SCKLM 2014 - My 6th Full Marathon

When I think back about the day I started doing my 1st full marathon in Singapore, I was afraid to the knees and butterflies because I had: 1. No strategy 2. Unfamiliar with route. This Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2014 is my 6th full marathon, but I am still stuck to ponder points no. 1 and 2 despite all the experiences gained from previous marathons.

SCKLM changed its 42.2km route completely this year. I watched the video recorded by the pacers and to my horror saw two 10 km-stretches along AKLEH and DUKE. That is a total of 20 km of nothing but the highway.

I felt dreadful days leading to SCKLM because the Thursday, Friday and Saturday before the race was my Licentiate Chemistry Examination. It was a marathon exam on its own where 6 to 8 hours straight of exams for 3 consecutive days. On the Saturday, there was this practical exam which was itself was an ultra marathon: 3 experiments to be completed in 8 hours including a written report. I did not have lunch because I had no time, hence my carbo-loading was literally - zero.

Well, completing a FM is common, but whether you suffer during the race and post-race, is another question. Completing a FM for 9 hours and suffer? - that is exactly what I am trying to avoid.
My personal best for a FM is during the Borneo Marathon this year of 5 hours 20 minute under the dreaded sun. Read it all about it here.

After Tijani at Bukit Tunku. Thank you Sumer Heh.

I had not much training leading this race, so I did not even set ANY expectations on myself. I want to just complete it below 6 hours without any injury to the finish line. I woke up at 2.30am, took like 4 teaspoons of peanut butter onto 2 pieces of bread, drank like a tonne of water, and drove my hubby and I to the JKR building. Met my bunch of running friends, at the Dataran Merdeka, but got scattered up at the starting line.

At the beginning, the route was rather flat. I ran the first 10 km closely behind my hubby (he didn't know I was stalking him for 10 km). Finished 10 km around 1:05 and felt amazing. After that, I lost my hubby as he sped up totally. He trained like amazing hard for this year's SCKLM.

Then I met AKLEH hiway and the boringness starts. Steels and tar-roads are the only thing that meets your eyes. My hubby was way front, I guess, and I somehow gladly followed the 5:00 pacers (in white balloons) for a around half-hour before I lost them too. ZzzZzZzZzzZzZZzzzz...What kinda rubbish route is this?! At round 17 km, we were led down to MRR2, and then I saw......ta da!....the dreaded and boring DUKE at kilometer-21 for another 10km!. Wah lau, worse than AKLEH. When I arrived at Duke Highway, I saw my clock was 2:19, which is just about my timing for a regular 21 km race.

DUKE highway do sound like royalty, but it's one "pariah" piece of route to run. Yet again, I could only see tar and steel and apartment buildings left and right. No scenes, no trees, just nothingness. I only thanked God for the superb weather (no sunshine), and the slight haze was perhaps, helping. I also felt good leading towards the 30 km mark with zero problems on my legs, as yet. Nevertheless, I felt a sharp pain my neck and shoulders (rarely happens) which could be due to accumulated sleepless nights due to my Chemistry exam and studies.

33 km onwards, I felt a slight pain to my right knee and I had certain pain-indications of a cramp about to come. I lather up a blob of Sloan to my thighs and calf. To tell you the truth, those cream didn't work this time, why lah?! Went down to Tijani at KM 37 and then to the dreaded route near Bank Negara interchange where runners from 10, 21, and 42 km converged. Why dreaded, because that was where a huge crowd of runners and walkers (pasar malam like that) coverged and killed the momentum of "real" runners (i.e. like me who hates crowds). At that route towards Muzium Negara, my right leg was greatly in pain and I piled up on the Sloan cream, but to no avail.

I checked the time when I saw Muzium Negara. 5:05. Damn, I might not be able to finish in my PB, but well, that's not the point, right? When I saw Daya Bumi which was 500 m to the finish line, I ran soo hard, I almost fainted. I could amputate off my right leg that very instance, just that I wasn't given a saw.

200 m to the finish line di. The torture face.

Met Farah at the finish line. Not easy to meet her up!

100 metres to the finish line, I saw Vincent and we had a epic fail hi-five because some runner blocked our hands. Boo. Then, I saw my Hubby! Wee!! That motivates me to sprint albeit frantically to the finish line, and of course, it looks better on the official cameras when you do RUN to end.

So, with not much training, no carbo-loading, no sleep (mere 2 hours), I completed my full marathon in an ugly route in 5:25 gun time. I was so proud and happy because...most importantly...I did not suffer upon completion as much as I would thought (though I had a sadistic thought of purchasing an electric saw to saw off my right leg)

But tell you the truth, I could have done much better with some amount of training. Oh well, there's always another marathon, right?


