Pre-race

blogging b4 i sleep. 9pm. so early!
no choice. race starts at 0530 tmr.
Sheares & Army Half Marathon.
Why should I go?

Not sure.

1st 21km of my life.
1 of many??
Not sure.

No training 4 this.
Not even 80%.
Like what experts says.
No pre-race jitters.
Good or bad?

Not sure.

Just do it.

Running flat.....

19 August - 2.4km sports for life
20 august - 10km New Balance Real Run

fell flat in both events .... hardly the kind of results I visualised myself getting..... the sports for life was a real disappointment 'cos I started the last round at 11'30" & thought there is a fair chance of getting gold (<13min) if I sprinted real hard ... but stitches came a calling and my "gold" was gone in the wind..... to add to the misery, Zahed said there's no more this yr...

the NB was hardly any better..... despite the 2 training runs, I failed miserably to beat my record: 1 hr 26min instead of bettering the 1hr 19min last year... my first race in 10km in this kind of terrain.... but at least it was a learning experience, because I know now that good runners must have strong abdominals, esp when the long distances mean that your running posture is likely to sway like the tree as your legs eat up the miles and when your body is tired, the legs will follow suit.....

All these great conclusions came just 1 day before I borrowed the May 05 edition of Runners' World which begs the question......

so why didn't I read more to learn from others' mistakes??

13 August 2006: Encore

... this entry named after what those tedious Mediacorp tv programmes like to call themselves when they are repeated ...

2nd birding @ Ubin this yr, hehe... can't resist what the 1st bird I saw on land was the Oriental Pied Hornbill. Hope for an encore, which did happen... with not one but THREE hornbills perched on a roof. Yours truly is proud to say I was the FIRST to spot, just as the bee-eater later on...

Would go on a 3rd trip...to see what the elusive straw-headed bulbuls look like in real life. Hunted almost to extinction in Indonesia, it was reassuring to hear the loud and melodious, though intermittent, sounds of 2 of them calling out to each other...The closest was we traced it to a tree, but it was too dense to make out bird from leaves...

Other sightings:
Flamebacked woodpecker (me spotted 1st again), red-breasted parakeets coming in and out of their love nest, sea eagles, sunbirds, tailorbirds, and a very handsome Stork-Billed Kingfisher (can't understand when they say it's not bright enough...) taking a cool respite from the heat for a long, long time under the shade of a palm branch.

Discovery of the week....

2 August 2006

Wanted to embark on my supposed-to-be-weekly 10k run with JazMon... but we convinced ourselves the stadium is fully utilised by wannabe national runners.... so she proposed going to Kranji Reservoir...where people harass the prawns & fishes... and the "thing" that Jazmon often talks about...

after a longer-than-it-seems walk (no thanks to JM telling me we shouldn't run so soon cos it's "so far away"), we found the "entrance" - a 2ft pavement along the canal - tucked away behind the martial court. Finally abandoned the postponed run...but the canal seems as if it will lead us to Johor.... bend after stretch & vice versa....that never seems to merge into a concrete horizon...

....but when we finally reached the end of the path, it was a sight to behold....tranquil waters framed by untamed foliage on the left against the green manicured lawn of the Warren golf club... JM tried to fish a prawn for me... but I guess the ultra-sensitive creatures were determined not to be eaten today.... but we did 'catch' animals - kingfisher with its distinctive blue and brown plummage, and the little tern, common in coastal areas, somewhat like the ubiquitous seagulls on the beach.

Wondered why I have discovered this place earlier, smacked right in the backyard of my 6-yr old abode..... unlike the others I met there ... Peter's twin brother and CI Pma'am....

(btw....the early post on Sabah trip is not going to materialise.... and I don't want to recollect certain events.... but have posted the pic that reminds me I WILL go back there again....next yr...)