Merry Christmas everyone!!

Have a wonderful festive season!! If you can't behave...



be safe!!

Think I am addicted...

Had some photos taken by professional photographers at supersportimages.com for the Adra Run I participated couple of weeks ago. Thought I'll share with the world.





And yes, the official timing result is out too.



Almost 11 minutes faster than Auckland Half Marathon!!

Hmm.. when and where is the next fun run / race..?

O Tannenbaum o tannenbaum...

Christmas is here again. Didn't this year went fast? They said the older we get, the faster time went. Ain't that true...

We were in a little Chrismassy mood the other night so thought we put our Christmas tree up. After an hour of fluffed around, wah lah!



It's not much but it's enough to lift our spirit up and get ready for this festive season.



Theme for this years Christmas tree, silver, white and blue.



With a spalsh of green and red here and there.





Last but not least, we didn't forget Santa and snowman, my two favourite chubby cuties at this time of the year.



Will wish you guys Merry Christmas later *wink*

Just another Sunday morning run

I ran another half marathon race this morning and this time was for a charity called ADRA. I managed to raise NZD150.00 thanks to all the generousity of friends. The run was held at the beautiful Mission Bay fountain.



To much of my surprise there were quite a few people participating this event. I got there at about 6am to collect my race number and timing chip. Yes this time I was number 2065. Lotto anyone?

Came 6.45am, we were all waiting at the starting line (finishing line is at the same point as well).


It seem like there were never enough port-a-loo to use in most, if not all of the events like this. People, including me, still needed to queue for ages to relieve our bladder for the last time before the race started eventhough the gun was about to go off in two minutes. In fact, the race started while I was still in the loo! Duh!



This race I felt was a little harder than the last one specially for the first 5km, up some steep hill towards the cliff of Lady's Bay in St. Heliers and then around Glover Park, more hills. But it was good that I 'conquered' it! And the rest was pretty much flat ground around East Tamaki Drive.



Here came me. What's that face?



That's a much better pose!



Now eat my dust lol.



After a hard and long 21km of keep driving my tired feet forward, step after step, wondering why I did this (NOT!), this lady was like a God sent when she appeared with this magic sign right before my eyes!



After the last half marathon in the beginning of this month I didn't train as much as I should because I had two weeks of recovery, one week of training and one taper week before today's half marathon. That might be the reason why I thought I struggled a bit. Because of this, the hope of me finishing faster than 2 hour 25 minutes (my personal best from Auckland Marathon) has certainly gone out the window.



This was me approaching the finishing line.



From my expression, I admit at that stage I just want this to be over so that I could have a fat burger.



We did. We went to Burger King straight after that. It was very yummy.



When I looked up to the timer above the finishing line, I was totally over the moon to see I actually cut ten minutes off my personal best time from my last race! Go me!



After all the hardwork sweat pouring, I've been rewarded with this medal and few other bits and pieces from the event sponsors.



It's all worth it in the end. This will be my second half marathon race added onto my 'repertoire'.


Oops I did it again!

Just like to thank my hubby to be there support me all these time. It certainly meant alot to me.

New breed?

Went to vegie shop the other day and got ourselves a pack of carrot. Trying to eat healthy. When I open the pack I saw this weird and funny looking carrot...



Yes I know exactly what you are thinking. And it looks a bit like this... 'thing'...



Is it still healthy to eat penis carrot? I did and infact I am still alive and furthermore, I feel more energetic!

Upcoming event...

So what's next after Auckland Marathon? Well, that's a big question.

And the big answer is, I am going to run another half marathon end of this month!!



As per picture above explains, this is a charity run for ADRA (Adventist Development and Relief Agency). They are a Christian Organisation initiated by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. This event is to help raise money for community development and disaster relief projects.

It all happen on the 29th November, Sunday, starting at Mission Bay Fountain. The route is as below:



Yup, half marathon = 21km. Another challange for me.

I'm pledging for kind donations to help this charity helping those people who are less fortunate. To all families and friends out there if you are interested to donate, please give me a holla. Any help is kindly appreciated.

More info can be found here.

Peace out.

Me and Tua man

Attended work conference last weekend and guess who I saw?



Mr. David Tua!! Who recently defeated Shane Cameron by a second round knock out!!



