Lanun Orange Run

Beginning of last week, someone told me that there will be BHP Orange Run 9km on Sunday, April 13th, starting from The Curve, Damansara. By the time I knew about that, it was already too late for me to register for it. And that someone told me to just join the run and be a “pirate”.

That Sunday morning, I woke up as early as 5am just to find out heavy rain was pouring down. Then, with the doubt that the run might be cancelled, I continued my sleep. At 6.45am, I woke up again and this time the rain has subsided a bit and I though hmm, maybe the run will be on.

I quickly prepared myself, and rushed out from the house roughly at 7.20am. Fortunate enough my house is situated just a few km from The Curve. For some reason, I did not know what time exactly is the flag off of the run, so I had to slow jog from my house to The Curve, just to make sure I arrived there by 7.30am.

As my watch showed 7.33am, I was about 200m from the starting line and I could hear the gun off has been shot. “Oh man, I’m late!” I saw the runners have started their journey and without wearing any bib number, I just buat-muka-tak-malu and joined the crowd. By the time I reached the starting line, I realised I was in the middle of ladies runners. The male runners have been gunned off perhaps just few minutes earlier.

Well, I did not really start my first run (unregistered) in a good way. First of all, I was late for registration, secondly I was late for the gun off. But, for the sake of experiencing the so called race environment, I just hantam-buat-tak-tau and just ran with the crowd.

It was pretty fun at first, when I was fully energized. My initial plan was to keep on running without stop until the finish line, no matter how slow I run. But, just after 20minutes running, I gave up to my unfit body. I started to walk-run-walk. Distance wise, I would say it was roughly at 4km mark when I started to walk and jog.

As I passed the water station, I saw Stupe standing there talking to Ariff. I did not know them before, but definitely I could recognize Stupe from his blog. So, I stopped and said hi to him, and introduced myself as “Aini’s friend”. He was with Ariff, waiting for Senn I guess.

I continued my walk-run-walk up and down the pretty rolling roads. At about 7km into the run, Stupe and Ariff 'cut-the-vegetable' and passed me like they were flying. Stupe asked me to hop in and draft behind him, so I did. But, I cannot be pacing Ironman la. Not only they are Ironman, they are also superstars in this category. So, after about few minutes running with their 'slow' pace, I dengan segala hormatnya mengundurkan diri and told Stupe and Ariff to continue with their runs to the finish line.

I crossed the finish line with the time of 1:10 and with a painful ibu jari kaki kiri. First reason being that I was not prepared at all to run anything more than 5km on that day, tapi saja gatal tapak kaki to try run 9km. Secondly, I still felt a bit tired since I ter-bonk-ang again during Saturday’s Putrajaya ride. It was only a short 27km ride (initial plan was 46km), but I felt miserable with my performance. Anyway, after the run, I lepak a bit with the superstars Stupe and Ariff, grab some drinks and nasi lemak percuma, and then I walked back home feeling satisfied that I have became one of the lanun for the Orange run.

p/s: Lanun = unregistered runners.

Thanks to Stupe and Ariff for being so friendly and supportive to me on that day. They even suggested me to take up Ironman. They said, “Ironman is totally do-able la Nik, as long as you don’t push yourself too hard”.

So, am I going to register for Ironman 2009? Oh no, no, no. Even if you pay for the registration, I won’t be doing so, at least not for 2009. Wait until I can run 10km within 1hr, and cycle 50km in 1.5hrs, and swim 1km in 0.5hrs, then I might consider registering for it.

Until then, I need more trainings, more long rides, long runs and long swims. (and more blog updates, rite?)

Superstar talking

Hari Selasa lepas adalah hari keputeraan al-Sultan Johor, so seluruh negeri Johor cuti. Di kesempatan itu, aku bangun seawal 6 pagi dan bergegas-gegas macam mawas untuk pegi ke ofis sebab aku kena join teleconference pada pukul 7pagi. Hangin ke tak hangin kalau hari cuti pun kau kena datang ofis pukul 7 pagi?

Anyway, alang-alang aku dah masuk ofis pukul 7pagi, aku stay la sampai tengahari. Perut dah lapar gile macam orang kebuluran sebab ter-miss sarapan. By lunch time, aku berambus dari ofis, pegi jalan-jalan cari makan dulu. Lepas makan, aku pegi swimming sekejap. Saja nak loosen up upper body muscles.

Topic sebenar yang aku nak cerita ialah pengalaman aku jumpa para cycling superstars kat Johor pada Rabu malam. Biasanya diorang ada sesi mengayuh setiap Rabu malam. Ada geng road bike, ada geng mountain bike. Yang menariknya ialah pasal bahasa-bahasa yang diorang guna pakai di dalam perbualan harian selepas berkayuh berpuluh-puluh kilometer. Contohnya;

“Fuhyoo, selambe je kau panjat bukit tiga-tujuh tiga-lapan tadi. Nampak steady je”, kata seorang cyclist kepada cyclist sorang lagi.

“Ish, mana ada. Mamat kat depan tu lagi power, dia buat empat-tiga empat-lima kat flat. Confirm tak boleh kejar”, jawab cyclist yang sorang lagi tu.

“Uish, power tu. Patut la susah aku nak ikut masa dia tarik tadi. Asyik nak putus je. Last last, putus jugak. Aku rasa kepala lutut mamat tu ada enjin turbo kot”, keluh cyclist pertama tadi.

Mula-mula tu aku terkedu jugak dengan bahasa diorang ni. Tapi lama-lama sikit tu baru la aku paham apa maksud istilah-istilah superstars tu.

