Sidewinder

When one fails to find a suitable skirt in big fat Aussieland to wear during the colder months, the only obvious thing to do would be, of course, knit one. I found this pattern on Ravelry one day while I was supposed to be studying, and got excited because I had in mind the perfect colour, or rather, colours. Months ago I had chanced upon this black-white yarn by Morris and Sons, the local yarn store's own brand. I had thought of knitting a scarf with that one day, but this project seemed more fitting. Knitting only scarves can get boring after all.

I was too excited, in fact. I didn't think to bring the pattern instructions with the gauge on it, so I ended up buying yarn that was too thin (4 ply instead of the 8, the yarn used by the designer was 5). Had to go back to change the yarn, get new needles etc. A bit potong stim. The skirt is made up of 8 parts, knit lengthwise. I only finished it after 3 months, with semi-express knitting after coming home. While knitting, it seemed so small and I got a bit worried because I didn't bother to take measurements and automatically knitted the XS. Checked the website and measured myself when I was already halfway through, but luckily it was the right size, phew. I would have cried if I finished the thing and couldn't wear it.

Pretty satisfied with the end product, mainly because it is quite comfortable! The only gripe I have about the yarn is that it was not as nice to knit after awhile, with all the strands unravelling (or maybe because of my lack of skills). At some parts the black-white stranding became just white fluffy white thread, which ruined the homogeneity of the skirt. There were also random knots in each ball as well, like those one finds in super cheap yarn, and these were not exactly cheap.

Before waist band insertion. The picture after elastic band insertion ruined the shape of the skirt because it had to accommodate my big bottom.

Modeled by RJ the youngest sister, whose smaller bottom (ish!) makes the skirt look better.

It needs more blocking because the ends still roll in. There's the problem now of figuring out what to do with the remaining 1.5 balls of yarn; I only used 4.5 balls instead of the recommended 6. Another pair of socks, maybe.

TNF 50km Duo

Thank goodness it wasn't the TNF 100km Duo.

Running this race was a semi-crazy idea, but the challenges the terrain provided were worth it.

I didn't want to take any chances with the injuries flaring up during the run so I taped both legs with KT tape, hoping that they would work. Ended up looking like some hard-core wannabe.

We reached MacRitchie Reservoir with ample time before the start of the race. Although there was an hour or so to spare, many people were already warming up, drenched in sweat. After checking our equipment and having our pre-race weights measured we just walked around the place a bit, then sat down to relax. It was going to be a hot day, so we didn't bother running up and down like everyone else. Only did stretching and ran about 200m before the race started.

There was a time limit of 4 hours 30 mins if the 25km participants were to get the finisher's medal. Having not trained adequately for this, the only preparation I did was to look up an online article that said that trail running would take approximately twice the time one took to run on the road. This was worrying indeed as I took nearly 2.5 hours in my less-than-satisfactory half marathon in Sydney. That aside, the aim of the day was to finish the race, nothing else.

At the start, everyone was keen to get ahead as there were so many people running together. We paced ourselves (I thought it was too fast but there was the cut-off time for the checkpoints too) and managed to reach the 5km mark 10 minutes ahead of scheduled time. Thankfully there was a water refill station and toilets at this point. Not having acclimatised to the weather, my body had over heated and I felt pre-syncopal. The queues for the toilet were long; 10 minutes had passed by the time we resumed running.

It was pretty uneventful. Reached the second check-point well ahead of time. Didn't know that at first though, and the volunteers didn't know if the checkpoint was before or after the hill. Not wanting to take any chances we ran for the hill after refilling our hydration packs with 100 Plus.

The hill was a KILLER. It was so steep and I was just not fit enough to run up. Tried to walk as fast as possible while B disappeared to wait for me at the top. Runners who were on their way down were running quite fast and that was a bit demoralising. After reaching the top, we had to go down (finally!). Didn't speed down the hill though because I <3 my toenails. There were signs telling runners to walk anyway because of the steepness. Returned to the checkpoint earlier for more 100 Plus and off we went again.

The rest of it was just running. And running. And time for personal reflection (READ THAT UNSW). At one point I felt this indescribable sense of happiness although tiredness had already set in; it made me feel like running non-stop (probably until my legs fell off ). Sadly, the dreaded cramps came just before the next water station, so it was just walking and stretching for nearly 1km. Just as we were getting a bit lazy by walking more than necessary, this slightly overweight Caucasian woman overtook us. After going !!!!!!!!!!! we magically had the motivation and energy to start running again, haha.

B left me to run ahead again. I continued to run smaller steps and in bad form for fear of the cramps coming back again. On the way I passed by one 100km solo runner going in the opposite direction, omg so fit! I was already half dying from a race that was only one quarter that distance. B was waiting for me at the 20th kilometre and it was then when we realised that we were about 45 minutes ahead of the previous checkpoint. In time for the finishers' medal, whee!

The last 5 km were the hardest. I ran out of fluids and my fingers were edematous, bleh. Luckily I had one more banana to keep me going. Runners had mostly slowed to a walk-run-walk stage by then too, which did not help with the motivation. It is sad to say that my incentive to keep running was to get ahead of a guy who had BO.

Anyway the finish line appeared eventually, and I ran in terrible form towards it, but oh so happy! Time was 3 hours 45 minutes, quite slow but what the heck, race goal achieved =) Also caught up with Mohan at the end, who did the 100km Duo event.

The hard-earned medal :D

Overall team placing was 175, but considering the lack of training and injuries prior to this, I am very pleased. This run left me with mild plantar fasciitis though, argh. Plans for the Singapore Marathon have been canceled due to the non-existence of training, like srsly. But no matter, I found a 10k event that I might go for on the same day, but at TTDI.

N.B. The KT tape worked by the way, placebo effect or not. At about 12k I felt some pain at the side of my knee but ignored it, and it never came back. It's definitely not good for climates like Malaysia and Singapore though. Not sticky at all at the end of the race.

TNF 100 Sydney one day?

Also, no more 100 Plus till the end of the year for me.

Meet cupcake and peanut rabbit

Their new owners are happy, so that makes me happy too :D

This is getting addictive.