Very very nice guy. So different from what we saw on tv, a bulked up ferocious fighter.

Yes, and I didn't wash my hand for that whole day.

Jealous much people?!

I did it! I did it!!

Oh my God! Auckland marathon. What an experience!

The day before, 31st October, I was all nervous and excited. Got all my stuff ready for the big day.



2009 Marathon shirt by Adidas and yup, I'm 2943 report!



Pretty cool logo huh!



And all the necessities: Energy gel, bum bag, vaseline, plaster, cap, camera and of course, shorts.

If you wonder why vaseline and plaster? Well, vaseline is to rub on areas like armpits and between groin to avoid chaffing. Say no more... And plaster? Please see the below photo...



Quite self explanatory. Last thing I need is to finish the run with bleeding nipple as a result of rubbing against my shirt... Yes me nipples are tender..

I went to bed at about 5pm on Saturday, my earliest bed time ever. Was good thou, I woke up by 3am on Sunday morning and was all hyped up. After a few stretches and good preperation, dear hubby dropped me off at Devonport. I had about one and a half hour on my sleeve so I walked around sussed out where the start line is so that I wouldn't start too far back.



Full marathon started at 6.10am and my event half marathon started at 6.45am.



There were many contestant for the full marathon but even more for the half.



One thing that annoyed me, just a little bit, was the loo incident. I had to queue to use port-a-loo for about 20 minutes before it came my turn. And I was only in there for less than a minute... People must have last minute toilet rush or just nervous like me.

Anyway 6.45am came and the race started. It was an experience, a good one, hearing so many runners' shoe pounded the road together! My first 10 kilometer went fairly quick. Was it the adrenalin? Or was it the result of my training? I don't know but was sure surprised!

Running on motorway up towards Auckland Harbour Bridge was another whole new experience for me. It was noisy but quiet at the same time. Noisy because of cars and trucks drove pass us. Quiet because on the bridge, wind and our own heavy breathing was all that we hear. That was the sort of experience I don't get everyday.



And I was running in front of Ghost Busters. Talked about experience~



The hardest part? Yes of course!! Last 5 kilometers were the hardest. While running, it felt like my legs were pounding the concrete so hard and yet I wasn't moving any faster. See my face expression in the photo below? It's called struggling...



Went I turned onto Fanshaw Street, finish line was within sight. 200 meters to go I thought to myself. And then suddenly I felt this adrenalin rush and I was literally so high that I just sprint thru to finish and hit my first ever personal best of 2hr 25min 26sec!!





Ha quite proud of myself actually, to have completed my first ever half marathon. I actually received a certificate from the organizer too!! And guess what? I just realized when I enrolled many moons ago, I enrolled as a walker because I didn't expect myself to run this thing and I forgot to change it over!!!!



Arrgghhh!!! Gutted!! Oh well, end of the day, I knew I ran it and happy with the end result.



I'm sure there will be more runs to come!! I had a blast!!!

Slacking off... really?

Haven't been updating this blog for a while... No I haven't been lazy. In fact the only thing that's on my mind, apart from family and work commitments, is my training. Half marathon event is this coming Sunday and I don't even know if I prepared myself enough or not with all these training. Oh well, tough if not. But I'll give my best shot and am sure I'll have an experience of a lifetime, come pleasure or pain.

Took a few pictures of different places I went during some of my training.

Mt Eden, yes I ran up there weeks ago from home on a beautiful Sunday morning. Was a challenging run but it was great!! I felt fantastic to be able to conquer this volcanic mountain.





It was a long and winding path up to the top.



Just had a Sylvester Stallone moment on the way up with my fist high up in the air. Consequence of watching too much movies and day dreaming...



And the hugest reward when I got on top, not only self-satisfaction but this gorgeous view of Auckland City.

I've ran to Westhaven Marina too. It's amazing the things that I see being on foot... makes me appreciate nature and man made structures alot more.



This is my favourite shot towards Harbour Bridge. Please click to enlarge if you like this too hehe.





And of course, along East Tamaki Drive to and from Mission Bay is every runner's favourite. Flat surface most of the way and I was pretty much running with seagulls.



Rangitoto Island, one of Auckland's iconic volcanic island.



Few more days to go now. Roll on Sunday!!