Kayuhan Panjat Bukit Fraser - Versi Bahasa Rojak

Sejak aku terbabit dalam aktiviti kayuhan ni, sememangnya aku tak pernah berkayuh lebih dari jarak 60km. Kalau tak silap aku, that particular ride was one of the Ramadhan night rides done this year. Dengan geng BJCC pun paling jauh aku kayuh setakat 54km, termasuk Dragonback. Other than those rides, the other distances of my rides were hovering around 30-46km.

So aku pun rasa macam tak logik kenapa aku sambut dengan tak berfikir panjang (dan terasa macam bagus) lambongan untuk kayuhan Bentong – Tranum - Fraser Hill last week. Ikut anggaran awal, jumlah jarak kayuhan pergi balik adalah lebih kurang 116km, termasuk panjat Bukit Fraser sampai puncak! Berpinar mata aku tengok, gilo apo? Tak cukup lagik tu, yang join ride tu semua dari geng-geng 2 alam, 3 alam yg bergelar Orang Power dan Orang Besi, tak pun dari golongan otai (bukan otai umur tapi otai ke”poweran” dan pengalaman dia orang tu).

Memanglah aku kena dapatkan mileage kayuhan pasal dah terdaftar untuk kayuhan LeTua 100km bulan Januari 2011 tapi, sekali lagi, kalau ikut logiknya aku patut buat kayuhan setakat 70km-80km dulu dan rasanya tak sesuai nak naik bukit yg masuk kategori gunung kot kalau panjat pakai basikal. Oleh kerana dah sambut lambongan panjat Bkt Fraser, aku pun dengan penuh rasa rendah diri terpaksa menolak lambongan kawan BJCC aku untuk buat kayuhan mingguan BJCC berjarak 80km termasuk Dragonback.

Tetapi kalau dikeluarkan faktor logik itu dari ekuasi pertimbangan, macam manalah aku nak tolak lambongan panjat Bkt Fraser kalau member-member RBU iaitu Diket, Jaja, Det, Shuk dan member sebilik kat Marathon Singapore, Azmar Orang Besi pun join kayuhan ini. Kalau yang bukan dari RBU pun rasa-rasanya golongan insan-insan (bukan insane) yang boleh menerima diri ku ini seadanya. Dibandingkan kayuhan panjat Fraser dengan kayuhan BJCC Bt Arang-Dragonback, memang aku pilih kayuhan panjat Fraser hands down, cukup hanya dengan faktor keseronokan (pikir seronok ajer, sengsara tak ingat) nak berkayuh dengan geng RBUs.

Jadi, tuan-puan, adik-abang, inilah coretan caca merba pengalaman kayuhan 100km saya yang pertama dalam sejarah.

Ready for the roll - Pic courtesy of Diket

KL – Bentong

Kita orang naik kereta lah, bukan kayuh. Berkumpul di Petronas Taman Melati dan bersarapan di McD. Syahsully aka Speedy GonSyahlez aka Kingfisher membuat special appearance di McD, ingat nak join kayuh sekali rupa-rupanya sarapan untuk persediaan merempit di FRIM. Tak per bro, next time kita buat kayuhan sama-sama. Lepas semua kaum dah muncul, rombongan berlepas ke Bentong. Cuaca adalah mendung dan menggugurkan gerimis pagi.

Bentong – Tranum (31km)

Aku tak ingat bila last time aku sampai Bentong. Aku, Diket, Det, Shuk, Azmar, Jaja, Julie (MissJewels), Helmi (cap ayam?), Shah (tinggal kasut cycling, kayuh pakai croc pinjam), Doc Taufik dan sorang lagik kawan Helmi) start kayuh dari Medan Selera, Bentong. Kat tengah Pekan Bentong join dengan group satu lagik (Bacin, Ishsal, Azwar, Jeff dan 3 org lagik kot). Masuk ajer simpang ke arah Tranum, berdesup-desup peloton depan buat breakaway. Kena ukur baju kat badan sendiri, so aku kayuh dengan pace yang aku mampu dan bernasib baik pasal Julie took it easy at the earlier part, so aku pace dengan Julie together with Doc Taufik. Kalau Julie the Ironman pun tak pulun takkan aku plak nak tunjuk terer! (yg mmg tak terer pun). Sambil-sambil tu banyak guidance Julie bagi kat aku sambil berkayuh. Sesekali Julie tekan sikit-sikit naik bukit-bukit pengenalan, terus aku tinggal belakang, tak tercangkuk aku hehehe. Kita orang re-group kat simpang Tranum – Bukit Fraser. Ride ni ada 2 support cars (wife Ishsal and wife (or GF Jeff?) manning the cars), so lega sikit aku kalau-kalau lah terkantoi atau terbonk, boleh naik support car tapi aku akan berusaha tak nak naik pasal punya jauh nak buat kayuhan ni pastu naik support car..issshhh malu wei!

Kat Simpang Tranum - Pic courtesy of Diket

Tranum – Fraser Gap (20km)

Actually usaha memanjat bermula dari simpang Tranum. Macam biasa lepas 3-4 selekoh, semua kat depan dah hilang dari pandangan. Pasal aku tak tahu setakat mana jauh dan intensiti kederat untuk kayuhan nak sampai Gap (kene pikir lepas tu ada 8km lagik nak panjat sampai puncak Fraser) aku kayuh pelan-pelan. Speedometer aku plak tak berfungsi, nasib baik Doc Taufik saing dengan aku, ada member nak borak-borak dan dia pun banyak ilmu boleh diturunkan pasal dia pun otai di alam kayuhan ni. Halfway, Doc Taufik tekan sikit, maka tinggal aku kayuh kayuh sorang2 kat belakang. On the way, Jeff potong aku dia cakap ada sorang lagik rider kat belakang, so aku lega sikit. Tak lama lepas tu aku nampak Helmi dengan kawan dia stop dekat satu selekoh. Tak ada pancit tayar, dia orang stop ambik breather. Aku pun layan kayuh sorang-sorang. It was quite a lonely ride actually in an unknown surrounding. I was cycling in a noticeably thick mist at certain areas with no soul around, climbing those windy roads for quite sometimes that I started to imagine that I might have missed a junction. At one place I even wondered whether it would be possible that people entered into any twilight zone in such area (suasana sunyi memang boleh membuat perasan kita kurang selesa). Bila aku nampak support car wife Ishal dekat satu selekoh aku rasa lega yang tak ada jalan lain, just need to kayuh until jumpa Fraser Gap.

Sampai Gap, rehat sekejap tunggu the other 3 riders sebelum usaha menawan puncak Fraser bermula.

Tranum - Gap with Doc Taufik - Pic courtesy of Ishsal

Gap –Puncak Bkt Fraser (8km)

Yes, this was the ultimate challenge for the entire ride. Kalau tak lepas sampai puncak, mmg tak boleh claim yang kita dah naik Fraser Hill. Mmg seram ler pikir tapi dah sampai takat ini, the only way is up (this is not “Handsome Up” advert). Minda aku mmg fokus giler nak kayuh naik tu (pasal tak power bro, naik Bukit Hantu kat Langat hari tu pun aku dah cukup sengsara). “Slow steady, slow steady”, that was my mantra all the way. Nak bercakap dgn org pun aku takut tapi senyum masih mampu.

Pelan-pelan aku kayuh naik, memang sengsara tapi aku paksa kaki menggerakkan crank dengan keupayaan cardio yang mmg dah nak max (takder heart rate monitor). Memang aku rasa fokus dan semangat untuk aku habiskan kayuhan itu yang berjaya membuat aku sampai ke puncak. Nak ikut letih, otot sakit, mental kacau, nafas nyawa-nyawa ikan, mmg rasa nak pusing balik ajer. Infact masa naik tu, bila bertembung dengan kereta yg dah start turun, aku rasa sure dia org kata kita org ni giler hahaha. Pada mana-mana member yg aku tak dpt tegur atau berhenti bg moral support aku minta maaf pasal aku takut kalau aku berhenti buat aku hilang determination (supply level dah ujung-ujung). Aku tak nak jadi masalah atau beban pada org lain nanti kalau aku kantoi di tengah jalan.

Setelah mengharungi segala sengsara, Alhamdulillah sampai juga aku ke puncak Fraser, yeahooooooo! Tak termimpi aku nak naik Fraser kayuh basikal. First time plak tu naik Fraser. Pada semua kawan-kawan yang sampai ke puncak, congrats to all, it was not easy for sure.

