Happy New Year: 2012

Bye bye 2011. You were just OK. Most of the year was filled with my career ambitions and finally it turned out to be productive. On the downside relations took a beating. Here’s to the New Year and new beginnings. Spent my new year with the family filled with laughter and happiness. 2012 will turn out to be very important and turning point for me. More specifically, the first half and the second half of the year. Two big occasions are coming up and I can’t wait for that to happen. I want these two to go as smooth and memorable as they can be.

As always try to be happy and don’t dwell on your past. Earth is not crashing right? ;)

Bangkok

This was the most impromptu overseas trip I might have ever planned. There was some discussion about the long weekend and then one thing led to the other. Finally we decided we should go to Bangkok in 1 week if the tickets are not so costly. It’s the Christmas time and we didn't expect the tickets to be cheap. So ‘not so costly’ was all we could wish. As it turned out, our wish was granted and the tickets were booked by the next day. (Thanks to LCC!)

The moment we arrived in Bangkok we whisked straight away to Pattaya. The plan was to stay 3 nights in Pattaya and 1 night in Bangkok. It turned out to be just fine. Bangkok doesn't offer much and one night is what it takes to see most of the tourist spots in Bangkok.

For the beginners Pattaya layout may be little confusing. But one day is all you need to figure out the routes. It’s very easy to navigate through all the soi’s (lanes). We covered most of the Pattaya on foot and didn't even need to hire a taxi or tuk-tuk.

On the first day we went to the ‘Flight of the Gibbon’ which was quite different and I have never done that anywhere before. It was in the forest where we need to use the cables to move from one treetop to the other.

On the second, we went to Mini Siam. As the name says it has the size down versions of all the important monuments in the world. From there we headed to Tiger Zoo where we had tamed Tigers, Elephants and Crocs. We finished the day with the Tiffany show, a dance show by the transgenders (who look like women). The dance for the song in Devdas ‘doola re doola’ was simply awesome.

Pattaya is all about night life. There are some soi’s which are overindulged in calmness and some soi’s partying all night. And if that is not sufficient there is the ‘walking street’ which caters to all needs till the wee hours.

From Pattaya we headed back to Bangkok on the third day. We visited some temples such as Wat Po and Wat Arun. We took the Chao Praya boat line and did some street shopping. We could not visit the floating market as we ran out of money and time.

It could be quite a long time before I could go for an overseas holiday trip. All I can say is I covered most of the South East Asian countries. Time to change holiday zone :) Overall I recommend Pattaya but not Bangkok. Bangkok is not only expensive but also boring. Of course both Pattaya and Bangkok are no where near to Phuket. Go to Pattaya only if have seen Phuket.

My first full-Marathon

I am a finisher of 42.195 KM in 4 hours 48 minutes. Yikes. My month long preparation culminates into an amazing run. It was not perfect per se. Nevertheless, I feel I did really well for the training I went through.

As I reported here I continued my training till Nov 30^th. Unlike my training in 2009 this training was shorter and less painful. There were no swollen shins and blackened toe nails, probably because of the shorter duration. If it were for a 3 month duration I am sure I would have cracked the 4.30 mark.

The marathon started at 5am. Never before had I run at that time of the day and it was refreshing and pulsating to run with a sea of fellow marathoners. I finished the first 10km by 57 min and the next 10km by 1 hr 57 min. Impressed by my performance I continued with much more determination and reached the 30K mark by 3 hours 10min. Realizing that the sun is not yet out I smiled for myself. Suddenly 42 K in 4 hr 30 min seems very much possible. Then as I continued to take strides my very old problem resurfaced ( This and this ). I am still not sure why exactly this problem is happening. The only trouble I face during a long distance run is the calf muscle cramp: my right calf muscle. The only answer can be lack of training. For this and this my calf muscle gave up at about 18km. Fortunately, for the full marathon it gave up after 30 probably because of the better training. And having my lessons learnt during those two runs I immediately stopped and stretched whenever I felt the cramp in my calf muscle. But eventually with some muscle rub I crossed the finish line with a big grin on my face. I can’t wait for my next marathon in May.

When the rain never stopped

When the SIMI was asked how the weather was outside it was not kidding that Singapore is always either sunny or rainy. Of late that reached new heights. Never before had I seen a place rain every day for more than three weeks until now. The cycle started on 12^th November. From that day onwards it has been raining every evening till date. Initially it brought much needed respite from the humidity but overtime it has become so predictable and annoying that hardly anything can be planned in the evening. Even my marathon training schedule has to be altered according to the weather conditions. So according to the pattern I had to choose the stadium where I can train without interruption. But as of now I am thoroughly enjoying the pattern.

P.S: Edited. Pattern stopped on 4^th December : (

Marathon Training

I finally started my first marathon training for the Singapore Marathon in December. Things got really hectic and following a rigorous training schedule is anything but easy. So had to prioritize my activities and delay my training. And I had a super run after a long hiatus. Had a strange feeling when I touched the finish line. Sometimes simple little things really do matter (blame the endorphin). My ultimate goal is to finish a marathon in 4hours. But with the current situation a 4 hour marathon would only be wishful thinking. I would be happy if I can see it off in 4.5 hours. I hope I can continue my training provided my leg will hold on till I finish the main race. Can't wait to run my first marathon. Super Exited.