I've been promoted effective 1 July 2009. So a great cause for celebration! I don't feel any different although it was great to hear the news a few days back. Work has intensified (if that was possible) and I wonder when can I enjoy a lull period. I am taking a few days off next week so I am looking forward to just escaping from work for a while.
Friday, July 03, 2009
Sunday, June 28, 2009
StanChart KL Marathon 2009
It has been one exhausting Sunday. Grabbed only a few hours of sleep last night, and then had to be up at 4am to take part in the half-marathon for the Stanchart run. This is the first time that Stanchart is holdings its marathon here in KL (it used to be the Ambank KL International Marathon) and I had many good memories from the well-organised Singapore Stanchart run.
There were already some hiccups in the collection of the race pack, where there was a massive queue to collect it on Friday. Problem was aggravated by the rain which seemed to short circuit the server. Organisation of the run was off to a bad start. I collected the pack first thing on Saturday morning and no problems. A little bit disappointed with the race pack, since there was hardly anything in there. Just a bunch of pamphlets. The racing singlet was definitely not as nice as the Singapore one too, with Stanchart going with a white Reebok singlet.
So at the crack of dawn this morning, Dataran Merdeka was crawling with runners. All in all, there were more than 12,000 runners who had signed up for the entire race. My preparation for the half-marathon this time round was pretty much non-existent, with me barely having once a week of running, and most times only around 6-7km. Wasn't going to be good.
Anyway, the run started at 6.15am, and the route was pleasant. Took us all round KL, eventually looping round Berjaya Times Square. That corner where we looped round was my favourite section of the run actually. By that time, I had already hit more than 10km, and the run was going fine. Cleared 9km in my first hour and was feeling alright.
Once I hit the 14km mark though, that is when everything went downhill. The pain in my knees had gotten worse, and it was getting harder and harder to keep running at my pace. That's when the lack of training hit me I guess, muscles and body just not used to the long distance.
Every single water station was like a godsend, giving me time to drink the 100 Plus or water, cool my body down and to walk a little. By the 15 - 17km mark, I was literally just telling myself to clear 1km at a time. It became more of a mental thing, as my body felt like giving up on me. It didn't help that by that time, the route started going uphill and downhill, torture on my knees!
I had my GPS watch to track the distance but I noticed that there were no distance markers for the half-marathon route. It was only set for the marathon runners. I had to off and on break into a walk, especially when going uphill and this was a lot worse than my Singapore run. Gasp.
As I looped back round to the roundabout near Menara Maybank, I could hear the cheering of the crowds near the Dataran Merdeka finishing line. I knew the distance was deceptive as we still had to make a loop up Jalan Raja Laut. So near yet so far. I just had to keep repeating to myself the slogan "Pain is temporary, pride is forever" (saw it at the Singapore run). But I had already repeated that to myself many times during the run, and I just had to force my lead legs to keep moving.
I finally finished with a time of around 2:25 which is decent. Slower than my previous time of 2:15 but alright considering the lack of preparation. The agonising run is also a lesson that I need to train for these longer distance runs.
The organisors did not arrange the layout of the tents very well, and there were no real clear signs. I had to wander around to find the 100 Plus station and then walk again to find the banana counter. People were grabbing the bananas as if they had to feed the whole of Africa! Some were stuffing like 20 bananas into their bag! Come on lah. After having scoffed down 2 bananas, it was then time to collect the finisher medals.
More chaos this time, with no real clear directions as to how to collect your medals. Long snaking queues were building up, and the reason I found out later was because the finisher medals were combined with you collecting your own bags. Those who did not check in the bags should not have to wait in the queue like that. Only sensible to split up the tents to separate places. And there was no system to monitor who were collecting the medals. People were just scribbling their names and numbers down on scrap pieces of paper and then grabbing the medals. Anyone could grab multiple medals if they wish. Again, the sensible thing is that every person should surrender their bib in order to collect the medal.
