Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. A running holiday !

At the Jesselton Point Jetty.

This holiday was planned due to the Borneo International Marathon. I have not been to Sabah. A lot of people staying in West Malaysia has never visited East Malaysia. Due to the expensive flights previously to visit East Malaysia. And we even need a passport to visit East Malaysia. Now we can visit East Malaysia thanks to the cheaper flights and just with a MyKad, i.e. our identity card. We also have direct flight from Penang to Kota Kinabalu. How convenient !

My impression of my first visit to Sabah is I have should visited her earlier. But the place would not have been more organised and developed then. The main attraction of Sabah seems to be its tourism especially eco-tourism and with the famous Mount Kinabalu. Mount Kinabalu is Southest Asia's highest peak. It is 4,095.02 metres tall above the sea level. She has been attracting visitors far and near. You can find out more about Sabah at this link, sabahtourism.com.

The group of tourists I discovered most is from Hong Kong where I found out that it is only a short flight from Hong Kong to Kota Kinabalu. But generally, Kota Kinabalu (KK) is more expensive place as compared to Penang. And the food is as expensive as Kuala Lumpur. Kota Kinabalu is also famous for fresh seafood. But it is place with much relaxed pace and KK is famous for it's fiery sunset. An attractive place for photographers. The main area of the city centre is not big which you can visit on foot. Unless you intend to visit Suteera Harbour or Tanjung Aru which is further away. Unfortunately, we didn't visit Tanjung Aru during the sunset. Tanjung Aru is said to have one of the best sunset.

Photo taken when she was trying to do a yoga pose. But I was too slow. But the photo still turns out to be awesome.

Absolutely amazing sunset photos

I could not go for island hopping before the race so as not to affect the performance of the race. So I went for island hopping at Tunku Abdul Rahman Park the next day after the race. I have only chosen two islands, ie Pulau Manukan and Mamutik due to time constraint.  The other two islands are Pulau Sapi and Pulau Sulug. It is convenient to visit Tunku Abdul Rahman Park as the jetty is in the city centre itself. Compared to Pulau Redang and Pulau Perhentian in Trengganu, I feel the Trengganu islands are more attractive due to the corals. But it is still worthwhile visiting. And of course, Sabah is famous for Sipadan island, one of top ten diving locations in the world. One of my diving friend once told me, if you dive, you have to dive Sipadan last. Because once you been to Sipadan for diving, you may not like the other diving locations. It seems that Sipadan's diving is that attractive !

Holiday mood photo at Pulau Mamutik

Pulau Manukan

My final conclusion on Kota Kinabalu is that I will travel again to Kota Kinabalu to visit the Kinabalu Park at Kundasang and more nature places near Kota Kinabalu. Kinabalu Park was gazetted as the first State Park in Sabah in 1964 and declared Malaysia’s first World Heritage Site by UNESCO in the year 2000 for its outstanding biological attributes. So it will be a first of many trips to come. And of course, a hike up Mount Kinabalu.


My next post will be on the Race Recap of the Borneo International Marathon (BIM). 

Garmin Forerunner 10

Garmin Forerunner 10

My Garmin Forerunner 610 was losing satellite signal a few times during my training runs and also the Penang Run 2nd Series at 14km. I just couldn't bared with it any longer. So I decided to sent the watch for repair. However, I was desperate to get a substitute as I have the Borneo International Marathon coming up on 25 August 2013. And I have still two weeks of training to go.

So I went to a Garmin dealer in Gurney Paragon to get the watch repaired and they told me they don't know when it will be repaired. But they were selling the lowest range of the Garmin Forerunner ie. Forerunner 10 which was priced at RM599. The Garmin Forerunner 10 is the entry level GPS watch for a runner.

This is what is stated on Garmin's website :-

Stylish, Simple GPS Captures Every Mile
Tracks distance, pace and calories
Start running with the press of a button
Identifies personal records
Virtual Pacer™ compares current pace to target
Plan, review and share runs at Garmin Connect™

Forerunner 10 is a GPS running watch that tracks your distance, speed/pace and calories. It also identifies your personal records and provides motivation along the way.

Ready to Run
Forerunner 10 is so easy to use, you can start your run with the press of a button. As you run, you can see your time and distance clearly displayed on 1 screen and calories and pace on another. You can also customize the settings to show pace and distance on the same screen.

It Fits
It’s our lightest, most comfortable watch yet and is available in multiple colors. The black/red and orange/black models have a slightly larger watch face and wider wristband. All models can be worn as a regular watch, so your running partner is always on hand. For typical use (with GPS on 30 minutes per day), the battery life is 10 days. If used continuously with GPS, the battery life is 5 hours.


Motivating Feedback
As you run, Forerunner 10 automatically alerts you when you complete each mile, giving you a friendly beep and a screen that flashes your time for that mile. When you complete your run and save it, you’ll see a summary of how you did, including your total time, distance, average pace and calories. The watch even lets you know when you achieve a personal record, such as your fastest mile or longest run to date.

Training Tools
For runners who want a little more, Forerunner 10 has a couple of simple training features. Virtual Pacer™ compares your current running pace to your target. It also has a run/walk feature that’s helpful if you’re just starting out or your running plan includes walk breaks.

Store and Share
With a simple connection to your computer, you can upload your runs to Garmin Connect™ to see your run on a map, get more detail on each mile and share it with friends — all for free. You’ll be even more motivated when you see your miles add up in Garmin Connect and can go back and see how you’ve improved from last week, last month or last year. 

Various display of Forerunner 10

So I have to get this Garmin Forerunner 10 as a temporary training watch. It is simple to use as compared to Forerunner 610 and light. But it is like kid's digital watch to me and the display is definitely as not as good as the Forerunner 610. With less features, it is really a simple watch to use for runners. My major complain of this watch other than the appearance of the watch is the 5 hours battery life on GPS which is really short. I will run out of battery if I run a full marathon. Secondly, the display of pace, time, distance is not all one page. You can only choose two of the items to display on one page. My biggest mistake is that I didn't do enough homework online when I purchased the watch. I should have purchased a Forerunner 210 which is 8 hours in training mode similar to Forerunner 610 but without the touchscreen and more sophisticated features of the Forerunner 610.

Just hope that I could get my Forerunner 610 repaired. If not, I will have to  purchase the Forerunner 210 and what to do with the Forerunner 10? Keep it as a training watch, I supposed.

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri

SELAMAT HARI RAYA AIDILFITRI  
Maaf Zahir & Batin