My Wedding

 May 12, 2021

My day started off at 7am, with a morning Chloe ting workout followed by a shower. My make-up artists were arriving at 10am that day. Both Anita Lee and Sarah Katsuno arrived at the same time. Then we got started. I basically told Anita to do her magic. My hair inspo was the following:

Jared our videographer was scheduled to arrive around 12:20 am to do the get-ready shoot for me and Michael. Michael arrived around 12. I had him wait downstairs so he doesn't see me. Jared worked with him outside to do some get-ready shots with him and then Jared did some with me. We did our first look just outside my mom's house. Afterwards, my brother ordered Chinese food for lunch: we had beef with bitter melon on rice, baked pork chop on rice, salty fish fried rice. Had lunch with dad, bro, mom and me. Around 2:30 we headed out to Squamish airport to meet up with my officiant: Tracy Kerr, and Krista from Lumina. The drive to Squamish was about an hour and 30 mins and it went smoothly not much traffic. We got to Squamish at 4pm and then we had our wedding ceremony at Alice Lake. The ceremony was about 2 hours long. I walked down with my dad, Tracy memorized everything and she was great. We shared our vows. (when I read my vows I was a little nervous so I had to change some words). To this day it remains a blur, just so many emotions running through me that day. I had to make sure everything went smoothly. Afterwards, we signed our papers, got it witnessed by my brother and Michael's mom and then we took some photos. Tracy then had to leave and she baked some very hard cookies. Delicious but over baked.

Then our parents left and we waited for our flight to Tantalus mountain. We got to the parking lot of the airport and met up with Tatiana around 5pm. She messaged the company asking them if we can fly earlier (we were supposed to fly around 6:30pm) we ended up going up earlier. The flight was only about 15 mins up. We couldn't make it all the way up because it was too cloudy and no visibility so we took photos in the middle of the mountain. It was super hard to walk in my dress and I'm so glad a bought a dress skirt to walk "easier" in the snow. And snow got into my boots so I wish I wore socks but the temperature was fine. Barely any wind and warmer than the lake. We took photos, popped champagne and just posed for the camera. People ask me if I feel any different and to be honest, no because I and Michael have been together for 12 years. I'm just glad we made it official so we can spend our lives together as a happily married couple. Can't wait to see what the future holds for us both. 

The Proposal

    It all happened on Friday, January 1, 2021. We woke up around 9:30am and we started off the morning doing Chloe Ting workouts. It took about an hour long. We were scheduled to do the polar bear swim that morning. We told Hannah and John we were leaving at 10:30am and headed to Golden Ears. Michael mentioned the night before that John his cousin was also coming as well as Pedro. I was excited to hear that more ppl were joining us for our 3rd annual polar bear swim. The weather was supposed to be rainy all day but we had mostly cloudy skies during the event. Michael scheduled to meet both his cousin and Pedro at the Tim Hortons near his parent's house. So we got there around 11am. I think we got to Golden Ears about 11:30-12pm. It was great to see Angel, Aurora, Jenny, Mikayla, and Marcus out to watch. I headed out of the house with just my sports bra, shorts, and my jacket because I didn't want to put on new clothes and I forgot to bring my shoes with me so I had flip flops on the whole time. This was bad because my feet were freezing after the swim. I did bring clothes to change out of and towels. I was ready to go just waiting on Hannah and John to arrive. Once they got out we were ready to hit the waters. We were about to go when a lady came up to us asking if we were doing the polar bear swim and we said yes we were and she told us she was a reporter working for the Maple Ridge News and asked if it was ok to take photos and we said yes. We then all ran in, jumped in and I was the first one out. As always I run-in with my flip-flops and I realized just then when I got out that I had to look for them to get out. Thank goodness they were floating nearby. Out of the water I quickly grabbed my towel to dry off. Then while looking downwards Michael was on one knee saying he dropped something and in his hand was a ring. I swear I was too cold to even notice. I seriously thought he injured his leg or something when he was in the water. And then I waited...waited....till he popped the question and I said YES! And we didn't even know which hand to put the ring on. That's how newbie we both were. Afterward, we hugged and kissed and our family and friends celebrated with us. All of them surprised except for Pedro and Angel who helped Michael pick out the ring. This was definitely a special moment for the both of us. We took some photos with everyone. Said our goodbyes. Went home showered and went out to have our favorite bun bo hue noodles on Nanaimo and Kingsway. Cafe Xu Hue. And we just settled at home and had a chill night.