The list of complaints stretch on endlessly on the Stanchart KL Marathon facebook group. Some of the common complaints were how the water stations for the full marathon were no longer set up after the 20km mark. Can die! And the disorganisation for the 5km run, resulted in no clear markers for the route, and then people running and returning in 10 minutes!
I had an alright time, but the Singapore run is definitely a benchmark on how to organise a good run. It was such a pity to see the marathon runners getting a cheap-looking white cotton t-shirt to state that they were a Finisher of the full marathon.
The day did not end for me though, with no time to rest, it was time to shower at home, and then head straight into the office where I had to work until 8pm. My knees have now given way and they are really hurting. I am actually afraid that I might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning because of the pain.
There were already some hiccups in the collection of the race pack, where there was a massive queue to collect it on Friday. Problem was aggravated by the rain which seemed to short circuit the server. Organisation of the run was off to a bad start. I collected the pack first thing on Saturday morning and no problems. A little bit disappointed with the race pack, since there was hardly anything in there. Just a bunch of pamphlets. The racing singlet was definitely not as nice as the Singapore one too, with Stanchart going with a white Reebok singlet.
So at the crack of dawn this morning, Dataran Merdeka was crawling with runners. All in all, there were more than 12,000 runners who had signed up for the entire race. My preparation for the half-marathon this time round was pretty much non-existent, with me barely having once a week of running, and most times only around 6-7km. Wasn't going to be good.
Anyway, the run started at 6.15am, and the route was pleasant. Took us all round KL, eventually looping round Berjaya Times Square. That corner where we looped round was my favourite section of the run actually. By that time, I had already hit more than 10km, and the run was going fine. Cleared 9km in my first hour and was feeling alright.
Once I hit the 14km mark though, that is when everything went downhill. The pain in my knees had gotten worse, and it was getting harder and harder to keep running at my pace. That's when the lack of training hit me I guess, muscles and body just not used to the long distance.
Every single water station was like a godsend, giving me time to drink the 100 Plus or water, cool my body down and to walk a little. By the 15 - 17km mark, I was literally just telling myself to clear 1km at a time. It became more of a mental thing, as my body felt like giving up on me. It didn't help that by that time, the route started going uphill and downhill, torture on my knees!
I had my GPS watch to track the distance but I noticed that there were no distance markers for the half-marathon route. It was only set for the marathon runners. I had to off and on break into a walk, especially when going uphill and this was a lot worse than my Singapore run. Gasp.
As I looped back round to the roundabout near Menara Maybank, I could hear the cheering of the crowds near the Dataran Merdeka finishing line. I knew the distance was deceptive as we still had to make a loop up Jalan Raja Laut. So near yet so far. I just had to keep repeating to myself the slogan "Pain is temporary, pride is forever" (saw it at the Singapore run). But I had already repeated that to myself many times during the run, and I just had to force my lead legs to keep moving.
I finally finished with a time of around 2:25 which is decent. Slower than my previous time of 2:15 but alright considering the lack of preparation. The agonising run is also a lesson that I need to train for these longer distance runs.
The organisors did not arrange the layout of the tents very well, and there were no real clear signs. I had to wander around to find the 100 Plus station and then walk again to find the banana counter. People were grabbing the bananas as if they had to feed the whole of Africa! Some were stuffing like 20 bananas into their bag! Come on lah. After having scoffed down 2 bananas, it was then time to collect the finisher medals.
More chaos this time, with no real clear directions as to how to collect your medals. Long snaking queues were building up, and the reason I found out later was because the finisher medals were combined with you collecting your own bags. Those who did not check in the bags should not have to wait in the queue like that. Only sensible to split up the tents to separate places. And there was no system to monitor who were collecting the medals. People were just scribbling their names and numbers down on scrap pieces of paper and then grabbing the medals. Anyone could grab multiple medals if they wish. Again, the sensible thing is that every person should surrender their bib in order to collect the medal.
