My Powerman report - The Completion that matters

Do i feel like a Powerman? Of course.. haha did i suffer? Yes! haha and I manage to complete it and that is the most important thing. I do have this knack of putting my body into maximal stress and somehow when finishing what i started gave me a lot of satisfaction.

I was hoping for the weather to be kind as it has been a wet week before that. Even during the briefing in Everly Hotel Putrajaya, the weather forecast mentioned that there will be possiblity of rain. I was crossing my fingers for that to happen as i know my body, and it will not optimize at high temperatures.. haha With my limited training time I would have been very comfortable on the Sprints event.Perhaps even trying my best to get a good time but i figured the challenge was too short. I wanna complete this full Powerman and honestly i don't really care about my time, what is important is to finish the race.

Pre-race

Woke up early to get myself ready especially going to the loo. I have few unfortunate incidents in the past few days where it was just too explosive! haha Major cleaning needed and i was not able to hold for long. I arrived at the parking spot at 615am and luckily people were just beginning to swarm. I parked quite near to the transition area. I always love major events like this because the atmosphere is just electrifying. This year Elly took part and for the first time i have another family member around during an event haha

Parked my bike at my spot and oh my.. there were certainly lots of people taking part. The fancy bikes especially the TT was just awesome to see. I met Hapa (Haparizan) my old school mate who was an active sports person in school. He is a keen cyclist now and it was good to have more friends in the arena.

Run1- 11km

Started off the race in the usual manner and my tactic was simple, i better do what i can do best early because later i will suffer and at least i am already a bit forward haha but the tempo was good because i know in shorter distance i can last longer especially for runs. i guess it is my strength. Manage to do the run in 1:03 for 11km.. not bad eih.. the course was pretty flat except towards the 5km mark where there is an elevation. It was not too bad but i guess on the 2nd loop it can be quite a challenge!

 

Bike 64km

COming to the transition area I saw there were still many bikes hanging.. eihh.. not bad! haha so i thought but i knew it would not be that long before people will pass me. I was a bit too relaxed getting myself ready and perhaps lost time here, but hey.. I'm not in the Elite group kan..I am only against myself haha Put on my cleats, helmet and nutrition chew and off i went. Not as fast as I want but yup.. i am off!

The first 32km was not too bad i reckon i managed to get my minimal 22-25km/h average. The worrying thing was at 20+km my thighs were twitching hmmm.. haha KCR comes back into my mind :) It was already super hot by then.And of course, i guess hundreds went pass me easily :)

And as expected.. on my 2nd loop of the 32km, My legs totally gave in! super duper cramps! had to park my bike on the side of the road before a mild elevation and waaahh.. macam nak nangis! i DID BRING MY SPRAY BUT IT WAS NOT ENOUGH! Somehow.. luckily it wore off but not totally though! I know i must go on and went on i did! The hill after PICC was a painful one but i managed to climb it well on the 2nd loop haha 

It was 3:08.. a very long time to cycle haha orang2 yg tera sume clock 2 hours and a bit..Well, i know that my cycling sucks and definitely lots more to improve :)

                                          see.. it was not too bad after my 1st run :)

 Run2-11km

By this time i could hardly take steps.. Every muscle was pulling me apart! I cant imagine what would had happened if i did not have rocktape on my thighs n calves.It was torturing trying to run and i could only walk at this stage. Obviously Im not fit to try this but who cares.. I want to finish this run!I used all my inner energy and that was my drive to finish the race. I really want to finish this and not quit ever! It was blazing hot.. circa 1120am and i could really feel the heat. I did try to run but if ihad forced myself, then bye-bye la Powerman.. haha So as slow as a turtle, i walked n perhaps a bit of slow jog in few paces but stopped due to the muscle cramping. I can hear the noise from the main arena and as i was approaching the last KM, the noise died out.. haha event dah habis! Langkah demi langkah.. hahaha it was such pleasure to finish it Alhamdulillah! Kesakitan hanya sementara, kejayaan untuk selama-lamanya :)

Overall 11km run-64kmbike-11km run

Yup.. total time was 6 hours and 6 minutes to complete my first ever Powerman. Not bad eih considering in the official results byk gak DNF and some even cheated! haha 

Thank you for the great event MALAKOFF and will i continue to hurt myself? YESS.. WHY NOT?

