Limping Marathon Runner

Simple breakfast of toast and coffee, the taxi pick up arrived at 745am as our transport to Mount Kinabalu Park HQ office. I got the front seat because I think the rest of the folks would want to hit the ZZZ button as soon as possible. I took the opportunity to get trigger happy. Click click here, click click there. I took pictures of the great mountain as it came on nearer during our journey. Along the way, I guess there is a Volkswagen Beetle club gathering somewhere. We found our taxi in between the long convoy of Beetles. I got lucky and was rewarded for my bravery for sticking my digicam out and taking the shot. By then, all of us (climbers) woke up due to the commotion of the Volkswagens around us, in all possible colors. Passing through low clouds and temperature fell and we enjoyed the fresh air like air condition.

Not too long, we reach the Park HQ office, signed in and took our park pass. While waiting for our guide to appear, we collected our packet lunch and had some small bites before our guide appeared. I saved most of my lunch only to be enjoyed later. Our guide was a 26 year old young chap called Walter. On my way climbing up, I was taking pictures all the time. However at one of the shelter (rest points) one of the fellow climbers who was heading down was hungry and didn't have any food with him. We gave him some to last him on his way down. Around 2km up, I was feeling the heat from my fullpack that contained 3l of water and other stuff. I proceeded along the path slower and most of our group were up ahead. Thanks for those turning back and checking that I am around. Nearing to the mid way or to Laba Ratan, it got pretty misty and I could not take much pictures. It was an opportunity for me to catch up. We finally reached Laba Ratan with Ronnie waving to say that it was just ahead. Yay! We checked in and showered to freshen up. It was showing 10deg Celsius outside. Unfortunately, the heater failed in ladies, had to use our gents. The queue just got longer. Hey, we all have to share, right? We popped into the canteen area and took our well deserved buffet dinner. Ronnie was having a little AMS symptoms. All of us slept at 8 to re-charge with greater challenges tomorrow.

Waking up at 1.30am, Ronnie was feeling better and changed to join us. At 2.30am, our guide signaled us to move off. With a daypack on my back, the long, steep, slippery, and dark path up seemed endless. Certain sections of the path had ropes for assisting climbers up. The ropes tell you everything. It is steep. I lost count of the number of times I had to stop when my lungs grasped for air and my quads screamed for a rest. At 5.30am, we finally reached the summit. I was shivering and cold to my bones! Each one of us brought a drink to the summit and we cheered on with our drinks. I think it was the cold that has driven most of us down. I stayed around a little longer to take a few pictures of the clouds above. As difficult as it was for us to get up to summit, the downward path was no easy task. Foot work!!! I could sense the echo from somewhere. One miss footing and you will be the next Rolling Stones. I was still snapping away (pictures) as and when I have the chance during my way back to Laba Ratan. Once back at the lodge, we were all hungry and had our breakfast before packing up. At 9.45am, we started to descend to Park HQ. Needless to say, my digicam was still working very hard, focusing on flowers and scenery. Right at 500m away from the Park gates, it poured!! I was drenched. I had my digicam and mobile phone under my tee and did a double quick time march. I was soaked inside out. We took a group photo that marked our completion in this challenge before dashing for our minivan that sent us to the cafe for lunch. We were all hungry and ready to feast on a cow. However, most of us just wanted something hot to warm ourselves. I had several servings of mushroom soup because that was one of the hottest stuff around.

On our way back to the Backpacker's Lodge, I slept like a log and woken up occasionally by my SMS alert. I can't tell you how glad I was to see a proper shower room and a chance to get out of my soaking wet clothes. Two thumbs up for a hot shower before heading out for massage for some of them. Three of us had drinks before we met up again for dinner. Ba Ku Teh dinner was fantastic! Yummy. On our way back, we bought some stuff at 7 11 and walked around more for a little digestion before hitting the bed.

Pics? Definitely... wait.

