Exams over. Back to running again.

Last Sunday i finally finished my last exams as a medical student. It's a clinical exams with 9 stations to go, each station testing us on different aspects of medicine. During this whole period, I have lived a very unhealthy lifestyle, with instant noodles (with eggs), fastfood and bread with nutella as my regular meals. Most nights before the exams though, JC would cook dinner for us. Otherwise, most of my other meals were mainly high fat, high salt type of food. Moreover, I have not been able to go running as often as i could. Most evenings we were busy practising cases. Now that exams is over, it's time to get some order back into my life again.

I have always enjoyed running, particularly after major events. Exams, CF retreat, holidays, talk or some big races etc. It's my way of heading back to the root, back to simple primitive way of living and engaging with nature, unhindered by pressure of time or self-expectation, free of burden and worries. Experiencing God in such environment and condition is surely refreshing. It's as if the world stood still, and His presence becomes strangely palpable.

Today I went running for the first time after exams. I was running on road for the first 18 mins, then i entered into Toohey Forest. The forest is not huge, but it contains some nice trails traversing the thick jungle growth in an undecipherable pattern. I just ran on whichever trails my feet found. It's such an enjoyable experience where I could feel the wind on my face, listen to the sounds of the trees and rustling leaves and become aware of the rocks underneath my feet. All that went by were little reminders of God's creative work. Before long, my body and face were full of sweat; the heart rate also became faster, the breathing more laboured. It was time to run home before the sun went down.

Today was fun. :)

Entrance of Toohey Forest

Toohey Forest map. See how confusing the trails are.

A long way ahead

Beagles! it's one of the dogs my gf and i want to get in the future

Nice trail

Last day as a medical student

After five and a half grueling years of studying, we have finally come to the final day as medical students. As I stepped out of the hospital, my heart was filled with a mixture of joy, sense of accomplishment, and surprisingly - a tinge of heaviness. It's certainly a moment that i have been looking forward to, since the first day I entered into medical school. But now that the day has arrived, my mood was undecidedly ambivalent. I could definitely feel a change in status and responsibility as i left the hospital because the next time we enter the same building, we are no longer students but doctors. We no longer need to say: 'Hi Mr Brown. I am a fourth year medical student. Do you mind if i do an examination on you?'. Or 'Hi Dr Schoeman, I am a medical student. I am with your team for the next 8 weeks. Hope that's ok.' Instead, we will be saying: 'Hi I am your doctor. I need to take some history from you. So when did you start having this pain?'

I am definitely going to miss the responsibility-free days of running in and out of the hospital any time I want. Ok not exactly anytime i want but we have much freer schedules compared to the doctors. I am also going to miss the freedom of going from one department to another and learning a variety of things, instead of being stuck in a particular department for a long time like what most doctors do. Most importantly, I am going to miss all the fun times that I spent together with my close friends - meeting up, playing sports, watching movies, chit-chating. Not that doctors can't do that, but doctors are generally busier and all of us would be scattered all over the world anyway.

Now it's just a week to our final exams. It's a final sprint to the finish line and all of us have been working extremely hard. I am revising past years cases with two of my close friends - kianlong and JC and we spend a lot of time studying, talking nonsense, examining and grilling one another. Sometimes when we are bored or feel tired, KL and I will start playing fruit ninja on the iphones and that would almost certainly annoy JC and she will start scolding us. :D

If God wills that i pass this exams, I will join the rest of my batchmates on 16 Dec for our graduation ceremony. Dear Lord, please help all of us and sustain us in this period of intensive revision. Help us to do our best for Your glory. Amen!

Mater Hospital

At the entrance

Queensland Health Ambulance

A monument in the hospital which symbolised the miracle of healing.

Sunshine Coast Football team

Doctors vs Students match

Earlier days as med students when we were proud to hang our stethoscopes around our necks. :p (Behind: Seremban Hospital)

Two of my best friends. :)

Running at UQ (St Lucia campus)

I have been a UQ (University of Queensland) student for close to 2 years now but I had not actually ran in UQ before. What an irony. The thing is, though i am a UQ student, I have been posted to Sunshine Coast clinical school for these 2 years, and Sunshine Coast is more than an hour away from UQ. So I effectively had no chance of running in UQ at all. Not until today!

