Laughter.. The Best Medicine!

In life we do not have good or great days all the time. Bad day at work? Family issues? Woke up at the wrong side of the bed? We are human after all.. There are times when we are down and just need some cheering up.. Some laughter..

What if we don't feel like running or biking to get our endorphin fix? There are always ways we can cheer up.. It's up to us to decide whether we want to turn things around. That's why i wanted to share you guys on how i turn around my day when it's bad.. Watching Stand Up comedy =D

Stand up comedy is very popular in America. If you google them, you will find tons and tons of stand up comedians with different comic materials. The ones that i like the most are the ones who always do stereotype comics. Let me share with you my current top 4 stand up comedians.

In number 4, Chris Rock. My favorite black stand up comedian. Does a lot of black people(african-american) comics and the women and men relationship.

In number 3, Jeff Dunham. He is a ventriloquist cum comedian, which is very rare. Best act which made him super famous is the character "Achmed the dead terrorist". It's a must watch and on youtube his views surpassed 142 million views. This link will bring you to his youtube video.

Second current favorite is Russell Peters. Canadian-Indian comedian who can relate his stereotype jokes to all races around the world. Too many funny lines and he has a funny facial expression which will just crack you up!

And my number 1 favorite is Gabriel Iglesias. Became super famous recently with his own show on comedy central "Stand Up Revolution". An obese American-Mexican comedian with ample of food and stereotype comics. He calls himself "fluffy" because there is 5 types of fat according to his dictionary. First being big, healthy, husky, fluffy and DAMN!...

I can watch their comics over and over again and still laugh and i hope these stand up comedians can turn your day around too.. Ciao!

(Note: All of the pictures were taken from various sites at Google Images)

Running can be FUN!

When it comes to running 5k, 10k, half marathon or full marathon, majority of us will take the race too seriously and forget how to have fun during the race. Sometimes we wonder how seasoned marathon runners enjoy running the full 42.195 km distance, Easy! They have fun and enjoy their long run via engaging with other runners on the road by chit chatting or they engage with the race it terms of taking pictures of the marching bands, runners, backdrops or cam whoring when the situation presents itself. So what do you think about entry level races like the 5k or 10k runs in our country? How do we ensure that the 10k runs are fun for those who are new to running and for those who are screaming in their head on when the race will finish because the finish line doesn't seem to be near?

COSTUMES!

Yeap! That's my theory.. My first 10k wasn't fun at all. I remembered running with my ipod and just seeing waves of runners.. Nothing interesting except for the water stations (when you are dead thirsty) and the bands who will bang their drums hard and trumpets blown hard to motivate you to the finish line. I was surfing running sites and realised that running events overseas like marathons, half or 10k does have their fair share of runners running in costumes. Isn't it entertaining to be running beside an Ultraman or instead us being the ones who don the costumes to motivate and entertain the 10k runs in Malaysia (I feel that the 10k runs in our country is always very serious somehow compared to the other countries thus losing the retention of runners for future races). Let's see how it will look like to run beside some of the costumes or us donning the costumes!

Ultraman - Maybe he will protect us from the bad guys

Happy Shark - Run faster of i'll bite your limbs off!

Angry baby - Stewie Griffin wannabe "Victory is mine"

Giraffe - Advantage to see elevation or water station ahead so he/she can strategise on the pace 

Hulk Hogan - What'cha gonna do brother when Hulkamania runs wild on you?

The wedding couple - What happened to the car?

Running nuns - Escapee from the nearby convent

Avatar (Neytiri) - Running in the city instead of her habitat. Perhaps looking for Jake Sully..

Darth Vader - Running away from the Jedi's or chasing after them.. Oh yeah.. we can hear you breathe from a mile away (Vader's mask breathing effect)

Leia, Luke Skywalker and Stormtrooper - Yup, it's confirmed that they are chasing Darth Vader

 Batman - After 1km he shouts "Where is my batmobile? I'm tired.. Alfred, if my batmobile is not here in the next 5 minutes, then you're fired! I need to finish first!"

Doraemon - Shall i use my gadget propeller and fly to the finish line instead?

Asian Minnie Mouse - A mouse running with 2 legs instead of 4? Boy oh boy..

Aladdin - Hey, maybe he will lend us his magic lamp and we will be granted 3 wishes

(Note: All of the pictures were taken from various sites at Google Images)

There you go.. I know given the hot weather in our country it will not be possible doing costumes in half or full marathons. But what about the entry level 5k and 10k's? It'll be so much fun to participate in those races knowing that there will be fun characters to run with and first time runners will find it entertaining and will return for future races (i know i will run the next 10k cause i want to see which character I'll meet next!)

Who says running is torturous? Running can be so entertaining and fun!