The list of complaints stretch on endlessly on the Stanchart KL Marathon facebook group. Some of the common complaints were how the water stations for the full marathon were no longer set up after the 20km mark. Can die! And the disorganisation for the 5km run, resulted in no clear markers for the route, and then people running and returning in 10 minutes!
I had an alright time, but the Singapore run is definitely a benchmark on how to organise a good run. It was such a pity to see the marathon runners getting a cheap-looking white cotton t-shirt to state that they were a Finisher of the full marathon.
The day did not end for me though, with no time to rest, it was time to shower at home, and then head straight into the office where I had to work until 8pm. My knees have now given way and they are really hurting. I am actually afraid that I might not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning because of the pain.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
The Dragonboat Dinner
We had a season-ending celebratory dinner for the dragon boat team. After a dragon boat season of training hard, travelling to Penang to compete and finishing off with a bang at Putrajaya, the team had an evening of lots of fun and laughs over dinner at Souled Out.
We pretty much automatically lined up in two rows when we sat down for dinner.
It was going to be a real pig-out session and we ordered lots of starters and also mains, and drinks, and jugs of beer. It was a good session of recounting memories of this season, and the funny moments of past years' dragonboat competitions.
It was also time for some prize giving, and the team members signed off on a team picture to give to our (sole) partner who paddled with us. He had really supported the team throughout the season and made everything possible.
There was also a surprise waiting for me and my vice-captain. Aw, one of the team members had crafted a dragon boat and everyone had signed off on the respective positions they sat on the boat. Such a great gift! I want to frame it up.
All of us could not resist paddling on these dragon boats...
Such a fun night to end the season and we can now take a well-deserved break. But it was evident that night how much team spirit had been built up over the course of the last few months, and the core group of seasoned paddlers continues to grow year by year. It's heart-warming to have this group of team-mates.
We pretty much automatically lined up in two rows when we sat down for dinner.
It was going to be a real pig-out session and we ordered lots of starters and also mains, and drinks, and jugs of beer. It was a good session of recounting memories of this season, and the funny moments of past years' dragonboat competitions.
It was also time for some prize giving, and the team members signed off on a team picture to give to our (sole) partner who paddled with us. He had really supported the team throughout the season and made everything possible.
There was also a surprise waiting for me and my vice-captain. Aw, one of the team members had crafted a dragon boat and everyone had signed off on the respective positions they sat on the boat. Such a great gift! I want to frame it up.
All of us could not resist paddling on these dragon boats...
Such a fun night to end the season and we can now take a well-deserved break. But it was evident that night how much team spirit had been built up over the course of the last few months, and the core group of seasoned paddlers continues to grow year by year. It's heart-warming to have this group of team-mates.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Terminator Salvation and the original Terminator revisited
I caught Terminator Salvation quite recently. I didn't go in with much expectations the reviews through word of mouth didn't seem that good. I found it quite good, it did not blow me away, but it was still better than expected. Generated enough interest for me to go and re-watch Terminator 1 and I have Terminator 2: Judgment Day waiting as well. This article will just flesh out some of my thoughts and will of course contain spoilers so don't read the rest of this if you haven't caught Salvation yet.
Rewatching Terminator, one of the first things that struck me was when Kyle Reese appeared back in time and when he was sawing off the shotgun, you can clearly see that he tied the shotgun with a rope and slung it around his arm. I was blown away at this part, since Salvation had that whole scene with Marcus Wright teaching Kyle how to tie that rope round his arm. I am then left wondering why James Cameron showed the rope in the original Terminator. It served no purpose during the movie (not that I could see) and neither did it appear in any of the deleted scenes. It kinda leaves you feeling a bit weird whether there was some time travelling going on.
There are of course the immortal words of Kyle in Terminator 1: "Come with me if you want to live" and this is echoed in Salvation as well when Kyle first meets Marcus. I recall Arnold saying those same words as well in Terminator 2. Will rewatch that movie and check that out.
Having Sarah Connor recording those tapes in Terminator 1 and then having Christian Bale's John Connor listening to those same tapes in Salvation, cool continuity!
