Putrajaya Night Marathon 2010

Venue: Putrajaya, Precinct 3
Distance: 21km (22.3km on mapmyrun)

6 Feb 2010, Purtrajaya Night Marathon. After many training sessions, this is the day I have been waiting. Why was it so special? It was my first half marathon. It was also my first race participation with my sister. It was also a special day where many friends running together, including friend’s father & brother.

Many people said Putrajaya is not a good venue as the weather is humid, hot and the air is thin. But we were blessed that the weather condition was good, slightly cool and windy.

At 8.30pm, the gun went off and we started to run. I started running slowly to conserve energy and also preventing feet pain. At 5km mark, I had run for 40 minutes. No pain on both feet and keep maintaining my pace. At 9km, energy started running low. My GU gel was with me and need to look for the water station. Finally saw a water station reaching 10km and immediately I gulped down the gel.

I felt recharged after taking the gel and able to run without any difficulties. Also using breath right (complementary), and surprisingly throughout my run, I did not feel any panting & my breath was so consistent. Not sure if this is because of the Breath Right or is it because it was just simply a good night run. The route was mostly flat except crossing the bridges & turning into highways.

I felt good throughout the run until 18km mark. The last 3km was difficult & energy started to burn off. I told myself that’s the last 3 km! Come on, just keep running! At a junction, a volunteer was shouting “just another 150m, come on!”….. and from 100m I sprinted towards the finishing line. I managed to cross the finishing line at 2 hours 34 minutes. I met my target doing sub 3 hours!

Finishing the run, I met my friends again, all of us finished within 3 hours. Smiles were on our faces, feeling the satisfaction and happiness. Finally, we did our first half marathon.

Feeling was great throughout the run and even greater after the run. I believe the good feeling will last for some time within us and will continue to motivate us for the next run. Here we come, Energizer Night Run!

This run, I started slow, ended it strong, and enjoyed the whole run. RUN with PASSION.

Half Marathon finisher medal - Front

Half Marathon finisher medal - Back

Gunung Datuk Hiking

Gunung Datuk is located 21km from Rembau town, Negeri Sembilan. The summit is 2,900 feet above sea level. Normally will take around 2 hours to reach the summit and another 1.5 hours to descend.

Upon reaching the base, each climber is required to pay for RM3.00 climbing fee. Went to Gunung Datuk twice, each time took around 1hr 15 minutes to reach the summit and 1 hour to descend.

The following photos were taken on 2 different hiking trips.

Nice cloud pattern in the morning

At the base of Gunung Datuk, the Keris monument is where climbers normally take group photo

Almost reaching the peak. Before that, we need to climb the stair of the rock.

This was taken during the 2nd trip on a bright day with clear blue sky. Very strong wind at the summit. Enjoying ourselves very much at the summit ~ eating, taking photos, chatting, or just enjoying the strong wind.

View of the town, but not sure which town is this.

I like this withered tree at the summit, just nice for few shootings.

There are washrooms at the base for shower, so we could cleaned ourselves before heading to lunch. During the 1st hike trip we went to Dengkil for steam fish. The fish was a bit dissapppointed but the rest tasted ok. The Tong Po Yuk & guinness spare rib were fantastic.

On the 2nd hike trip, we went for Seremban "Siu Hai" in Seremban town. Expensive though, each person around RM30. Anyway, after a hard hike, we should reward ourselves right?

First 20km run

Yesterday was my first time completing 20km run.
Route: 1st loop lake garden-double hill-3 lake garden loops.
Timing is not good though at 2 hours 31min but satisfied on completing the run.

Feeling? Never better.
Time to get ready for Putrajaya Nite Run 21km in Feb, my maiden half marathon.

“Start strong, end strong, and most importantly run with a strong mind”

Ipoh Food Hunt One Day Trip

This was an impromptu decision made. I forgo my regular running on Saturday morning and went to Ipoh for 1 day trip fun hunt with my two dear sisters.

