My bad :(

When I listen to this song, I wonder if I was a man like that before? I was so oblivious of her because I focused too much on my works, activities & friends? If yes, my apology to her. I hope she's happy with her status now.

StandChart Singapore Marathon 2009

This is my first overseas race. It was one great experience as the organizer was very efficient. I have nothing to complain except, too many people took part in the race. The journey started on Saturday morning. Three of us, from KL drove to Singapore entering from Tuas CIQ. We headed straight to Singapore Expo to pick up the race kit. It took me only 5 minutes to settle everything. Very very quick! Then we went drooling over sports stuff at the expo. I bought a pair of NB running shoes. Very cheap only $70. All shoes on sales, I almost buy another pair but told myself... don't!

After that we went to Zam Zam Restaurant for Brayani. Joining us for carbo-loading lunch were Kay, Yusran and his 3 other friends living in Singapore. Thanks to his friend for "belanja" us. After lunch we check-in into our hostel. Then we went to Mustafa before going to Novena. We did shopping... windows shopping! :P Then we went to Geylang Serai for dinner. After dinner our though of going to see the light at Orchard Road was hampered because Kamarul's car overheat and we stuck at Ion Orchard, a new high-end luxury shopping mall. Half of the cars I saw in the parking were luxury cars with single digit including Malaysian cars. About an hour after that, we slowly drove the car out of parking bay heading back to hostel. Lucky us, it was smooth journey.

With lack of sleep, we woke up at 3:30am to get ourselves prepare for the race. After gathering with several other runners staying at our hostel, we walked to the starting line about 2km from the hostel. Enough warm-up before the race. Met up with Haza and several cute girls on the way.

Once we reached the starting line at Esplanade Drive, there were so many people around. Estimated around 14 thousand over marathon runners gathering to torture themselves. Singapore managed to make it like a one big festival compare to KL marathon around 2000 runners only for marathon distance. The race start at 5:30am and it was live telecast on Star Sport Channel. At starting line I met AJ, Arif & Senn. The gun went-off AJ & Arif left me and I leave Senn behind. It took me nearly 6 minutes to cross the starting line. Less than 2 km into the run, I pee behind a bass stop opposite Rabobank at Robinson Road. C'mon, this is Singapore! I could be thrown into jail if I pee in public on other days. That how strict is this country.

The first 10km was nothing, I feel good about the race. I have abundance of power gels to finish today. I already took 2 gels before 10km. When we entered East Coast Park, I had stomach discomfort... oh nooo... gotta find a toilet. But all the toilets were full with people queuing to do their business. I have to run until near KM 18 before I found a toilet in the park with less people. After settled my big business, I met Steve and Azmar. We run together for a short while before Azmar & me dropped Steve behind. He wasn't feeling well that day. After KM 20, Azmar dropped me because I tried maintain a slow pace.

So far the run was ok but slowly my both legs start feeling the pains. By the time, I got to KM 25 I started to walk. Then at KM30... I walked more than I ran. Lucky me, after that I met Kash and we paced each other. We were talking about how difficult and painful is the race. Kash told me, she doesn't want to participate in any marathons in the future. Yeah, I was thinking the same... "this is gonna be my last marathon" like in previous marathon races but wait till I cross the finish line... hehehe.

At KM 35 we saw this sign on the mark "Pain is temporary", well it was unbearable pains. My legs were ok but my ligament that support arch on the sole that hurt. I believe it was because I change the way I run to midfoot strike. This is the longest ever I ran midfoot strike. No blisters, no knees pain, no cramps but my right sole was very painful.

Once I saw F1 paddock near the Singapore Eye, I started to smile again. Another 2km more to go. I could hear the crowds cheering, the music & announcer. Both side of the was full with people cheering, clapping and giving words of encouragement. I savor the moment when I saw the finish line in distance. Every step was so good. Yesss! I completed my 6th marathon in 5:48. Way off my sub 5 target and not even my PB. But the satisfaction I can't describe, always make me comeback for more races.

Thanks to TSB & Kamarul for your company. And thanks to Yusran for sending me home after the long bus ride back to KL after the race. Hope to race in GE30k in January and Putrajaya Night Marathon in February. Keep on running and stay healthy!

