Kuching Marathon Association

 

Kuching Marathon

KMA set to organize a Full Marathon in 2014

The long wait will finally be over

Yours truly was invited to a press conference by the Kuching Marathon Association today.  Suffice to say I was very excited at finding out the latest news on the possibility of an even longer run in Kuching.  The President of KMA, Mr Wong Chen Yi, announced that they are set to organize in the second half of 2014 a full marathon, the first for such an event in recent years.  It was unanimously decided in the Executive Committee Meeting of KMA held earlier this morning that the full marathon event by the name of "Kuching Marathon 2014" will also offer 21km, 10km and 5km categories.  In preparation for the this full marathon, Mr Philip Chua, KMA's Vice President has been appointed as Event Director of Kuching Marathon 2014 to head the organizing committee which will be set-up next month.  Mr Liew Tang Chieh, KMA's Secretary is the Deputy Event Director.  KMA will make an announcement to the general public regarding the details of the event including registration of the run and other administrative details soon.

More about KMA

Kuching Marathon Association (KMA) was approved by the Sports Commissioner of Sarawak under the Sports Development Act 1997 recently.  To date, this is the only sport body for running and marathon at divisional level established in Sarawak.  The main objectives of KMA, among others, are to act as the representative sport body of running and marathon at the divisional level of Kuching, to create awareness of the importance of rules and laws on the sport of marathon and running, to organize or assist in the organizing and hosting for such competitive sports, and to promote the development of the sport at the grassroots level through the establishment and acceptance of sport clubs as affiliate member.  KMA also hopes to act as a consultative body on all matters relating to sport and activities of running and marathon in the division of Kuching.

Mr Wong said that the setting up of this association is timely in view of the growing population of runners in Kuching as evident by the various running events held recently.  KMA will thus provide a platform to gather and pool the strength and resources of everyone towards building up a society of healthier life quality through running activities which is one of the simplest and convenient ways to exercise.  He further commented that the Executive Committee of KMA which consists of a pool of talents and volunteers from various sectors are very much well prepared and committed to contribute to the development of the sport of running and marathon for the community of Kuching City and its vicinity.

L-R: Philip Chua, Wong Chen YI, Jackie Chong and Liew Tang Chieh

My thoughts

It's about time! After the massive success of Spring Live Active Run 2013, I was so hoping for someone to come up with an even more challenging run.  42.195 km is the ultimate dream of the long distance runner.  Yours truly has already experienced it, and will continue to experience it, as I have signed up for several more FMs.  The fact that the joy of full marathon running will be coming to my hometown of Kuching makes running an FM here even more special.  I am sure many of my running buddies feel the same way to and will be counting the months, weeks and days before the big event happens.  What I do hope though is that this will be above all a fun running experience for everyone.  What better way to introduce the joys of running to our people then to showcase that runners actually are friendly and happy people.

Thank you KMA for finally making the move that will put Kuching on the running map in Malaysia.  We all know the Kenyans will be coming.  What would make it even more special is that our neighbours would come too.  Runners from Southeast Asia will now have another FM to put on their running calendar.  There will also be many more Sarawakian-born full marathoners.  Hopefully this will spur our local runners to even greater heights.  I can tell you now I am so looking forward to KMA's next press conference and also the launch of their official website.  Who would have thought last year when I started out on my running journey that there would be such a snowball effect in running in Kuching.  Am so glad I could bring this piece of good news to my fellow runners faster than the press.  So for future updates on what KMA are doing do check my blog from time to time.

L-R: Wong, TC Liew and Chua after the Spring Live Active Run

 

Newsflash!

The Kuching Marathon 2014 website is online!  Yes it does say coming soon, but hey, now we know it is coming! So sometime in the later half of 2014 there will be, fingers crossed, a full marathon in Kuching.  For those who want to follow up to date news do please visit Kuching Marathon's official FB page at www.facebook.com/KuchingMarathonAssociation. That's all from me for now folks. Happy running always!

 

Yoga Poses for Runners

Alvin Heng in action during the Yogathon

After the Yogathon

Basic Yoga Stretching

How do we begin?

