Bareno Run 2011

I must admit that I was never an athlete during my younger years. The only medal I won was a 4x400m run during my form 3's sports day back when I was in SAKTI. Oh you have no idea how proud I am of that trophy, it was the only one I possessed and actually won!



My parents are non-athletes, they always find it weird that me and my siblings are up into outdoors and adventures because them themselves are not like that. Even in our family, we don't have athlete's genetics running in our blood. I guess my ancestors are non-active bunch of people. :p

Running a marathon was always something that I must crossed out from my "to-do" list. Can you believe it that I never knew that marathon is actually 40km? I never thought it was that far of a distance, that's why when I told people that I wanna run a marathon, they will look at me with amaze and said, "You sure you wanna run a marathon?". And I answered enthusiastically, "Of course!".

But I have to take baby steps of course, 40km is quite a distance I must say.
So I decided to join a pre-marathon run called Bareno Run organized by The Running Club Bukit Jalil. They open 5km, 10km and 21km categories, and I signed up for 10km, which I glad I did, cause initially I planned to do 21km, which after trying to do 10km in the gym I feel it was kind of impossible for me.

So as usual, I dragged MHB into the party and believe me I have no idea if he can actually withstand a 10km run as I never saw him run before. Though I must admit that he has more stamina than I was remembering back how we survived the Kinabalu climb, I am strongly believe that he can do this too.

I did my training twice a week, 5km run everytime in the office gym and that 5km was so difficult until I feel that I should have registered for the 5km instead. But I told myself this isn't about winning the race, it's about making it to the finish line. As long as I can make it to the finish line, it means that I have won already, I have won against myself. My time record for 10km in the gym was 90mins, so if I could beat that time in the real 10km run, I would have been even prouder.

I never thought that there would be so much crowd as I never think that Malaysian are a bunch of active nationals (generalizations are bad, I know, pardon me!). But as I was standing side by side with other thousands of runners, preparing for the starting gun shot to fire, I was indeed proud of myself and for the others. They took the effort to wake up at 4am in the morning and geared up for the run.

I observed that there's so many kind of people joining the run, whoever said the run is only for fit people? I saw an old grandpa running pass me for 21km run, I saw an overweight girl running steadily in front of me, I even saw a down syndrome girl running bravily (is that a word?) alone and keep on going. They definitely motivated me to do more, to push myself harder. I did learn something out of the run. For you out there, who never challenged yourselves for anything, I say get up from your bed on a lazy weekend and do something about it.

Trust me, running on the streets are far more fun and interesting than running in the gym. I hardly feel the distance at all as when I was reaching the finish line, I heard MHB said to me, "This was it? We finally made it!"



And guess what? I did beat my own record! I made it to the finish line at 75mins. Though I wasn't in the top 300 for women category, but I was proud of myself. ~give myself a pat at the back~

Now I'm hungrier for more run. Let's just see if I can actually manage to complete a full 40km run. ;)

150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty

I have seen this tag on so many blogs and why not, it’s a wonderful tag! The name is ’150 Things To Do Before You Turn Thirty’.
The rules are,
1. The things you have already done – make them bold.
2. Italics is for things that you are dying to do!

Here I go!!

01. Bought everyone in the place a drink
02. Swam with dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris (did once when I was small, wanna go there again!)
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment
27. Had a food fight
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and didn’t care who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Taken a midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played touch football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theatre
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married (if possible that is LOL)
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo (does henna tattoo counts?)
81. White river rafting
82. Been on a television news program as an “expert”
83. Gotten flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favourite band/singer on tour
98. Passed out cold
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking with the windows open
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a TV game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for 30 hours in a 48 hour period
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. States
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad and The Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair (school fair counts?)
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life

This list is gonna get updated should there is anything get's done or should my goal have changed.
I realized that there are alot of things that I still haven't done in my past quarter century life.
Some things in the list may appear small and unimportant, but these small things will added up to bigger things. Start small, dream big, live with no limits...
So, do you have your own list?

Mount Kinabalu Adventurous Climb

I had always wished I could climb the highest mountain of Malaysia, from my opinion conquering something as high and extreme like Mount Kinabalu would be one of the unforgettable achievements/highlights of my life, which is something to tell to my children when I'm old and rotting, how interesting and adventurous my life has been when I'm younger and hyperer.

So as I marked this date 20 Oct 2010, (20102010 - nice date huh?), accompanied by my new Deuter hiking bag and my most favourite partner in crime, MHB, I left two small-sized-5 foot prints from the base to the top of Mount Kinabalu.

The journey started at around 10am, we actually reached the base starting point quite late. I admitted that I underestimated Mount Kinabalu. I thought it's gonna be an easy climb, I mean hey, what so hard about climbing a mountain anyway? Any other mountain would be easy I must say, but Kinabalu really put me in an extreme both physical and mental test.









With continuous climbing up the stairs and paths to the peak of 8km distance, it was one of the most HELL-NO thing I ever did in my life. I did think of turning back couple of times during the climb, but since I already paid for it (and apparently NOT CHEAP!), I pushed myself again and again to take one foot at a time up the neverending stairs.



There were few times that I actually fell down to my butt, exhausted and mentally drained, crying out loud, "I'm gonna die, I really gonna die!!" but thanks to MHB who constantly encouraged me and physically pushed me from behind to move up and up and up until we reached the top. (Kheili mamnun, kheili kheili ziad)

Finally after almost 8 painful hours, we reached Laban Rata, which is the resting area before we head again to the peak of the mountain.



We had our dinner there as the weather turned extremely cold I had to cover myself like those eskimos in the north pole. There's no hot shower or any hot water back at the cabin, so imagine how me and MHB is cursing everytime we get our hands touched the water to wash our face and do our business there.

After getting ourselves a two hours not-so-good sleep, we gotta get up and geared ourselves up for the next mission, which is the peak! My body is so painful and the weather is so extremely cold, this is where I lost to Mount Kinabalu --> the scorching coldness. This second climb though is shorter distance than the previous but it's tougher. With barely any trees around to shield us from the unmerciless cold heavy wind, I hugged myself climbing up to the peak.

We managed to reach the Donkey Ears Peak, when at last I blurted to MHB;

Me: Do you wanna carry on? (cause I know I had enough already)
MHB: NO
Me: ~laughing~ seriously?
MHB: Yeah, I had enough, this is so crazy, not worth it.
Me: ~continue laughing~ oh thanks God

So we just sat there, enjoying the sunrise and I sang,

"If I die here, if I just die here, would you die here with me and just forget the world..."
~adapted from Snow Patrol's Chasing Cars





At last we made it on Mount Kinabalu, though not reaching to the peak, but it was close enough. Both of us think it was the best we can do and we're proud of it still.
Then down the mountain we go.



Mind you, going down is not as easy as you think.
We got our asses beaten by a group of old grandma and grandpas from China, how embarassing is that? VERY...

Mount Kinabalu --> CHECKED