Pacesetter’s 5km Run and Happy Merdeka
I wanted to write a Merdeka post but suddenly my verbal diarrhea skills failed me. All I could think of wasn’t something very patriotic or non-cynical. So instead of risking myself having to eat “kali peng” (curry rice) in ISA, I’d better stick to something nice and fluffy like my inaugural 5km run in Putrajaya. Yes…that’s nice and safe so here it goes! 
Inspired by Kennysia’s KL Marathon and Penang Bridge Run!
I was “persuaded” to join the 5km Putrajaya Breakfast Run organised by the Pacesetters Club and signed up grudgingly for it without realising I was going to be having an adventure-filled day the day before! By the time I found out, it was too late to pull out and tofu me had to go on my virgin run, despite never having ran in a very long time!
Sunday morning saw me bright and early signing up at their booth.
Collected my number (which I didn’t know how to pin on!). If you’re a 4-D fan, the first letter is ‘D’ not ‘0′!
Start with some warm-up…
And we’re off!!
It was quite interesting watching how some people ran. Some burst into sprints the minute the signal was given while the more experienced runners paced themselves. Some walked and others half-ran and half-walked and little girl next to me who was constantly egged on to run by her mommy kept asking when she could stop to walk! Her constant pleas to stop to walk echoed mine but I was “made” to keep running at a constant pace.
A friend made an interesting observation about the runners. He said it was a little like life. Some burst into great speeds at the beginning only to slow down halfway through while some started slow only to speed up towards the end to win and others kept a consistent pace throughout. So which are you?
I plodded on, half dead most of the way. That was when I realised that when you’re almost ready to give up physically, the mental strength to go on takes you further than you would have been able to physically. No wonder athletes say that running is a race with yourself, not with anyone else. It’s an internal challenge to keep going even when your body is crying out for you to stop.
5km later, the finish point never looked so good! I was parched dry and luckily the organisers had a wonderful treat of sweet and juicy watermelon waiting for us!
I don’t usually eat watermelon but that particular watermelon never tasted so good!
We were asked to trade in our numbers for a food pack. For RM2 which we paid at the start of the race, we got this! I was very impressed!
Clockwise from the top: A bottle of mineral water, 2 curry puffs, a slice of marble cake, a pack of fried mee siam, a banana, an orange and 10 packs of Nesvita 3-in-1 instant oats!
So did I enjoy the run? Well, it wasn’t too bad for an inaugural run. Although I felt like dying most of the way, the endorphines at the end of it made me feel really good! That, plus the lovely breakfast and watermelon treat provided by Pacesetters!
Will I do it again? Hm…I’m not sure! 
Having said that, do have a Happy Merdeka and do enjoy your long weekend! Tomorrow morning while you’re eating your nasi lemak, dim sum, roti canai and sipping on your hot teh tarik, do pause for a moment and think what this day means to you, besides getting a public holiday and getting to enjoy a myriad of food everyday! I know I would.
Scatter-brained Me
Anyone remembers ol’ Forgetful Jones from Sesame Street? “Ah think ah forgot!”
Sometimes I swear I’ll forget my head if it wasn’t screwed on tight! Worst of all, I can’t blame it on age…yet!
On Sunday morning, I had to be a cat slave so I woke up early and had a small panic attack when I couldn’t find my car keys. Trying to recall, I figured they must have been in sis‘ car when we went out the day before. So I gathered all my stuff, took the lift down to the carpark, trotted over to her car and PANIC! It wasn’t there! Starting to break out in cold sweat, I took the lift back up, came into the house and turned it higgly-piggly trying to find my keys only to find it “securely” kept in the pocket of her bag
Two weekends ago, I stayed over at a friend’s place before I went for my 5km run. Sis asked to see the photos I took and PANIC! I couldn’t find my camera and figured I must have left it at his house. The next morning, when I was hunting for my car keys (again!), I found the camera and the keys safely nestling in the pocket of the bag I had brought to his house. Although, he later told me that I had left my running shoes at his place!
I’m forever losing my condo pass, have come close to losing my passport (that was the scariest) and sometimes forget what I’m about to say when I’m talking to my sis! Hopeless! So luckily my head is screwed on tight otherwise…
Ah think ah forgot what I’m about to say next!
Carrefour’s Non-Express Lane
I hate to begin the week with a rant but the situation I just came out from was such rant material, I couldn’t let it pass.
