Singapore with the Sons of Twelve Day 2

Started our day with Dim Sum, the funny thing about this place is, there are no open till around 9am. Even when there is no one in the restaurant, we had to wait to be seated. We were already getting use to queuing. The food is nice; you can taste quality in them. We had a heavy discussion over breakfast facilitated by Joshua. Besides feeding our body, our soul was fed that morning.

Nic checking out the menu

We visited to aquarium after breakfast.

@ the SEA aquarium

Sam massaging

Headed to Orchard road after lunch to attend church. It was held in a hotel meeting room. The atmosphere was pretty warm, with friendly ushers and smiley faces. Worship was good, sang a few songs that I can’t get off my head now. The preacher shared a message entitled ‘Love is Simple’. 

@ church, Changi Christian Fellowship

Quickly rush back to our inn to change, get a quick bite and headed straight to the Zoo for the night safari. I was really really looking forward for this. For me, this is the last piece of prawn you keep till the very end of your meal. Unfortunately, it didn’t turn out to be the way I expected it to be. It was too dark and the animals aren’t that active. Going to the Zoo made me think about Orange and Shadow. Didn’t know they could make me miss them this much. Damn it! I think the most fun part was making Josh walk till his feet feels like breaking; massaging his sole of his foot when we stopped for short breaks was just hilarious.

The boys

Josh snoozing

 As we finish the tram ride, we contacted Aaron to come pick us up. Is always in the car, we talk about life and things we did in the past. It was really nice, reminiscing on all those memories and things we did in the past. We arrived at Serangon for supper. I think we overate that night and we were just stuffing food into our mouth non-stop. Felt like we eat a lot over there. By the time we got home it was almost 2am.

And that was the end of our trip. 5guys on 4wheels, 3days and 2nights in Singapore with 1 big happy ending. It’s an honor and privilege to have great friends and company like Joshua, Nicholes, Sam and Aaron in that trip. I don’t remember laughing this much ever since I was 5. 

One for the memory

Home with Shadow <3 br="">

Singapore with the Sons of Twelve Day 1

The last time we were down there, Orange went missing and I had to cut short my trip. So for this trip, I had to make sure Orange and Shadow are properly secured and placed in safe hands before I could leave in peace and enjoy my trip. I really don’t know what I will do if it happens again. Don’t even dare to think about it.

Anyhow, again we have to thank Aaron and Jean for planning us a great trip and driving us around with a nice ride. Our schedule was super tight, like how the guys put it, tighter than Aaron’s asshole. Not much of a breather, but just enough to carry us on the next day.

Nic, Sam and I took the bus down from Penang, whilst Josh flew down from KL. Last year, Sam and I took 8 hours to reach Singapore, but this time, freaking 12 hours.

We were glad when we finally step foot into the inn Aaron booked for us; Rucksack Inn. 5 of us in a room including 1 stranger.  3 double decker bed all squeeze into one small room. You can hardly move on the floor area but it was nice and cozy. It’s a recommended place if you’re on a tight budget. 

Our Room

Sam & Josh at the entrance

Right after we dropped our bags and freshen up ourselves, our tour begins. We had lunch at a hawker centre in Maxwell. Right after lunch we headed to Sentosa.  We started with the Luge & skyline, which is quite similar to a go kart race except there is no engine in a luge. Speed comes from the gravity as we start at a higher point, with the skyline ride. The ride was fun; it’s a mixture between a kid’s fun and an adult’s fun, partly because you can’t accelerate at will. It would be more fun if the track was longer. Josh commented that he’s gonna beat all of us due to the bigger inertial he has after quoting some physics formula. Haha. But he ended up last in all 3 races.

Skyride to the starting line

After our yummylicious dinner at Geylang, we headed to a more relax activity; Gardens by the bay, to watch the light show. It’s the only thing you don’t have to queue in Singapore.  Amen to that!