The last time I paid for a Mount Kinabalu trip I did not go. Mind you, I have paid in full, air fare and package. Tough luck. With just a day before my flight, I had a sudden pain in my calf. Taking the staircase is almost like taking my life. I gave it a pass. Hence, I took great precaution before this trip. But, not the night before. I had some drinks with ex-colleagues still late and only slept at 2.30am. Just 1.5hrs of sleep and at 4.30am, most of us started to gather at Rochor taxi stand before taking cab to Senai airport. $60 bucks for the ride. After checking in and boarding the plane, most have slept while I took pictures of the sky with sunrise on the horizon. It was beautiful and after some shots, I went into deep slumber. After touch down and a cab ride to Backpackers Lodge, we checked in and settled the balance with our trekking agency.

In Kota Kinabalu town, we went to take our lunch and watched a movie, Red Cliff, at a nearby shopping mall. I love that movie!! We visited their local wet and dried goods market to look at their normal daily life. Stopping at some road side eateries, we shared a carrot cake snack and had teh tarik elsewhere before visiting a night market. After a short tour in the night market, we stopped at a touristy place for seafood dinner before heading back to bathe and pack for tomorrow's big event - The climb.

Firefox 3 got over its beta and announced an official release. Every software has its buggy day. Which hasn't? I went ahead to install Firefox 3. First issue encountered was that there weren't any firefox.exe in my program files folder. What?! The recommended step was to re-run it and so I did. The next complain from the system was that I have a missing .dll file. What the?! Yet again, I double clicked the installation file for the third time and when I started up Firefox 3, it complained about some xml error. Thanks. Fallback plan. I uninstalled Firefox 3, which the system claimed that it had no entry in the install / uninstall program files. *faint* I had to remove files and delete registries. Finally installing back Firefox 2.0.x, I started up firefox and to my amazement (or should I say, I'm not amazed) to find out that my web surfing experience is back to those days of a 28.8kbps modem. Strange enough, it only affected websites that contained flash. What's worse? It's intermittent. I closed my Firefox 2.0.x and thought - oh well, back to the old IE days, I guess. Thank you, but no thank you, my IE suffered from the same slow, dying, painful dial-up Internet experience. After a couple of googling (took me like hours to view pages), I still had no clue. I tried installing other browsers which didn't work as well. I tried uninstalling and re-installing flash plug-in for Firefox and IE - nope, didn't work. Eventually, I thought of this. Why don't I run in safe mode for Firefox? Viola! It did work. I moved from website to website for close to 30mins and there weren't any issues at all. I restarted Firefox and disabled all add-ons and themes. It was back to the normal state, where everything works fine. All I can say is this line of work is not for the weak minds.

Meant to be a refresher to diving, BeauQi, Kit-Kat and I went up north for a weekend of sun, sand and sea. I remembered all the necessary and do not think I require the refresher. I took it as a short trip / getaway.

Unable to reach Woodlands at 6.30am using the subway, I took a cab to our meeting point. BeauQi was already there and Kit-Kat arrived within 10mins. We took a bus to immigration and had to walk a distance to the checkpoint. Clearing both checkpoint was pretty easy without much delay. We took a cab to Larkin bus terminal where we were suppose to board our coach to Mersing. After oiur breakfast, we bought some doughnuts as tea time snacks just in case we got hungry along the way. We slept on the coach during most part of the journey to Mersing. It took us probably 2-3 hrs to reach there. Upon arrival and much to our horror, the return seats for the coach were sold out - completely. Seems like we have only one way out - public buses back to home. Think about that later. We bought our ferry tickets to Pulau Tioman and packed some Ramly burgers to fill our stomachs. The air-conditioning in the ferry was powerful! We were curling up like moth balls. But, we were amused by an English family, with two little boys running around in the ferry. Oh.. the English family alighted at the same jetty and we stayed at the same resort.

