k r i s a n d r o

My last race was at Singapore Bay Run (SBR) in Sep 2009 for the 21km run and since then, there was this running curse that plagued me since then. Getting to the starting line of Sundown 2011 proved to be an obstacle itself with the insane traffic jam leading up to Changi Exhibition Centre (CEC).

From my observations, the only people who got to the starting line in time were those who planned to arrive insanely early and those who travelled via motorcycles that can weave through the snail-paced vehicular jam.

The awesome KuKuNehNeh drove me to Expo where we parked and we took a cab down to CEC. A drive from Expo to CEC on any other day that will take 20mins, took almost 1hr that day. And that was only to the junction leading to Aviation Park Road. We got off the cab and away from the clearly pissed cab driver who most likely regretted picking us up even when I gave him 4 extra dollars as compensation. We then walked at a fast pace towards the starting line which took us another 25-30mins. Scores of runners and supporters lined the streets on route to the starting line as well.

My personal best (PB) was 2:43:32 at the SBR in 2009 and I aimed to do a 1:59:00 and set off at a good average pace of 5:36/km for the 1st 10km. The pace was tough to maintain not because of the speed but for the waves and waves of human traffic that I had to weave through because I started 30mins past the official starting time. Walkers hogged both the left and right extremes and sometimes even the centre. There are also groups of runners that probably know each other and thus formed various formations that I had to circumnavigate.

Most of the time I had to silently find opportunities to overtake as I didn’t want to say “To your right!” for the whole of 21km and ended up bumping into a few elbows and arms while overtaking. I did say my “Sorries” though.

The water/100plus stations were overcrowded and I only managed to grab a cup of 100plus at the 4km mark and another 2 cups of water along the way to the 17km mark. My mind and body broke down at that point and I walked to the 100plus station and took a cup and walked. It was tasty life going down my throat and I actually walked back after 5 metres just to grab another cup and walked for another 300 metres.

Upon checking my watch and remembering what I set out to do, my mind rebooted and I ran my way to finish in 2:02:13 with an average pace of 5:30/km for the last 3.65km. I was really spent, pushing myself through the last 500m and my right calf cramped up. The photographers at the last stretch probably have all pictures of my face in various states of agony.

I didn’t achieve what I set out to do but I am still extremely pleased at breaking my race curse and shaving off 40+mins off to set a new PB.

This is only my 2nd race since starting long-distance running in 2009 and there’s a wealth of lessons learnt. I can’t wait to start training for my next race!

A poor location to organise a running event of such scale but kudos to the Sundown 2011 volunteers that lined the route and the water stations who were extremely cheerful while saying/shouting words of encouragement as I ran my heart out. I can’t imagine the amount of work involved in cleaning up the event site and route which was littered with cups and other rubbish as well.

A big THANK YOU to you volunteers! (and also to KKNN for driving and accompanying me there. Though she said it will be the last time she is gonna do that due to the horrible traffic. LOL)

Update: The official results are out at Runpix! http://www.runpix.info/wrace2/00/sun11/ge.php?ln=

Here’s my comparison between Sundown 2011 & SBR 2009

(Click to enlarge)

Some of us humans has this ability to create a connection with anyone they meet and I think that although I am lacking in this aspect, I seem to have this ability with animals.

For example, KuKuNehNeh loves animals and likes to play with the neighbourhood cat who is lovingly named as “Or-Ki” (mole) or “Or-Bak-Kak” (eye bruise). Even when she is doing all the weird cat calls or petting the cat to get it’s attention, the cat will still tend to give me more affection.

The 6 lovebirds we have at home also seem to be more interested in me and even the office cat, Yuniko Lim Fei Mao has this affinity with me. Okay, maybe the latter’s connection was based on the food that I gave it but the fact is, they all like me!

So KuKuNehNeh has this conclusion that in my past life, I was a…

…Tree

Her reasoning is that birds love trees because they like to perch on them.

Cats love trees for scratching and climbing.

Dogs…. Well… Dogs love trees because they pee on them.

As I approach the dreaded big 30, the topic of marriage always lurk around corners. There will be friends of similar age who are getting hitched and are waiting for their HDB to be ready within the next few years. There are those who are already married with a kid or even two. And then there is the girlfriend like mine who is just waiting for me to pop the question.