My 1st Marathon Completed!

Finally the day arrived Sunday May 10 was Mother's day and also my marathon day. I set the alarm for 5:30am. Sun was supposed to rise at 5:35ish. So I wanted to start my run around 6am. My goal was not to stop. I didn' t have a set time of finishing or a pace but I was guessing around 5 hours for my run and a pace of 5:30-6:30. The day before I celebrated mother's day a day earlier so I can rest after my marathon. Mother's day prep consisted of me waking up at 6:45am and then prepping, cleaning, cooking and socializing till 4pm. So I had a very long day and I didn't really eat as well. So that wasn't a good start for my "carb intake" for my marathon. Bf bought pizza home for dinner so I had 3 slices. But overall, I definitely did not eat enough before my run and my sleeping hasn't been very good as well. So I started off the race pretty low energy. It hit me around 8k. Sleepy ness settled in and I was conserving my energy during this time. My goal was to run from 6am-11am. I wasn't sure if the lake was busy too because it was Mother's day but we had a back up plan to head to the urban trail if it became too busy to run/social distance. The plan was to run burnaby lake 4 times which is about 10k each loop. I started off slow to start then speeding it up till 8k. I started my morning taking a vitamin c drink plus an iron pill. Then during my run it was gel packs at every 7k. After the 2nd gel pack around 14K I was already looking forward to taking another one since my energy was low. Since we didn't have booths to grab water at, we also had to carry water packs. I had half a litre with me during this time with a 1 nuun tablet dissolved into the water and a few ice cubes to keep my water cold. The temperature started around 11 degrees and then it shot up to 18 degrees around 9am. Thank goodness the lake is mostly covered and shaded by trees. So the areas that were open, the sun will be pretty hot. After about the 2nd lap more ppl will show up. More runners. My bf suggested heading to urban trail after our 2nd lap but due to the sun being so hot and urban trail not being shaded at all I told him we should continue on to the 3rd lap at the lake. It was only some parts of the trail that was a gridlock with ppl (not sure why there was a 10 ppl running group happening during this time but it did). Anyways we continued our run. At 8k being tired I was worried because the last long run I did was a 35k and I wasn't tired till I hit 25. So I was very worried. So I kept drinking my water till the 3rd gel pack. We had 5 in total per person for the run. Everything went well. I tripped but my shoe rebounded fast so I didn't sprain my ankle. I'm glad I didn't have to pee or poo during my run. Bf had 2 washroom breaks. At about 38k my pace dropped till around 8. My legs and knees were tired. But I slowed my pace to conserve my energy. We had to do up to 42.5k because the file wouldn't read properly if we only did a 42.2. So I ran slower but at 41k I decided to give all I got. I was running around 5:30 pace. When bf announced that the race was done I quickly grabbed my phone and realized that my tracking time was off and I had another 1.5 to do. So I kept running till I hit 42.5. Overall, a great run. Not as hard as I thought. I wished it was the real thing because it felt like another training session to me. But it is a great accomplishment and I can finally say I had run a marathon. In the back of my head I wanted to do a triathlon. I really have to brush up my swimming skills to do 50 laps in the pool and I need to get a bike to practice cycling 40k but I got the running all good to go for a 10k run. Not sure how to train for the swimming part during this time but it will be a good accomplishment to finish a triathlon.