We settled down in our room and started our first dive at 3.30pm. BeauQi had to do a refresher with the dive instructor and all of us moved out for our first dive. Kit-Kat was my buddy and I went through with her on the back flip / roll entry. She did pretty well for a first timer and I followed next. Once all of us were in the waters, we descended. However, my buddy was "stuck" on the surface. When I turned back to fin towards her. The DM was already with her. Once at 6metres, we proceeded with our planned dive. Now, my buddy is really cute. She wrote on my slate board "lOOking for what?". I scratched my head. She meant, looking for what. Well, her Os looked like they had CAPS on. Carrying on, I pointed out on a few occasions to her where udibranches were. She echoed with an OK sign. Slowly, but surely, she made me laugh. All of us surrounded a cuttlefish which was flashing its colours to confuse us, thinking we are predators. My buddy said that was a jellyfish. LOL. I pointed out to her a couple of barracudas. She stared at me in blank space and shrugged her shoulders. ROTFLMAO. Hey.. not too bad. At least she saw those nudibranches and two batfishes that I pointed to her. I do have to say her buoyancy is good for a n00b. Thumbs up! We ended our dive, headed back to land. Not a minute to lose, we went to the beach to hang out and played with the English family's kids. We chatted with their mum, watched the sunset before we shower and get changed for dinner. Before we can step out, it was pouring like madness. We had dinner with some new acquaintance and chatted about cultural differences till 11pm. My sleep weren't that great. I had a miserable towel to cover just my legs and I got stung all over my mosquitoes. Only at around 2am in the morning, I realized and remembered that I have my hammock with me. I used it as a blanket and wrapped myself up. Bingo. No more mozzies harassment.

The girls woke up early and had their breakfast. With just a couple hours of sleep, I could definitely use more rest. I asked BeauQi to buddy Kit-Kat for this dive. They went out to sea where I had my tea and started reading my book. Half way through, the little English boy came and talked to me. I started to chat with him. Soon, I found myself talking to his family with him sitting on my lap. One hour passed and I headed back to the beach to find the girls back from their dive. We cleared the stuff and checked out from the resort before returning to the jetty for our ferry. This time round, the ferry had no air-conditioning - probably faulty. We were baked. Immediately after docking, we dashed to the terminal to check if there is any chance we can get tickets back home. :( Nope. We took our lunch before heading to a local bus terminal for public transport. We took a public bus to Kota Tinggi. They are still using those old skool tickets in the 80s!! The interesting part was that the driver detoured to pick up some keropok to be transported to Kota Tinggi. Sideline?! LOL. It was enjoyable to experience a local bus ride through their estates. We transferred to another bus to Larkin, once we reach Kota Tinggi. By the time we reached Larkin, we had to battle our way back to home through customs and crowd. Madness. But, I enjoyed this trip tremendously despite that it was a short one.

Engulfed in fire fights for countless days, I was able to swim again last night. I missed last week's session due to - what else, but work again. As the earliest person there, I did mainly strokes. No stamina! At least, the feel in water is coming back. That is one thing I try not to miss. Monday swim sessions.

In today's climb session, there were plenty of surprises. I tried several new routes, which I previously stayed away. There were still some residual aches from my previous night's swim. Hence, I made sure I had plenty of shake-outs. That was nice. Someone did a 6B+ grey route that was total workout with sweat include - definitely! I think I can sleep pretty well tonight.

Juzzy complained about my lack of updates. True. I have slacked. I can only say, I did it again and 5th to date. Not good. But, I agree with what Kitty said before.

With recent rounds of dinner, the bathroom scale is edging to the high side.

Yes, I am trying to get my running life back. Yes, I need to re-train.

Did a short morning run before heading out for brunch and sending TOBB off for a well deserve break.

In my recent months of M.I.A., I give total credit to my day job. Those who are familiar with my scope agrees that the infinite loop repeats itself with climbing expectations.

These day, I don't get to do a lot of stuff that would love to. Fortunately, some friends gave me this opportunity today. I came to know Kops21, Wentze and Lazer went for a morning run. Meteor, Alvo and myself joined them for a kayaking session out under the mid-day sun. Two dancers, three ocean kayaks and a Lazer made their way across the small channel aiming for Pulau Ubin. The sky and clouds above were picture perfect. Along the way, there were a few herons anchored on buoys and planks that served as a temporary flotation devices. We caught a few waves sent by passing vessels. But, they weren't that huge and I felt like we were going over a bump. 55mins into our paddling adventure, the sandy small beach front was within our sights. A fellow kayaker requested to have his picture taken with his friends, in which he returned the favor. With a sign, we drifted some 30m away (after that few clicks) and had to fight our way back, against the current. Once on the beach, we arranged our stuff and ordered our food while waiting for Lazer to check in. Eventually, after waiting for sometime, we finished up Lazer's share of food before heading back to mainland. Strange. It took us just 45mins back to mainland. It must have been the current. Since most of us had appointment to follow up on, some of us went for drinks before I met up with another friend to top of my day's activity list.

