Sandown 10km Classic

I've been looking forward to this 10km race for some time now, because it is an internationally certified accurate 10km road race. Enough of all those (usually) too short races where your post-race happiness is short-lived.

The race's out in the suburbs, Sandown, about 45min drive out from Melbourne city. It's held on a V8 supercar race course. The Sandown Classic is held in conjunction with the Victoria 10km road championships, so we'll get to see Victoria's best zoom past at sub 3min/km pace.

Here a course map. It's considered a fast course here since it's ALMOST flat, all the other races are just insanely hilly, terrains you'll never see in Singapore. Anyway, on the back straight is a 700m long uphill. It's gradual but there's a nice strong headwind on the way up, peaking at the crest of the hill (damnit).

It was a very good day for running today. Bright and sunny, about 22-24deg. I felt fantastic, everything has been going perfectly the past few weeks (except the noise and light pollution of the construction works). I had exactly 2 days of taper and a massage and was rarring to go.

My target was to run a sub 46min 10k, but i'd be ok with 46+min. Started off really strong, with the first 5km at 22min flat. But the last 3km was hard! 1st, my right foot was sore and crampy (i think my right foot's too big for the shoe). 2nd, i had a stitch--should've eaten earlier! 3rd, i was just tired! haha. Did the last 5km in 22.50. I reckon i cld've gone faster if not for the stitch. but overall, it was a fabulous race. definately gave me alot of confidence about my running and my current form.

Oh, just as i was about to start my last lap, i was passed by the male leaders! wth. They were running sub 30mins! gosh. the fastest female won it in abt 32-33min. insane insane insane. Some of my teammates, Tom and Tyler did it in 32mins, and Sophie ran a 37.30.

Anyways we had afternoon tea post race on the grass. It was nice. I brought a bag of potato chips which i did not eat. haha. but i did eat the brownies Tom baked. hahaha. Tony's 2 sons, Simon (3 n a half years old) and Scott (5mths old) were there. They're super adorable.

Decided to snap a few candid shots during tea so i have some photos to put up here. haha. i'm not a fan of photo taking.
L to R: iylia (back facing us), Sam (standing), Jasmine, Sophie.
L to R: Alison, Dave (standing up), Ilka and Simon (greedily munching on ever single snack there)!
Tom (sitting on my L), Cam (standing up, head cut off), Iylia, Tony (standing behind).

There were 20 over of us who ran but not all are in the above photos. Team photos are the job of the team captain isn't it. haha anyway, time for some sandwiches. haha.

Great Apes

Today during Psychology lecture, we watched a video clip by David Attenborough called Lives of Mammals (Rong, you'll be interested in this). Attenborough is kinda like a Steve Irwin/national geographic channel type wildlife expert.

The clip was to illustrate how the closest relatives to humans, the great apes, have high order consciousness and the ability for some form of abstract thinking processes.

It was super cute. The first segment was about how Orangutans (in a nature reserve) can learn and imitate human behaviour:

There was an Orang sitting in an abandoned canoe rowing itself with its hands, then it stopped by the side of the river and tied the canoe's rope (using its hands and mouth) onto a post.

There was a female Orang washing her hands and a sock with soap by the river. She'll rub the soap on her hands, then rub it on the sock, scrub the sock and then dip it into the water to rinse. Apparantly it doesnt know what it's for, but it has seen human do it so it imitates.

Then there was this Orang was carrying a baby on one hand n on the other hand holding a hammer, picked up a nail and put it on a piece of wood, and used the hammer to hit it (the nail wasn't the right angle), so it failed. Then it snatched a piece of wood from a smaller Orang and picked up a saw and started sawing it. It didn't seem to have the strength to saw the wood apart and it was holding the saw in awkward ways but still v cute. The difference between humans is, it used its feet (which are more hand-like than humans') to hold the wood.

The second segment was about Chimpanzees. They're much cuter than Orangutans. The chimps in this video were orphans because their parents were hunted for Bushmeat trade (sth like that).

