Route map for Terry Fox Run KL 2009

Please find the route map for Terry Fox Run 2009 above.

Date: Sunday, 1 November 2009 Venue: Flag off @ 9.00 a.m. Taman Tasik Perdana (Lake Garden) Rules & Regulations: 1) All participants must run on the designated route. There are 2 routes- 5km and 3.5km for the family run. 2) For wheelchair bound, and physically challenged participants, please note that there are slopes along the run route. 3) Participants are to be at the assembly area by 8.45 a.m. 4) No registration required. Just turn up during the run day. You can buy the Terry Fox Run official t-shirt, RM25 each. Parking: Limited parking is available on site, and public transport is recommended. Notice: The organisers, their agents, representatives, successors and assigns, are not liable for any injuries suffered, damage and loss of properties by participants at this event

For update on T-shirt sale location, please click here.

Mizuno Wave Run 2009

I was looking forward to this Mizuno Wave Run to mark my first anniversary of road racing. I started running last September in preparation for Mizuno Wave Run. I couldn't remember how I was talked into by William to join this race. But it did get me started running and from then I trained not only to finish my first 10km road race but also went on to complete my maiden full marathon in June 2009. So Mizuno Wave Run was kind of special to me. It had a significant impact to my life.

This year, I got my wife to join me for the run. She is a novice runner, just started running a few months back. This was her maiden road race. My running kakis like BP, William, Janice & James were there also this morning. Also present was Pang Sir and his son. (BP missing from photo below as he was warming up.)


The venue was in Pusat Sukan UPM, very near to the Gate number 8 of UPM. This year the organiser, Pacesetters chose to have the event in a campus to hold more runners, estimated to be around 4000. The route was around the UPM campus with hills as depicted below from Mapmyrun.com.


The run started on time at 7:30am. Runners were flagged off without any prior signs (e.g. announcement etc.). I didn't hear any gun or horn sound. I guessed a lot of runners at the back were caught off guard (still chatting or warming up). Before I started running, I told my wife to take it easy as the course was a hilly one. This year the course length was 11km, slightly more than 10km.

I started at about 30m from the front. I have to run on the grass to overtake slower runners at the beginning. After about 1 km I notice we were going downhill on a steep hill, I told myself, "This will be punishing when we head back to the stadium later."

Well, the crowded running line eventually clear out. I got enough room to run faster from 3km onwards. Eventually I reached the water station at around 5.5km with a split time of 25'15.2" I forgot to bring my GPS with me so I couldn't tell the exact distance at that point. I took two cups of water before continuing on.

The second half of the race was a bit more flat at the beginning. I was tiring fast when I reached 8km mark. But I told myself to hang in there, just a bit more to go. I was saving my energy for the climb at the end.

From 9km to 10.5km it was indeed a punishing climb on the long and steep hill. I felt my legs getting heavy but my motivation was there because I was chasing an elite lady runner. I remembered her because she overtook me at the half-way mark in the adidas King of the Road in August this year. This time I managed to overtake her at the top of the climb and maintained my lead over her until the end.

I was cruising at an easy pace to the finishing line until a runner overtook me. Then I turned on my "turbo" to speed past him and four more runners ahead.

My time at the finish line was 55'13.2" for position 107th in the Men Open category. The full distance according to Mapmyrun was 11.1km. William's GPS showed 11.8km and BP's showed 11.3km. If I take the distance about 11.3km, then my average speed was about 12.3km/h or 4 mins 53 secs per km. This is my best average speed in a race so far.

Anyway, after the race I quickly got some isotonic drinks and iced Milo to quench my thirst. Then I got my DSLR camera out and started shooting just a few metres before the finishing line.

I also waited for my wife to finish. She arrived later after 1 hour 21 minutes (gun time) for position 59th in her category. I congratulated her as she waited in queue to get her goodies bag and medal.

Then I continued to shoot more photos of my friends and other runners. Then William called me and we met up with BP to snap some photos near the podium with the race backdrop. See the photos below.


More photos of the runners can be found in here (http://lifespectrum.multiply.com). Please join as member and add me as contact to view the photo albums. Over 800 photos available. I could only manage to take photos of the runners who finished the race after me. So no photos of elite runners or top 10 finishers.

I also met many runner friends in this event. Too many to name them all, but you know who you are. Until next year, please train hard and stay healthy.

Quick update on Mizuno Wave Run 2009

Mizuno Wave Run was where my journey of running started. It was my first road race just slightly one year ago. So kind of feeling sentimental about the run today.

