Wednesday, June 23, 2010

2010 Brunei Olympic Day Run

It has been years since I've last joined a running event.

In fact, I don't think I ever had. The only ones that I've joined are usually those boring school walkathons which requires us to get on one's nerves with a donation card back in my secondary school years.

Well, that was walkathon. This time, it's different.


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The Olympic Day Run is held every 23rd of June to commemorate the birth of modern Olympics.

I came to the event fully unaware of the distance that I'm supposed to run.

It is open to everyone and is divided into different categories.

In my category, which is for MEN with huge balls aged 49 years and below, I will have to cover 10km. Other categories are for men aged 50 and above, the special-needs, women and etc.


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Before the run began, we have to register ourselves inside a hall next to the indoor stadium.

There, we were given our number and a free t-shirt!


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However, the organisers didn't really do a good job in making sure each person gets ONE t-shirt only.


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I knew a guy who actually queued up in 2 different categories and got 3 t-shirts in the end! How he managed to convince the organisers that he's 50 years old and above, I do not know.


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This is the shirt. Good to learn that McDonald's has been involved with Olympics since the 1960s. I'm lovin' it. ;)

To be honest, I didn't take this run seriously and thought those who'd be joining are n00bs like me.


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See those runners in orange singlets? Them's so cool they don't even need the free t-shirt.

The event is officiated by none other than His Royal Highness Prince Haji Sufri Bolkiah, the President of the Brunei Darussalam National Olympic Council.


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As always, there's always a warm-up session in events like this. And this one's no exception.


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After the warm-up session, everyone moved on to the starting line, each category followed by another.

When it's my category's turn, I got myself positioned up front, which is the 2nd row to be exact, to ensure that I get a good start. As the buzzer went off, everyone started running.

Barely just after 200 metres or so, already I felt tired and started to wonder why did I even join this run in the first place. I could've been sleeping at home! As if my sucky job which requires me to stand for most of the day isn't tiring enough. Obviously, I can't keep up and subsequently slowed down. Next thing I know, a whole bunch of people overtook me! Wtf!

Damn, must've not stretched well enough during the warm-up and now I paid the price.


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Alright, I wasn't surprised by that throng of people overtaking me actually and I bet neither are you. I have my reasons.

My only breakfast that day was a small cup of coffee. I've got with me my phone, my camera, my earphone and keys all in my pockets. Yes, all of 'em.

Besides, I was wearing a slightly heavier shoe (basketball shoe) that day to run. Oh, why did I???

So you see, everything went wrong right from the very start. Can't blame me for me slow and unstaminaful. *making up excuses*

Note to self: Gotta invest on good running gears when I'm rich.

I couldn't help but notice that whenever I overtook someone, that someone overtook me back. And when I try to overtake him again, he overtook me for the second time! So much for overtaking someone.


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This is how being overtaken looks like.

Every few kilometres, there are people distributing bottles of water. I kinda hoped they'd supply us with 100Plus instead.

There's a problem though. There were no rubbish bins anywhere! So we're basically littering empty water bottles on Olympic Day.

While running, I saw a friend, Ahmad Faisal! We ran and chatted at the same time but I couldn't keep up with him so he got in front of me in no more than 5 minutes.

what was an Olympic Day slowly became a walkathon for me. I knew I had to resort to walking pace eventually, but I never thought of giving up.

Then, as I walked, I met 2 more of my friends! It's Hamid and Abang Hadri! Ironically, the three of us basically just walked from that point all the way to the finishing line. I felt kinda bad because I knew if I hadn't called Hamid, I guess he must've ran all the way to the finish, with Abang Hadri. But Hamid did admit he's too tired to run.

After an hour or so, we reached the brick red pavement of the Hassanal Bolkiah National Stadium where the banner of the finishing line welcomed us.


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There was a guy standing next to the finishing line and he was distributing certificates of participation to everyone crossing the line!

This is what I got.


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Though some details, including my name, were left out of the certificate, I was glad to have it anyway.

10km may be nothing compared to a marathon but clearly, I under-estimated this 10km run. Because of this, I'm starting to respect people who have successfully completed a marathon race which could be more than 3, 4 or even 5 times the distance of this 10km I ran.

As a token for participating, I got treated a bowl of Kolo Mee by my uncle right after that.