Fraser's Peak with Shuk, Doc Taufik and Azmar - Pic courtesy of Diket

Kayuhan Turun/Balik (58km)

Ride turun mmg exhilarating tapi menakutkan juga dengan korner-korner baring yang ditawarkan. Boleh cramp jari tekan brake, kene plak aku kira newbie, mmg tak berani nak layan korner macam Moto GP racers. Rupa-rupanya turun bukit pun guna tenaga, i.e. body needs to hold the down force.

Time balik yang paling mental part dari simpang Tranum sampai Bentong. Cuaca mendung dah jadi panas terik, jalan plak open, not much shade from the trees beside the road. Macam biasa aku duduk group belakang, tak tercangkuk aku peloton depan with Bacin/Azwar as prime movers. Tak per lah janji habis. Mmg seronok bila sampai Medan Selera Bentong. We high fived and congratulated each others for completing +-118km ride with Fraser Hill conquered. It was an awesome ride and I could not have asked for more for my first century (km) ride. The cendol Bentong was nice too.

Thanks to all who were there. You guys were great.

Pesanan Khidmat Komuniti RBU

For those who are yet to buy a bike, please do so and join us for a spin :D

AMARAN EDISI BASI! SCMS 2010 - The 42.2km Journey Vol. 2

Standard Chartered Marathon Singapore 2010 - The 42.2km Journey Vol. 2

Mukaddimah

SCMS 2010 was originally planned to be my first full marathon run (FM) but the temptation of running my first FM with many friends around and on my home soil has relegated SCMS to be my second after I dared myself to be a gung-ho in running SCKLM 2010. I did my clicking for SCMS 2010 very early (without much thought as I normally did for the other races) and on hindsight that was fortunate as the entire 19,000 slots were taken up in less than 3 weeks time! Unthinkable!

Prep, Initial Plan and Tweaking

One of the biggest lessons that I had learnt from SCKLM 2010 is to be able to start a FM run injury free (or almost injury free). This is a key factor since you could easily pick up new injury (or injuries) during the race, on top of the usual cramps and pains. Hence when I suffered my plantar fasciitis (PF) after Genting Trailblazer 2010, the main concern was more to recover from such injury than building up mileage for SCMS 2010. A self assessment that I could attempt SCMS 2010 was made after I managed to survive the last LSD a week before the race. The degree of concern as well as the extent of the injury on the PF was much lesser compared to the shin splints prior to SCKLM 2010. In my mind, barring any additional injury which may be suffered in the run, with the trademark snail pace, I would be able to complete the run in sub 6 hour (I did my FM SCKLM 2010 in almost 5:59!).

The initial plan had a bit of tweaking when the King of all Kings, i.e. King Mambo aka King Lambong aka Diket Menchanak aka Abg Jaws aka Abg Syakir Ishak, asked me whether I wish to join him for a lari-lari makan angin in Temasek. Hmm, a lari-lari makan angin pace for the no. 1 King cannot be near to 6 hour, he could be bored to death running at that pace. So, I challenged myself by telling him, we could run for a sub 5:30, still slow for him but at least that would possibly bore him to sleep only. So the goal post was shifted a bit and frankly if I want to achieve a timing of sub 5:30, it would be far from jalan-jalan cari angin pace but rather running until keluar angin kus-kus pace.

T-1

T-1 was the travelling day from KL to Singapore and race pack collection and the huru-hara sampai kaki lemau session of the RBUs at Novena Velocity Mall with the peeps, i.e Diket, Ray, Azmar, Zack, Kak June, and Aza. Those moments were best captured by Diket, Ray and Zack in their blogs.

May be it was the due to the trip and window shopping session as well as spending the night with great peeps, I had almost no pre-race jitter. We still bantered jokes and lambongs till 11.30pm before calling it a day. At least there was no Twilight Zone issue that we need to endure that night.

T-0

Actually I did not have much to report on the running itself. No drama, no bushmen, no pangsai (but small one done in a proper toilet), no wall, no busted knee (Thank God). Due to that, point forms would be appropriate:


Starting

• Went out from our hotel quite late, around 4.45 am to be exact.
• Jogged down to Orchard Road and saw a sea of runners already moving slowly.
• Me and Diket climbed and jumped into the pen and since we were in the second wave, the colour of our bib made no difference at all (i.e. we were at the back pack).
• Almost 20 minutes to reach the starting mat.

1-10km

• Run slowly in the huge running traffic.
• The first few Kms, just following the crowd and stuck at no less than 7.20 km/min pace, zig zaging looked futile albeit with some moderate squezzing plus “elbowing” as necessary (we said “excuse me” of course).
• Saw few runners already walking at KM3-4 point! (ayoyo, this is a full marathon run, walking may start at least a shade below 20km (unless you were injured lah).
• Running side by side seems impossible almost all the time, so no chit chat and just “layan perasaan” pace.
• Did not know the route at all, just run in the dark, wide road or tight lane, I follow.
• Left Diket for him to attend his small (may be big) business somewhere at KM 6 or 7 and continued plodding alone.
• No pace notes, supposedly to follow the King but remembered the King said it would still be OK to reach KM10 at 1:15 for a sub 5:30 target.
• Timing at 10km CP [from runningpix – 1:15:33]

10-21km

• The route now going to East Coast Park (ECP). Diket caught up with me near the entrance to ECP (or somewhere before) and continued to run in his makan angin pace (i.e. faster than me lah, what do u guys expect?).
• Forgot to ask him what would be the target time to reach 21km and 30km (hence now the target was whatever felt right/comfortable/better than SCKLM 2010).
• Running in ECP was mentally challenging as the lane is tight, needed to slow down, stop, zig zag, squezz plus elbowing as necessary.
• Reaching the U-Turn was felt like forever.
• Timing at 21.1km CP[From runningpix – 2:40:59]

21-30km

• Still in ECP area and started to feel sluggish after 23-24km.
• Stopped at one of the toilets for small business.
• Bumped into Kash may be around Km25? Said hi, she asked me to continue plodding.
• Started to imagine that the distance markers were located so far apart (read- dah start lengit).
• Calves’ muscles were stiff (no more pushing, if not sure cramp maaa)
• Did not know what timing to target to reach KM30.
• Timing at 30km CP [From runningpix – 4:02.01]

30—42.195km

• At last we left ECP but now running under open sky, scorching hot.
• No view to enjoy initially, construction sites, lot of people already walking slowly, tried to run as much as possible for every KM.
• At last had a refreshing sea view on the way to the Marina Barrage, windy a bit but HOT HOT still.
• Reached the long bridge near Marina Sand, of course I walked to the top and jogged going down but walked again once I reached the U-Turn, initially thought that the finishing was just a around the corner since I heard the gendang already but at the last water station it shows 2km more..aiyak!
• Last 2km seems like forever, tried to run all the way but just could not lift the spirit once I saw another bridge to pass (not steep pun tapi dah lengit). Over there Diket ran beside me and we chit chatted a bit.
• As many others, been misled by the dummy finishing gantry, darn! Could not stop and walk with so many people around, had to cover my water face to finish the race with a run.
• HABIS, TAMAT, KHATAM, FINISHED full marathon SCMS 2010 with a net time of 5:41:38



Conclusion

I managed to finish my second FM this year. Even in the eve of SCKLM 2010 I was still doubtful to run in a full marathon category (I registered for both FM and Half Marathon (HM) for SCKLM 2010 and kept the HM bib till the morning of the race day, just in case I lost my guts). At the end of the day if you have been running consistently and with the appropriate preparation, completing a full marathon is a doable feat, difficult but doable. If you put a good finishing time to nail, then you have to train more and harder. Nothing is easy in a marathon run, regardless whether you are a fast or slow aka snail pace runner like me. The most important thing is to enjoy your run and complete it injury free and that would be the best result of a marathon run as far as I am concerned.

CONGRATULATIONS TO ALL FINISHERS OF SCMS 2010!

The Coming Lion City Run II

God willing, this coming Sunday I am going to experience my second race at the Lion City this year, the first being the Adidas Sundown back in May. There is nothing much to do from now till the race day other than doing the anchoring. Whether you are satisfied with your training or otherwise, that is now a secondary matter for you to worry about.

