RIFLE RANGE BOY

I guess a felicitation note is due for my partner in crime. This post is dedicated to his tenacious path to glory, paved with shrapnels of thorns, aches, pains, strains, and even fractures. I met SK at a dinner party of a mutual acquaintance. That was more than 10 years ago. After the usual pleasantries, our conversation went to recreational running. He was intrigued that I ran, which, at that time, felt, to him, like a marathon. In reality, it was a mere 10km. Fast forward, we, and a few friends, became weekend warriors. From 10, the distance becomes longer and longer. Then someone came up with the idea of doing the full monty, not the British type but the Phillipedes type - t he crowning glory of running - a full marathon, the whole 42.195km of them. When SK puts his mind to something, he puts his whole soul into the shebang. He would want to know all the nitty-gritty of the basics. He would not want any stone unturned to the extent of obsessiveness. Just like that, all the research ...

Uncle Hooi at his best © The Star I remember the barrages of concerned pep talks from my family members when they discovered that I, at the tender age of 43, slowly started indulging in competitive distance running. In not so many words, they were obviously trying to tell me that I would just drop dead by the roadside to be found by passersby as if I were just roadkill. Another old friend, obviously overweight and looking much like Peter Griffin of the 'Family Guy' fame was even generous enough to offer free anaesthetic services as and when I need a knee replacement.  As a last resort, my family went ahead and gave me a 'stress test - CT angio' combo as a birthday present on my 50th birthday. When the cardiologists gave a clean bill of health after silently cursing under his breath for wasting his precious time from his more deserving patients, they essentially gave up and let Nature take its course.  This must have been what Fauja Singh must hav...

From the outset, things were not going as planned. With a bout of diarrhea and loss of precious electrolytes, I experienced stiffness and soreness over the knees and feet. On the race day, the newly replaced Garmin GPS watch went kaput on me and the music pod went on strike. So it was me left to fend for myself. For pacing, it was left to me to run pacing to feel and for auditory stimulation I was made to listen to my body! Even though the organisers boast of 60,000 participant in this inaugural race in the new Penang Bridge, the starting line had only a thin crowd waiting to be flagged off at 4am. The runners were released in batches all the way from 1.30am to 8am depending on the length of the races and their gender. Whilst waiting at the starting line, an old friend from KL appeared from nowhere. After the initial cursory, he complained that there was not such of eye candy for him to lay his eyes on. I told him that he was in the wrong category, the veterans. That itself was his ...

SCKLM 2014 It all started like a dream within dream scene from 'Inception'. At one moment, I got up thinking that it was time to go, only to realise that it was only 1am. I had planned to arise at 0310hrs to get ready with my regalia to face the 2014 Standard Chartered Kuala Lumpur Full Marathon 42.195km challenge. I went back to sleep. In the next moment, I was shocked to realise that it was daytime and the sun was high. "What happened? Oh, even my buddy, who is to face his first FM must have slept through it all - he did not even call.", I asked myself. "Am I dreaming or is it for real?". I pinched myself to realise that it was real. I told myself, "Well, it is okay. There will always be another day, another run." Then at a different level of consciousness, I checked my watch again. It was 1.30am! I had not missed my alarm after all. With that type of interrupted slumber, Raj and I got ready for over Sunday morning challenge. Raj was soon to ...

Of late, I have across people who have indulged in some activities which would frowned upon. Nobody in the sane mind would ever, even in their wildest dream, consider some of things that these people would do. The more you interact with these people, the more you will realise that they have a tale to tell, and a sad one too! One guy was happily married to university sweetheart till she was diagnosed with the big C. Her health deteriorated as quickly as the news sinked in into the family. Even before the family could come in terms with her impending demise, she left Mother Earth. The guy, devastated with the whole turn of events, was a flicker away from being engulfed by the black dog. He did what most sane people do in situations like this. He ran. Like Forrest Gump he ran and he ran like he had never ran before. At the age of 50, he completed his first marathon and there was no stopping him. The euphoria  of the post run high appears to be the only thing that conserved his sanit...

Born To Run  Christopher McDougall (2009) ( A hidden tribe, super athletes and the greatest race the world has never seen ) Just finished reading a book (a non-fiction) about an elusive Indian tribe, a great foot race and a bunch of mad runners who do ultra marathons. I think that this is a book that any serious runner should read it to get a better perspective on running and also on life itself! The book starts with the author trying to track down a fabled and elusive gringo, Caballo Blanco, who had left his normal life in the US to live amongst a equally timidly elusive Tarahumara Indians in an isolated dry wasteland of canyons and desert-like terrain in Mexico in their simple way of life. The Tarahumaras are said to have been running all their life, first from the Spanish invaders and now from the drug dealers. These Indians have tremendous ability to run extremely long distances with minimal preparations and donning simple footwear - a piece of rubber sole draped by...

The jury is still out on why runners from certain part of Eastern African, especially of a certain tribe in Kenya do extremely well in middle and long distance races. People of the Kalenjin tribe who comprise 0.6% of the world population have the honour of holding more than 40% of the world honours in distances of 800m and above, all the way to marathon. Many theories have been suggested for their lion's share on these records. The familiar reasons that have been told to us are their physique, training in high altitude, their low socio-economic status and running as their trump card to freedom, bla, bla... Now, I heard of a new quasi-genetic explanation for their superiority - their tolerance to pain! In 1968 Mexico City Olympics, the unforgettable heroic saga to victory of a certain athlete, Kipchoge Keino, started the flood gates of subsequent champions emerging from that side of the world. After the preliminary rounds, Kip was to partake in 3 events, namely 10,000m, 5,000m ...

SCKLM 2013 A few days before the event, the haze began to rear its ugly head again. It looked like the run was going to be jinxed, yet again. The question on everybody's mind was that was when the rain was going to come and was the run going to be called off yet again. It rained, alright, but everywhere else but the Klang Valley. This time around, the enthusiasm for the run seem muffled. After being in tip top form for the previous cancelled outing, lethargy set in during the training part of the haze postponed third outing at the 42km marathon. The eventful day finally came. The haze seem to have cleared but in its place was a scorching humid morning with not a single of a breeze. The only breeze seen in the atmosphere seem to the 'Breeze' application of Standard Chartered's mobile application! The outside temperature could easily be 30degrees Celsius. In most marathon races, the run would have been cancelled for health safety reasons. In fact, the last Boston M...