Just Keep TRI-ing

9 January 2015 It is a new year, and traditionally Ooredoo Marathon will be the first race on our calendar, Doha folks (well at least for the past 3 years), and as usual, I ran the half marathon as a training run for Dubai Marathon which will happen in two weeks. This year I ran the half marathon for my employer ORYX GTL. They are really serious in promoting healthy lifestyle among their employees and we had about 40 runners running in the blue ORYX GTL's shirt. Not only they paid for our registration fees and spoilt us with a nice race pack which was better than the one from Ooredoo, they also provided training sessions led by our team captain, Derek Harding and a running talk/clinic by the former Olympian and world champion Liz Mc Colgan.  ORYX GTL PelariStyloYo runners with the legendary Liz McColgan after the talk.    Race pack by ORYX GTL. It's an added motivation when your employer is fully suppo...

I came back to the UAE just three weeks after Dubai Marathon, this time for my favourite annual race, the RAK Half Marathon. I was hoping for a 1:35 ish finish this time but my coach has warned against pushing it too hard as I was still recovering from my marathon. She estimated a 1:42 finish for me. But I just ignored her warning and try to run at 4:30 ish min/km. She was right. I was tired since KM 5! Paul Concannon, my friend from DBRC asked me about my race plan earlier in the race. I told him that I was going for 1:35. That was his goal too and we agreed to pace each other. I was struggling and I knew he did too. I can tell by the way he breathed. I could not keep the the same pace without struggling too much. I was running in anaerobic heart rate zone. I was perplexed; I should still feel 'comfortable' at that pace. But I just tired. My pace slipping away from KM 6. Paul, though struggling, managed to maintained the effort and continue. He finished the race in 1:37. I slo...

13 September 2013 I came to Sungai Petani with an aim to finish the race in the top 20 based on my current form and their last year's result. It was a very realistic target and for that very reason I was willing to embark on a 10 hours bus ride from Johor Bahru to participate in this race, despite all the negative reviews I heard about them in the 2012's edition. I arrived in Sungai Petani at 6.30 am  on Friday and I was lucky that the hotel allowed me to check in early at 7am instead of the normal afternoon check-in. I had one full day of rest after collecting the race pack at Dewan Penjara. Clockwise: 10 hours bus ride; Dataran Zero the Start / Finish area for the event with the town's famous clock tower; gear check; race kit collection at Dewan Penjara The hotel was only about 400m from the Starting line, and this time I arrived 30 minutes before the flag off and started right at the front alongside the elite runners. As this was a manually timed race, we were required t...

I was still tired from my 24 hours journey the day earlier and still suffering from the jet lag that I only managed to go to bed past mid night, with a help of Ezee Sleep, a concoction like its name suggest, was supposed to make you drowsy and help you to sleep I found on a 7 Eleven counter. Yes it works, but I kept waking up and only had intermittent sleep. Ezee Sleep My plan to enter the pen early did not work as I dozed off when I hit the snooze button on the alarm clock. I only went into the pen 15 minutes before the flag off. I started the race from the back of some 16000 strong crowd. I was trapped and had to weave through the crowd fighting for space to run.  The course was so narrow after 7 km, no wider than 2 meters on garden paths.  I had to run on the grass, concrete pavement and the road kerb. It was tiring and hard on my leg from all the lateral movements. I took my first gel at KM 8, and a capsule of Hammer Endurolyte at KM 10. There were so many sharp turns...

The race pack collection for The SAFRA Singapore Bay Run and Army Half Marathon was held this weekend at the Singapore Expo. I don't understand why the expo was held a week before the event and not on the same weekend. This surely not ideal for oversea's participants like me. Luckily I have my dear sister, Sariati in Singapore to do that for me. Thanks sis, sorry to trouble you but I am going to make you proud. Im so excited for my first race in Singapore.

I was still at my infancy in running when I participated in this race last year. I thought finishing a sub 3 hours half marathon was already a remarkable achievement at that time. RAK really changed me. I'm no longer a weekend casual jogger. Running has been my passion after RAK Half Marathon 2012 and I was anxious to see just how far have I improved in a year. I did not really have a specific target other than trying my best as I did not have the best of preparation leading to this race, but I was quietly confident of finishing around 1:45, plus I will be running with my running buddy Stephanie Schneider from DBRC and she was planning to run it sub 1:45. I ran with her and she is a good pacer, so if I can keep her within sight, I should be all right. On top of that, we were also accompanied by many others from DBRC. Oumhani, Claire, Sheila, Evelyn, Gareth, and Becky among others. It was a great boost for my morale to have them here. I a...

