Marathon holiday in HK

Hong Kong as many of us know it, look like this...

 and this

but in our trip, we also explored places like this...

 and this...

And in the midst of the holiday, I was doing this...

Hong Kong Marathon

My 9th marathon. This time it's in Hong Kong on 5 Feb.

Honestly, I was more into the holiday trip rather than the 42km run. Hahahaha!

Running story and pix coming up!

Gasing hills as trail running training ground

Gasing hills are excellent for trail sprints up hills apart from the usual undulating flats. Distance it doesn't have but elevation, yes!

These are 5 hills and these are what I call them.

Temple hill
Water tank hill
"Mother" hill
Cempedak hill
Highway hill

Mix and match and you'll get a lung busting hill training.

3km...2 hills
4km...3 hills
5km...4 hills

Map of Gasing Hills

Yellow paths mark the main trails.

Gasing forest area is fast shrinking. Over the couple of months running inside, I've been witnessing construction of a recreational park taking place. Fences being put up on the usual trails so had to detour and by doing this, discovered less trodden trails.

http://www.starproperty.my/PropertyScene/TheStarOnlineHighlightBox/18143/0/0


On the other side where the condos are, a bigger property development is eating up Gasing green lung. Soon, you'll find bungalows up on Gasing hills with multi millionaires and billionaires. In the map above, it's marked as light green shaded on bottom right.

So better run it while it's still there!

Kitty

Kitty...that's the name for little kitten we found. She has the coat of a tuxedo black & white. Kitty Softpaws, the heroine in Puss in Boots has the same. So we named after her :)

Here's a closer look at Kitty, after 2 weeks in a new home. She's grown a fair bit!

Kitty Softpaws

On 21st November last year, we found an abandoned kitten in the condo toilet beside swimming pool. Poor little kitten has been left there with a feeding bottle as if she can feed herself. Must have been a day or two as the milk had turned sour. We took little kitten back and hand fed her. By her size and with eyes yet to open plus ears not standing up, we guessed she's only around a week plus old...or young as she's very very young.

Her stay with us lasted 3 weeks. Nurturing her, seeing her grow was simply magical. The first few days, waking up every 2-3hrs feeding this little kitten resemble feeding a baby. We fed her powdered full cream milk as a start cos that's the only milk we had. Hoped she won't have diarrhoea and could pull through the very crucial few days. That was the main concern. Luckily she made it. Slept, fed, slept, fed.

Not only that, there's cleaning to be done as well. This little kitten has constant discharge coming out from her eyes. I cleaned her eyes so often till she knows what to do each time I carried her to the bathroom. Stopped crying and stayed still. :)

From crawling to standing (wobbly) and able to do her 4 legged walk, we witnessed them all. Her strength grew each day. How wonderful!

Cute little fella. Melts your heart once she looks at you and goes...mmmmeeeoooowwww!!!

But...we can't keep her. Staying up on 11th floor can be dangerous for cats even if they have 9 lives. Little kitten was starting to climb here & there. Very soon she'll climb up the window. Don't want to see her standing on the window ledge and the next step......wooooooo....

Fortunately, a friend happened to be looking for a kitten to accompany his pet, a teenage cat. Yes! That means we can still visit little kitten once in a while.

Will post pix of little kitten 2 weeks after adoption in the next...post :P

Leading a run on bike

January 2012 has been a no official run for me. Wanted to do long slow distance as part of HK marathon training flopped badly. I only managed 15km as my longest slow distance. So much for a marathon training. Hahaha!

I've to admit being a leading marshal on bike for Multi Purpose Insurance Run was more fun compared to running it. Well, it's a different perspective. The entire 12km was dominated by Kenyans. After the first km, all I saw behind me were 2 Kenyan runners. On flats, 20kmh. Hills, 18kmh. Riding up hills on a MTB was tough to keep up with them, so it's either you stay 100m apporaching a hill or else you'll be left behind like the local elites.

John & me having fun on 2 wheels

Pix courtesy of Tey