Stencil # 3

Hmm, this morning’s 21km seems like a dream… It’s already 6:30 pm and aside from the aching ankle and rather tired eyes, I wouldn’t have thought I ran 21km this morning. Walked and jog sorry.

Anyway, since I got back and posted, about 1:30pm, I have been on my stencil non-stop, doing a spray test on the two layers I had cut out yesterday, and cutting a third stencil. Got the next 2 stencils ready for cutting as well. Below are the new stencils (It’s blurred for obvious reasons, wonder why I even post it lol):

So far everything is going fine, alignment seems to be doing fine so far as well, though there are some mistakes, but aren’t too serious. Most likely unoticeable from far.

The test spray didn’t go that well though. Aside from getting my hands stained…. Lack of space, hence I have to do it outside of the house. A few other human errors. Else the main problem is the paper (drawing block) I used for testing the spray seemed to soak up the spray, thus bleeding the edges. Not good. Might need to coat the paper before spraying… sounds like more work LOL.

Here’s an overall look at how the wings look like. For now , let’s call them the Wings of FATE! Anyway, it looks rather nice from far (photoshopped it to remove the dirty surroundings), but on closer inspection, it’s rather poor workmanship.

So I did a single layer on the back of the drawing block, adding a layer of base white coat first. Ah, I see….

Bleeding and Underspray! What the hell, still bleed after the base coat. So I attempted once more, giving a thicker base coat. And I dusted really lightly from far.

AH! Near Perfect! Found out from a friend later that the base coat isn’t really needed after all. Just dust lightly from far, about 3 coats each dust. Ok. That sounds like alot of time to get this done. I might need to stay home as much as I can…

But it’s been productive so far. Since I need more time, thinking of going on MC tomorrow if my ankle is really going to hurt like I think it would tomorrow.

HORRORscope

So after I got home from the Standard Chartered Run, I had some Kuay Teow Soup (homecooked) to fill my famished stomach and read the papers (I think I deserve better food for my acomplishment this morning LOL, which explains my desire to head out instead of staying home and resting. Rest is for wimps!).  I came across the horroscope and decided to just read it:

Staying resentful won’t make you stronger. If anything, it will sap vital energy that could be put to better use. Let go of old hurts a little at a time and cut yourself some slack by not expecting instant improvement.

I went “WTF” in my head. So zhun ah. I got nothing else to say, question is, it’s good advice to take, at the same time it’s coming from horroscopes which I don’t usually believe, so how? LOL.

Alas, I didn’t die from 21 Km.

I was at past the 17 km mark when suddenly, my breath came in quick short bursts. My chest began to feel tight, as if someone was bear hugging me. My eyes dilated, and started darting about. I didn’t feel I was running, instead, I felt a little high. Soon, not too long after, I saw stars, and an enveloping darkness. Then, I didn’t know what happened next.

Nah. That didn’t happen LOL.

Instead, at about 14km, My right ankle started aching like mad. I wasn’t jogging all the way, though I think that might have done me better. Was accompanying a friend who was quite handicapped by… erm…. 8 km? But, I swear, I really wanna do 21km again at least. It was simply awesome. Just forgetting everything in your head, and just looking forward, the feeling was ecstatic. Here’s a look at the whole running map:

The next ecstatic thing was running on closed roads. And littering them with empty cups of water and 100 plus. And banana skins. LOL, banana skins, like the early runners setting booby traps for those behind.

It was also interesting absorbing the sights around. Those long endless stretch of road didn’t scare me, and I realise, when you are with friends, many things really don’t matter. And to think I was convinced to give it up when we ran past the Padang again, only to change my mind as we went on and on. I saw a lady with a rubber tire tied to her waist and some cans rattling on the ground as she slowly pushed forward. On the tire wrote “Reuse and recycle”. In my mind, I went “WOW”. I would seriously go on my knees and kowtow to her. I hope they feature her on the papers.

As we walked a large part of the way, we talked alot, and we even smoked a stick past the 17km mark. I thought that was funny. We had all kinds of people cheering us on while we (I) retorted cheekily. At the last 1 km stretch, I also found it hilarious that we had 3 lanes to ourselves while the cars were all jammed up in one lane. We walked faster than them. Here’s a pic:

So I was like going “Ha ha! 3 lanes for a few people!” (Check it out, there wasn’t much people left behind us and that 2 overtook us later LOL)

Anyway, I had multiple cups of 100 plus and water, 2 bananas, a good deep heat rub at 9km, a quick shower at 18km (pour water all over la). My friend suckered me at the last stretch where I picked my pace up and leaving him behind (assuming he really was handicapped), when unexpectedly, he dashed past me. Instinctively I went “NBCB’ under my breath and broke into a sprint. I don’t know who won, but I knew my ankle was like going “NBCB” as well, and some weird sensation appeared behind my right knee. Oh Boy.

So I managed to limp home and very satisfied from completing the 21km. Considering that I didn’t train, I slept only 4 hours, I didn’t have breakfast, I didn’t warm up, it was a miracle I am alive. But as usual, I get injuries like nobody’s business. Maybe if I do 42km, it might just do the trick…. LOL.

A reminder though, I think it would be awesome doing it with a camera. Got to bring one next year.

Here’s my medal *BeAmZ*:

 

 

Stencil #2

Absolutely Fantastic.

Today I did my second stencil. It was much easier today, probably because I changed the stencil board from a rather thick plastic to that of a OHP transparency. This would be the second layer stencil, meaning it would go on top of the first stencil which I had cut earlier.

So if I sprayed the first layer, then this layer , it should have a final result of something like this:

I hope I can do a test run of this tomorrow. Meantime gotta catch some sleep for the run later…

ps. I think I shall document the whole making of this stencil. Would be a great learning lesson especially since it’s my first time doing it. But I was thinking, anonymity can’t be maintained, so maybe in the later parts there will be alot of mosiacing to upkeep the integrity of the blog lol. Then what’s the point of uploading the pics?! lol.