I just finished this year's run in 55 mins 13.2 secs. More detail later.

Come run with me - Terry Fox Run KL 2009 (T-shirt available now)

I got my Terry Fox Run KL 2009 T-shirt from CARIF yesterday. They got their latest T-shirt stock the same day. The sizes available now are:

	Sizes	Chest(cm)	Length(cm)
	2	22	16
	4	24	17
	3XS	28	20
	2XS	30	21
	XS	32	22
	S	36	25
	M	42	29
	L	44	30
	XL	46	31
	2XL	48	32
	3XL	52	34

The design again shown here:


I heard this year response is not so good so far. Probably less publicity and late T-shirt availability.

Come run with me on 1 Nov 2009 in Lake Garden. Flag-off time is 9:00am. Just get your T-shirt from:

1) Cancer Research Initiatives Foundation (CARIF), 2nd Floor, Outpatient Centre, Sime Darby Medical Centre (From 15th Oct, Mon to Fri, 9.00am to 5.00pm) Phone: 03-56391874

2) Canadian High Commission, Menara Tan & Tan, Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur (From 15th Oct, Mon to Thurs, 8.30am to 12.00pm, 2.00pm to 4.00pm, Fridays 8.30am to 12.00pm)

3) Foyer, Menara Citibank, Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur (from 26th Oct to 30th Oct 12.00 to 2.00pm)

4) 1 Utama Community Corner, 1st. Floor, Oval, 23-25 Oct (Fri to Sun), 10.00am to 9.00pm

5) Bangsar Village (24th & 25th October - 10am to 9.00pm) (Updated 21 Oct 2009)

6) Mid Valley Megamall, 3rd Floor, North Court (Celebrity Fitness), 26-30 Oct (Mon to Fri), 5.00pm to 8.00pm (Updated 27 Oct 2009)

7) Sunway Pyramid, LG1, Blue Atrium (near Bata), 30-31 Oct (Fri-Sat), 10.00am-9.00pm (Updated 27 Oct 2009)

8) Mont Kiara and PJ Hilton (Clark Hatch Fitness Centre), 20-23 and 27-30 Oct (Tue to Fri), 4.30pm to 7.30pm (Updated 27 Oct 2009)

9) Run Day - Lake Garden, Kuala Lumpur, 1 Nov, Sun, 7.30am - 10,30am (Updated 27 Oct 2009)


The money raised will be for cancer research.


Each T-shirt costs RM25. You are not obliged to run if you buy the T-shirt. You can buy the T-shirt to support the good cause even if you cannot make it to the run.

A run in the rain and a run in the park

On Wednesday, it rained in the morning. I was again too tired to wake up for my morning training. When I did wake up at about 7:00am, I thought to myself I was glad that I slept a little bit more because I would not able to run in the rain (not drizzle) anyway.

Then I was driving to work on Old Klang Road when I noticed a runner running in the drizzle on opposite side of the road. When I got closer, I noticed it was Kenny Tan. He was fresh from his Borneo International Marathon where he set his personal best of 3:38:54. I guessed he could have run for some time already since he was all drenched. Then I thought to myself, boy, and I had excuse not to run.

That evening, I ran 8km in the gym.

On Thursday evening, I decided that I just have to run outdoor. Running on the machine was not motivating. I just had to go out there and run along with other people. I changed to my running outfit at 6:10pm and went down to KLCC Park to run. It was my first time running in that route. I didn't meet any runner that I know, but it was good to see people running around me.

My 5 laps time: 6:18/6:38/6:28/6:35/6:21

Total time: 32 mins 21 secs

Total distance: 1.3kmx5=6.5km

That night, I worked at home until 5:00am.

Treasure Hunt to Pangkor

This time our company hunt took us to Pangkor. It happened last weekend. I teamed up with my usual gang for the hunt. Over 50 teams took part.

The hunt had a theme on "Remembering MJ". MJ here refers to Michael Jackson. The hunt started in the morning with a challenge. Five MJ's songs were played twice, well only tiny part of the song, not the whole song, and the hunters were asked to match with the song title within 2 minutes.

We were quite confident on 3 of the 5 and were unsure about the other two. After submitting that, we were flagged off. We were directed by the tulips to the coastal road to Lumut. The hunt itself was not too tough. I would say it was slightly above average level.

We finally reached Lumut within the stipulated time. We could have arrived earlier, but we were stuck on this Q25 here.

Q25. Famous driver, red on final day. Here they power you anyway.