I popped by Carrefour during lunch to take a walk. Yes, sometimes when I’m bored, I go for walks in the nearby supermarkets to clear my head and see if any junk calls out to me! Anyway, I managed to find some snacks to tide me till dinner and sped towards the checkout. What I don’t like about Carrefour is their queues at the checkout. For some reason, Jusco clears their queues much faster. More efficient perhaps. The cashiers at Carrefour always look half-dead or half-fed. The Express Lane queue was quite short so I rushed towards there and…
Lo and behold! Right in front of us was a lady with her daughter who evidently did not know how to read “10 items and below” sign. They had with them a huge trolley of stuff ranging from a luggage bag (?!) to umbrellas, underwear and what-nots.
And what did the cashier do? She took out the stuff and started scanning it. That was when I lost my cool. I pointed at the sign and said:
“10 items sahaja la”
Some lightbulbs must have exploded in her head because she peered over to the laden trolley the woman had and said “10 sahaja” which the woman didn’t seem to understand. She then asked if she was paying by cash and when the woman answered in the affirmative, the cashier had the gall to tell us to wait while tallying up the woman’s 30+ items which came up to a couple of hundred!!
She knew I was mighty angry with her ‘cos she kept stealing glances at me while tallying up the stuff. And when it was my turn, she kept glancing at me while I glared at her.
I don’t think the trolley lady was very used to hypermarkets cos she tried to make away with my purchases which she thought was hers. If she couldn’t understand the function of an express lane then it’s up to the cashiers to tell her what it’s for. Otherwise, the express lane would just end up being another redundant “white elephant” like the many we already have hanging around.
Here Kitty, kitty…
It’s no secret that I’m terrible at keeping pets. Sure, I go goo-goo-ga-ga over cute little dogs and laugh at little kitten antics but when one of the toughest fish in the world; aka the common guppie that normally survives in the dirtiest drains; goes belly-up on me, there’s got to be something really wrong with my pet-keeping abilities!
I’m quite scared of animals even when they bound up to me in friendly greeting. I don’t like feeling their wet sticky tongue and like them only when they’re lying still which animals weren’t made to do! Nevertheless, I believe I’m still more a dog person as most of my experiences with cats as a kid involved chasing after the neighbour’s cats who used to use our garden as their giant kitty litter tray!
Years later, in University, we made the mistake of giving our cat-mad friend a kitten for her birthday which caused quite a bit of havoc in our college and she was forced to give it away. I had to kitten-sit for her once when she went away for the weekend and was at an absolute loss at what to do. Dog person, remember?! The kitten refused to eat the food I put out for her and I ended up feeding her milk treats (which are just treats, not real food!) instead simply so that she’ll eat something! Definitely a fail in Pet-Keeping 101!
So what does all that history have to do my weekend? Well, this non-cat lover spent her Saturday morning scooping kitty poop! It started when J had to go off for the weekend and couldn’t contact his animal-lover friend to temporarily board his cats. So this non-cat lover offered to help him out with not one, but three kitties! His instructions weren’t that difficult. He just needed me to go over to check that all was okay with the cats and that the litter tray was cleared and sufficiently filled.
So I trotted over early this morning and oh dear! There were sh*tloads (literally! :P) of litter to be cleared! Maybe I’m just paranoid or biased but I find kitty poop really smelly and had to hold my breath while scooping them up to be thrown away! I was starting on the 2nd tray when one of the cats came by and for whatever reason, chose to pee all over the floor when a nice clean litter tray was right before it! Yes, I felt like killing the cat at that point! Another cat seemed to be ill as it had puked out remains of its food and didn’t seem to be eating much at all. So I cleaned up everything, replaced their water, topped up their food, make sure they don’t run out of the room each time I opened the door, groomed and talked to them a little and that was how I spent my Saturday morning!
I’m just hoping really hard that there wouldn’t be a repeat of this when I go back in again tomorrow morning! I think this incident has just reinforced my no-pets policy!
On my way home with my nose and clothes filled with “Eau de Cat Poop”, I wondered what possessed me, a non-cat lover, to do this. I think there was only one answer to that - love. It makes us do the strangest things!
P/S An update on Biby: He’s improved drastically and amazingly can actually communicate with us now! If he’s feeling hungry, he’ll peep through the fence and lick his lips. Otherwise, if he’s already been fed by his owner that day, he’ll just take a tiny peek to see who’s there then go back to playing with his bowl! He’s come a long way!
