Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Poison

Sometimes we do not realize that some of the words we use on daily conversations are not the best options there is. And even worse, these words bring negative energy, which I like to believe may have a subsequent effect on how we behave or react. For example, the word lazy, or in Malay, malas. You may not realize how often you use this word in your daily conversations, but let’s look at some of the classics (that I mostly experienced saying them myself).

“Hmm, malasnya nak pergi lari petang ni, mendung semacam je iklim khatulistiwa kat luar tu.”

Or,

“Aduh, susah betul la nak register race marathon online ni. Asyik sangkut je. Malas aku nak layan. Aku pirate kang baru diorang tau.”

Or,

“Hebat betul la diorang ni, almost everyday diorang update blog. Aku sorang je malas update.”

And you may have also heard about the “M-bug” flying around, haven’t you?

I know it is naturally difficult to reflect or observe our own behavior, and specifically our weaknesses. Having some little experience working and living in Japan for 364 days back in 2002, I generally concluded that one of the reasons why Japanese can be as what they are now today is that, they are not lazy. It is so obvious even in their conversations that until today, to be frank, I don’t know how to say the word “lazy” in Japanese language. For what I always hear, they would either say “I don’t want to blahblahblah…”, or “I cannot do blahblahblah…”. I never heard they say “I’m lazy to blahblahblah…”

It may be difficult to prove this scientifically, but somehow I believe using negative words may have direct consequences to how we react, or behave. It is such a poison to our little subconscious brains.

Talking about poison, don’t you think it is also a kind of negative word?

Especially when we talk about influencing another runner into doing something greater. Like motivating them to go for longer distance, or to run faster, or to upgrade from half marathon to full marathon. We tend to use the word poison, rather than any other positive words. How often have you said something like, “I want to poison him/her to do marathon”. Pretty often, right?

But, is it the best word to use? I mean, poison is a sort of negative word in this essence. So, when I woke up this morning and got a little sparkle of idea of what topic I want to blog about today, I came to think about this. About how we should promote using positive words, so that we become more positive minded and behave more positively.

Then I came to think, instead of using negative word like poison, why don’t we use the opposite and positive word like, fertilizer? Just like how we want to grow beautiful flowers or fruit trees, we would use fertilizer and not poison, right? And it would be much better especially when associating it with growing, or influencing, or motivating another runner into doing something better like a marathon. Don’t you think?

Perhaps we might try saying something like, “I think I want to fertilize her to do a marathon lah.”


Eeerrrkkkkk!!!

I think I’ll stick to the word poison lah.
At least it is a safer word. Hik hik hik...

Friday, December 10, 2010

Apa Khabar Ku?

Alhamdulillah diriku sihat,
Walaupun perut dah makin bulat,
Keje kat ofis berlipat-lipat,
Nak makan pun rasa dah macam tak sempat,
Nak baca blog dah rasa tak larat,
Nak tulis blog sendiri lagilah penat,
Tak lama lagi password pun tak ingat.

Tapi apa boleh buat,
Di dunia ini begitulah adat,
Sekejap lapang sekejap terjerat,
Bila senang bolehlah berehat,
Bila dah busy nafas pun tersekat,
Syukurlah badanku masih sihat,
Akal pun masih berputar ligat.

Walaupun cuma sekadar sekerat,
Cerita dah basi story dah berkarat,
Inilah aje yang aku larat,
Kepada korang masih ku ingat,
Pembaca setia dan juga peminat,
Waktu rehat ku dah hampir tamat,
Di sinilah aje yang aku sempat,
Semoga bertemu di lain tempat.

Oh, I miss group running so much...

Friday, December 3, 2010

Gambatte SCSM Runners!

Oleh kerana hormon pantun saya hari ini sangat tinggi menchanak, terpaksalah saya kumandangkan beberapa rangkap pantun merapu moden untuk tatapan rakan-rakan yang akan berjuang di tanah seberang Selat Tebrau pada hari Ahad ini.

