In an hour's time, HH will pick me up to the airport.
Mom gave me an angbao for good luck - smtg she always does b4 i fly.
Time flew past today. Picking up my medical report, HY, handed over my work and shifted all my stuff to the new office. Phew! I'm glad i still have time to blog :P
While on the bus back home just now, i was trying to put to words my pre-flight thoughts. Honestly, i couldn't come up with anything. I got a sms from Joanne & the gers - wishing me all the best for the race...and my hard work will bear fruits...enjoy and have fun! I thanked them and replied,"Let's jiayou together!" I reli hope to get their good news when my race is over.
Geez, this Uncle Jack just sms-ed...said must inform when succeed. Argh...now i'm "stressed" *pulls hair* Ok...time to get prep-ed.
God bless.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday, May 11, 2009
Cliff Young
This story got to me in good time. I dun hope to champion the event...just finish it safely within the organiser's timing will suffice.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every year, Australia hosts an 875-kilometer endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne - considered to be the world's longest and toughest ultra-marathon. It's a long, tough race that takes five days and normally participated by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. Backed by big names in sports like Nike, these athletes are mostly less than 30 years old men and women equipped with the most expensive sponsored training outfits and shoes.
In 1983, these top class runners were in for a surprise. On the day of the race, a guy named Cliff Young showed up. At first, no one cared about him since everybody thought he was there to watch the event. After all, Cliff Young was 61 years old, showed up in overalls and galoshes over his work boots.
As Cliff Young walked up to the table to take his number, it became obvious to everybody he was going to run. He was going to join a group of 150 world-class athletes and run! During that time, these runners don’t even know another surprising fact - his only trainer was his 81-year-old mother, Neville Wran.
Everybody thought that Cliff Young was a crazy publicity stunt. But the press was curious, so as he took his number 64 and moved into the pack of runners in their special, expensive racing outfit, the camera focused on him and reporters started to ask:
"Who are you and what are you doing?"
"I'm Cliff Young. I'm from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne."
They said, "You're really going to run in this race?"
"Yeah," Cliff Young nodded.
"Got any backers?"
"No."
"Then you can't run."
"Yeah I can." Cliff Young said. "See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn't afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler. Whenever the storms would roll in, I'd have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I'd catch them. I believe I can run this race; it's only two more days. Five days. I've run sheep for three."
When the marathon started, the pros left Cliff Young behind in his galoshes. The crowds smiled because he didn't even run correctly. Instead of running, he appeared to run leisurely, shuffling like an amateur.
Now, the 61-year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest with no teeth had started the ultra-tough race with world-class athletes. All over Australia, people who watched the live telecast kept on praying that someone would stop this crazy old man from running because everyone believed he’ll die even before even getting halfway across Sydney.
Every professional athletes knew for certain that it took about 5 days to finish this race, and that in order to compete, you would need to run 18 hours and sleep 6 hours. The thing is, old Cliff Young did not know that!
When the morning news of the race was aired, people were in for another big surprise. Cliff Young was still in the race and had jogged all night down to a city called Mittagong.
Apparently, Cliff Young did not stop after the first day. Although he was still far behind the world-class athletes, he kept on running. He even had the time to wave to spectators who watched the event by the highways.
When he got to a town called Albury he was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. He said he would run through to the finish, and he did.
He kept running. Every night he got just a little bit closer to the leading pack. By the last night, he passed all of the world-class athletes. By the last day, he was way in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, without dying; he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and became a national hero! The nation fell in love with the 61-year-old potato farmer who came out of nowhere to defeat the world's best long distance runners.
He finished the 875-kilometre race in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes. Not knowing that he was supposed to sleep during the race, he said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm.
For complete story, please visit http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1074156.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Every year, Australia hosts an 875-kilometer endurance racing from Sydney to Melbourne - considered to be the world's longest and toughest ultra-marathon. It's a long, tough race that takes five days and normally participated by world-class athletes who train specially for the event. Backed by big names in sports like Nike, these athletes are mostly less than 30 years old men and women equipped with the most expensive sponsored training outfits and shoes.