Anyway it showed how Chimps learn certain skills, like cracking nuts open to eat using sticks. There was one 'expert nutcracker' who'd put a nut in a notch on a horizontal branch and hit the nut with a cylindrical shaped piece of wood. Sometimes the nut will fly off so it'll just run over and pick it up and try again. Since most skills have to be learnt before a certain age (you can't teach an old chimp new tricks), one pathetic chimp (who was exposed to nutcracking at a late age and not able to fully grasp the skill) was desperately trying to crack its nuts - wait i mean the nuts it picked - but it'll whack the nut nonsensically without putting it in a notch so they'll all fly away. Very funny but v poor thing.

I tried to find the footage on youtube but i couldn't. But the clip below is similar.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLEMENT!

Last week, I was stressing over Clem's bday present. So I decided to send him a bday cake. Went online, checked out loads of different sites. I was discussing with Val, and we were both drooling at the delicious cake photographs. So much so that Val went out to buy herself a choc cake! haha.

I was so worried 1, there'll be no one at home during delivery. 2, the order'll be screwed up. 3, the cake will be smashed. 4, the cake won't be delicious.

Anyway after a few hours, I decided on Awefully Chocolate's chocolate banana cake. I've had the choc-banana cake and it's awesome.

Rang them and made the orders, called Clem's sister to make sure there'll be someone at home at the delivery time. I had to call them a zillion times for payment and details and all that since it was difficult for them to call my overseas no.

I had them write "Happy Birthday Clement, <3 Elaine" on the cake. Which turned out very cute. Oh, except the cake kinda shifted off the base plate so the edge of the cake is touching the box. darn.




I wanted Clem to blow out the candles, sing the bday song n cut the cake (The standard birthday ritual) but he didn't. oh well.

Yea ok Val, I promised I'd show you the final drawing. there, here it is. haha. I drew Clem a birthday card! I took forever to draw it coz I havent drawn anything in years! I couldn't draw very well to begin with. And i don't even haf a proper pencil, i was struggling with a spoilt mechanical pencil.

Anyway, after redrawing the couple's heads about 999times, it finally looks...out of shape.

It took me a while to figure out the proportions and how the lines (bed edges) have to be slanting outwards since it is 'nearer' the viewer. for some reason, i kept drawing the right side higher, so one bed post will be higher than the other, the pillow one side bigger...But I'm still quite satisfied with this final product. Please notice the shadings at the pillow and blanket edges.

Haha i hope you like it Clement. Happy Birthday darling.

Right, I received another parcel from home! Very nicely wrapped too!! Thanks mum and Bae! It's my black dress for the MUAC formal dinner. There was a letter from Bae too.
The formal dinner was good fun. I will blog abt it when i get the photos. It's like the first time i dressed up, put on make up since i got here. haha.

Yup, been busy with essays!! Oh and I've had 2 absolutely fabulously TOUGH weeks of training! I'm pretty amazed at how I managed to hold up so well over the sessions. haha. But now i'm very tired. Gonna ease up a lil for a 10k road race on Saturday. It's been all good but the weather's kinda uncooperative sometimes. It rains and gets bloody cold, like tonight during run training. Oh wells.

noise pollution

I need to walk around with ear plugs permanantly stuffed in my ears. So my apologies if i don't reply when i'm being talked to.

Seriously, there has to be some sort of &%?#$@!$^ control over construction works here!!!!!! Ther stupid warehouse construction site just 5m from outside my window is driving me absolutely nuts.

1) They start drilling, scraping, slicing stone/cement, hammering, using damnass noisy machinery with sickening loud beeping noises at 7am in the morning!!!! until about 3pm. On the friggin days i don't have to wake up at 6am in the bloody cold to train, pls, just let me sleep until 9am!!!!

2) I'm not spared on weekends either. Saturdays are just as bad.

3) Last night at F*&%#?$ 1-2am in the morning, a huge noisy truck with the loud running engine sound, sharp beeping sounds and bright red flashing lights stopped below the building just outside my window. And workers started digging the drains or sth like that, talking loudy and the bloody engine was running and the beeping sounds woke me up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DAMNIT! I opened the window and shouted my head off. Which i did again this afternoon coz of the hammering shit. Even the ear plugs don't filter off the sounds too well coz they're either sharp or low mechanical irritating-get-on-your-nerves noises.

