Betty's Blog

Vancouver Sun Run 2010

2010-05-10T10:26:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since I last blogged. I've been taking time off from running and just recently I started back up again because I registered to do the Sun Run. After doing my first marathon back in Dec 2009, I felt like I needed a break from running. I definitely recharged my battery and just concentrated on work and singing. I had a few choir presentations in February and March and it felt good to do something totally different other than running.

Vancouver Sun Run was my first race of 2010 and fifth year doing it. Of course, the name of the race definitely says it all. "Sun" Run....A beautiful day like every other year drew more than 50,000 participants to downtown Vancouver!!! I have to admit that this race is a fun one to do and a great experience to be part of one of the biggest races in North America. Although I didn't get a PB for this year, I still had a blast seeing all my running mates whom I haven't seen for more than 2 months. Great to connect with everyone again and what more can I ask for than a gorgeous sunny day.

Race results: Ray did it in 40:11mins and I finished with a time of 55:37mins and my nephew Ethan always a speedy one did it in 53:21mins.

Chinese New Year/Olympics 2010

2010-02-27T22:26:00.000-08:00

I know it has been a very long time since I blogged. It has been a pretty busy two months so far in the year 2010. Work has kept me busy because of the long hours I had to put in especially in January. I was really looking forward to two weeks off in February during the Olympics. With the two weeks off, I was really happy that I got to enjoy the 2010 celebrations of both the Olympics and Chinese New Year. Other than enjoying the festivals and events, I had a really productive two weeks doing a lot of house cleaning and catching up with friends whom I haven't seen for a while.

The Winter Olympics held here in Vancouver was definitely one of the best events because it showed the world how patriotic the Canadians are. After watching the games and the medal/victory ceremonies especially when the Canadian athletes podium'ed, it was the most emotional moment that I have ever experienced. I am so proud to be a Canadian. What a great thing to have the Olympics here in our homeland!!! To all the athletes, two thumbs up and a job well-done!!!!

However, I was rather disappointed by the Opening Ceremony. Comparing to Beijing 2008 Olympics, it was quite boring especially at the Opening. I was a little relieved and glad about the Closing. Michael Buble was one of the performers and his performance definitely lit up the ceremony with a group of dancers dressed as RCMP performing in the center stadium, along with giant RCMP models. A group of skaters dressed as hockey players simulated a hockey game and pretended to fight with the giant models. Followed by that, there were women dressed as giant maple leafs, dancers in canoes, giant beavers and giant moose. Now, this is how it was supposed to be done. I'm sure we could have done better but other than that the venues with free concerts and performances were great for everyone to enjoy.

I also had a great time celebrating the Chinese New Year - the Year of the Tiger. My family got together for a big feast on CNY eve at my parent's house. It was definitely good food and good company. Ray and I went to Chinatown to see the Lion Dance parade on the first day of CNY. I hope this year will bring everyone lots of blessings, joy and prosperity.

During the last weekend of the Olympics, Ray and I went up to Grouse for his Yeti World Snowshoe Championships where he competed with 15 world athletes from places like USA, Japan, France, Italy, Australia, etc. We had a chance to see the famous mountain runner Jonathan Wyatt from Australia. It was definitely a cool experience to be competing with them. Ray was placed 31st/86 overall and 19th/33 in the age group 20-39 for Males with a speedy time of 1:03:26.

Happy Holidays Everyone!!!

2009-12-24T10:21:00.001-08:00

What a year it has been and December is nearing the end. Time sure goes by fast and it makes me think about what I've achieved this year. Well, it has definitely been a busy year for me. If you have read my previous blogs, I got married in the summer and then jetted off to my honeymoon in London and Paris. Sweet!!! As soon as I was back, I went on and trained for my first Marathon. Now, this was the most challenging thing I have ever done in my entire life!!! I just can't stop stressing how much commitment I had to put in to train for it. I only trained for 12 weeks but that was all the time I had left before the race in Sacramento, CA. With the injury and all that, it did set me back a little bit but it didn't stop me from continuing. With the encouragement from my husband, some massage from the chiropractor and God's guidance, I went on and ran my first ever marathon. I was so proud of myself for doing something that I never in a million years thought I could.

Now that the holiday season is here, I can relax and go back to doing yoga which I have been putting off since the Marathon training. Though Hot yoga could be tough it is still not as tough as running a marathon :)

On Dec 23rd, it was Ray's 36th birthday. I brought him to a nice restaurant called Latitude to celebrate with a surprise of his sister and brother-in-law's (Trisha and Adam) appearance at the restaurant. It was really nice having them with us just before Christmas.

We were up snowshoeing for the first time this season this past Sunday and the snow conditions weren't too bad. They haven't had new snow for the last week or so. Hopefully, we get some before our next snowshoeing which is this Thurs on New Year's Eve. We'll have our nieces and nephews and a couple of friends coming with us. It should be fun :)

With all these memories and achievements that I have, I can now cherish them and look forward to new endeavours in 2010. I hope that the New Year will bring everyone joy, happiness and lots of blessings.

California International Marathon 2009

2009-12-07T22:27:00.000-08:00

What an amazing and rewarding experience for me this past weekend!!! Ray and I flew to Sacramento, CA to do the 27th California International Marathon (CIM). It was Ray's sixth marathon and my FIRST marathon ever!!! I have been training for this for the last two and a half months. As it was getting closer to this day, I was definitely feeling nervous and of course excited at the same time.

The start line was at Folsom which is north-east of Sacramento. There were buses lined up to the galore to pick up the runners from different hotels on race day between 5 and 5:30am. So we were up at 4am to get ready for some breakfast and off we went to the bus downstairs of our hotel which was the Sheraton Grand located right beside the Convention centre for the expo marathon. The only thing we forgot to bring was Vector cereal. We tried looking for it in and around where we stayed especially at Safeway. No luck... :( I guess Vector is a canadian cereal thing...hmm. A friend of ours who lives in San Jose, who came up with his family to do the marathon, said that he has not heard of Vector before. So we just bought some banana granola to eat instead. My training group got together for a nice pasta meal the night before the race at Il Forniao restaurant. It was so good!!!

On the morning of the race, it was dark and cold at -2degC when we were lining up to get into the bus. As soon as we were in the bus we felt pretty warm and toasty. The ride was about 30mins to Folsom which was uphill all the way. It seemed to start pretty close to the prison which was on the south side of the lake. As soon as we got there we scrambled to the potty before the long line set in. Of course, I always have to use the potty at least twice. I chatted with some people on the way to the start wishing each other 'Good Luck' in the race. I was with the Pace group of 4:15 (the Pace Group leaders were Lisa and Mike). I was glad that I went with them because Mike entertained me all the way to Mile 9 and Dan whom I ran with once during the training told me how good Lisa was with the pace time. Mike was getting the group to relax by putting up our hands, shaking our hands, rolling our shoulders and thanking him at mile 25 for doing this little exercise :) At mile 9 or so I had to do a quick pee break and from then on I could barely catch up to the 4:15 group. The cold breeze and headwind didn't help at all. Though I could sort of see them from a distance I tried to keep up to them at about 5:45 to 6:00min/km pace. At mile 13 I could hardly see the pace group anymore and I was telling myself not to be discouraged if I lose them in sight. Luckily, I have my Garmin to pace me the whole way. At this point, I was really hoping to see mile 15 because the rest of the course was downhill and flat after that to the finish. Mile 15 came and it was a relief to see that. With carbo-pro, nuun diluted with water and shot-bloks as fuel, I was surprised to get a little "umph" here and then to get me to 5:35min/km at some parts of the race. As I always think, God is definitely my strength in this regard.

When I got into East Sacramento at around mile 20, I was so glad that my legs were still holding up and only then, I started to warm up a little bit but not much. The whole time I was cold even though I wore a long sleeve shirt!! The weather was definitely something I underestimated. As soon as mile 23 came, my legs were feeling so heavy and could barely hold 6:00mins/km. The last 2km felt like "it was never going to end"!!! My pace dropped to about 6:30 to 6:45mins/km and from then on, I knew that I wouldn't be able to do 4:15. A little voice told me to not give up and that finishing this race would be a huge accomplishment. As soon as I could see the finish line, my eyes started to well up and I had my hands up like a 'winner'!!! What an emotional moment for me and my husband who was standing by to greet me. 4:22:12 is my official finish chip time....I think I have tried my best and the most important thing is I survived my first marathon ;) Although Ray, my husband, didn't get a PB from this marathon I still think he finished with an awesome time of about 3:18:13. What an amazing race we have achieved together!!!

Gunner Shaw 8.5K Victoria 2009

2009-11-30T21:00:00.000-08:00

Gunner, gunner....I sure give it a gunner. What a total different experience for this race!! It sure was a wet and cold day. Ray and I teamed up with 20 other Lions Gate Road Runners (LGRR) to compete with the Prairie Inn Harriers (PIH). The PIH sure put out a good race with well-marked course and let's not forget the huge puddles, shoe-sucking mud and a lake for everyone to frolic before the finish.

Puddle 1 was quite stinky and cold and my feet were numb from it. As soon as my feet warmed up, here comes Puddle 2 which was a muddy one with a huge fallen tree to jump over. I took it slow going through this one and was praying that my shoes stayed on. It turned out fine. After this, the trail was filled with never-ending small puddles and mud. The last 3 hills at the end before the finish were unexpected. It wasn't the hills that worried me, it was running through the edge of Thetis Lake toward the finish that got me wet for the '20th' time but I guess it was good in a way. It sure cleans off the mud and dirt from my shoes. An LGRR member was caught in the act of splashing water at another member as she was approaching the finish. She was soaked but nonetheless, it was fun. Some racers actually slipped and fell into the water. They decided from then on, they might as well go for a quick swim. Interesting choice...not me, I sure tried to keep dry and mud-free as much as I could. As you can see the photo on the left here, I still have a pretty clean jersey compared to Ray's :)

We had a chance to change into our dry clothes just before the awards ceremony. The post race food and refreshment was pretty good. There were a couple hot items like hot chocolate and chicken noodles and regular stuff like cookies, oranges, gatorade, water, etc.

Race results are posted here. I finished with a time of 58:21 and Ray did a fast time of 40:05. Although the LGRR didn't win any of the categories, we sure came together and showed our team spirit. According to the LGRR president, we had the best turn-out of about 20 members this year. Next week, there will be about 20 PIH members coming to do the Gunner Shaw in Vancouver. Congrats to all Gunner finishers!!! Stay tuned for my upcoming first Marathon this Sunday, Dec 6th. Wish me luck!!

Haney 2 Harrison Relay Race

2009-11-08T19:51:00.000-08:00

A couple years have gone by and here we are again doing the H2H race. It's definitely one of those races that is always wet and yucky!!! A friend of mine mentioned to me that H2H should be called H2O instead. You know...it's true!!

Our team was called Team Trailer Trashed Resurrected with Terry, Anne-Marie, Sean, Heather, Mary, me, Ray and Mark doing legs 1 to 8 respectively. We reunited our team from 2 years ago which was called Team Trailer Trashed. With trashy clothes and mullets, we sure stood out from all the other teams. It was so much fun to be in this team because we played hard and raced hard too!!!

Ray had an awesome finish time of PB 57:05mins (13.47km) for Leg 7. Great effort even though it was a torrential downpour for this leg. Other legs weren't too bad with the rain. I was lucky enough that it stopped raining for my leg (Stage 6). It made me a happy camper in that respect but unfortunately, I didn't get to my exchange quick enough to tag Mary for my stage. Because the timer at the Exchange suspected that I didn't swipe my chip to start my leg, I had to run back to the mat to start my time. It cost me 2 mins which the result showed a finish time of 1:18:42 with an average pace of 6:01mins/km. According to my Garmin, my finish time was in fact 1:16:02 at an average pace of 5:41mins/km for 13.34km.

Despite of the finish time, I felt good out there especially the last 7km. The first 6k, I did feel some pain on the side of my right knee from my IT Band which I injured 4 weeks ago from my marathon training. I am currently training for my first marathon coming up on Dec 6 in Sacramento, CA. It is nerve-wrecking everytime I think about it. With the injury I am taking it real slow. I understand that time isn't what I'm going for but it's the feeling of accomplishment that I'm aiming for after I finish the marathon. Wish me luck!!!

Grouse Grind Mountain Run 2009

2009-09-21T08:58:00.000-07:00

This would be the fourth year for me, Ray and William and third time for Ethan as a team doing this race. Our team this year was the same name as last year which was "Kung Fu Pandas". Again, we all did great especially Ethan and Ray with speedy times of 47:28 mins and 37:47 mins respectively. WTG team for coming in first again in the team Co-ed category!! We won 4 pairs of Merrell socks, 4 Running Room gift cards and complimentary event entries to either Snowshoe Classic, Seek the Peak or Grouse Grind races. The record time was broken this year by Sebastian Salas who finished it in 25:25mins.

More than 500 participants braved through the infamous trail of about 3km and a lot of the elderly people in the age groups of 70 - 74 and 75-99 were surprisingly very FIT!!! A few of them did better than me...now, that is just unreal. They really inspire me. I thought I gave it my all but just not good enough. My uncle and aunt just started to do the Grind a few weeks ago and I told them, "Good for you". What I usually say to Grouse Grind first-timers is time isn't what we're really looking for here, it's all about endurance and finishing it!!

Wayne Brady Show

2009-09-18T08:48:00.000-07:00

Ray and I with 4 other friends headed to Red Robinson Theatre in Coquitlam for a night of laughter and FUN!!! This was my third time seeing Wayne Brady and my second time on stage with him!! I was so happy that he picked me again and this time, there were four people from the audience to be as PROPS in the skit that they were doing. Each of us had a quick practice on what to do so I was told to impersonate a 'Tornado' and I did a 'Rocket' instead....hahahaha. I knew what a tornado is, just did it too fast without thinking it through. Nevertheless, it was still funny. Ray recorded a video of it. Looking back at it, I feel like I made a fool of myself :)

Exploring the Lions

2009-09-13T08:15:00.000-07:00

Ray, Ethan, Shirmy and I were out on a beautiful Sunday to check out the Lions. The Lions which is also called the Twin Sisters is a very popular hike in the North Shore area. It sure was busy when we got there, perhaps it wasn't early enough therefore, we had to park about 1km away from the trail head.
The hike started off fine with a gradual incline until we got to the top of the ridge where we had our lunch. The view of Howe Sound and Garibaldi Lake was just spectacular. After the break, we decided to head up to the top of the Lions and it wasn't easy at all. Shirmy and I just didn't continue on but Ray and Ethan went on and hiked to the very top. The downhill felt really long as our legs were so tired after 6 hours of hiking. The last part of the hike made it even harder for me as I was experiencing some blisters on the base of my feet. We just couldn't wait to get to the car and to the store for a drink of WATER!!!!! As we almost got to the car, we saw a nearby resident working on his lawn, we asked him what time the store was opened till and he offered some water bottles for us. What a nice guy :0 Will I do it again? Well, if I do, then I will be better prepared next time with MORE WATER!!!!