OK, but all that started making me think a bit deeper, and for the first time, about the continuity problems of having so many time travelling machines/humans back in time to alter the future, the future in which Skynet constantly seems to exist. This led me to a page that tries to answer all these questions (or at least questions from T1 to T3, it hasn't been rewritten to take into account Salvation yet).
The summary, of which I have understood about 80% so far (need to re-read a few more times, it gets easier the more times you re-read it), makes a lot of sense. I will only set out an extract of the explanation of Terminator 1. The explanations need a lot more re-reading as you progress through the various sequels.
"It was established that there must have been an original history in which no one traveled from the future to the past. That is inherent in the theory of time, that history must reach the point at which a traveler departs before, in a sequential sense, that traveler can arrive in the past. A time traveler cannot help but change history, because he cannot have been part of that history at all until the history has been written once. His presence causes it to be rewritten at least once.
In this original history, Sarah Connor must have had a child. It was not Kyle Reese's child; it might not even have been a boy. All that is certain is that a child was born. It is also certain that someone created something called Skynet, a computer system able to control all of our computerized weapons systems, and that at some point this system became self-aware, and turned against humanity. An unfathomable number of humans died, but Sarah Connor's child survived, and led a resistance of some sort which fought back and prevented Skynet's victory. At some point, however, Skynet decided that it had one good option, to send a machine to the past to destroy Sarah Connor's child. For whatever reason, it determined to do this by destroying Sarah Connor before the child was born. Thus a Terminator was sent back, and history changed completely.
When I say that in this timeline Kyle Reese did not come from the future to protect Sarah Connor, the immediate thought will be that Sarah will die. However, in response to that it is probable that the original terminator was not the T-800 of the first movie, but a much less developed model. The reasons for that are explained in the previous page. Somehow, Sarah Connor managed to escape and give birth to her child. A terminator is relentless, though, and eventually it would have caught up with Sarah Connor and killed her. This must have happened after the child was born. Otherwise, there would have been no child, and Skynet would have had no reason to send the T-800 back, and we would fall into an infinity loop. Because Sarah was killed by the Terminator, Sarah's child would have sent Kyle Reese back to protect her; there is no good reason to have sent someone back to protect Sarah Connor if Sarah Connor survived (something already known from that moment in the future which immediately follows the departure of the Terminator), so Sarah must have been killed. This arrival of Kyle Reese in the past is the second time history changes completely, the third version of time.
The situation is severely muddied by the return of Kyle Reese, and this could have derailed history completely. Kyle tells Sarah much about the future; he also displaces the original father of Sarah's child, fathering the John Connor familiar to us. This sets up an escalating cycle, because Sarah will prepare John in ways she would not have done in previous histories. At the same time, working together Kyle and Sarah destroy the T-800 and leave its parts inside the factory of Cyberdyne Systems. This means that Cyberdyne is now examining the parts of the destroyed machine, and developing computer hardware unknown in previous histories.
It is at this point that Skynet becomes a product of Cyberdyne Systems."
Phew.
Rewatching Terminator, one of the first things that struck me was when Kyle Reese appeared back in time and when he was sawing off the shotgun, you can clearly see that he tied the shotgun with a rope and slung it around his arm. I was blown away at this part, since Salvation had that whole scene with Marcus Wright teaching Kyle how to tie that rope round his arm. I am then left wondering why James Cameron showed the rope in the original Terminator. It served no purpose during the movie (not that I could see) and neither did it appear in any of the deleted scenes. It kinda leaves you feeling a bit weird whether there was some time travelling going on.
There are of course the immortal words of Kyle in Terminator 1: "Come with me if you want to live" and this is echoed in Salvation as well when Kyle first meets Marcus. I recall Arnold saying those same words as well in Terminator 2. Will rewatch that movie and check that out.
Having Sarah Connor recording those tapes in Terminator 1 and then having Christian Bale's John Connor listening to those same tapes in Salvation, cool continuity!
