Time is but man's invention, so I spent New Year's Eve dozing off at home. To me, Dec 31 2006 is no different from Jan 1 2007. And I had such a busy day I would be too tired to stay up!

This morning I woke bright and early and reached Macritchie at 630am for the MR25 Ultramarathon. It's a 7am to 7pm event, but seeing I had to be in the office by 12noon, I figured I could cover 4 loops of the 10.8km trail route only. That's exactly what I did in almost exact splits for each loop. I covered 43.2km in 4h 22min. Man, was it hilly! I felt really good though, comfortable pacing throughout. Just a few months ago I'd never thought I could survive such distances with such ease. Plus, I biked 115km yesterday... swam 3k on Friday, swam 3k and ran 10k on Thursday, ran 12k on Wednesday, and ran 18k on Tuesday... it's been a great training week. I'm definitely feeling good ahead of Ironman Langkawi on Feb 24.

So, did me run, cooled down for a bit, then rushed to work and reached at 12 on the dot. Stayed at work till bout 4ish then went to church for Thanksgiving Dinner with my family. Dinner ended at about 9.30pm, then I took the train back to home sweet home, where I am now lying in bed all ready to sleep.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the Sly Ride, starting from Dempsey at 7am, followed by the Cycleworx New Year ride at 830am. Hopefully I will wake up with fresh legs!

To everyone, Happy New Year and may 2007 be filled with health, happiness, and a heaps of mileage in the pool, on the bike and on the run!! (Mine's gonna be!)

If it continues to rain like this in Singapore, I think we can soon bid for the 18,000m Road Steeplechase World Championships. Not that there's such an event, but maybe I should come up with it and make loads of money. Cos that what I just did - I ran 18k in the rain, a loop that took me from my Pasir Ris place round Bedok Reservoir and back... with detours along the way. I would suppose for a good 1.5km of the run I was splashin in shin-high puddles. But it was great, all the cake-loading from the past two days of festivities helped, I ran like there was no tomorrow. After sleeping for the whole day and feeling like a slob, good thing I managed to haul my fat ass out of the door. Also helped that Dad came back as I was going out and said, "Don't run in the rain, you'll get pneumonia.". So that all the more spurred the rebel in me, huh huh.

Christmas was great, much better than I expected. The morning I didn't get to ride because of the rain, so was a bit pissed with that. But the Ong family party was at me place this year so when everyone started arriving it started to feel like Christmas more. Did the usual, eat, carol, have someone dress up as Santa, give out pressies, joke, chat, ... and this year karaoke, where I did TWO renditions of MC Hammer's You Can't Touch This. Yes, made a total fool of myself, but at least I had fun. And then tried to sound like Emi Fujita singing Desperado, but merely ended sounding desperate. Anyway, got a few presents this year. As you know I got myself a Specialized helmet. Dad and mom gave me an electric Oral-B toothbrush. Bro and Beeli gave me toiletries from Crabtree and Evelyn. Amelia gave me a pendant from Soo Kee. And surprise surprise - Andrea gave me shower gel from H2O. Thanks guys!!

After our house party I went down to Janice and Andrew's for their Christmas party. It was great.. I love their house, even though green isn't one of my favourite colours. Anyway that is besides the point - the people there made the party great. I spent a good part of the night speaking to Janice's dad on running. Hopefully I will still be as fit as he is when I'm his age! Also bumped into Terrence, who I've been chatting with on MSN. Bizzare, we both can't recall how we know each other, but anyhow it was good to finally put a face to a name. Adrian and Kimberley were there too, nice to see them. And then there were the peeps from AAA - Amateur Asian Athletes - who were great fun to talk to and hang out with. The food was fabulous too, although I was so stuffed by the time I got there so I hardly ate. But thanks much to Janice and her sis for cooking up a storm! Well, everyone started leaving and then Randall arrived, so I stayed for a bit longer. Good to see him too after a long time. Started feeling really tired so I left for home at about midnight, or as Randall put it I would turn into a pumpkin if I didn't get home.. right...!

So that was my Christmas, and I hope you had a great one yourself.

Supposed to do x'mas shopping today but was sooo extremely lazy I stayed at home pretty much all day - 'cept for an ultra-slow 9k run in the arvo and an enjoyable 83k ride with the cycleworx dudes in the evenin'. Well, at least I got some work done from home...

Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas this year, I don't know why. I was really looking forward to it at the beginning of the year, but somehow... I don't know, i'm not feeling the way I thought I'd feel. It's quite weird though, I thought I had just celebrated Christmas. I remember BP at Aunty Gek's, bringing my little niece Alex and nephews Mark and Zach to Funan, where BP eventually bought an Xbox. Botak was there too. It was such a fun time. Gave BP an iPod shuffle and a Sigg bottle for xmas, and me parents gave him a printer. I baked cookies for our family party and gave some to his parents. I don't suppose any of that would happen this year. Maybe that's why I'm feeling the way I'm feeling. (I really have to stop moping).

I bought an xmas pressie for myself, a Specialized Decibel helmet in white-pink. Wore it for the ride today and it was perfect. Yeah, opened my pressie before xmas. Heck. Peter Reid wore the same helmet when he won Kona, so perhaps that will spur me on to reach Kona again.

Am running with Mr Leong at 745am tomorrow, so I better sleep now. Legs still feeling tired from that relatively fast ride just now. Ouch.

135k ride, steaming hot when i started, caught in the rain on the way back. Nice warm bath and a bowl of Special K + Coco Pops with cold skim milk. It doesn't get better than that!

This morning at a press conference at the Ritz Carlton, the Aviva Ironman 70.3 Singapore was officially unveiled... it was great to catch up with friends there, Adrian, Jeff, Ser Luck, Harn Wei, Andrew and Janice, Dan Metcalfe and Charles Anderson... so happy for Adrian and Jeff that they've succeeded in bringing the race to Singapore and finding a sponsor for it! Thanks much to Charles for making the dreams of so many Ironmen (and Ironman wannabes) here come true.

Off to work. Darn.

Holy cow, it's just over two weeks to the New Year. Where the heckory doodles did this year go to??? Damn, I'm six months into my new job already. The World Cup felt like yesterday, along with a host of other life-changing events that took place for me this year.

I'm not one to make New Year's Resolutions, but this year I'm making one. Although the contents of it will remain a secret...

Anyway, I have yet to buy Christmas presents, I've chalked up two Off-In-Lieus, and I have a party to go to this weekend. First party in, what, ten years? Ok right I lie, but first party in a long time. I think. Well, it's a house party, Meg and Jo's at Oxley... coke light and haagen dazs... damn, can't you just tell from that menu I'm gonna get sooo drunk?? Perhaps the closest to alcohol is rum-n-raisin flavoured ice cream! Now you know why I don't party.

This Saturday (same day as the party!), Adrian will be having his Ironman 70.3 Singapore press conference, and a whole bunch of us will be cycling around.. SL, NF, me.. (who else ah, adrian?). If you wanna find out more, hang around the Ritz Carlton area at 10am! Or just bloody sign up for the race, won't you? It's going to be great. I forgot the URL, go google it.

Today I feel like a different person. I don't know why. All I can say is that something big happened a few days ago, which kind of woke me up. Made me realise stuff I hadn't realised in a while. And talking to a number of people for a feature I'm working on has opened my eyes too. Thanks to wen si, gary, kenneth, linli, rena and kendrick.. I've seen the light!!!

On a totally different note, I had Spinelli's Honey Gingerbread Chai tea whatever-it's-called drink today, and my staple toasted-for-longer-please Tuna and Egg breakfast roll (it's just a name, i have it for lunch and dinner all the time, and it's not a roll, it's just a regular square sandwich but absolutely delish and only $2.40)... perfect meal on a rainy day after a run. Mmm... I think I shall have the same thing tomorrow!

Tired!

Just woke up after a ten-hour sleep, the longest I've had in a long time. I've been working till 12ish, 1ish a.m. for this Asian Games period and been sleeping really late, so my whole body clock is screwed up. I rode 135k yesterday, almost all alone (cos all the cycleworx dudes went to Cameron Highlands). It wasn't the best ride but I'm glad I made it on less than four hours of sleep the night before. Probably why I crashed so hard last night! Had to miss church today because I have to go to the airport in a while. The badminton team are coming back.