I had attempted my final LSD prior to SCSM last Friday (taking the day off since I had planned to travel to JB after solat Jumaat with my family). Later drove south to and spent a night in JB with the itinerary of visiting an old friend of my wife on Saturday and attended a kenduri of my wife’s course mate in Muar. We then spent a night in Melaka on the way back to Shah Alam and found out that I love “nyonya cuisine” after having a sumptuos dinner at a Nyonya Retaurant in Taman Melaka Raya (note-my office mate told me that there is a nice Nyonya Restaurant in SS2 PJ, will check it out). Sunday was full attending the kids’ fooling around in the pool plus the sight-seeing at Bandar Hilir after checking out from the hotel. The partly cloudy weather made it easier for the kids to walk around and enjoying themselves in Melaka.

I did my easy run of 5.5km this morning and I am going to rest my legs till the race day in the hope that there will be no niggling issue related to the PF and knee in my second attempt to slay the 42.2km dragon, God willing. Of, of course I am not going to skip the best part of preparing for a full marathon run, the carbo-loading!

Good luck for those running in Singapore and wish you peeps all the best!

Transisi

Baru check official timing Powerman sprint. Seperti yang dijangka, tempoh di transisi sampai 6 minit, boleh lepak borak2 camtu hehehe.

T 1 - 3min 20 sec

T2 - 2min 51 sec

My First DU Race - Sprint Category Powerman 2010

Intro

I’d never intended to register for the Powerman in the first place. My running ability was still at an elementary level and I was in no hurry to enter into the multi-sport horizon or to be more specific, join a multi-sport race. It was after I bought my road bike during my “running sabbatical” due to my shin splints and knee injury that I was being lambong-ed by who else, if not the King Lambong himself, to consider registering for the Sprint category of the Powerman 2010 (note – “Sprint” is a “fun run” equivalent in a Powerman event).

I officially did the clicking just a few days before the closing registration date of 30 September 2010. The decision to register was made easier with the comfort that few RBUs will be there, i.e. Diket, Shuk, Yim and Det, as well as few other friends from the Putrajaya Ramadhan Night Riding sessions.

Target

Nope, I didn’t have any target in terms of timing. With no qualifying time for the Sprint’s category my personal target is to finish the race based on my ability at that time. The principal objective of the Seri Manjung’s mission is to experience my first DU race.

The Trip

On this, I need to extend my thanks to Diket for being the lead arranger for the group’s trip and accommodation. My appreciation to CK and Jaja for a nice accommodation (coupled with interesting experience) offered to us at OBS.

My travelling preparation was done last minute. I went off from office a bit early on Friday evening as I need to prepare my MPV to be the main carrier of 3 bikes, mine, shuk’s and Nik’s. I had never carried more than a single bike in my MPV and due to that I have to make sure that all spaces in my MPV would be optimized. Nik reached my home from JB around 9 pm and later around 10 pm shuk came sending his Italian babe to spend the night with my Merrie and Nik’s Trackie in my MPV. I drove to Seri Manjung with Shuk’s company and met with the others at Sg Buluh R&R before the Group de-toured to Kuala Selangor, opting for a coastal route.

For the trip, lodging and jalan-jalan cari makan, Diket has perfectly captured those moments in his blog (not forgetting the Twilight Zone mini-series as well). One thing I could say here is that I love every seconds of my time with the peeps. Felt almost like my college days’ road trip.

The Race

“Apa barang buat Sprint category Powerman!”

I just could not help from telling myself that because the full category of Powerman is darn tough, the Sprint seems more “like a walk in the park category”. The Powerman race is not just about finishing but to complete the course within 5 hours and that is a huge challenge. Please read Yim’s blog on his debut and fantastic achievement in the Powerman 2010.

Hence if you are a newbie in DU and not a strong runner and/or cyclist and could not or not willing to commit to put in enough or decent time for training to compensate your weakness in either discipline, in my humble view you better opt for the Sprint category. Would you just be content without a finisher’s T and certificate by finishing beyond 5 hours? My personal answer to that is NO because after a grueling and difficult challenge, you could not claim the title of a “Powerman” by being a mere finisher. It is harsh but that’s the rule of the game and everybody has to live with it.

Run 1 – 5.5km

At the starting line - Pic taken from the FB of Estim

We were gunned off the last, i.e. about 20 minutes after the full category was released. The advice from the “otais” was to keep an easy or moderate effort in the first run. I sort of expected a lot of people to start with a dash from the word GO. I tried to maintain my pace in a range of 5.30min/km to a shade below 6min/km (agak2 ajer) though it seems that everybody was overtaking me. Run a brief moment with Jaja before she activated her turbo power. Super mom there! I have not done any running for 2 weeks (except the 3-4km easy run in our last brick session held 4 days before the race day) due to my plantar fasciitis and hence I did not dare to increase my pace for the lack of tempo trainings and the potential bonking in the remaining 2 legs. The ‘roti planta” issue in the mean time was kept at bay with the Rocktape’s protection, courtesy of Ray.

T1

I was a bit clumsy here but I think that was expected from a newbie. The funny thing was I took my bike down and out from its place but I was yet to put on my helmet and gloves. Normally I took my bike out from my MPV and leaned it against the side of my car or any nearby “tiang” or “wall” but of course there was no tiang available in the transition area and I was supposed to push my bike out from that area before I can even put my leg over it or be disqualified. So, I had to push back and hang my bike and did the things that I was supposed to do in the first place, i.e. put on my helmet and gloves.

Cycling- 32km

I considered myself as a runner first before a cyclist but I think I did better in the cycling leg compared to my running. The almost flat course enabled me to maintain a decent speed overall and since we would do only a loop of the course, the 2 inclines of Jambatan Raja Perempuan Bainun had extracted a moderate effort compared to the task of conquering the undulating GCE for the same speed. But as many people have said before, cycling would easily invite cramping of muscles and that is the last thing you would wish to happen in a race. With a pre-cramp pain and tightening of the calf muscles about 7km before the cycling end, I decreased my pace to allow me to finish my cycling leg and complete my second leg of running cramp free. I would not dare to take a risk as far as muscles cramp are concerned. It would be nasty for sure if the big one attacked you during a race.

T2

A bit of improvement from T1 since the main task was to put on your running shoes. I need to wait the official timing to know how bad or well I’d done at my transitions. I am inclined to believe that it would be the former.

Second Run – 5 km

“Apa barang lari 5km!”

It was quite a “barang” I guess if you had done a 5.5km run and 32km ride right before you started the run. Felt awkward at first but later managed to steady my pace albeit at a snail equivalent. My target was a non-stop running regardless of how slow it would be. Not a huge issue but the pain of my heel re-appeared after the ride. As told by Diket, cycling could cause plantar fasciitis as well, normally through “pulling” of the crank. I ran at a very much slower pace anyway at that point of time and hence I just need to watch my foot strike to minimize the pain.

Unofficial Result

With a snail pace second leg run, I crossed the finishing line with a hand timed of 2 hour 22 minutes. Officially I had done my first DU race. Can I call myself a duathlete then? I could stand being called a snail pace aka cengkerang duathlete. Hahaha giler POYO! I was just kidding guys as the most important thing is to subscribe to a healthy activities regardless of being a runner or duathlete or triathlete.

Post Race

I was handed over my medal, spent time whalloping the watermelon, had a bowl of cendol, enjoying the views of errrr..observing the brands of the vests and trisuits of others whilst waiting for my fellow respected comrades from the full category coming back to base. After lingering around for sometimes I decided to wait and cheer my friends at the running track just outside the stadium, under the shade of a row of small trees but enough to cover me from the force Seri Manjung’s heat. Made small talks with a lady nearby whilst she was waiting for her hubby to finish the run. It was a perfect spot since I could cheer all peeps that I know passing through for their second loop or final push to the finishing line (see pictures below).

L-R

Pic 1 - Azmar the Ironman with his normal cool and steady pace...

Pic 2 - Yim on his final push to victory singing "kalau anda gembira angkat tangan"

Pic 3 - Diket Menchanak aka Abg Jaws aka King Lambong aka King Mambo smiling to the finishing line though he had less than an hour of sleep the night before due to the...... ("twilight zone theme song in the background")

L-R

Pic 1 - Det steady and strong nak masuk second loop.

Pic 2 - Shuk playing the mental game to nail his debut attempt to become a Powerman...pheewitttt

Pic 3 - I understand that Nik had a monster cramp during the second loop of cycling. Good job bro for never giving up in finishing the race

left pic - Bahri, another comrade who succumbed to injury along the way with never say die attitude marching to the finishing line.

Right pic - me with the Powermen and Powerwoman (frm L-R, Hanchik, Det, me, Diket, Nik Raiha and Azmar) - pic taken from Nik Raiha's FB.

