When people get old......

I haven't written my blog for a long time! No Excuse! I am just too lazy. Recently, I have more time to stay at home. I decide to write my blog again....

I went to pick up my Dad from day center yesterday. My sister and I seldom have my Dad to stay in day care center on Saturday. But my Dad didn't know it was Saturday and my sister managed to bring him to the center while I was still on the bed. That was good, I can go for a run in the morning and went to flower market in Mongkok to buy some flowers after lunch. It was nice!

I went to the day care center at around 3pm. My dad and other old people were about to go to the chinese restaurant in the center for dim sum. Not many people went to have dim sum. It was around 15 people and 2 filipino maids. Yeah..... there were 2 ladies.. I believe that their children are pretty rich. Even though they were many good nurses and helpers in the center to take care of them, they still have their own maids with them in the whole day.

Anyways.. there was a old lady. She is a graceful lady with white hair. I think she has been in the center for about a year. As far as I know, she seldom talks. While she was having her first bite of dim sum, her son came. I think this old lady stays in the center and his son picks her up on weekend only. She was so happy and wanted to grab a chair for his son and asked her to join them for dim sum. Of course, his son didn't join her for dim sum and so do I. It's because we didn't pay for the food. :) Dim sum was for those old people. He just told his mom that he has eaten and didn't want to eat anymore... hehe..I told my dad the same thing, too. She ate very quickly this time in order to leave with his son ASAP. I remember that she usually eats slow. She also kept talking to his son and asked him who was coming and blah blah.. I have never seen her so excited.

Then, I remember there was a old couple, Mr and Mrs Yeung. I am sure that they were well-educated. Both of them were very nice people. Their son has migrated for a long time. Last year, his son came to HK to visit them. One day, Mr. Yeung was so sad and didn't want to go to day care center. He told those helpers that his son was leaving on that day, he had no mood to do anything.

Well.. You might think that these are not very special. Why I put it on the blog?

I found that all old people are the same. All of them wanted to be with their children. However, some of them understand that their children could not be always with them. They might even tell their children that they dont't need to spend too much time on them as they actually have their own family and life. However, from their heart, they still want to spend more time with their children. I guess that this feeling is especially strong when he/she is very sick or when his/her another half has passed away.

A lot of people don't spend time with their parents. They thought that their parents were healthy and independent. Some of them were also well educated. Hence, they thought that their parents could take care of themselves and don't need too much attention from them.

Also, a lot of people in this generation thought that you could not depend on your kids anymore when you get old. That is true economically. However, you still need your kids psychologically.

Be good to your parents... don't make up too much excuse that you are too busy and have no time to be with them! I am sure if you have time to surf on web, you can have time to have tea or something with your parents....

Standard Chartered Half Marathon Run on Feb 12, 2006

I've made it. I have done my 1st half marathon on Feb 12, 2006 in Standard Chartered Marathon. My friends and I had a pre-marathon dinner in the evening before the race. We called it as Carbo-Loading dinner! Good excuse for party, isn't it? heehehee... I have done a lot of training in the CNY week. As I know I could not do too much training in the last week of the race. This was my "strategy". I found that I recovered slower than many people. After all of the training in the week of CNY. I went to see my Chiropractor. He said my legs were so shakey.. yeah.. of course. I also did muscle relaxing theory there, too. Well.. in the other words, I had a massage. AH! so painful!! Please Please.. don't press so hard!!

The big day came! 2 of my sisters, 4 nieces and nephews and a brother-in-law were doing 10K, too. I took the earliest MTR from Kwun Tong station to TST with my niece and met my rest of my family runners there. hahaha.. good and healthy family activities, isn't it? They started 30 mins earlier than I did. I was there early so I had plenty of time to do stretching and warmup. I didn't know why I was a bit nervous in this morning.

I walked towards the starting point with few HKU alumni. The atmosphere was really great!! I joined the HKU marathon runners team. When we passed by the HKU support team, they cheered us. We waved our hands! Thanks for your support!