OK, but all that started making me think a bit deeper, and for the first time, about the continuity problems of having so many time travelling machines/humans back in time to alter the future, the future in which Skynet constantly seems to exist. This led me to a page that tries to answer all these questions (or at least questions from T1 to T3, it hasn't been rewritten to take into account Salvation yet).
The summary, of which I have understood about 80% so far (need to re-read a few more times, it gets easier the more times you re-read it), makes a lot of sense. I will only set out an extract of the explanation of Terminator 1. The explanations need a lot more re-reading as you progress through the various sequels.
"It was established that there must have been an original history in which no one traveled from the future to the past. That is inherent in the theory of time, that history must reach the point at which a traveler departs before, in a sequential sense, that traveler can arrive in the past. A time traveler cannot help but change history, because he cannot have been part of that history at all until the history has been written once. His presence causes it to be rewritten at least once.
In this original history, Sarah Connor must have had a child. It was not Kyle Reese's child; it might not even have been a boy. All that is certain is that a child was born. It is also certain that someone created something called Skynet, a computer system able to control all of our computerized weapons systems, and that at some point this system became self-aware, and turned against humanity. An unfathomable number of humans died, but Sarah Connor's child survived, and led a resistance of some sort which fought back and prevented Skynet's victory. At some point, however, Skynet decided that it had one good option, to send a machine to the past to destroy Sarah Connor's child. For whatever reason, it determined to do this by destroying Sarah Connor before the child was born. Thus a Terminator was sent back, and history changed completely.
When I say that in this timeline Kyle Reese did not come from the future to protect Sarah Connor, the immediate thought will be that Sarah will die. However, in response to that it is probable that the original terminator was not the T-800 of the first movie, but a much less developed model. The reasons for that are explained in the previous page. Somehow, Sarah Connor managed to escape and give birth to her child. A terminator is relentless, though, and eventually it would have caught up with Sarah Connor and killed her. This must have happened after the child was born. Otherwise, there would have been no child, and Skynet would have had no reason to send the T-800 back, and we would fall into an infinity loop. Because Sarah was killed by the Terminator, Sarah's child would have sent Kyle Reese back to protect her; there is no good reason to have sent someone back to protect Sarah Connor if Sarah Connor survived (something already known from that moment in the future which immediately follows the departure of the Terminator), so Sarah must have been killed. This arrival of Kyle Reese in the past is the second time history changes completely, the third version of time.
The situation is severely muddied by the return of Kyle Reese, and this could have derailed history completely. Kyle tells Sarah much about the future; he also displaces the original father of Sarah's child, fathering the John Connor familiar to us. This sets up an escalating cycle, because Sarah will prepare John in ways she would not have done in previous histories. At the same time, working together Kyle and Sarah destroy the T-800 and leave its parts inside the factory of Cyberdyne Systems. This means that Cyberdyne is now examining the parts of the destroyed machine, and developing computer hardware unknown in previous histories.
It is at this point that Skynet becomes a product of Cyberdyne Systems."
Phew.
Continue reading: "Terminator Salvation and the original Terminator revisited"
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Raining Tear Gas Outside the Office
Damansara Heights would be the last place I would imagine a street protest to occur. At about 5.30pm today, I could hear some sort of chanting from the street below. I peered outside the window and I could see a bad jam on the main road. I then saw about a hundred people walking along Jalan Dungun, with most of them dressed in green. Some of them were holding signs up, and they looked a lot like students. I was wondering whether HELP was organising something or whether there was some protest by the HELP students.
I saw the Federal Reserve Unit (think Riot Squad) appearing along the street, carrying their riot shields. I did what any reasonable person would do in the face of the riot police appearing at your office door step, I immediately took the lift straight down to check out what the commotion was about.
By the time I got down, the main crowd seemed to have dispersed and they were much further down the street. I of course pursue the crowd, still trying to figure out what the protest was about.
Soon it became clear that this was a protest against the results of the Iranian election and the protestors were Iranians. I could see the images of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being held up by the protestors, and with slogans like 'Where is my vote?'
