Thursday, May 22, 2008

10km Sandown Road Race -- 41.24!!!!

some old photos from San Churros with Iylia and Ray 2 weeks back.

Me looking greedy.

Highlights of my week

Thursday 15 May
Had a good painful massage with Liam. Liam's really nice, nice to chat with. haha. He is a damn fast runner/triathlete/adventure racer!

I had Bible Study at Kylie's pad. It was awesome! She baked some lemon yoghurt cake which was delicious. After that, Ray swung by to pick me up and we were headed for a nice cafe in Brunswick street, but alas, none of us copied down the address so we just stopped along the street and went into "The Oven" .

Nutella-banana pizza with vanilla ice cream--this is da shit!

Then we strolled along Brunswick where there were many Greek cafes, and Ray had never tried a Falafel so I barged in and bough ONE BALL and we tried it--some kinda spices taste which Ray didn't like. haha

Then to get rid of the taste, we bought a box of 4 pieces of chocolate from San Churros--Earl Grey milk choc and Pink champagne white choc were the best =)

Drove to Preeny for a nice long stroll while savouring the chocs. We walked to the playground and PLAYED! haha climbed into all the structures, walked across the swinging bridge, balancing beam, slid down the slide, down the fireman's pole, looked thru the fake telescope, climbed thru the tunnels...sat in the baby swing and finally swung on the (adult) swing until i had a headache!

So we slumped on the park bench and played...shoot, shag and marry! hahaha while popping mentos. Actually, Ray was rationing the mentos to contain my sugar high. it was HILARIOUS!!! I'm damn good at coming up with tough gay combinations man! Game results are confidential. haha it was soo funny.

Saturday 17 May--Sandown 10km Race!!!

I've been looking forward to this race! Very psyched up...until the morning. It was raining, windy and friggin 8degrees!

Ray came by, dropped off his handsome new bike at my place and we headed off to pick iylia and kaighin up to drive to the race venue. We followed D2's car all the way until...we had to stop at a petrol kiosk coz i had to pee...then we got lost. haha we were pathetic coz we cldnt read the map properly and were driving up and down Springvale Road like idiots...or rather, just warming up to run 3 n a bit laps of Sandown Racecourse...

haha, we got there and it was FREEEEZING! Liam was so sweet to take off his fleece jumper and lend it to me coz i was shivering and turning blue.

Liam: u shd put another jumper on, Elaine
Me: I don't have another jumper
Liam: Geez Elaine, you should've told me just now! Here, put this on. You can't be shivering like that before the race.

How sweet =) So I warmed up in a large oversized jumped which looked like a dress. But who cares, as long as you're warm. haha. I didn't do a thorough warm up coz it was too cold to be out there.

Anyway, I felt awesome during the race and kept a very constant pace throughout! I surprised myself with a smashing 41.24!!!!!!!! That's 3 n a half minutes faster than last year! Woohoo!!! haha during the race it was very windy--headwind on the uphill. And my R big toe and L small toe was seriously hurting, to the point i was certain the nails were falling off. I took off my shoes and there! Under my gold nail polish were blue/purple nails. haha. it's peculiar...

It's not very clear here, but the small toe is swollen, nail pruple. The R big toe is light blue (funky!) and it is very swollen and DAMN FRIGGIN PAINFUL I COULDN'T SLEEP ALL NIGHT!!! it hurt even when i didn't move.

Had Jap dinner with Ray in the city post-race, followed by dessert of crepes! Blueberry/Strawberry cheesecake crepe and red bean custard crepe from this place in Melb Central. Delicious!! A perfect treat for some awesome 10km running =)

Then we did the
MOST RETARDED THING ever! We went into Coles supermarket and browsed around. Then I spotted this round sieve with a handle. It looked like a large table tennis bat. I grabbed it and pretended to smack it around. Then clever Ray took another one and suggested we could play badminton. So we walked inconspicuously to the fruit/veg section and plucked 2 green grapes. We considered taking a fresh springy mushroom as well, but it was kinda big. anyway, we scurried back between the supermarket shelves and started playing badminton with the grape! it was hilarious! Then grape #1 smashed and died, so i kicked it under the shelve. Then we took grape #2 and were getting quite pro at grape-badminton. but alas! some Coles staff were nearby so we ditched the match. Ray took grape #2, with a 2 step hop he smacked the grape and sent it flying over the shelf into the unknown (hopefully not on someone's head). hahaha. we burst out laughing, flung the sieves back onto the shelf and ran away. HAHAHA!!! RETARDEDNESS!!