@ Gardens by the bay

Marina Bay Sands

We went back to Sentota to finish another round of Luge. Then it was time for supper. I missed the mussels at Robertsonquay last year because Orange went missing. So it was my first time being there. Cui Lin met up with us over there as we fellowship with mussels and drink. We toast for Sam as he is nearing the end of being a bachelor. Sweet! Headed to our inn with bloated stomach and happy hearts. After a round of poker, we were all ready to hit the sack after a long day. 

Supper

Zzz

Malakoff Penang 17k 2013 Race Report

In every race that I participate in, surely there are some kind of hiccups along the way. Without that, I think I wouldn’t have much to write about. So I guess it’s a good thing in a way. =P On the 17^th Sunday morning, my plan was to get Jason picked me up with his bike from my house as parking would be a scarce at Esplanade. My race starts at 7am so I told him to pick me up at 6.30am. At 6.33am he called me and told me he was outside my house, I went out and I was wondering where he was hiding. Mana budak tu? Bayang pun tak nampak. I called him ask him where he was, he said he was at my apartment. Holy cow, I was at my grandma’s house that morning. I told him sorry sorry sorry for not informing him that I was staying at my grandma’s house. So I asked him to meet me at Esplanade. He was supposed to run in the 7k as a ‘ghost runner’ but I think he was too lazy to do so!

I quickly drove my car to the race venue. Reach around 6.47am and met up with Chiat Fong aka Captain. As we made our way to the starting point, Jason called and we met up and chat a lil before the flag off. We were released at 7am sharp. 2,500 strong participants took part in the 6^th Malakoff edition and this was my first. The route: Esplanade - Gurney – Straits Quay – Gurney – Esplanade = 17km. Since these are major roads, I really kesian those road users on that Sunday. So sorry for the wait.

Captain, Neoh and myself were together for the first 8k, captain was the pace setter and sometimes he was going so fast that I had to accelerate and catch up with him. Being the pace setter is never an easy thing; for me especially. My run strategy is always to mark a person, stick to the person right next to him/her and follow till I feel comfortable enough to overtake him/her and repeat step 1 again. It always works for me, and by doing this I actually feel less tired. 

Captain, I and Neoh

Once we got at the checkpoint, I felt I could go at a faster pace, so I signaled to Captain and Neoh that I was ready to “tekan minyak” but I know I have to be careful because we were only at Straits Quay and the sun is starting to rise. I left them and tried sticking to another faster runner but there was a gap, there were no one in between with a pace which I could follow comfortably. Either they are too slow or they are too fast. So I had to run on my own till somewhere around Sunrise Tower. I was starting to regret my ‘breakaway’.  Anyhow, I manage to find a target with a really good pace, a man probably in his 40s looking good in his 2xu tights and tri top. I tried following him along Gurney drive but I lost him not long after. For me, this part of the race is the hardest. There were no trees or shades, you could feel the sun burning your skin (and I was wearing ALL BLACK!). Saw a Malay chap took off his shirt and I was tempted as well but I did not. I persevered. I wanted to stop running and just walk a little but I told my body, no. Keep running. Motivating me with quotes like, “When your body is too tired to run, run with your heart, etc” those kinda stuff and it helped. 

Photo by Radin =)

 Getting into Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah was the most pleasurable moment in that race, the big old familiar trees providing massive coverage of shades and knowing that I’m about 5k to the finishing line. Here I paced a Chinese man, skinny but he is quite fast. Ran ran ran till we passed KPMG, I over took him and tagged an ‘Ang Moh’. Running besides him makes me feel really tiny. He was running at a good pace too. At this point, my body is pretty numb to any tiredness I have in my legs. I ran with him till the finish line and we did a sprint together as we approach 100meters mark. Of course he beat me and overtook me. He deserves it because he was doing the work for me. For me, the race is about finding your ‘Inner Circle’, the people who will push you, motivate you and inspire you to do better. I believe I’ve achieve all that in 1 hour and 29 minutes. =)

Captain and I after the race

I have to applaud the organizers for doing an excellent job in this race. Water station were well placed, we had 100 plus and Gatorade. =) Now I’m hooked to Gatorade. (I’m drinking one as I’m writing this post) They were being partnered with great sponsors as well, such as PowerBar, Nestle and a few others. Their inner circle paid off. There were some volunteers who set up water station for runners at strategic locations. Some were cheering and motivating runners. These are the things that make sports beautiful. I will definitely be there again next year.