At first I was not very keen on doing the Dubai Creek Striders Half Marathon as I was not supposed to race for at least a month after my marathon, plus I am still sick. But since almost everybody in my running club will be taking part, and it will be on my birthday, so I guess what the heck.   This will be my last race for 2012. The only problem was, I don’t have any more leave. So I can only leave for Dubai after work. By then it will be already late. We only arrived at the hotel 15 minutes to 11pm on the race night. Thanks Anna and Karl for collecting our race kits. It was very challenging for a couple travelling with 3 little kids (all under the age of 3) without a help. Luckily we went with our friend, Yasir and Munirah but they too have 3 kids in tow albeit older. It was 1 am by the time we get everybody settled down, and I was already tired and hungry. We only had instant noodle for supper. Interesting choice for carbo-loading you might say.   Yasir on the other hand wil...

I was still smiling ear to ear and was feeling accomplished with my result at Asics Half Marathon in Gold Coast Australia 2 weeks ago. I started to wonder whether I should still be running in this race. Well the reason I signed up for this race was to make it as 'fail safe' plan should I fail to achieve my target of breaking the sub 2 hour barrier in Gold Coast. I know I cannot possibly record a new PB in Seremban with the 3H (Heat, Hills, Humidity) and certainly not as I still nursing my knee injury from the Gold Coast race. I still feel uncomfortable and slight pain on my knees when I went out running couple of days before the race. I was contemplating of pulling out of the race with a fear of aggravating my knee injury. I cannot afford to get injured when my 100 day training for New York is due to start in a week. But in the end I succumbed and go since everything was booked and paid for. I did not have any race plan. I just want to run a steady sub 5:27...

I could barely sleep the night before the race. Too much anxiety. I kept visualising running the event according to my race plan and achieved my goal of completing the half marathon in sub 2 hours for the first time ever. My current PB is 2:03:27 which I did last month during training. The alarm finally went off at 4.15 am. I left the apartment at 4.45am with my mate Zuki after having a slice of peanut butter sandwich. Zuki is an avid marathoner and will be running his 9th full marathon. It was a cold morning, luckily I did not have to wait long for the race to start as I only arrived at the start village 30 minutes before the flag off. I straight away checked my bag and did some warm up runs with Zuki. I felt the urge to empty my bowel 10 minutes to flag off, and went searching for the toilet. There was a long winding line at the toilets. This is ridiculous I said, so I went looking if there is another toilets nearby, but was nowhere to be seen. I knew I should...

I was in Malaysia for a short 7 days break recently. While planning for the trip I found out that there will be a half marathon race going to take place on 11 March. The thing is, I have to attend my good friend's wedding in the afternoon. But the temptation was too strong for me to resist. I am now addicted to running thanks to Da'a and Zaiton (The bride and groom for wedding I'm attending) who made me run my first half marathon last November in Penang. so I registered for the race and believe I will be okay and well enough to also attend the wedding. I have been training remember? Race kit collection on 10 March 2012 at the Brooks' store at The Curve Loving my bib no. I woke up at 4 am, had two slices of bread and went straight to the National Stadium. It was still dark and pretty quiet when I reached the stadium at 4.30 am. I was lucky to reach the stadium earlier, because the entrance to the car parks were congested soon after that thanks to the car park operator ...

I was in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE  last weekend to participate in the RAK Half Marathon 2012 . It is one of the most prestigious Half Marathon events in the world by being one of the 12 half marathon races with IAAF Gold Label. This was my second ever half marathon after the disasterous 1st half marathon at  PBIM . This time I came with a little bit more trainings, and it really helps. I can actually finish the 21.1km without a feeling like my knees would fall out of their patellas. My pace was still very very slow (I was about 8 km behind most seasoned runners) but the fact that my legs held on to their places for the whole duration of the race was something that I am grateful for. I had shin splints at kilometre 6 but it went away very quickly.  My only problem was stamina. I felt like I had consumed all my energy upon completing 10 kilometers. My original plan was to complete the race in 2h...