Penang Bridge Run Revisited

This year I didn't intended to join the run. After 2 broken toe nails, I told myself that I shouldn't participate in any marathons in the future since I've achieved my goal 2 years ago by running the Penang Bridge.In that span of 2 years, I have suffered greatly in my trainings to run that bridge and not only finish it but finish it within 3 hours to qualify for the medal.

Last year, I managed to achieve that goal and I planned to stop running since I was not born to be a runner. (I'm lousy in running because I got caught most of the time during hide and seek when I was young..) This year, the Penang Bridge Run was supposed to be called off due to the budget freeze by the government but Mr Lim miraculously managed to pull some strings and get some sponsors to organize the run without fundings from the government! Thus, the run was on and its starting point was in Queensbay Mall.

This year's run added a few kilometres to each category since it was held in Queensbay (it used to be held in USM..) which makes the whole marathon a big challenge for all the runners especially if I (amateur runner) were to join. So I told myself a big NO even from the start of the registration. Heh.

I managed to persuade some of my friends to join and ridiculed them if they didn't join the run when I, myself is not joining the run. Hehe..I'm so evil..*grin* However, to cut the long story short, I ended up signing in for the run on the eve of the big day itself. Sigh. I don't know why I did it but as I was driving past Queensbay, I saw all the tents, signboards and everything was put into place. As I watched all that, I remembered the time when I tasted the cornflakes after the marathon. It tastes like heaven! I felt as if it was the best thing I ever had eaten in my entire life. Maybe I was exaggerating but it really felt that way ok! So I acted impulsively by taking the registration form and signed myself up for a 10km run. Without any second thoughts, I took out RM10 and paid for the run.

Everything happened so rapidly and the next thing I knew, I was buying my PowerBar for the run! Hahaha. It was so natural. Must be Justin's fault. Anyway, I woke up at 4:30am the next day for the run despite of the lack of sleep I had(I was having a gathering with my primary school mates until 12am..), I rushed off to fetch Justin at 5am so that we could find ourselves a good spot to park and walk to the starting point.

The whole Sungai Nibong was packed with cars and I couldn't find any parking near Queensbay so I parked at Jeff's house which was quite a distance away from Queensbay. Then we walked to Jerejak Jetty (dunno what that place is called..) because our starting point is there. It was a good 2km walk to the jetty and the whole place was packed with people! There was easily 8000 people there at that time and most of them are wearing the orange Penang Bridge Run T-shirt when both of us is wearing out sleeve-less singlet to show off our biceps to the 'adik-beradiks ' in the run.

As we hanged around in the starting point waiting for the run to start, we tried to spot any familiar faces who would be joining the run but sadly couldn't find any..All the runners are young at age while both of us feels so old and leftout in the group.And then we ate our PowerBars and drink our Red Bulls as we warm ourselves up for the run.My adrenaline was already pumping as I waits for the run to start.I must admit that I haven't felt so charged up ever since my last run till this very moment.Hehe

As the gun fired into the air which marks the commencement of our run, we immediately ran off to be among the front liners so that we would not be blocked by the 'slow-runners'. Hehe. Our goal was a common one: Finish the race before 2 hours and get to church in time for Lord Supper!

It was quite a distance from Jerejak Jetty to the bridge but we were progressing quite well as we paced our speed fairly in order for us to finish the race in our timing.I was quite happy actually for the fact that I did not koyak that fast even though I didn't trained at all for this run. As we reached the foot of the bridge, we noticed that it was a graveyard spot because we spotted alot of PowerGel packets on the floor. I guess that the half marathon runners had already dehydrated at that point? Still a mystery to me since the distance from Queensbay to the foot of the bridge isn't that far for them to use the gels yet. Anyway, we continued running without stop uphill towards the bridge hoping to reach the U-turn as soon as possible.