So much so that car engine sounds, lawn mowers, generators all irritate me to the max. Loud music sucks. ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

HOME - Michael Buble

To you.

Another summer day
Has come and gone away
In Paris or Rome
But I wanna go home

May be surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel all alone
Just wanna go home
Oh I miss you, you know

And I’ve been keeping all the letters that I wrote to you
Each one a line or two
“I’m fine baby, how are you?”
Well I would send them but I know that it’s just not enough
My words were cold and flat
And you deserve more than that

Another aeroplane
Another sunny place
I’m lucky I know
But I wanna go home
I got to go home

Let me go home
I’m just too far from where you are
I wanna come home

And I feel just like I’m living someone else’s life
It’s like I just stepped outside
When everything was going right
And I know just why you could not come along with me
This was not your dream
But you always believed in me

Another winter day has come
And gone away

In even Paris and Rome

And I wanna go home
Let me go home

And I’m surrounded by
A million people I
Still feel alone
Let me go home
Oh, I miss you, you know

Let me go home
I’ve had my run
Baby, I’m done
I gotta go home
Let me go home
It'll all be alright
I’ll be home tonight
I’m coming back home

Decided to ride on Sat morn with the massive pelaton that starts from Cafe Racer at 7am.

I had to leave the house to ride down at 6.20am?!?! I thought it wasnt that cold and it'd warm up when the sun rises so i put on a running singlet under my cycling jersey and armwarmers and headed out. The moment i stepped out, i knew my choice of clothes wasnt very smart. But anyway i cycled 100m onto Bouverie St and damn, I wanted to go home!

It was friggin foggy and cold, like 5deg! There was a heavy fog so visibility was down to like 100m. The air was so freezing cold i was shivering! The winds blowing onto me when riding made my ears hurt, fingers hurt(tho i was wearing full finger gloves), nose run and frozen, cheeks ice up, arms sooooooooooooooo cold. I was imagining i was cycling while it was snowing coz it looked kinda like that. Translucent whitish air.

Yup, so i got down to Cafe Racer and when we started, the pack was insanely fast. Speeding down beach rd at 45kmh, including uphills. and they're so damn quick off the traffic lights. One moment it's 0kmh n in 5s accelerate to 45kmh. Anyway the pack broke and i was riding w a couple of ppl at the back then we followed another group of cyclists.

I just realised how many zillion cyclists there are on an early saturday morning. Some massive packs, some neat organised teams in matching jerseys.

In the end i rode 120km! After Oliver's Peak at Frankston we rode into some hilly place and i jsut wanted to go home but i didn't know the way! I promised myself earlier that i'd be home by 10am, nice and warm in bed. But i only got home at 11.30.

But that is good, since i signed up for Around the Bay in a day. 210km of riding, melb-queenscliff-sorrento-melb. Wille survived it last year so i guess i can do it too. haha.

I'm aching from exercises, squash and riding. Brains fried from too much essay writing and research. ahh help.

i'll just pretend to hug you until you get here.

Ooh today is a very good day!

1st, I dragged my ass outta bed and went for swim squad, which was great and Dave gave me some exercises to work on my upper body strength. Good.

2nd, Breakfast with Wille and Antz. Had 2 muffins instead of 1. no, i wasn't being greedy.

3rd, I played squash with Namiko (swims with me at squad). She's working part-time with the Melb Uni pool teaching stroke correction, in between her medical school, so she has free court bookings. Anyway, i was supposed to teach her how to play, it's been a long time since i played squash. We borrowed pro Wilson titanium rackets from the sports centre and headed off for a fun and tiring game! Haha. She's not bad, no need for any teaching. Oh yes, Namiko is cool. She's Japanese (race) but born in Papa New Guenea, stayed in Figi, PNG, Canberra, Melb and moving to Sherphton soon.

4th, I went to the library and morphed into the nerd that i am. Borrowed many books and did some reading.

5th, I went to the Post Office to pick up my belated first anniversary present! Weird, according to records, the parcel was received on 9/5 but they didn't bother delivering it. Stupid slackers.