Training for the Marathon 2020

During this epidemic: Covid-19 most of the marathons/runs are cancelled. So my marathon is coming up in May and it is announced that it will be a virtual run. So you basically run anywhere you like but there will be a tracker to track your pace, time and speed. I'm 8 weeks into my training. The training takes about 12 weeks. The run is on Sunday May 3rd. I've decided to run early in the morning when the sun rises to avoid crowds probably around 6-7am. My goal is to run the marathon within 5-6 hours time. My pace will be at 5:30-6:30. My running route will probably either be 4 times around Burnaby Lake which is about 10K each time depends how busy it is. I might have to improvise and go along the urban trail. Training hasn't been super hard. Weekends usually consists of my long runs 20K+. I find it easy to run long runs that are less than 25K. Weekdays consists of interval training, hills and 8K runs. Last December I misplaced my Brooks Adrenaline Gts 19 running shoes so I purchased some Adidas Ultraboost 19 shoes and I'm still running with my Adidas Terrex Cmtk Gtx Hiking Shoes for when it rains or is muddy outside. I've noticed during this training period that I have less bruised, black toes compared to training for my half marathon. I'm not sure if its because of the shoes or if my feet is getting stronger and more resilient. But this is a huge change for me. My calves are definitely tighter after my runs and my thighs are getting more defined. I've also been taking gel packs for my long runs of 20K+. I'm currently taking Clif Shot energy gels which consists of no caffeine just 12g of sugar, 90 mg of sodium, 55 mg of potassium, 24g of carbohydrates and it is 100 calories per serving. I usually take 2. 1 per 10k. My favourite flavour is the raspberry one. I like the tartness of it, makes it less sweet. I usually take it when I reach 8K and the next one around 20K. I bought my Ultraboost around January and I still haven't gotten use to the bounce back of the shoe. I run mostly in my trail runners because its still winter here and early spring. So wet weather continues to be the factor of my choice of shoes to wear. I also usually run on the treadmill on the weekdays at the gym and on the weekends I usually run at the lake on gravel. Its a great way to train on different paths/foundation. But after the Covid hit, gyms were closed so the rest of my training is mainly on trails and city running. The issue with city running that I find is there is more ppl to dodge and its much busier. And also traffic lights slow down my pacing. So I prefer running on trails. Week day training also includes meditation which is seriously the hardest thing for me to do. To sit down, concentrate on myself and my breathing. And also yoga is also implemented once a week. I realized also during my longer runs that chaffing is an issue I need to address. I've been wearing long pants to run but started to wear shorts and the chaffing is pretty annoying. So my next few runs I'll be testing out vaseline or baby powder. If that doesn't work I might need to get a big bandaid to cover up that area. Eating has been the same for me. Nothing really changed. I usually just eat more or carb up more the day before my long runs. But I haven't really eaten more or less, its pretty much standard. No dieting just the usual.