Jason and I

Finisher

As I collect my medal and goodie bag at the end of the race. I saw Jason waiting for me outside the barricade. He was telling me how fast the first runner finishes. By the way his name is Ruburn Kummar, finished first with a blistering time of 57 minutes and 37 seconds. They also gave all finishers ice-cream, nasi lemak and a bottle of Gatorade. I gave Jason the ice-cream and nasi lemak because I was just too tired to eat. As I made my way back to my car, I met Neoh on the way, Paris (his gf) was looking for some isotonic drink, I offered them my Gatorade and went back home empty handed.  I’m blessed to be a blessing. =) Thank God for the beautiful race. 

Brought Shadow for his morning walk after I got back. He made a new friend. =)

Lake Kenyir Triathlon 2013 Race Report

Three of us namely Sam Teoh (Driver), Jason Chew (Bell boy) and I left Penang at 7am heading towards East. The journey there was gruesome as expected. Including breakfast and a few toilet breaks, we arrived at our hotel around 3pm. Sam felt that my car was underpowered compared to last year. The culprit for this is none other than our new passenger this year. Ha!ha! He can really sleep! Whenever we stop for toilet breaks, he will still be sleeping in the car.

Jason sleeping

After checking into our hotel, it was food hunting time. Don’t really have much variety as it was way pass lunch time. Just stopped at a kopitiam for pan mee and headed back to our hotel after lunch. The sun was just generous with its heat that day! Took a long nap till 7.30pm until I received a text from Soongs announcing his arrival. Met him and his gang at a chinese restaurant for dinner and headed back to our hotel room again. We were staying in Kuala Terrenganu which was about an hour drive from Lake Kenyir Resort, so the plan was to depart from out hotel at 4.30am the next day.

Still sleeping

Trying to sleep

Sam watching some TV

Fun fact: That Trek was the bike I used for my first tri back in 2008. Was Soong's Boss'. Now it's Soong's

Sam relaxing after a long drive

Jason and his PSP

Finally a photo of me and Soongs! Bananas for supper

We were there early, like really really early. 5.30am, it was pitch dark and you could see a few souls wondering around with their bikes. As the sun continue rising, more and more athletes checked in their bikes at T1. The place where made Jason Chew drool all over, you could see excitement in his face. Wondering up and down the lanes filled with expensive TT bikes. He was like, I’m gonna save up and buy this bike and buy that bike. 

Having breakfast after setting my bike up

 The lake was opened for warm up around 7am onwards. I was talking to a friend telling him we gotta swim 2 loops around the buoys then suddenly a man interrupted, “I overheard you guys talking about swimming 2 loops. Did you attend the race briefing last night?” I replied, “Uhmm…no.” He smiled and said, “It’s only 1 lap because last year a lot of people cheated in the swim leg. So the organizer decided to change it to 1 loop.” No wonder it looks bigger than last year. Moral of the story, don’t miss race briefings! I only got to know the distance is slightly longer than last year on the race day. The race format was 1.5k swim 45k ride and 11k run.

Walking to the Swim start

The Swim - 45.17 (SIPEK SLOW!)

I don’t think I have any improvement from last year. (before I saw my result) I swam slower than last year! Damn it. Still slow and the reason was because I didn’t train much on my swim throughout the year. The significant increase of participants this year changed a lot of things from last year. Instead of 1 wave in the swim, they had 3 waves this year. I was in wave 1. I think my improvement this year was I did not swim out of course that much. I stayed close to the buoys and followed the rope line at the floor of the lake.