Truth be told we shouldn't have a Yogathon to remind us how useful stretching is in everyday life.  For the runner it is imperative that there is stretching involved before and after a run.  It is not enough to walk slow and then start to run on the road or on the treadmill.  Before we begin to even walk we must stretch to warm our muscles up.  Yours truly has seen many a would-be runner on the treadmill go from zero to 10kph without any sort of warm-up at all.  That is the joy of being young and having legs that can go at the drop of a running cap.  However what it does is open up a host of chances for getting injured.  If running is truly your joy you definitely do not want to be on the sidelines too long watching your friends racing each other.  Also once our legs start getting injured there is a big chance of them getting injured again.

I am not saying that yoga is the only way to stretch.  There are various stretching methods commonly in use.  These have be honed throughout the years explicitly for the athlete.  Yoga is more of a lifestyle workout of body and mind.  It emphasizes many things, and is just not about the poses.  Breathing plays a very important part too.  By nature I am a very tense person.  Yoga helps me relax even if I have trouble touching my toes.  That blame lies in my belly that keeps that joy from happening just yet.  Whenever I do yoga I employ blocks to help me keep in contact with the ground.  Trust me if I didn't, the one making the loudest noise in yoga class will be me, and it won't be of the "oops!" variety.  Knowing what I know now, how I wish I had started yoga earlier in life.  What I do try to do nowadays is catch a yoga class whenever it doesn't conflict with my training schedule.  Sadly this doesn't happen a lot.

To begin the yoga stretches for runners it is best to do a basic warm-up.  This is where those Sun Salutations from the Yogathon come in.  If you refer to that post of mine you will see my friend Alvin Heng doing the complete Sun Salutation "A" for the camera.  It is broken down into 12 moves so that everyone can easily follow it.  Suffice to say these are basic yoga moves, but for the beginner it is a good way to start.  Then maybe later they can get into Sun Salutation "B" which is a bit tougher.  Now that the muscles are warm and the blood is flowing we are ready for some runner-friendly yoga poses!

The Five Yoga Poses

1. Pigeon Pose. 

What this pose does is stretches the thighs, groins, abdomen, chest, shoulders and neck. It's a great yoga pose to open the hips and improve flexibility. 

Yikru Ng, my yoga instructor, executing the Pigeon Pose

The Extended Pigeon Pose

For those who are flexible enough, they can walk their hands slowly into the Extended Pigeon Pose, which offers an even better stretch.  Please note that you need to keep your hips as square as possible.  If you hips a tendency to one side use a yoga block or a towel to cushion and align the hips.  It is best to hold this pose for two minutes.

2. Downward Facing Dog.

What this pose does is it helps with tight leg muscles, especially in the calves, while also strengthening the arms. Downward facing dog is also therapeutic for flat feet.

The Downward Facing Dog

It is important to spread your fingers wide to distribute the weight.  Yikru calls them gecko hands.  Your feet must be slightly pointed inwards. Also keep them hip width apart.  Try your best to keep the whole of your heels down to the floor.

3. Extended Triangle Pose. 

What the Triangle pose does is it stretches the sides of the body and hamstrings and helps improve digestion and relieve back pain.

Extended Triangle Pose

Use your index and middle finger to grab hold of your big toe and step on it to use that as resistance when your stretch into the pose.  Spread your hands and lift up so your energy should be going upwards and try to get your shoulders stacked over each other so your chest is open to the side.

4. Forward Fold.

What the Forward Fold does is it helps stretch out the hamstrings, calves and hips, improves digestion, reduces fatigue and is said to be beneficial for those with asthma.

Forward Fold

 For those who cannot touch the ground yoga blocks can be used.

5. Chair Pose.  

The chair pose is a bit difficult. It helps build the core, glutes, legs and arms and strengthens the ankles and spine.

Chair Pose

To hold the Chair Pose make sure your feet are flat on the ground.  Your hips must be lowered as low as you can.  Try to round your tailbone to the floor.  Which is to say your butt does stick out.  Palms must be together, shoulders relaxed and reach upwards.  The thighs must also be squeezed together.

After the run

Recovery

Let's be honest, running can take a toll on our body. Whether we're training for our fifth marathon or just starting with the sport, recovery is imperative in order to improve our running performance.  Running focuses on specific muscle groups and in order to restore balance, cross training, like I mentioned in my RPM post, is important. How do we recover after a very long run? We can soak our feet in ice.  We can wear compression socks that have been specially made for recovery.  We can take a whole host of foods.  I like taking Vitamin C and ingesting protein shakes.  It all depends on what works for you best.  It is one of those trial and error things.  Yoga also can be used as part of that recovery process.  The moves shown above look simple enough but does need proper training to be done right.  If you want to do them it is best to contact a qualified yoga instructor to get them done correctly.