Sunday I was feeling kinda frustrated so I grabbed my bike and headed out for an 85km ride despite the awefully painful toes/nail/feet (i could barely walk). My calves and R heel hurt alot too. But the ride was good. I felt strong, free, independent, aggressive, successful, confident on my bike. Yes, that's what I am.

Met Ray for the last 30km of my ride. You're awesome, Ray. haha. very good for a first ride on the roads...haha we then rode to Thresho's for a nice excitement and laughter filled dinner! haha! had to ride home in the freezing cold of the night post-dinner. I almost froze to death i tell ya. torture.

Monday I had the most painful run ever. it was just a 55min easy run, but both my calves/Achilles were hurting so bad i wanted to cry. anyhow had a nice dinner with Ray after. We had indian food followed by some dessert at Brunetti's.

Bleuberry cheesecake and chocolate tart. yummm...

Tuesday morning Ray gave me a wake-up call to have brekky of muffins with Wilson at thresho's. My favourite muffins, i'd definately wake up for them! hahaha. anyway after that we walked over to Video Dogs, a quaint cool DVD rental shop nearby to look for Raging Bull, this 1980 Martin Scorcese film starring Robert De Niro. I had to watch it for an assignment. Alas, the shop was not open at 10am, so we went back to thresho's, shared a date scone and big brekky then went back to borrow the DVDs. hahaha.

Headed back to my place to watch the show. It's a good classic film, very deep character portrayal which i liked. The show was more about La Motte's character--his insecurity, vulnerability and weaknesses than about boxing. Anyway...I did a swim workout after that. Can't cycle, my calves are injured.

Wednesday was awesome. I did my swim sesh in the morn, met up with Maddie in the arvo--it was great catching up!! haha. then i had a productive afternoon assignment wise. At run trg in the evening, we did a hardcore 5x1000m with decreasing rest. It was fabulous. Actually Tony said for me to do 4 coz my calf was injured and hurting quite bad. But i like pain yeah. haha. it was a good session!!! Felt tired, but great after.

Post training, 10 of us headed to The Clyde pub for some dinner. It was really nice. I had Beef & Guiness pie (delicious!!!) and some of Dave's fries =P and some of Ray's Chicken Schnitzel. haha. Jas bounced in and announced that she made the Aust Open team for Orienteering World Champs in Czech Republic! Way to go, Jas!!! We were all so happy, she's awesome at orienteering, and fully deserves the spot. It was a nice dinner and chat with the MUAC guys =)

After dinner, Ray, Iylia and me had planned an all-nighter to watch the Champions League Final--Man U vs Chelsea. haha. I'm not a soccer fan, but i'd accompany the boys. haha. the match was at friggin 4.30am! So we planned to watch a movie and snack pre-match, then head out for a 60km bike ride post-match. PERFECT eh? haha.

Ray went back to grab his bike so he could leave it at my place for our morning ride. Jas and I went to the supermarket, gossiped and giggled about girly stuff...haha. I bought a whole lot of snacks--Maltesers, gummy snakes, doritos with Salsa dip and Solo The Sub. haha. then we headed back to my place and chatted a lil before she had to leave. I lent her a pull over and scarf coz it was a cold night =)

At Iylia's place, Ray and I watched The Family Man, a Nicholas Cage show about "what ifs"...alternative paths in life if we'd made a different decision--How'd life have panned out if I hadn't left? Iylia was inking his comic book at the dining table.
Ray took sickening videos of me ranting bitterly and proclaiming my big career ambitions. haha. And IYLIA! there is a very INCRIMINATING video of you!!! hahaha.