Ray's first Triathlon in Stanley Park

2009-09-07T12:38:00.000-07:00

Weather had been really nice for the month of August but this long weekend it decided to take its turn to cold, miserable and rainy. Today, Ray and I headed down to second beach in Stanley Park in the wee early morning at about 6am. When we got there, it started raining but then it stopped when the race started at 7am. Thank God that the day turned out good for the whole race.

Ray had his taste for his first triathlon. I wasn't sure if he was really up for the race especially the 750m open water swim. As usual, he did just well in 17mins. As for the biking and run, he did exceptionally good. His 5K run time (19:31mins) was the best in his age group category.

So proud of you, Ray!! Way to go!! Congrats again for a good effort in your first Triathlon.

Wedding Bells / Honeymoon Trip

2009-08-04T08:50:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!! It's been a while since I last put a blog entry. It's been a really hectic summer...well, in a good way :) Ray and I tied the knot on July 12, 2009 at Brock House Restaurant near Jericho Beach. We celebrated this wonderful and lovely day with 180 friends and family.

A week after the wedding, we jetted off on our honeymoon to London first for about a week and then to Paris for the next 8 days. It was my first time to both cities and Ray's second time to London and first to Paris. The weather in London was a bit cold and rainy but overall, it wasn't that bad. In Paris, it was sunny pretty much the whole time we were there but definitely not as hot as the two weeks that people in Vancouver were experiencing. I guess I could say that I was lucky in a way but I just haven't experienced the heat wave yet this summer. Not that I'm complaining. I just love the summer in Vancouver!! The highlight of the trip was indeed the attractions like the museums, the art galleries, Eiffel Tower, Arc de Triomphe, Tower of London, the cruise on Thames and Seine Rivers, du Louvre, etc. Just love the history of the Kings and Queens that ruled the countries. Please feel free to view our honeymoon trip photos.

Here comes the Bride....

2009-07-10T08:35:00.001-07:00

Can you believe it??? The time is here soon and on this Sunday, July 12th, 2009, I will be hitched!!! Just thinking about it gives me butterflies in my stomach. Ray and I have been planning this Big Day for about 10 months. We got engaged last summer in July and now, we're here getting close to being called husband and wife....aww.

This last month, it has been exhausting especially with work leading up to the last day of work before my one-month holiday started. I was so looking forward to having some time to myself to prepare and plan for the wedding. I can feel the stress or work load off my whole body. Wow...it's an amazing feeling. With my sister and niece visiting from Brunei, I also had the chance to spend some quality time with them. I am truly ecstatic to have them with me on this special day. Love you Sis!!!

These last few days, I had relatives coming in from Edmonton and Oregon, WA to attend my wedding. I tell ya...there were dinners and lunches galore!!!!! We have been going out eating non-stop with them and hmm...I'm not sure at this point if I even want to eat for the next few days...haha. However, it sure makes me happy to see them make the effort to come to see me get married. Thanks guys!!!!

A big Thanks to my family for being there for me and a special thanks to my mom: I love ya for all the mental, spiritual and financial support that you've given me in the last 10 years or so. My dad and my brothers and sisters, what a great relationship bonding and support I have had for all these years!!! Kudos to you all!!!

Last but not least, my warmest thanks to my sweetie, Ray. You've been an awesome partner to me and I really can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you for the days to come....I know, it sounds cheesy :) I definitely mean it from the bottom of my heart. Can't wait to walk down the aisle and see you in that cute tux...haha.

A Quick Getaway

2009-06-07T19:24:00.000-07:00

Ray and I had the opportunity to do a small getaway this weekend to see Jim Brickman in concert even though we are in the middle of our wedding plans. It was sure a nice little escape from reality...haha. To top it up, we did some shopping and found some good deals. Great!!!

The concert was at the Kirkland Performance Centre in Kirkland, WA. I have been a longtime fan of Jim Brickman. To see him "live" on stage and to be able to see him play the piano which was only 50 feet away from where we were sitting, it was just an awesome experience. He is such a talented and personal performer. He chatted with the audience with his upbringing of his life from "not so talented" parents that gave him this gift to be an incredible piano player!! He is also a funny guy who joked a lot on stage, making us laugh and giving us a good time. I had an amazing time getting to know him more not just as a performer but also as a person. The only disappointment was that we weren't allowed to take photos and video but we managed to sneak in a few videos of him playing "Peace (where the heart is) and "The Gift". This way, I can keep a memory of this concert that I really enjoyed.

Iron Knee 2009

2009-05-31T22:01:00.000-07:00

After a full day of activities the day before, Ray and I with Jeremy were up early this morning at 6am to get ready to head out to the start of the race at Grouse Mountain for Iron Knee 25K. Even though we didn't quite get a lot of sleep the night before, Ray sure seemed pumped up about the race. Of course, let's not forget the sunny and warm weather helped us by giving us a little jolt of energy in the morning.

There were about 230 people that participated in the Iron Knee race. The start is at Grouse and it finishes at Deep Cove. This is Ray's second time doing this race and he set a personal best time of 1:58:31 at 23/222 overall, 20/111 for males and 11/38 in his age group. It is definitely a lot of elite runners that came out and they are indeed very speedy!!!

A "Surprise" Bridal Shower

2009-05-30T21:47:00.000-07:00

The "big" day is approaching soon as I only have slightly more than a month left to prepare for this ONE day walking down the aisle. There is sure a lot to do leading up to this day. I don't know why but I thought I was done organizing but not really, things creep up now and then.

So I had a great day celebrating an unexpected and surprising bridal shower on a warm Saturday afternoon. Actually, it wasn't warm, it was more like hot. I was sweating as I was opening up my gifts. I guess I was too excited as I have never seen so many gifts before in my life. I got so many cool and sexy gifts like wine, body wash/lotion, toaster oven, 7-pc comforter and let's not forget the lingerie and a book that talks about"GRRREAT Sex"...haha.

All in all, I was just spoiled with all these amazing gifts from all my close friends and relatives. Thanks everyone for a good surprise and the fun time that we had together!!!

BMO Vancouver Marathon 2009

2009-05-03T17:42:00.001-07:00

Another successful race on a gorgeous morning as the forecast for today was 80% light rain 2 days ago. Awesome race organization with a lot of water/aid station and food for the whole course and at the Finish.

Just this morning, I was very anxious about my half marathon as this was only my second one and believe it or not, my hands were shaky putting up my bib number and only had about 5 hours of sleep last night. I caught up on my sleep after the race but that's not the point. I think after doing the half twice, I'm pretty sure I will be fine with overcoming the anxiety, jitters and difficulty sleeping until I do my first Marathon. Hmm....I don't even want to think about that for now. Let's just enjoy my achievement from today's race.

I felt pretty good and strong out there today despite the "scary" hills up to Prospect Point at Stanley Park. For those who know me, I hate hills!!! But I toughed it out and tackled the hills by slowly trotting up them. Now, I am paying for it because my calves are burning as we speak :( Well, some aches and pains will be expected...I shouldn't be whining as I'm probably feeling the least pain compared to the Marathoners like for instance, Ray...
Today, it was the proudest and emotional moment of my life as I see Ray approaching the Finish with a Boston qualifying and personal best time of 3:14:57. I couldn't hold my tears back seeing him fulfilling his dream!!! Way to go and an awesome finish.

Race Results: I came in 1565th/5996 overall, 571st/3722 for Females and 102nd/613 for my age group with a time of 1:56:35 PB. As for Ray, he finished strong with a time (as mentioned above) of 3:14:57 PB, ranking at 138th/2996 overall, 123rd/1700 for Males and 31st/279 in his age group. Great job!!!!

Vancouver Sun Run 2009

2009-04-19T16:16:00.001-07:00

A perfect condition this morning for the many 55,000 plus participants at the 10K Sun Run. Even though it wasn't sunny, the cloudy weather gave me the push to get my Personal Best time for the 10K. All the training paid off. Thank you!!!

I had so much fun today because my nephew, Ethan, joined me in the race. It was his first 10K race and first time doing the Sun Run. He did pretty good considering he doesn't run much. His time recorded on Sunrun.com showed 55:52 mins but according to him, he thought his time was around 50mins. I think so too because he was in front of me. Later, I was told that a lot of the people's chips at the start didn't get scanned. Hmm...hopefully, the timing company fixes it. Ray's chip didn't scan either at the start and the same goes for another friend of ours.

Ethan joined others in our group like April, Eric, Sandra and Shirmy as first time participants. I'm really proud of them for coming out to join in the "fun" run. Good for them!!!

A lot of the Lions Gate runners were out too and everyone did great!!! A report of the race is blogged at the LGRR website. Full race results will be published tomorrow in the Vancouver Sun newspaper or at Raceheadquarters website.

Ray's finish time was 38:20mins which was a PB for him. Good job!!! As for me, I did it in a PB time of 51:24mins. So glad this race is over and my next one will be in two weeks which is the Vancouver Half Marathon on May 3rd. Wish me luck on that!!!

Beyonce Concert

2009-03-31T17:54:00.000-07:00

Concert on a Tues night...hmm, it will definitely pass my bedtime but I still went anyway. Ray brought his two nieces (13 and 10 years old) to see Beyonce. They sure enjoyed it a lot. Even though the skytrain ride was a little bumpy going there according to them but it was all worth it. Beyonce sure likes to dance a lot and the crowd loves her that way. The crowd got even louder when she sang "All The Single Ladies". Her last song of the night was "Halo" as a goodbye song...

Chuckanut 50K

2009-03-22T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ray and I had a very interesting and nice getaway, I think?? Wait till you read on. We stayed overnight in Bellingham for Ray's first ultra marathon called Chuckanut 50K race. It gave him the shivers and nerves just thinking about it with butterflies in his stomach. Torrential downpour and gusty winds on our way down south as we were crossing the border on Fri afternoon didn't really help with the idea of running on the muddy and wet trails of Chuckanut. The rain tapered off as we got into Bellingham and the sun was peeking out. Negative thoughts piling up in our minds suddenly went away. The weather did turn out fine after all.

After we met up with some volunteers for the race that late Fri afternoon, we all drove up in different cars to help to lug up jugs of water to Aid Station #3. It wasn't fun as we were driving up. In my mind, I didn't know what I got myself into. The van that Ray and I were in almost couldn't make it up due to muddy, washed-out road and to the left of us, there was sheer cliff the whole way up. I heard this one passenger asking whether we needed to get out and push the car. I thought to myself that there was NO FRIGGING WAY that I was going to push the van. With prayers in our hearts, we finally made it up and started our 1K hike up with 2 gallons of water in our hands to the aid station. Wow...that was sure something that I wouldn't want to do again unless I know what to expect beforehand. The next morning, my arms and back were sore from carrying the water!!! Of course, I'm not asking for your pitiness. I was just glad that was over and looked forward to a nice pasta and fish dinner with Hozumi and Tara at this restaurant called "The Big Fish Co." in Fairhaven.

Next morning came, we were up early at 6am to get ready for the race. Left the hotel at 7am and got to Fairhaven Park for the race. We met up the others for a briefing. Everyone looked pumped up for the race, at least Ray was since he couldn't really sleep well the night before... "adrenaline rush or race anticipation" like what some racers have. Thinking back, I know I had that the night before my first half marathon back in Sep 2008.
It was interesting just looking at the racers coming through the aid stations and seeing what they do especially after running for more than 20K or so, all feeling delirious and exhausted but amazingly enough, they are trained for distances like that and after drinking gels/nuun drinks and popping in potatoes/pretzels/bananas, the body was able to go on for another 30K. I do feel really proud for Ray finishing his first ultra. A few muscle aches and pains here and there was definitely expected but it sure feels good thinking that he has tackled a 50K trail race. Well...yeah, what's next?? Sun Run will be the next game for us. I am hoping to try to run it under 52mins which will be a PB for me...fingers crossed!!!

Here are the official race result: Ray came in 69th/279 overall with the time of 5hrs 26mins.

Snowshoe Classic 6K

2009-03-15T00:32:00.000-07:00

What a snowy and windy night up at Grouse. Ray and I headed up to Grouse tonight to do a 6K snowshoe race. We both signed up last minute. Good thing we did because Merrell was handing out Couples Membership for Grouse, Grind Timer, Annual Parking Pass, Merrell Travel Bag and Merrell Shoes for the first person that finishes overall.

My nephews, Ethan and Samuel came up with us to enjoy skating and helped to snap some photos of us doing the race. This race to me is always a hard one but with a blizzard condition, it sure made the run more challenging. When the snow was pounding on my face, I wished that I was wearing ski goggles. The windy, blizzard and fresh snow condition did slow me down a bit but I'm not complaining at all since I came 2nd in my age group and won two free race entries (for either Seek the Peak, Grouse Grind Mountain Run or Grouse Snowshoe Classic), Merrell Grind timer, Merrell Backpack and a silver metallic corkscrew. Ray was awarded with the above prize package for coming in 1st overall. With the entry fee to this snowshoe race, we also got complimentary burger and beverage and Merrell headlamps. Now, you tell me...what can beat all these amazing prizes that I just mentioned!!! All these were valued at about $800 worth of gifts which are now OURS!!!!!

We sure had a great time last night. My brother and his wife also came up and took a lot of pics and it was their first time to witness us winning. What an awesome experience....thanks to Grouse and Merrell for an awesome time... ^o^

Here's the official race result : Ray finished with an incredible time of 45:02mins (1st/66 overall, 1st/31 for males and 1st/9 in his age group). Even though I didn't get a PB, I still had a good time out there on the course. My time was 1hr 4mins with a position of 28th/66 overall, 9th/35 for females and 2nd/14 for my age group.

Yeti Snowshoe Series at Grouse Mountain

2009-02-14T09:49:00.000-08:00

Another gorgeous day in the city and up on the slopes of Grouse!!! I wasn't in all the Yeti races this year so I had the opportunity to snap some photos of the breathtaking view of the city from the top and also the snowshoe race. Coincidentally, Grouse Mountain was opened this weekend 48 straight hours in recognition of the one year countdown to Olympics 2010 and will be opened 17 straight days during the Olympics!!!!

Ray participated and ran more than 6K with the course being challenging and steep hills all the way up to Dam Mountain. This course is the most difficult one compared to the other ones. It was more than 6K and the constant uphill just made it even harder for the racers.

Ray came in 3rd overall and 2nd in the open 20-39 category with an estimated time of 43mins. Race results haven't been posted up on the Yeti website. I will update this as soon as the results are up.

Update (Feb 17th) : Race results are up this morning : The time that Ray finished was 43:15mins with a position of 3rd/71 overall and 2nd/15 for the Open 20-39 category.

Happy "Ox" Year!!!

2009-02-04T17:48:00.001-08:00

This year is the year of the "Ox". According to the Chinese horoscopes, it is a good year for a lot of people. To know more about your Chinese horoscope, you can click here. To me, the most important thing is to have good health. Of course, wealth and career are important too but without good health, other things won't come into play then, right?