Since i am currently doing my elective in Brisbane now, I bunked over at a good friend's house. His house is located pretty close to UQ. So when I can no longer withstand the stress of studying and cramping the differentials for chest pain, syncope and vaginal bleeding into my overloaded brain, I escaped ... to do my favourite activity of the day ie running. I ran to UQ!

My study buddies - Kianlong and his girlfriend, JC

Running around UQ brought about good feelings. The brain relaxed, the muscles loosened and the spirit refreshed. UQ is very beautiful..

Came across this signboard when running. Quite meaningful.

UQ Lake

Nice building

Campus map

Another nice building

Yet another nice building. Sorry i don't study here so i don't know the names of these buildings. :(

UQ Track

Beach volleyball. Yinn Cher will be very happy when he sees this!

Five topless guys running in UQ

UQ bridge

UQ Trail

I ran for about 50 minutes, that's approximately 11km. Happy! Time to study. :)

Happy Birthday 'Uncle' !

A video that we made last year for Anke's birthday!

This year, due to exams, we could not have a good birthday celebration with him. He is sitting for his obstetric and gynaecology exams tomorrow and we are all having our final exams as medical students next weekend.

Jeremy Er, aka 'Anke' has been my best friend for years. Looking back at those early days that we met in IMU, I could see how God has brought us together and sustained our friendship through all these years. We got to know each other from swimming. Being the ex-national swimmer that he is, he led the team to victory. Since then, we have been participating in a lot of activities together. Mountain-climbing, running, mission trips, scuba-diving, serving in Christian Fellowship etc. He has been really supportive, sacrificial in many ways, and is always there whenever i need him.

Like all good friendship, ours went through difficult times. Thankfully, each trial only served to strengthen the friendship further and enhance our understanding of each other. Now, we can both easily predict what each other is thinking or going to do because of what we have gone through.

The road ahead is still long. Anke, one of the rare jewels left in the world, is still single (hint hint to the girls out there :p). Many things have yet to unfold in our lives which will change things around and disturb the balance that we have. I hope the journey ahead will just be as fun and exciting as before.

God, strengthen this brother and help him find his purpose in life. In Jesus' name, amen.

IMU Cup swimming 2006

Inti Biathlon 2007. Anke (second from left)

Inti Biathlon 2007 - the last march with lip jeen :)

Inti Biathlon 2007 victory

Inti Biathlon 2008 victory (again)!

Mission trip in Cambodia in 2007

Behind every successful man, there is always a supportive woman. :D

Peak of Mt Kinabalu (2007)

The 3 Js at the peak.

Scuba diving in Sipadan (2008)

At the peak of Mt Trusmadi, Sabah (2008)

Anke and Ken simulating titanic. :p

Penang trip (2008)

Eco culture Adventure Race in Kelantan in 2009. First runners' up. :D

TMBT 2011

This is going to be the final race for this year. Three months of hard work finally boils down to this last race - The Most Beautiful Thing - Malaysia's first 50km/100km Ultra Trail Marathon. It's held in Sabah, in the mountains and valleys around Mt Kinabalu.

Early morning, I woke up at 3am. I was not hungry then, but i knew i had to squeeze some food into my stomach. I made some protein drinks, swallowed some bun and chocolate. Mao's mum was already awake by then and she made me two hard-boiled eggs too. Then at 3.45am, after reading a chapter of Psalm in my bible, we made our way to Hotel Megah D'Aru, where all competitors were supposed to meet. In the car, I was listening to some gospel songs and trying to stay as calm and relaxed as possible.

Having mao with me before we were transported to the starting point - Kota Belud.

Yip and I

At 5am, we all boarded some buses to go to Kota Belud, which is the starting point. It was an hour's journey, so i tried to catch some sleep in the bus. I ate some bananas before arrival to have as much energy store as possible before the run.

Before the flag off, I looked for some place to relieve myself. After that, I was just walking around, watching and admiring the scenery and trying to prepare my mind and heart for the hours of running later. The scenery was beautiful, somewhat surreal, and we could see the peak of Mt Kinabalu in front of us. It's a great day for running, i thought. At the flag off, i said a silent word of prayer, then off we went!

