Vancouver Sun Run 2010

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

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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....

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!!

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!!!!