We reach Ipoh around 11am and asked the locals on good dim sum. Initially we wanted to go for Ming Court Dim Sum, but the locals recommended Restaurant Yoke Fook Moon. So we headed to this restaurant instead. It is situated on the same row with Foh San (the famous dim sum restaurant for visitors but not for the locals in Ipoh).

Restaurant Yoke Fook Moon


Restaurant Foh San, same row with Yoke Fook Moon


Ming Court Dim Sun which we inteded to go at first. It is oppposite Foh San


Char Siu Bao from Yoke Fook Mun. Taste nice but a bit salty

Fried Prawn Roll, super nice!

Porridge, taste ok but we preferred more "diluted" porridge

Don't know what is this, made from fish

This is something like Hong Kong "Char Leong", outside wrap with Chee Cheong fun, inside is fried roll with prawn. Cost only RM4 per plate, cheap and nice.

We also tried the siu mai (nice!), and altogther only cost us RM28.90 for 3 person.

Next, we went around for shopping before heading to our 2nd round of eating, we shared a plate of chee cheong fun at Kafe Ipoh Central kopitiam.

It costs RM3.00 per plate, with chicken mushroom gravy and chili sauce with plenty of green chilies. Taste ok with smooth chee cheong fun.

Then came to our 3rd session at Kedai Kopi Kong Heng. Kedai Kopi "Tin Jun" is next to it. We went into Kong Heng and started to order our food.

We bought the steam egg ("den dan") from Kedai Kopi Tin Jun, RM2.10.

Pork satay...vey nice and tender. RM0.60 per piece

Chee Cheong Fun from kedai Kopi Tin Jun, this tastes better then our earlier chee cheong fun. Cost: RM3.00

Popiah from Kedai Kopi Kong Heng, delicious!

There is a Ipoh Chicken Hor Fun in Kedai Kopi Tin Jun operated by a very old owner. However we didn't order from him but ordered from the Chicken Hor Fun stall in Kedai Kopi Kong Heng instead. Taste superb with smooth hor fun in rich chicken broth.

Yummy Yummy!

We wanted to try the old uncle chicken hor fun from Kedai Kopi Tin Jun too but we were too full already. There was a lot of newspaper clipping in front of his stall, too bad we were too full to eat!

This is the table settings in Kedai Kopi Kong Heng.


Thereafter, we bought an egg tart from a small shop opposite Kedai Kopi Kong Heng.

Cost: RM1.10 per pc
Nice taste but egg tart from Tong Kei tastes better

Ipoh folks are truly friendly. We wanted to go to Aun Kheng Lim to buy salted chicken. They gave direction to us with warm and smiley faces. There are many salted chicken shops but the recommended one is Aun Kheng Lim. One chicken costs RM16.00.

Thereafter we proceeded to buy some Ipoh biscuits and found a tau foo fah shop next to it. The tau foo fah texture is so smooth, nice!

Cost: RM1.20 for big bowl


The tau foo fah shop

Our last stop was to try Ipoh white coffee in the old town. We headed to both Nam Heong and Sin Yoon Loong.


Nan Heong and Sin Yoon Loong are just opposite each other


This coffee was ordered at Sin Yoon Loong. Very rich indeed.
Cost: RM1.30
Thereafter, we also "ta pow" one coffee from Nam Heong. I personally prefer Nam Heong coffee as it is not as rich as Sin Yoon Loong.


After that, we headed back to KL and straight away drove to Lebuh Ampang for our porridge at Low You Kei. This is my favourite porridge shop in KL, it is situated somewhere near HSBC Lebuh Ampang. Currently, they have move to in front of Soong Kee Beef Meat Ball and we can sit inside Soong Kee to enjoy the porridge

Nice smooth texture porridge


Raw fish. It was immediately cook when we put these inside our hot porridge
Cost: RM4.00 with porridge


Fried pig intestine
Cost: RM2.00 per plate


Our superb dinner!


What a "full" day for us!