Anyway, I rested on the couch post-movie while the boys played FIFA on Playstation of psych up for the Champs League match...haha!

3 guys huddled on a couch for Champs League Final. Except...the prettiest one on the left slept thru halftime, the 2nd half, and penalty kickoffs. Only woke up for the highlights of the Giro d'Italia cycling tour after. hahaha!

But i knew what was going on in the match coz i was constantly disturbed by Iylia the nutcase who was shouting, cheering, bouncing on the couch, jumping, bowing to the TV...anyway, congrats Iylia, YOUR team won =)

Ray and I left for our 60km ride in the biting cold at 9am. Met Wilson along the way too. My legs were spent from 1000s last night, and I was sleepy too. The first 30km to Mordi felt soooo super long! like forever and it's only halfway?!?!

Great shot of me and Ray at Mordi =) I was wearing 3 layers of long-sleeved tops, leg warmers, had a headband on as well. While the brave and tough Ray was in short sleeve?! Hats off to you man!

Ray and I. We had some competition up a short hill coz someone said he wanted to leave me behind, so i say--YEAH YOU TRY!!!

haha it was awesome, but i was soo tired after that! Came home and slept man! haha.

At Bible Study just now we had Pumpkin soup with bread, crackers and dips cooked by Kylie. We watched a sermon recording titled "indescribable". Awesome =)

also had an absolutely hilarious chat with iylia and ray online. man, i love u guys. heh heh heh. I'm loving life, and looking forward to my HOT DATE WITH DAVE TOMORROW!!! Wheee...hahaha.

Sunday, May 11, 2008

AN INSANE WEEKEND

Cross Country Intervals

Ray swung by to pick me up for training at Bellbird Park at 8.25 this morn. the first thing he did when i hopped into the car was whip out the camera to snap a photo of my newly painted gold fingernails. I spent a darn long time last night painting it! haha.

We picked iylia and Kaighin n got to training venue. We did 6x600m cross country reps. Very hilly, very painful. haha. but it felt great, and i ran well. Post training, D1 had a very disturbing message left on his car. It went sth like this: "I'm not sure if you're into this, but give me a call at 12345678". It was written by this GUY sitting in a blue car sussing Dave out pre-training. *Shivers* haha.

GIANT PANCAKES

We went to Queen Vic market where we waited for Wilson and had delicious GIANT pancakes!!!

Jamaican Banana (banana, peacans, cinnamon sugar, ice cream and syrup)

Iylia being idiotic when i wanted to take a nice photo

My turn to be idiotic when he wanted to take a nice photo.

Lemon and Sugar (with vanilla ice cream). This pancake was very large and thick!

Berry Bliss (raspberry, blueberry, syrup, ice cream)

Me posing with Wilson's Cervelo P2C.

After laughing and chatting for sometime, we went back and I had to take a nap and get ready for the MUAC Dinner!

MUAC Formal Dinner

Iylia came to my place to meet me to go to the dinner, and we were fashionably late. haha. i was feeling fairly self-conscious coz i've never put so much make up n dress up n all.

Dinner was great: bread roll, calamari with salad, beef steak, flourless choc cake with cream. I had coffee, champagne and red wine as well.


me and iylia pre-dinner

me and Jasmine looking pretty =)

Liam and me (I look like Val!)

d2 and d1...with one of his many fabulous expressions.

me, Jas and Kate =)

d2 and d1 looking serious and intellectual..

team s'pore looking glamorous!

me, Ray and Kaighin. Sorry I'm dominating the picture! haha

Beautiful women

Al and her bf, Alan...so sweet...

me and Ray =) nice suit, Ray.

me and Dave P...awww....
I absolutely love this shot of Iylia and me! great toothpaste-ad-worthy smiles =)

me and Al looking girly n sweet.

Dave (YEAH love that expression!), Fred, Alex and me.

This is a great shot of Al, me and Iylia (HAHA).

Dave, Tim and Al.

me and COOOL FRED!

Alcoholics! haha. there's a thorn amongst the roses...

me and Kate =)

Me and the 2 Daves...

OH YEAH!! Awesome shot!