Conclusion

It was a new and great experience for me. For the runners out there who are water phobia like me, you guys should try a DU race. It will be awesome I tell you. Congratulations to all my friends in Powerman 2010 regardless of their timing. Each one of you guys earned a pat at the back for doing this difficult challenge. Hopefully a bigger contingent from RBUs will join the trip to Sri Manjung for Powerman X Factor 2011.

For those going to Penang this weekend, I wish you guys all the best!

Of Plantar Fasciitis, Dengue Fever & Some Rides

Plantar Fasciitis

I first had the injury in one of my weekday’s runs in the final week of October. It was not too bad initially but the downhills’ pounding in the Genting Trailblazers 2010 made it worse the next day. I had to force the early retirement of my mizuno entry level’s trail shoes after GTB and if I need to do trail running (I don’t think there will be any in the near future) I would just use my normal running shoes, at least they have better cushioning and stability than the Mizuno.

Because of the injury, I did not do any running for the entire of last week and as of today, I decided to rest for another 2 days to see the progress of the healing before I’ll do short easy runs. Powerman 2010 (Sprint category only) is approaching soon and I pray that the injury would at least 75% healed for me to do the running leg of the race. Ray had kindly donated the “Rocktape” for me to use in my training and Powerman’s race. Thanks bro!

The Dengue Fever

My second kid was diagnosed with a dengue fever after being down with what we first thought as normal fever for almost 3 days. I rushed home from office on Thursday evening after receiving the call from my wife informing me of the news. Considering the logistic and what’s not, I have decided to admit him in a hospital at Shah Alam (which is 5km from home) rather than the usual choice of SJMC at Subang Jaya. Alhamdulillah, he was responding positively to the treatment and his blood platelet count was increasing after the 2nd day of being admitted.

Left - Looked good on the 3rd day

Right - The others fooling around

By the afternoon of the 3rd day (Saturday), he started to feel a bit restless and eager to join his other siblings playing and fooling around in the ward. He was discharged yesterday after recorded a blood platelet count of 189 (150 is categorized as normal). Thank God for the speedy recovery.

Some Rides

Due to the rest from running, I tried to do few rides last week. I therefore accepted the lambong from Diket for night ride at Putrajaya on Wednesday night. Me, Shuk, Diket and Det started our ride from POJ and took the same route as per our ramadhan nite ride for a distance of 49km. I think I had better cadence with the adjustment of the height to my bike's saddle. Thanks to Det for appointing the height issue during the aborted brick session at Putrajaya 3 weeks ago. On Saturday, comforted with the recovery progress of my kid, I managed to slot in a brief ride of 30km solo around Section 13 Shah Alam. I noticed that the wind was much stronger in the evening compared to a morning ride.

Concerns

Not to claim that I don’t have any concern on the coming Powerman, I am actually more worried on the coming full marathon run of SCSM. I have not done many LSDs and the current injury compounded the issue. On the assumption that I would be OK for a long run after Powerman, I will be left with only 2 weeks to clock a decent mileage for SCSM. Seems like there will be no option but to nail a 32k LSD by next week *sigh*

Of Raining and Blazing the Trails at Genting

Saturday Morning Ride

I knew some people had to abandon their plan on Saturday morning due to the rain. The drizzling sound of the rain outside that morning made my mind ponder whether I would have to ditch my ride. My mind travelled back to the previous weekend where our brick session was called off due to the rain. My only consolation that morning, the rain started early and hopefully it would stop by 7.30 am to 8 am for the planned ride with the Bkt Jelutong Cycling Club (BJCC) to be materialized. By now, I had learnt from the senior riders that riding in a rain, though drizzling, is dangerous. A text from my riding colleague confirmed that, i.e. the team captain of BJCC decided that the ride will proceed if the rain stops by 9 am.

By 7.30 am the drizzling continued with an intermittent heavy downpour. The sky still covered with the grey cloud. Shoved my Merrie into my MPV and off I went to BJ. Along the way I received a text, which essentially conveyed the message, Rain=2, Diket =0. I knew exactly how the Langat Riders felt that morning but I could not help myself from replying back with a “poyo” message to the sender about the BJCC planned ride though at that point of time it was very much contingent upon the weather. In fact the ride was almost called off. The weather, with God’s blessing, stopped a few minutes before 9 am and it stayed that way till about 9.20 am whilst the group waited for another BJCC rider who accepted the lambong to join the ride.

As for the ride itself, no fancy stuff due to the late start. We completed 46km of GCE and the highlights were 2 punctures (of both the front and rear tyres) suffered by a newbie (what a bad day for him). Unlike my first 2 rides where I had no spare tubes, I donated my spare tube for his second puncture and made full use of my pump, which at the tail end of the ride got crushed by a lorry when it fell from my bike. So, the planned ride done and the best thing for the week had been reserved for Sunday, the next day.

The Genting Trailblazers 2010 - What a Blast!

Without any doubt, this was the much awaited event of the RBUs and many runners. With few earlier lambongs in blogs and FBs not forgetting the Team Clowns declaration of war, plan was laid out for this event starting from the travelling part. The meeting point was Petronas Taman Melati. For the fear of reaching there late, me and Zack made our move from Shah Alam around 4.35am and with a leisure drive reached the meeting point a few minutes after 5 am. Ray arrived shortly after that. Diket and Det were already there waiting for their orders at the counter of McD with a fierce or “mengelamun face” (u can pick and choose either one). One by one the other RBUs arrived, Ijam, Nik, Shuk, Syed and Shanaz, Syah, Jaja and her partner Mas. Done our breakfast and subuh prayers and we convoy up to Awana Genting Highlands like a scene of the “Initial D” touge battle with Shuk aka Takumi Fujiwara leading the pack.

Left - Sahur for puasa sunat or puasa ganti ni? (Pic courtesy of Ijam)

Right - Ready for the Tmn Melati - Awana Touge Battle (Pic courtesy of Diket)

With many RBUs around (Ian and secret tapi dah tak secret partner Yim and Che, who spent the night before at genting), the lambong and cam whoring sessions were continuing almost non-stop and lets just hope that you had not been caught off guard by some of them with camera in the hands.

Teams RBU (pic courtesy of Diket)

The Men Open category was the first to be gun off at 8.30am. My strategy was simple, to pace myself to last the course. Me and my team mate Zack, started with a comfortable pace and tried not to be sucked into the pace of the other runners. By the way, from the word GO, all the other RBU teams disappeared from my radar (sungguh mantop and power dia org semua ni). Not knowing what would be in store for us, I think we just did the correct approach by not trying to outdo our ability in attacking the earlier inclines.

I was not sure whether we were in the back pack or in the middle pack but my main indicator was effort level. Trying to keep pace with the front guys would be futile if it end up you bonk before finishing. When I went through the first HUGE climb, I was somehow relieved with the pace that I had restricted myself into at the earlier stage and managed to tackle it without stopping for long breather. It was a long que anyway and I was never “a podium potential” to ask people to move aside in those tight line of a single track inclining trail unless there was a clear room for overtaking.

It was during the second HUGE climb (after crossing the second stream) that I had drained out almost all of my energy. The slippery and steep track extracted all juice of energy that my body could produce. Along the way I sort of wish that I had brought along my power gel, in the hope of attaining the second wind. Looking from another perspective, I was at least had enough water for rehydration when some people did not even have a proper rehydration opportunity with no water station along the way save at KM11 (which I think was too far and too late). On that score I am not going to whine about not having the luxury of downing a power gel for this race.

After another substantial climb, came the obstacles stage of the race. This was where it tested not only the physical ability of the participants but their guts as well. Hence you could see some people hesitated to jump into and played in the muddy pools. We managed to finish the run at position no 80 of Men Open Category with a hand timed of 2 hr 22 minutes. Not too shabby I guess and most importantly it was fun….as someone has said before “sakit tapi sedappp (bila dah habis lah)” :D

The post race lambongs and cam whoring continued with the additional members of RBU gang specially driven from Klang to Genting, F1 style by our Kak June with Deo, Kak Justiffa and Azza in tow. Zarin @ Tsar was already there with us before the gun off. You guys should be at the startling line for GT 2011 OK :D. We were in full force cheering Jaja and Mas coming back to the base. Well done ladies!

