Monday, December 27, 2010

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

Thursday, December 9, 2010

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!