Once we reached the middle span and did the U-turn, we stopped running and started walking back. We made short term goals by setting short destinations where we should run to instead of walking the whole way back to Queensbay which could have probably caused us to miss the Lord Supper in church.The short term goals we made did work as we tried to push ourselves off our limits and we made it to the finishing line before 2 hours was up! 

We managed to finish the run in 1 hour 32 minutes! I bet we could have finished it in 1 hour if we had been faithfully training. hehe 

Oh yeah, just 300 metres away from the finishing line, Justin and myself decided to go all out for it. We started to sprint all the way until the end. It was fun at the moment when we managed to cross the finishing line but was painful when we had to walked back all the way to Jeff's house to get our car! 

And oh yes, I get to eat my cornflakes! Target sighted. Target achieved. Target consumed. Yummy! Nothing beats the cornflakes after a marathon. Muahhahaha..

Who's your boss?

Last Monday I had the privilege of being rewarded at work.

It goes like this: I went to work as usual when suddenly my boss grabbed me into a room. At first I thought I must have done something wrong or I must have forgotten to do something for him.My boss is a very detailed person and would like everything to be done according to the standard procedure. I've been scolded by him before some time ago when I did things to improve the results but wasn't following the standard procedure which he ended up removing all those improvements.However, my boss, despite being an idealist, he's actually a very good boss that knows how to take care of my needs and understanding.No, he doesn't know that I write blogs and I'm certain that he won't read this here. Heh Heh

So here am I, in a room with him, feeling a little nervous of what's going to happen next.Holding in his hand was 3 envelopes.There can only be 3 possibilities.One is that I've done something so wrong that I would only redeem myself if I'll be forfeited of my job. Two, I'll get a raise for no reason.Lalala. And three, it's my monthly pay slip.

Without wasting more time, my boss, being a direct person as he is, told me that the first envelope is my monthly pay slip. The second one is my raise! (I was told that I was actually being underpaid for the level of job grade which I hold and was given a raise to meet the minimum expectation for that level of job grade.There was only 57 people in the whole company who was given this raise!) Instead of feeling "bo tart" for working for the company for almost a year getting paid below par, I actually felt that it was indeed a real blessing to receive this raise! I wouldn't mind if I was being paid lesser than I ought to because if the company did not intend to give me that raise, I wouldn't even realized that I was underpaid! It was purely out of their good conscience or God's will to bless? I would believe the latter.

People may think that the company is suppressing me by underpaying me and advised me that I should get a back payment for the mistake that they have done.Unfortunately, I would like to think otherwise.By receiving this raise now, I felt that my hard work actually paid off and God blessed me with this earthly blessing.Besides, if I was given the right amount from the beginning, I would not feel the sense of satisfaction and accomplishment because I don't really know much or did much in the beginning.

As I was feeling ecstatic when I received that second envelope, a third envelope came in. It was a token of appreciation (RM100 voucher angpow from Carrefour) from my boss for all the support that I've done during midnights plus weekends.By that time, I was already 'high' with so much blessings in one day.He told me that he was sorry because he didn't gave it me earlier so that I could enjoy my weekend but whatever it is, I don't really care when he gives it to me anyway. As long as he gives me, I'm overjoyed. Heh Heh

I thanked him with my smile that's so wide that my eyes turned into Mashi Maro's eyes.I walked out that room and immediately uttered a thanksgiving prayer unto the Lord for His goodness for I believe all good things comes from Him and Him alone. I believe that God is the true boss even though He appoints many bosses to govern us in our lives in order for us to submit unto them. And finally, even though I may change my job to elsewhere, my earthly bosses will change accordingly but my true boss never changes and in this I delight unto the Lord.

"Oh Lord, thank You for blessing me so much even though I have not acquire them from You. Indeed You will perform every good will according to your time and your ways which I have no clue about it for Your ways are not my ways, and Your thoughts are not my thoughts. For this, I will keep on clinging on You regardless of what the future may hold because my life is in You, Lord.

In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ' name I pray,
Amen."