Friday, October 29, 2010

My First Marathon Photo

Hey peeps!

Thought of purchasing my first marathon picture taken by the guys at Marathon-Photos.com as a sentimental keep so that one day I could share this with my running son or daughter insyaAllah ;)

Here are the options:

athlete photo
Option 1: Keeping it cool :P

athlete photo
Option 2: Happy to be in the stadium!

athlete photo
Option 3: Still happily running at the first 21km

athlete photo
Option 4: The jumping pose ;)

athlete photo
Option 5: Crossing the finish line

Help me decide please peeps? Appreciate it :)

Good luck to everyone that will be trailblazing at Genting Highlands this weekend... Wish I was there :(

And all the best to my two fellow running friends who'll be running the Athens Classic Marathon, Luyen and Chun... 

With Luyen and Chun last month at the Newton KL Challenge Run...
Make us proud there guys!!! HOOYAH!!! :)

My running friends and I will be running in Klang this Sunday for the New Balance Klang Pacers 12km Run for It 2010 event... 

Have a good running weekend y'all!!! :)

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Back From The Lull

Hello cyberworld!!! ;)

I feel that it has been ages since I wrote any post on my blog...

Have been back from Melbourne for almost a week already... It was a good getaway for me as I needed to clear my head besides running the marathon...

And since my laptop is kaput at the moment, have to borrow my dad's when he feels like it... :P (Love you Dadaa!)

There are exciting plans that I'm looking forward to here and I shall share one by one as we go along yeah...

So, I am BACK!!! ;)

Friday, October 15, 2010

10 things on why Melbourne rocks! :)

Well, I know that I can list more than 10 since I was staying here for 6 years previously but it is my favourite number and that I only have a limited time on using the Internet here at the moment... ;)

Please note that the list is in random order...

1. You can run or walk anywhere here all by yourself without feeling that somebody's going to rob or kidnap you... Seriously, I feel really safe here...

2. Public transportations here are awesome and super reliable!!! Me love the trams!!!

3. Chocolates and cakes are heavenly here... Bliss!!!

4. The weather is unpredictable, but you'll get super nice ones during autumn or spring...

5. You'll get to wear jackets and cardigans when it's cold without your armpits sweating all over the place :P

6. Healthy food is easily accessible and quite reasonably priced here...

Brown rice sushi!!! Super yummy!!!

7. Halal meats here are like WAYYYYYYYY cheaper than in KL... (Ox tongue aka lidah costs about AUD5 (RM15) and that Lungs aka paru-paru is about AUD4 (RM12))!!!

8. There are just so many beautiful parks here for you to spoil your running shoes ;)

9. I love how there always concerts, festivals, musicals or theaters going on here... Just watched Hairspray last night and I couldn't believe that one of THE best R&B singers, Tevin Campbell was part of the cast!!! Woohooooo!!! Well, If you don't know who he is, check out this video below:



10. The local clothing brands here are really good... My favs are Sportsgirl and Bettina Liano... And not to mention, there are so many running goods here... Just found out that there's a 2XU's factory outlet store...  Choices oh choices!!! ;)

I haven't been running since the marathon since it has been raining everyday here... My recovery from the marathon was quite a breeze since I was walking a lot here after the marathon... Alhamdulillah for that... :) I hope the weather will be better tomorrow so that I could run at one of the beautiful parks here for the next couple of days...

Oh, and I just found out that my finisher medal will be posted to my home address in KL... Yayyyyyy and can't wait for it to be in my hands!!! :)

And here's my downloaded certificate for the marathon....

Pretty neat huh? :)

Hope that everyone will have a good weekend!!! :)

Monday, October 11, 2010

St. George Melbourne Marathon...

As you all know, I decided at the very last minute to run my first marathon at my 2nd kampung ;)

My running+climber+oprah lady friend  Rosey decided to join me and be there for me when I complete the marathon... And her brother (Abe Yaz) and Kak Nawal decided to join the marathon as well... 

When my parents found out that I was going to do my first marathon, they+my sis decided to fly with me and be there when I cross the finish line... Even my lookalike brother decided to flew in from Brisbane... Super mad love for my family for their never-ending support... :)

The weather has been quite cold since my arrival on Thursday morning (7/10)...

AND to make things better, I got that TIME of the month the day before the marathon... *Cursing to the body*

Rosey, Abe Yaz, Kak Nawal and I left the apartment around 6am to get to the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) to drop off our bags and do a bit of stretching and camwhoring with the familiar faces :P

Nervous but excited me at 630am! 

With Rosey

With Arab and Mizi...
Arab did first half marathon (I think) and Mizi was doing his fifth marathon...

With Kak Nawal, Abe Yaz, Sandy, Rosey and YKK...

YKK had his running jersey imprinted with our country's name ;)

The scene at the starting line...

It was really a super cold morning and I was thankful that I was wearing a long sleeve running top by Nike, which was bought by Rosey when she was holidaying in UK recently...

The marathon was flagged off at 7am (4am Malaysian time) at Batman Avenue (10 mins walk from the MCG)...

Since I was carrying the extra cramps from my tummy, I was hoping and praying that nothing bad will happen during my run and decided to take it slow during my first 21km route and just let pretty much all of the mat sallehs passing over me... :P

We ran along Flinders St before turning to run the entire St. Kilda Road and then into the Albert Park (where there's a beautiful golf course and where the annual Australian Grand Prix happens)...