Pulau Pandan jauh ketengah,
Gunung Daik bercabang tiga,
Training dah sudah prepare pun sudah,
Waktu berjuang tiba masanya.

Pisang emas di bawa belayar,
Masak sebiji di atas peti,
Flight dan hotel sudah dibayar,
Jangan lah sampai tak jadi pergi.

Pucuk pauh delima batu,
Anak semilang di tapak tangan,
Mulakan langkah satu persatu,
Berhenti halfway dibuat jangan.

Buah cempedak di luar pagar,
Ambil galah tolong jolokkan,
Korang semua pelari tegar,
Apa nak takut apa nak heran.

Tuailah padi antara masak,
Esok jangan layu-layuan,
Pelari dah ramai bersesak-sesak,
Yang penting jaga keselamatan.

Modal berpantun dah makin kurang,
Otak dah beku idea dah tiada,
Good Luck All The Best kepada korang,
Semoga berjaya di Singapore sana.

P/s: Oh ye, pesanan penaja sikit. Adalah dengan ini ingin dimaklumkan bahawa EnAikAY tak masuk acara marathon kat SCSM tahun ni ye. Jangan percaya kepada dakyah-dakyah yang disebar oleh parti "Lambung Sakan" tu. Sekian, terima kasih. Hehehe.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Maintenance Is Better Than Repair

We are all used to the quote which says “Prevention is better than cure”, right?.

We can prevent a car accident from happening by driving in safely manner, and by being alert all the time. Of late, we see lots of people using their handphones while driving. And more dangerously, they even dare to read or write text SMS while driving. I used to do that too, but I’ve slowly stopped doing that, in the name of safety. I’ve seen a real video footage of a nasty car accident caused by a driver who was not paying attention while driving. His car knocked down a female pedestrian crossing a road, and she died.

In that particular scenario, the word “prevent” plays the most important role. Those are the scenarios where we can prevent something bad from happening.

But, when we talk about health, how do we prevent from something bad from happening? I mean, talking about disease, or sickness? Can we prevent everything?

Let’s just take an example on dental care. How many of us who rarely get dental problems think that taking care of our teeth is also part of healthy living? For what I know, most of us brush our teeth once or twice a day because we want to get rid of tahi gigi.

Bila masa pulak gigi kita pandai berak ni? Woops, pardon my budu language here.

In actual fact, taking care of our dental is one of the most important aspects of health. Just because we seldom get toothache, that doesn’t mean it is not important. And the way we used to prevent from dental problems to occur is by brushing our teeth, at least once a day. But as we also know, brushing our teeth alone is not enough. We need more than that.

Just as we need to send our cars for maintenance servicing so that they do not eventually cause a massive repair job, same thing for our teeth. At least once a year, we need to send our teeth for a maintenance servicing, before we end up with a massive repair job. That is, if repair is still one of the options.

Not being a good boy, I’ve neglected this maintenance service for a good four years. The last time I visited a dentist was more than four years ago, when I had to do the very painful root canal treatment. The moment I stepped out from that dental clinic, I never made a visit back again.

Until yesterday, when I can’t take it any longer with some food keep on sticking up in between my teeth every time I eat. I finally made another visit to the dentist. No, I didn’t go to Taiping to see Doctor Julinda (she’s busy running). I just went to a nearby dentist for some scaling, polishing and some filling up work. Furthermore, the validity of the dental insurance from my company is going to end in 30 day or so. Hence, better make use of it.

The scaling job was a bit nasty. We are talking about a bunch of teeth that has not been ‘serviced’ for several years. Not that I have a bad breath or rotten teeth, but it made me belief that brushing our teeth alone is not enough to properly clean them. That’s why it is recommended that we visit the dentist at least once a year.

The normal polishing job was ok. I asked about whitening too, but I don’t want to spend RM300++ just to get a sparkling white teeth. Yeah, I may be a drama-man, but I’m not a celebrity. And let’s not talk about the whitening process using laser, which costs more than a thousand Ringgit (I better save it for Cervelo.. hihi).