Japan 2020

So off to the new year we left on Jan 9th to Japan. We flew JAL for the very first time in my opinion Air China (owned by Taiwan) is far better in regards to service and the food. But, overall a safe journey to our layover in Tokyo and our first destination, Osaka. The last couple of times I travelled I had issues with pressures around my knee area so I decided to purchase some compression tights which helped a lot during this trip. I highly recommend them if you have similar issues. I purchased the 2XU flight compression tights. I also had compression socks which I purchased from amazon. But the tights work well on its own. My only complaint is the material is very absorbent so after your flight it really stinks the material just fyi. The flight went smoothly. We arrived in Osaka without any data so we got quite lost about an hour and a half of searching for our hotel. We stayed at the APA hotel near the highway. I didn't know it was that close to the highway and our room was facing the highway so there was a lot of noise. I wasn't aware of this so make sure you check thoroughly the location of your stay. The rooms were small typical of japan but the anemities was there. We were about a 15-20 min walk from Dontonburi "eat street" of Osaka. Which wasn't to bad. I loved Osaka, it felt safe, the streets were clean and everyone there just biked everywhere. It wasn't busy at all, relax, chill environment even the main street area wasn't too busy which I prefer. Osaka is known for their takoyaki, okonomiyaki pancake, grilled meats and deep fried veggies and meat. Some of my favourite food items there was the melon pan with ice cream, fresh mochi from the stall near the Osaka Aquarium. And my very first ramen was from Ichiran. This was a fast food chain and it tasted just like the instant noodle package. The soup was the same and the noodles were the same but I finally go to try the egg (perfectly marinated) and the pork (thinly sliced, marinated to perfection).  I really enjoyed my stay in Osaka even though it was only 2 days.
            Next up, Hokkaido: we flew from New Chitose to Sapporo, my bf had a snowboarding trip with his friends at Kikoro resort for 5 days. New Chitose airport is my favourite airport so far, lots of places to eat, places to see ie. fish market, ramen street etc. Lots of good souvenirs to get for family and friends. You can spend a whole day there just eating and shopping. And the iso cream was definitely the best of all. Creamy, delicate, milky just the best. Kikoro resort is owned by Thai ppl because there was a popular film that got filmed in the area so they bought it. We stayed at the Marriott and it was super comfy, bed was amazing, huge space in the room, the only thing was the limited amount of things to do there and the food was just terrible and expensive. The all you can eat buffet was $67 cdn per person. Other restaurants available were poor quality. Thank goodness for our good friend who drove us into town to Otaru to have delicious food. I rather go to a Lawson's or 7-eleven then to eat at the resort. I spent most of my time: walking around, going to the onsen, reading a book, and working out. It was really a down time for me during this time. Best thing I ate on this part of the trip was the Ebi Ramen from the airport, ice cream from Jersey Cream at the airport, the egg sandwich from Lawsons.
               Lets talk about the hotel we stayed at near the New Chitose airport: Its called the Hotel Wing International New Chitose. The walls were pink, the tv selection manual had porn on it. So it was literally a one night stand kind of hotel. My bf said the walls and floors was sticky. OMG worse hotel ever! Thank goodness it was only for a night stay.
               One thing to note is that I have high cholesterol and every since then I restricted myself from eating fatty foods because my gallstones will react and then I will have acid reflex. I also cut eggs from my diet. But, I heard from many that eggs in Japan was just too delicious not to try so I did. And I felt fine.
               For my birthday everyone decided to go into town with me to Sapporo to partake of the round about sushi. My bf mentioned this place before and we waited about 30 mins before we got in. The seafood was amazingly fresh. The best was the toro, mackerel, flounder. We did karaoke and had Italian food to end of the night.
               After 6 days in Hokkaido we were on our way to Tokyo, Tokyo what can I say its a version of Netflix. So many choices, too many choices to shop, eat and look around. My least favourite place to be to be honest. It was just too busy for me. The hustle and bustle, the ppl just was overwhelming.
We decided to run around tokyo for one of the days we stayed. And the stop lights were unreal: super long, super busy. The metro station makes the one in Vancouver look super weak sauce. But, I'm glad our metro system is simple. I was just overwhelmed. And the heating must I say...you go outside its cold you go inside its super warm. Everything is super warm: the malls, the trains, the toilet seats. OMG! The back and forth of the temperature is just so vast. The best thing I ate in Tokyo must be the ramen, ramen, ramen, the baked goods is amazing, coco curry, tempura. We vistied: Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku, Roppongi, Akihabara, Asakusa. We visited the Senso-ji Temple, Imperial Palace and Meiji Jingu, Odaiba for the Aquarium, Rainbow Bridge, Ghibli Museum, Piss Alley, Teamlab Light Show, Tokyo Lounge for a burlesque show.
              Off to Kyoto we go. We decided to stay 3 days in Kyoto and we explored the temples around the area. We went to Arashiyama to do a 30 min hike, checked out the bamboo forest, had delicious green tea ice cream, had some soba noodles, went to Gion to see the geishas, visited the Nijo Castle, went to Nishiki Market to eat soy donuts, sesame ice cream and mochi,
              Last stop was Kobe, we fulfilled our dreams of eating kobe beef. We started off eating at Steakland which was about $150 cdn for 2 ppl and we topped it off the next day with eating Kobe beef ramen which was unbelievable! Went their twice. First for the ramen noodles next up the kobe beef rice bowls. And we ended it up with a bang and went for a $400 cdn meal at Tanryu Sannomiya Kobe for a one in a life time experience. Set menu which consisted of: sliced raw kobe beef, salad, kobe beef grilled to perfection, veggies, fried rice and fruit and custard to end off the night. We had a personal experience cause it was just two of us with the chef but that melt in your mouth meat was super beefy, super tender and just out of this world! We will be back again!
               Overall, a great trip would I do it again? Yes but I would skip Tokyo and just go to Osaka, Sapporo and Kobe. It wasn't a relaxing trip because we went to see and be in so many places in 21 days. And the weather was alright not too cold not to hot so it was a great time to be in Japan.

