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2006 In Review
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Sometimes to look
forward, one has to look at the past. Right, that was
a corny line to start with but it’s oftentimes true.
My 2006 KL International Marathon results was the culmination
of the hard work put in when preparing for the 2005
year-end Singapore Marathon. The KLIM was just one of
this year’s highlights. The following were the others.
Marathon PR
Though I was confident of improving my marathon PR in
the KLIM in March, I had no inkling of the margin of
improvement to expect. 2005 had been a fantastic year
in running for me. After some months of base training,
I lowered my timings (3 times for the 10K) that year.
It was an average race in Singapore where I registered
4:39. I was very happy nevertheless
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since I’d managed to dip below 5 hours in Singapore. After
a short break following the breakthrough, I resumed training
for the KLIM 2006. That was a defining race for me.
When I crossed the finish line in KL early this year, I’d
dropped my PR down to 4:26. It was a big achievement for me.
I completed the distance without walking. I’m now laying off
training for the full marathon until the 2nd Quarter of 2007,
after which I’ll assault the timing again. I know that I’m
capable of a 4:15 but that’ll mean some pretty serious base
training and a structured strength and speed training in the
forms of plyometrics, hill repeats and tempos. We’ll see how
that goes because…see next point.
A New Member In The Family…
…which meant an extended break from running. While my wife
and I didn’t plan to have another, we didn’t mind having another
pair of feet pitter-pattering around the house. So it was
in April that we learnt that we were going to be second time
parents. Post-marathon fitness level? I think so! All the
improved endurance and upped VO2 Max has to be channeled somewhere
;). Besides there are documented proof that running benefits
sex.
Runners Malaysia
My partner, Wan Yew Leong, and I registered out partnership
Outdoor Pursuits Services on Dec 12th 2005 and launched the
RunnersMalaysia website on Mar 19th 2006. This was our way
of giving back to society our passion for running. We’ve both
served in the EXCO of arguably the largest running club in
this region and we thought that we can further promote running
to the beginners with the intention of encouraging these newcomers
to the sport. Our hope was, and always is, that these folks
will pick up this simple sport as a form of life-long healthy
activity. When they see and experience the benefits reaped
from running, we’re sure they will add on to our voice to
spread the word.
To kick off our activities, we decided to start the Saturday
Beginners Running Program and we’re glad to say that in
a small way we’ve succeeded in “touching” a few persons lives.
We look forward to many more of such success
stories next year!
Exponential Increase In Workload
This year was the year when work nearly completely took over
my waking hours. The amount and variety of work heaped on
my team and I were tremendous. I was also very frustrated
that I wasn’t able to run more than once a week. I was a bit
distressed and all that stress was pent up and I wasn’t able
to release it. Luckily I took a step back and thought about
how I can see this situation. I can either approach this as
an opportunity to learn and shine, and really contribute to
the overall goals of the management or I can sulk all I want
and be “punished” with a poor performance appraisal and the
consequent meager salary increment. Not a good thing with
the increased standard of living. The choice was obvious when
things were put in their correct perspective. I’m glad that
the hard work is seeing some dividends right now.
Just For The Experience (read: Pain), And The Heck Of
It…
…I signed up for the Penang 12-Hour International Walk. Never
a walker unless you count accompanying my family on our outings
and the weekly grocery shopping or the daily walks out for
lunch. Two things were going against me – the ability to walk
competitively and maintaining the effort for 12 hours. It
was always a mission impossible for me and as it turned out,
I only managed slightly over 6 hours of walking covering a
shade over 34K in distance. Even though I’d expected to suffer,
I was a little disappointed that I didn’t at least cover the
marathon distance of 42K.
All that pretty much wraps up the major happenings for me
this year. The clan will be expecting our second kid in January
and work will peak from the second quarter through to year-end.
We will also be helping our elder kid ease into his first
year in pre-school and with the additional head in the family,
also be facing challenges in our finances. Ah…the reality
of Life. In the midst of it all, I hope to be able to train
well for 1 good half-marathon (realistically it won’t be a
PR) and 1 great marathon PR (possibly Penang) with a few well-organized
10Ks thrown in as speed work sessions.
2007? Bring it on!
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