Personality Plus

This is very interesting topic about human being. After nearly 2 years of divorce, I think I understand why my ex and I did not go well together. It all started 2 months ago after attended XTRA training for Celcom’s managers. In the training, one of the instructors was a trainer for Personality Plus. Initially, I didn’t know what was it but based on his explanation it’s about 4 different temperaments that all human being are carrying. He suggested me to read a book title “Personality Plus” by Florence Littauer. I went to a few bookstores to get the book but mostly sold out. Hmmm… this must be a very good book! Finally I bought it at Popular Bookstores. At the same store I saw another book by Dr. John Gray “Why Mars & Venus Collide” which was published last year and I grabbed the book as well.

The task to read the books took me a long time to accomplish because I’m not a book worm. After one month plus I completed Personality Plus but for Mar& Venus I only read 1/3 of the book. Here, I just want to talk about Personality Plus. All I can say about this book is it’s AWESOME! How to understand others by understanding yourself first. I’ve been reading tons of articles just to understand what went wrong in my relationship. What did I do that pissed off my ex-wife until led her asked for a divorce? Initially, I thought it was 100% my fault but after reading this book, we were actually having personality clashed. If only I knew this earlier I could have heal the relationship.

I learned God did not makes us all alike. Each one of us is unique. We were all born with our own temperament traits. Our environment and parental influence can mold our personalities, but what we are underneath remains the same. Well, what are these 4 temperaments I talked about?

1. Popular “Sanguine”: This is the social-type. They enjoy fun, socializing, chatting, telling stories - and are fond of promising the world, because that's the friendly thing to do.
2. Powerful “Choleric”: This is the commander-type. Choleric are dominant, strong, decisive, stubborn and even arrogant.
3. Perfect “Melancholy”: This is the mental-type. Their typical behavior involves thinking, assessing, making lists, evaluating the positives and negatives, and general analysis of facts.
4. Peaceful “Phlegmatic”: This is the flat-type. They are easy going, laid back, nonchalant, unexcitable and relaxed. Desiring a peaceful environment above all else.

None of these types is specifically described as positive or negative - each having upsides and downsides. The book makes it clear that the characteristics are for observing and identifying, rather than judging.

• A Sanguine gets on well with people and can get others excited about issues, but cannot always be relied upon to get things done. They love interacting with others and play the role of the entertainer in group interactions. They have a tendency to over-promise and under-deliver.
• A Choleric is focused on getting things done, but can run rough-shod over others. They are decisive and stubborn.
• A Melancholy is a highly talented person, they have brilliant ideas, although sometimes they can paralyze themselves with over-analysis. Lists and "doing things the right way" are characteristics of this personality type.
• A Phlegmatic is neutral - they tend not to actively upset people, but their indifference may frustrate people. They try not to make decisions, and generally go for the status quo. They care about people and harmony.

From the test I took, I’m 90% Phlegmatic and 10% Melancholy. That Melancholy part probably because the way I was trained in RMC and molded by my wife when we were together. Combination of Peaceful Phlegmatic & Perfect Melancholy is natural blends which made me an introverted, pessimistic and soft-spoken or in other word… I’m a boring guy! :P Based on my observation during our 14 years of relationship I think my ex-wife is a combination of Powerful Choleric and Perfect Melancholy. It is a complementary blend which made her a task oriented person. With that, I’m sure she will succeed in her career or whatever she does.

My dad is combination of Powerful Choleric and Peaceful Phlegmatic, this combination made him an unemotional strong-willed person. That’s why he was in the Army. Peaceful Phlegmatic part required him to follow orders from his superior and serving the country no matter how hard was a military life. And the Powerful Choleric part helped him to command his troops. While my mum is combination of Popular Sanguine and Peaceful Phlegmatic which another complementary blends and this made her a relationship oriented person. My dad and my mom are very bad match for a couple but i wonder how come they lasted this long?

I also analyzed my parent-in-laws which i found out that my father-in-law has a combination of Popular Sanguine and Perfect Melancholy. This made him an artistic emotional person. While my mother-in-law is like his daughter a combination of Powerful Choleric and Perfect Melancholy or maybe a bit of Peaceful Phlegmatic. Both of them are very compatible as a couple. I can see it in my kids too the personality differences. Ian is more Peaceful Phlegmatic and Dmi is Perfect Melancholy. Ian is more relax type and we need to motivate him to study or do something. While Dmi is perfectionist when the place messy he will start cleaning up. He puts things back in order.