Powerman in Putrajaya 2013! (not the report yet..)

Alhamdulillah! I completed my Powerman and i have an official time! haha took me 6 hours to finish the 11km run-64km bike-11km run on a hot Sunday morning-afternoon!
I will write my report of how i did the race but i am thankful that i went on to complete it. Maybe not in the time of my friends and colleagues but I am happy i completed it despite having lots of thought in my mind to quit.In a way I'm suffering really bad POMS now.. haha
I will never quit and i will challenge myself to the limit!

The art of war

Its difficult to understand but one thing can be obvious. When you keep all the hatred in you and all you have is hatred, it will be difficult to turn back.In my observation, it is very difficult to be objective when emotions run high. I guess that is why the prophet Muhammad encourages one to think of 99 good reasons before dwelling on a negative one. Once negativity takes over then it will always be wrong and unacceptable. 

How do you get out of a catch-22 situation? It will always be expected that one party to blow things out of proportion and the other either to respond or retaliate in the same manner. I have seen how things can get out of hand when one retaliates similarly. It is interesting to note the psychology when one reacts not to the other party's expectations, what would the response be? eg.. an argument starts with one party yelling to the other. Commonly the other would yell back perhaps in a more commanding manner. The domino effect would be retaliation upon retaliation.Thats how it should be isn't it? Ok.. now the opposite happens, one party tries to dominate the other and himself guarded upon the next step of retaliation. However the other party decides not to provoke and not retaliate hence just silence.haha interesting isn't it.. and the one who started the fracass kept yelling without an expected response of the other. I am sure the objective of what it was supposed to be will be skewed and the yelling party would start to provoke in order to stimulate response. 

What happen next? Silence is golden and of course, the party with the expectation would be unsatisfied and provoking response ala "Michaevelli" hahaha 

Sun Tzu is smart.. he mentioned many times about the art of being wise..

“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”

“Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

“To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy.” 

  “Thus we may know that there are five essentials for victory:
1 He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.
2 He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.
3 He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks.
4 He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared.
5 He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign.”

Scarred & soulless.

"Those who can see me, will see me"

my quote.. haha

Happy Birthday to me..

24 October 2013.. Alhamdulillah.. All praises to Allah for giving me the opportunity to continue breathing till today. I feel blessed and am grateful for what Allah has given me.He has certainly gave me a lot and i am obviously poor in appreciating it. I guess one of my aims being 37 is to be more thankful to god and increase my iman.. the only way to confirm my syukur to Allah.
I am 37... hehe 37 dah! Wow.. reaching 40 soon eih :)

                                              Thank you for 2013 cake :)

                                         Without fail since 1 year old :)

                                              5 of us.. alhamdulillah.
How i spent my birthday? Interestingly i was in IJN for the whole day, attending a special workshop and cardiothoracic surgery. We were then brought to Hotel Majestic and it was my first time there! I do like the place and perhaps where i would bring people to next time.

As much as i want to

"What makes us happiest in life? Some people may point to fabulous fame and fortune. But, hands down, surveys show that friends and family are the real prize.  Even though our need to connect is innate, some of us always go home alone. You could have people around you throughout the day or  even be in a lifelong marriage, and still experience a deep, pervasive loneliness. "

Happy Anaesthesia Day !

It was Anaesthesia day last week 16/10 and i decided to celebrate it with my staff. We did not have full house as people were still on Aidiladha holidays otherwise we would have had a grand celebration! Having a small family, we are happy to support each other and i guess i wanna have a good working environment.
I have always dreamt of having the ideal workplace and everybody would want to contribute to the best of their ability.. whenever.