Iylia spoiling the photo...

Team s'pore not so glam already but having lots of fun..hahaha!

Post dinner we took a tram down to a bar on Swanston. It was awesome, so fun! I had an absolutely smashing time...felt so happy...most of the night! haha. what a nice time =) thanks to Ray for taking some very funny videos, Iylia and Dave for being my escorts! haha! and all the people who were laughing amused at me...

The Hangover

Sunday morning I woke up with a headache but thanks to my trusty all-encompassing-emergency-and-non-emergency service, Ray, who called and offered to buy me breakfast. Thanks a million, Ray! A short while later he rocked up with 3 muffins and orange juice, which i happily but slowly finished off.

Checked out the videos from last night -- they were hilarious! And I look uncannily like Val...i think! hahaha.

And then the extremely helpful (and sweet) Ray started tidying and cleaning up my room for me. Hanging up my scarf and coat, arranging my shoes, washing my plates and glasses, clearing up my breakfast and wiping the kitchen. Thanks man, you're the best =)

Thursday, May 08, 2008

of suppers and laughters

It has been a pretty fabulous week so far. Let's see...

Monday night after training I watched a good movie at Nova called The Edge of Heaven. Turkish-German movie shot in Pulp Fiction style. Munched on a bag of Pita chips and Doritos and brain juice with fellow greedy-glutton, Ray.

Oh oh, I got back 2 assignments. H1 for my Language and Media assignment! "Outstanding" in all marking criteria areas and the comments: "WOW! One of the top papers! You certainly went beyond the assignment and demonstrated sophisticated critical thinking. Impressive!"

A very good H2A for my philosophical Sports, Entertainment and the Media essay. surprising...

Tuesday evening I met Man Kuan, my RJC classmate who's studying in Queen's University in Canada and down here for a holiday. I met him in the city--yes, I can still recognise you despite the extra 20kg...haha jk. We boarded what we thought was tram 16 and sat there chatting happily for 30min and then i realised that the surroundings didn't look familiar. Phoned my 24hr tram guide, Ray, and yes, we were not headed in the right direction. MK and I hopped off the tram to find that we boarded tram 7 instead of 16 and we now stranded in Glen Iris. Very funny, how the hell did we manage to be so cock eye!? Had no choice but to cab down to St Kilda.

I had a club sandwich at Greasy Joe's and MK had a steak. The food was good and surprisingly not that greasy...haha. We then went over to Monarch cake shop where we bought a slice of the choc German dessert and AN ENTIRE 100 YEAR OLD RECIPE CHEESECAKE. We ate the choc slice while walking along a small jetty on the beach. Very nice but very cold also.

Got back to my place and we shared a quarter of the cheesecake. Then MK cut me almost half of the remaining 3/4 to keep! In order not to end up greedily devouring the entire thing myself -- which i am definately capable of -- I phoned my emergency-weight-control service, Ray, to finish the cake off for me immediately.

A laughter-filled cake polishing session went from one hour to two then in a flash, it'd been 5 hours. Time flies when you're in good company with a good conversation.

Wednesday I had a fantastic run session--4x1200m, in which i surprised myself with my times. It's probably coz i've hardly been swimming so i'm less tired at the run sessions. Actually, it could be the fuel from the cheesecake, or the reminder that i'd to burn off that calories. haha.

After training, Ray and I visited Iylia who was ill. We passed him some recent race photos and gave him some cheesecake too =) I love Iylia's room, it's so cozy with a loft bed! We were huddled on the sofa looking at past photos...and I was snacking on some gummies and then got a sugar high again. It was hilarious! I was talk and laughing excitedly and the spoiler Iylia kept asking me to keep quiet as Jeff was studying in the next room.

Then, i had an intense laughing fit -- a common occurance of late -- while moulding Iylia's soft kneadable sketching eraser into a gross odd shape. Iylia and Ray were just standing there amused watching me laugh at nothing. I laughed until my abs hurt so much! haha hilarious. When I finally could stop laughing, I went home with a stack of Iylia's must-watch DVDs.