After the Mud Battle (Pic courtesy of Diket)

The grand finale of the action packed day was the Birthday makan-makan party for the October Birthday boys i.e. Diket and Nik and coincidently they were team mates for this GT and finished ranking no.1 among the RBU teams. Congrats! My appreciation as well to those who had contributed the foods and drinks for the party. You guys ROCKS! (macam rambut Ray, rock kapak wa cakap luuuu)

Bagai Pinang dibelah Kapak, tetap manis hehe (pic courtesy of Yim)

It was an awesome race with awesome peeps having simple but awesome party for everybody to end the day with a high note. Now peeps, get back to training with PBIM and Powerman just around the corner ! :D

Run to the Hills

Team Clowns has made an official declaration of war with the other teams and Team Librarian/Cengkerang would not keep quite. We will attack the hills.....behind Team Clowns and expect an ambush from us..guerilla style hahahaha

Weekend is coming and we'll meet insyaallah at Genting Trail Blazer this Sunday :D

The Dragon Back

Last weekend was unique since all my weekend warrior friends were scattered around having their own respective races. Those who had emerged victorious in the ultimate endurance trail challenge of TNF 100k Duo, I would like to re-express my heartiest congratulations to each one of them. Though I have said it before that I did not have a slightest doubt that all of them would cross the finishing line, the fact that some of them thought of throwing the towel just shows the difficulty level of the race.

My congratulations as well to those who dare to accept the challenge to be the King of the Mountain by cranking their 2 wheels 54km up to Cameron Highland. Crazy? You tell me but again they earned the right to be the King that day. And those participating in the Nike 10k Run (ramai awek tapi sungguh heran Ijam x nak masuk) and HooHaa run or Eco-Challenge (tak ramai awek tapi Ijam masuk!), thumbs up for all especially those who had their PBs.

As for myself, though I had not participated in any races, I had my own personal challenge as well. Acknowledging that lot and lot of works need to be done to strengthen the legs in cranking my “Merry Please Go Fast”, I accepted the lambong from another cyclist friend to join a 50 km-ish ride with the Bkt Jelutong Cyclists (BJC) plying the GCE (Guthrie Corridor Expressway), so I assumed. Only later when I tried to lambong Shuk to join the ride that I knew that the plan was to take the undulating roads of Shah Alam- Puncak Alam/Batu Arang and in between to pass the “Dragon Back”. I first heard of this “Dragon Back” from a cyclist relative. Though I understand that it is not comparable to Perez, Genting Sempah and those multi hills of the Langat/NS border, it did provide a tough challenge for newbies. In the hope that there would be others in the group that are of the same level as myself (assuming that all the hardcores would take a day’s rest before attempting the KOM race the next day), I dared myself to be at the gathering point Saturday morning. One by one the other cyclists appeared and it was obvious that I was one of the youngest among these peeps (age range I guess from early 40s to late 40s) but kid you not, these guys are regular cyclists (at least compared to me) and later showed that most of them had stronger legs in pedaling their carbon frame/fancy sets.

So about 15 of us were off around 7.45am from BJ and the undulating stretches started soon after we exited from BJ. Since I was not familiar with the route, I tried to put myself in the middle pack for not wanting to be left behind alone. I was comforted with the fact that about 5 other older riders maintained a slower pace than mine. After about 8kms we then exited from the main Shah Alam – Puncak Alam road and turned to meet the Dragon. There is no turning back for me. I tried to maintain the right cadence to maintain the momentum of passing the first hill, which looked like a wall from below. It was a short climb but steep. I need to push myself very hard by resorting to stand pedaling and by the time I reached the peak, I was almost breathless, due to the climb and the view on top of the first hill. Ammah! The Dragon had just introduced me to the first hill and there was another wall that I need to climb in front of me and another. All in all there were 4 inclines, all in straight road, which formed the so called Dragon Back. I managed to get a picture of some part of the Dragon Back from the internet and I believe that the shot was taken from the peak of the first hill.

On top of the First Hill

After passing the Dragon Back we turned to another main road leading to Puncak Alam and made Petronas Puncak Alam as our first re-grouping point. There was a bit of incident before turning to the petrol station when I had my third fall from the day I used the clipless shoes. Malu bang jatuh beskal macam nangka busuk hahaha.

Mamils Resting after Conquering the Dragon Back

After quite a long rest waiting for the last 2 riders of the group (one guy needed to stop and rest after tackling 2 of the hills of the Dragon Back), we proceeded to the direction of Paya Jaras, Sg Buloh via Bandar Saujana Impian. At Paya Jaras the group splitted to 2, one going back to Bkt Jelutong via GCE and the other stronger group decided to proceed to Kuang. Going back to Bkt Jelutong was quit a lonely affair for me being the sole rider in the middle under the scorching Saturday morning sun. I also decided to ditch the breakfast re-grouping at R&R GCE and proceeded back alone to Bkt Jelutong. All in all the distance covered was 53km. The distance was just 5km more than the last ride but it was a progress for me with the Dragon Back conquered. The experience proves that apart from stamina you really need a strong legs in cycling. This week I need to squeeze in a riding session but may not be able to do group ride due to other commitments.

I will skip Mizuno run this weekend and for those who run, I wish you guys all the best.

Of Trail and Expressway

Trail

The Kiara trail run a week after SCKLM was my first brief introduction to trail running and I had to concur whole heartedly with others who had done trail running before that it was FUN. Far from being a walk in the park and at certain times, the inclining narrow, tricky and twisted trail would made you want to scream for air but once you managed to be at the peak, you will be rewarded with a great endorphin released going downhill. The connection between you and nature is also awesome, as reflected in the pictures captured by Diket and Yim below.

Left - Trail head to the Dream Trail - Pic courtesy of Diket

Right - On the way to the Steroid Hill? -Pic courtesy of Yim

I don’t think I had to re-write or re-express the awesomeness and the fun of the run at FRIM last Saturday with other RBUs (Syah, Ian, Diket, Nik, Syed, Yim, Zack Yui, Shuk, Deo and Shanaz). You can see the excitement on our faces in the pictures below (taken from Diket's blog and Yim’s Facebook album). What’s more with the food fiesta that we had in celebrating Ian’s belated birthday and I pampered myself with 2 of the the yummiest homemade coney dogs prepared by Ian after completed the introductory loop of my FRIM trail run comprising the Dream Trail, Rover Trail and the Steroid Hill. Yeah, that Steroid Hill, its name suits perfectly with the mental and physical demand that it extracted from you in conquering the same. It was also my first run with a hydration pack and being a gas guzzler, I enjoyed the convenience of sipping ribena drink mixed with ORS at anytime I wish to. That day was also the first car pool arrangement I made with Deo and Zack Yui going to FRIM. Next time we can car pool again guys! I wish another session of trail run to be organised in anticipation of Genting Trail Blazer end of this month.



Left - Bukan malu kucing nak lambung tapi malu nak lawan betis-betis gebu yg lain -Pic courtesy of Diket

Right - All excited to start the much awaiting run- Pic courtesy of Yim

Expressway

With some soreness at my legs being the left over from the trail run the day before, I decided to join the Bukit Jelutong cyclists (BJC) for a Sunday ride and on their menu was either (i) a 150km ride from Bkt Jelutong to Sg Tengi (somewhere in Hulu Selangor) via Guthrie Corridor Expressway (GCE) and Ijok or (ii) a 70km+ ride via GCE to Ijok and return. And as the icing on the cake, the ride would also be joined by the LeTua riders and these guys are like a local semi-pro tour team, if I am not mistaken. With no mileage at all since my last ride in Ramadhan, I was apprehensive to do even the 70km, what’s more with the unknown BJC riders (and the story of their super expensive bikes), not to mention the LeTua riders, who all looked “pro” (what do I expect anyway).

GCE but we used the motorcycle lane

I was saved from the humility of being an unknown newbie with an entry level bicycle in a well established group with fancy bikes (seems that all were using carbon frame and high end group set and wheels set) to be left behind with the appearance of my junior in school, who is not a so new rider but decided to do a 50km-ish ride only that day with another friend of his. The plan was to ride strictly on GCE, breaking away from the main BJC group at the Paya Jaras exit and proceeding to the last toll booth of GCE (Toll Lagong) and return to Bkt Jelutong.

