were at those girls (students mostly). I do not wish to tell the condition of the toilet, but desperate situation needs desperate measures.

Race gunned off at 6.45 am. Not so many runners as it coincided with the Port Dickson triathlon and KL Olympic Run. Few regular faces were there. To put it simply, the race was more or less like Bidor where you run along kampung roads, except that there was more traffic, hills and thank goodness no cow dung smells. Funny thing is about 3 km into the race, I saw opportunists set up a stall selling bottled drinking water for RM1. Maybe for those new to the race, they might get tricked to buy, but for an experienced runner like me, I was adamantly sure there will be water station 5 km ahead. True enough, there were 3 water stations offering 100 Plus and drinking water after each 5 km. I did not hear any complain about not enough water. See… even not so gung ho race they managed to organise well. Congrats to the organiser. This is their 22nd time organising the race.

Along the route, I didn’t see any distance marker. I saw few signages showing the direction for 21 km. To estimate the distance that I had run, I relied on my faithful TIMEX stop watch. I agak-agak, half an hour about 5 km I ran. To my disgust, I saw a young chap, taking a cab, stop just right in front of me, paid the driver and started running. Main tipu! Never mind, set in my mind, even you main tipu I still can overtake you. Well, I did! Boo to that guy!

Suddenly, I felt my legs were failing me…Oh no! It was the sprained right ankle. And bad news, another funny, mild tingling sensation also can be felt in both my legs. Stubborn! Not yet fully recover, “hiaw” run again. I think it’s time for me to stop running. Wait la…fasting month is only a month away. My head screaming…you should STOP NOW but my other side said, if you stop now, you become fat. Arghhh….Fat or pain? Pain….

Checked my time. 1hour 50 minutes. Should be about 3 km to go. Finally, I saw a distance marker. 4KM. Swearing in my mind. Cannot be…should be less than 4 km. I know my timing and my pace. Run… run…run… joined with the students, zig-zagged overtaking them, walked for a while, a male runner gave me encouragement, almost there, and viola! I finished in 2 hours 17 minutes. Ah…off my targeted time. Kononnya wanna do sub-2 but not within reach yet. Aiks…no photographers around, expected anyway L. The medal, not bad…made from pewter. Brand? ROYAL SELANGOR! When I collected my not personalised certificate, inside attached a lucky draw coupon. The prize, 4 cans of 100 plus! Can do la…

Post race, took a shower at one of my running friends construction site. If you go to KFC in Seremban in the future, that’s where I took my bath. Then, brunch at the famous Hainanese chicken rice. Malacca’s one is better. Then the famous “Seremban Siew Pau”. Back to KL around 1 pm. Took bath again. Mandi kerbau just now ma... Jumped to bed. Turned here, turned there, could not sleep. Crazy…closed my eyes, hugged my bolster, tried to catch back the interrupted earlier REM but failed. 4 pm, read newspaper, then went back to bed. This time could sleep till 7.30 pm. My dreaded fear, can’t sleep at night if I sleep in the afternoon. I think I only managed to sleep at 2 am. Woke up 7 am next day! Hit the road at 7.30 am. Office…another dreaded feeling. Time to change job? YES! I’m in protest with Government for reverting back the teaching of Science and Maths to BM. Wish can do something…let the public voice to be heard. Can’t they learn from the last General Elections? Sorry…out of topic.

The end…

Ipoh International Run - by Jensen Chen

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:18:18 +0700

Preparation time, a power bar (peanut flavoured), two gels (tangerine), gatorade (orange flavoured) and a bottle (now I know why my friends gave me this bottle three years back. LOL)

4:00 am - 5:45 am: Starting to feel mosquitoes biting me.

5:45 am: Raining cats and dogs, contemplating whether I should go run or not...

6:10 am: Hopped into the car. My dad drove me there.

6:22 am: Ran in the rain to the reporting counter.

6:22 am - 7+ am: Hid under a shelter. Decided that warm-ups are useless since the rain+wind combination is cold as ever.

7+am - 7:25am: Stood at the front line (in the rain) waiting for the VIP to do the gun-off (crowd getting really restless)

Bang! Race started. The following details will be recorded based on the distance ran:

1st km: It's very cold. I let the people run past me. It's very cold.

2nd km: Getting warmer, but I needed to pee. LOL. (found an empty cubicle at Caltex)

3rd km: Saw a runner with a red Asics shoe, decided to follow his pace but failed.

4th km: First water station, dun need water. I'm not sure why but my right knee started a level 1 pain game.

5th km: Checked my time against distance, 25mins. Told myself I'm running too fast for my own good.

6th km: Pain game level 2.

7th - 8th km: Decided to drink a sip from the bottle of Powergel water (bottle heavy la). Second station, took sponge to wash down the tangerine Powergel water (yum yum).

9th km: Saw the red shoe runner again. He started drinking down a packet of Powergel, so I took another sip.

10th km: 50mins passed, told myself I can do a halfer. Yosh! Took a cup of water from the 3rd station.

11th km: Forgot about the pain, told myself to slow down, and I did. Pace reduced to 6min+ per km.

12th - 14th km: Just kept running, didn't know where I was. Drank a sip every 5mins or so.

15th km: Tried to pace with a blue shoe-ed runner uncle. He is consistent man...

16th km: Saw an Indian man with a leather cap. He was encouraging every other runners along the way. Paced with him.

17th - 18th km: Saw a lady runner and tried to catch up to her.

19th km: She stopped to tie her shoelace. Pacemaker gone.

20th km: Almost there, leather cap runner caught up, we ran together.

21st km: Reached, leather cap runner asked me to PIA, so I sped up a bit.

The route was flat and nice, and they had an abundant number of water stations, volunteers, road marshals, first-aid helpers etc. The only thing is that my cert is not personalised...