Runners walking to the start line

The flag-off

The Start

Right from the start, Yip and I were leading in front. He had told me before this that we should try to pace one another for as long as we can. Well, Yip is a much better runner so it would be great if i could just follow his pace. He was running 100km and I was doing 50km. We were running on gravel road with lots of uphill and downhill. About 20 minutes into the run, Dino - the famous Malaysian Triathlete and Adventure racer caught up with us, and three of us continued running together.

The front pack of runners - Dino (middle), Yip (right) and I (left)

We passed checkpoint 1 at 9.5km mark. The watch read 51 minutes. Good pace. We quickly gulped some water and gel down and off we went.

There were a few sections where we ran past villages. There were dogs barking at us and some even tried to chase us. Dino told me not to slack and ignore the dogs because there have been times where dogs attack humans where they think humans are not paying attention. Wow. Now, besides climate and terrain, we have to deal with another element - the animals.

We reached checkpoint 2 at 19.5km together. The watch read 1 hr 45 mins. It's still a good pace. After refilling my bottle, i quickly swallowed another pack of gel. I had planned to consume my gels at the right time such that i would have enough energy and electrolyte throughout the run. The next section of 8km was uneventful. We did have the view of Mt Kinabalu in front of us, and it's certainly a great feeling running beside this magnificent mountain. 

At checkpoint 3 (27.5km), I could see signs of Yip slowing down. I was not sure if he was struggling with stomach problems again. In the past, stomach problems have robbed him of some great race results and it's certainly a persistent problem that he has to deal with, particularly in a ultra-marathon like this. Between checkpoint 3 and 4, it's 14km of running and we had to pass hills, valleys, rivers, hanging bridge etc. Dino and I began to pull away from Yip.

Dino and I at the front

At some point after we have crossed a major hill section, Dino began to slow down. I continued at the same pace. Before long, I was running in front alone. At this point, I told myself that I could win this race if I was able to give a meaningfully best effort till the finish. But I was not going to let the competitive demon take over me completely by raving my way through without enjoying the beautiful surrounding i was in. I must always remind myself that it's not the end that matters, but the journey. Slowly and gradually, I eased into a state of blissful running, and the body developed a new way of absorbing positive incoming messages and filtering out the negative ones. I was pretty sure my body and legs and joints were aching then, but they did not get into me as i was too deep in my engagement with the nature, the sound of river, and the majestic view of mountains and valleys around.

River

Mt Kinabalu in the background

Crossing hanging bridge. Rule of the game: Only max two competitors on the bridge at one time and no running is allowed. Any breach of rule will result in instant disqualification!

A long way ahead

I bumped into Singapore Blade runner along the way. He was running the 25km category. Told him that I was honoured to meet him and encouraged him to keep going. (Singapore Blade runner had a leg amputated some years ago and he continues running with prosthesis despite his disability)

I reached the final checkpoint at 41.5km mark at 4 hr 30 mins. Finished my last pack of gels and chomps and had the marshal record my time and race bib. I also found time to borrow a phone from a villager to send a text to mao to tell her i was reaching soon. Then i continued running. Somehow in my excitement, i missed the course marking and started running on a wrong route. After a few minutes of running, I realised something was not right. I could see no more course marking along the route. I cautiously ran ahead while keeping a look out for any course flag. None was found. Till I reached what looked like a dead end. I knew I was in a wrong direction. I quickly ran back to the junction where I thought i missed the marking. I probably lost about 5-10 minutes in the process. By then, Dino had caught up. Wow, he was fast! Gasping and panting, I had to keep my nerve down and not to let negative emotions affect the rest of my run.

The last section consist of some heavy uphill running. I started to widen the gap with Dino again. In the last 1km, I saw Avtar - the race director, standing at a junction where we were supposed to turn off the main road. 'How long more left to go?' I asked. 'Just run downhill all the way and the finish line is there'. He replied. A profound sense of joy welled up in me. I knew I was almost at the end.

The final section was just a bliss. All the pain and fatigue had disappeared. I was cruising at a slow pace, trying to take in all that was around me. This would be the final moment of TMBT 2011. I want to remember what i have seen and experienced as much as possible. At a time of 5:36:55, I finished the 50km ultra-marathon in 1st place.

Finishing 1st in a time of 5:36:55

The gear that served me well during the run. IMU jersey, New Balance MT 101, wrist band that mao specially made, and a loose-tighting mizuno pants.

Bliss

With mao's parents, whose love and support i am greatly indebted to and appreciate.

Results of the race are available here.