I see more commotion down the road, so I head on down, not too perturbed by the smoke I see billowing down the street. I then see the FRU officers firing tear gas into the air and firing it towards the protestors.
That was my cue to follow the crowd and start running back to the office. I catch a whiff of the tear gas and my nose already starts to run a bit and my eyes start to water. Everyone on the street is running in all directions now and the protest quickly disperses. Not sure if any arrests were made. I later find out that the protest was at the United Nations building just across the road. From the news reports, there are apparently more protests being planned.
I saw the Federal Reserve Unit (think Riot Squad) appearing along the street, carrying their riot shields. I did what any reasonable person would do in the face of the riot police appearing at your office door step, I immediately took the lift straight down to check out what the commotion was about.
By the time I got down, the main crowd seemed to have dispersed and they were much further down the street. I of course pursue the crowd, still trying to figure out what the protest was about.
Soon it became clear that this was a protest against the results of the Iranian election and the protestors were Iranians. I could see the images of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being held up by the protestors, and with slogans like 'Where is my vote?'
I see more commotion down the road, so I head on down, not too perturbed by the smoke I see billowing down the street. I then see the FRU officers firing tear gas into the air and firing it towards the protestors.
That was my cue to follow the crowd and start running back to the office. I catch a whiff of the tear gas and my nose already starts to run a bit and my eyes start to water. Everyone on the street is running in all directions now and the protest quickly disperses. Not sure if any arrests were made. I later find out that the protest was at the United Nations building just across the road. From the news reports, there are apparently more protests being planned.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Sick Again
I have fallen ill again. I used to be so proud of my long streak of not falling ill, but seems like my immunity system isn't what it used to be. Now down with a bit of suspected stomach flu. Yesterday evening and night wasn't comfortable, with me fighting off the waves of nausea as well as trying to get my fever down. Most of the night was spent tossing and turning in bed with fevered dreams. I was already expecting the nightmares to come (which usually occurs when I have a fever) and the nightmares centred round this trial I am preparing for. I saw page after page, flip through my mind, and I saw the various names of the parties fighting in this trial, and the corporate structure of the various related companies. I think I have just been working a bit too hard.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Coming soon: Charity Nite 2009
A storm is coming! Charity Nite 2009 organised by the KL Bar Young Lawyers Committee. Social event of the year (among KL lawyers anyway) and your chance to do your part for charity.
This year's Charity Nite will feature the Legally Talented competition, with the KL lawyers showcasing their talents. Both America and Britain 'got' talent, and so does the KL Bar!
So mark your diaries, the Charity Nite will be at Modestos @ CapSquare on Friday 4 July 2009. The auditions for Legally Talented are on this Saturday 13 June, at the KL Bar Auditorium.
This year's Charity Nite will feature the Legally Talented competition, with the KL lawyers showcasing their talents. Both America and Britain 'got' talent, and so does the KL Bar!
So mark your diaries, the Charity Nite will be at Modestos @ CapSquare on Friday 4 July 2009. The auditions for Legally Talented are on this Saturday 13 June, at the KL Bar Auditorium.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
1st Putrajaya International Dragon Boat Festival
The firm's dragon boat team took part in the 1st ever Putrajaya International Dragon Boat Festival staged at Precinct 6 of Putrajaya, at the Water Sports Complex. We were involved in the Malaysia Corporate races, spread across Friday to Sunday.
We headed down to the Putrajaya Water Sports Complex on Friday afternoon, right after lunch, and as we arrived, we saw the many tents set up at the Team Village. The grandstand was also filled with spectators already and the marshalling area was buzzing with paddlers.
There were going to be over 50 teams, the majority of them being local teams, and there were foreign teams from over 8 countries as well. It was exciting to see so many new local teams taking part as well. Good to spur on the sport of dragon boating in Kuala Lumpur. Our first race on Friday was the Corporate Mixed 22-crew event (no pictures of the race though) where the team performed very well. We came in 3rd place, and with our best time ever.