Note:
1) “tiga-tujuh tiga-lapan” = 37km/h or 38km/h, kelajuan standard masa diorang kayuh panjat bukit. Gilo apo?

2) “empat-tiga empat-lima” = 43km/h or45km/h, kelajuan standard masa diorang kayuh di atas flat road. Tulang besi ke apa diorang ni?

3) “…tarik…, …putus…”= haa, yang ni susah nak explain. Korang kena join cycling group baru boleh paham. Ada paham?

Mati hidup semula

Genap lebih kurang 2 bulan setengah blog aku mati-segan-hidup-tak-mau. Bulan lepas, aku ada hajat nak letak gambar batu nisan dengan tajuk “Innalillahi wainna ilaihi raji’uun” kat blog ni, tapi sebab password blog ni ialah “berpantang maut sebelum ajal”, so tak jadi lah aku nak buat kenduri arwah.

Dipendekkan cerita, sejak balik dari States bulan Januari lepas, sibuk bukan kepalang kat ofis. Aku tak set langsung jadual untuk buat fitness training. Running shoes Adidas aku bawak ke hulu ke hilir, tapi tak pernah aku pakai. Bahkan, kasut tu tak pernah dikeluarkan dari beg pun. So, running was totally out of the story. Zero.

Pasal swimming pulak, sempat la sekali aku test power kat 50m swimming pool. Tak sempat berenang jauh pun, stamina hancur berkecai! Habis sakit segala urat saraf.

About cycling, it was a new thing for me now as I just got myself a road bike! Yes, a road bike. Baru dapat dua hari lepas. It’s a second hand bike though, Trek 1200. Tapi aku tak kisah sangat, sebab aku cuma perlukan hembusan semangat baru untuk start buat fitness training balik. A big thanks to Aini for helping me to get the road bike (nanti aku transfer duit kat kau ye). Now that I have my own road bike, lebih senang la aku nak join mana-mana cyling group. Itu pun bergantung setakat mana aku “tak-malu” untuk join diorang.

Sabtu lepas aku test power my first road bike tu. Aku join Aini and the gang kat Putrajaya for an easy ride (for them, not for me) of 30km, Putrajaya-Dengkil-Putrajaya. This was my first ever fitness activity in Malaysia, a big milestone for myself. Mula-mula diorang plan nak buat 40km, aku dah cuak sikit. Maklumlah, my last long ride was in last year, hmm, aku lupa bulan berapa. But at the end they decided to only do 30km, since ramai newbies (I’m the newest newbie in the group) yang baru join. Itu pun aku bawak 3 Powergels, just in case takut aku ter-bonk-ang di tengah jalan.

Nak dijadikan cerita, aku memang tak fasih sangat pasal jalan kat Putrajaya. Dan aku punya GPS dalam kepala otak tak berfungsi pulak on that day. So, on the way out from masjid Putrajaya tu aku follow diorang aje lah. Banyak jugak traffic lights kat dalam Putrajaya ni rupanya, so banyak tempat kena berhenti. Kaki aku dah menggatal nak kayuh laju-laju, tapi kena sabar dulu sebab aku tak nak sesat sorang-sorang kat Putrajaya kalau aku kayuh kat depan.

Bila dah lalu kat main highway ke Dengkil tu, diorang cakap “okay, straight je!”. Aku pun tekan minyak cukup-cukup, banzaaiiii!!! Cuba nak kejar dua orang mamat kat depan. Aku ambik kesempatan on a downhill untuk henjut cukup-cukup, up to 57km/h on my speedometer. Puas hati aku! Pastu on the flat road, aku maintain dalam 31km/h je, pacing dengan diorang. Not bad gak mamat-mamat newbies ni.

Sampai kat u-turn point dekat dengan toll, kitorang stop for a short break. Lepak bawah pokok kejap sambil tunggu yang lain sampai. Lepas tu, kitorang patah balik ke Putrajaya. Aku jalan dulu, maintaining around 30km/h on the flat road sambil sekali sekala buat gaya aero-position. Saja la nak testing. Sakit gak belakang dan leher nak kena stay in aero-position, lagi-lagi sebab takde aero bar, dan tulang belakang lak memang masih keras sebab lama tak stretching.

Then, bila jumpa je rolling hills sebijik dua, aku dah rasa macam nak ter-bonk-ang. Tengok speedometer, baru 22km. ada lagi around 8km to go. Dalam hati dok fikir nak telan Powergel ke tak, sikit je lagi nak sampai. At last, aku teguk je air dan teruskan panjat bukit. Mula-mula tu aku dah jauh kat depan, tapi bila dah dekat nak masuk area Putrajaya, aku stop untuk tunggu diorang sebab aku tak tau simpang mana nak ambik untuk balik ke masjid Putrajaya. Kesian aku. Di kesempatan tu lah, si Aini tunjuk power dia, selamba-dog je dia potong aku masa panjat bukit sambil senyum kambing. Ada gak aku terlintas nak turun dan tolak basikal, tapi takut kena gelak dengan diorang. Looks like aku kena kuatkan main muscles for climbing hills. Putrajaya, I’ll be back, insyaAllah.

Putrajaya made me think twice on ever trying either Broga, or Fraser, or even Genting Sempah hills. But on second thoughts, I’ve done 100km when I was in the States with steep rolling hills as well. Anyway, my journey here has just started and I just need more trainings and more long rides with those experience riders to improve myself.