I had to fill up three small holes in my teeth. My jaw was sore from the non-stop jaw opening action. The price for filling up has raised quite tremendously lah. I’m not whether sure it is due to the professional workmanship, or the cost of the filler material, or to compensate for the lack of dental patients coming into the clinic. All in all, I spent a good amount of money, of which I can get myself a new pair of running shoes. Inflation, inflation… sigh.

The funny thing was, the dentist who was very friendly kept on asking me about where I work lah, about what I do at work lah, what kind of products I design lah; all during the time when my mouth was wide open and she was using her tools to clean up my teeth. How to answer lah?

“Hokher… hulut haye herhange hachang hi, hachahane haye hak hakhap?”

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Letting The Curtains Down

Apart from the months of April and August, December is another month in this year where I do not participate in any kind of competitions. No running, no triathlon, no swimming, no cycling, no nothing. If there is such a thing as 'resting competition', I might change my mind though.

On a slight look, 2010 is the year where I joined the most races since I started this little endurance and multisports stuffs back in 2007. I cannot deny that this is among the most awesome experience in my life – to see how far I can expand and extend my mental and physical limitations. I pushed my speed limit, and I pushed my mileage limit. Not that I’ve reached my peak yet, as I know I can still do more and do better. I strongly believe, the more effort I put on the training and preparation, the better I can become. And so can you.

That’s why it is so simple to be better in sports. You just need to put more hours on your training, and keep on looking for more efficient ways to get the best result. The difficult part is to stay motivated. Because, to get better in sports, it takes lots of time.

Having done this endurance multisports for close to three years doesn’t make me the best of all. My performance curve is no where near to showing any positive inclination. Fortunate for me you may say, because I love doing sports and getting my sweats out on daily basis even if I have no more competitions to participate. But, living in my real life, there are times where others things come higher in my priority list.

Saying that, I hope it is proper to say that I’m letting my curtains down, for now. I need to take some time off to rebalance my life to suit the current needs, which mainly evolve around family and career. It doesn’t mean that it was unbalance though. I just need to rebalance it.

The good news is, I will still be around. I may still do the geli-geli long runs or gelak-gelak LSD, or swimming, or cycling if I have the opportunity. I may still go for run or to the gym on daily basis – as part of my fitness maintenance program. I am still active in sports, although not as much as when I was preparing myself for competitions. Living a healthy lifestyle is still what I will continue to embrace and promote.

The bad news is, this blog may be more boring lah.

But, it has always been boring, right?

P/s: Yeah yeah, I know I still owe you my Malakoff Powerman story. The story is now stuck at 50%. I have no idea when I will continue the story, or whether I should continue the story. Dah basi sangat dah...

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

If You Still Don't Believe It

If you still find it hard to believe what a good cardio exercise like running can do to your body, see below real story which I copied from Dailymile of one runner friend of mine. He also posted a story about how it all started, which you can read it here

What you need to do is to start, and be consistent at doing it. You'll see the result as the time goes by.

"So what have I achieved within 11 months of running? As at today I've lost 17.5kg, pants size down to 33" from 38" and shirt one size down to 16.5. Primary goal of losing weight achieved! Moving on to the much tougher secondary goals in 2011!"

On a side note, my Powerman story is 50% done.. harap bersabar ye. Story teller is currently busy at work.

Friday, November 19, 2010

Summary Report

"Success is not a matter of being the best and winning the race, it is a matter of handling the worst and finishing the race. Be positive."
- unknown author.

The quote above summarizes my debut Powerman duathlon story which happened last Sunday. In the very limited time I have now, I will have to come back with another entry for the full version of my race report – the super basi edition.

Mean while, I would like to take this opportunity to wish all my friends who are taking part in Penang Bridge Marathon all the best-est in the world lah. My only pesanan penaja is, NEVER GIVE UP & HAVE LOADS OF FUN!

Nasi kandar ada laksa pun ada,
“Food paradise” gelaran di beri,
Waktu carboload biarlah berpada,
Jangan sampai tak sedar diri.