The good thing about this Asian Games period is that I get to start work at 3pm. So, after waking pretty late from sleeping late the night before, I've been heading down to MacRitchie, rain or shine, for a run. I rested on Monday after the marathon, swam 3.5k on Tuesday really easy, ran on both Wednesday (good weather, 11k) and Thursday (storming, 14k), and swam 4.5k on Friday with five 200m efforts thrown in. It's been a pretty good week I guess, not one you'd expect after racing the marathon last Sunday. But the ride yesterday took quite a bit out of me, or perhaps it was the activites from the whole week, that I think I might take today off or do a 30 minute recovery run. Depends how work goes! Probably squeeze it in during my dinner break.

I have been receiving quite a few emails through this website this past week, congratulatory messages and questions and stuff. The most often asked question is how I juggle work and training. I guess being a journalist helps because I have a flexible schedule and start work later than the usual shenton way worker. Of course, I work till later. But anwyay, I usually train either before work or during lunch or both, depending on my assignment for that day. Very seldom after, because I knock off too late. Nothing much of a juggle, just wake up earlier and skip lunch (or eat a sandwich at my desk). It helps when you don't have other commitments (like a husband, boyfriend or kids). It also helps that I don't fancy going out much and don't club. So, yes, I am probably the most boring 24-year-old around but I guess it helps me to juggle work and training. Not to say I don't have a social life, because my friends are mostly sportsmen or sports industry-related. So work, and of course training, then become part of my social life too.

I think I need a nap.

Wait, did I mention that I've signed up for Ironman Langkawi on Feb 24, 2007? Yep, US$300 committed. Bank broken.

I had the best day in weeks yesteday.

First, I ran the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon in 3h 39min 46sec (gun time), 3h 39min 32sec (chip time) and finished fourth in the Singapore Women's category. Totally unexpected, because I had only five hours of sleep the night before (had to work), I felt like crap in the morning, and my masseuse told me my calves and ITBs were very tight (and they were). I told the Fulford PR guys before my race that I wasn't feeling as good as I should, so obviously there wasn't much optimism in me. Warmed up, didn't feel good either. Legs felt like lead (damn water retention!!). Started the race and went easy, but I think I got carried away by the crowd and went a bit too fast. Was aiming for 3:45, but was on a 3:30 pace up till the 30km mark. The last 10k was painful, but I kept telling myself to imagine I was running down Alii Drive with all the supporters (although, obviously, there were like, five yesterday). So struggled in the final 4k of the race, but crossed the line in 3:39. Then, the most bizarre thing happened when the guy at the line took down my name and put a "women's open probably third place" identification thingerie around my neck. Shock shock shock, disbelief! I was aiming for top 10, and I knew in no way 3:39 could get you a bronze. Anyway, walked off.. hung around.. then finally they hauled me to stage-side to receive my prize. Just before we had to go up though, they alerted me that someone had protested and I was fourth instead. Heartbreak. The organisers had forgotten to include a woman who was in the veteran's (35 and above) category. She passed me with about 4k to go. So, anyway, there went my five minutes of fame. Walked away dejectedly, but took a couple of minutes to get over it. I figured I lost to a better lady and I'll just kick her butt next year. But, oh well, good outing nonetheless. I really should be happy with fourth. It was my fifth marathon (seventh if you include my two Ironmans in Korea and Kona this year, so that would make three marathons in three months). From 4:48 to 4:21 to 3:59 to 3:51 and finally to 3:39... I reckon I did a pretty darn good job. Now, all I need is massage!

According to runpix.com's finish stats, I was:
- in entire field - 202nd place with 7012 finishers behind. About 3% of finishers ahead.
- among all women - 30th place with 859 finishers behind. About 3% of finishers ahead.
- in my division female 20-24 - 16th place with 140 finishers behind. About 10% of finishers ahead.
- For the record, I was ahead of about 97% of male finishers.
- average speed - 5min 12sec/km

Second, I had lunch at The SoupSpoon with Zhenyi. Good because I loooove the Tokyo Chicken Stew there, and it was great to meet up with Zhenyi again.

Third, It was my day off.

Fourth, I'm off today too.

Fifth, I had a nice dinner at Crystal Jade and watched Casino Royale at Great World City. The show was pure crap, James Bond was more James Bland, but dinner was yummy and the company was great. It was just like the old times, which I miss dearly...