Ivy-out.

Study-No-Enough

Many people were asking why would I want to study (again?!) when I've a doctorate that comes with the "head-damage" title. Isn't it enough of studying? If you didn't know, I have taken a series of high-level chemistry course & examination that allows me to be a Licensed Chemist. The question that has been thrown to me a thousand times: "Why do I need to study for a Chemistry License after all the 10++ years of accumulated studies in my entire 20s?"

 

I graduated from a first degree called Bachelor's Degree Bioindustry with a major in Entomology. What that actually means is that I am a agriculture science graduate which does everything else, biology of plants, insect sciences, and how to kill insect pests. In a nutshell: I learnt the best ways to kill pests such as my little brother and caterpillars munching on your sawi. :-P

 

After my first degree, I received a scholarship from Kuok Foundation to do my Ph.D. to continue to find fancy methods of killing insect pests. Yes, best gilerrr to kill insects like cockroaches, mosquitoes, caterpillars, locusts, etc. But upon graduation of my doctorate degree, I was hired into a non-related industry - the Oil & Gas industry. Let me tell you, this studying is something personal that I want to do, without any coercing by my boss or company. It's entirely personal. Actually, my brains is already wired to do chemistry (I do a lot of chemistry work in my Ph.D. dissertation & in my current job), but it's more like ....if I don't get a Chemistry License, I can't sign off any chemistry reports at my workplace. Why? Simply because I am not from a chemistry background. Damn. That does frustrates me that even a Ph.D. is insufficient for the O&G industry! Btw, there's a governing Act for Chemistry that requires that only one from a Chemistry degree could be a Licensed Chemist.

 

So what I did was to take up a whole entire comprehensive course on chemistry - high level Analytical, Organic, Inorganic and Physical Chemistry, and sat for their examination to obtain the so-called "chemistry background". It was very refreshing yet intimidating to study chemistry from zero (e.g. memorize the periodic table, again?!). You know, this is harder than STPM. Imagine fitting the entire STPM chemistry (and even harder) in 5 months, to then take the exam on month-6th. Total: 6 months to get a Chemistry degree.





#Wefie during the practical exam that took us 8 hours(!!) to complete 3 experiments, with the complete lab report.
And the next day, I went to run a full marathon 42km.





President of Institute Kimia Malaysia (IKM) handing me my Chemistry completion certificate.

I am old. Don't appease me by saying I am not. I have so much workload in my company. My hair is turning white literally. To juggle between studies and work is pretty difficult and therefore, am amazed by how some of my colleagues could find time between studies, work and family (kids!). And my handwriting too, or should I say: my penmanship has deteriorated, probably  due to the reliance of keyboards to write reports.

 

I am old because I realised that I could not memorized reactions and mechanisms anymore. Being in the 30s compared to my Ph.D. years (in the 20s) is completely different (180 degrees). My brains couldn't store any information as easily as before. The only strategy was to study last-minute, where I packed all knowledge a week before and spill (read: vomit!) them all out on exam day. Well, to say the least, that strategy worked rather well for some papers.

 

I am now awaiting the results of this exam results, to which I have both my toes and finger's crossed. My worry basically lies on Organic Chemistry where memory is required the most.

 



Article on us by Dr. Sharon. My coursemates at the end of our 4 month chemistry course.

I do enjoy Chemistry because I can relate to my current jobscope. But the truth is, I still enjoy biology more than chemistry, although practically you can't independently separate 'em both. Again, some people JUST LOVE STUDYING. Nothing is more satisfying than solving a problem related to chemistry or biology both at work and in life (think: cooking!)

 

I thank God because He allows me gave me the thirst for knowledge (albeit all the time!), the ability to study well and handle stress alike. I thank God for his grace for getting me through this stressful/sleepless period with ample support for my husband (he is a fan of mine), and family members. I study because I am personally happy for myself for having the extra edge against others apart from my accumulating experiences at work. With all these in mind, I hope to climb up the career ladder and slowly accumulate more wealth for my family and to....errrr...errrr... buy myself a bungalow or a Mini Cooper or anything for that matter - without thinking twice! That's the whole point kan? Far-fetched objective for a cute little lady, many thinks?

 

For years, I have gained or am accumulating knowledge in:

1. Insect science (Entomology)

2. Agriculture

3. Microbiology

4. Pesticide science/formulation science

5. Analytical Chemistry

6. Environmental sciences

7. Oil and gas, EOR

 

Next knowledge to acquire based on my passion:

1. Management (MBA). Planning yah...

2. Psychology

3. History

4. etc.

 

For now, let's just find some time to finish a bunch of novels and fiction....bought from past two Big-Bad-Wolf ago. LOL!