Berlari-lari di atas jambatan,
Di Pulau Pinang negeri nan indah,
Bersama mengejar suatu impian,
Moga sampai ke garisan penyudah.

P/s: Cewah, tengah busy pun sempat lagi layan pantun…

Monday, November 8, 2010

When Long Felt Short

Last Friday was Deepavali so we had an extra day of ‘weekend’. It was a long weekend for me, which felt quite short as it was filled with many interesting things I managed to do as a mean to rest my brain from the hectic work life. I’m still busy with work, so I hope I’ll go along with photo-log this time around.

Friday

It became the day where EnAikAY turns into a DIY (do-it-yourself) guy. We went to the filled-with-human-beings Ikea to get some shelves and chest drawer. The home needs a little bit of housekeeping lah.

I started off with assembling this Gorm shelving unit. Since we live in a relatively small house, we need to store things vertically wherever we could.
In total, we have five of this unit altogether since we first moved in.
(Photo from Ikea website).

With a little bit of extra space in the credit card before it hits its limit, my wife wants to have this white chest drawer for the master bedroom.
It took me about the same time of doing a half marathon run to finish up with the assembly of this chest drawer. But it was fun, for me at least.
(Photo from Ikea website)

Saturday

EnAikAY puts on his running attire and did a relaxing run from Bukit Aman to Hartamas and back. It was a pretty quiet and descent morning for a long run. Syah and I chatted all the way, reflecting on lots of things from school day memories (yes he was my senior back then), past racing and training experiences, future plans, and also on some other general gossips (ahahaaa). Lambung session was held at a very sopan santun manner.

By the way, it almost went into a disaster day when I wrongly updated my Dailymile for the time we took to run that 20.7km. I wrote 1hr09mins instead of 2hr09mins.
Thanks to Syah who quickly SMS-ed me for the typo, or else I might end up with bleeding ears for the whole day. Tak boleh kasi chance sama itu lanun-lanun jalanan di dalam Dailymile
(I didn’t carry my camera this time, so above photo was the one during KL marathon this year).

We also had some fun time in the swimming pool. Though my daughter was initially a little bit scared to be left alone, I managed to convince her with some water confidence.

We then went for a wedding in the afternoon where I happily did my post run recovery carboloading. The nasi minyak was perfect, with gulai kambing and roasted chicken as the main side dish. It’s ok to be boroi once in a while, right?

An unexpected decision was made to travel to Kuantan to pay a visit to my wife’s grandma who was not feeling well. My daughter was also looking forward to re-visiting the beach after a long while, so did her daddy.

A very heavy storm was heading our way. My daughter was a bit frustrated as we only spent 5 minutes there. So, I promised her to come to the beach again the next morning.

Sunday

Sunday gave us a wet morning with some drizzles but a promise is a promise. After breakfast we went again to the beach. I love spending time at the beach, even if I don’t go into the water for a quick swim. It was so relaxing, and calm.

While they were busy enjoying themselves with the sand, I made my self busy practicing some photography skills.

And with no other chance for good heavy, free and guilty meals of the day (read: wedding ceremonies), dapat telan buah kelapa pun jadi lah.

The journey back to KL yesterday evening was a bit packed, especially upon reaching the toll gates. But nevertheless, it was a great get-away weekend for my family.

This coming weekend, another get-away race weekend in Seri Manjung, Perak. So this week will be a combo of peaking up, tapering, carboloading and final gearing up, all jumbled up baeek punya. Pening kepala aku.

P/s: Oh Monday blues, why do you have to come and visit me today? I never invited you lah.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Genting Trailblazer 2010

Last year, this was my first pirated race. It was a very fun experience and as I crossed the finishing line last year (well, actually I didn’t really cross the finish line because I was a pirate – takut kena tangkap daa), I made a vow to make sure I register for the same event this year. And I gladly did.

The weekend warriors joining forces.
Jelas sekali betis Zaki tetap memegang title betis paling gebu (at 2 o’clock position).