--Pics soon--

Just finished the movie, Marathon. What can i say? =)

With thanks to my ex-colleague, I was invited to him place for a gathering. Most of my ex-colleagues reached around late noon, where we started eating and some of them proceeded to card games. While I wasn't into "card games", I played with my ex-colleague's lovely daughter. My ex-colleague had always wanted a little girl. To my understanding, as a family, they attended church and pray for a little girl. When she was expecting this little angel, they were overwhelmed with joy. This baby girl is so charming even at her age. Everyone just wanted to interact with her. I bet she'll be a heartbreaker when she grows up. When she saw a dog in the house, she was really excited, pointing and mumbling her baby talks. I watched some ex-colleagues playing PS3 too. I was asked to join in the "fun". All awaiting to poke fun at me when I miss the notes on Guitar Hero III. The songs like Santana's Black Magic Woman, The Rolling Stones' Paint It Black, some of Guns and Roses and Aerosmith, etc. I had mostly 95% hits on notes. Definitely giving credit to my days spent in arcade centres. Of course, they were playing the easy mode. However, there were a few friends who could not get it right, initially. When they got a hang of it, there were so high that they wanted to play every song. It was fun! I even asked Petit Anges to shake her head and do jumps like a rocker. Everyone laughed! I wish we had more gatherings like these. We stopped to watch a horror movie before the disc got hanged and we decided to call it a night. Around 3am where I slept at home this morning, I was tired but happy.

I was tired and had only woke up at 11am. Once ready, I walked over to Chini's place. We started to feast on sushi and I babysit Dayan while the rest played mahjong. Dayan begins to learn more and can hold a conversation better, calling me Uncle Mugg. He even knows his chess pieces names. Pawn, bishop, king, queen, knight, castle. I'm impressed! We ran around the house after I got him to drink his milk on bed. We rolled ourselves on his bed. Unknowingly unleashing the big kid in me, we laughed so hard when we doing the "cycling in the air" motion. He doesn't want to sleep at all and no signs of fatigue! Around 5.30pm, I had to bid him goodbye and promised to play with him again.

Hmm... I did not think of T3. Why didn't I? I would say the departure hall certainly looks bright and spacious. Hmm... agree that part of the viewing gallery looks very much like Bangkok's airport. Wait... a pinch? We walked around the area before settling our dinner. Club sandwich (blurp) and Macaroni and cheese gratin. I swear I can reproduce both dishes as they are not too difficult. We walked to another cafe for Camomile tea and more talks before heading home. There is a blur side of me (definitely in anyone too!).

My jaw was almost dislocated when I rammed into my opponent during our squash game. Oww. But, it was a good game and my opponent is catching up fast. I can see that she is already picking up my moves and shots!

After the game, on my way back, I start to question if it is ITB after all. It just feel strange on those areas.

Right after work, I bumped into Slacking IMD and his missus while on my way home. Slacker bought new shoes? You need to run in those and not display them. Hahaahaha.

Plunging into the pool to try out something that I saw on video recently, I just needed some practical sessions to get a feel of it. Initially, my left arm felt the "catch" better than my right. I do notice an "elbows down" scenario once fatigue sets in. Reminders reminders reminders. By the end of it, I feel that I am learning freestyle over again. Maybe. Till my next pool session

With the recent "departure" of my MP3 player, getting cranky, I got no choice but to upgrade to ZEN player. The good thing about this player is that it accepts SD cards, plays audio, video, and has FM radio too. Neat.

Now, something else needed a change. My mobile phone. After barely surviving a bowl Miso soup splash by my colleague, it started to display erratic behavior. There were tofu bits and seaweed all over my phone and the beige hue shaded my black mobile phone cover. *arrrrrrrrg* Looks like its fated that I should get the Nokia E51, which I did after our lunch.

Looking at a different angle, I ran a quick 3.4km today. I hope work will clear up with some good structure soon.