The half marathon started at 7:25am from Miramar Hotel. I kept running. I was running with Alex, Steve and Vincent. They are HKU alumni. I was thinking to have them to be target as I expected that they would be faster than I. As long as I ran with them, I should not be too slow. Also, I was wondering if I could keep following them in the whole race. We passed by Kowloon Station and then Olympic Station. Wow.. I didn't know 2 stations were so close. We then ran along West Kowloon Highway. There were so many runners. It was not easy to run over people. I spent 45 mins to finish my first 7km. It was still under my schedule. Steven was running besides me at the very beginning. But then, I could not see him anymore. He was behind me. I then had Alex be my target. I could see him 5 to 10m around me in the 1st 8km.

I started to see people came back from the other way. I saw the blind guy etc. Wow. they were so fast. I just finished my 8km. I took 1 hour 4 min to finish 10km. It was faster than I did my 10K run last year. I was happy. I ran faster than Alex. I couldnt see him anymore after 10km. Oh.. I finally saw Paul Cheung, the programme director of ecom/icom. Wah.. He ran so fast in 1st 10K. But then, I ran over him. I didn't see too many people to run over me. But it is getting hard to run faster than people after 12K. Vincent finally ran over me. He ran so fast. I couldn't see him anymore. He was much faster than I. I started to be tired. Even though I have taken the power gel around at my 9K. I was so thirsty. I need to drink water in every water stops. When I saw the Western Harbour Tunnel, I was happy. That means that I only had about 6km to go. But I was exhausted already. I can still manage to run fast when I ran down into the tunnel. Once it was flat or upslope, quite a few people run over me. People were so excited when they ran into the tunnel. They yelled and got echo etc! It was the funiest part. Osh.. I saw some sun light towards the end of the tunnel. Yeah.. less than 5K left. oh no.. upslope.. I was tired already.. I tried my very best to run the upslope. Many runners start to walk. I couldn't walk. I kept telling myself. Even though I ran slow in the upslope, I had to continue running. This part was the hardest part in the race.... a lot of up and down slopes in the last 5km.. all runners were tired. No one would like this bit. I finally reached Admiralty. Very last 1km.. I saw HKU cheering group.. They were hitting the drum, cheering us. Yes.. that helped. I ran faster in front of them..hahaha.. pretended I was not tired. I tried my best to run fast in the last part of the route. I watched my watch. It was almost 2 hours 18 min. I still have last 500m to go. I ran and ran and ran.. I hope that I could finish it within 2 hours 2o mins. I ran over few people. Yes!! I've done it! The offical time was 2 hours 21 mins.. my own chip time was 2 hours 19 mins 11 sec. YEAH!.. I met my target!

Gosh.. it was much harder than 10K. Luckily, I did enough training. I saw many people got cramped. They stopped to do stretching or asked for help along the route. I didn't see that much last year. After I came back home and saw the news, I then knew over 4000 people got cramped and 2 were in coma. That is scarey.. But then I knew that it was worth for me to spend so much time and $$ to prepare the race. I did the checkup at the Sports Performance Co few months ago. Then, I knew how unfit I was. They have tailor-made a training programme for me. Even though I didn't strictly follow the programme, I at least knew how I should do in training.

I really enjoyed the race. I thought that I was quite slow. However, when I saw my result in the website, I realised that I wasn't too bad. I was in position 4710 out of overall 9116 half marathon runners. Over 1789 female runners, I was in position 510. In my own category, I was in 266 out of 770. I guess it was just because of too many 1st time half marathon runners.

I really enjoy the half marathon race. It was harder but was much more fun than 10K. I will do it again next year. Will I do the full marathon race? um.. I still can't tell now. If I can finish the half marathon run within 2 hours, I might want to do the full. But it is still a long way to go. and hahahha. I am not young anymore!! hehehe..