Credits to hammer51012

The thing about marriage is…… I don’t believe in it if it’s about love.

I always have big notions about love and relationships and it might seem contradicting to my view above but I think marriage is one of the worst things that can be done for most people in love. It makes leaving each other harder if the love is gone.

“The root cause of divorce is …… marriage” - heard over the radio

In many ways, doesn’t it ring true? A marriage is a contract. If two are in love, why is there a need for a contract to bind them together? If one cheated on the other and decided to stay together because of a contract, is it love? If you know of an old couple who has been married for the last 50 years, would you think that they truly love each other? If you know of an old couple who stayed together for the last 50 years without marriage, wouldn’t you think that the latter couple is DEFINITELY much more in love than the former?

If you love someone, you just do; you don’t need to be legally bound to remind you that you should love him/her do you? Marriage is an administrative procedure that allows a couple to do many things legally but does nothing really good for the relationship in the love department. Some might say the marriage protects the woman. When the relationship turns south, the woman is helped legally in many ways. I say, unless the woman is a money grubbing one, she loses more than she gains from a divorce.

Divorce and the social ramifications that stem from it makes it troublesome and difficult to go through.

My point is that marriage is not the ultimate nor the final thing one can do for love. Marriage and love are mutually exclusive. Love can exist without marriage and marriage can be kept without love.

If you want to know if a person is available, don’t ask if he/she is married. Ask if he/she is in love.

I love KuKuNehNeh, and thus I shall comfort her, honour and keep her in sickness and in health and forsaking all others, be faithful to her, so long as I shall live. Sounds familiar? It’s an adaptation of a version of wedding vows that one will take in Singapore and it’s ALREADY true for me. Note that I love her and thus I am/will do all that follows (comfort, honour, faithful….). If I am already doing all that without marriage, why do I have to marry her, take vows of love, promise of eternal faithfulness and care when it can all end with divorce.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll marry my dear KuKuNehNeh in the not so distant future. In fact, I’ve been constantly thinking of ways to propose to her for the last year and more. I know she’ll say ‘yes’ of course but my motive is to make her cry buckets with the proposal. So why do I want to marry her when I don’t believe in marriage?

I’ll marry her not because I love her. I’ll marry her because of all the advantages that society only gives to those who are legally bound by marriage; kids, housing and all. Sounds shallow doesn’t it? But if you really think into what I said, KuKuNehNeh is a very lucky woman because I love her and already treat her as well as a husband should.

Now, to save up for the money sucking activities that society demands for a piece of paper.

I am alive!

And I’ve been a bad, bad blogger. So bad that you ought to have me on your lap so that you can give me some good spanking. But we both know that you don’t want that to happen so let’s just pass.

Work and life has been keeping me really busy and I really find it hard to update this space of mine. I won’t say ‘sorry’ because I don’t owe you guys any updates and I won’t promise anything because I probably won’t fulfil any as well.

Some PR agencies have probably given up on me as well because I’ve been attending events and have not been sharing my experiences even though I enjoyed most of it. So much for being in the social media scene and not practising what I preach. Even KuKuNehNeh nags at me about those posts.

My health has been really bad for the last 2-3 months and it pretty much killed the biggest event that I was looking forward to for the year. I had to give the Standard Chartered marathon a miss as my fitness level was not up to mark with all the flu and cough that plagued me like no tomorrow. I have however not given up at running my first marathon and I have signed up for next year’s Adidas Sundown marathon for the 21km event to prepare me for the Standard Chartered marathon at the end of 2010.

I am in the midst of stabilizing the priorities in life and deciding on the next big thing. There is something quite unsettling about turning 28 this Christmas and wondering why I haven’t been able to say, “This is what I want to do for the next 30 years.” My laid back personality is probably the cause of this uncertainty and I’d like to think that it’s high time I find what I want to do for the next chapter in my life before I can confidently ask someone to spend the rest of her life with me.

“Good things come to those who wait…”

So… happy waiting for my next blog post!

Meanwhile, catch me on Twitter and Plurk where I update much more frequently!