I was doubly glad that my partner in crime this time was no other than the very-the-kelakar-but-strong-runner, Shakhir a.k.a Diket Menchanak. Even though I initially thought I made the wrong choice for a partner because his pace average is 10% more than mine (or maybe much more) that I had terrible time catching up with him, I finally had to agree that I think I made the right choice. Or maybe the best choice. Because he pulled me through this challenging race to finish within the first 10% in our race category – men’s open.

We were surprised to cross the finishing line as the 19th team out of 200+ (maybe, I’m not sure exactly), and my stopwatch showed a time of 1hr48min as we ran under the finishing chute to end our fantastic race. So, here was how the day went.


Pre Race

My day started early with a 45mins drive to McD Taman Melati where we all agreed to meet up for the convoy up to Genting. It was great to meet them all once again, and sure enough this was the largest outing among running bloggers so far. So, with so many victims around, I began my part time job as a hunter…

The usual gang loading up some fuel for the race as early as 5am.

Just about to get ready for the journey up to Genting.
Kelihatan Shuk sedang menyanyikan sebuah lagu rap khas untuk Shakhir yang bertajuk “Saya sepasang kasut baru, check it out!”.

The journey up to Genting was smooth sailing. It was still calm and pretty quiet when we parked our cars. After settling with our morning businesses and gearing up with trail shoes and hydration belts/backpacks, we walked together towards the football field to collect our race kit. We had about one hour to mingle around before the race started.

On the way to the battle ground.

Ray: “Ooo.. Baju kau ketat-ketat nampak muscle ketul-ketul, baju aku longgar macam baju kelawar. Mana aci ni Ijam?”
Ijam: “Ok lah tu. Aku jadi Superman, kau jadi la kelawar-man. He he he..”

Ray: “Tuan-tuan dan puan-puan, macam ni lah gaya senyum yang berkesan kalau nak tackle Rub Me girls ye, harap maklum.”

“Aik, pagi tadi elok je. Kenapa mengecut pulak ni?”

While waiting for the race to start at 8:30am, we headed to a secluded area for a little bit of warming up and stretching session. As usual, Ian the Corporate Athlete’s trainer led the stretching session. The warm up session was really beneficial because for this kind of race you might want to try to be ahead of the crowd as soon as the race started, which means switching on the turbo engine much earlier. The terrain consisted of lots of climbing and with crowded running space, you might get a bit frustrated when it gets almost impossible to overtake other runners as you move along.

A very well synchronized stretching session by everybody. With jokes being thrown around, I didn’t feel nervous for the race at all.

The other participants were warming up to the beat of the aerobic instructor.


The Race

We were released to start the race a couple of minutes before 8.30am. Most of us were in shock as we didn’t hear any countdown or whatsoever, except for the sudden whistle blow. Diket Menchanak and I positioned ourselves on the outside right area of the crowd, so that we can zoomed our way forward with ease. Team MacamBagus immediately switched their turbo switches and we tried not to leave their smoke trail far. We started the run with the overdrive button in ON position too and although I’m not a fully experienced runner, I could sense we were doing a sub 6 min/km pace while running alongside the whole golf course.

Process mencangkuk team MacamBagus (in orange tee) in progress.
Our baju kelawar-man hero (in black tee with red bandana) get over excited with the ‘cangkuk’ operation and left his partner behind.

Looking back, the gradient alongside the golf course gets tougher and tougher. It took us around 20mins to finish up running on the tarmac.

Since this is a trail run event, getting into the trail was what I was looking forward to. Genting’s trail offers something we rarely can get from the other trails in Klang Valley. The ups and downs, the super long and steep climbs which also means the similar profile when going downhill were just awesome. The first portion of the trail was pretty flat and slightly declining so we still run with overdrive mode. But overtaking other runners has becoming a difficult maneuver to execute.

Not so easy to overtake these equally strong runners on this kind of terrain, but at least we were moving quite smoothly.

