MUACXC end of season bbq...and off to adelaide!

the white train!

MUACXC had an end of season bbq today. was so fun!!
ive said it before, but this grp of runners are really nice people. its great to hang out with them at these social events, cos we dont get to talk so much during training when everybody's so shag. haha.
Roly and Hamish prepared this absolutely hillarious presentation that recapped the season. They're so funny! they should be stand-up comedians...i think they'd make a lot of money off it.
And of course we started getting excited about adelaide and talking about all the parties that we're gonna go to there. haha. Monica was like super excited about all the parties...she was telling elaine and me how she had to sit on her suitcase to close it! haha. I havent even started packing!! shit... must start real soon.
Still not confirmed what events i'll be running for unigames. At the moment my schedule is like :
Monday - Cross country (6km?)
Tues - 10000m
Thurs - 3000m steeplechase.
But i found out today that someone pulled out of the 800m, so i might want to run that! I prefer these shorter track races. Not too sian. haha. its painful but over quickly.
Hopefully can squeeze in a bit of sight seeing too. Definitely want to hit the beach!!

ah...better go pack now! updates n pics in a week!! ta

a tan at the TAN

today was the last race of the winter season. its kinda sad...i really enjoyed the winter season. Ive always been more of a cross country runner...i like it more than short track races. so knowing that there wont be any more such races till march next year is kind of a bummer.
I will still do the summer season tho (the track season)... wanna try out some events like 1500m and 3000m steeplechase. (satiish! gimme some tips!)

yeap, so today was the final winter race, the TAN relays. i dunno why its called "tan". probably is an acronym for something but i dunno wat. haha. Its a 3.88km route, and each person runs one round only. Its FAST n FURIOUS! oh...and crowded also! had to dodge n weave my way thru other competitors at some points. It felt much shorter than 3.88 tho... compared to running macritchie 4.8 back home, this lap seemed much much faster.

I aimed to do a 14min... and ended up with a 13.36...yay!
originally i was supposed to run in division 5 (there are 7 divs, with div 1 being the best)...but there werent enough runners, so i got bumped up to div3!! the other 4 ppl in my team were pro! i was slated to run the last lap, so i got to see the times of the ppl before me...and they were FAST! they all did ard 13mins flat! so i was like 'oh shit...if i do 14mins plus its gonna look bad.' luckily managed to go under 14mins. phew.

most of the ladies had a good run. some clocking under 14mins!! which is just utter madness. and for the div one guys, some did 11min plus. again...CRAAAZZZY!!

Dave brought many pieces and sizes of our new club t-shirt. its called the "white train"....something like "le blue train" from tour de france, but this time its runners. looks really cute! haha. he even brought really small sizes "for our kids". hahaa. damn funny! we all wore the t-shirt and took photos. i heard they looked really good! will post them once i get my hands on them.

its really nice hanging out with the running bunch. they're all such nice, easy going people. cant wait to go for unigames with them in a week! its gonna be so much fun!
ah...but gotta do my essay b4 then. i read a few books this week... will prob start writing on monday, but i write very..............very..................slowly...................

one, two, cha cha cha

Crystal's dance exhibition was fun!
We left the city at around 12pm...caught a ride in a maxi-cab with esther, crystal, and crystal's friend jacklyn and her parents. The place we went to was quite far away from the city in this suburb called forest hills...its about 40mins drive. The actual ballroom itself is right smack in the middle of a housing estate, which is kinda weird...but its a very beautiful location. I can imagine the place being used for small weddings. It only seats about 100-150 ppl, so much less than the void deck weddings in spore *cough cough*.