Anyway, I had a great opportunity to spend Chinese New Year's eve with my family by doing a 'big feast'. That's the one thing that Chinese people are big into. I think my future husband has found that out a long time ago... :) Luckily, he loves eating!!
Ray and I went to Chinatown to enjoy the festivities of the Chinese New Year last Sunday. Even though it was raining and snowing in some parts, it sure didn't stop people from going to see the Lion Dance parade. As I was growing up, I had lots of fond memories of the Chinese New Year back home especially receiving "red pocket money". I am still getting red pocket money but I know this would be my last year receiving it since I'm only single until July. Next year, I will have to be giving them out instead. So I already practised this year by giving out 'red pocket money' ('Angpow' in chinese) to my niece, nephews and my friend's kids. Let's see...in total, it was 6 angpow's. I hope it stays that way because it can get PRETTY expensive...haha. I wish everyone a prosperous, healthy and peaceful year of 2009!!!! Happy New Year!!!!

Yeti Snowshoe Series at Mount Seymour

2009-01-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

It was Ray's first snowshoe race for the season. Great race and decent weather for the race. I was there as a spectator taking pictures for Ray. Let me tell you about the race today. It was quite a tight race for Ray because the guy that came 4th was actually in the 3rd place, maybe 400m before the finish line. Lucky for Ray, this guy broke his snowshoe therefore Ray had the opportunity to pass him while he was trying to figure out what happened to his snowshoe. So Ray came third and this guy had to hold his one snowshoe to cross the finish line while running only with one snowshoe. It was pretty funny though. With a PB time of 36mins for the 6K route, he came 3rd overall. Results will be posted shortly.

Update (Feb 3): Results are posted on the Yeti site and here's the time and position that Ray came in; he came in 3rd/91 overall and 3rd in the 20-39 Open category with a time of PB of 35mins.

Chilly Chase 10K

2009-01-18T20:47:00.001-08:00

Getting up early this morning was hard enough already but running in a nippy morning of about -2degC was even harder. Luckily, the sun came out early enough to greet all the runners and to wake us up from the early fog conditions.

Ray and I were in Langley to do the Chilly Chase race and both of us were signed up in the 10K. The last two years I did the 5K and I thought I should just switch it up to 10K to see how it goes. I have to admit that the cold did get to me, giving me an asthmatic feeling on my chest as I was breathing in the cold air which wasn't good but nonetheless, the race still went smoothly for me. Obviously, no PB for me this time but I am hoping to get a PB in the Sun Run which will be warmer then. As for Ray, he had a good run and successfully got a PB. Awesome job!!! I wasn't too sure about him just wearing a singlet running in the bone chilling weather....go figure!!

The race results are posted here. Ray came in 6th/163 overall, 6th/63 for males and 1st/13 for his age group with a time of 38:43mins. As for me, I came in 55th/163 overall, 22nd/100 for females and 8th/32 in my age group with a time of 53:50mins.

Happy New Year!!!!

2009-01-04T20:17:00.000-08:00

So here we are in the year 2009. Resolution, resolution....?? Nah, like I mentioned before, I'm not into that. With God's blessing, I hope this year brings me the best of health and joy. I also wish everyone "All the best in the new year" as well.

A few friends came over and celebrated the New Year at our place with some food, champagne and games like Singstar karaoke and Rockband. Let me tell you Rockband ROCKS!!! Ray and I have been hooked on it over the holidays, playing a lot and mastering it to the "expert" level for some songs. Playing on the guitar and the drums was quite a workout. I think I have built some muscles on my arms. I am serious, not kidding at all. Give it a try and you'll know what I mean....haha.

Ray and I went snowshoeing today up at Mount Seymour with 8 other people. The snow conditions were just perfect, couldn't ask for a better weather condition. As you can tell from the picture below, the view of the city from the top of Dog Mountain was just speechless and breathtaking. What an amazing feeling to be up there and to experience the wonderful creation of God.

Let it Snow. Let it Snow. Let it Snow!!

2008-12-24T08:56:00.000-08:00

The year 2008 is almost coming to an end. It's sure a time to ponder what we've achieved this year and maybe we can improve on some things or even make a new resolution for the New Year. Nah...Making a resolution just never works for me. I just don't think it works. I just go with the flow and do whatever I want. The year 2009 will be an interesting one for me or rather it will be a busy year for me. Wedding plans are on the way for the 'Big Day' in the summer of 2009. I'm kind of freaking out a little bit thinking about it. People always say, 'Don't stress out...have fun with it'. Yeah right, it never turns out that way no matter how hard you try. I guess 'going with the flow' is always the best. Do what you can and try keeping at it. Hey, I just realized it that would be my new 'motto'.

As I'm writing this blog, snow is really coming down hard. I just love it. The snowfall really relaxes me for some reason. For the last 17 years I've been in Canada, the snow this year is A LOT!! Wow...time for some snowshoeing in the city rather than up on the mountains. Ray and I with my nephew, Ethan, did a testdrive on the snow up at Grouse a couple weeks ago when it first opened up. I tell ya, it's amazing!!! Just loving life as I'm snowshoeing. We really should take this opportunity. I'm telling my friends and family back home about this and they think we're in heaven to have snow. My niece really wishes to come to Canada to go skiing. I just can't say enough how lucky I am here enjoying life with the beauty of nature =)
Two things I did this year that I constantly raved about were climbing the tallest mountain in SE Asia and doing my first half marathon. This year in the summer, I was back home visiting my friends and family in Brunei and traveled to other places in SE Asia like Singapore, Kota Kinabalu and Kuala Lumpur. Though it was long, it was a fantastic trip. The highlight of this trip was Ray and I hiking the tallest mountain in SE Asia called Mt. Kinabalu (4093m). It sure brought pride out of me for doing something like that and also it was very emotional especially getting proposed at the top of the peak of Mt. Kinabalu. I find it hard to describe my feelings in words only if you can imagine... ^o^

The other thing I am proud of myself was running my first half marathon this fall in Toronto. Loved this course; flat and scenic. For the very first time, I felt like I could run a long distance...well, of course not fast...hehe. The most important thing was I DID IT!!!!! I am hoping to do a full marathon next year sometime towards the end of the year, maybe in Sacramento??? Who knows...will see how much energy is left in me after the wedding. Until then, I wish everyone a Safe and Happy Holiday Season. See you in the New Year!!!!!

Gunner Shaw 10K/Bear Mountain at the Westin Hotel in Victoria

2008-12-01T17:42:00.000-08:00

A quick and small getaway is always good. I needed it so bad because it has been very stressful at work these last few weeks. Ray and I went to Victoria for his trail race called Gunner Shaw 10K at Thetis Lake Regional Park. At the same time, we treated it as a mini vacation at the Bear Mountain Westin Hotel Golf Resort. I never knew that this place existed before and apparently it's a new development in this area. The Westin Hotel was built just within the last 3 years. It is fairly new and as usual the room is always nice.
The race, with about 450 participants, was a tough and challenging 10K trail running race. There were about 15 Lions Gate Road Runners (LGRR) that ran this race. Though it was hilly, muddy and wet, they all tackled the course real well and came in with awesome times. Ray finished in 58th/420 overall and 20th/78 for his age group with a time of 45:26mins as recorded here.
Other than the race, we did a little exploration of the city of Victoria. It was about 8 to 10 years ago since I was in Victoria and for Ray, it must have been ages since he was there. We had some high tea at the Empress Hotel and we really enjoyed it a lot. The hotel didn't change a lot since I was there the last time for afternoon tea with my mom and aunt. We also did some hiking at Mount Finlayson (419m) which was just located behind our hotel at Bear Mountain. It was a tough one to hike because of the wetness on the rocks. It reminds me of Mount Kinabalu (4,093m,) where it was slippery and quite dangerous. Obviously, Mt. Finlayson is not as tall and hard as Mt. Kinabalu but it can be treacherous if you are not wearing the proper shoes and outfit in a wet condition. I wished I was told about it before I hiked it...^o^

James Blunt Concert 2008

2008-11-17T21:58:00.000-08:00

This was our second time to see James Blunt at GM Place. Going back to Nov 5, 2006 on my blog, I now remember vividly about the concert. It was a slow paced music then but this time, he sure did change it up a bit. It was a more upbeat and a crowd-pleaser concert. Kudos to JB!! I enjoyed it more this time. Ray's aunt was there too and lucky enough to be sitting in the front row where she could just touch him by a stretch of an arm. Wish I was the one...^o^ Everyone got so excited as he started to sing his popular hit song called "You're Beautiful". Other hits were "Goodbye My Lover", "Here We Go Again"and "No Bravery".

New Balance Fall Classic 2008

2008-11-16T17:34:00.000-08:00

What a huge turn-out for the last race of the season before the New Year comes. Weather was decent enough to enhance one's performance in today's race, well...at least for me. There were sure a lot of familiar faces out there this morning especially a friend of mine who had been training for this race (her second 10K race). She sure did well and I am proud of her.

My friend, Shirmy and I did the 10K and Ray did the half marathon and as usual, he did it with flying colours which suits the theme of the race i.e. Fall Classic. It was definitely nice running this course by the water. The colour of the leaves sure bring out the Fall season. It was peaceful at some parts of the course and I was sure loving it! The race was well-organized and food was good too. There was chilli, orange juice, coffee and some other regular snacks/fruits to nibble on. One thing that didn't go well was the award ceremony which did not start on time. By the time they announced it, everyone was pretty much gone. Poor time management here. But this won't stop me from doing it again next year.

Here are the official results: Ray came in 25th/928 overall, 6th/113 in his age group and 22nd/420 for Males and his finish time was 1hr 28mins. Another great run! Well done! As for me, I did the 10k and I think I did pretty good considering I haven't been out running that much since my half marathon in Toronto. I finished with a time of 53:17mins and came in 288th/879 overall, 41st/178 in my age group and 100th/545 for females.

Celine Dion Concert at GM Place

2008-10-20T08:37:00.000-07:00

I'd waited about a year to go see Celine Dion. Yes, I bought the tickets last year sometime in November. You must think I'm crazy about her. You are right!!! I went with two of my girlfriends to see her perform 'LIVE'. This would be my second time to see her performing on stage. The first time was in Las Vegas and she was just as good. We will miss her dearly since this would probably be her last concert. I hope not because this concert was awesome. I would say the best concert ever other than Josh Groban and Michael Buble. She really has a powerful voice and it just amazes me a lot. What a great entertainer!!!

The opening act was great with Gordie Brown as the comedian/singer/impersonator. He made us laugh until my stomach hurt so much. We were 10mins late for the opening act thinking that most of the time the opening act wouldn't be good. So this would be a lesson learned to not be late unless you really know who is doing the opening act. Gordie Brown performs in Las Vegas at the Venetian Hotel who impersonates generations of celeb's, politicians and singers/pop culture icons. The next time you are in Vegas, you might want to check him. Trust me, he is funny!!!

Oktoberfest Brewski-Daddle 5K Run

2008-10-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

This race is the first time ever to be organized and it wasn't too bad of a turnout. They got about 100 participants this year. I'm sure there will be more people registering next year since it turned out to be a beautiful day. As we all know, weather plays a big part in a race. The race was all about a German theme which encouraged people to dress up for the race. I captured a couple of pics with people all dressed up and they were fun to see. After the race, there was a lunch/beer fest for everyone during the awards ceremony.

Ray did this race and he came in 3rd overall with a time of 18:59 secs. It wasn't his best but still able to do sub-19mins. Way to go!! Below are the top 3 males that finished today's race.

Scotiabank Waterfront Toronto Half-Marathon (Sep 25th to 29th)

2008-09-30T22:03:00.000-07:00

What a nice getaway from rainy Vancouver to sunny Toronto for a few days. Even though I didn't feel too good after the 4-hour flight to Toronto, I was still able to enjoy my stay. To be honest, I was so nervous as it got closer to my half marathon race. As I wasn't feeling too well, I had to try to keep a positive mind and to stay focused before the race. Thanks to Ray who was there to help me to get through my nerves and also a few other friends who text messaged and facebook messaged me to give me words of encouragement leading up to the race. This was my FIRST half marathon race and it was stressing me out a little bit but I managed to pull it together and did the best I could on the day of the race.
Ray and I also had the opportunity to do some sightseeing in downtown Toronto. I couldn't remember anything except the CN Tower since the last time I was in Toronto about 10 years ago. Geez....where did the time go!!! On the first two days we walked a lot exploring the city and it was really tiring especially on the legs and feet before the race. So we smartened up and took it easy for the next couple days. We also met up at the Expo with friends from Vancouver who we ran with during the training for the Marathon. It was held at the Metro Convention Centre. There wasn't a great deal of merchandise at the Expo but I did buy a couple of new outfits.

Here are the official race results: Ray finished with a PB of 3:23:55 which placed him at 238th/2532 overall, 211th/1577 for males and 43rd/219 in his age group. Even though he was aiming to get a 3:15:59 to be qualified for Boston Marathon, I still think he did fabulous!!! As for me, I was feeling pretty emotional as I was approaching the finish line. It was indeed a sense of accomplishment for me. I finished with a time of 2:04:26 and came in 3387th/6373 overall, 1415th/3534 for females and 263rd/589 in my age group.

Grouse Grind Mountain Run 2008

2008-09-21T15:42:00.000-07:00

Another win this year for team Kung Fu Pandas at the Grouse Grind Mountain Run this morning. Also, a successful race for Grouse Mountain, sponsored by BMO (Bank of Montreal). More than 500 racers participated in this year's race, more than last year. Every year, the popularity of this race draws people from different places to come and take on the challenge of this tough climb.

Every year, I say to myself that this would be the last one for me but of course, I've been doing it for the last 4 years and still saying it after today's race. Although I didn't PB my time this year, I will certainly not give up but it gets tougher every year as I get older. I was a little disappointed about my time in which I was 23 secs slower than last year but I was so happy that our team in the Open Co-ed division won. Great job to all my teammates; Ray, Ethan and William. Well done!!!!

Ethan is my 10 year-old nephew and he was interviewed by a reporter asking him how old he was and what he would say to others doing the Grind. He answered, "Prepare to sweat!!!". I thought it was a great answer :) His finish time was 49:14mins, a PB for him, and came in 247th/504 overall, 199th/351 for males and 4th/12 for his age group.

My brother, William, was about 2 mins slower than last year because he hasn't been able to train a lot ever since he had a baby boy. Nonetheless, he finished with a fabulous time of 51:11mins and came in 261th/504 overall, 210th/351 for males and 57th/94 for his age group.

As for the speedy one of the team, Ray stayed with the fast pack pretty much the whole way and did a sub-40mins, as usual :) He finished with a time of 38:01, coming in 62nd/504 overall, 55th/351 for males and 6th/94 for his age group. Amazing time!!!!!

As I mentioned earlier that I didn't PB this year but I was still able to do sub-53mins even though my goal was to do 50mins but it was a tough one for me. I had been training for my half marathon which is coming up next Sunday, Sep 28th in Toronto. It has been a long and tiring process for me this summer to train for both this race and the half. For my race result, I did it in 52:49mins and came in 278th/504 overall, 53rd/152 for females and 18th/45 for my age group.