It sounds totally weird that my first post is on 7th Jan 08, 3plus AM in the morning! For whatever reasons, I could not sleep and I started switching on my laptop. Next thing I knew, I was working (replying mails). Heck. If I had equipment at my place, I would have done testings.

Many thanks to those for asking and checking here for updates. I'm just pretty tight - caught up in a web of work. Busy. Busy. Busy. Most say busy is a good thing. Others beg to differ. Why? recent conversation from Year 2008 MSN:

Ex-colleague: Hey! Saw you the other day, wanted to talk to you more to catch up. Who was that girl? Your girl friend?
Me: No. She is ..... .....

Ex-colleague: Don't work so hard. Your boss will love you. She won't.
Me: .......

Ex-colleague: Spend more time with "someone". You have to know what is important to you.
Me: -_____-

Work. Saturday was no exception. Meeting the "C" level (surprised) of some company before he goes off to China. My only chance to grab him for a talk. After which, I prep some equipment while solving someone's installation issues. LittleJapBoy called for an American Pool session and I agreed. One good thing is, we are never too serious about our games. We laugh at every shot we make - be it lousy or excellent. That's the point. It is just a game.

I managed to get the song that I wanted. It is available for download (here) - under Sounds of The Underground. Venessa Fenandez - You Don't Need To Speed. Why this song? I am a slacker and I don't need to speed.

Nothing related to Microsoft at all! I felt like I am working in a Stock Exchange today. Mobile phone on left ear and a desk phone on my right ear. Two laptops running different tests - troubleshooting two different cases. Mad. Good thing, its a holiday tomorrow.

This week has been near madness and I feel like it is longer than a 42km. I got a beer together with some munchies at Dirty Nelly's last night. I am glad the work week ended today (at least work to be done) and I feel drained. Solved three cases at one go and I still have some other stuff to do. Didn't join EndlessTrail for the talk and decided to head on home. Stopping at the video store, I picked up Transformers for Bala. The Pursuit of Happyness and Stealth for myself. Okay, the show is going to start soon!

Deciding to stop and rest my legs for 1 month (away from running), one cannot image the rushing endorphins I received, just by doing a short dash of 5 metres for the bus. Caught the movie "Enchanted" at Great World around evening. Looking forward to running again!

Well done to Kops21 and ShortLegs for finishing their Western Australia IM event!

.. as some describes this - I know Fennel would. That was what left me wincing in pain as I did let the foam roller and laws of gravity carried out its tasks. Sadist (but effective) tips from Kops21, stacking both legs on the foam to increase its intensity, almost made me squeal. My face wrinkled with squinty eyes was an instant reflex from the indescribable sensation. Just little kids who want toys after dental visits. Some hot tea, please? ITB feels much better. Somemore? I'll leave that till tomorrow. It was 1.2k swim today. Recovery.

I slept as early as 4pm the day before, waking up periodically and at 7pm for dinner before sleeping again. Waking at 12 midnight, I caught some movie on T.V. before taking some noodles. I sensed that I will not have an easy day with odds stacked against me. With timed friendly feeder service at 4.10am by IMD, we reached the venue early. Baggage was a little chaotic and fortunately AlecChua was taking the half marathon, I left my shoe bag with him for deposit. Making my way to the start line, there were plenty of familiar faces to wave to.

With a countdown to 5.30am and off we went. I was still feeling good and was pretty cautious of my speed for the first 10km. But, that was not what I looked out for. at 12km, what I feared for has arrived. That warning sensation on my ITB. The first attack came at 19km. I went down to run - walk technique. At 28km, it was so intense that the only better option was to brisk walk. I could only hold up to 35km before I came down to a normal walking pace. Just before 36km, I spotted someone with cramps and I went over to assist. His calf muscle was twitching pretty badly. We spent probably 5mins to stabilize it before buddying up and chatting all the way to the finish line. With 300m before finish line, I did a slow (which was painfully slow) jog back to cross the finish line. My personal worst timing but finishing was all that matters.

Good to hear that most achieved some pretty impressive timing while others suffered like me. We will be back for revenge next year!

To celebrate the return of our Supreme Slacker, we did a low mileage swim today. Wait. Or was I the only low mileage swimmer. Nevermind. Good to see the Supreme Slacker with a new hairdo and a fierce one too!