Many thanks to Yikru Ng, my yoga instructor at Level Up Fitness gym,  for taking timeout to pose for this moves for me.  Hopefully in the future we can come up with even more yoga moves that may help runners to recover and run better and faster and avoid injuries.  It's been a blast learning new things through yoga about my bodies' capabilities.  All I need now is to find a way to get rid of that pesky tummy of mine that gets in the way of many a yoga move.  The loud thump heard in class is usually me.  Please don't laugh if you hear me say, "I'm stuck!" Namaste!  

RPM

A typical RPM workout session

 

Raw Power in Motion (RPM)

Cycling up a storm on an indoor stationary bicycle

What is it all about?

RPM is the indoor cycling workout where you ride to the rhythm of powerful music. Take on the terrain with your inspiring instructor who leads the pack through hills, flats, mountain peaks, time trials, and interval training.  That's how we discover our athlete within - sweat and burn to reach our endorphin high. To keep things exciting a new RPM class is released every three months with new music and choreography.  All the instructors at Level Up Fitness gym where I train are qualified instructors from the Les Mills program.  Before I discovered the joys of running I used to cycle a lot when I studied in San Francisco.  The hills there can be really challenging.  When I got back to Kuching I hardly cycled anymore.  The RPM classes were kind of nostalgic for me, especially the hill climbs, where we had to stand up and cycle away in higher gears to simulate the inclines.  However when running came along I kind of pushed RPM to the sidelines.

A typical RPM class burned the desired amount of calories for someone like me.  Of course nowadays if I run at a faster pace I can burn lots more.  However the great thing about RPM is that I reduce the pounding action on my legs.  Plus different leg muscles come into play.  Believe it or not I find this sort of cross-training helps me run faster!  So for anyone tired of the endless runs to nowhere on the treadmill, they can shift to the endless pedaling to nowhere.  Trust me with the catchy music that we are encouraged to sing along too, it will breathe new life into any training programme.  The worst thing that can happen is that we get bored of doing the same old thing over and over again.  Hence I emphasis the need for road runs.  Acting like a gerbil all the time has its benefits for someone like me who has trouble pacing himself.  However putting in road and even track runs is a must.  Tempo runs and sprint work of the Yasso 800 variety has its merits, but also have a host of critics.

How I got back into the fold

Yours truly had frozen his membership because of too many runs.  When they announced the Push the Tempo challenge for RPM in May I was still imitating a Popsicle.  As luck would have it another prize would be awarded to anyone who managed to accumulate the highest points from the 16th May onwards.  Of course it had to be a cycling jersey.  Am a self-confessed sucker for running tops, finisher t-shirts and any kind of jerseys.  Since I missed out on two classes I knew I had to attend every single RPM class for the next two weeks to stand a chance of winning the jersey.  Sometimes that meant as many as two RPM classes in a day! Sometimes getting to the gym on time can itself be a challenge.  However I used the same determination from my runs to get the job done.  Suffice to say from Day One it worked like a charm.

RPM instructor Orly Zapatos and me on Day One

Thanks to RPM instructors Orly Zapatos, Corina Yong, Mary Anne E. Hendroff, Ryan Tay and Kenny Sia, for keeping me motivated throughout those two weeks.  I even managed to squeeze in a bit of treadmill work in between, but the most was half an hour. As the days went on I was burning more and more calories.  That was a sure fire way to bring my weight down.  When I stopped doing the classes and concentrated on my runs leading into Spring Live Active Run I surprisingly felt refreshed.  On the Thursday before the run I weighed in at 91kg!  That's the lightest I have ever been for such a long time.  Of course I would gain it back again after my back to back adventures on the road and in the mountains, but that's unfortunately how I operate.  All I can say is that the feeling to be light again is simply awesome.  I want  more of that and I know I have to work hard at keeping the fat away.

