Bangkok Standard Chartered Marathon 2012... Yes? No? Yes?

I'm still checking the event calendar for 2012 regularly, afraid that I might miss the early bird offer, although it could be just RM10 or 10 dollar in particular currency. I saw the Bangkok Standard Chartered Marathon 2012 has been rescheduled to 12 February 2012 due to flood. I saw the post before, I clicked on it once...then I found that the registration fee is quite expensive, even more expensive than the Sundown Marathon 2011, how could that be? Does the official want to collect more money to help Bangkok city?

2000 Bhat for non-Thai. I'm a non-Thai, so if I want to register RM200 is a gone case. Never mind, I try to justify myself from the package stand point, so I take a look at the flight and accommodation. Ngam ngam I received an sms from AirAsia for priority booking and I looking for a bargain of the year. Sadly, only the air ticket from AirAsia will make me fork out RM500, just to fly... how can that be?

I'm so sad. I still need a place to sleep. I still need to eat a lot. Most probably I will shop a little bit too. Most most probably I have to pay for my wife to fly together, too. It is too expensive, I have to call it off. Hopefully I can make it next time.

RM200+RM500+eat+sleep, I rather make a few trips to KL for some runs that I never participated.

PB After 3 Marathons

I thought marathon is a piece of cake, and it is NOT. I'm not overestimating myself or underestimating the 42.195km, but I think that certain things are achievable given enough effort, discipline and determination. That's why I simply wrote that I wanted to be a sub-4.5 marathon runner, which is quite a distance away from me. I actually modified the goal to complete 3 marathons within 6 hours and get the finisher T's.

My maiden run at Sundown Singapore was 05:43:40 and I did improved a little bit one month later in Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2011, completed the race in 05:22:43. FYI, I was ill-prepared for both the races. What the hell of runs I had... Anyway, I tried to train more for the last marathon in 2011 which is the Penang Bridge International Marathon, but somehow my wife and I need to fly to New Zealand for our honeymoon, so the training was interrupted again

No matter what I beat the odds, I achieved the sub-5 that I had been dreaming of. I got my Personal Best in full marathon with official timing 04:43:40. Wow.... unbelievable, even myself hardly believe it.

Well done and good job. Hopefully I can recover soon enough to run in the next event in 10days time. Half marathon :P.

Goal Setting

I like this phrase so much....

Goals must be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART)

It was plucked from an article from Malaysian Insider - Kids, make money work for you — Koh Noi Keng.

7 Days post-NZ Trip

I came back from my honeymoon on the 8th November and straight got back to work on the 9th. How great was I? Who knows? I was sick one day after reporting back to work, and then I have to see doctor and got myself the first medical certificate in this company. I was not totally sick, but I was sick.

It was not a REST day for me as well, I took the initiative to do some laundry, 2 rounds (come and see my proud face), dried them and folded some of my own clothes. I was happy and it did crossed my mind that whether I should settle down as a house-husband? However, I was very reluctant to sweep and clean up the floor and it is still full with some of the stuff that we have not tidy up after one week (I mean until now).

On the special 11.11.11, we had a dinner @ Derek's Passion for Food. It is in Kulim. We had the sweet and sour chicken chop and black-pepper chicken chop. The taste is good, quite different from other places, but it would be much better with more gravy on the chicken. The place is inside an neighbourhood, in a residential house,  no luxury nor romantic decoration, like a Malay house and simple furniture. At least, we brought our own deco, the Gerberra (a special bouquet of 11 different colour Gerberra for my wife).

On 13.11.11, we had a great lunch at Mizi's Bistro with parents, brother and little sister and Shanon. We visited there once during KinHoe's birthday celebration. The food was nice and what I like the most is the free flow ice-cream, I had 4 big scoops, of mint, choc, vanilla and corn. Woosh... delicious. After that I went back home and slept on the couch immediately, I guess the ice-crams must have settling well inside my stomach and become part of the fat :p Besides, I love the Aglio Olio spaghetti over there, it was the best that I had in recent years.

I cannot accept the fact that the calories that I have taken in, so I pushed myself for a run. Initially, I wanted a LSD (long slow distance) run, but some how it is almost like the race pace, 6 min/km. Ideally it should be 7.30 min/km or slower, what to do? I'm so freaking nervous that I'm ill-prepared for my last marathon in 2011, and it is happening in 4-5 days time. Help me....

Anyway, I knew all this, the good thing is I'm still bother to do more, to put in more effort. That's the spirit of an athlete, never give up.

Hopefully today I can do some light and easy run.