Rebook 15K run on Jan 22, 2006

I have done Rebook 15K run this morning in Sai Kung. This is a big challenge for me. I have never done such a "long" distance before. This is sort of a trial for my Standard Chartered Half Marathon run on 2/12. Even before the race, I was still worried that I could not run for the whole route. I may need to walk a bit. The starting point was at Pak Tam Chung. The route can be found from http://www.hkaaa.com/hkaaa/event/event/Reebok04/reebok_index.htm
. 2 Adrians were there. Adrian Cheung (my colleague and my trailwalker and running buddy), Adrian Ho (my coursemate in HKU) and Vins (my senior HKU fellow). The weather was cold today. It was 13C. But I got a feeling that it was below that in Sai Kung. It was definitely colder than what I experienced in Lantau 2 weeks ago or StandChart Run last year.

When I registered for this run, we need to fill in how long we expect we could finish the race. As different timing would have different starting section. Of course, the fastest group starts towards the front. I actually picked the slowest section :P 1 hour 46 mins or above! Even though it was not a cross-country route, there was quite a bit of up and downslope on concrete road. When it started, oh my god!.... it was upslope for about 2.5km . Damn! What am I doing here? That's what I was asking myself when I just started. Adrian Cheung ran pass me even though he started later than I do. He went to toilet when the race started. I saw few people walking already.. Shall I follow them? I have been struggling even it just started. How can I finish it?! My little Angel won. I continued to run even though I ran very slow on upslope. I found myself run faster on flat road and downslope. So I tried my best to run pass people. But if it's upslope, people passed me again. I saw Adrian Ho running back. But I still didn't know where the turning point was. I then saw Vins running back. Oh.. a group of people stopped in front of me. A young guy fell down. Oh no! His face turned black and his tongue came out. Eyes were half open. He really looked very serious. People asked us to continue to run. Some helpers came and took care of him. I then saw Adrian Cheung. I knew that the turning point was not too far away. Then, I saw a small ambulance drive to that runner. Gosh! he was not breathing.. no heart rate. Those guys said, "Call the big ambulance immediately!!" Um..

I didn't stop. I continued to run. oh no! Upslope again.. People cheered us, "Keep it going! not much upslope from here now!" Yes! no more please! It was really freezing!! Even though I was running, I still felt cold on my arms. I was wearing short and short sleeves top. I had problem to move my arms and carry a cup of water at the water stop!!

Oh yes! I saw the finishing point not far away from me!! I speed myself up. I ran like I was running a 100m race!! VERY FAST! I passed at least 4 men at the last 50m. A guy must think that how could have a girl pass him by! He ran and raced with me in the last 5m. I guess we arrived at the same time!!

I finished at around 1 hour 40 to 41mins. I am quite satisfied about my result. Even though I was still very slow comparing with my friends. But I was faster than I expected and I could run for the whole route. But I got muscle pain on my hamstring. Hope I wasn't hurt again!

K.O.T.H. as of Jan 8, 2006

I did King of the Hills (K.O.T.H.) in Lantau Island today. The detail can be found from http://www.seyonasia.com/koth/lt.html. I was doing the half marathon.. 14KM long. It was so cold today! 11C... Why I joined this race? Adrian asked me to do so. He is another guy who is addicted to this kind of race after trailwalker.

I arrived at pier at 8:15am for ferry to Mui Wo. Wow.. so many people joined this race. Most of them were strong Gwei Lo and Gwei Paul. It took us 30 mins to Mui Wo. Then, we took bus to the starting point. We saw many Bloomberg people there. Amanda, Phil and Sandy .. together with Adrian and I. We are healthy folks!! hahhaa..

Full marathon runners started at 10am. We, half marathon runners started at 10:15am. Once it started, we need to walk up to the hills. People were much faster than those in trailwalker. I am the slowest batch. I can't see Amanda, Phil and Sandy once it started. Adrian was always good in uphills. I can't see him in 15 mins. It took me about an hour to the top of the hills. Few people did very slow in downhills. I know they had knee problem.

