Dehydration...

Remind me to drink some water BEFORE I actually go for a 10km walk/run next time.

Some friends of mine have been doing regular Saturday morning runs at MacRitchie Reservoir for a while, and they've been trying to convince me into running with them for the past 3 weeks. Finally, I got cornered into actually showing up. So today, at 7am, I woke up, had coffee and made my miserable way to MacRitchie.

It was HOT today.

And DRY.

Suddenly the algae-filled, kayak-infested (yes, apparently the school teams train there) waters of our local reservoir looked very inviting.

Any further than 10km, and you would have found a new lifeform living in the waters of MacRitchie. They'll need to be put up new signs in MacRitchie Reservoir:



"Beware of Siew Mai"
"Known to bite."
"More so when provoked."

Back in Aberdeen: The First Week

Yes yes, I am now back in "Sunny" Aberdeen! Although, to be fair, it actually has been quite sunny. Well, for the last 2 days anyway. Landed last Saturday morning, and that evening immediately headed off to the gym with N and R. It was mad, I know. I was absolutely destroyed that night. Was dead to the world by 10pm. Sunday was POURING RAIN!! I do believe that was the heaviest rainfall I'd ever seen in Aberdeen in my 2 years here. It was almost like the monsoon rains back home! It was amazing!!!

Anyhooo... Things have been good so far, this first week. Went and met my advisor, got my courses for this year settled. I have to do 2 more courses than normal engineering students this year because of my Management option, but hopefully I'll be able to get through them.

Other than that, there hasn't really been very much going on, it is just only registration week. We'll see what happens once my classes get going. At the moment, my days are filled with short runs, gym visits, society issues to deal with and catching up with people. And then there are long periods of absolute nothingness, like now, where I just hang out in the kitchen, tv on, flatmates walking in and out, waiting for my evening appointment to happen. Now, if you're asking "gym visits? What gym visits?", then yes, so far I've managed to keep up my gym regime. Although I don't know how long more it's going to last, especially once the term really gets going. But we'll see. I was actually overjoyed when I managed to slip easily into the jeans I left here. Before summer they were such a tight fit, I could barely walk up the stairs in them. I going to try to keep it that way.

My official Shape Run timing is out!! Check out the sidebar!
The next 10km run will be the Baxter's Loch Ness Run. Train tickets up to Inverness and accomodation, all booked and ready! Go Siew Mai Go!!

What's Next?

Ok. Basically this is a translation (not a very strict one) of the blog entry I posted yesterday on my new Japanese blog. Yes, I started a Japanese blog. No, I'm not going to reveal the URL at the moment. 1) There's no point. How many of my friends can actually read Japanese right? In any case, no point coz no one even reads this blog. Lalala! ♪ 2) For some reason, I thought I'd keep it as separate as possible at the moment. Although some more tech savvy people may be able to find it and of course, those who 日本語もわかってる already know how to find it.

That said, I'm going to post an English version of that one entry simply because I have neglected this blog for a while. So... Here it is.
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Well, well~ Got various updates here... (-_-''')

First off, I finished 12km!! Took part in the Sheares Bridge Run on Sunday, 26th August. Finishing that distance was amazing (even though it's just 2km more than my usual)!! My usual 10km timing is about 1hr 30min, so I thought I'd take about 1hr 50min this time around. And I actually did some serious preparation for this run!! Practiced running 10km (taking about 1hr 20-25min each time) at least once a week. Alas!! Just when I thought I was all prepared to go for the 12km, tragedy struck 2 days before the actual run...

Yup. Fell sick again. On Friday night, I was having the runs and vomitting all night. Must've been bad food... And there was a slight fever as well. The next day I was just flat out on my bed (think I got up a total of 2 or 3 times). I was absolutely out of it. Whether or not I was going to be able to even make the start line was doubtful. Even my mum changed her tagline from "You should run more" to "Take it slowly, if you can't make it tomorrow, just rest"...

NO!! I was determined to make this 12km happen. Afterall I had been looking forward to it!! Nevermind if it was going to be a really slow 12km, I was going to finish it!! So, with this mindset, I was off to the run.

In the end, I took about 2hrs (according to my own timing) to finish. It was a bit slow but I was quite happy with the timing. I mean, I finished it didn't I? And that's the entire point!!! After the race, my mum and I went wakeboarding with friends. IT WAS SUPER FUN!!! I actually managed to STAND UP!!! WOOHOO!! SUCCESS!! Think I can do tricks the next time I go?? Hehehehe...

AND ALSO!! Today I went to the hair salon!!! OHHHOHOHO!! Yes, got an entirely NEW hairdo!! Waaaa~ Haven't had a proper fringe in YEARS! It's puh-reeety exciting!!!!!

2007/08/29 00:15

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And that was this week's update. Although the official race times for the SBR are now out and apparently I finished in 1:46:30:30 (chip time). That means I actually met my target despite being off-form!!! OMG!~