What I got for my efforts

Yes I admit for starters I was in it to win the jersey.  But as things went on my joy for cycling returned.  I do own a mountain bike.  It's covered in dust and both tyres are deflated.  There will come a time when I must give it a go again.  Just for fun though.  No duathlons or cycling events for me.  Am only concentrating on one thing: running.  If I wanted to be a triathlete I would sprout fins.  That's the only way for me to swim 4.8km in the ocean.  I am trying to imagine swimming lap after lap in a puny swimming pool to achieve that.  Then again aren't I doing nearly the same thing with my treadmill runs?  A dear friend of mine says treadmill running is so boring for her.  I understand why.  Yet I must look at the big picture.  It's more practical for me then running on weekdays with cars around me and all that exhaust smoke.  At night it gets too dangerous.  I could get hit, and nearly have a couple of times by bikes, even though am running against the flow of traffic.

Lets not lose track on what this is all about: RPM. I made many new friends in the process.  There was Kevin Hirst who when I was there didn't miss any RPM class.  Then there was Venessa Signal who was nearly always there.  From the get-go everyone knew Kevin was the man to beat.  He had worn out cycling shorts in the process! I didn't wear any.  Mine was hanging on a hook behind my bedroom closet door! Don't think it does much for me.  Guess am immune to that saddle now.  I clearly remember when RPM was first introduced when one of the members said a most private part of hers was on fire.  She didn't seem to care if everyone heard her words.  So I guess it must have been that bad!  The body adapts to all sorts of punishment thrown at it.  Over time I got used to that saddle.  In my younger days I did always use bike shorts though.

Vanessa Signal and Kevin Hirst

As expected Kevin took top honours. Vanessa finished second.  Both got an additional hamper for being the top male and female winners.  Carol Lim finished third.  And yes yours truly did get his cycling jersey for being the top performer in the second half of May. And yes I was the first one to wear mine on RPM Relaunch Day. What's more I got me a tiny hamper too!

Me winning my prize!

Carol coming in third

Vanessa with all her prizes!

Kevin with all his winnings!

The four cycling jersey winners...

That's what we all won amid the other goodies

Kevin won an extra t-shirt from the sponsors!

RPM Relaunch

Unleashing the superhero in all of us

The Joker, Invisible Girl and Spidey

Every three months or so the Les Mills program gets a Relaunch.  Lucky for us we had a double or should I say triple treat during the RPM Relaunch.  Apart from getting our Push the Tempo prizes, we also quickly learned the latest edition to the RPM class.  On top of that the theme was Superheroes! As expected our instructors came dressed as superheroes and even a super-villain.  The class was led by Mary Anne (Invisible Girl - luckily we still managed to see her!) and Ryan (Peter Parker forgot his mask!).  Then along came The Joker (Kenny) to aim his gun at all of us.  How I wished it squirted out Gatorade! Those classes are always fun and everyone wants to attend them.  Nothing beats the energy from RPMing in a class full of like-minded people working out.  I think I must have burned even extra calories!

Me trying to steal some of their super powers!

All those who participated in the Relaunch

What it did for me...

Two weeks of RPMing. Not missing a single RPM class. Then back to two weeks of treadmill action and road runs.  What did I achieve from all this? Only knocked nearly half an hour off my 21km PB at Spring Live Active Run! That's why I am sharing this with all of you. It could be my body needed a change. It could be because different legs muscles came into play.  It could be because I rested my feet. It could be because of a host of other things I don't even know about.  What am sure about though is this type of cross-training helped me a lot on race day.  Maybe you too can find something that works for you to help improve your runs.  We all after all do nearly the same thing.  Some of us like to climb. I do that at least once a month.  Others like to swim or do yoga.  Get different muscle groups into play.  That I think is the key.  Your muscles will thank you for it.

Yogathon

 

A Yoga Marathon

108 Rounds of Surya Namaskar (or Sun Salutations)

A Stretching Good Time

Don't worry if you have not heard about the Yogathon.  It did not just sneak up on the running calendar suddenly. This is in fact a sort of yoga marathon.  Doing 108 rounds of Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations is truly a sweaty business for someone like me.  My yoga mat was nearly drowned in my sweat.  A total of 197 people took part in this Yogathon held at the Kompleks Belia dan Sukan Negeri Sarawak this morning.  The event was organised by The Art of Living.  Being a person who runs a lot I always found that yoga is really good for stretching my legs.  It's one thing to go to a masseuse, it's another thing to find a really good one.  Nowadays it's like playing Russian Roulette.  Trust me I have had my fair share of nightmare massages.  I remember trying foot reflexology after my Island Ocean Marathon.   It hurt so bad that I was virtually howling.  The young man doing the massage only smiled but am sure deep inside he was laughing at me.  Come to think of it I did laugh at myself later.