Between CP1 and CP2, I was following a Chinese girl. She asked me to run over her. I said.. " that's all I can do!". It is better I am behind you!.. :) Then, we started to talk. She is from ADM Capital. Company sponsored them to do it. After CP2, it will be pretty flat. I can start to run faster now. I have done running training in the past few weeks. It does help! Even though I am quite tired, I can still run. I started to catch up some people. I almost fell down couple of times but luckily I didn't. Some guys carrying big backpacks walked from our finishing point. I guess they just finished camping. They cheered us and said, "Keep it going.. not many people were in front of you!" hahaa.. I said, "Yeah.. not that much! 300 people only! " :) Then, he said, "Nah.. I didnt see that many!"... hahaha. Liar! but thanks for that.

I finally finished it in 2 hours 41 mins. It is what I expected. Adrian finished it in 2 hours 21 mins. He is very satisfied what he did. I am ok with mine. If I didnt run that fast at the last stage of trail. I couldn't finish it less than 2 horus 45 mins. I actually picked a pink color T-shirt girl as my target to catch at the last stage of the trail. I finally ran over her. I definitely need more more training on uphills and downhills.

You know what I didnt have a chance to see view this time. People were really fast. No time to enjoy the view and I forgot to bring my camera again!

What's my next race? Reebok 15K on Jan 22. more training is needed. I have never done 15K run before.

After Trailwalker

It is about a month after trailwalker. We don't need to do training on weekends anymore. I found I was bit of lonely! :) But I still do a lot of things in this month.

I did Nike 10K run a week after trailwalker. Well... it is expected that I didn't fully recovered. I couldn't run fast at all. But at least I finished it!

Today I did another hiking race.... careaction! It started at 9am. It was 30KM long. The route is from Pak Tam Chung to Sharp Hill, Cheung Tsui, Ham Tin, Sai Wan, then back to Pak Tam Chung. Even though it was only 30km long, it was a very tough route. We went there once during trailwalker training. We didn't do the whole route but we went to the toughest part last time. I expected that we finished it within 8 hours today. Adrian and I joined it. Adrian thought that we could finish it within 5 to 6 hours! .. NO WAY!! It is a very tough route. Section 3 of Maclehose trail is tough which has level 3 difficulties. This trail is level 5! We need to CLIMB and SLIDE. Adrian brought me working gloves! Thanks Adrian. They really helped a lot. I can climb and didn't need to worry.

You can find the most beautiful scene in Sai Kung at this route. The weather was very good today. We regreted that we didn't bring our camera.

I didn't bring my hiking stick this time. As this route required us to climb, it was not convenient if I had the stick. But it is the steepest hill in Sai Kung. I always had problem to walk down. I was scared. It was really steep. Adrian hold my hand to walk down. Thanks again Adrian. You are the strongest hiking stick in the world! Adrian told me how I can walk down the steep hill. I was starting to know how now. I could walk and run faster down the hill now. I almost overcame my scare of steep downhills.

Actually, I spent a lot of energy in the 1st 10K to 15K as we ran a bit and hills are really steep. I almost got cramped when I climbed up the hills.

Adrian and I started to feel hungry after CP2 at Cheung Tsui even though both of us have taken 2 powergels already. We almost reached CP3 Ham Tin. Aiya.. I stepped on a wrong step. I fell down. I got cramped on my left calf. Luckily, it wasn't serious. Adrian helped me to do a bit stretching. I could start again.

Oh yes! We finally arrived at Ham Tin. We can eat finally! I ordered On Kee Fried Rice. Adrian ordered Singaporean fried rice noodle. Wow.. it was all packed. It usually took us 30 mins there to have a lunch.. But it took 50 mins over there today.

After lunch, we continued again. The rest of the route were very easy. Adrian asked if we can finished it by 4pm. I said.. no way.. unless we ran very fast! I guess 4:30pm should be ok.

We walked and ran. I got tired knees. Even though I could keep my breathing good, I couldn't run too much.

Finally, we finished it at 4:10pm. We took 7hours 10mins to finish it. The registration process wasn't as good as the trailwalker one. They just marked it by hand. I saw that I should be at position 231 for female. Well.. it wasn't too bad. I am not sure how many female participants. But there are about 2000 particpants this year.

I actually saw some of the HKU alumni in this race. Thomas, Steve and Pauline.. Pauline is the superwoman! She got position 20. She finished the race within 4 hours plus.