Tokyo Tower

Tempura Soba Noodles

Arashiyama Gardens

Donkihote in Kobe

Rubber Ducky Half Marathon

So I finally did it! The big day came and it started off with rain. Not down pour but constant rain. I had mentally prepared for this because the weather forecasted for rain for the whole week. I was just trying to be hopeful that the day of the run would be cloudy with no rain for just 2 hours but that didn't happen. I set my alarm for 7:20am cause the run started at 9am. I slept around 10:30pm the night before so I had plenty of rest before the big day. I prepped my outfit the day before as well and charged my fitbit, earbuds and phone. The day before I also carbed up a bit. Had pasta, poutine and hot dog. I woke up around 6:30am that morning cause I was worried that I didn't wake up on time. I think its the nerves that got to me. It was fine I felt rested. Woke up changed and did a 5 min stretch. I didn't drink any liquids in the morning because I have a small bladder and I tend to cramp up if I have anything in my stomach. We got there around 7:30 and pinned our race number on our shirts, our time card on our shoes and I was ready to go. I think it was about 9 degrees that morning and it surely felt cold. I wore my merino wool long sleeve, my Nike shorts and my trail running shoes with the under armour cap. We got to the start line and they did another 5 min warm up before the race. My fitbit listed my heart rate was about 107. I was very eager to finish the race cause it was cold and wet I only ran once in the rain and it was 8k so I didn't know how well I would do in the rain. Another issue was that this was my 3-4 time wearing my trail runners. I've always been training with my other runners which weren't waterproof and these were the ones that I got fitted for. I also didn't know how my skin will react to two hours of being in the rain with sweat as well.

The race started and my bf and his friend, Hanz decided to run the same pace as me throughout the run. My bf told me that I would be running a constant 5:30 pace. So I followed him. He did tell me that we will start a little faster to avoid the crowds. So we started off at around a pace of 4:20. I usually train at about 6:30-5:30 so 4:20 was quite fast for me so my heart was just pumping out of my chest. The adrenaline was strong but it helped me warm up faster cause it was cold. At first many ppl past me by but later around the 5-9k mark ppl started to die down. I started to get tired at the 5k mark but I kept going. After the 10k we had to look around Burnaby lake again for another 11.1k. My shoes were super helping with the puddles. At first I started to dodge them but the more you ran the more you realize it was more work to dodge the puddles then to run through them.

At about 16k that is when my body felt the run. I know my weakness usually hits at this point but I just continued to run. There were a couple of times when I held a further distance from my bf playing catch up but I just continued to run. I forgot to mention that when I started to run I had to pee. Not badly but I did. But I knew if I ran hard enough it will go away. Nope didn't happen but I tried not to think about it during the run. I also had two cramps during my run one on my right abdomen and another on the left. But I still trekked on. My breathing was heavy and my heart rate was high but I kept on going. There was twice also that I almost sprained my ankle due to the branches coming up from the ground. They were slippery and wet like the bridge but thank goodness my shoes corrected my slip. Or else I would struggle my way to the finish line.