At the gym I do do yoga whenever I can, preferring the shorter 60-minute classes to the longer 90-minute one.  Our gym has an experienced yoga instructor.  It would be foolish of me to not attend her classes.  Of course most of my time at the gym is spent on the treadmill doing all sorts of running drills.  This has helped me greatly in increasing my running speed.  Just this week I ran 10km in 1:02:48.  That was in fact my fastest time for that distance ever! So even after the Spring Live Active Run my training is paying big dividends.  The new Asics Gel Kayano 19 I bought works like a dream cushioning my feet.  My toes and the soles of my feet would be thanking me if they could.  I guess they are thanking me by helping me run faster! So when I heard about this Yogathon I thought I will give it a go as it might benefit my running even more.

Sun Salutation "A"

I would be the wrong person to demo how to do Surya Namaskar.  What I did was rope in my friend Alvin Heng from YogaRegion to give a step by step demo on how it is done.  Remember when you look at the pics, we did this 108 times! Actually it was 54 times on the left side and 54 times on the right side.  If you think it is easy, it is not! However let it be known that people who practice yoga are a tough lot.  There was an uncle who is in his late seventies who demonstrated incredible flexibility.  One of the instructors on stage was not a spring chicken either, and he had only picked up yoga three years ago.  Such is the pull of yoga to our older citizens.  That just goes to show that yoga can be done by everyone.  As seen by the response to the Yogathon, many people in Kuching do practice yoga.  It was also nice to see so many complete all 108 rounds!

Standing in Tadasana

Namaste or Prayer Pose

 

Rise your arms to a back bend

 

Lower to Forward Fold

Shoot your right leg back to a High Lunge

Shoot your other leg back to a Plank

From an Extended Child Pose, slid forward...

...into Cobra

Push back up in Downward Facing Dog

Right leg back to the front

Bring left leg back to the front with a straight back

Fold into Forward Fold

Rise back up into the sky

Namaste

That in a nutshell is how Sun Salutation "A" is done.  However this is only for the right side.  For the left side the left will be pushed back in the beginning.  In the Yogathon the process is repeated from right to left until the 108 rounds are achieved.  Of course for this demo Alvin gave us his own version of how the Surya Namaskar is done.  Other instructors have their own variation too.  It's up to you which variation you prefer.  The end goal is still the same.

Alvin and I after the demo

Gym buddies and running friends...

The best part about this Yogathon is that it brought together people from all walks of life.  Reuben Su, my running buddy, joined me.  He arrived late after doing his long run (16km) early in the morning, but we had prepared his mat for him.  I had run yesterday and plan to run again this evening.  Then there was my MBF and all our buddies from the gym, and also our very own yoga instructor, Yikru Ng.  Even a couple of trainers from Level Up Fitness, that's the name of my gym, participated.  One of them is an aspiring long distance runner who took part in the SLAR 21km.  Below are pictures of some of our gang...

(L-R) Karen Than, Micolle Chiam, Cynthia, KC Chai and Bernard Lee

(L-R) Royston Tan, Alvin Heng, Nasa Zaidul, Micolle and me

(L-R) Karen, Royston, Nasa, Yikru Ng, Bernard, Micolle, KC Chai and Cynthia

(L-R) Yikru, Micolle, Nasa and Lilliana George

Reuben Su and Yikru

Reuben and me after the Yogathon

Oldest participant being interviewed

Alvin and the other two instructors who led the Yogathon

Proudly holding our certificates

After the sweat...

Sweated my way to a positively good workout. As a reward, 162 of those who completed all 108 rounds of the Surya Namaskar were given a gold certificate.  Unfortunately Reuben only got a normal Spirit of Yoga certificate of participation as he had to stop earlier from exhaustion.  The early morning long run had taken too much out of him.  Though I know for a fact that he enjoyed the Yogathon tremendously.  T-shirts were on sale and some of us bought them.  Am so glad that I participated in this Yogathon.  Hopefully in the future there will be more such healthy activities in Kuching for everyone to take part in.  A big thank you to the organisers for making this Yogathon a success! Also enjoyed the vegetarian snacks and healthy drinks after.  What's more we all managed to make many new friends all thanks to our love for yoga. Am sure my running will benefit from all the stretching.

My certificate of participation