Adrian and I were quite happy about our result. I know Adrian can actually walk faster but he is very nice to be my company.

Then, we said.. um... if we wanted to finish trailwalker next year with 24 hours, we really need to walk faster than what we did today.. haha.. yeah. both of us still wanted to do the trailwalker next year. And we said that this careaction hiking race was a good one. WE WILL BE BACK!! hhahaa.. we are addicted to this kind of race!

Well.. our next race will be on Jan 8. (even though I haven't applied yet).. it is king of the hill in Lantau. This is another tough route. We have to do more training..

Hippo, I am not sure if you would read this blog again. But thanks for your comment! You are right. I was telling myself I would not do the trailwalker again when I was doing section 8.. but now.. you can see that I am really enjoy it. Hope that I can do it again next year.

I will change my blog name here from Piggy's Trailwalker Blog to Piggy's Blog. I will continue to write all my feeling and experience of my training in hiking and running. Even though I am not a very good hiker or runner, I still enjoy the process and try my best to break my own record!

WE MADE IT!

WE MADE IT! We finished the 100KM in 33hours 0 min. I am SO HAPPY! Even though we were 3-hour behind our schedule, I am satisfied already. We (4 of us) finished it together.

We took a cab to the starting point. Actually, we were quite rush. We arrived at the starting point after 8:30am. The race starts at 9am. We need to get our number cloth, do the registration, fill up our water bags and bottles and do stretching.

In fact, we didn't really start at 9am. We walked slowly to the starting point. I was telling my team members to hurry up. But Adrian was walking really slow! I was trying to control my temper. I dont want to affect myself and others when it just started. Then, I asked Adrian, "What's going on? Wake up!" He then said that he was worried about his knee as he got a bit of knee pain and got to walk slowly to warm up. oh I see! (Adrian, I know you would read this blog! :D I am not blaming you here. I just wanted to tell the truth! hehehe)

Ben was walking really fast in section 1. Yvonne, Adrian and I walked slower. I actually had a bit of knee pain on my right as I hurt a bit of ligament. So I just wanted to walk a bit slower to warm myself up, too. While we were doing section 1, Yvonne just realised that she forgot to bring her headlight. AH! We should carry headlight or torch with us as we expeccted it would get dark befor we met our support team in CP3. Luckily, Adrian has a small backup torch. Thanks to Mrs Cheung (Adrian's wife) who always pack for Adrian! Yvonne called our support team and checked if they can find a torch for her and passed it to her in CP3. Supporter suggested to buy her one right away but Yvonne thought that it would be a waste and didn't want to do so.

The weather was so hot! Section 2 was not too difficult. But the sun was really killing us. I sweated a lot! I kept drinking water to avoid heat stroke. Some people actually stopped and hide under trees. We had lunch in Ham Tin as planned. We saw Lam Mo Tak (the composer). Adrian thought he was his friend's friend. Then he said, "No. I am Lam Mo Tak." He was also doing trailwalker, too. Oh yes! We saw Adam and Franscio (Team 120, other team from my company) on the way to Ham Tim. They just had lunch in Sai Wan.

I kept seeing Alex in 1st and 2nd section. Alex is my HKU alumni. His team target is about the same as mine, 30 hours. We also met our colleague, Amanda in CP2. She was with her dad and other friends. Their target was around 20 hours. I am sure they could make it at that time. Because they started 2 hours later! But they have chased us up in CP2 already. You can imagine how fast they were.

We had some hot soup and fruit in CP2 and then started to do section 3, the toughest! I didnt know why I was very slow there. It was so hard for me to move myself forward. I have done this part for many times but I wasn't sure why I didn't have energy to do it. I wasn't hungry but my energy just dropped. I kept kicking rocks. That meant I was tired. I saw Pauline (another HKU alumni) in the middle of section 3. Her target was 20 hours. Again, she started 2 hours later than us.