Thursday was a good day too. I woke up with hamstring muscleaches but still did my bike workout anyway. Met Yuhui and Dawn for sushi dinner at Seasalt. We sat next to a French family with extremely adorable young boys. haha. Bought some snacks to Bible Study, which was great. While walking home, Emma saw an abandoned Safeway trolley on the pavement and very kindly pushed it all the way back to Safeway at Lygon Court. I helped. haha!

When I got home, Wilson called to say he was very near my place and asked if he could visit me. Of coz, I don't mind nice company =) He came over with his friend, Sofian. Someone actually envies my little hole in the wall of a room! haha. Sofian is envious that my room is much bigger and cheaper than his in Degree1. We chatted about S'pore, JC, mutual friends, cycling, running etc. Fun times =)

Thurs/Friday
: fellow-midnight-hunger-pangs-sufferer and concerned-caring Ray swung by to pick me up to St Kilda, where we strolled on the jetty. I love the sea, it's so vast, calm and serene. I love the sound of the gentle crashing waves. I love the smell of the sea breeze. but i didn't really like the cold winds.

We warmed up with some hot latte and apple pie which we ate on the beachside veranda of a restaurant (closed at that hour). In an attempt to undo the damage of the apple pie, we took a long walk along the coast. I love the coast. Then we walked on the sand. There was this large machine cleaning and smoothing out the sand, kinda like ice-surfacing in ice-skating rinks. We walked in the flattened paths created by the machine, examined our footprints, hopped around to create dents, i even wrote my name in the sand with my footprints. And then i stomped into tall ridges of sand in my suede boots, we touched the sea water, jumped into a large crater in the sand, walked backwards, walked fast backwards, then sat on a short wall to rest.

Ray was telling me about sea navigation. Red blinking lights indicate port (Left) side and green blinking lights were the Starboard (Right) side of ships. And about audio and visual morse codes and astro-navigation. Interesting. Then as dawn drew nearer, we started seeing more and more people, all joggers, passing by. It's so awesome to stay by the beach. We walked back as the sky got lighter and Ray dropped me off home =)

In the late morning, I got a couple of wake-up messages on my hp which I responded to then fell back asleep. I only woke up a little later to see more messages to go downstairs but alas, I overslept them and read the last message to open the door and not step on my present. I jumped outta bed and opened the door to find a brown paper bag outside.

Oooo while I was asleep I had a Thresherman's muffins-delivery service from Ray! Awwww...so sweet!!! My favourite blueberry and raspberry muffins for breakfast-in-bed. Unfortch, the delivery man had left to go home...n catch some sleep I hope! haha. What a nice start to a gloomy day. haha.

THANKS RAY!!! :)

Look forward to my next post on some cross country interval running at Bellbird Park tomorrow morning, hopefully gigantic pancakes for breakfast and then a smashin' good time at the MUAC formal dinner in the evening! Exciting!!! =)

Monday, May 05, 2008

Warragul XC & Puffing Billy Races!!

Warragul 6km XC Race--Saturday 3 May 2008

It was a pretty gloomy day and we met at uni at 11am to car pool down to Warragul, approximately 2hr drive. I was with the "Team S'pore contingent" as D1 calls it...haha which is Iylia, Ray and I =)

Iylia drove while Ray navigated. We stopped by Pakenham coz i needed to pee badly. haha. it was drizzling and cold. it was a v scenic drive...got to see farms and cows and sheep haha. we got to Lardner Park and set up base in an old shed which smelt like cattle.

Race start/finish area

The guys' race was 8km (2x 4km loop), at 2.10pm.

The boys doing run thrus. D1, camera friendly as usual..

The Formidable White Train!

The men at the starting line.


Kate, Camilla and me cheering the guys on.
Spot the Melb Uni runners in the white top with diagonal blue sash.

Almost 2km into the race, Liam on the R with Grant keeping up.

Not ones to miss a good photo opportunity, Tony and Matt Irons managed to look over and SMILE. Ray trying hard to pace Tony, which turned out to be a bad idea. haha.

D1 with Andy Selby close behind.