Tackling Stawamus Chief

2008-09-14T22:20:00.000-07:00

I couldn't ask for better weather today to hike up the infamous 'Chief'. About 15 of us got up early today and started our journey to Squamish in the hopes of getting up to Second Peak and Third Peak. Our abilities of hiking skills ranged from beginner to avid level. There were about 3 of us who had not done any hikes and then the rest of us had done two or more hikes at some point in our lives. Regardless of the different abilities, we still had a good time going up the Chief and everyone made it up to the two peaks. That's all that matters. Good job, everyone!!

This was my 3rd time going up the Chief. Life's more complete now that I've done all the Peaks (1st, 2nd & 3rd). It sure took me 3 summers to do all of them and finally, I did it!!!

The next hiking spot to tackle is Black Tusk at Garibaldi Park. I remember I did it more than 15 years ago but I think I am better conditioned now so it shouldn't be a problem...maybe next summer.

5 Peaks Trail Running Series at Buntzen Lake

2008-09-13T21:03:00.000-07:00

The last series of the 5 Peaks concluded today at Buntzen Lake with gorgeous and warm weather. I didn't run this one due to a minor injury on my left calf muscle from my Grouse Grind training last Thursday. I didn't want to aggravate it more because I will be doing my first half marathon which is coming up in 2 weeks in Toronto on Sep 28th. Anyway, today's race was successful with over 400 racers doing either the Sport course at 10k, Enduro course at 15k or half marathon at 26k. With this being the last race of the series, I had the opportunity to take some photos of some of the people I had been running with in the past and also people that I had made friends with from this 5 Peaks. Kathryn (the picture on the right), the owner of 5 Peaks, was nice enough to drop what she was doing and posed for a photo with me.

Here are the race results: Ray finished with a time of 51:34mins at 5th/215 overall, 5th/87 for males and 2nd/22 in his age group. For the points series for the whole of 5 Peaks, Ray came in 1st for his age group and 2nd overall for doing all the series. Amazing job!! What an accomplishment...I am proud of you!!!

5 Peaks Race in Whistler

2008-08-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

Now, I think this is my third year and Ray's fourth year doing this race up in Whistler. It's the 2nd to last race in the 5 Peaks trail running series. I had a good run this year; shaved off my time by about 2 mins from last year. The weather was not too bad, a bit of drizzle in the beginning but then it cleared up. Every time I do this race, I always think to myself, "What was I thinking?". Yes, I know, this is the toughest of them all but I prefer to do this one over the others because this is the shortest course, about 5km. I think all the long runs (half marathon training) and the many times on the Grouse Grind really helped in improving my time for this year's 5 Peaks race in Whistler. Here are the official results : Ray came in 1st/179 overall in a speedy time of 28:13 mins. This is his first time ever to beat out everyone and came first in all the years that he had done the 5 Peaks. Way to go!!! As for me, I am proud of myself in coming 74th/179 overall, 33rd/113 for Females and 9th/38 in my age group with a time of 41:26 mins. Not bad, eh?? :)

One month Vacation in Asia

2008-08-24T22:35:00.000-07:00

Yes....I am back!!! It's been a while since I have blogged anything since my last entry which was almost 2 months now. The reason was I had been away for a month, vacationing in Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore. I was originally from Brunei and I went back to visit my friends and family and at the same time, I also have been busy visiting other countries in Asia. Ray came with me and it was his first time going overseas to Asia. The last time I was back was about 6 years ago. It was definitely a lot of fun seeing family and old friends whom I haven't seen for ages. Thanks for all the good food and company that everyone had given me while I was there.
In Singapore, we did about 8K run around the city by the water. It was a pretty interesting experience running in the heat/rain. I think it was the best way to explore the city. We did quite a bit of sightseeing for example, going on the Singapore Flyer (similar to the London Eye Wheel), a visit to Sentosa Island and the weirdest thing we have ever done was the "Fish Spa". I'm sure some of you have heard about it where it helps to removes dead areas of the skin. It was really ticklish with the fish pecking on your skin but then you get used to it after a while. The whole process took about 30mins and I think if "Fish Spa" comes to Vancouver, you should try it.
The highlight of this trip was hiking Mt. Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia about 4,093m (about 13,000ft). The mountain is situated in the Kinabalu National Park, the world's most heritage site, in the east Malaysian state of Sabah. It was a very emotional experience for me hiking to the top of this mountain. I really felt like I have accomplished everything in life. The view was spectacular and breathtaking as you can see from the pictures posted here. Most importantly, I got engaged on top of this mountain to a wonderful man in my life, Ray.
The last part of the trip was a quick little visit to Kuala Lumpur with my family. The one thing I always wanted to see was the infamous, Petronas Twin Towers (452m) and to visit Genting Highlands and of course, I got to see them. As a lot of us know that in Kuala Lumpur, it is a shopping paradise. I swear that I would never shop again when I get back to Vancouver because I really bought a lot of clothes, shoes, purse, etc. I couldn't even fit all these in my luggage but it's all worth it though :)

Seek The Peak 2008

2008-07-06T22:55:00.000-07:00

This year, Ray decided to do this race 'Solo' instead of 'Relay'. We both did the relay the last two years with friends and family. I didn't do it this year because for one, I couldn't find anyone to do the relay with me and secondly, I will be flying tomorrow night to Southeast Asia (Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia) for a long one-month vacation. So I just wanted to take it easy.

This morning at the start, I met up with Diane and John whom I snowshoe with up at Grouse in the winter. It was sure nice to catch-up with them again. They were doing it solo too. Good for them!!!

This race is a very challenging 16km course that starts from Ambleside Park to the Peak of Grouse Mountain which includes the infamous Grouse Grind. Ray and I have been going up the Grind every Thursday with a group of people from Rackets and Runners. It sure is a good work-out! Anyway, Ray had a good race and I am proud of him for finishing the race strong at a very incredible time of 1:46:28. He is placed at 22nd/338 overall and 7th/60 in his age group. Awesome job!!!

Canada Day 7.5K Run at Pitt Meadows

2008-07-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Here I go again registering a couple days before the online registration closed. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to do it again for the 2nd year because last year it was hot. Well, guess what...it was hot again today. Boy oh boy!!!! I needed water the whole way but I still managed to finish the race at a pretty good time although I was hoping to do it in sub-40mins. It was fine though. I should be happy because I am improving and shouldn't beat myself up about it like some runners do. The whole point of me doing races is to have fun, don't you agree? Of course, it'll be different for the elite runners i.e. they run competitively. Along the course, there were music bands and firemen sprinkling water at the runners which felt good. It cooled me down for like 2mins and then back to feeling hot again :)

Other than doing the race, I had a really good time celebrating Canada Day. Happy 141st birthday to Canada!! Lots of festivities and activities for such a small city like Pitt Meadows. Activities included pancake breakfast, kids' zone display, face painting, animal petting, music, First Nations blessing, entertainment , parachute dropping, etc!!! We had Ray's parents out to celebrate it with us and also to cheer us on for the race. Ray's niece, Ashley, who is only 8 years old ran the race and scooped third place for her age group (1-12). Way to go!!!

Back to the race, the course was actually more than 7.5K. It felt really long for each km marker. I think I ran faster than last year but comparing the times between today and last year, I was only faster by 3 secs. I just think they need to measure the course accurately. Ray decided to do the race when he got up this morning and he signed up today at the race. He is still recovering from the 5 peaks race at Golden Ears a few days ago on Saturday which he came in 3rd overall for a tough 8.4K course. Today, he came in at an awesome time of 30:12mins which placed him 4th/271 overall, 2nd/16 for his age group and 4th/103 for males. Great job though!!! As for me, I almost came third for my age group but just not good enough. Oh well...here's how I placed: 58th/271 overall, 4th/41 for my age group and 16th/168 for females with a time of 40:09mins. Next year, I might do the HBC 10K run here in Vancouver. What attracts me to do it next year are the personalized bib and a finisher medal. I think it's cool to be part of the Canada Day run.

Scotiabank Vancouver Half Marathon

2008-06-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

After spending a few days in sunny Edmonton, I was kind of reluctant to come back to cold Vancouver. While I was working at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, I had the opportunity to squeeze in about 7K run around Kinsmen Park and the trails around University. It was sure a hot day with about 27degC during noon time. After the run, I was sweating profusely for about 30mins and finally, I cooled down. It took a while to cool down but I felt so good from the run.

After back from Edmonton where it was 29degC on Saturday, I didn't quite adapt to the cool weather in Vancouver today. Luckily, it turned out pretty decent for Ray's half marathon. A little bit of sunny and cloudy condition made the run a pleasant one. There were about 3500 participants in this race. There were people needing medical attention at the finish line including the overall 2nd finisher who sat down on the side right after he finished. Another runner who was the 2nd female finisher in the Masters who threw up just before she crossed the line. I wonder if this motivates me to do my first half marathon in Toronto. Ray told me a few times how sore he was and that he wasn't feeling too well after the race. I'm sure everyone is feeling that aftermath feeling. This is Ray's third time doing the Scotiabank Half Marathon with a time of 1:29:47 and he almost got his personal best but missed it by 10 seconds. The course is sure a tough one with a few hills and personally, I wouldn't want to attempt it. I would do a flat course for my first one which will be at the end of the September in Toronto. Wish me luck in my training!!

The Longest Day 5K Race

2008-06-13T23:00:00.000-07:00

This was the second race that I raced at night. The first night race was the Snowshoe Classic at Grouse in February this year and the second one was last night at UBC. It was a pretty nice and clear night but cold at times especially later in the night where we were eating and waiting for the awards ceremony. Of course, none of us were wearing enough to keep warm but overall, it was a great race! Ray and I volunteered to give out chips to participants and in return, we got free entries into the race. My nephew, Ethan was also there to help out and run the race. I am glad to be part of the race because for one, it was a well-organized race, secondly, there were door prizes (we didn't win anything but that's fine) and thirdly, awesome BBQ food (burgers, hot dogs, salad, cookies, yogurt, etc). I will definitely do this race next year. The course was pretty scenic with rolling hills and flat at most parts. I didn't think it was that hilly compared to my last race at Shaughnessy last month. The Longest Day Race had two distances; 10K and 5K. The 5K race was part of the Timex BC Road Running Series. The previous race I did at the Shaughnessy 8K race was also part of the Timex series.

Here are the official results of how Ray, Ethan and I did: Ray finished with a incredible time of 18:49mins which was his personal best and ranked 47th/317 overall, 24th/64 for Males 17-39 (Male OPEN). Ethan also did great with a time of 24:05mins which placed him at 129th/317 overall, 11th/16 for Males under 16 in his category. As for me, I was happy with a personal best time of 25:14mins, ranking at 147th/317 overall and 31st/79 in my category of Females 17-39 (Female Open).

Grouse Grind opened for the season!!!

2008-06-12T08:34:00.000-07:00

Alas!!! The Grind is opened! A lot of people have been patiently waiting for it after a long winter season. It was opened to the public on June 12th. Well, not everyone waited till it's opened. Some people have already been sneaking up from the side of the fence to bypass the gate. Ray and I did it a week back and of course, there was no snow on the trail just like what everyone had been saying. I guess when it's not opened, you will be hiking at your own risk. It sure was nice to be doing it again with a few friends a couple days ago. My second time up this season sure felt harder because I went a bit faster than the first time. It's a lot harder at the 3/4 mark because the snow is still melting at the top making the trail wet and slippery. The Grind is always brutal as usual no matter how many times I've done it. Ray and I have a summit seeker card which allows us to monitor our performances over the season on the Summit Seeker program online. I really like this concept and it gives me an idea of how much I have improved over the last 3 years! A few friends and I will be meeting up every Thursdays to train ourselves for the preparation of the Grouse Grind Mountain Run Race on Sep 23, 2008.

6th Annual Iron Knee 25K Trail Race

2008-05-31T08:40:00.000-07:00

Getting up early on Sat for Ray's race was worth it even though I was not keen in doing so in the beginning. Vancouver was truly a beauty especially with a gorgeous sunny day by the water and the mountains in Deep Cove. Although the morning was a bit chilly, I was having a time of my life in the sun. I really needed some Vitamin E because I felt like I'm lacking it :) Let's just say, I am so blessed by God to be able to experience this wonderful life in Canada.

Anyway, let's get back to the race. Ray did the Canada's largest long distance 25K trail run called Iron Knee all the way from the base of Grouse Mountain to the shores of Deep Cove. Of course, there are hills involved in this race with the popular 2K hike called Powerline trail which is similar to Grouse Grind. Well, no thanks. I will just stick to Grouse Grind and that would be it for me. All the runners are to tackle the up and downhills with very technical trails. All I can say is "Good Luck" and "Watch where you're going". This was Ray's first time doing this race and it sure was a challenge for him especially he never ran anything that is more than 8K in the trail. I think he had a good time even though he's hurting now but all runners have that adrenaline in them to want to keep going...hmm, I'm just not like them at all. This is how he did in the race : 39th/281 overall, 36th/147 for males and 29th/59 in his age group with a finish time of 2:01:53. Great job!!!

Shaughnessy 8K (Timex Road Running Series #8)

2008-05-26T09:10:00.000-07:00

It started out to be a nice morning at 6am and then it turned out to be very warm towards the mid-morning at around 9am during the race. Oh boy!! It was sure hot when running in a sunny condition. The race was a tough one because of the many hills. I am just not good in tackling hills and I was definitely very tired after the 5K mark. Since it was a very warm day, I was thirsty pretty much the whole time and was on a lookout for a water station. I also had a stitch around my diaphragm area and it slowed me down quite a bit between the 5 and 7K mark. I still haven't figured out what caused it. Despite the problems, it was sure a well-organized race by the Lions Gate Road Runners (LGRR). Ray was volunteering for them as he has been a member of the LGRR since Dec 2007. This was the first time that I ran and he stood on the side cheering me even though I didn't see him when I finished. I guess he was working hard on the side helping out Raceheadquarters with the timing. Speaking of timing, I finished the race in 43:03 mins and placed 166th/317 overall, 53rd/146 for females and 7th/19 in my age group.

Camping at Othello in Hope

2008-05-19T23:26:00.000-07:00

What a terrific way to spend the long weekend with camping!! I decided to go camping a few days before the long weekend after I checked the weather forecast. It was a gorgeous weekend except it got rainy on Monday late in the afternoon. By then, we were all packed and ready to go home. So that was all good. Anyway, the spot that we were at was not too bad but I wished there was a creek or a river that was not too raging to go in and play. But there was still a nice creek that was nearby for me to at least wash my hair even though the water was icy cold. There were about 16 of us at this campsite and it was sure a lot of fun to be able to do stuff together. We went hiking, took a few spins on the ATV and played horseshoe pitching. Even though I wasn't that good at the horseshoe game, I still had an awesome time. One of my favourite things about camping was 'cooking'. I just love cooking in the wild. For some reason, the food taste so much better :0 You should enjoy that the next time you're camping. Not sure when I will be camping again. Until then, Happy Camping!!!

