Pre-marathon Day (Saturday 11-Oct 2008)
The pickup at 430am and ride to Senai airport was uneventful. We arrived at the airport and saw the TPY Safra runners. There was a big group of them going to Kota Kinabalu for the run, and they had camped overnight at the airport. We saw Bev's father, Uncle Soon, and his elderly kakis too. My gosh, some of the uncles looked like they had trouble walking, but they were still bravely going for the full marathon. Wow. I slept blissfully throughout the flight, vaguely aware of some announcements of turbulence and seat belts....
It turned out that Uncle Soon and us were staying at the same hotel. We had to ask the bus to pick up Genevieve along the way. She was Chin KK's friend, a last minute adoption into my group of 3. She needed accomodation, and TTG had a single room to herself. We reached the new 1Borneo Hypermall, where our hotel Best Western Courtyard was. The rooms were not ready, so we went to roam the mall and had KFC. When we finally got our rooms, we realised that the hotel was not fully completed and there was some renovation and construction work on-going. Other than the slight mess along the corridor, it did not bother us. At least the hotel was brand new so most things were in working order.
Fiona and Ting Kwang picked us up for lunch. We went to a coffeeshop along Gaya Street selling claypot chicken rice and beef soup. The chicken rice was really delicious, using drumstick meat. We ordered a few pots of different stuff to share. Next we went to Likas stadium to collect our race packs. There was a minor error, and my category had not been changed to half marathon. The organizer said it was easier to put me into the 10km category instead because there was no champion chip timing. Which worked out well since I was apprehensive about running 21km anyway. The race tee was an addidas blue running vest (like our Stanchart vest), but in men's sizing only. Sigh...
Fiona wanted to bring us to Shangri-la Rasa Ria resort to see the sunset, but the weather looked like it was going to storm. Along the way, we stopped by a wooden makeshift hut for an amazing coconut pudding and barbecued giant clams. The pudding was very interesting because it was coconut juice and pulp somehow converted into a pudding texture, scooped back into the coconut. It was very refreshing, and amongst the 3 girls, we ordered 4 coconuts!
We headed back to the hotel for an early rest. TTG and Gene knocked out quite early by 5pm. Alber and I went to the mall for a quick dinner, and bumped into Eliza. She was staying at the new budget Tune hotel next to us! So we 'adopted' her as well and we all went for dinner together.
The pickup at 430am and ride to Senai airport was uneventful. We arrived at the airport and saw the TPY Safra runners. There was a big group of them going to Kota Kinabalu for the run, and they had camped overnight at the airport. We saw Bev's father, Uncle Soon, and his elderly kakis too. My gosh, some of the uncles looked like they had trouble walking, but they were still bravely going for the full marathon. Wow. I slept blissfully throughout the flight, vaguely aware of some announcements of turbulence and seat belts....
It turned out that Uncle Soon and us were staying at the same hotel. We had to ask the bus to pick up Genevieve along the way. She was Chin KK's friend, a last minute adoption into my group of 3. She needed accomodation, and TTG had a single room to herself. We reached the new 1Borneo Hypermall, where our hotel Best Western Courtyard was. The rooms were not ready, so we went to roam the mall and had KFC. When we finally got our rooms, we realised that the hotel was not fully completed and there was some renovation and construction work on-going. Other than the slight mess along the corridor, it did not bother us. At least the hotel was brand new so most things were in working order.
Fiona and Ting Kwang picked us up for lunch. We went to a coffeeshop along Gaya Street selling claypot chicken rice and beef soup. The chicken rice was really delicious, using drumstick meat. We ordered a few pots of different stuff to share. Next we went to Likas stadium to collect our race packs. There was a minor error, and my category had not been changed to half marathon. The organizer said it was easier to put me into the 10km category instead because there was no champion chip timing. Which worked out well since I was apprehensive about running 21km anyway. The race tee was an addidas blue running vest (like our Stanchart vest), but in men's sizing only. Sigh...
Fiona wanted to bring us to Shangri-la Rasa Ria resort to see the sunset, but the weather looked like it was going to storm. Along the way, we stopped by a wooden makeshift hut for an amazing coconut pudding and barbecued giant clams. The pudding was very interesting because it was coconut juice and pulp somehow converted into a pudding texture, scooped back into the coconut. It was very refreshing, and amongst the 3 girls, we ordered 4 coconuts!
We headed back to the hotel for an early rest. TTG and Gene knocked out quite early by 5pm. Alber and I went to the mall for a quick dinner, and bumped into Eliza. She was staying at the new budget Tune hotel next to us! So we 'adopted' her as well and we all went for dinner together.
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