Back on Track

3 years ago my colleague (now,he's my ex-colleague) asked me if I ever ran on the Penang Bridge before and I said never. He then told me about his past runs and how he strived to earn his medal upon achieving the 3 hour mark for his half marathon run. He tried 3 times and the last time, he finally made it through and earned his medal. Those days the officials were very strict in giving of medals to the participants due to the high standards they preserved through the years. However, as of now, any participant can earn that medal even though they passed that 3 hour mark in their half marathons and by doing this greatly pulls the standard of PBR down. Even newbies like myself can earn a medal by running an overdue 3 hours run. Hehe..


So that first marathon started my running 'career' and I stopped running after my 2nd PBR marathon after achieving a 3hours mark for the half marathon. I stopped running entirely after that because I found out that both of my toe nails from each side of my feet broke due to the run. So I had to wait 1 whole year for my toe nails to grow fully or else my feet would look like I'm having leprosy with all those exposed skins..Eee..


Another factor that stopped me from running would be my feet hurts alot after running for quite a long time. This really breaks me down as I still remembered in those days when I had to walk instead of running even though I had much energy and stamina left for the race. So I quit running despite having my friend from church encouraging me to run. We used to train together for runs and now I left him to run by himself...Sounds like Mark deserting Paul and Barnabas in the first missionary journey in the book of Acts..hehe

Then suddenly I decided to trust Alan's advice on getting the right running shoe for my legs since I always find myself suffering from foot ache and blisters after every runs. So I managed to save up some cash to get myself a good running shoes. Went to Lee Hoe with Joshua since he offered to give some counsultation. Tried and ran on Asics Kayano 15, Cumulus 11 and Nimbus 11. (For more information, please go to here). I had a hard time choosing which pair would fit me well since Joshua said that it's not the price of the shoes that determines your performance but it's the compartibility. All of them gave me a 'flying' effect if you know what I mean but I went for Cumulus since it is able to grip my legs tightly when I ran around with it. Kayano and Nimbus was quite loose around the my ankle so I didn't quite like it although both of these pairs are supposedly the best running shoes for year 2008.

To cut the long story short, I'm totally convinced now that a good running shoe really saves a whole lot of trouble and with this new pair of shoes, I'm running consistently now. Now with my new Nike + device plus Ipod to aid my runs, I'm runninggggggggggggggggggg......
(I'm sorry for some of the crap I wrote in this post as I'm feeling dizzy and sick but determined to finish this post..so excuse my nonsense..hehe)

27

Last 10 days I marked my 27th year of walking this earth.Time has indeed flew by and God hath been good plus gracious to me all these years of my life.It also marked the 11th year of walking with God.My 4th year as a working adult.I wonder what most of my peers did or have accomplished at this age. Hmm..let's see, most of them got married! Alan was married around that age, Adrian too, Kit Soon a little later, Aaron this weekend, and the best part is I have no one. Hahaha.. Anyway, I'm not trying to whine here but just trying to spice things up. Heh Heh..


On the bright side, I have a bunch of caring brothers and sisters in Christ to share my life and birthday with.I had 4 celebrations and I would not forget all the effort and love that each of them poured into my life.In this post, I would like to convey my deepest thanks and appreciation to Jonathan Low for driving all the way from Ipoh to Penang in order to bring my bible to me and coax with Justin and Ker Shin to have a surprise celebration for me.Although predictable but I thank you all for making the effort to celebrate my birthday and I really had a great time there.Your presence meant alot to me and I cherish each moment together with you guys..and girl..:)


Then the next day, I had another celebration with another group of brothers and sisters in Christ at the Times Square. This time, I would like to thank Samuel for organizing it and those who attended it, Jeff,Nicholas and Su Ting AKA Susan..We had our dinner buffet at Haven's Delight which offers similar delicacies as Tao offers but a little cheaper in price. Just a little cheaper but loses out in taste.We kept on comparing every dish we ordered with Tao since every dish is an exact replica from Tao. I guess the owner of this restaurant wants to compete with Tao so bad that he had to serve what Tao serves but failed big time though. Will be my first and last time there and yeah, don't be deceived about Times Square though. Even though the restaurant is already operational, it's only one of the 10% of the shops that are operational so when you go there, it feels like you're in one of L4D scene when zombies can hop on you at anytime.



Jeff and Nicholas gave me a present that made me laugh so much until I had to excuse myself to the loo because the sight of the present makes me burst into laughter and had stomach aches after that.Here's a picture of that gift and you'll know why..




Aneh gai..





Laugh until almost cried and peed..






Continue laughing..

On the eve of my birthday, Alan took me out for a midnight movie+ Starbucks treat even though he had to work the next day and I had holiday (Birthday holiday :P). We managed to spend some quality sharing time together and was converted into a Star Trek fan after our Star Trek movie that night.That movie was superb and was very well done especially for a first timer like me to enjoy a Star Trek movie. You know, if you're not familiar with the characters of the series, you wouldn't enjoy it as much as a Trekkie fan but this movie is very much different from all the Star Trek movies ever made.You gotta watch it if you haven't watch it before. ;) And he gave me this:

Yes.To be honest, this was one of the most prized gift I've ever received in my life from a buddy! Thanks Alan for this great gift and I will surely keep on running as long as God allows me to.:) (Now no excuse not to run! haha)

Then at night I had another celebration by Samuel, Su Ting and Ling Ee in a form of a karaoke session. I had some cake-smashing fun when Susan started putting cake on my face. Anyway, I had fun although I didn't smash any cake on anybody. I was so tempted to put the cream on the lense of Samuel's camera..hehe..Here are some photos taken that night:

Besides that, I had a blog post dedicated for me on my birthday! Thanks Stephen if you're reading this..:) Also alot of Facebook wishes from all my Facebooker friends..:)

Finally, the verse for my 27th birthday would be:

"For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

2 Cor 4:17-18