A25. Tiger @ Heng Huat Machinery

We spent some time on that question, because we were thinking too lateral on the part "red on final day". I spotted "Tiger" the moment we swept the sector, but the "red" part was bothering us or we couldn't figured out immediately. We ended up looking for alternate answers. In the end, we figured out that the "red" part was a literal clue to refer to Tiger Woods wearing red always on the final day of the golf tournament.

Anyway, to cut the story short, we could only manage 5th this time for the 4 points we dropped in the challenge, just 2 points away from the champion. Road and treasure questions were ok for us. We began to notice some teams were catching up fast with us and we need to improve and be more consistent.

In Pangkor Beach Resort, I had the opportunity to train for marathon. I ran 3 laps along the 1km-long fine sandy beach after the hunt and another 6 laps on early Sunday morning. On Sunday morning, I was running barefoot listening to the sound of the waves and occasionally being hit by the on-rushing waves. I could have ran more but we needed to catch the 8am ferry back to Lumut to return home. So I had to cut it short. While I was running, I was conscious about this master running his maiden full marathon at the same time. I was happy to know later he finished it in sub-5 hours time.

Disrupted Training

Due to busy work schedule, my training for PBIM 2009 has been disrupted. The two weeks that I was in India, I didn't run for 6 days in a row. I only got chance to run a few times (in week 1) on the thread mill in the hotel gym. Sleep was almost a luxury for me over there. Not to mention the food that caused me to visit the toilets for two or three times a day to "download".

Now that I am back in Malaysia, my work is still piling up. Last Sunday, I found time in the early morning to do a long run from Bukit Aman car park to Petronas in Seri Hartamas.

I met Kenny Tan there and decided to run with him. He was kind enough to pace slower so that I can follow, although I have asked him to go on his pace. He was training for the coming BIM 2009. That run supposed to be his last long run before the race.

Following his pace was a challenge towards the end as he picked up speed in the last 1 km before Petronas station. I think we were doing about 4.5min/km pace in the last 1 km. We reached Petronas station in about 56 minutes. I was happy with the time as it was hilly

At the Petronas station, I met Hoffen and WaiSum. They were training for PBIM too I guessed. I approached them and said "Hi" to them. Then I was back running with Kenny again on the return leg.

He told me then, going back would be quicker and asked me to keep up if possible. I told him not to worry about me. I was trying to keep up with him at first. But slowly I knew he was too fast for me. When we reached Kompleks Kerajaan, I saw him crossing Jalan Duta and that was when I lost sight of him. I only managed to reach Bukit Aman after about 56 minutes. Overall timing was about 1 hour 52 minutes for the distance about 19km.

This week I work late everyday and when I was home, I still need to work. Also I got meetings here and there. After work it is very difficult to run. I have to use my lunch time to train in the gym.

I've tried running in the (weekday) morning again, but I was too tired to wake up because I slept only 4 hours or less per night this week. Hopefully work will taper off soon and let me resume my preparation to PBIM 2009.

Klang Valley Food Hunt 2009

Finally, we were able to find a date and time to go treasure hunting again. This was only the second hunt of the year for me. The KL Food Hunt was organised by Rasa Rasa and sponsored by Maxis (main sponsor).

This time, Raj, Prasath and I were joined by DK. Douglas enrolled earlier with another team.

The hunt format was divided into two legs. In first leg, participants were asked to go to 4 locations without tulips to find the answers to the 25 clues. Then in the second leg, there were 10 more clues, this time with tulips to guide the hunters.

Besides the Q&A, the hunt also posted 3 challenges to the hunters. One of them was Food Challenge. Hunters were required to use the Maxis' Finder301 service to locate any 6 eateries, 1 bank and 1 police station along the route and take pictures outside of the premises. Hunters are required to eat and pose in one of the eateries as well. Then the hunters has to take photos of the SMS search result from Finder301 and print the photos before submitting them.

The other challenges were: identify 10 spices from the photos and make roti canai with the dough provided. For these two challenges, we didn't do well. Basically, we had hiccups and didn't manage or tackle the first challenge well and for the roti canai challenge, I was the one who didn't make a good roti canai. I let myself and the team down and was pretty disappointed.

In the end, that's where many of our points were lost. We had a fairly good score for the route and treasure questions, with only 3 mistakes out of 35 questions. With about 10 points dropped from 2 challenges, we were out of top 10 placing, surely, I thought. Indeed, we were only placed at 15th. Disappointed that's how I felt and I took the responsibility for the team's result. I still find it hard to get over this, but I will try to be positive and move on. I will take the learning from this hunt to improve further.