Decided to get my first shot here at Albert Park...
Weather was just cold and chilly... 

Then we ran along Fitzroy St before turning into the superlong road of Beaconsfield Parade... It was such a scenic route since we were running along the infamous St Kilda Beach before making a u-turn at the Ormond Esplanade... 

Beaconsfield Parade (we were running towards Port Melbourne before making a u-turn to the other side of the road)

athlete photo
Shot by one of the photographers as I was running towards the 21km marker :)

I managed to catch up with Mizi here as we were entering the Elwood Park by the beach before making the u-turn...



And there were lots of people cheering on us and giving sweets and lollies... :)

I was feeling the cramps from my tummy after 23km and I did a lot walk-run-walk between the 24 - 28km... I was happy when I manage to clock in at 3 hours and 30 mins when I reached the 30km marker at Fitzroy St...

Then, we headed back towards St Kilda Road before turning into South Bank Boulevard and entered the beautiful Queen Victoria Gardens...  

At St Kilda Road...

Taking the ONLY 'me' photo...

National Recital Centre @ Southbank Boulevard - I like!

And THIS is where I felt the infamous 'wall' that most runners would when running a marathon... My legs started to ache plus my tummy was just not too happy since I was into my 2nd day of the red flag month... :(


One of the markers...

Continued to walk, run, talk to the runners and even sang to myself to keep myself going... Once I came out of the park and back to St Kilda Road again, I decided to just give my all since I had about 4km to go...

Federation Square at Flinders Street...

I manage to catch up with Abe Yaz at our last 1km before he told me to sprint and run with my heart towards the MCG... The atmosphere in the stadium was just so lively... 

My lovely father managed to capture this pic below when I was running towards the finish line:


I completed my first marathon in 5 hours and 19 mins (official time)!!! :D :D :D

Woohooooo!!!

I didn't think I could do it as I didn't have enough rest and that my tummy was hurting but I did it!!! I am finally a marathoner :) :) :)

Oh, and did you know that this year marks the 2500th year of marathon? ;) 

Of course, more pictures after the marathon ;)

Rosey and I...
She completed the marathon in 4 hours 50 mins though there was a confusion on the timing as she didn't run at a certain route... Oh well....
Am proud of you girl! :D

The super duper nice finisher medal for the marathoners! :)
Pic credits to Rosey

YKK completed the marathon in less than 4 hours!
Congrats YKK!

Abe Yaz completed his marathon a couple of mins after me...
A PB for him!!! Yayyyyy!!!

Kak Nawal completed her marathon with a PB of 4 hours and 36 mins!
One day, I shall have this timing! ;)

Sandy completed the marathon in less than 4 hours too! 
And she's qualified to run the Boston Marathon!
Major woohooooo for her!!!

Everything about the marathon was just almost perfect: the weather was cold and good, the route was scenic and super cantik for us to enjoy the view and appreciate the houses and buildings, there were enough water and aid stations, all of the volunteers were superb and efficient...

The only thing that was slacking was that when I completed my marathon, they ran out of the finisher medals and told us that they'll mail it to us... Boooooo... OK, make it two: for a fee of AUD100, the goodie bag only consisted a towel, powerade, information booklets from all of the sponsors... We had to buy the official running singlet and/or t-shirt and there was NO finisher tee... :( 


But I have to say that this marathon is definitely the best experience that I've ever had so far... And I was really emotional on that day not only because it was my first one, but I had my family for the first time waiting for me at the finish line:

:D :D :D 

Can't wait for my 2nd marathon in Singapore in 2 months time!!! ;)

Definitely going to reward myself for doing this!!! Still thinking on what should I get myself here in Melbourne besides indulging the yummy food here... Any suggestions? ;)

Next: Penang Bridge Half Marathon in November...

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Ms Road Runner is officially a Ms Marathoner :D :D :D

This morning, I ran and completed my first marathon @ Melbourne Marathon in 5 hours and 20 mins (unofficial time)...

The weather was just perfect (it was cold and windy at min 15 degrees this morning!) and the views along the entire route were just breathtakingly awesome!!!

Will share more about this (and of course, lots of pictures! hehe) on my next post on the marathon since I'm soaking my legs in supercold water at the moment... ;)

With my first ever finisher medal for marathon! 

Yayyyyyyyyyy and Alhamdulillah... :D :D :D

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Selamat Tinggal KL, G'Day Melbourne!

Almost done with my packing now... Hope I didn't forget anything...

I will be flying to Melbourne tonight with my parents and my sister (my supports for the marathon)...

To be honest, I haven't been emotionally OK for the past few months... or prolly more than that...

I hope this trip will make me a better and happier person...

Thanks everyone for the kind wishes and the lucks! I'm going to need them a lot for this Sunday! :)

Will try and update this space while I'm there... So, stay tuned! :)

Melbourne Marathon, here I come! *nervously jumping up and down*

Week 3 Training - Post Report

Super outdated entry but oh well... ;P

Only managed to run twice only last week (on my Happymill), as I was still recovering from the Newton run and that my legs were making 'popping' sounds at the usual areas... Blaming it on the killer hills!!! So didn't wanna 'overwork' my legs though...

1) Friday  - 3.5km
2) Sunday - 6km

But I did a lot walking around the malls last week as per my previous post, so that could be counted as workouts :P

Gotta start packing and prep myself for Melbourne this weekend!!!

Super nervous as the thought of not finishing my first full marathon has been lingering on my mind... Gotta stay positive! :)