Happy New Year 2010

It’s going to be a new year in a couple of hours, not just a new year but a new decade. It’s been a trying year for me in 2009, mix with good and bad experiences, but most importantly is the lessons learned that brought us here into the new decade. I always said don’t give up on something that you believe that you can do it successfully, the harder the challenges the sweeter the rewards at the end of the tunnel. Someone once said “if you wanted something so bad, the whole universe will help you to get it”. I decided to celebrate the new year by staying at home watching the TV and fireworks from my balcony. It know it’s sound just plain lame but it’s too congested at these hours to watch fireworks outside. Well i wish all of you, friends and comrades a happy new year, hopefully there will be something wonderful for each for us next year. I am just looking forward to the FIFA World Cup in South Africa next summer.

Malakoff 12 km run

I woke up at 4.50 am this morning, had sleepless night, this is usually me when expecting a big day. I felt excited and nervous at the same time waiting for this day to come. This morning, i will run and compete with about 2,500 other runners in the 2nd edition of 12km Malakoff run in Bukit Kiara resort.

This time around the missus and my son would not be there to support me as my wife is too tired to move around as she’s into the final trimester of our 2nd son. I decided to use my scooter instead of Exora as i anticipated a large crowd and cars, it would not be enough parking space in the race area. Among the suggested parking areas for the race was Security Commission car park, i arrived at around 5.45 am and found out that the car park still have a lot of vacant spaces (it can accommodate 80 cars maximum). It’s still dark when i arrived at Start/Finish line in Bukit Kiara car park, later i went around searching for a surau to perform my subuh prayer and found it at the sport complex building.

By 6.30 am more runners came and the place becoming too crowded, well what do you expect with about 2,000 runners jam-pack the place. The race started with 12km runners flag-off at 7.00 am sharp, the steep hill after leaving Bukit Kiara car park into Jalan Beringin, Bukit Damansara was killing me! I stopped and walked near the top of the first hill, a clear sign that i am not fit for hill climb race, i sense this big problem and decided to conserve my energy for downhill and flat runs, and that’s what exactly the strategy i used throughout this race. Walk up for the big hill and then compensate by passing other runners at downhill run, this is a bad run for me, but i am not just gonna give up, it’s all about mental strength and for me i am racing with myself, it's all about completing the race which was after all my big objective for entering this race. In the end, I completed the 12km race with 79 minutes (unofficial record-the organizer will update official records in their website after all runners return the timing chips).

My 1st Medal

Malakoff’s Race Kit

Earlier today, I collected the Malakoff 12km race kit at Kiwi Xpress Bistro Garden in Desa Sri Hartamas. Compared to Dukethon’s race kit, this ones only has the bare necessities, a vest (i usually wear L size, but this vest is little too big for me), runners bib – A0240 and a timing chip (only for 12km runners). The Malakoff run on Sunday are open for 12km and 6 km (later adjusted to 7km), i opted for 12km run as i already completely done with 5km run (Dukethon), i need new challenge to keep me fresh.

We will see tomorrow if my training paid off, which i really doubt after surveying the route for tomorrow’s run. The running route for 12km has about 6 slopes and it’s a hilly run which i did not train, i’m going in for hell of a day tomorrow.

ICOSH 2009

I was busy attending the ICOSH 2009 Conference in UKM these past two days. ICOSH is an acronym for “International Conference on Social Sciences and Humanities”, truthfully, this is the first time  i attended an academic conference and was really excited about this event. I even did not get much sleep the night before the conference, as if i were suppose to present a paper in the morning. Sigh!..imagine if i were.

Initially, I wanted to support a friend of mine who presenting a paper during the conference, but end up supporting two friends after bumping into Azrul on the morning of the first day. It was a pleasant surprise, i have not seen Azrul since February this year in London, to be exact our last meeting was at the Eye on London. He was just arrived from Lancaster University a day before the conference begin and had to endure his jetlag throughout his presentation on the topic of “Multiculturalism, Ethnicity and Nation Building in Malaysia”.

About 198 presenters, from local and overseas institutions were schedule to present their papers during the two days conference via multiple parallel sessions. By the end of the 2nd day, I found out almost half of the scheduled presenters did not turn up for the conference. The papers was presented through the medium of English and Bahasa Melayu, which are fitting as UKM was established to preserve the heritage of our national language. I found out that only one paper was really on my research subject, the rest of the papers presented was quite interesting (some of them). Well it was a learning experiences and gave me some confidence to present my papers as early as next year. Wish me luck y’all…