The guys ran superbly! Liam and Grant finished near the front, an exciting sprint finish between Dave Pariossien and Hamish...haha we were jogging around the course cheering the guys on and me snapping race photos for everyone. haha.

The girl's race, 6km, started at 2.50pm. it was a 2km loop followed by the 4km loop.

Renata, our new Swiss runner leading the women's race. Damn she's looks so cool and so pro!

Yup, that's me happily running across a muddy slippery patch. Not cool or pro at all.

Oh that's me again, trying to pace Al (ahead, out of the photo).

Alison Smith, women's XC captain

Sprint finish (to the toilet)!

I had a pretty good run except for the terrible terrible stomachache i had to endure during the race! Spent the half hour post-race in the toilet...haha. i ran the first 2km in 8.20, too fast i think, but i was feeling real good. haha. in the 4km loop we had to jump over a fence into a muddy loop with many ditches. I stepped into many of the ditches coz they were too wide for me to jump across.

Tony and the guys kept making fun of me, coz we were supposed to jump/climb over the wooden fence but i slipped horizontally in-between the bars instead, coz climbing over wld take too much effort for a shorty like me!


we had our usual post race picnic...scrumptious as usual. haha. D2 brought along an old table, how thoughtful.

Then the Team S'pore Contingent took some really nice photographs:

What a cute shot of me and Iylia. My mouth was stuffed with muffin!

What a nice shot of Ray and me. I was tip toeing.

Team S'pore

YEAH!!!

Ray, Iylia, Alison and me headed back to the city, with ME DRIVING! haha so fun, i like driving! Dropped Iylia off at Melb Central coz he was gonna buy movie tickets for Iron Man for Ray and me, then dropped Al off at uni. Then headed home to bathe and change for dinner.

We had Nandos for dinner and bought loads of snacks for the movie, which Iylia was CRAZY about..expected of a hardcore comic book fanatic. haha. Nice conclusion to a fun day =)


13.2km Puffing Billy Race--Sunday 4 May 2008

The race starts in Belgrave, in the v hilly Dandenong Ranges. We meet at Liam's studio in Smith Street to take a coach bus down. I ran this race last year in 64min 55 sec and was determined to beat that this year. At least this year's chilly but not raining.

Photos on the bus ride there:

Me and Wilson...nice =)

Iylia, me and Wilson at the Belgrave train station

Me so psyched up pre-race...
Iylia excited about his race tag, or is he just showing off his chest...

The race was good, i had a solid run and felt strong...it was HILLY! between 5-8kms was almost entirely uphill. haha. the last 2km was on terrain. it was a good run! I shaved almost 5min off my time from last year!! YEAH...1 hr 10s...fabulous. Could the secret be to be greedy and overeat desserts...? haha.

Trio shot: Ray, Iylia and me on the train tracks at the finish. cool.

Me and D2, Dave Ulbrick, who finished top 15! fantastic.

me and ray.

Iylia shooting his Magnum look...or is it Blue Steel? synchronised calf stretching with D2. haha. i was picking wild "magic" mushrooms from the soil and "de-gilling" them. GROSS GROSS GROSS. patterns nightmare!

couple shot--Ray and Iylia by the lake. sweeeet.

me and iylia by the lake. awwww.

Al and me =)

Ashlea and me.

We then took the bus back to the city. But we got caught in a jam so it took really long. In the meantime, we were entertaining ourselves by taking embarrassing shots. Here are a few of the LESS EMBARASSING ONES...


Iylia as poster boy for Powerade Energy. Caffine + sugar. which reminds me, after downing an entire bottle before the run, i got a Powerade HIGH and started laughing at every little unfunny thing. How cool is that? A natural high without drugs/alcohol! hahaha.

Wilson failing miserably in his attempt to look cool.

Ray showing off his superior balancing skills--a green apple nested on his head! amazing!

Hehe im not posting any embarrassing shots of me...right, so the 4 s'poreans decided to have lunch on smith street. What a spread!


Ahh...after walking around smith st after lunch i went home and knocked out!!! haha tiring weekend of racing, but so much fun =)