Briefing by BJC President. Menyorok kat ujung2 ajer - Pic taken from the Facebook album of Nazlin Abdullah

Some of the LeTua riders - Pic taken from the Facebook Album of Nazlin Abdullah

We did as planned save that we were left behind about 2km after we entered GCE from the GCE-Bkt Jelutong’s junction LoL. They were just too fast for me especially with the “tarik” service provided by the LeTua riders. GCE is not flat but not hilly as well but has a fair share of undulating stretches. I would say that it was more or less like riding around Putrajaya minus the flat Putrajaya-ELITE stretch. Acknowledging the feat of chasing the main group would surely be an exercise of futility, 5 of us continued to ride at our own pace. After a long rest from cycling the legs felt really weak in cranking the pedals, especially on inclines. Obviously I need a much stronger legs to even keep a decent gap between me and the regular and otai riders and to achieve that I need to do more rides (could Trainer helps?). There is no short cut if you want to get better, full stop.

This Weekend

This weekend I understand that everybody would have their own races. Syah, Ian, Yim, Haza, Kash (Nik?) and shanaz would be in Singapore attempting the TNF. I wish you guys all the best and I am confident that each one of you would nail it fine. Others, i.e. Ray, Zack Yui, Deo, Ijam and Shuk I believe will participate in the Nike 10k run. I have not registered for this event and do not have a plan of pirating it as well. I still have issue with my right knee after my run last evening and I may just do a slow run of 7-8km in my neighbourhood this Saturday and do a 50km-ish ride on Sunday. My best wishes as well to Diket, Det and Jaja for their King of the Mountain race this Sunday. Jgn lupa minum teh boh panas dengan makan strawberry kat atas Cameron tu nanti OK! :D

Terlenggang Tak Tertanggung Kangkung - Newton 25km Challenge 2010

Newton 25km Challenge 2010 Kuala Lumpur. Yeah, before the day of the run I knew from other RBUs that the route has ammah hill, as per the picture below posted by Yim in his blog.

That was only one “ammah” hill in the picture so I thought I might just attempt to run it halfway and walk until to the top and then tackle all the other hills with a snail pace and would end up Ok and finished the run within 3 ½ hour. Sound reasonable and far from being ambitious right?

The problem is that would only qualify as a wishful thinking for a snail pace runner who did not manage to run a single LSD exceeding 16km for a period of 3 months (I did 2 run which may qualify to be categorized as minimal LSD training for ½ marathon during that period). But the other bigger problem is, as far as I am concerned, almost all hills along the route were of “ammah” and “appah” standard. True, no kidding! And that is the essence of what I have experienced in the Newton Challenge (not race ok).

That Sunday I reached the venue around 5.30 am. I went straight to the mosque and met Tok Ketua Poco-poco Shuk. Actually it is very convenient for muslim runners if the race venue is near a mosque. Rayzeef and Zaki arrived at the mosque not long after that. Later I met Nik, Det and Bahri (Putrajaya Ramadhan Friday Night riding gang) inside the mosque and bumped into Syah, Ijam and KA at the starting point.

As planned I decided to run with a snail aka lenggang kangkung pace with Zaki’s company. Ijam has decided with his alter ego Ronald McIjam left at home, he could do the ‘rempit’ pace, leaving me and Zaki behind :D At the early stage the pace was Ok for me in tackling the hills and the funny thing is once I saw a hill which looked quite menacing, I would say “yeah, this is the “ammah” hill. The problem is I kept telling myself the same thing EACH time I reached ANY hills. And what is termed as “ammah” by Yim was actually “appah” standard for me hahahaha.

The earlier ammah hills were still Ok with a snail pace. Later part dah jadi muka serigala!

So to cut the story short, I lost steam as early as at KM10 and though I asked Zaki to ‘tarik’ me, I just could not maintain the same pace unless I wanted to bonk early. So after that point and starting from KM11, I mostly walked uphill and jogged downhill under the “ammah” heat. Mentally and physically I felt lethargic. I saw other RBUs, Ian, Syah, Ijam, Yim, Deo, Shuk, KA, Nik and Zaki all running strong at the other side of the road and “me?... is just a singer in a long haired rock and roll band” (ehh, apa hal lirik lagu Bon Jovi muncul kat sini??).

My target of finishing within 3 ½ hour was slipping by each KMs after KM20. As far as I was concerned I just aiming to finish the run and could not care less about the timing. Legs felt heavy like timber logs and the calves felt stiff under the compression socks. I just could not run anymore after KM21 save for a brief 100 meter jog to the finishing line.

Did I regret participating in this Newton Challenge? Not a single beat! I think I had done quite a number of races that I would no longer sulked for being slow or missing my personal target (though this is the first time I did not manage to finish within the given qualifying time). Injury wise, I could say that I did not suffer any ‘real injury’ during and after the run save for some soreness at my SCKLM’s injured right knee (running with my knee guard did help keeping the issue at bay).

Looking forward, the Newton Challenge 25km 2010 was the kick start that I was seeking for my next 3 primary challenges, Genting Trail Blazer, the Sprint category of Powerman 2010 and Singapore Standard Chartered 2010 full marathon.

Lets rock and roll guys!

Lenggang Kangkung Part 2

First, the pictures above have no relevance at all in connection with this posting. I have been reminded by Ijam to up-date my blog and in doing so, I had promised him that I will put a picture of “amoi” in my new posting :-). The above pictures are neither hot nor sexy but for me that lady represents the natural japanese beauty. Her name is Matsu Takako, a famous actress/singer/musician in Japan and during my time there in 1999-2000, she was one of the top Japanese celebrities and one of my favourites (apart from Fujiwara Norika) ;-). [Note to Ijam – bukan kau sorang ajer minat amoi ok! Hahahahaha]

Ok, now I wish to proceed to the actual subject matter of this posting, i.e. lenggang kangkung part 2. I don’t think you have to guess the reason why I have chosen that title for my post, yes, that ammah hills run this coming Sunday! Though I would be lying to say that I have not put in any mileage in my preparation for the run but realistically speaking I don’t think my training so far is good enough for me to expect a decent performance this Sunday. The cold stark fact is I have not done a single siput pace LSD exceeding 16km after Aidilfitr and after taking into account the reports from other runners on the ammah routes, it would only be prudent for me (or rather optionless) to take it easy this Sunday with a lenggang kangkung pace. At least that could minimize the level of suffering that I would need to endure during the run. Whatever said, I am actually excited about the run and looking forward to see you guys this Sunday!

All the Best to All!

Salam AidilFitri

To the RBUs, the Ramadhan Friday Night Riders and every muslims out there, I wish you and your family Salam Aidilfitri. It has been a wonderful time for me so far, meeting and making new friends and I seek your kind forgiveness for any wrong doings on my part (via my words, writings or deeds).

By the way let us remind ourselves that the real battle starts from the very first day of Syawal, i.e. the battle of Men Vs Food. Lets also hope that we would end up victorious :D

My Battle is not to Finish 4 Jars of Pineapple Tart by Myself

Invisible Guard

Ok, I’ll continue from where Kash, Zarin, June and Haza had left us. First I have to tell you guys that I am not the kind of guys who can become a member of that ghost hunters’ crew. Since I was one of the most junior members in the close relatives circle (i.e. among cousins), I was exposed to ghost stories since I started to understand other people’s conversations. Hence, I could not restraint myself from imagining things back then and made me a kind of “penakut” kid (yeah, blame others hehehe). So, I never wish to experience any encounters with the unseen world. I mean here we are facing and occupied with all type of threats from our own kind, which seems like a never ending affairs (reading newspapers now did make me depressed).

Before I continue, I would like to discuss a bit the issue of the supernatural or in malay society, commonly referred to as “alam ghaib”. My father is solid rock in his belief that nothing else is greater than God and all others are just His mere creatures (makhluk) and due to that only God can protect us from any threat from others, seen or unseen (of course we cannot just sit and do nothing in protecting ourselves). When I was a kid, each time I told him of any ghost stories which I heard from other kids, he would tell me that those creatures do not exist. Once I remembered that a guest at our house asked him about a “Pontianak” seen somewhere besides the Klang-Banting road (those days travelling from Klang to Banting can be scary at night with plantations, forest reserve and few kampongs/small towns in between, not like today). He just responded by saying that those were just “tahyul”/”khurafaat” things to be believed. I guess he did not want his kids (and people) to be overly concern about these things. After we have grown up, when this kind of issues cropped up, he would just say that these makhluk of the unseen world do exist in the form of evil (“iblis” and “syaitan”) and jin, as mentioned in the Holy Quran. There is a chapter in the Quran that is called “Surah Al-Jinn” which touches on the subject of this type of creature of God. The last verse of Surah An-Nas (i.e. one of the 3 “Qul” verses) clearly mentioned the word “jin”.

