k r i s a n d r o

I just posted the picture below on Twitter, Plurk & Facebook to ask if anyone knew what these are for.

And these are the couple of interesting guesses I got from the peeps online…

LOL!

These are actually “adhesive buttons” called TackOnz from a company called LiquidXcape. What they do is to replace the common way of securing racing bibs onto tees using safety pins.

The problem with safety pins is that they damage the tees, are difficult to put on and dangerous (SHARP PINS!!!! HELLO???). If your safety pins are rusted, it will even stain the event tees.

With TackOnz, the problems above are solved and it will just leave a small nipple-like mark on your tee after use which will apparently go away after a wash. It also addresses a problem that I suspect a lot of people would have like me – I am damn anal about making the bib parallel to the horizon base of my tee. Safety pins are such a pain in the ass when it comes to aligning the bib.

I wanted to test the TackOnz for my Adidas Sundown Marathon race but if don’t already know, I am out injured. But, from what I can tell, it is extremely secure and I don’t see it dropping in the middle of any race unless the race involves wrestling with a grizzly bear with PMS.

TackOnz comes in a package of 6 buttons and is retailing at $12 per pack. It is available at New Balance Concept Stores in Singapore. Discounts are available for bulk purchases (That’s how I got mine thanks to the folks at SGRunners).

More info can be found at LiquidXcape’s website.

I’ll probably do an update if I ever get fit enough to enter my next race. If that doesn’t happen, I’ll find a PMS-ing grizzly bear.

I started joining long distance races only last year and signed on for 3 of them so far: Singapore Bay Run 2009 (21km), Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2009 (42km) & Adidas Sundown Marathon 2010 (21km).

A couple of weeks before Singapore Bay Run last year, I was out with flu for a good 3 weeks and struggled to complete the whole of 21km. I didn’t even go for the Standard Chartered run because of a persistent hacking cough that lasted for 3 months before the race.

The Adidas Sundown Marathon 2010 is just this Saturday and guess what? I have been out injured because of a suspected inflamed tendon in my right foot that has been plaguing me for the last 3 weeks. Did I trigger this injury from training?

Nope!

I got it from chasing down a bloody bus because I wanna get home earlier to run!

 

I know that people always have an impression that I am pretty fit and *ahem* I think that is not far from the truth. *cough cough*

But I am and have been quite injury prone throughout my life and while I embark on this long distance running phase of my life, it seems pretty apparent that my injury woes continue to bug me like a persistent STD. (Not that I have one…)

KuKuNehNeh claims that I am cursed from running and told me to stop signing up for races because SOMETHING ALWAYS happens right before the races that displaces me back to square one sometimes even when I was training very hard.

Am I cursed?

After a long rest, I finally started on my training again for the Adidas Sundown (half marathon event) in May and for my 1st full marathon at the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon 2010.

For me, running is really quite enjoyable and all I need is to start in order to get the momentum going and I did it on 19th Jan. I have since ran 7 times and I am slowly building up my mileage like any proper training schedule.

I absolutely love to measure and record various numbers I can get out of everything and running is no exception. It serves as a great way to check my progress, adjust my schedule accordingly and of course to stroke the ego of mine whenever I see myself improving.

As you can see, comparing the 1st, 4th and the 7th run which I just completed hours ago, I have not only increased the distance I ran, I also ran faster and still managed to reduce the effort that my heart had to make for each run.

I do know that because I just started, it’s easy to have vast improvements but it’s still pretty interesting to have all the data recorded like that and compare it down the road.

Can’t wait to hit 10km and beyond in 3 weeks or so.

 

Boy am I such a running geek.

Without sounding like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite McDonald’s Seaweed Shaker Fries…

I am so dead. I am so DEAD. I AM SO DEAD. I AM SOOOOOO DEADDDD!!!!!!!!!

Ok. Fine. That really sounded like a drama queen who has been denied to eat her favourite Shaker Fries.

My running routine was interrupted by a bout of flu some time back and I had to steer clear of my jogging shoes while I recovered from the nasty bugs for 3 whole weeks.

Not only did I miss at least 90km of training but after trying to run again after the 3 week long break, I realized my mind, body and heart were so much weaker and I could not go back to the same intensity I was training prior to the flu. I should be hitting 22km for my long run this weak but instead, I have only managed to run a furthest distance of 12km so far.

With the Army Half Marathon only 11 days away, I am in serious deep shit.

I have thoughts about forgoing the 21km race next Sunday and concentrate on the year end’s Standard Chartered Marathon instead but I find it such a pity to not run when I have paid up and actually asked friends to join me for the run.

So I am probably going to generously adjust my pace so that I run as fast as a Shaker Fries deprived drama queen to make sure I am slow enough to finish the run.

I am so dead.