Monday, December 08, 2008
Standard Chartered, Philharmonic Winds Concert
Yesterday...
I COMPLETED RUNNING THE 42.195KM MARATHON!! OMGOMGOMG =D
Reported at 5:25am at the starting point to meet Shane, Siva and Kamal. Haikal, Shao and Jon didn't come -.-.
The 4 of us, had no actual trainings at all. To train for 42km marathon in my opinion, you have to run at least 4km everyday. Reason why I didn't train? B A N D.
So the race started and Siva was running with his bag... So I gave him my bag too HAHA! =P.
The four of us ran together until like the 2-3k marker. Then Siva decided to walk while the 3 of us carried on jogging.
Near the 5k marker, I lost both Shane and Kamal. Kamal ran ahead since he's a super fit long distance runner, and Shane told me he was resting a bit so I ran ahead. It was my MP3 time from then. I would have been super bored if I didn't bring my MP3 along...
I didn't stop jogging besides the times when I had to stretch or to stop for drinks at the drink stations. After running for long, I thought I ran at least 13km. When I saw the 10km marker ahead of me, the first thought I got was 'Oh man, you're ass fucked James'. I jogged at a very constant pace though, until I reached ECP. Decided to take short walks for 2 minutes before jogging again for 1km. I used my MP3 as a timer so I listened to my songs for 2 minutes before running.
ECP was super depressing... It never seemed to end. Somewhere in ECP, I started having foot cramps. My legs were still okay then. Due to the foot cramps, my pace slowed down like alot. In the middle of ECP, I had to take a long rest because my left leg was cramping. Foot cramp + leg cramps = killer combi. Thats Keng Guan saw me haha. I was still stretching so he went on ahead. After the stretch, I continued to walk because the foot cramp was seriously unbearable... While walking I saw Sylvia (Is that how her name is spelled?) running ahead of me. It was like 22km marker and she was still running... *Salutes*.
Well, eventually I caught up with Keng Guan at around the 24km marker (Not 27km marker... My bad). We both still had a bit of energy left to jog short distances. I think after 27km marker we didn't even have the energy to walk... We slow jogged from the "Drink Station Ahead" signs to the drink stations. Then took a short break before walking again. We were so glad when we saw the 30km marker. We walked and talked all the way until we reached the F1 tracks (40km marker). Thats when I started regaining my energy to jog again. Keng still couldn't jog because he injured his left knee before I met him. We walked until the very last 195 meters. Thats when I started my sprint. Its like my "tradition" to sprint to the finishing line. I am a sprinter anyways... I was so glad I got to run to the finishing line and not drag myself to it. Keng too.
Keng was super supportive throughout the marathon. Plus he kept me company so salutes to Keng Guan too =). We took 8 hours to finish the marathon... I HAD NO TRAINING BY THE WAY~ =P.
Oh during the race, when I was still running, I saw this quote on someone's jersey: "Jesus loves you. Run to him". After reading this, I was like "I HAVE TO RUN!!!!" haha. It was the most encouraging thing I ever read during the marathon.
Oh and another thing. I saw dopplegangers of Gerlaine and Audrey during the race!! Kinda freaky. It was like "Hey! I see Gerlaine/Audrey!" *Looks somewhere else for 1 second then looks back* "Hey... Where did Gerlaine/Audrey go??...".
So after finishing the race, I got my finisher's t-shirt and the medals after handing in the championchips. I had 2 (One for myself and one for Shao Wei) so the dude who was collecting championchips was confused. I kinda mumbled that I picked it up from the ground HAHA! I didn't get 2 shirts though cuz they needed the bib number...
I didn't see any of the helpers like Qiao Ying, Cindy, Shima, Hui Shi, etc during the race either... The only people I know whom I saw during the race were Shane, Siva, and Gerlaine...
I met Kamal after the race, who finished the race in 5 hours and 30 minutes... Salutes to him too XD. I thought I had to wait for Shane and Siva to finish since they had my bag and phone but apparently, Siva finished before me so all my belongings were with Kamal. I was like "How the hell did Siva finish before me?" haha. I mean he ran with his bag!! -.-.
I called Gerlaine and Gracie too to check on them where they were but apparently Gerlaine was still running with her phone was off and Gracie's phone battery was dead -.-.
Oh and by the way, Audrey didn't run the race... She had back injury so she couldn't run... Hope she's 200% fit for the marathon next year since she missed it this year!!
Anyways, to conclude the 42.195km marathon, I'll have to say it was the biggest ass fuck I have ever had in my life... Need to have guts, the strength, and the will-power to run that. I'm glad I finished it even though I probably walked half the marathon =P.
On to my next topic: Phil Winds concert.
Guess what? It was on the same day as the marathon... I was always half dead when I reached the Esplanade AGAIN at 7pm... People who turned up were Mr. Zach Lim, C.Y., Shi Hua, Pei Qi, Jean, Eileen, Yvonne, and Keng Guan (Again also) haha. Keng and I were seriously half dead. Plus we were a bit feverish -.-.
Phil Winds concert was awesome as always. It was Mr. Leonard Tan's (Our previous MI conductor) last concert with the Phil Winds... Super sad to see him and Mrs. Tan AKA Ms. Wee leave... He's such an awesome conductor! I want to learn from him haha. I realised I could learn from him just by going to Phil Winds concerts last year so I tried my best to go to every Phil Winds concert since last year. Of course because our Mr. Lim Lip Hua and Mr. Desmond Chow were performing too =).
The repertoire for the concert were all classical songs. Quite a big change from their previous concert "Phil Winds goes Pop". The first piece they played "The Earle of Oxford's Marche", my all time favourite song, brought lots of memories. Its probably the only song I remember playing when I was still in Singapore American School =D. Other pieces like "Music for Prague 1968" and "La Fiesta Mexicana" were awesome too. The Saxophone solo too. Wow, breath-taking... Combination of what it seemed like demi-semi-quavers plus double tongue pulled off perfectly!! Vincent Gnojek - Truly an awesome Saxophonist.
Oh the Chimes played by our very own, Ms. Wee was super good too when they were performing "La Fiesta Mexicana". When I told C.Y., he was like "Of course! Ms. Wee is playing it!" XD.
We waited for Mr. Lim to come out after the concert. He didn't take his time to pack things this time cuz I messaged him XD. Or else he would have took at least 25 minutes to pack his things haha. He came out covering his face with his concert attire HAHA!! Group photo with him on Facebook!! All thanks to Jean for the camera and Shi Hua for posting it on Facebook =).
Mr. Desmond Chow, the solo Clarinetist in Phil Wind, didn't come out for a long time again... Probably because he's the Phil Winds website manager (If I'm not wrong...). I wonder whether he still remembers me. Gonna have to ask Mr. Lim to ask him whether he does remembers me or not XD.
I didn't get a chance to say bye to Mr. Tan and Mrs. Tan. They were too busy (Has lots of supporters). I'll see the both of them during our concert anyways =).
I wonder who's gonna conduct the Phil Winds now since Mr. Tan is leaving... I'm so gonna miss him and watching his conducting T^T.
Anyways, long live Phil Winds and all the best to Mr. Leonard Tan in the states!~
So that concludes yesterday. Nothing much today except taking more than 50 steps just to walk like 3 meters XD.
Oh and thanks again to Keng Guan and Shi Hua for their concern~ =). Love you guys!! =).
Tomorrow's the day my wife and I will be united again!! Can't wait!! =D=D
P.S. Thanks for the energy boost =)
SHUT UP.
7:16 PM
