Activity 4/2011 - February 20 - 2nd Edition of Hiking Penang's Longest Trail

Due to the overwhelming response from the hiking the longest forest trail in Penang 5 weeks ago, our activity 1/2011, Andrew Loh repeated the organisation of this activity which was held last Sunday morning at 6:30am , the 20 of February.
This time the route was in the reversed direction against the previous one i.e. Starting at Botanical Garden using tar road via stations 46, 48 -> Penang Hill Upper Station -> Tiger Hill -> Station 1 -> Laksamana Hill -> Station 10 -> Teluk Bahang Finish

There were more than 60 hikers taking part inclusive of many guest hikers.

click here for a photo album courtesy of Andrew Loh
click here n click here for photo albums courtesy of Mei Ling
click here for a photo album courtesy of Eric Lim

Activity 3/2011 - Feb 13 - i-Run 1-Day Over-The-Sea Family Day Tour

It was only the day before we had the 'unforgettable victories' at USM Open Relay and on this day 13 Feb more than 20 of our group had this special run-cum-picnic-makanthon outing.

It started at e-gate Tesco early in the morning with a convoy of cars and having an itinerary as follows:
Crossing the Penang Bridge -> Morning LSD at Mengkuang Dam in Bukit Mertajam -> Morning tea session at Eric's uncle coffee shop -> Rock at Kulim market -> Delicious fresh water fish lunch at Restoran Kolam Ikan in Kulim -> Picnic at Sungai Sedim spring water pools n Tree-Top-Walk -> Yummy Dinner at Khun Thai Restoran, Butterworth -> Home Sweep Home


Click here n click here n click here for photo albums courtesy of Mei Ling

Activity 2/2011 - Feb 12 - 2nd USM Open Relay 2011

The 2nd USM Open Relay 2011 held yesterday at the Penang USM Athletics Stadium was the first event in our local running calender for the year 2011. Like the previous year when it was inaugurated we entered 4 teams just for 'fun' as we are basically long distance road runners and this year, for the same spirit we participated as well.

Manager Andrew Loh n Captain Jin initiated the move and Cupido Kelvin Tharm was appointed as the Team Manager of this event. After a number of time trial selections at the USM Athletics stadium we decided to register 5 teams in the Open category viz:
Men
4x200m : 2 teams (Cheng Siew Czing, Cheng Siew Seng, Danny Poh Yee Chuan)
.................(Vincent Teoh Soon Lee, Calvin Lim Wen Quan, Koo Chia Lee, Phang Jit Hun)
4x800m : (Ooi Seow Fung, Wong Jin Ji, James Lee Yeow San, Tim Stelzer)
Medley (200m>200m>400m>800m) -
1 team (Lee Chun How, Eric Lim Tzu Yiang, James Lee Yeow San, Ooi Seow Fung)
Women
4x200m - (Chung Mei Ling, Denise Peh Bee Leng, Sarah Foong Yuen Jing, Lee Mei Lan)

The meet was held from the morning till at night with the 1st event shot-off at about 9:00am and the last event started after 10:30pm. We started with our first event in the Men 4x200m Semi Final at 9:30am, the Men 4x800m at 11:30am, the Women 4x200m at 6:00pm and the Men Medley at 9:30pm. It was a hot day till about 4:00pm when it started to get cloudy and even a light shower.

As expected we ran all our events in 'style' n all teams finished 'first from bottom', just to 'uphold' the record we set in the previous year ^_^. Nevertheless as usual all our runners ran in high fighting spirit n went all out till the passing of batons n finishing line amidst cheers n applause.
Though we did not win any medals, all of us, participants and supporters enjoyed ourselves and without doubt we will be back again 12 months from now....

Take this opportunity to thank all our participants, supporters, photographers, helpers and last but not least Andrew Loh, Captain Jin n Cupido Kelvin Tharm for making our participation an enjoyable one.

Thank you Athletics Club of USM for holding this meet and PAAA for your technical assistance.

Click here for a photo album courtesy of Mei Ling
Click here for a photo album courtesy of Wong Jin Ji
Click here for a photo album courtesy of Danny Poh
Click here for a photo album courtesy of Vincent Teoh
Click here for a photo album courtesy of Eric Lim

06 Feb - Gong Xi Fa Cai LSD

Pix courtesy of Wong Jin Ji
L->R: Andrew Loh, Ng Seow Kong, Gary Tan

Our 1st usual Sunday LSD in the Year of the Rabbit took off with a Bang at the usual time of 0600H n usual place at Youth Park exit car park this morning, the 4th day of Chinese New Year. Mood of Gong Xi Fa Cai still hanging around us and with the usual tradition of heavy meals of 'Big-Fish-Big-Meat' (in Chinese proverb) we thought it was healthy for us to 'discharge' the excessive carbo-loading in the previous 4 days by having this Gong Xi Fa Cai LSD.

Andrew Loh got a surprise for us, this time again, he brought along a great ultrmarathoner in Mr Ng Seow Kong to join in our run. Apart from having a collection of more than 60 Marathon medals, Mr Ng has a remarkable list of outstanding feats n achievements in the context of endurance n rugged trail challenges under his feet, among them, having completed:

-> The Great Wall Marathon in 2005,
-> Everest Marathon in 2006,
-> North Pole Marathon and Antarctica Ice Marathon in 2007
-> The Marathon Grand Slam (marathons on 7 continents + North Pole) in 2008 including the Comrade Marathon (African continent) n Guayaquil Marathon (South American continent),
-> The 100km del Sahara,
-->The mammoth Amazon Jungle Marathon in October 2009 !!!!!
The Amazon Jungle Marathon 2009 from 11 to 17 Oct consists of 222km of trek in 6 stages which ran along the River Tapajos from the base camp of Itapuama to the finishing at Alter de Chao, a tourist town.
-> the 250km Marathon des Sables in Morocco's Sahara Desert (multistage) in April 2010
-> 240km Coast to Kosciuszko (single stage) in Dec 2010

Mr Ng's focus for this year is to qualify for the Badwater 135 miles - single stage in 2012 by completing two more 100 miles single stage races.

(Ref. - Mr Ng Seow , Kong's own article in the March 2010 issue of Pacesetters (PACM) quarterly 'FOOTLOOSE')

Mr Ng, a Chartered Accountant, is a very humble and friendly man, he studied in Jin Sin High School and Chung Ling High School during his school days before further studies abroad and he has been staying n working in Shanghai for the past 18 years with a very very successful career in the Finance/Education sector. He is here in his hometown during the current CNY and thanks to Andrew I had the pleasure of running n chatting with him. He is undoubtedly an idol of inspiration n motivation for us.
Thank you Mr Ng and you have Happy Holidays in Penang.
Looking forward to seeing you 'balik-kampung' 7 years from now
Cheers....