The Next Level

Just a few more days to go!

I just can't get enough of Singaypoh

Yes it's true, I love to pamper myself all the time. Will be down south again from Nov 4th-6th, a typical 3D2N vacation. Looking forward to meet up with one of my ex-classmates during Sixth Form over there as well. She's currently studying in a top Singaporean institution, a very good testimony to those who believe in excellence & perseverance. I will definitely blog about her next time!

On the other hand, my collection of medals has been running dry lately...


Not!


This run was held on Halloween Day, but you can't expect me to run while wearing a scary costume! Anyway, here's the review;


That's right

• Background - 12km @ Stadium Padang Sultan Sulaiman, Klang.
• Weather - Cool & cloudy , nice ~
• Organization - Very well planned in various aspects such as time management, coordination of participants & security. The only problem was the dirty toilet!
• Difficulty - Somewhat easy as the road incline was flat most of the time. Plus the medals were guaranteed provided you beat the time limit stipulated which means you're only competing with yourself & not with others.
• Fitness - In terms of nutrition, I was well prepared (tried out the carbohydrate loading tactic). However, again I only managed to maintain a steady pace for the first 30 minutes before eventually tiring out due to lack of training on the treadmill.
• Overall - I would love to run in Klang again. This victory has given me a huge boost to my confidence for future runs. After counting all the medals won since January, I'm only short of 4 more medals to reach this year's goal of 20!

Will update more photos of the venue soon. On another note...


Wahseh ~

I did something...how do you define it?...not very normal lah on October 29th. It was suppose to be a typical Friday evening where I'm suppose to go to work & earn RM40 a day. Instead, I applied for last minute leave just to support a friend whom is at the finals of this modeling competition in Mid Valley.

Photos are courtesy of Win Shian, Low Shek How & KC Chung;


Photography, a very expensive hobby!


Opening performance by XOXO


Encore!


Her loyal fans


A talented drummer to lift up the crowd


"And our next contestant is..."


Careen Tan ~


The camera just loves her


Simply gorgeous


Along with the other beautiful aspiring models


I feel so proud of her


There's sand in my eyes lah!


Regardless of the results, you are always a winner in our hearts


With the family & relatives. Indeed, a night of celebration

To be honest, I'm not very close to this person actually despite been in the same cellgroup & church together for almost two years now. How often do you see someone put their work & studies aside just to lend their support to someone they don't really know? But the moment she thank & gave me a nice warm hug, I knew that going through the fuss of travelling for three long hours by KTM from my workplace in Klang towards Mid Valley was worth the pain.

However, I'm not trying to boast about myself of being an awesome friend or something. What I'm trying to emphasize is that relationships are very superficial these days. We can claim that a certain someone is our friend by just saying "Hello, how are you & goodbye". I know 'friends' like that for many years now & till today, our relationship can't go any further than that!

When you need emotional support especially in the midst of trials & challenges, these 'friends' will give all kind of excuses for not being there for you. They will claim that work, studies & lack of time got in the way but in reality, they just don't want to be committed into genuine relationships in the first place.

Without commitment, I'll rather be sleeping on Sunday mornings than to do productive activities like running


Commitment requires sacrifice, patience & ultimately, love. If it doesn't starts from you, then you can never experience anything real in your life.

"There are only two options regarding commitment. You're either in or out. There's no such thing as a life in-between" - Pat Riley

Setbacks

Lame joke, "Cockroach ate my hair!"

Took me alot of courage to step out of the saloon

I really wonder what is the ideal age of a personal trainer nowadays. Comments such as "Wah! So young?" or "Why so young one!?" are often blurted out by gym members, whenever I told them that I'm just...twenty years old? However they are not complimenting me though, but rather more like complaining!

But I can understand why the knee-jerk reaction. Imagine if you're an old man around your 50's & a kid is trying to teach you on how to exercise, wouldn't you feel embarrass at all? Let's face it, we are egoistic humans by nature (guys especially). Even I myself at times would have thoughts like "I am much older than you, who are you to teach me?"

That's the problem. As we get older, we feel that we don't have to learn anything anymore. We feel that we know everything once our schooling days are over. But let me tell you something, learning does not stop in the classroom. You will only stop learning on the day you leave planet earth. Let's be open minded from now on. If a young stud wants to share his knowledge & wisdom with you, then let him.

On the other hand, I wasted my celebration of 10.10.10 by going for tutorials instead!

How could I afford to miss it?


Regretted, *sigh*

Normally, my tutorials are held on Sunday mornings. But since I love running on almost every Sunday mornings, how can I juggle sports & studies at the same time? I don't mind sacrificing running competitions once in awhile for the sake of studies, but...

Going for tutorials can be very boring, not to mention unproductive as well. Most of the time, the lecturers will just read from our reference books. Who doesn't know how to read from the book? If that is the case, I could have just stayed at home & read them myself! So to make myself feel a lil bit better, I let a friend participate on my behalf in this run.

Went for this run yesterday morning;

This is actually the Singaporean version ;P

Can't find the M'sian version though. But before I describe how was my ordeal in this run, I thought of making a review, a kind of system that I'll go through each time I completed a race. This is how I would review the run based on a few points like difficulty level, fitness level & overall experience, etc. Well, here goes;

• Background - 11km @ Universiti Putra M'sia (UPM), Serdang.
  
• Weather - Hot & sunny motherfeather!
  
• Organization - Many aspects missed were out or overlooked by the organizers such as adequate parking spaces, last minute collection of running kit & drink stations. Very bad!
• Difficulty - Extremely hard! Most of the time had to run uphills lah! Only managed to maintain a steady pace for the first 30 minutes before tiring out eventually.
• Fitness - This part is my fault lah! Only consumed protein instead of carbs which is a bad idea plus didn't drank enough liquid prior to the race. I guess you can pretty much figure out the outcome after that.
• Overall - Had a good start, but a bad finish. Couldn't managed to win any medal though, how disappointing. Nevertheless, it taught me a good lesson on where did I went wrong & to make sure I do not repeat the same mistake again during the next run. All in all, UPM is a bloody tough place to compete on!

Back then, only aspiring farmers can study here...


...until they changed their middle name from 'Pertanian' to 'Putra'!


Almost like a city itself


One can get lost here without a map


And I thought Tar College was freaking huge!


Next time I'll train harder, give my best & let God do the rest. Amen ~


"It may sound strange, but many champions are made champions by setbacks" - Bob Richards