der_pacemakers # 38

"By Pm1: Congrats to Lai for being selected as one of der PM's family, der reason being chosen is bcoz he really show us der passion of running. His spirit of pia really make me kam tung!"


Name : Lai Fong Sang
Date Of Birth : 4th December 1970
Hometown : Kuala Lumpur
Year Of Running : 3 months
Handphone No : 012-6249399, 016-2626768
Email : laifongsang@yahoo.com

After graduated from secondary school, I have seldom done any physical exercise due to laziness. Occasionally, I had a habit of having supper, buffet, heavy lunch or dinner and I had a good appetite too. Therefore my weight always on upwards trend for the past 16 years. I would exercise only whenever there was a significant increase of my weight. But it could not last long, after regular exercise for 2 to 3 months; I have stopped completely being reasons like no time, busy, lazy, raining, haze, and so on.

I started my jogging activity in mid February this year after my weight reaching the historical high at 72.5kg. I started to worry because my BMI exceeded 27 (Which already categorised as over weight). Some of my colleagues, friends and relatives kept on saying that I became fatter and fatter. I really scared and fed up with my big tummy, I aware that by now I should seriously look into an effective and consistent method to reduce my weight. So I have decided to cut down the volume of my food consumption and intensive physical exercise. I should not give up after 2-3 months practice; I must make it continuously and consistently.

At the beginning stage, I have a combination of jogging, carrying dumbbell, cycling (At Gym) and walk on staircase. It was hardly for me to run for more than 20 minutes for the first two weeks even at a slower pace. After the run, I felt exhausted and extremely tired. My legs were painful, the muscles sore and sometimes I can’t even walk properly. Come to the 3rd week of my training, I managed to run for 30 minutes but still tired especially going up the hill. My weight reduced by 3.5kg in 3 weeks times, I was quite happy and thus encouraged me to run more regularly. At the meantime, my friend gave me the pacesetters website address. I logged on the website and noticed that there were so many road race events available, so I planned to participate in some of the competition below 10Km. I think it was a good motivation for me to continue running. I tried to find out more information and tips about running from the pacesetters website. Accidentally, I found out the pm1 blogspot and other pacemakers blogspot, I have gone through the contents as to how they practice regularly, shared the experience on road race events, how they tried so hard to win the competition and various upcoming activities. I found out that it was very interesting, how enjoyable to have a group of friends to run and chat with one another, and at the same time can keep fit and remain healthy. Moreover, pm1 website has always been updated regularly, I really motivated after reading it and from then onwards, I never miss to visit the website, pm1.blogspot.com is a daily visited website for me now.

My first event should be “larian gemilang rakan muda” at University Malaya on 19th March 2006. Unfortunately, I suffered from knee injury one week before the events. I have to stop from jogging temporarily and rest for nearly 1 month until fully recovered on 11/4/2006. Can you imagine how sad was I during that period? I really wanted to run but I can’t. Every time I tried to run, the knee so painful and forced me to stop. During that one month duration my weight can’t be reduced because I could only did simple exercise. I had my first competition on 16/4/2006, “Larian cemerlang & pelancaran rakancorp”. Timing very bad, 1h12m, but never mind, I still happy and excited because my knee pain was over and I can run again. Yahoo!

I was so crazy about running after resting for 1 month, the whole body feels “gatal” without running. I wish to take part not only for 10km, but 15km and even half marathon. In order for me to fulfill my objective, I prepared a schedule for my jogging program, set a targeted time, targeted distance and desired mileage per week. I have a strong mind to improve my stamina and speed, but in actual fact, I still generally unfit, I can only run for the maximum of 6 laps in KLCC (7.8km). Every time I reached the slope near KLCC convention centre between 100m to 250m marks, I feel very “jialat” and pace very slow like “kura-kura”, so suffering as if want to die “liao”.

I told myself, I must conquer the hardcore hills and run for a longer distance, at least 10 laps (13km), otherwise don’t talk about half-marathon. If I can’t do that, better forget about half-marathon! With my strong desire for improvement, I started to increase the distance, 7 laps, then 8 laps, 9 laps and finally I managed to run 11 laps. I let the mind to control my legs to run and not vice versa. Finally I have successfully broken my physical and mental barrier by running longer distance above 15km.

Now I can see quite a lot of improvement on myself, all my laps timing improve gradually and continuously. I have no longer scared of the hardcore hills; on the other hand, I will try to push faster upon reaching the hill. And one of the most important objective I have achieved, my weight has been reduced by 8kg which is the lowest for the past 8 years. I am able to wear all my old trousers which I kept in the cupboard for long time ago. At present, I only aimed to get a certificate within qualifying time. But in future, I wish to be able to get a medal, no longer in “sapu lantai” zone.

Jogging is part of my life now; I hope I will continue jogging as long as I still can run. Thank you to pacemaker members, your running and “pia kau kau lat” spirit have indirectly motivated me to be continued in running. It is really a pleasure to be a member of pacemakers’ family.

Thank you.

Lai Fong Sang