Our support team waited us at CP3. It was about 6:30am. It is on our schedule. Team 120 (other team from my company) just left the checkpoint when we were arrived. Yeah! We could have dinner there! They have prepared tomato beef rice, lemon tea, coffee etc. yummy.. I was so hungry! Stanley didn't come along but he has found a headlight for Yvonne. Thanks Stanley! We took about 30 mins break and then we walked to the check-in counter of CP3. Once they scanned my bar code. Those people said,"Congratuations! you are the 1000th person to register here. You got a prize.. APPLE! " haahahha.. I was holding this apple and said, " Yeah.. I am full of energy now!" hahhaha. I am actually holding this "Lucky Apple" in my hand til the middle of section 4. :)

After the meal or after I got the lucky apple, I really felt my energy was back. But my left knee felt a bit pain. I knew why.. same problem. My muscle were so tight which made my patella lean outward. I stopped at some places to do more stretching. Ben said that he didnt feel well, he needed to take a longer break. We took a 10 to 15 min break in one of the pavilion in section 4. He had a very bad headache and felt that he was having a fever. Some trailwalker worker was there, too. He was suggesting him to drop and said that someone can pick him up there. But we didn't say anything and Ben said that he was ok after 10 mins rest. He took a panadol, too. We started again and finally reached CP4. We ate some bread and hot drinks there. I got encouraging SMS from my friends... so sweet! Ben went to medical center to take some rest and put on some pain relieving cream on his legs. While I was waiting, I think it was no harm to ask them to tape my knees too as I was suggested by my physcio to do so. But once those physcio saw my knee, they told me that it actually swelled. oh no.. I just felt a bit pain only. So they did a bit of massage on my left leg as my muscle was so tight and then put on a pack of ice on my knee and then wrap my knee. I really felt better after it.

We started section 5. I wasn't too familiar with this part as it was closed due to landslide. It reopened again 2 weeks ago. I just went there once before the race. Ben and I walked to a wrong route. Once we heard some dog barking, we released that we were on the wrong route so we turned back. But then we found some other people came, too. The guy told us to follow him. It was in fact a short cut. wow.. really! I didnt believe it at the beginning. But when he told me that this was his 11th time to do trailwalker, I have to believe him. Oh yes! it was really a short cut! Yeah. I was really lucky after I got my lucky apple! hahhaa..

We didn't prepare to see our support team in Lion Rock Pavilion. But we saw them sitting in the little grocery shop. What a surprise! They told us that they just met Team 120 there. We just talked a bit and they gave us 2 bananas and we continued again.

After Lion Rock Pavilion, this was the part I hate as there were so many down big steps. That's really hurt my knees. Oh yes, the guy that we met earlier who brought us to a shortcut, told us there was another shortcut in this part. hehehe. we found it and walked that, too. shhhhh.. dont tell anyone... We reached CP5 and took some rest.

We were tired and sleepy. it was 3:30am at the end of section 5. We were 1 hour slower than last time we did training on section 1 to 5. We were also hungry, too. We started section 6. Gosh. there were so many dogs barking.. so scary! Oh yes. we finally saw our support team. Oh yeah.. we can eat again. They got us rice congee!! nice. I also asked them to bring me some ice so I can put them on my knees. wow. it really helped. thanks for the physcio's suggestion in CP4. I dont know why... I think my energy was really back.. I felt pretty good. We quickly checked in at CP6 and continued.

Section 6 was an easy trail. It was around 5am. People were doing morning exercise there. When they saw us, they would keep saying "Add Oil!".. I felt so warm! I walked pretty fast in this section. And I was pretty good in section 7 (needle hills), too. We finally met Team 120 in CP7. They were about to go. I also saw Johnny Mak (HKU classmates) there. We had some instant noodle and hot drink and started again to walk to the Tai Mo Shan, section 8.

