Tuesday, June 08, 2010

Welcome to der Family : der Pacemakers 20

Thinking back, I remember asking myself... "How the heck did I get myself into this?" and then I remembered "Ah...John Wong" (some of our friends call him Fooz).


Many moons back in 2009 (I think it was in April), John, my high school mate a year my senior declared one fine day that he is going to run a marathon in 2009. At that point, I recall he was still in the "NATO" phase because we had no form of training what-so-ever.


I offered to join him in the quest for the marathon glory. I didn't think I would eventually get addicted to it and what more, to take it up seriously, to the point that I recently left my job to start up a little business venture called The Marathon Shop.


His strategy to motivate himself was simple... to tell everyone in the world that he is planning to run a marathon so that he won't back out.


Well, initially I felt that it was a negative motivation, the fear of being teased if he didn't complete his first marathon would drive him to complete it for fear of "losing face?".He eventually included me in his announcements which would sound somewhat like "James and I will be running our first marathon this year!" to almost everyone we meet!


Well, what harm could it be right?


Looking back before my running days, my waist-length was increasing due to lack of exercise. So, I thought - running is probably a good way to shed of the excess fats from my waist!


After competing in our first 10KM race in SCMKL 2009, I subsequently stumbled upon Ronnie See’s blog. Without knowing who he was or what Pacemakers were, I noticed that pm1.blogspot.com was one of the most frequently updated site on running. I had then purchased a SCMKL 2009 42.2KM finishers T-Shirt from Ronnie’s site to motivate myself for my first marathon which will happen in November.


I picked it up from Ronnie at Menara HLA and this marks the first time meeting him. It was there after that almost at every runs I had participated, I begin noticing Ronnie and the elite runner all wearing the mark of Pacemakers on their running vest. I wondered who pacemakers were as I had previously joined Pacesetters.


Some had told me that PM was a spin off Pacesetters club but after understanding the story a little better. I now know Pacemakers stand alone. For your information, at one moment in time, I had thought that PM runners all had heart problem... hence they all needed a Pacemaker. Little did I know, all PM runners have big strong heart and all can pia kau lat kau lat.


It was after joining many-many races that I had befriended Ronnie and some of the other pacemaker members such as YS Lee and Daniel Tan who had became my sifu and teach me how to pia like a PM member.


So it begins…


To date, I’ve done 4 marathons, an ultramarathon in the recent Adidas Sundown Singapore and countless other races of various distances since April 2009. I’d started my first marathon only in November 2009 and below are the other marathons I’ve done so far to date:-


1. Penang Bridge International Marathon 2009 42.2KM (4hr 59min)

2. Putrajaya International Night Marathon 2010 42.2KM (4hr 34min)

3. Energizer Night Marathon 2010 42.2KM (4hr 22min)

4. Borneo International Marathon 42.2KM (4hr 44min)

5. Adidas Sundown Ultramarathon 2010 84.4KM (12hr 32min)


At the Putrajaya International Night Marathon 2010


I also write in a little blog of my own at www.myultrarun.com but I’m not a very frequent blogger. I now usually run in my Vibrams and I hope to see you guys on the road soon!


Thank you for making me a part of Pacemakers and I’m glad to be a part of this active running club.


Warm regards,

James Wong @ PM20


6 comments:

jue said...

congrats & welcome kau2 lat to the pia kau2 lat family. and be prepared to be grilled kau2 lat by the captain too . . . :)

Carrie said...

Welcome to the PM family !

Anonymous said...

Bro James,

Congrats! Welcome to the PM family.

Cheers!

YS LEE (PM 12)

dannie chOOng said...

James, welcome to the PM family. glad to have you on board...

Lai Fong Sang said...

Welcome to the pacemakers family!

James Wong said...

Thank You Dear Brothers and Sisters of the PM Family!!!

Gotta regain fitness to pia kau2 lat with the kau lat people.

Cheers!

James