In 1983, these top class runners were in for a surprise. On the day of the race, a guy named Cliff Young showed up. At first, no one cared about him since everybody thought he was there to watch the event. After all, Cliff Young was 61 years old, showed up in overalls and galoshes over his work boots.
As Cliff Young walked up to the table to take his number, it became obvious to everybody he was going to run. He was going to join a group of 150 world-class athletes and run! During that time, these runners don’t even know another surprising fact - his only trainer was his 81-year-old mother, Neville Wran.
Everybody thought that Cliff Young was a crazy publicity stunt. But the press was curious, so as he took his number 64 and moved into the pack of runners in their special, expensive racing outfit, the camera focused on him and reporters started to ask:
"Who are you and what are you doing?"
"I'm Cliff Young. I'm from a large ranch where we run sheep outside of Melbourne."
They said, "You're really going to run in this race?"
"Yeah," Cliff Young nodded.
"Got any backers?"
"No."
"Then you can't run."
"Yeah I can." Cliff Young said. "See, I grew up on a farm where we couldn't afford horses or four wheel drives, and the whole time I was growing up until about four years ago when we finally made some money and got a four wheeler. Whenever the storms would roll in, I'd have to go out and round up the sheep. We had 2,000 head, and we have 2,000 acres. Sometimes I would have to run those sheep for two or three days. It took a long time, but I'd catch them. I believe I can run this race; it's only two more days. Five days. I've run sheep for three."
When the marathon started, the pros left Cliff Young behind in his galoshes. The crowds smiled because he didn't even run correctly. Instead of running, he appeared to run leisurely, shuffling like an amateur.
Now, the 61-year-old potato farmer from Beech Forest with no teeth had started the ultra-tough race with world-class athletes. All over Australia, people who watched the live telecast kept on praying that someone would stop this crazy old man from running because everyone believed he’ll die even before even getting halfway across Sydney.
Every professional athletes knew for certain that it took about 5 days to finish this race, and that in order to compete, you would need to run 18 hours and sleep 6 hours. The thing is, old Cliff Young did not know that!
When the morning news of the race was aired, people were in for another big surprise. Cliff Young was still in the race and had jogged all night down to a city called Mittagong.
Apparently, Cliff Young did not stop after the first day. Although he was still far behind the world-class athletes, he kept on running. He even had the time to wave to spectators who watched the event by the highways.
When he got to a town called Albury he was asked about his tactics for the rest of the race. He said he would run through to the finish, and he did.
He kept running. Every night he got just a little bit closer to the leading pack. By the last night, he passed all of the world-class athletes. By the last day, he was way in front of them. Not only did he run the Melbourne to Sydney race at age 61, without dying; he won first place, breaking the race record by 9 hours and became a national hero! The nation fell in love with the 61-year-old potato farmer who came out of nowhere to defeat the world's best long distance runners.
He finished the 875-kilometre race in 5 days, 15 hours and 4 minutes. Not knowing that he was supposed to sleep during the race, he said when running throughout the race, he imagined that he was chasing sheep and trying to outrun a storm.
For complete story, please visit http://forums.nasioc.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-1074156.html
Wednesday, May 6, 2009
As D-day approaches...
Pretty? Finally, I am ticking single digits off the number of days towards race day.
Mmmm...how do i feel? Geez, my thoughts are so random. Many things are taking place at the moment...office shift, the ladies' summit bids, handing over my full-time & "freelance" work & tying out the loose ends of my trip (pay this bill, collect this & that...blah blah blah). Most importantly I guess, is to stay healthy in view of the oinkoink flu.
Read some participants' blogs just now. Kinda made my day :) At least now i know i'm not the only one who is gonna bring a swimming google instead of a sand goggle to handle the dunes *wink* This same guy began his blog with a quote from the movie "The Big Lebowski" - You're entering a world of pain, son, a world of pain. I think i'm gonna connect to that statement soon cos i pretty much slacked a lot during the past long Labor Day weekend. Been feeling guilty til now. Even Christian's "It's better to reach there undertrained than overtrained" did not relieve much of that guilt...hehehe. Well, i just have to engage a "fight or flight" mentality during the Real McCoy.
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