Barefoot running

It's year almost the end of 2011, so what has changed in the running community compared to the previous years? I read up on the birth of cushioned running shoes in the 1970's all the way to the current fad of minimalist shoes and barefoot running. We do see a growing trend of runners switching from cushioned to minimalism or barefoot due to trend or injury prevention (according to those who converted) Well, i would like to write on running barefoot based on my early life experience.. I hope one day i can go back to running barefoot again =)

During my early childhood, parents were quite conservative with money and didn't have the luxury like kids nowadays. When i was in primary school, i ran middle and long distance without shoes because the field is always partly damp and muddy. Back then i only had my bright white school shoes which i use for everything and i can't risk my shoes turning brown because of the mud. I practically did all my sports including hockey..yup! hockey! barefoot!

Even during my high school era i was always barefooted when i ran during physical education/pendidikan jasmani or when i play football. Only time i ran with shoes was my schools annual cross country event or inter class football tournament. Not running shoes but school shoes.. Yeah, the white one with no cushion with thick rubber soles and only cost RM24.90 back then. =D

After high school i wasn't active in running anymore although i did continue with my football and futsal when in college and uni days.That was the end of my barefoot era. During my early working career, i completely ditched sports and running completely.

About 2 years back i started hiking as my sporting activity because i knew running will be tough because you will need a lot of lungs for it and i was more confident in the more relaxing approach of hiking. Then about 6 months back i took up trail running and realised i don't have the muscles for running but i have ample of stamina.. Weird eh? it's always the other way around.. I started running on the road again with good running shoes and within a few short sessions i had minor PF issues. When that recovered, i had shin splints! Did my own diagnostics and found out that i had a super high arch and i have bow legged shape. Is it my shoes? enough cushion or support for under pronated feet? Wrong shoes for my feet? Or I'm just not born to run..

I refuse to give up cause i love running.. Gives me a feel good factor and i like free endorphins. Running is only second to sex (read it on an health article somewhere) when it comes to experiencing the satisfaction feeling. Did some experimenting and found out that i forgot how to run properly. My running gait is way off the proper gait. I was side heel striking, body slouching, hands swing sideways and the list goes on. I refrained from any running activities and let my muscles recover from the injuries. When i started again, i tried changing my form by wearing a more minimalist shoe (Nike free 2.0) and changed my footstike to forefoot. I was not surprised at all at the end of the day cause my muscles held up, no injuries and only sore calves from changing to forefoot strike.

My conclusion is that I forgot how to run naturally. I never ever had any injuries in the past when i was in my younger days and teens when i was running barefoot and in the space of 1 month i experienced PF and shin splints. I won't say cushioned, minimalist or even barefoot is good or bad cause every runner will have their own preference. In my opinion, barefoot or super minimalist shoes like VFF tends to make you run more naturally (even if you forgot how to run after all the years of not running) because our body will adjust to the ground automatically because there is no cushion or protection for the feet. The worst disaster will be going back to running without proper running gait with a cushioned/stability/neutral shoes and getting injured and then blame the shoes for getting injured because it somehow doesn't support your feet properly. Stability/cushioned/neutral shoes are designed to guide you to a proper gait by giving support to your arch, not change your running gait. After changing my running gait i feel that I'm starting to feel good about running without injuries just sore calves at the beginning stages. I'm back to my forefoot strike days and  I will try to transition slowly from my Nike frees to VFF's in the near future so i can relive my childhood days.. Ciao! =D

Nike We Run KL 2011 Collection Kit

Nike We Run KL 2011 is the last Nike city run in the south east asian region this year. Glad to hear that Nike Malaysia have already announce the race kit collection date which will fall on the 11th - 13th of Nov in Mid Valley megamall central court from 10am to 8pm. For those who can't make it for the collection, remember to get your friends or family to collect it for you! Authorisation form can be downloaded from here in pdf format.

So excited to be a part of Nike We Run KL race.. why? (shouldn't it be the same as the other 10k race around the calendar?)

• I'll be one of the 10.3k people who will paint the city red coming 27th Nov.
• Running along with so many people actually makes me happy.. I love running.. promoting this sport makes me feel good =)
• Get to experience endorphins laded atmosphere
• Hey, RM40 for 2 Nike Dri Fit shirts (run buddy run)? Game on!
• Finishers medal (usb drive, have you guys seen the SG finishers nike shoe USB? So cool..)

I hope Nike Malaysia will do a video promo for 2012 Nike We Run KL. You must be asking me why since 10.3k slots got filled up within 60 hours in KL and 48 hours in Nike We Run SG. And Nike We Run Seoul, 30k slots got filled up within 70 minutes! Must be wondering why is it so crazy in South Korea compared to the rest. Did my research and found out that they blasted out commercials before the registration and Nike running events in South Korea are huge! Nike promotes running as a healthy and a cool culture over there. Don't believe me? Check these 2 videos out!

Nike We Run Seoul 2011 Promo
Nike We Run Seoul 2011 Promo 2

Feel so excited when i came across those videos. Really pumped me up for this event compared to the rest. So for those who signed up for event, I'll hope to see you guys there and for those who sign up for the race just for the super cheap Dri Fit shirts but don't plan to run on the race day, please don't do that and be a part of runners who will paint the city red!

I'll end my post with a video from the post Nike We Run Seoul 2011 race day. Enjoy! Runners, be proud n loud! Ciao =D

Race day compilation of NIKE We Run Seoul 2011