Exiting the lake

T1

Coming out from the water is the best feeling ever, for me that is the start of the race. Which is bad! Problem with the exit was, T1 was located around 300 meters away and you need to run up the slope. I almost got cramp while I was heading towards my bike. I was surprise, knowing my body well, having cramps at the early stage of the race was not a common thing. I stopped running and started walking. I was surprised to see so many bikes still hanging at the steel metal bar. Where else, last year when I reached T1, there were only a handful of bikes which was really de motivating.  I quickly put on my bike shoes, clipped on my helmet, grabbed my power gel and left T1 happily.

The Bike - 1:36:39

I am pretty comfortable with the bike course as this is my strongest area. The route is 99% similar to last year, didn’t really feel much difference with the additional 5k to it. This year was definitely better than last year; at least I was able to draft a few bikes along the way. But I could not follow them till the end, they were much stronger than I am. I was sitting comfortably at the wheels of a Penang athlete in the last 10K until we hit the last climb, then I was on my own again. That killer slope was the same as last year, and I was prepared to face it. That’s why this year, I rode without my aerobars, I know it’s not gonna help much since the course is pretty hilly. The decision to drop the aerobar helped and I was able to climb up without stopping. There were many who were walking with their bikes at that point. Last 5k was pretty flat. But the last 200 meters was uphill again. I knew I am gonna suffer in the run because I've gave all I got.

Getting into T2

T2

I saw Jason waiting at the transition area and he broke the news to me that one of Soong’s colleague had a bad fall and her front wheel were badly dented. It was terrible.  I was surprised to see her at the end of the race, no major fractured or broken bones, just scratches all over her hands and legs. As I was putting on my running shoes, I told Jason I was really tired. My legs are sore from the climbs, etc etc etc. He didn’t say much, just ask me to run.

Me complaining but Jason not giving a sh*t

The Run - 1:15:34

The sun was already up and rocking. It was hot and humid. Last but not least, the 11k run, which was really different and longer from last year. It was more hilly too! The first 2-3km is the hardest because of the switch of muscles and also because of the hilly course. I tried to stay with this girl which I managed to until the last 6km. That was when I gave up pacing her. She was not that fast and not that slow but I have used up too much energy at the bike leg. Now I had to pay the price for it. At every water station, I drench myself in the ice cool water to get me going. It works for a few minutes, then I would stop and walk again. My muscles were protesting. In the last 3km, we had to cross the dam as per last year. The surface of the dam was bad and rough. It kinda made me use more energy running on a surface like that. I checked my watch when I hit the dam, it was an hour of running already. I tried to run all the way but failed again. Fatigue started to kick in. I overtook an ‘Ang Moh’ but I had to stop and stretch my legs, he overtook me and tells me, you can smell the finishing line, come on, finish it. That gave me the last boost to overtake him and cross the finish line with an official time of 3hr 37minutes 32seconds.

Yay. I can smell it.

Finisher

It is always emotional crossing the finish line where the commentator reads your name loudly, seeing crowd of spectators waiting at the finish line and receiving your medal. It makes those gruesome driving, body torturing and sleepless nights worth it.

Back at the hotel with my "maid" and sole supporter. Sam had to rest in the hotel because he needs the energy to drive back to Penang.

I have to thank God for His protection, for keeping my bike free from any mechanical failure, for bringing us back in one piece and for being able to enjoy life. Special thanks to Sam for his willingness to sacrifice his precious time to travel more than 1,000km just being a driver and Jason Chew for being super helpful throughout the entire race. 

As I packed my stuff and collected my bike, I walked pass a couple, both did tri also. The gf was really manja asking her bf to help carry her stuff for her, she claimed she was tired and the poor bf had to carry her stuff and bike for her. Sweet stuff in sweaty outfits. Perfect blend to end my post. I hope I won’t fall into temptation and register again next year.