Happy Mother's Day

2008-05-10T22:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mothers out there! It was sure a wonderful evening to treat all the mothers in my family (my mom, my sister and my sister-in-laws) to a lovely dinner at Chili Pepper House in Vancouver. After a long day at work and church, I thought I better wind down to a relaxing evening to sit down and enjoy the night with my family. Ray did a race this morning at Golden Ears which was the first series of 5 Peaks. He came first in his age group and third overall. Nice job! I'm sure he would like to just relax for the rest of his day by celebrating Mother's Day :) What a great opportunity to bring my mom out for a dinner before my parents leave for Vancouver to go back home in Brunei for 3 months. I will be joining them in July when it will be my turn to go back home to Brunei for a month. Ray will be coming with me to visit Singapore, Brunei and Malaysia. It will be such an exciting and adventurous trip. I am so looking forward to it!!

37th BMO Vancouver Marathon/XLR 8K

2008-05-04T17:34:00.000-07:00

I couldn't ask for a better day to do a race especially for the Marathoners. A nice bright sunny morning followed by a little overcast in the mid morning but that was just perfect condition for the runners. I couldn't believe the number of participants in the races this morning; 3099 runners in the Full Marathon, 5599 in the Half Marathon, 446 in the 8K and even in the Marafun Kids' run, there were about 1300 kids!!! Wow...what a great turnout. Ray did the Full Marathon and I did the 8K which was a new event this year. I did the 8K just to kill time while waiting for Ray but it was a pretty tiring run for me. I guess I went out too fast in the beginning like any other races I've done. It is so typical of me to go out too fast in the beginning. After I finished my race, I had the privilege to be in a great spot about 100m from the finish to see the runners as they crossed and also to take pictures. I guess it is great to know people from the timing company :) In fact, it is Ray's sister that works for Race Headquarters. Anyway, here are the official results: Ray finished in the personal best time of at 3:25:29 with a position of 284th/3099 overall 241st/1808 for males and 51st/266 in his age group. Way to go, Ray! As for my 8K, I came in 67th/446 overall, 24th/297 for females and 6th/97 in my age group with a PB time of 42:20mins. My next race will be the Shaughnessy 8K on May 25th. Hopefully, I can improve a little bit on that one or maybe not because of hills. Will see about it.

A Get-together with Soay

2008-05-03T22:23:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that it's been more than 4 years since I last seen Soay (the one in yellow shirt). Soay has been residing in Shanghai ever since he left Vancouver to work there. Time really goes by so fast and here we are again with the rest of the crew who I used to hang out with a lot. We went to Azia Restaurant downtown for a nice get-together dinner for Soay. As far as I can remember, the food was great and the service was good too. I sure had fun with everyone and let's just hope that it won't be another 4 years till the next time we see each other again ^o^. Now, I have to hit the sack early for Ray's Marathon and my 8K race tomorrow. Wish us luck!!

Baby Kesler One-month Celebration

2008-04-30T23:16:00.000-07:00

This is my good friend's cute little one. His name is Kesler and he just had his one-month birthday on April 29th. Carol, my good friend, got everyone together for a really luxurious ten-course dinner at Top Chinese Cuisine in Vancouver. It was sure very delicious. What a great night of laughing, seeing old friends, bringing back old memories from more than 10 years ago and last but not least playing with baby Kesler. My own little nephew, Matthias, who is about 6 months old now is sure getting cuter everyday. The time has really gone by so fast and the next thing you know, they are already in their teens . Let's just say that I am getting older and all my nephews and nieces are growing up too fast. One of these days, I should get a picture of all of them :)

Geocaching on the Baden Powell

2008-04-27T19:01:00.000-07:00

Well...what a rainy day to be out and about hiking and also doing geocaching this afternoon. Geocaching is an activity or a sport that Ray and I have picked up over the last couple years. It requires a GPS unit to direct you to the cache or "treasure hunt". First you have to sign up as a member at the official site of Geocaching to play this activity in all of Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. After you sign-up, you have to own a GPS unit to enter the coordinates of the caches that are hidden so your GPS can bring you to the caches.

This afternoon, we were at the Baden Powell trail of Deep Cove in North Vancouver. As we were hiking, we saw some markers along the trails that were left from the race this morning called "Summit 2 Shore". Although it was raining, we sure had fun hiking and finding caches at the same time. We did three caches today and the first two were definitely a difficulty of about 3 out of 5 for the terrain. Terrain is one thing but finding the caches could be hard too. We did have a couple of challenges finding one of them but listening to the 'hints' from the owner of the caches is definitely a must! Below is a picture that I took during treasure hunting today. If you are curious about how the treasure looks like, see my picture below. As you can see from the picture, I'm writing in the log book that we found the cache and also whether we are trading any items.

Vancouver Sun Run 10K

2008-04-20T13:30:00.000-07:00

Another year has whizzed by just like that since the last time we did the Sun Run. This year, there were about 58,000 registered runners breaking last year's records. I think the weather plays a big part in making it successful. Couple days before the race, I was hoping and praying for a nice weather because of the surprising snowfall on Friday night. Well, it turned out sunny after all! Even though it was chilly this morning for the race, this is the ideal condition that you want to be running in. I enjoy doing this race because of the music and water stations that get me going throughout the whole course of the race. This year, Ray, Alexis (Ray's niece) and I did the race. My brother did the last two years and couldn't make it out this year due to a new addition to the family. Anyway, the results will be posted on the Vancouver Sun paper tomorrow and later on the Raceheadquarters website. Please check back here later. Below is a picture of the "Elites" on stage during the awards ceremony. The top male and female were from Kenya and Ethiopia respectively. The top male finished in a superfast time of 29:26mins!!
Update (Apr 21/2008): Here are the official results. Ray finished with a time of 38:53 mins and ranked at 275th/44160 overall, 245th/19294 for males and 40th/3017 in his age group. Great job Ray!! As for me, I am proud to tell you that I have shaved off more than 3 mins from my last Sun Run (56:08 mins). This year, I finished with a time of 52:56 mins!!! So proud of myself :) I came in 6064th/44160 overall, 1279th/24866 for females and 210th/3753 for my age group.

April Fool's Run (Gibsons to Sechelt Half Marathon)

2008-04-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Ray and I decided to do a race over on the Sunshine Coast at the last minute. I treated it as a little getaway even though we were there to do a half marathon relay from Gibsons to Sechelt. I have never been to the Sunshine Coast before and have heard good things about this place. The weather wasn't that bad after all. The sun was peeking through a little bit for me when I was running the first half of the race which was about 10.5km. It felt good to have a break from the rain but then it started to drizzle a little bit when Ray was running the last half of the race (10.5km). The runners don't seem to mind a little bit of rain because it keeps them cool. I had a lot of fun doing this race even though my calves are now screaming...hehe. I haven't done a 10K race for a while and it sure felt a lot better than the first time I ran my first 10K. Amazing how much improvement I can see through training and stuff over the last 2 years or so. My next race is the Sun Run on April 19th. Will keep you posted on that one.

Ray and I called ourselves "Team Geocachers" for this race. We got the name from doing 'Geocaching', a very fun activity that Ray and I have picked up over the last couple years. Basically, we used a GPS unit to help us find 'treasures' in all of Vancouver and lower mainland. Check it out at the Geocaching association.

Here are the official results for the team category: We came in 4th/25 overall and 1st/10 for Under 80 division (meaning combined age of Ray and mine) with a time of 1:39:35. I ran the first half in approximately 55:50mins and Ray did the second half with a speedy time of 43:30mins! Kudos to us!

Snowshoe Classic 6K at Grouse Mountain

2008-03-22T23:22:00.000-07:00

It was a last minute decision to do this race. I was a little hesitant to do this race just because it was moved to later in the season and because the race was in the evening. Regardless of this, I wanted to do it because I did the same race last year. The course was made harder and longer (6K distance). Running at night was definitely a different experience. Even though the course was marked with little flags it was still hard to see at night. A few people in the front of the pack went off course. I almost did the same as I was running down a hill. The snow was good because Grouse got about 10cm of new snow over the last few days. I enjoyed the race and was happy with the result of my performance. Ethan and Evelyn came with me and they did some sleigh riding and skating. Evelyn was my photographer for the night. I will post the pictures up on facebook. Despite the windy conditions, the view from the peak was breathtaking and beautiful. Thanks to a clear night.

Here is the result of the race: I came in 30th/62 overall, 10th/29 in females and 3rd/6 in my age group with a time of 1hr 2mins.

Tea Time

2008-03-21T23:23:00.000-07:00

Everyone knows tea is beneficial to one's health. So recently, I have been drinking more tea. I have so many different types of tea sitting at home that I feel like I own a teashop...hehe. Ray and I discovered this neat tea place last Friday after a heavy dinner at Posh Hotpot which just opened not too long ago on W. Broadway. On our way home after dinner, I felt like going for tea so Ray suggested to try Main St. to see if there were any tea places. Sure enough, there was one called Shaktea Tea Lounge. Interesting name though. I love tea so much that I got my girlfriends together for tea at Shaktea located on Main St and 21st Ave. I thought it would be nice to get together for tea instead of dinner. It was nice for a change. It seemed like everyone enjoyed their tea. Last time I had "Premium Rosebud" tea and tonight I went for "Rooibos Chai" tea. Both times they were good! My friends had "Tropical Punch Green" tea, "Honeybush" tea, "Coconut Chai" tea and "Almond Milk" tea. The tea I had gave me a soothing and calming effect :) I would highly recommend this tea lounge and I am even thinking of making it as a hangout spot for me.

St. Patrick's Day 5K Run

2008-03-16T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, well, well...one quick in and out race. Love it! I loved it more especially because the race started later at 10am and because the weather was just perfect for racing. I prefer a later start time for racing just because the weather is always nicer later in the day. I know what some of you are thinking. You might be thinking that I want to sleep in. Ah..."NO". I still get up early to get ready for the race. Anyway, this race was a fast and scenic 5K loop in Stanley Park and also a very well organized race by Running Room. It was a great party for the post race with lots of food and refreshments. Yeah, I will do it again next year. I heard that the number of participants was up by 300 from last year. Wow...what a great turn-out!! I feel so privileged to race with the elites or "ringers" (what they are usually referred to). The best of the best were out competing with each other in this race. Speedy and super-fast times for 5K. It was just as fast as a car, well...not quite...hehe

Here are the result: I finished with a personal best time of 26:06 mins ranking as 199th/675 overall, 66th/418 for females and 53rd/297 in my age group. Ray, on the other hand, finished at an incredible time of 18:53mins which placed him at 39th/675 overall, 36th/259 for males and 31st/173 in his age group.

Yeti Snowshoe Series Finale / National Championships at Cypress

2008-03-08T16:49:00.000-08:00

Finally, the Yeti snowshoe series came to an end at Cypress today. There were quite a lot of people that came out and participated in this series finale / national championship. It was a bonus for all the racers to get wonderful sunny weather. It sure was a great way to end the season. The snow was still pretty good in this late of the winter season. I had a great time out there and got a personal best by 4 mins. That goes the same for Ray who PB'd by 2 mins. He came first with the second person coming in just 10 seconds behind him. Results will be posted as soon as it is on the website. Even though this snowshoe series has been great, there were a few shortfalls with the organization. First and foremost, they should hire a timing company to time the race, NOT just doing a manual timing. There were a few times that they didn't even know that the first 5K'er came in because of the 10K'ers doing the second loop therefore confusing everyone. Then they screwed up the finish times and the ranks. They could not generate the series points for the 10K'ers at the awards ceremony which disappointed some people. Poor timing system. Secondly, they should be honouring the 5K participants not just the 10K's. I know the longer the distance, the better it seems for the race to bring out all the "Elites" but I strongly believe that whoever pays for a race should be treated the same as the others. They should do the series points for the 5K'ers too. This is how I feel from these snowshoe races. Hopefully they will make changes for next year's series!!

Update (Mar 10/08): Here are the official results. Ray came in 1st/84 overall and 1st/16 in his age group with a time of 30:37 mins. I was placed at 60th/84 overall and 20th/30 in my age group with a time of 48:33 mins.

Stairclimb for Clean Air 2008

2008-02-17T15:10:00.000-08:00

I think it's going to be a great year for me because I already achieved my goal for this 3rd race of the year at the "Climb the Wall" for Clean Air by BC Lung Association. It was tiring and hard to breathe in the stairway with such poor air quality. As I mentioned previously, I was featured in a news release for Tri-city news. I am so happy to be part of this event because I can tell people now how hard it is to go up 48 storeys (738 steps). I felt like my lungs were burning making it hard to breathe and I was coughing quite a bit after the race. I found this race really hard even though it was over and done with in less than 8 mins. That is the problem with going in full throttle and killing myself in that 8 mins!! Alright, here is the result from the Raceheadquarters website. I achieved my goal of sub-8mins with a time of 7:48mins at 99th/340 overall and 17th/190 for females. As for Ray, he was speedy with a time of 5:15mins at 4th/340 overall and 4th/150 for males. Yay...way to go!! I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped me raise money for this race.

Featured on Tri-City News

2008-02-06T21:10:00.000-08:00

I had been asked by the BC Lung Association to be featured on a news release for my upcoming event "Climb the Wall". It takes place at Sheraton Wall Centre which I have signed up to run on Feb 17th, 2008. I thought it would be cool to be in the newspaper. So I agreed to do it and on Jan 30th, 2008, they ran the story and posted it in Tri-City News.

To enter in this race, you have to raise a minimum of $100 for BC Lung. All the donations go into the research and programs for the cure of lung illnesses. If you would like to help me raise money, please feel free to visit my personal donation webpage. Thank you to everyone that helped me last year to raise money so that I could participate in the event.

Yeti Snowshoe Race at Mt. Seymour

2008-02-02T18:43:00.000-08:00

The snowfall on all the local mountains this year has been great. It was gorgeous when I was up at Mt. Seymour this past weekend to do the Yeti snowshoe series #2. Lots of people came out in the surprisingly sunny day to participate in the race. Although the snow was great, I found that it was really hard to run on fresh powdered snow. Luckily, there were lots of people in front of me to pack down the snow and that makes it a bit easier to run on it. Ray got a free entry into the race just because he had been performing well in the snowshoe races last year. Of course, he came first for the 5K route for this past weekend race at Seymour. I am so proud of him. I will be posting the results soon.
Update(Feb 4, 2008): Results are up on the Yeti website. Ray finished with a time of 37:15mins and placed 1st/73 overall and 1st/16 in his age group. As for me, I improved from last year by 3 mins and finished this year with a time of 59:12mins and placed 37th/73 overall and 14th/26 in my age group.