The event had only just started when we got there, but crystal n jacklyn's first performances werent till about an hour after the start, so we were making good time. I was quite skeptical at first as to whether i'd enjoy watching ppl dance for hours, and i joked with crystal that i would bring my PSP with me...but i must say its very interesting to watch the pros dance! especially the HOT latin dances with the shart movements and questionable groping. (okay..im exaggerating)

We had a lunch break at around 3.30pm. (everyone else had pasta, but i had the vege meal which was just soup!! do they think vegetarians eat less or something???) anyways, as a result, i was really really hungry by dinner time, which was at about 8pm. dinner did not disappoint! it was a buffet. and it had oysters!!! (bennett! r u jealous?? i had FREE oysters!! hahaha)

Oh i must mention one thing. There was this slightly dodgy guy sitting at our table next to esther. He behaved a bit like a perv and constantly "touching" everybody. There was one instance where he (already quite drunk) grabbed esther's arm and pretended to nibble it cos he said he couldnt wait for dinner. I was sooooooooo pissed off, but i didnt wanna make a scene, so i just clenched my fists beneath the table and tried not to lose my cool. Luckily he didnt do it again or i think i might have seriously hit him. arrrggghh...wat a dickhead. Later on he got REALLY wasted and began shouting profanities....then he left (thank god), and the rest of the evening was peaceful.

Esther, jacklyn, her parents and myself caught a cab back to the city at ard 11pm. crystal stayed on the party with he dance mates. All in all, it was a really wonderful evening. Thanks crystal! I'll be there for your march showcase! (am i invited? haha)

ive posted the pics of the nite HERE

2 more wks to unigames!

I went to Savers this morning. Its this place that sells second hand stuff (kinda like salvation army, but a lot BIGGER). Crystal has a dance presentation this sunday, and Esther and i are going to watch. Its from mid afternoon all the way till 9pm...looking forward to it! should be fun! Its a formal event, so have to dress up nicely ala ball-style. Thats why i went to savers...wanted to look for a shirt to match esther's dress. But her dress is this very unique colour so i ended up buying just a white shirt in the end. Ooooh, but i got a suit for super cheap! its second hand...only 17 bucks!!! and it fit me soooo perfectly! haha. so happy! now i suddenly feel the urge to go to more balls. hahaha. Met up with esther at night and went looking for a tie (since i couldnt match my shirt with hers, the next best thing was to match the tie). We found quite a close match in the end. and it was 25% off! but its damn funny...my tie costs 22 bucks, which is more than my suit! hahahaha.

going to the botanical gardens for training tmr morning. should be a nice change of location. usually we train at princes park, which is behind uni. im so sian of that place! haha. looking forward to the change of scenery. also bcos we are having a relay there (the botanical gardens) in a wks time, so we need to get familiar with the route. Each person runs one lap of the garderns, which is about 3.8km. Some of the ppl do it in under 12 mins!!! crazy lah... i'm aiming for 13.30.

its only 2 wks to uni games!! getting really excited! booked my ticket already. taking the morning flight with elaine on sun 24th sep at 9.10am, and back on sat 30th sep at 7pm. 6 days of holiday! wheeee!! BUT, this also means that i have to finish my history essay in the next 2 wks! which is no time at all considering ive barely started research. argh.

survived the half! new PB!!

im so happy!!
i ran the half marathon without my knee guard, and my knee held up fine. was a little sore at the end, but thats to be expected. after a bit or stretching it felt fine.

but the best part is....i did a new PB!!! yippieeeee!!!

1hr 25min 30s

the course was really nice! although it was one of those "lap" courses (in this case, 3 x 7km laps), it didnt feel nearly as monotonous as i thought it would be. It rained super heavily at the start point, and we were freeeeezing!!! once the race got underway, though, the weather cleared up into a slight drizzle which lasted the whole race. It was actually quite nice to have the drizzle.

Lots of ppl in the club did PBs this time round. it was really good! and a couple of girls ran sub-1hr30mins!!!! i was like...whoa!! PRO!

gonna be really sore tmr morning. i can feel it already.
okie..gonna sleep now. its only 10.30pm but im so tired.

nite!

the HALF cometh!

tmr is the half marathon!!

i feel so unprepared. only trained up to 15km...and that was only once!!
back in spore i would've done at least a couple of 18km runs by now. oh well...too late now. haha. hopefully it will be a good run. im not aiming for a good timing (though i wouldnt mind if by some miracle i did one!). hoping to finish is more like it...
this is the first race that i'll be doing without my knee guard...so im really praying that the knee holds up, if not its another couple months of laying off running. nooooooooo...i dun want to go thru that again!

wish me luck!