Hmm..the description on the box wrote "watch" in a very familiar retardedly cute handwriting. I didn't have the slightest clue i'd get a watch. I was busy cutting open the scotch tape around the edges with my key on my way home.

There! A nice sturdy box. I had to take a photo of it while walking home.

I opened it and there was another white box inside. Hmm puzzle box eh.
Opened the white box and ta-dah! Another box! but a very very nice one!!! Bright pink heart with light pink floral designs. I love the design. I feel like eating up the box coz it looks oh-so-delicious.

More of the delicious box.
What's inside?
Haha! An incredibly cute fold-out card Clem made himself. Do not stare at its fishball head for too long--causes an uncontrollable impulse to clobber its head, squash it and eat it. oh wait, that's supposed to be Clem isn't it. hahaha.
WAAAAAAAAAAA a white and gold Guess watch! Fabulous! white, shiny and big-faced. I like...

=) =) =) Thank you dear.

The Great Train Race

Cycled to Liam's studio this morn with Iylia to catch the coach to the Yarra Ranges for the 26th Great Train Race. We race against 2 trains--locomotive G42s, Puffing Billy's "big brother". Old steam trains. The race is 13.2km on road/trail, and we pass the train tracks 4times during the race.

Oh oh, it's near where we cycled My Dandenong and the Yarra Ranges the last time. I remember why i was cursing those hills. There's barely a race there that's not FRIGGIN hilly my legs wanna fall off.


Course map.

It was really hard! The start was not that bad, undulating. Until we reached the BIG HILL! we climbed like 100m vertical distance! It took me like maybe 10mins to get to the top. Then the down hill was even worse. It was friggin steep I thought i might just roll down.


Anyways it was soooo crowded! There were 3000 over ppl on a single lane (or narrower) path. Not much space so i din get to go too quick. Anyway after 3plus km, i got stopped a minute at the train track. I was a lil too late! The train was about to pass. They say if u miss the train at the first track u're done for. But that was the guys' train.

Post race, super cold. everyone was limping around like they've just run a marathon. The hills were lethal. Btw, the oldest runner was a 79year old guy: "just a training run for the Great Ocean Road marathon". The GOR marathon is sth like 45km, really hilly as well.

We drove to Flippant Pancakes for our post-race brunch. OOOH YUMMY! Except it was so crowded the food took 45mins to come?!?! But it looked amazing man. Blueberry stacks, crepes...


I had a 3 stack with maple syrup and ice cream. delicious. some yummy dessert in a long long time! A sad thing the pancakes weren't big at all. kinda small actually, but yummy nonetheless. Hamish had a 6stack! It wasn't on the menu (up to 4 stack). haha. His took even longer to come--they prob had trouble stacking the 6 pancakes without it toppling. haha.

Yup, very sleepy now. only had 4 hrs of slp last nite. ask me why i did such a stupid thing before a race.

Oh oh, a photographer took a photo of Sophie and me post race for the papers. Maybe we'll come out on papers. haha. but darn, i think i looked so ugly. Coz my eyes were too puffy. Which reminds me, yesterday was my first anniversary with Clement. But i spent the whole day in bed n wandaring ard, sitting at the park like some weirdo loner. Swallowed down some dinner and some panadol for supper. My whole head was hurting so damn terribly. My eyes felt like they were exploding, my nose hurt, the sides of my nose hurt, my jaw hurt, my teeth hurt, my forehead hurt. Please remind me, not to ever cry again. It's just self-torture.

I'm unwanted. Coz i'm demanding, impatient, oversensitive, insecure, neurotic, depressed, irritating and problematic. On top of that, i'm incapable of a normal conversation. But i try to be nice and sweet like how girlfriends shd be--I know i'm terrible at it. I think i'm also cheerful and animated and I don't take up much space.

I try to smile when i'm upset, smile when you shout at me, smile and say it's ok when you say you're sorry. I'm sorry i'm not a terribly good actress n tt irritates you.

I'm sorry i feel depressed sometimes. I'm sorry i fall sick and feel lousy. I'm sorry i cry sometimes. I'm sorry i'm not that perfect-all-smiles-problem-free girl you call when you're lonely and neglect when you're busy.

i'm sorry i'm still here.