The last day of 2009 (and a yearly wrap up in five lines or less)

There are a only a few hours left of 2009. It has been a good year. Lauren and I got engaged. We moved country. We found and furnished a great apartment. Work went well. I completed a 70.3 and a marathon. We visited lotsof nice countries; Australia, Bali, China, Ireland, Mexico, Thailand, UK, US and a few others for work. My folks came to visit and everyone close to us has got through the year healthy and fit.

To close the year, I am going to leave the office and have a swim and then jump on a plane to Sydney. I am looking forward to my first trip to the East Coast of Australia. Depsite living in Asia, I am sure I will be the whitest person on Bondi!!

It is Ben and Lou's wedding on Saturday in the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney which made for the perfect excuse to get down there and see in 2010, Aussie style.

With all the fun to be had, I am not sure about starting the year on a run... Although I did take out my trainers to put them in the suitcase...

Happy New Year to all!

race calendar 2010

I havent quite decided what races i will enter this year and hope that I will find someone who i can take some advice from on the Malayisa calendar sometime in January. Having just moved here, I am like a fish out of water. I have heard really bad things about some of the races in Malaysia, and on balance, I have heard some pretty good things too so I am not sure what to believe.

The races that i know for sure I will do are:
 - Singapore Marathon - December
 - Powerman Malaysia - November
 - Sheares Bridge Run half marathon - August

The ones that I have not yet decided on are:
 - Bintan Triathlon - May
 - Cyberjaya half marathon - February
 - Aviva Singapore 70.3 - March

The 70.3 is in late March and I dont feel that I am ready for it, although there is still 12 weeks to go. The problem is that I haven't been out on my bike for months. I am back in the pool though and have been running regularly again for a few weeks....

I am really interested in another couple of half marathons and ten km road races to build into my training schedule throughout the year. I am also going to spend a little time in January finding a running club or two to join to help me find some decent routes and to provide a little 'peer pressure'. I have been too easy on myself in the last three or four months and probably need to drive a bit harder.

Why the 'faster lane'?

I have just been admiring my thirty minutes of handiwork designing this blog. I have grand ideas about keeping it up to date, particularly with my training, but i guess we will have to see how that goes.

As I was looking over the page, and admiring the nice photo of our new home town that I blantaltly stole off the web (until I find a nice self-taken replacement), I thought it would be worth a note about why I have chosen the title I have...

There are two reasons.

Driving in KL is an experience. Lauren is getting used to driving on the left side of the road for the first time in her life and is doing well She appears to have mastered the art of KL traffic - where he who believes he owns the road wins. I am trying (and failing) to find the quickest routes between point A and point B and often end up in the wrong lane on the highway with about 12 seconds notice of our impending exit. Very frustrating.

I have now run three marathons, a couple of 70.3 Ironman triathlons and a dozen other road and triathlon races. 2010 is going to be a running year for me. 2010 is going to be run in the faster lane...

My new Blog

Last year my wife-to-be set herself a new year's resolution that she stuck to throughout all of 2009. It wasn't too tough but it required discipline; and I admire her for it. For the last couple of days, as I allowed the christmas indulgence to settle and prepared myself for New Years, I have given a lot of throught to my news years resolution(s) for next year and have decided to write a new blog.



I have four real "interests" in life... five, if you count my work, but that may require another resolution and a whole new blog all unto itself.



This blog will primarily be about running. Of my other intestests, there will be mention travel (we do a lot), running  triathlons (of which I will do more), cooking and eating (for which I have discovered a whole new world of amazing blogs) and photogrpahy (which is made all the more fun because of our new christmas present - a Canon 5D Mark II).