Chilly Chase 5K and 10K run

2008-01-20T17:19:00.000-08:00

My first race for the year was today in Langley called Chilly Chase. It sure was chilly this morning but no icy conditions on the road which made the running a whole lot better. I did the same race last year which was the 5K. Ray went on and did the 10K today instead of the 5K. He wanted to get sub-40mins for the 10K so he can be qualified for the Sun Run elite category. Let's just say he is now officially in the sub-40's elite category because he succeeded in this morning's race. Raceheadquarters did the timing and had already posted up the results. Let's see how we did. The result placed Ray 7th/154 overall, 7th/56 for males and 2nd/16 in his age group with an incredible time of 39:06 mins. As for me on the 5K result, my finished time of 28:05 mins placed me at 33rd/124 overall, 14th/79 for females and 4th/25 in my age group. Below is a picture of Ray accepting his award for coming in 2nd in his age group. Congrats!!

Michael Buble Concert at GM Place

2008-01-12T23:32:00.000-08:00

What a great concert to start off the year 2008!! Michael Buble is truly a great singer. Both him and Josh Groban were first discovered by David Foster and that was how their stardom started. I went to two Michael Buble concerts before; the first one at QE theatre and the other one was an outdoor concert at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby. He started off with small venues and slowly got more popular, eventually performing at GM Place. It was a sold-out show tonight. He has a magnificent and powerful voice, just like Josh Groban. Michael Buble (MB) is a little bit more playful than Josh Groban and likes to joke and goof a lot on stage. His band was amazing. He really gave them the credit for making him successful and he called them his brothers and family....awwww. What a sentimental guy. The opening act for MB was Naturally 7. 7 people on stage with no music instruments sang acapella and they were amazing. Kudos to them! Please check out a video clip on my facebook, only my contacts on facebook can view this video. In this video, MB was performing one of his hit songs from his new album called "Lost". I just love that song. He also sang his old hit song called "Home" and that song earned him his popularity. Since then, everyone knows who Michael Buble is.

New Year's Day Special Service

2008-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

My family and I celebrated New Year's Day in church. There was a special service on Jan 1, 2008 and it was sure fun to see everyone all dressed up. Each family had their picture taken so that the photos can be posted up in the basement of the church for everyone to see. Of course, my family took this opportunity to have the picture taken to send it to my sister back home in Brunei. As you can see from the above picture, we have an addition to the family; my baby nephew, Matthias (on the right) and this addition to the family prompted us to take this picture.

New Year's Day Countdown Gathering

2008-01-01T00:00:00.000-08:00

Aahh...another year has swiftly passed by. Ray and I celebrated the New Year at my friend's house and did the countdown there with 2 other friends. It was fun. 2007 had been an interesting and whirlwind year for me. Though Ray and I had been trying to look for a house to buy but we discovered that with the expensive real estate now, we probably would want to wait till the market cools down. I also did lots of running races and made a lot of friends in 2007. I think I am addicted to the races so this year, I am going to try to do the same races again to see how much I have improved in 2008. I also had been to a few concerts in 2007 but there was only one that really inspired me to pursue my singing interest. That was Josh Groban. He really has a powerful operatic voice. Currently, I am taking lessons with an Italian Maestro and it has been a couple months now. I'm just loving it! Hopefully, I can do mini performances sometime in the New Year. Will keep you all posted on that. Last but not least, Ray and I made a last minute vacation to Honolulu, Hawaii and this was sure the highlight of 2007. We decided to escape to somewhere warm from the cold. It was my second time to Hawaii and first time for Ray as an adult(he was there when he was a kid). I loved Hawaii and seriously thinking about retiring there in Hawaii when that day comes :) Weather was awesome and people are very easy-going and friendly. I think we should learn this from the Hawaiian's. Alright...I have shared my reflections of the past year 2007 and let's hope that 2008 will be filled with joy, peace and prosperity. Happy New Year to everyone!!!

Snowshoeing at Cypress

2007-12-27T19:33:00.000-08:00

I guess Ray and I are addicted to snowshoeing now or you can call us "Snowshoe-aholics" :) During this holiday season, I intend to introduce my family and friends to snowshoeing. Snowshoeing is definitely one of the fastest growing winter sports. Ray and I went up to Cypress a couple days ago with two of my girlfriends, Monica and Shirmy. It was Monica's first time snowshoeing. We were taking it easy for her because she had two knee surgeries. Luckily, her knee was fine but instead, she was physically tired going up the hills. The hills were definitely not as brutal as the ones on Grouse Mountain. It was really nice up there especially with the fresh snow which made it easy for us to snowshoe. We did the free BC Parks trails. It was nice and quiet here although you would think it would be busy because of the holidays. We will be going to Grouse for another snowshoeing session. If you are interested, you know where to find me. ^o^

Ray's 34th Birthday Dinner

2007-12-22T19:10:00.000-08:00

Well well well...another year has gone by for my sweetie and best friend, Ray. He's now 34 years old. A year older and a year wiser. I brought him to a nice dinner at Goldfish Pacific Kitchen in Yaletown for his birthday. It was our first time there. It was a surprise for him before we got there. As soon as I was heading to Yaletown, he figured out right away as to where I was bringing him. He thinks he is smart but he is :) We loved the food there. Service was great. It sure was a great experience. I guess you won't go wrong going to downtown for dinner. We had two appetizers: Duck spring rolls and Prawn and Chicken gyoza. As for our entree, we had Pan Seared Arctic Char and Pan Seared Ling Cod with Gai Lan as the side dish. Yummy...delicious! To top this off, we had the most interesting dessert called Chocolate Dessert Sushi. As you can see from the picture, it sure looked like sushi and it was really good and tasty!

Year-End Gathering with my friends

2007-12-16T19:51:00.001-08:00

2007 is almost coming to an end and here we are again, celebrating the holiday season. Where did the year go? I can't believe it! It seems like I just had the last dinner gathering not long ago. A bunch of friends and I went and dined at Azia Restaurant in downtown last night. The ambiance, service and food were surprisingly good. Neither of us have ever been there. I discovered this restaurant in the Dining Guide provided by The Province paper. I was glad that everyone had a good time and dinner at this 2007 year-end dinner gathering. This holiday season I am planning to do some snowshoeing, tubing, skiing and of course, shopping. Who would want to miss that, right? If anyone is interested in coming out to do some snowshoeing or tubing, write me a note and I will get back to you. Ok...this is all for now. Until then...sayornara!

Hawaii Trip (Nov 27 to Dec 4)

2007-12-08T09:50:00.000-08:00

What a wonderful getaway for a week before the Christmas holidays and also to escape from the cold to a nice and warm place. I think I am just spoiled from this awesome vacation. I would go back to Hawaii again for the third time if there is an opportunity in the near future. The food and shopping in the Waikiki area were pretty expensive because of the high population of tourists but if you go a couple blocks away from the main strip, everything seems to be a little cheaper. Regardless of all these, I still went for the shopping and the food. It was great.
Ray and I did a lot of activities when we were there for the week. We went hiking at Diamond Head Crater and Koko Head Crater and running a couple of times around Diamond Head and Ala Wai Canal which was beautiful. We also went snorkeling in Hanauma Bay, one of the most beautiful bay areas to do swimming, snorkeling and other water sports. The picture above were taken in Hanauma Bay. At first, I was freaking out a few times at immersing my head in the water with the snorkel gear and trying to breathe differently than normal but after a few attempts and using another snorkel gear, I finally overcame the fear and had the most fun in my life because of the gorgeous coral reefs and astounding marine wildlife. God's creation is just beyond amazing. I feel so privileged to be able to experience this other world in the water. Apart from all these, we took the time to see the historic site of Pearl Harbor. I felt overwhelmed and also sad at the same time about the background history of the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on Dec 7, 1941. We visited the memorial site of the USS Arizona where it sunk from the attack. It truly was an unforgettable historic incident.

The next fun thing from the trip was the Paradise Cove Luau. It was my first time to a Luau. Luau means an elaborate Hawaiian feast featuring traditional food and entertainment that consisted of the Imu Ceremony (roasting of the pig) followed by Hula dancing, fire dancing and singing. There were also other activities organized that night when we were there like arts and crafts, traditional activities like spear throwing and making of flower leis. The picture below was taken at Paradise Cove which was about an hour away from the Waikiki area.
As the vacation was coming to an end, I really didn't want to be going home to be back to work. I can really see myself retiring in Hawaii because of the lay-back and relaxing life. I can just picture myself walking on the beach, sipping on pina colada's and just simply lounging by the beach. What a nice life, don't you think so? I guess I am just spoiled from this vacation and am looking forward to going to Brunei next year in July. Until then, I guess I have to save up A LOT and I really mean A LOT!! :o)

New Balance Fall Classic 2007

2007-11-18T15:28:00.000-08:00

Alas!! Another year of races has gone by just like that. The last race of the season which was the New Balance Fall Classic at UBC came to a great closing. Ray and I did the same race last year and we both got our personal best times for this year; thanks to the sunny weather. The nice weather definitely plays a big part for the runner's performance. Even though I got up at 5am for Ray's half marathon and my 5K race didn't start till 10am, it was all worth it because he did an awesome job and came in with an amazing time of 1hr and 29mins (1:29:41) at 35th/895 overall, 29th/400 for males and 6th/106 in his age group. Wow!!! I am so proud of him. Well done! As for me, I am proud of myself too because I was aiming for sub-28mins and I did it!! I finished my 5K in 27:00mins. Next year, maybe I will try sub-27mins. Hmm...we'll see about that. Anyway, I was ranked 57th/250 overall, 25th/173 for females and 9th/55 in my age group. Ray and I will now gear up for some snowshoeing races in the winter. Stay tuned for that. Below is a photo of Ray's half marathon finisher medal.

Haney to Harrison Relay 100km

2007-11-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Haney to Harrison (H2H in short) is a very popular race consisting of either a 100km 8-person relay or 100km Ultra. It is my first time doing this race. Ray and I were in a team called "Trailer Trashed" with 6 other members from Rackets and Runners. The team wore mullets to represent a trashy look. The race started in Haney which is in Maple Ridge and ended in Harrison Hot Springs with a total distance of 100km divided into 8 legs. The weather did not turn out that great. It was sure a miserable day and I was hoping the rain would ease up for my stage which was the last leg but the rain kept going. Despite the bad weather, the team spirit was way up there and we supported each other for their legs. If you go to the raceheadquarters website, you would be able to see our team that came 153rd/245 overall and 26th/41 for the Open Mixed category. Ray did stage 7 (distance of 13.31km) with an awesome time of 57:06mins and placed at 21st/245 overall, 20th/158 for males and 8th/41 for open mixed category. As for me, I did the last stage which was stage 8 (distance of 8.03km) with a time of 43:43mins and placed at 133th/245 overall, 56th/138 for females and 26th/41 for the open mixed category. As usual, I am sore from this race and have to recover for my next race scheduled on Nov 18th called New Balance Fall Classic at UBC.

James Cunningham Seawall Race 9.5K

2007-10-28T15:39:00.000-07:00

I did this race again this year with the sole purpose of seeing if I can beat my time from last year. Well, I did beat my time by about 1.5mins. I was hoping more but I think it's pretty good considering that I haven't been training a lot in running. I was disappointed with the wrong weather forecast though. Of course, it wasn't cloudy/sunny but instead it turned out to be rainy :( But it's fine though because last year, it was cold but this year, it was just muggy, wet and not that cold. The course for this year at Stanley Park was different from last year due to the windstorm causing trees to fall. Even though the course changed, there was only one big hill and a few rolling hills. Alright, here are the race results: Ray finished with an incredible time of 39:35mins and came in 45th out of 887 overall, 40th/414 for males and 8th/34 for his age group. Ray also improved about 1.5 mins from last year. As for me, I finished with a time of 54:40mins and placed at 439th out of 887 overall, 154th/472 for females and 26th/75 for my age group. Ray and I have another race to do next weekend and that is H2H (Haney to Harrison) Ultra 100km. Wish us luck!
Update(Oct 29,2007): Raceheadquarters just posted the team category results and Ray and I were signed up as Couples. I am really happy to tell you all that we are 4th/30 in the team couple category. I couldn't believe that we did so good. Thanks to Ray for his hard work.

My cute nephew, Matthias Dean Lee

2007-10-24T15:18:00.000-07:00

Well...another addition to the family. My brother, William and his wife, Yun finally had their baby on Oct 24, 2007 at approximately 11:30am at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster. Matthias Dean Lee is their baby boy's name and weighed at 7lbs 3oz and 22cm in length at birth. This is truly a great blessing from God to our family. The only thing I want to say to William and Yun now is I hope that they don't have too many sleepless nights but who am I kidding...:) Of course, they will have sleepless nights but it is all worth it because he is so cute!

Portland Marathon and 5-Miler Race

2007-10-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

It sure was a long drive to get to Portland, Oregon but it was all worth it because of the nice weather in Portland for the race. A group of people from Rackets & Runners also went and did the marathon. We all got together for a nice dinner at Mama Mia Trattoria on Saturday night. Like all racers do the night before the race, we had pasta to fuel up for the race. Ray had a good time from this 2nd marathon with a PB of 3hrs 27mins. Nice job! Race results are posted and the standings for Ray is 502nd/7724 overall, 426th/3529 for males and 99th/512 in his age group. As for me, I did the 5-Miler (8K) race. I think I had a good time with 48:49mins at 336/951 and 20th in my age group. After the race, I went and did some shopping and found some good deals at this favourite store of mine called "Ann Taylor Loft". I love the clothing lines here because they carry my size. It's awesome! The best thing about shopping in Oregon is there is NO tax. What more can I ask for!! Overall I had fun on this trip even though both Ray and I are feeling really sore now. It was nice visiting Portland again after about 9 years or so since the last time I was there. I hope someday I can go back again for some MORE shopping...hehe

Shaolin Warriors at Pacific Coliseum, PNE

2007-09-28T09:28:00.000-07:00

Ray and I went and saw the Shaolin monks performing at Pacific Coliseum. I was just blown away by their gymnastics ability to be so flexible with their bodies. They were all trained in their childhood and were given extensive training in kung fu martial arts. From the show, there were two kids performing with the rest of the adults and even those two kids already mastered the various kinds of kung fu martial art forms. There was also an incredible martial art form called Qigong meaning guidance, inhale and exhale meditation. It is a technique where you accumulate the inner power from all the muscles into one area so that when you are poked or pricked, you won't be punctured. The performance last night demonstrated this Qigong technique where the shaolin monk was actually placed on a board of 3 swords on the bottom and a board of hundreds of nails on the top of his body with another person on top of him and then to top it up with a huge concrete board that probably weighed about 300lbs (I think). I hope you can picture this because it seemed like "pain" to me! This is not it. Lastly, another person was holding a big sledgehammer to hit this concrete into half! All I can think off at this point was this person at the very bottom was probably in pain and maybe have 3 sword marks on the back of his body. Sure enough, they were fine and just a little mark from the sword, no blood dripping or anything. This shows how well-trained they are and that they have a life-long commitment to keep training for shaolin kung fu.