My other siblings, Pidah is Peaceful Phlegmatic same as her husband. So, if you go to their house, the place is disaster. They only gave their 6 kids basic needs but not beyond that. To outsiders, it looks like they having a crisis, but actually it is not. Although they don't really care about their home, they still loving each other. Another sister, Yatie is Perfect Melancholy with Powerful Choleric. Her husband is Powerful Choleric with a little Popular Sanguine. They might have head to head confrontational. As long as they know the limits, they should be able to live together. My youngest sister Maria is Peaceful Phlegmatic with a little Perfect Melancholy. And her husband is a blend of Popular Sanguine and Perfect Melancholy. I think this is the best combination as a couple. I pray to god, they all will be having the best relationship between husbands & wives and never end up like me.

If you do not understand about the different personality between people you will get frustrated or intimidated by others. Some of the incidences happened between me & my ex which rocked our marriage were… She liked to do some surprises just to add excitement to our relationship. But to me being a Peaceful Phlegmatic, I didn’t get excited easily. Not that I didn’t thankful or happy for what she did. I just don’t know how to react. Sometimes acting cool with your spouse also not good.

Being a Powerful Choleric she will decide everything. Although I gave my ideas, at the end she over ruled my suggestion. Including some big decisions like buying a house, buying a car and even our divorce were all her decisions. Basically, she ruled the house. Being a Peaceful Phlegmatic I followed whatever she said just to avoid confrontation… and of course because I loved her too ;) You have to please your loved one right?

A Phlegmatic likes to throw in a few witty comments timed properly. I remember there was a time while we were in a car driving back from somewhere, she talked about how nice a house she saw in a magazine and hope we can afford it. Then with a straight face I said “If you want that kind of house now you have to marry Dato K (Siti Nurhaliza’s husband, a multi millionaire businessman) and not Mr K (that’s me). To me it was only a dry humor with subtle meaning “I will get the house when we have enough money later”. But to her probably I accused her for not being blessed of what we have now. After that, the rest of the journey was silence :P

Although there were lots of conflicts happened between us, for a Peaceful Phlegmatic person like me, I don’t care what personality she has. In fact I was glad to have her as a wife to help me to decide what to do and organizing the family. However, I think she gave up to have a husband like me because I drove her crazy all the times :P Try read the book guys!

Click here for free online personality test

Ironman Langkawi 2010 Motivator

Ironman Langkawi 2009

I made another video with new photos from Shazly just to boost my morale for Ironman Langkawi 2010 training.

Diving Trip to Mabul

After climbing up to Laban Rata (3273m above sea level), I flew to the other side of Sabah to dive underwater in Mabul. If you don't know where Mabul is, check out goggle map below;

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Mabul popular due to close proximity to Sipadan. Mabul Island is small oval shape surrounded by sandy beaches. I stayed at Sipadan-Mabul Resort, one of a few dive resorts available in Mabul. From the jetty I could see Sipadan Island and Kapalai Island. The place is so beautiful, I already fell in love with Mabul. The people were very friendly and I made many new friends over there.

I did 8 dives in 3 days at Mabul, Kapalai, Siamil and Denawan. Mabul known as the world's best muck diving if you are interested with small and micro marine lives. While in Kapalai I could see larger fish. I couldn't a get permit to dive in Sipadan this time around. So, I missed to see a school of barracuda, bumphead, jackfish and hammerhead sharks. Some of the species I saw during my diving were all sort of fish, cuttlefish, lionfish, stonefish, flaunders, turtle, flatworm, nudibranch, etc

No doubt this place will be my annual trip diving after this. I already make a plan to comeback in April to dive in Sipadan. Before that I want to take Advanced Open Water certification first.

- Dive safe, dive happy :) -

23rd Mt Kinabalu International Climbathon

The Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon has made its reputation as "the world's toughest mountain race". The steepest race on the circuit, it ascend from 1,866m to the summit of Mt Kinabalu (4,095m) over a mere 8.5km - an amazing vertical climb of 2,250m. This year only 25% from my category completed the race. Oh yesss.... that's excluding me! I only managed to get to Laban Rata :P I will try again next year :)