Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014 - Part 2

Can't believe I finished 21 km!

In approximately 2 hours and 42 minutes.

That moment when I crossed the finish line, I was famished, exhausted and feeling pain all over my body especially both the legs despite me going into the rest station for muscle spray on the legs several times during the run.

But the sense of accomplishment being a 21 km finisher was too sensational. 1st time participated and still able to finish it, I was so glad all turned out well.

Dataran Merdeka was really packed. I can see some of the finishers taking selfies or welfies, celebrating the achievement, some were just sitting down resting, noise after another, it was just too lively.

Took a glance at Dataran Merdeka, it was not hard to realize that most of the participants, I would say 60% - 70% were vibrant group of teenagers or young adults like me.

There were familiar faces of my friends from secondary schools and UTP, but sadly only a few remembered and greeted me.

 The Honda 21 km finisher medal in close-ups.

This will be one of my unforgettable moments in life and I shall treasure both this medal and the finisher certificate!

My official result - ranked 1346 among over 30,000 runners. Not bad, thinking back, if I skipped walking in some parts of the marathon, I would have better ranking and finishing time. 

I will be back next year, aim to improve my personal ranking and finishing time!

Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014 - Part 1

The Standard Chartered KL Marathon was 2 weeks ago, but I am free only at this time to write about it.

Last year February when I worked for Standard Chartered at Menara Standard Chartered as an intern, I still remembered those hanging banners, flyers and emails in office promoting this marathon. Thinking that it is a marathon organized by the company I worked for, I definitely had strong desire to join it for the first time. Too bad, registration for all categories closed already due to overwhelming responses from the public.

This year I finally managed to register for Honda Malaysia 21 km! It is just rm65 for my category, which includes race entry pack and certificate.

Today's post is on the day before the event day, where I collected my race entry pack at Dataran Merdeka.

The crew were still busy setting up barricades at the starting and finishing line.

To be frank, I am not prepared at all to run 21 km the next day. The naked truth is that during all my trainings before the run, I have never completed a real full 21 km, what I did were just short sprints of roughly 3 - 4 km. I always think 21 km is as easy as ABC, until I stood at Dataran Merdeka taking all the pictures above.

Confidence built so far gone in seconds, the atmosphere made me nervous and tense.

There were actually mixed feelings, I was nervous yet can't wait for the run to start. Excited yet more butterflies in my stomach.

Along the way, more people were spotted collecting race entry pack too.

What is the race entry pack?

Tadaa!

Race Entry Pack

Salonpas

Race Bib

MSIG Insurance

Limited Edition GP Battery

SEIKO Catalogue of Limited Watches

HONDA Catalogue of Jazz

Race Bag

Race Singlet

October 11 was also my grandmother's birthday so we had a dinner celebration at a Chinese restaurant.

What a good time for me to eat eat and eat, so I would have energy to run the next day hahaha.  

Anyway, happy birthday to my grandmother. May her always be blessed with health and wealth.

Stay Tuned for Part 2!

Aron Ralston Described the Amputation

Now Aron Ralston described the amputation.

Imagine him doing it in a condition where he was absolutely conscious, and he is not even a doctor!

Too much pain, and too much courage.

If I was him, I would rather die in one piece.

Aron Ralston's Real Video Footage

Looking back to my previous post, can you not feel his despair?

127 Hours

Have your watched this movie by James Franco which played Aron Ralston as the mountain climber?

It is adapted from a true story, I watched it few years ago on the night before departing to Hatyai, Thailand where I also lost my wallet in the bus. Dramatic enough.

Still not as dramatic as the story, 127 hours.

This 2010 British-American biographical survival drama film was received well by critics and audiences and it was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Franco.

Now see what the real-life canyoneer Aron Ralston, who became trapped by a boulder in an isolated slot canyon in Blue John Canyon, southeastern Utah, in April 2003 has to say.

Ban Shark Fins

It is estimated that 73 million sharks are killed every year to fuel a billion dollar shark fin industry that has in recent decades, reached unsustainable levels.

As we all know, shark fins are used in a thick soup that is viewed as a delicacy by Chinese people and served at luxury restaurants in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore.

The method of shark finning - slicing off the fins of live animals and then throwing them back in the water to die, like the video below showed.

Sharks now are in trouble - they face the threat of extinction in every part of the world. Their numbers recorded a worldwide collapse, thus further threatening marine ecosystems and is holding many species on the brink of extinction.

However, now that sharks have earned themselves another ally in the fight for their fins!

Kudos to the Malaysian government!.

Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob officiated "Don't Want Shark Fin" campaign at Mandarin Oriental Hotel at 10 am today and said that the Cabinet resolved on May 21 this year, all government official banquets, will ban shark fin and its related dishes.

Earlier before this, Berjaya Hotels & Resorts,  Shangri- La Hotels & Resorts and Peninsula  Hotel Groups have decided that they would no longer serve shark fin soup in any of their hotels and resorts around the world.

The trend is emerging but this may not be a good news to the shark fin industry.

Whatever it is, just pray for the best for both the sharks and shark fin lovers. Hope they sort out something.

Animals are my friends

I treat animals as my friends. There was time when I was a vegetarian at the age of 10, my parents scolded me saying that if I don't eat meat, I would not grow up properly like others.

Whenever I fall sick, they would say I was weak because I don't eat meat.

I understand that they said that for my own good, they want me to grow stronger and healthier. So I eat not to make them worried.

Now that I have grown to the age of 24, I think I want to become a vegetarian.

I may not be a total vegetarian for now, but I can say I am doing really good in consuming less meats.

Mankind now take animals for their meats, for entertainment like the dolphins or elephants you see in circus or dog fighting, for cosmetic even, testing on them first before using on mankind themselves.

For me, I made efforts not to eat any meat at all, I cook myself more veges, fruits, beans etc unless I need to get socially engaged with others outside my house like for example barbeque, steamboat. Even that I just take a bit of the meat in front of my friends and will continue my vegetarian meals by ordering non meat meals.

I have never been to circus, never watch pit bulls/ dog fighting and I buy beauty products only if the product label said : NO testing on animals. I have never been fishing until recently, I make sure I do less of that as well.

More and more people all over the world are going vegetarian.

Join us now. I believe we don't need to kill animals for living healthily.

Whatever activities that we do that will harm any animals, stop them right away. They have feelings like us too.

This video can be found in Youtube as

Earthlings - Deleted Scenes (Mature Audiences ONLY)