Grouse Grind Mountain Run

2007-09-23T16:02:00.000-07:00

Another year zipped by so fast and here we are again doing the Grind Race for the 3rd year. This year, we formed a team with Ray, William, Betty and Ethan and called ourselves "Live Free or Die Hard". I like the name. The Grind is so much like in the movie if you know what I mean. Anyway, it was a beautiful morning at the base of the mountain but foggy and cold at the top. Regardless of what the weather was, there were still about 450 participants in this race. What a good turnout! This race is sure getting popular every year. Lots of spectator too including my parents, Sylvester, Irene, Yun, Lydia and Nathan that came out to cheer our team. What a great support group, eh?!! Alright, here are the race results posted on the Raceheadquarters website. Our team was so good that we came first in the Co-ed category. I will start with Ray first because he was like a cheetah, so fast! He finished with a PB time of 37:22mins and came in 64th overall out of 450, 56th out of 304 for males and 16th out of 88 in his age group. As for me, I am very proud of myself because I didn't expect to get a PB of 52:27mins with an improved time of 4mins from last year's race! Ray also improved his time by 5mins! Kudos to both of us! I came in 265th overall out of 450, 63rd out of 146 for females and 13th out of 37 in my age group. Next is William, my brother. Let's see how he did. He came in with a time of 48:30mins at 219th overall, 174th for males and 46th for his age group. Not bad...Keep up the good work! Now, the next person is Ethan, my nephew who is only 9 years old and beat me by 2mins! He is so light-weight and so fast that he got a time of 50:31mins. His parents were so proud of him. I am too even though he beat me :) He came in 242nd overall, 190th for males and 7th out of 10 in his age group. Nicely done! He had so much fun doing this race that he can't wait for next year. Hopefully, he can keep training before next year's race. That goes the same for me. I am determined to aim for sub-50mins for next year. I hope I don't kill myself. Wish me luck!!

Keith Urban Concert

2007-09-16T23:54:00.002-07:00

What an amazing performance put out by Keith Urban tonight at GM Place! My girlfriend, Monica and I went and saw him on tour to promote his new album called "Love, Pain & the Whole Crazy World" and we were definitely impressed by him. As you all know, he is married to a very famous celebrity and she is of course none other than Nicole Kidman. At one point of the concert, he actually mentioned her by saying, "Of course I wouldn't want to forget my lovely wife, Nicole Kidman who has been there for me by giving me the love and support and here's a song for her." So the song that he dedicated to her was "Tonight I wanna cry". It sure made me cry and he almost was in tears too. He was thanking Canada for buying his album that puts him in the No.1 spot in the top of the chart. What a nice guy!

Whistler 5 Peaks Trail Running Series

2007-08-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

Whistler was incredibly outrageous. By this, I mean the course of our weekend race. It was definitely like winter before the race and summer after the race. Ray and I competed in the #4 series of the 5 Peaks trail run. We took the Gondola up to Roundhouse Chalet and started the race from there. I had fun but a lot of the racers didn't quite enjoy the run too much. I thought it was pretty good because of many reasons. Here are the reasons why; the course was only 5.65km, no raging water, no constant uphill for more than a kilometre, amazing view and lastly, I wasn't that sore after the race. My calves hurt a little though. It was an interesting race to run because we were basically running on snow! People were sliding everywhere but I really have to say my Salomon shoes are awesome. I have no sliding problems because they have good grip. Ok...I'm starting to sound like a sales pitch but it is true though. My friend, Shirmy and her family came up and joined us for the remainder of the race event including the awards ceremony. Results are now posted at the Raceheadquarters site. Ray came in with an amazing time of 28:26mins at a position of 3rd out of 187 overall, 2nd out of 31 in his age group and 3rd out of 84 for males. Good job, Ray even though a 14 year old beat you (he sustained an injury on his ankle from pushing himself too hard). I think being safe is better than coming first. Anyway, as for me, I definitely didn't care what position I came in as long as I didn't get hurt. I came in with a time of 43:34mins at 107th overall out of 187, 13th out of 31 in my age group and 44th out of 103 for females. We both had an improved time of 5:10mins from last year's race! Now with this, I am proud of myself because I know I am more conditioned than last year. I guess doing the Grind pays off. ^o^

Josh Groban Concert

2007-08-17T23:22:00.001-07:00

This concert was amazing and the only romantic one that I have been to. Well, Michael Buble's concert was also a somewhat romantic concert. I guess I lied...hehe. Anyway, I was so relaxed at Josh Groban's concert. He has an incredible and powerful voice! It was just superb. He is a great musician who not only knows how to sing but also how to play the piano and the DRUMS! Just incredible! His new album, "Awake" has given him a lot of possibilities to let his listeners know that he is not just an operatic tenor type singer but also be a pop-ish type singer. I think this is a great opportunity for him to show-off in the concert and I loved it! Check out his new album on here. Hope you will feel the same as I do. I definitely recommend his songs.

Camping at Coldwater Creek in Nicola (Aug 3 to 6)

2007-08-06T22:56:00.000-07:00

What another fun camping trip! I love camping now! I really needed sometime away from the city. Just before the camping trip, I was in a lot of stress from work due to the fact that I thought I wasn't able to handle someone's else job. But I guess I was wrong. Things are going pretty good so far for me at work as long as I stay positive. Anyway, back to camping. I had a great time with Ray and his family. We did a lot of stuff like swimming, hiking, pitching horseshoes, fishing and more. Weather was a bit weird. During the day, it was nice and warm but at night, it was kind of cold. Of course, I thought bringing a sweater was good enough but it turned out that I was so wrong. I needed something more than a sweater. Good thing we had a campfire that I could warm up. We were by the creek and the water was so crystal clear. It was so beautiful. Let me tell you a little bit about this area where we were camping. It's about 30km southwest of Merritt in the Indian reserve band property called Coldwater Indian Reserve land. The people that live here basically rear cows and have a huge farm. I don't know what they are growing. Who knows. All I have seen are cows roaming around the area. The next campsite from us was almost 3km. Sections of the road into the campsite were bumpy and dirt with cliffs on one side of the road where you have to really be careful not to get too close to the tall cliffs. At one point of the road, we didn't realize that a sharp corner was so close to the cliff. It was scary! I guess a lesson learned here that we shouldn't be driving at night when it is pitch black!

The Fray Concert

2007-07-29T23:39:00.000-07:00

Does everyone know who "The Fray" is? If you don't know, you can go check out their official website by clicking here. They did the concert at Deer Lake Park in Burnaby which was a perfect evening for an outdoor concert. We were joined by a couple friends of mine from work. As soon as the band performed their hit songs "How To Save a Life" and "Over My Head" which were featured in popular shows like "Grey's Anatomy" and "Scrubs", the crowd got really excited and some of the people from the audience were asked to go up on stage to help the band to play tambourine for them. It was cool! Despite the fact that we had to wait a long time to see them play, it was still an amazing concert. My next concert will be Josh Groban on Aug 17th and I am so excited for this one because Josh Groban is one of my favourites!

Mt Seymour 5 Peaks Trail Running Series

2007-07-28T20:49:00.000-07:00

Today's weather started off with clouds and fog up on Mt. Seymour for the run. Ray and I went and did the third trail run series for the 5 Peaks at Mt. Seymour. As soon as we got there, we realized that we needed some bug repellent spray because there were bugs everywhere buzzing around our heads. It was kind of disgusting. It felt better as the morning went by with fewer bugs but then it was drizzling a little bit. By then, we were all done with the race and finishing up with the awards ceremony. The course was very technical and I think it was a lot better than Golden Ears (the first 5 peaks trail series in April). It was really muddy though but no water involved which was good because I definitely wouldn't like running in soaked shoes again. The muddy shoes were fine because they weren't wet. I guess wearing Salomon Gortex shoes helped. I love Salomon shoes. They are the best! The trail was single track where it was hard to pass people. Not that I was passing people but I was really taking it easy because it was slippery on logs and tree branches everywhere. I would rather be safe than sorry. Well, let's get back to the race. Here are the results: I came in 115/197 overall, 53/120 for females and 20/44 in my age group. As for Ray, he was tied with another person for 5th place overall, 6/77 for males and 3/32 in his age group. And yes, he was up on the podium for coming 3rd in his age group. So proud of him! The next 5 Peaks series is in Whistler on Aug 25th. I will have to gear up for that race now. I will keep you posted.

Camping at Gold Creek in Golden Ears Park

2007-07-16T22:20:00.002-07:00

It has been an awesome and busy weekend. My sister and I went down south for some shopping at Seattle Premium Outlet and we sure didn't waste time as soon as we got there. We bought quite a bit of stuff. My sister is planning to go down again this week since she didn't shop enough or let's just say, she didn't spend enough :) I also went camping this weekend with my sister and her family. My parents also came and joined us since this was their first time camping. They loved it! It goes the same for me because I sure needed to get away from the city and experience some simplicity in life. I didn't really want to leave and am planning to go camping again SOON!!! This time, Ray is coming because he was in St. Louis working and I felt that I was missing something from this whole camping trip. That missing thing was no Ray around to have fun with. Oh well...we are definitely going camping in a few weeks. Anyway, I have uploaded some pictures on Picasa web album. Please check it out. I hope that you will enjoy looking at the photos. Have fun!

Canada Day 7.5K Run in Pitt Meadows

2007-07-01T15:00:00.000-07:00

Happy 140th Birthday Canada!!! Finally, it feels more like summer. It was sure a beautiful day. Ray and I went to Pitt Meadows for the celebration of Canada Day and also to run a 7.5K race at 8:30am this morning. You must be wondering why we chose Pitt Meadows. Ok...here is the reason. First, the distance was only 7K and second, the course was pretty flat. The HBC Canada Day run at Canada Place in downtown was a 10K and the course was hilly. I had run downtown a few times and I wanted to try something different and to take it easy for this long weekend. I don't want to get too sore because I still need to celebrate Canada Day :) Alright, let me tell you how we did in this race. I finished with a time of 40:12mins and came in 67th/251 overall, 19th/148 for females and 6th/45 in my age group. Ray, on the other hand, did well as usual. His time was 29:55mins with a position of 8th/251 overall, 8th/103 for males and 3rd/21 in his age group. He was up on the podium receiving a medal for 3rd place in his age category. Way to go!!

Edmonton and Jasper Trip (June 18 to 23)

2007-06-24T12:00:00.000-07:00

My parents and I went on a small getaway from rainy Vancouver to sunny Edmonton. People say that Edmonton is not a vacation spot but when you are stuck in a city that is always cloudy and rainy and you really want to go somewhere CHEAP, that is how I ended up in Edmonton. I was lucky enough to get sunny weather while I was there visiting friends and relatives. It was a very busy week filled with getting together with old friends whom we have not seen for more than 15 years!!! It's amazing how a network of friends can be that small in such a big world. I also went to the West Edmonton Mall and did some shopping. This was my third time to this mall. I never like going to this mall because it is huge and you can never find your way out to the parkade and your car :) My parents, my aunt, my uncle and I made a day trip to beautiful Jasper National Park. Even though it was about 8 hours drive in total, it was all worth it because we saw a lot of wild animals like a mountain goat, black bear and a deer.Check out my photos on Picasaweb.
As you can see the photo on the left, the goat wasn't afraid of us. It was wandering around on the road and came to our car looking for something to eat. It was a good shot while we were feeding the goat. We also had the privilege to go to Maligne Lake (see above photo) which was about a 45 minute drive from Jasper. This lake is not only one of the oldest attractions in Jasper but also the largest lake in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The pristine natural beauty of the lake blew me away. I will make another trip back there to try out the hiking trails and guided tours like fishing and whitewater rafting.

A little Get-Together

2007-06-15T22:33:00.000-07:00

Years go by and here we are, finally had the opportunity to get together and catch up after 13 years since we graduated high school. We had a good time talking about the past and the current happenings in life. I definitely enjoyed digging up the past again... :) Sure nice to see Margaret, Daniela and Tanya. I would never imagine this day to come that we can all sit down together to have dinner at Monsoon Brasserie Restaurant in Vancouver. There are others like Ray, Monica and Michael (Margaret's fiance) that came and joined us. Thanks for tagging along and hope you guys were not too bored from listening to our conversations. Congrats to Margaret and Tanya on their engagements and also their upcoming weddings!! Don't forget me now when the big day comes ^o^ Just kidding.

Seek The Peak Relay Race 2007

2007-06-10T17:25:00.000-07:00

Despite a rainy, cold and miserable morning, Ray, William, Wilson and I went out at 7:30am to Ambleside Park in West Vancouver to do a little huddle before the race. This year, there were only 35 relay teams participating as compared to last year with 46 relay teams. The good news is we improved our time by at least 20mins!!! We came in 10th overall out of 35. I am really happy with the result. Good job everyone! I want to thank Wilson and William for coming out and playing a great part of the team. You guys have put in tremendous effort and that is why it's called "teamwork". Here are the results: Wilson did Stage 1 in 18:51mins for 4K; William did Stage 2 in 42:16mins for 6K; Ray did Stage 3 in 38:19mins for Grouse Grind and I did Stage 4 in 22:20mins for the Peak bringing in a total time of 2hrs and 1min for a course distance of 16K(last year was 2hrs 22mins). I supposed I could have done better but I did beat my last year time by 2mins. There's always next year but we'll see how much training I put in before next year's race because I have to keep in mind that I'm not getting any younger :)

Rhythm of Life 10K run at Burnaby Lake

2007-05-27T15:38:00.000-07:00

The weather turned out to be decent for the race. It was totally the opposite of what they predicted the weather to be which was cloudy and rainy. They just can't get the right weather forecast anymore. Shame on them!!

Well...Ray and I went running at Burnaby Lake for the healthy heart program. It was a free race entry for us, courtesy of Ray's run group 'Rackets & Runners'. The trail course, with a distance of 10K, was pretty flat but winding for most parts. I had a good time doing this race because I had trained on the same course a couple times before this race. Even though I had an injury on my right hip from a recent fall, I managed to finish in a good time. Thanks to my Chiropractor for a great adjustment and of course God for helping me. Right now, I need to really rest and recuperate for my next race which is coming up in 2 weeks called "Seek The Peak Relay". Please check back here for the results of today's race.

Update (June 13/07): Finally the race results are posted. I came in 38th/90 overall, 12th/43 for females and 3rd/8 in my age group. As for Ray, he came in 6th/90 overall, 6th/47 for males and 4th/9 in his age group.

First Grouse Grind for the Season

2007-05-21T18:20:00.000-07:00

Alas! The moment that everyone has been waiting for...Grouse Grind finally opened this weekend just in time for the Victoria long weekend! Ray and I had the privilege to go and hike it today. Even though it was overcast and foggy up there on the trails, we still enjoyed the nice cool weather for the hike. There were surprisingly lots of people on the grind. It definitely has become the most popular trail in Vancouver. It was pretty wet after the 3/4 mark and that part slowed me down because I was being very careful not to slip and fall. I think I did pretty good being my first time up this season. My time was about 57:45mins and Ray got his PB at 40:22mins. Too bad the summit seeker reader on the top at the chalet didn't work or else we could have the times logged on to our stats online. Ray and I will be doing the Grind once or twice a week to be well-trained for two races: Seek the Peak Relay and Grouse Grind Mountain Run. My brother, William will also be joining us to train as well for the races. It will be fun because it will be our second time doing Seek the Peak and third time doing Grouse Grind race. Come on out and experience it yourself. You never know what it's like until you try it :)

Mother's Day

2007-05-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

Even though today isn't a sunny day it is still nice to celebrate Mother's Day. Yesterday, my family and I took my mom to a Thai restaurant called "Green Basil Thai Restaurant". As you can see from the above photo, it sure was a lot of food last night. We all left there feeling very satisfied and full!