At about 18k I decided its going to be over soon just keep going. And at 20 I knew I had to go go go that I'm almost there once I saw the finish line I sprinted all the way. Making 25th place along with my bf and Hanz. I'm so grateful to have made it. The 14 weeks of training really did help. I was panting at the end and cold but it was well worth it.

I'm so grateful for my bf for being my constant supporter in my life. He has made a better and healthier me. He has taught me to be strong, to be confident and to never give up. And I'm so thankful to have him in my life. I'm so grateful to have Hanz there to run beside me for running with me during my training. I'm so grateful to have such a great friend.

This race has taught me that anything is possible. You just need to work for it. Just do it, don't give up and keep running!

Golden Princess Cruise

This year for my mom's 59th birthday we decided to chip in as siblings to treat her on a 5 day cruise. We left on Saturday Sept 21 and came back on Wed Sept 25. The cruise will take us to Ketchikan, Alaska. This is the first time I ever took a cruise so the minimum number of luggage is 1 per person with a 40 lb weight limit. The boarding started at 12:30pm and reading online you should be there 3 hours prior to the departure time which was 4:30pm. We got to the boarding location about 1:30pm that day and that day turned out to be the busiest day of the year. There was 3 cruise ships boarding of a total of 9,000 people. So it was awfully long waiting time. We waited about 3+hrs. The boat also left late around 6:30pm. Once we got on we decided to unpack and grab "lunch" Thank goodness I had a snack in the morning before boarding because we didn't eat till like 6pm for the whole day. We went straight for the international buffet which consisted of your basics: salad, fruit, soup, rice, pasta etc. It was mediocre the best thing I had that day was salad with honey Dijon sauce and pineapple. Everything else was meh. The room we shared between my 2 sibling was quite small but nevertheless it was clean and comfy. The tv was huge about a 40+ size lg tv. There was movies and regular viewing shows available which included my favourite: FOOD NETWORK!
We walked around to check out the area there was a couple of swimming pools: outdoors and in, hot tubs, outdoor and indoor theatres, human sized chess, basketball court, fitness gym, spa, etc. Everyday we had a schedule of activities we could do such as: fitness classes (paid and unpaid), salsa dancing, tai chi, line dancing, outdoor movies such as Dark Phoenix, Avengers etc. My usual routine on the cruise was wake up around 7-8am, go to the gym, run, shower, grab breakfast at the buffet, or at the fine dining area, go check out the activities, have lunch, check out more activities, have dinner, check out activities and then head to bed around 11-12pm. The boat was quite long and it was 16 floors so there is no shortage of walking. Food was better at the fine dining area. You can choose to reserve a time for your dinner seating or you can choose to do anytime dining which is what me and my family chose to do. Its more convenient that way the only issue is that you can only dine after 6:15pm. The quality of food is much better and nicely presented. You can order as much as you like and the service is friendlier. You don't have to dress up but you can do if you wanted nice pictures taken during the dinner service. One great thing that happened is that I didn't get sea sick. My little sister and mom did on the first day but taking gravel that day helped. And afterwards they were fine.
My final thoughts regarding cruises is first: you really have to embrace the activities on the boat or else you will get board easily. No my way of travelling I prefer to go sight seeing and being on land but its definitely a good experience to give it a try. The cruise was clean, comfortable and the people there were friendly. Besides the food everything was great. I had a great time at the art auction and I wished I had the money to spend to purchase the art that was shown.
Ketchikan, Alaska is very similar to BC with the mountains, the rain and the environment. The town was quite small you can literally go from one end of the area to the other side in 30 mins time. It was pouring rain that day when we had our stop so it wasn't very memorable but other wise its very small. I would recommend longer cruise times to fully experience Alaska probably about 7+ days.