On Saturday evening, we arrived for the Corporate Men 12-crew event and it was a tough race and we placed 5th, but at least we beat one boat. The other boats in the finals were way ahead of us though.
The men in action
Right after the Men's race, but all of us with smiles
We then stayed back for the prize giving ceremony at the grandstand as well.
It was time to quickly head home to rest, as we had two of our final races the next morning on Sunday. We were back at our base tent to warm up and stretch for our final two races, where we would also be getting supporters heading down to cheer us on.
It was then time for the women to start to load up on the boat for the Corporate Women 12-crew finals.
Scenes at the docking platform
The women's boat about to set off
I was steering on all the boats, so was on the women's boat as well. We'd have to paddle about 500 metres out to get to the starting pontoon where the boats will be aligned with the drummer holding on to a starting buoy to align the front of the boats. The usual shouts of "Boats, are you ready?" followed by "Attention!" (all our paddles will be raised) and then "Go!" and the paddles are driven through the water.
A number of the boats taking part in the Women's race were first-time teams but they did brilliantly. Good technique and good fitness, these boats very quickly surged into the lead and never looked back.
Our boat is the one furthest away, and all the boats are battling
In the end, the Women's boat was in 5th place, very narrowly edged out by 1 second for a 4th placing. But the crew maintained the synchronisation and kept fighting to the end.
Team Corezone-BUFF had just edged us, so good job to them. A plug to their website as well as Corezone stocks a lot of interesting adventure-related gear as well as some kayaking products that can be used for dragon boating.
With barely any time to catch their breaths, the women would soon be back in action, pairing up with the men this time to take part in the Corporate Mixed 12-crew finals. Each boat would require a minimum of 4 women out of the 10 paddlers. We just had to wait for our turn to board the boats.
We divided our team into two boats, a Team A and a Team B and this was going to be a full 6-boat finals. I was steering on Team A and we were in Lane 1, the closest to the spectators. After the word "Go!" the crew started paddling with all their might, and I was already expecting the other boats to pull away very quickly. After about 100m and even 200m, as I glanced out of the corner of my eye, I could see that no boats were really way ahead of us. We were all still neck to neck. I just kept looking straight, making small adjustments to the boat and kept shouting to the crew to keep time as well as to call out our Power-5 sequence.
As we approached the spectators and the grand stand, I could hear the cheering from the crowd as they were so near. I kept urging the boat on.
I could see some of the other boats pulling away, but I also knew there were boats behind us. This was going to be a close fight for third position I thought, but in the last 100m, I could see some of the other boats pulling away but I kept shouting out to the crew to keep them charging on. Our boat ended up in 4th place, while Team B was in 5th but that was a great race. We knew that we had done the best that we could and it left us satisfied and hungry for more the next year.
While the race left all of us ecstatic, it also left some of us shattered from the exertion.
With the conclusion of this competition, that marks the end of this year's dragon boat season. This leaves me with dragon boat withdrawal symptoms. No more early Friday nights in, and having to wake up early on a Saturday morning to make the trek to Putrajaya. I am already planning out in my head the possible training regimes for next year's competitions. It is difficult to want to push the team to be very competitive and yet make it fun. With everyone working so hard, it is difficult to get people to commit to many practices as well as any additional physical training. Will have to strike a balance for next year.
Well I'll look back at the 2009 season with a lot of pride at seeing how far the team has progressed. Seeing the same paddlers return and then benefiting from the experience and stroke technique, and seeing the newcomers jump into the sport enthusiastically, all the camaraderie built up over the last few months, all of that is very heart warming. On to greater heights for next year's dragon boat season!
We headed down to the Putrajaya Water Sports Complex on Friday afternoon, right after lunch, and as we arrived, we saw the many tents set up at the Team Village. The grandstand was also filled with spectators already and the marshalling area was buzzing with paddlers.