 I took the liberty to order a special fondant cake from an old friend of mine. This is her core business now and I was confident of her creativity to produce what i want. And.. wow.. it was amazing! Everybody loved the cake and hesitated to cut the open up hahaha

Adik's wedding weekend

It was the last wedding for my Mother in law. Since its a girl's wedding obviously it will be more elaborate. My MIL is a simple person so organizing for such an event is not too much of a hassle. We've all decided to the the nikah at our place in Bukit Jelutong! It was a suggestion i had all along because our venue is much more convenient for people to come. The DJ house is a total congestion nighmare and I'm glad we made the right decision. Although the wedding event was a bit early for us (haha) but it was an experience organizing it at your own backyard.

 The reception was done in Dewan Gemilang FELDA in Kelana Jaya. It was a simple place for a maximum of perhaps 500 pax.I do respect Qayyum for his willingness to perform on the stage despite being prompt quite late.I felt really proud seeing him doing the silat pulut which the steps he managed to memorize it in 2 days. It was not long but to have a young person up there was good enough for us. I am indeed very proud of my kids; Qaisya and Marissa did not have any issues being the flower gals :)

Thank you team for a good outing. The organization was superb and i will certainly miss the boys session of putting the signs up the night before :)

My short Singapore trip

I was last in Singapore in 2011 whilst attending the World SIVA conference.I was back again a few weeks ago for ASCA and this time around, i saw a different Singapore. I guess its because of my lodging, having to fork out my own money i decided to become a miser haha Well, its me alone so whats wrong in being in a backpackers hostel like accommodation?
I looked through trip advisor, booking.com and there was this place which was cheap and at the same time highly recommended. I thought why not as the location is superbly in Boat Quay; the heart of the nightlife in Singapore. Besides being only 5 minutes away from an MRT station why not?
I saw the pictures in their website, 5 footway.inn but of course being sceptical i reckon it will not be as how they hae potrayed it. To my surprise I was totally WRONG! It was how it is advertised and my my.. Cool gilerr!! haha I shared my room with two other visitors whom I've never met before. My next bed bunk mate was from India who came over to Singapore for a conference as well.

                                                  i slept up there

The breakfast terrace view was superbly excellent as the magnificient Marina Bay Sands hotel became the main landmark. At night, live music was just down below and i enjoyed my sip of coffee (free.. haha courtesy of 5footway.inn) and my laptop with the free wifi provided.. Wow, it was simply amazing to be at this place :)

Going around in Singapore is easy when you are travelling alone, the public transport is convenient and having been to few countries with such facilities it was never a problem for me to go where i wanted to go. Of course the Wifi service is not as good as ours in Malaysia (as it is not free!) but I manage to meet up with Hilman and his dad for a hearty meal of murtabak Singapore! Perggh.. memang kenyang tak ingat!

                                                      Murtabak Singapore medium.. ??

                                            Pak Basri the amazing man from Singapore

I took the opportunity too to meet up with Shah who is a Consultant in Alexandria Hospital. The cool thing about where he worked is the mosque is just behind his hospital and I managed to perform Jumaat prayers here. In Singapore it is not convenient to pray Jumaat and Shah is very lucky! I then met up with Rudy and Norlina( my colleague from Manchester to IMU) . They brought me to the famous sup tulang merah.. and wooo behold... Sedap gille! hahaha

ASCA 2013 Singapore

I was in Singapore recently attending the Asian Society of Cardiac Anaesthesiologists. I registered for it quite some time back after browsing through the net. What got me interested was the programme and of course the orgnaizer being Prof Hwang, I was sure it would be really good.

                                              the cool thumbdrive on ur tag

Indeed the programme was good and i was glad i made decision to fork out my own money for the trip. Sometimes you cannot rely on sponsors when your main objective is your quest for knowledge! Of course, i tw ould have been better if people were racing for me to do it but i guess my aim would be to be invited as a speaker :) Then you do not really need to beg and wait for such offers as everything is settled by the organizing committee.

It was an eye opener for me meeting up with fellow cardiac anaesthetists from Asia. I was taken aback when both the authors of my TEE book was in the congress as speakers! The venue was excellent too ; held in Academia a building dedicated for academic excellence and the facilities for the small congress we had was just superb. Kudos to Prof Hwang who i guess in his way single handedly doing things that he wants to do:)

p/s I will always remember Prof Hwang for his remarks during my viva.. "Are a an ED physician or an anaesthetist?" hahahaha