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Oh bugger. I must've gained back all the calories I burned during the run. :(

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:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 9:25 PM | 0 comments

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

World Cup Fever

HEY! What's up? It's the World Cup season!

Never thought 4 years passed by so fast!





World Cup 2006 in Germany was great, but should we expect something bigger this time?

As always, the tournament will be held in 10 venues, with the opening and final match held at Soccer City in Johannesburg.





This site is historic as it is the place where Nelson Mandela held his first speech following his release from prison.





The 94,700 capacity stadium is designed to have the appearance of an African pot. The total construction costs USD$440 million.

The official mascot for the 2010 FIFA World Cup is Zakumi.






His name comes from "ZA", the international abbreviation for South Africa, and "kumi", a word that means "ten" in various African languages.





We've already seen some big names suffering injuries prior to the World Cup. It's a pity really because this could've been the last world cup tournament they would ever play in for some.

For instance, Beckham is already 35 this year. He'll be 39 by the next world cup.





Probability of him playing in 2014? I don't know.

Rio Ferdinand, the new captain of England, is also out for 4-6 weeks with a knee injury following a tackle on fellow team mate Emile Heskey in England's first training session.





Being an England supporter, it was really heartbreaking for me to hear this news because if England win the World Cup, Ferdinand would've been the one to lift the trophy! But now Stevie G had to cover him up as captain for the time being. Horror.

The latest player to join this injury list is Nani!





Another Manchester United player missing out of World Cup. Sigh.

The rest injured for the World Cup include:

Michael Ballack (Germany) - ruled out of the finals with an ankle injury after a late challenge by Ghana's Kevin-Prince Boateng during Chelsea's FA Cup final win over Portsmouth in May.





Rene Adler (Germany) - Germany's first-choice goalkeeper underwent surgery on a rib injury in May and will play no part in the finals.

Heiko Westermann (Germany) - fractured a bone in his foot during a warm-up win over Hungary.

Simon Rolfes (Germany) - ruled himself out of the World Cup after saying he was short of match fitness following knee surgery in January.

Christian Traesch (Germany) - considered a possible replacement for captain Michael Ballack but is also out after injuring his ankle in a friendly at the squad's training camp in Italy.

Michael Essien (Ghana) – suffered a knee injury at the African Nations Cup in January and has failed to recover in time.





Lassana Diarra (France) – will not play in South Africa after being told he needed an extended rest because of persistent stomach pains which began during France's week-long training camp in the French Alps last month.

Jose Bosingwa (Portugal) – will miss the tournament after picking up a knee injury last October which ruled him out for the entire season.

Jon Obi Mikel (Nigeria) - forced out of the tournament with a badly bruised ankle suffered in Nigeria's first full contact training session in South Africa on Friday.





Miroslav Karhan (Slovakia) - Slovakia's most capped player has a hamstring injury and will miss his country's first World Cup appearance.

Meanwhile....





Players who are doubtful include:
Didier Drogba, Andrea Pirlo, Julio Cesar, Arjen Robben, Harry Kewell, Tim Brown, Humberto Suazo, Lee Dong Guk.

Whereas players who will not be involved in the World Cup are listed here below:
Ronaldinho, Alexandre Pato, Adriano, Hulk, Anderson, Theo Walcott, Darren Bent, Albert Riera, Marcos Senna, Luca Toni, Marco Borriello, Fabio Grosso, Daniele Bonera, Francesco Totti, Ruud van Nistlerooy, Robbie Keane, Andrei Arshavin, Andriy Shevchenko, Dimitar Berbatov, Lucas, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Riquelme, Zanetti, Cambiasso, G. Milito, Lisandro, Lucho, Banega, Aimar, Garay, Samir Nasri, Karim Benzema.

From 11th June - 11th July, don't see surprised to see cafés and restaurants filled with people late night watching the biggest sporting event ever.

What you can do is.. pick a team, don their jersey and support them all the way!

So which team will you be rooting for? I'm going for England.




Rooney! Rooney! Rooney!

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:: Posted by DENCORPORATION at 7:43 PM | 0 comments

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Blog shared between Desmond, Edison and Nazrin. Edison is no longer a sleeping partner. What D.E.N. stands for is self-explanatory.




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