There were going to be over 50 teams, the majority of them being local teams, and there were foreign teams from over 8 countries as well. It was exciting to see so many new local teams taking part as well. Good to spur on the sport of dragon boating in Kuala Lumpur. Our first race on Friday was the Corporate Mixed 22-crew event (no pictures of the race though) where the team performed very well. We came in 3rd place, and with our best time ever.
On Saturday evening, we arrived for the Corporate Men 12-crew event and it was a tough race and we placed 5th, but at least we beat one boat. The other boats in the finals were way ahead of us though.
The men in action
Right after the Men's race, but all of us with smiles
We then stayed back for the prize giving ceremony at the grandstand as well.
It was time to quickly head home to rest, as we had two of our final races the next morning on Sunday. We were back at our base tent to warm up and stretch for our final two races, where we would also be getting supporters heading down to cheer us on.
It was then time for the women to start to load up on the boat for the Corporate Women 12-crew finals.
Scenes at the docking platform
The women's boat about to set off
I was steering on all the boats, so was on the women's boat as well. We'd have to paddle about 500 metres out to get to the starting pontoon where the boats will be aligned with the drummer holding on to a starting buoy to align the front of the boats. The usual shouts of "Boats, are you ready?" followed by "Attention!" (all our paddles will be raised) and then "Go!" and the paddles are driven through the water.
A number of the boats taking part in the Women's race were first-time teams but they did brilliantly. Good technique and good fitness, these boats very quickly surged into the lead and never looked back.
Our boat is the one furthest away, and all the boats are battling
In the end, the Women's boat was in 5th place, very narrowly edged out by 1 second for a 4th placing. But the crew maintained the synchronisation and kept fighting to the end.
Team Corezone-BUFF had just edged us, so good job to them. A plug to their website as well as Corezone stocks a lot of interesting adventure-related gear as well as some kayaking products that can be used for dragon boating.
With barely any time to catch their breaths, the women would soon be back in action, pairing up with the men this time to take part in the Corporate Mixed 12-crew finals. Each boat would require a minimum of 4 women out of the 10 paddlers. We just had to wait for our turn to board the boats.
We divided our team into two boats, a Team A and a Team B and this was going to be a full 6-boat finals. I was steering on Team A and we were in Lane 1, the closest to the spectators. After the word "Go!" the crew started paddling with all their might, and I was already expecting the other boats to pull away very quickly. After about 100m and even 200m, as I glanced out of the corner of my eye, I could see that no boats were really way ahead of us. We were all still neck to neck. I just kept looking straight, making small adjustments to the boat and kept shouting to the crew to keep time as well as to call out our Power-5 sequence.
As we approached the spectators and the grand stand, I could hear the cheering from the crowd as they were so near. I kept urging the boat on.
I could see some of the other boats pulling away, but I also knew there were boats behind us. This was going to be a close fight for third position I thought, but in the last 100m, I could see some of the other boats pulling away but I kept shouting out to the crew to keep them charging on. Our boat ended up in 4th place, while Team B was in 5th but that was a great race. We knew that we had done the best that we could and it left us satisfied and hungry for more the next year.
While the race left all of us ecstatic, it also left some of us shattered from the exertion.
With the conclusion of this competition, that marks the end of this year's dragon boat season. This leaves me with dragon boat withdrawal symptoms. No more early Friday nights in, and having to wake up early on a Saturday morning to make the trek to Putrajaya. I am already planning out in my head the possible training regimes for next year's competitions. It is difficult to want to push the team to be very competitive and yet make it fun. With everyone working so hard, it is difficult to get people to commit to many practices as well as any additional physical training. Will have to strike a balance for next year.
Well I'll look back at the 2009 season with a lot of pride at seeing how far the team has progressed. Seeing the same paddlers return and then benefiting from the experience and stroke technique, and seeing the newcomers jump into the sport enthusiastically, all the camaraderie built up over the last few months, all of that is very heart warming. On to greater heights for next year's dragon boat season!
Continue reading: "1st Putrajaya International Dragon Boat Festival"
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