To tell you the truth I could not really claim that I have encountered supernatural forms since I was not really sure whether it did really happen or not. If I did not imagine things, below is the story of that encounter.

In year 2000, I went back to Malaysia from a 1 year stay in Japan accompanied my wife. We stayed at my parent’s house, which is beside my brother’s. My brother and his wife were performing Hajj at that time and his daughter was staying with my parent and hence his house would be empty for about 40 plus days (save for my parent’s maid coming to clean/mop the floor etc once a week). It was quite a big single storey house. We used to joke that devoid of any furniture, the living and the dining areas combined could be used to play badminton. Every evening one of us would go the house and turned on few lights in the house. One evening (before dusk) I went to the house and once I entered the house I felt very-very uncomfortable, feeling like someone was present inside. I went straight to the kitchen to turn on the light and when I was going to turn on the light at the dining area, from the corner of my eyes and in split seconds, I saw a man! I saw a man, a bearded and pious look with a white robe and turban (arab style turban) sitting on a chair at the living area facing me! I had goose bump straight away and automatically turned my face to his direction for a second look and …..nope he was gone. I hurriedly locked the sliding doors and went back to my parent’s house with my mind full of confusion, debating whether what I saw was real or just my imagination. I made a conclusion for the latter and I have not told any of my family members of that event, even until today.

A good 6 years after, I had a fresh perspective of what may have happened. Before sending off my sister and my brother in law to perform their Hajj, my father gave a few minutes of advise (tazkirah) to those present, inter alia, for those who are going to perform Hajj, not to feel sad and heavy hearted leaving their family behind and to believe that God Al-Mighty would protect, being His guest, their family and properties. It kept me thinking, was the “man” I saw (again if I did not imagining things) a makhluk (be it an angel or jinn) assigned by God to watch the house of my brother during my brother’s pilgrimage?

Allahu A’lam (God Knows Best).

Ultimate Canon Rock

Canon in D. Its actually a classic song composed by Pachelbel and has been reproduced in so many versions. Though the violin version and piano version would sound more classical, the "guitar rock" version has gained popularity around the world, which if I not mistaken, since it was introduced in "Avangelion", a famous japanese science fiction anime in the 90's. I found in Youtube a very interesting video where a guy mixed more than 20 individual videos of amature guitarists playing the rock version of this song into a single clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMWl_5NujBw

By the way, so far I did 3 easy runs before iftar for a distance of 5 km and 1 easy run after terawikh of 7.7km. I did join the friday night ride initiated by Diket at Putrajaya. A lot more to be learnt in this 2 wheels thingy but I enjoyed those rides very much. Looking forward for the next ride. Would also try to do one LSD during ramadhan but with Friday night already slotted for the ride and Saturday night would be reserved for family/neighbourhood events, it does seem remote. Tengok lah macam mana nanti.

Out from the Shell

My last post was on 15 July 2010, where I blogged about to run or not to in the Siemens 10K. In the end I was extremely glad that I decided to be there at Dataran Merdeka, meeting friends and running with the Sarong Runners party plus Ronald MacIjam. I really had fun that day. My tabik to u guys!

After Siemens, my hibernation period started as planned. The crazy workloads made the resting period easy to chew, just like eating banana split (ok, I did think about karipap but it has a higher degree of difficulty compared to banana). I first thought of being a kaypochi in the Shape Run but could not make myself available due to other unexpected event.

By now, I had been lambong-ed many times in FB on the newly acquired Pooky…opssss no, not Pooky but Merrie Go Slow (no element of vulgarity in any way you spell or pronounce it :D). I have to admit that my mileage with Merrie Go Slow is shameful. I had a sore butt after riding Merrie for 11km and was told by King Mambo that it should be the lesser worry compared to the soreness to other part of my body after a long ride. I just need to get used of that soreness anyway and am looking forward to the Friday night ride at Putrajaya to be organized by King Mambo during Ramadhan.

Merrie Go Slow

On the running side, I did my first “recovery” run last week at Putrajaya. With an evening meeting scheduled last Friday at one of the buildings along the boulevard, I thought of releasing my long preserved endorphin after the meeting. My wish came true when my client released me at 9pm. After the extended zero weeks, doing a 7km at 7 min/km-ish pace felt hard, a clear indication of my declining fitness level.

Considering Newton 25km after Aidilfitri, I don’t think it is any longer an option for me not to run during the holy month of Ramadhan. Hence, please include me in any of your “lambong” in these coming 4 weeks OK!

“SELAMAT MENYAMBUT RAMADHAN KEPADA SEMUA DAN SEMOGA AMAL IBADAT KITA DITERIMA ALLAH”

Lenggang Kangkung

God willing, I will turn up at Dataran Merdeka this Sunday but I have 2 options, i.e.:

(i) to join the 10k run and in most probabilities, will try to complete it not in the usual snail pace but rather in a lenggang kangkung style; or

(ii) to cheer the RBUs and other runners (and snap pictures in the process).

After the extended zero week, I made my first morning run today, aiming to finish a 5km-ish distance. The tight breathing, stiff muscles and slight discomfort of the shin splint were all within my expectation but not the pain at the right knee, which originated from the marathon run at SCKLM. The extent of the pain frighteningly felt similar when it struck around KM3. Although I tried to be optimistic, such optimism was dented with the niggling pain each time I walked for the rest of the day.

More to the form of a blessing in disguise, I will be forced to start my cross training soon as I need to get an alternative jab for my endorphine requirement once the resting period from running commences. Diket, itu ler pasal sekarang nie bola leret pun aku nak bikin lipat gulung jugak :D

See u guys at Dataran!

A Maiden Lanun Voyage?

Originally I did not plan to run in the Siemens 10k this Sunday as the date would clash with the supposedly family trip to Langkawi. However since the planned trip was cancelled due to certain reasons, a 10k run this Sunday would be a nice recovery race for me after the extended zero week. I have no specific target, just wanna enjoy the run. Anybody who wishes to sell his bib (confined to male runner only lah) please feel free to contact me. If wanna donate (i.e. free) lagi bagus :D Question is if I could not get a bib, would I do my maiden pirated run this Sunday? Worst case scenario, thinking of pirating the run if no bib is available prior to Sunday.

By the way, all this while I was pretty sure that I had submitted my registration for the Shape/Men's Health Run. Just found out today that I'd confused myself between my registration for Newton 25k and the Shape Run and the registration window is already closed. Again, I need to look for a bib (I am willing to pay in full but wanna have the right to keep the goodies). This time around if I could not get a bib, highly likely I will give it a miss. Tengok lah macam mana nanti.

Extended Zero Week

I have decided to extend the zero week to include this week as well. Strictly speaking, last week was not really a zero week as I joined the kaki lambongs/RBUs for the trail run at Kiara. A great outing that day. Diket had captured those moment beautifully in his posting at http://wcr1414.blogspot.com/2010/07/dirt-day.html and I am perfectly happy to echo the same (ni dah jadi trick universal for RBUs hehehe).

With the extended zero week, I will skip Seremban 1/2 this coming Sunday. I think running 21.1k pending proper recovery of my current injury would keep the vicious cycle alive and kicking. To get my endorphine fixed with no running this week, I did a 500m of "caca merba" swimming at PADE's outdoor pool last tuesday (with wall break for every 50m of course). Obviously my water confidence level is still low since I am pretty sure I would only be able to do 1/2 of such distance if I did my swimming in the PADE's indoor pool (swimming in a 9 feet depth pool all the way is damn scary, especially when you are at Meter25 and succumbed to the thought, "oh no, I can't reach the wall"). I plan to do another session this weekend BUT may need to swim in the dreadful indoor pool since the outdoor pool would be transformed to another Sunway Lagoon or Desa WaterPark during the weekend. Will see how lah.

For skipping Seremban 1/2, I need to apologize to Ijam since he was the one that did the registration for me and collected my race kit, to the extent of offering the service of his office's despatch boy when I was in a long hybernated mode in getting my lazy bum to collect the bib from him. Nanti aku belanja kau Karipap ok :-)

By the way, I had lunch with the Kings @ gangster kg pisang, i.e. Diket and Det at Pelita Jln Ampang yesterday. Had a good time chit chatting (tak ingatlah ada ke tak mengumpat other RBUs hehehe) whilst enjoying our nasi kandaq. May be next time others in the vicinity/territory can join in as well :)

For those running in Seremban 1/2, don't forget to pose for pics at Jln Panglima Siamang Gagap OK. Good luck guys!