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food even though it was spicy especially the fish dish. Overall, we enjoyed the company of each other celebrating for all the mothers. I hope you all have a chance to bring your mothers out for a nice treat to something. I just want to say this to my mom - "Thanks for everything. I love you and hope that I can be there for you, doesn't matter whether it will be hard times or good times".

BMO Vancouver Marathon

2007-05-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone. I'm back to my blog here. I am so late in entering this one about the Marathon that took place in Vancouver. Just got busier and busier in life. But better late than never, right? I didn't do the marathon but it sure was an overwhelming experience for me just watching people finishing the race. There were lots of mixed emotions at the finish line. There was a group of people that had been training for it called "Team-In-Training" and I saw them inside BC Place. Each and everyone of them were glad that they finished. Seeing them filled with tears in their eyes, it really made me proud of them. As for Ray, it was his FIRST time doing it and finishing at a time of 3hrs 43mins with a position of 725th/3103 overall (588/1805 for males and 99/257 in his age group). Results are up and posted at the raceheadquarters website. He was very anxious about it because to run a 42-km course, it definitely will give you butterflies in your stomach especially a few days before the race. You don't know what it feels like out there running such a long distance even though you have been training for it. If you haven't ran a race or a marathon before, I don't think you know what I mean but for those who can still remember their first race or marathon, you will know what I mean. Ray couldn't sleep the night before the race. He told me that he probably only slept like 2 hours on and off throughout the night. Good thing he had a good sleep the night before that. Anyway, I just want to say that he made me really proud of him that he took this one step closer to fulfilling his dream. His goal is to be qualified in the Boston Marathon and this race is the biggest by far where you need to be qualified to run in it. It's not easy at all because for Ray, he needs to get a time of 3hrs and 10mins in his age group. But anything is possible if you strive towards your dream. I will always be there for him to give him the moral support he needs. Good luck to Ray!! To everyone out there, running has really changed my lifestyle. It had made a difference in me where I feel so much better in terms of health, diet, energy and stamina! I didn't know I could run until I tried it and it would be the same for all of you.

Golden Ears 5 Peaks Trail Running Series

2007-04-28T11:00:00.000-07:00

I know what you are thinking because even I had no clue what I got myself into. This race was SO technical that I almost bailed out. I will tell you what I meant by that. Trail running is supposed to be nice and good for your legs BUT not at Golden Ears. After the race, I was told that this year's course was different than the previous years. Talk about giving you heads up...gee! We had to run through raging water from waterfalls, mud, more mud and more water with rocks underneath where you have to be so careful not to slip and be sucked by the strong flowing-like river! I am not kidding you!!! Of course, I was wet running in soggy shoes. This race would be the last for me until I try the last 2 series which are Whistler and Buntzen Lake. By then, the weather is drier and less WATER. But even then, I will try to see how I feel. You probably are thinking that I didn't have a good time at this race but overall, I wouldn't say it that way. Despite the fact that I went through the water and mud, the weather was magnificent! No complaints there. I always think without a nice sunny weather, no matter how good the race is, I still wouldn't enjoy it. I guess doing this race after all wasn't that bad if you know what I mean :) Here are the results which I'm not that proud of but I guess I have to tell you because I have been putting up the results on the other races I have done. So here it is, I came 190th overall out of 255 with a time of 1hr 05mins (96th/154 for females and 36th/52 for my age group). Now, the next result that I'm telling you is the best. Ray did extremely marvellous for his 3rd year with 5 Peaks and came in 3rd overall out of 255 at a unbelievable time of 42:13mins (3rd/101 for males and 2nd/41 for his age group). This was my first time that I ever raced Golden Ears. If I do this race next year, I'll be better prepared and maybe get a better time. Getting wet and stuff wasn't that fun. Oh well, until then, maybe I'll stick with road races.

Vancouver Sun Run

2007-04-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Does anyone know why Vancouver has been voted to be one of the best livable cities in the world? Well, the answer is simple and I'm sure everyone knows the answer. It is because we have a very beautiful city with mountains and water with easy access and wonderful sunny weather just like today. Definitely, another amazing year for the Vancouver Sun Run. Two years in a row, we had nice sunny weather and what more can we ask for than that. I am sure proud to participate in this highly popular race again for the second year. Another successful year with a record of 54,317 registered runners. It was incredible. I couldn't believe the number of people inside BC Place. It was so crowded that you really don't want to be losing each other now. But I sure had a good race, better than last year. I was so glad that I was in the yellow section which basically started at 9:05am instead of 10:15am last year!!! I had a PB at about 56:08mins and Ray had his PB too at about 40:30mins!! Fast, eh? My brother, William and Ray's niece, Alexis and her friend, Jasmine came out too and did the race. My sis-in-law, Yun also came out and supported and cheered us on. We all had fun. I will post the results soon. Check back here later.

Update(Apr 17/07): Here are the race results that was just posted online on the Vancouver Sun Run website. I came in 8984 overall out of 42650, 366 out of 2860 in my age group and 2381 out of 24103 for females. As for Ray, he came in 489 out of 42650 overall, 65 out of 2313 in his age group and 429 out of 18547 for males. Keep up the good work, Ray!! I am pretty happy with my performance considering that there were more than 40,000 participants. I think I did pretty darn good, don't you think so??? :)

Harrison Hot Springs

2007-04-06T18:38:00.000-07:00

I had the privilege to do a little getaway from the city on this Easter long weekend. In fact, Ray and I went to Harrison Hot Springs on Thursday night and stay there a night. This was our second time there. We really love it there. It sure was an awesome stay at Harrison Hot Springs Resort and Spa. They have their own pools inside the hotel to help you relax after a stressful week at work. It did help me for sure because I was really looking forward to dipping myself in the mineral hot spring pool. The hotel itself is also very appealing because of the friendly staff and the affordable rooms. We are thinking of going back this summer and hopefully my family will stay over this time. There were about 20 people including my family that came up to meet us on Friday and we did the picnic thing at Sasquatch Provincial Park which was located about 10km north of Harrison Hot Springs. The weather turned out to be sunny and warm at about 22degC. What a big change of temperature from a week ago!! Everyone was so tired after a long day of countless activities like hiking, running, playing frisbee, swimming/dipping in the pool, etc. Wow...I was just tuckered out but I had so much fun. Now, I can't wait for summer to come and to do more things. :)

Las Vegas and Grand Canyon Trip

2007-03-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

What a nice getaway to a nice and sunny place like Las Vegas!! I'm sure everyone was sick of the rain we had for the past 3 weeks or so. I am so glad that I took this small vacation to be in Las Vegas where it was around 24 to 27 degC. Ray and I had a great time in Las Vegas and last but not least, the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The view at the Grand Canyon was just speechless and jaw-dropping! We were on a 45-min private flight from Vegas to the state of Arizona where the Grand Canyon is located. The bus driver gave us an overview of the history of the Grand Canyon. From there, we stopped at 3 lookouts and after that, we had an awesome buffet lunch at the Quality Inn hotel. Check out the photos of the Grand Canyon and Las Vegas at my picasa web albums. I highly recommend everyone if they have a chance to go to Arizona or to Las Vegas, that they should not miss out on the Grand Canyon tour. This is such a spectacular and beautiful creation by God that we should all go and experience. Now, I look forward to my next trip to the Grand Canyon where we are thinking of hiking down the bright angel trail, sleeping over at the bottom of the canyon next to the Colorado river and hiking back up the next day. We would also like to see the Grand Canyon Skywalk (The Glass Bridge) that will open starting tomorrow.

Jim Belushi and the Sacred Hearts Band

2007-03-18T00:45:00.000-07:00

Ray, his parents and I went to see Jim Belushi in concert tonight. I was a little disappointed because I was hoping that he would do some stand-up comedy. Despite that, I still enjoyed a night out watching him sing with his band. Jim Belushi sure has a distinct and strong voice when he sings and a very talented harmonica player too. We were sitting close to the stage and took a few pictures of him. Towards the end of the night, I was up on the stage with other ladies dancing away with him. It was really cool.

The Yeti Snowshoe Race at Cypress Mountain

2007-03-17T23:00:00.000-07:00

Wow...It was really a wet day to be doing a snowshoe race but it was fine after all because the rain basically cools you down when you are so hot and sweating. I think it was a pretty good race and way better than the one at Mount Seymour (see Yeti Snowshoe race at Mt. Seymour). The reason I say this was the course for Mount Seymour was more than 5K which I wasn't prepared for and the one at Cypress was right on 5K. Anyway, the results will be posted up soon on the Yeti website. Please check it at a later date. Ray did extremely well today and he came first overall!!! As for me, I think I did pretty good although I didn't come first. I am happy with my performance. I will update here after the results are posted. Both Ray and I won some cool stuff like socks, toques, water bottle for cycling, custom fit soles for shoes and an adult snowshoe combo for ticket and rental. Not bad, eh?? So, I guess my next race won't be until April 15th for the Vancouver Sun Run. I am pretty excited about it because this time I will be close to the front pack instead of in the back pack like last year. I hope to do better than last year so I have to get on with my training :)

Update (Mar19/2007): Here are the results posted on the the Yeti website. Ray came first out of 75 overall and first out of 21 in his age group with the time of 32:49mins. As for me, I came 44th out of 75 overall and 16th out of 33 in my age group with the time of 52:47mins. We were also signed up as Team called "Smilin Bob's Snowrunners" and the team came first in the 5K.

Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K

2007-03-11T17:02:00.000-07:00

It was a miserable morning with heavy rain. The good thing was it wasn't that cold. Ray and I went to Stanley Park early this morning to run an 8K called Harry's Spring Run-Off 8K. This race was sponsored by Harry Rosen to fight against prostate cancer and it was the 1st annual ever. I hope this race will still be as popular for next year because I sure won't be running in it next year because today's weather was pretty bad! Anyway, I will be posting the results as soon as Raceheadquarters post it up on their site. Check back here to see the update of this race.

Update: Here are the race results posted on Raceheadquarters: I came in 220/454 overall, 57/214 for females and 8/35 in my age group with a time of 46:06 mins. Ray, on the other hand, had a great performance with 17/454 overall, 17/255 for males and 3/38 in his age group with an incredible time of 33:08mins. He won $50 Running Room gift certificate for coming third in his age group. Good job!!!

Last Day of Chinese New Year

2007-03-04T23:12:00.000-08:00

My family and I had a big feast at home tonight. Each of us put in the effort of making the big meal for the last day of Chinese New Year which is the 15th day of the celebration. I think there were more than 10 different dishes set before our eyes! I was just stuffed with the delicious food. All in all, it was just fun to get together and chat and drink too. Aunt Loretta and Uncle David joined us for this dinner. We all had good laughs from the jokes that we made. It is always such a joy to have them whenever we get together. I hope everyone else also had a chance to enjoy the last day of the CNY celebration. Hopefully, this year will be a continual blessful and peaceful one for all of us!

Wayne Brady at Red Robinson Theatre

2007-02-23T00:18:00.000-08:00

What an amazing show put out by Wayne Brady and his crew. For those of you who don't know who Wayne Brady is, he was on the show called "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Go check him out here. Guess what everyone...I was up on the stage with him. I was brave enough to raise my hand when he yelled out "Who here has the most dangerous job?" Of course, I wasn't thinking much at that point, he picked me asking, "What do you do?" Obviously, I said,"Dental Assistant". At that moment, I was so excited that I get to meet him. Needless did I know that I was so shaky and blanked out most of the time when he asked questions about me. He then sang a R&B romantic type song to me because that's all I could think of when he asked me what type of music I liked. I was totally clueless. He then asked whether there was a "Mr. Betty" and I said, "yes, he's out there". Of course, he asked Ray "Give me one word to describe her". Ray yelled out, "Sweet". (hahahah) I wished I could have performed better. Oh well...at least I sang with him a little bit and he was sure a nice guy. Ray tried to take pictures of me when I was on stage but they didn't turned out. As I was walking off the stage, he said, "Well...Betty just made her concert debut!" That was hilarious! This was my second time seeing him performed. The first time was in Las Vegas at the Mirage. Both times, he cracked me up! Tonight, the whole theatre was full. He's performing tomorrow night at the RiverRock Casino. I would highly recommend everyone to go catch his show whenever he's in town the next time. Until then, talk to you all soon!

Climb the Wall at Sheraton Wall Centre

2007-02-18T17:54:00.000-08:00

The morning turned out pretty good. Not a bad day after all. But it was pretty bad for me. Ray and I went and did the "Climb the Wall" at the Sheraton Wall Centre for the BC Lung Association early this morning. This building is the tallest in BC with 48 storeys (739 steps). Well, do you know why I said it was bad for me? I did the race TWICE which means it was not 48 storeys, it was 96 storeys with 1478 steps!!! I couldn't believe I did it twice. But no regrets though. I was glad I did it the second time because I finished at a better time of 8:01mins instead of 8:12mins which was the first one. Raceheadquarters did the timing and you can check out the results by clicking here. My best performance of 8:01mins placed me in 146th overall out of 478 and 34th out of 255 for females. My slower climb took 8:12mins placing me in 168th overall and 44th for females. A lot of people were doing it twice because they wanted to beat their personal best which I did! Alright, here comes Ray's result. He came in 9th overall out of 478 and 9th out of 223 for Males with an incredible time of 5:41mins. Unreal! I'm happy for him. As usual, the muscles are now sore and burning from going up those stairs but oh well, the muscles are getting strong. I want to thank those people who helped me raise money to run this race to climb this wall, twice...hahaha

Chinese New Year Celebrations

2007-02-17T23:11:00.000-08:00

Another Chinese New Year to celebrate and this year is the Year of the Pig. I saw a lion dance performance yesterday at City Square Mall where I work. It was pretty cool. It sure feels like there is Chinese New Year atmosphere here even though we live in a western city like Vancouver. Tonight, there were 20 of us that got together at a Chinese Restaurant and had a delicious 8-course feast to ring in the Chinese New Year. I will try to get to some more festivals and celebrations around town tomorrow after doing my race "Climb the Wall" at Sheraton Wall Centre. Lastly, I wish everyone the best of health, happiness and prosperity in this New Year.

Update (Feb 18/2007): What a nice day for the Chinese New Year parade today on Sunday in Chinatown. Ray and I went there to watch the parade right after our "Climb the Wall" at Sheraton Wall Centre. There were tonnes of people in Chinatown to celebrate the New Year with performers from the parade doing firecrackers, wearing pig masks, dancing, performing lion and dragon dances and giving out "Ang Pow". Well, of course, no money but chocolate coin in there :) Hope you all are also having a wonderful Chinese New Year too. Check back here soon.