Section 8 was another tough trail. But I like this very much. I always did good in this section while training. I was doing ok on this morning, too. You know what I was thinking if I would see snake there. But then I thought I shouldn't. There were just too many people passed by in these 2 days. Can you believe this? I saw a snake again! It was a bright green and orange one. It was just 3 to 4 m apart from me. I was shocked. My team members were a bit far behind me and no people around me neither. Again, I was alone.. so scary! We took some rest in the Tai Mo Shan Pavilion and then started to walk concrete roads. I was so sleepy. I tried my best to open my eyes. Again, we found some ribbon along this trail.. hehehe.. shortcut again. :P

Yeah.. Finally.. we met our support team in CP8.. yeah.. just saw team 120 about to leave. they were always 1 meal time ahead of us. Yvonne and Ben went to medical center again for wrapping their knees or feet or taking care of their blisters. They got some blisters. Luckily, I didn't since I put a lot of vaseline and I kept changing socks. Suport team brought us hot drink, noodles, sandwiches. Some ex-trailwalker told me that we won't feel like eating in CP8 as we would be very tired.. well.. guess we were exceptional. We were so hungry! I also had a can of red bull.. Hope it can help me to wake me up! Oh yes! Jhun was so nice. He massaged Yvonne and my back.. wow.. so comfortable. And Jhun even helped me to take off my socks when I was sitting down and put ices on my knees. He was SO NICE!! All of us changed our shoes as most of section 9 and 10 were concrete. We could wear something more comfortable than our hiking shoes.

This was the final part. Adrian and I were trying to run a bit. We were so tired. legs and feet were sore. After we checked in at CP9, we still had 9.8km to go. Ok. I cant really wait. I walked very fast in this last section. During training, we took about 6 mins in every 500m in this section. I was trying to keep this pace. I walked and ran. I kept counting the post.. Post 180, 181, 182, .... 190.. starting to have some sign and told me that I got 3.5km to go.. 3km, 2.5km.. I got calls from my friends and family, too. My family was actually checking my progrss from the website. They have been turning on the live broadcast since 3pm. You know when I got their calls, I almost cried. It was so warm to get calls from family and friends.

I got a call from Ben. He asked me where I was. I was a bit faster than they were as I really couldnt wait anymore. I really wanted to finish it ASAP. I told him that I was in post 191. They were at Post 186. I told him that I would wait them at Post 193 or 194. I called our support team to bring us our company T-shirt before the finishing point so that we could change it and take pics. I got call from Yvonne. She was asking me where the exact finishing point is. As it wasn't Post 200. It was actualy around Post 194 and turn to Perowne Barracks. I thought I was about 20 mins ahead from them. They were trying to catch up and finish it before 6pm. I thought that they couldn't as they were just at post 186 when I was at Post 191. But it was amazing, they made it. I was waiting them at the bottom of the last stairs before finishing point. They were arrived there at 5:57pm.. we still have 500km to go. We ran and ran and ran.

Yeah.. We made it.. We arrived at 6pm! I am so happy! It took us 33hour 0 min. :D

Oh yes.. a little secret!.. Adrian, don't let your wife and son to read this blog. :P Whenever Adrian met a checkpoint and saw Jhun (our supporter), he would ask him for cigarette. Can you believe this?! He still smoked during the race!!!

My colleage drove me back home. I was carrying all my bags and still wearing my Bloomberg T-shirt with number cloth on. I was so dirty and smelt stink. A women was with her son and we were waiting for the lift. They were looking at me and whispering. Guess.. they must be discussing why I smelt so bad!! hahaa..

I took a shower right away and jumped into my bed with my wet hair!! I was exhausted!!

Nov 10, 2005 - Before the Big Day

I am nervous! Tomorrow is the big day! We have packed all our stuff and passed them to our support team today. We have 2 big support teams to support 2 teams of walkers. more than 10 people in different shift..

I didnt sleep well in the past few days. I am always awaken around 4am every morning. At the beginning of the week, I thought that I had a bit of jet lag from my Sydney and Wellington trip. But then I found that I was nervous.

You know what.. This is harder than I expected. It is not about fitness.. It is also about our mind. I have been checking weather forcast everyday, have been thinking what I should pack.... How many power gel / bar I need? How much water I should drink etc?

OK. Tomorrow is the day! I would try my best! Wish me luck! I am in Team 110!