My Maiden 42.2km Journey

Last Sunday (27 June 2010) was special. The day that I had completed a journey of 42.195km on foot around Kuala Lumpur. Passing through those roads and places, which prior to the journey, were mostly of no significance. Roads that you have passed and places that you have seen countless times. Below is the haphazard recollection of my maiden journey called a “Marathon”.

Zero Week and the Point of no Return

6 days prior to the big day I completely rested my legs from doing any running, not even 50 meters. I can’t think of any reason why it is called “Zero Week” other than you are not supposed to run right? Anyway, my left leg was in dire need of the rest because of, no need to guess, the shin splint (naik muak korang tengok term ni kot). I wish that the shin splint can be transformed to banana splits (just look at how Syed performed by whalloping 5 pisang montel before the run J). By Saturday I have accepted the fact that the shin splint (not the banana split) will remain as my unwanted friend in the most important run that I had ever attempted from the day I was introduced to the running world at SCKLM 2009. The mantra is “embrace the pain” (the advice to FMVs by Ultra Marathoner Kash).

I wish I had a quite Saturday so I could have enough rest, physically and mentally to run the next day. But at the end of the day, running is just our hobby and passion. Whether we like it or not, we could only attempt our best to juggle our time between running and our other responsibilities, to our family, career and community (isshh..macam cakap org politik lah pulak).

My Saturday started at 3.45 am, sending my wife to LCCT to catch her early morning flight to Thailand. Later in the morning, I attended a kenduri in my neighbourhood and then in the evening, I drove 170km +- (to and fro) attending another kenduri of a wife’s relative. I reached home around 8pm and tried to sleep by 9pm but I was swarmed with restlessness (an obvious sign of pre-race jitter). Since I could not sleep early, I watched the “Spirit of the Marathon” as part of my “anchoring” (the tip given by Diket aka King Mambo) and “acquiring positive energy” (the tip from Nik, the Ultra Marathoner and Lanun King). With a more positive mindset coupled with a number of spin exercises on my bed (malam tu aku tidur sorang, tu yg boleh golek-golek lebih sikit), I managed to have a 2 hour sleep before getting out from bed around 2.30am.

It might be due to the short nap or the jitter but whatever the reason was, my body refused to happily take in the rice porridge as my pre-race breakfast. I had to force to take in few spoons. Spent quite a long time in the loo but I could not claim that I had fully achieved the objective of the mission. Because of the jitter, my race prep was a bit disorganized. I left home quite late and parked my car near Masjid Negara at nearly 4.30 am. Put on my shoes and jogged to Dataran Merdeka.

It was not long after I reached the Race Venue that the full marathon crowd started to flow into the starting gantry. Bumped into Haza and said hi (she was with June, Azza and few others). Later I met Ijam, the official RBU’s photographer with the other kaki lambongs/RBUs i.e. King Mambo, Syah, Nik, Shuk, Nizam, KA and Zaki. The atmosphere at the back was easy, just like listening to the lite & easy channel on my way to work. Jokes were flying around between runners though they were going to be released to tame the 42.2km monster. It did help me in fighting my jitter.

I had finally arrived at the point of no return.

I got the best wishes from an Ultra-Marathoner Nik! TQ for the lambong atin the last LSD :)

Posing dulu dlm hujan

Photos courtesy from Ijam

The Journey

KM1-17

We were gunned off in a downpour. Love the cool early morning weather. My only worry was the possible blister at a much later stage of the run due to hours of running in wet socks/shoes. My mission, as in all my other races, was to go on a snail pace and finish safe. A sub 6 hour finishing time is a bonus hence I decided not to chase the red balloon.

The first 3km, I felt sluggish though we were soaked wet in the rain. I felt hungry as well though it was still an early stage of the run. Luckily I brought along dates and took some of them. Somewhere in Brickfields, Azza caught up with me and we ran together. It was a small world after all as our family had known each other for a long time. My family stayed in the same Taman with hers for not less than 30 years. We reached the first Water Station and I stopped, not to drink but to get the hot ointment/cream for my shin splint (I applied the ointment in the interval of 1 water station throughout the journey).

It was after KM5 that my body started to feel better. Continued with my plodding and caught up with Azza at Jalan Sungai Besi. We run together for a while. Though I saw the red balloon about 300m in front of me, again I decided not to chase it but continued with my pace. I caught up with the red balloon somewhere near Dewan Bahasa and paced with the guy along Jalan Loke Yew before increasing my pace going into Jalan Cheras. We were handed banana at the Water Station around KM14 or 15 and it was like a godsend to me. I should have asked for 2 since I was near famine. Anyway I continued with my plodding.

KM18-30

KM18 was where I first encountered the most unexpected issue of my maiden marathon run. My 30 days’ old Adidas Supernova Glide 2 had decided to transform itself into Adidas Supersole Glide 2. I believe it was due to the wet shoes and socks, the sole of the shoes just slipped and folded under my foot. #$%$$##$! Tried to ignore it but it affect my running gait due to the discomfort. I decided to stop and sit on the pavement to rectify the issue. I thought the problem would cease there but it kept recurring and I made 4 other stops along the distance to attend to the problem. My shoes just failed me big time.

I reached the 21.1km mark around 2 hr 45min. Sub 6 hour looks possible, I told myself but I decided not to push myself for fear of worsening the shin splint and the problem of the Adidas Supersole Glide 2 (I was not ready to run bare footed, even with Vibram). The run along Jln Bkt Bintang, Jln Raja Chulan, Jalan Sultan Ismail was the highlight of the event. Good to run with cheers along the way.

I think all runners will share the same view that running along Jln Ipoh up to the junction to Jln Kuching was the dreadful part of the course due to the traffic. The building up of the pain of the shin splint and the #$$%@ Adidas Supersole Glide 2 issue started to affect my mental strength. The mantra of “embrace the pain” also started to fade by the time I reached 30km. I did more walking than I wished to.

KM31-42

The first highlight was that I met an old college mate whom I had not met since we graduated in 1994. She was doing her stretching at KM31 and I stopped there to attend to my Adidas Supersole Glide 2 issue. The second highlight was the right knee started to give away at KM33. I suspected that, due to the shin splint of my left leg, my running gait might have put more pressure to the right leg, hence injuring the right knee. It was the biggest blow to my physical ability and fighting spirit to go strong for the last 8km. KM36 changed that.

KM36 was in the heart of many runners because of the fantastic, kind hearted and sincere people who were there waiting, cheering and supporting us runners at the time when we needed them most. Kash and Rais would never cease from receiving my utmost admirations and respects for all that they had done. My thank you as well to Julie, Karen and Allen (and whoever) that were part of the KM36’s crew. You guys ROCKS!

At Jln TAR, 100m frm the finishing line - photo courtesy from Ijam

From KM36, I had the second wind. I tried to run (though in super snail pace) as much as I could whilst bearing the knee pain. The familiar territory did help as well and I just ignored all those discomfort due to the Adidas Supersole Glide 2 issue. When I passed Bank Negara walking to Jln Raja Laut, I saw Shuk and he asked me to run. Bro, you pushed me well just like in the last Bkt Aman LSD :). I ran with a couple of walk breaks until I entered Jln TAR. Last year I gave everything to run along this stretch to finish my 10k run in chasing the qualifying time. This year, I was in similar situation albeit I was going to chase the qualifying time of my maiden 42.2k run. I just ran, pain or no pain and the feeling got better by the meters I was getting closer to the finishing line. Got the cheers from Ijam, KA and Deo (TQ guys) and I crossed the finish line just in time to get the bonus of doing a sub 6 hour maiden marathon, Alhamdulillah.

Aftermath

I had a good time spending time with friends (RBU/GKL) after the run. It was a great day for all, with many clocking their PBs. I had a great time cheering the other marathoners back to the base with the presence of the many KINGS’ of the kaki lambongs (siap dah habis santap nasi Kandaq) and the highlight was when I was part of the entourage escorting June to finish her run. Congrats to all RBU/GKL and all FMVs. I don’t have to mention names, you know who you are. Well done to all and hope we will continue this wonderful and self fulfilling journey in the future, Insyaallah.

Note

Save for the swollen knee, I had no major pains (shin splint tu x payah cakap, mmg kira close buddy dah). I iced the swollen knee right after I reached home. By night the condition had improved a lot. Experienced muscles ache/stiffness but it was not that bad. Went to work on Monday and I knew that I have recovered quite well when my colleagues said I did not look that I’d done a 42.2km the day before. Alhamdulillah.