Soon after we started to break away from the crowd and we took the opportunity to carry on with our pace. Diket Menchanak really got the ‘kick’ this time, he only slowed down because I was slow.

The terrain varied from uneven trail…

… to flat and nice smooth and soft ground, …

… to an open space field like this.

We were also given a little taste of the short tiny climbs like these. Nothing serious yet.

Having done this race last year, I forgot how relatively easy the first portion of the trail was as compared to the killer climbs on the latter stage. It felt much longer this time before we get into the first landmark where the wall we had to climb down was about 70 degrees. This kind of terrain requires a lot of bravery and confidence, and quick thinking on how you decide you want to move forward.

Diket Menchanak showing his kangkang glide technique.

… while I chose to glide down as how I did last year.
Beautifully captured by Diket Menchanak himself.

It doesn’t look so scary from this angle though. But if you’ve done it, you’ll remember how steep it was.

The trail gets denser as we went deeper, and the gradients get crazier and tougher. I was still ok with the climbing up, but going down some of the slippery and narrow steep trails challenged my confidence level at certain times. There were few times I felt a little bit shaky and had to slow down. I didn’t want to burden my knees too much with the impacts, nor did I want to tumble down and injure myself. So I took it easy, at my own steady pace. Few times my partner had to stop and wait for me to arrive.

Going up inclinations like these were labouring but they did not offer much hazards.

Different story when going down though.

In trail run race like this, you need more than your fullest concentration.
Nice work by the Snap-Attack crew here. Thanks.

There were also few small streams we had to cross. No biggie.

As far as I can remember, the real climbing challenge came right after crossing this first stream. This is when you started to use all four limbs to help you move upwards, by holding the ropes and pulling yourself up the very steep, long and slippery inclines. This is also where you may start to bonk or fatigue, if you are not careful with pacing your energy at the earlier stage. Just like what I experienced this time.

This is no play-play, I tell you.

This blurry image fails to do justice on how steep it was when looking back.

At times, looking up will just kill your spirit away. It was like the climbs were endless.

I could sense my energy level was depleting fast while climbing up. Heart rate went up to the max and inhaling for oxygen was a struggle. I stopped few times for a short breather here and there, while keeping Diket in sight for as much as I could muster. At one point, I had to take my PowerBar gel. Luckily I carried one, or else I think I will just bonk after another long climb.

I was surprised at how strong my partner was. He kept it at a very steady state that it looked to me as if he was just running up on a 10% slope, no kidding. He could still manage to converse with me, while I was already begging for life and started to give hand signs to indicate how bad my situation was. He owned my respect that day, however he refused to share with me his secret training regime.

After about five minutes taking in the gel, I slowly felt the much needed energy level was going up again. Good sign, I thought. I then slowly pushed myself bit by bit to stay closer to Diket Menchanak’s foot trail who was enthusiastically following Dino and Steph’s pace when they overtook us.

After one hour into the trail, the top runners from mix category started to overtake us. Seen here was Dino-Steph team, who at the end scored 2nd placing in their category.

My partner, Diket Menchanak trailing behind the strong runners, crossing another fresh cold mountain stream.

The endless steep climb session finally ended to my relief. My legs felt tired and weak from the overdrive work they had to do to get through the climbing stage. My partner kept on encouraging me to keep moving with small steps, rather than just walking. I tried to obey his command and slowly I managed to recover my strength. I told my self that even though the terrain is much harder and tougher than what I faced during TNF100 race, the shorter distance race this time should be taken into full advantage and I should try to push my self harder.

There were also long series of staircases we had to climb up. At one point of the staircases, we met SyahSully who was waiting for his team mate, Ian.

I started to feel some little cramp attack on my calves while going up the staircases. Nothing serious yet, but a deep heat rub would be helpful. When we met Syah who was waiting for his buddy, he offered me a deep heat rub. But, when Diket tried to search for it inside Syah’s hydration bag, he could only find syampoo and shower gel. I didn’t bother waiting and quickly told my partner that I’m good to go even without the deep heat rub. So, we treaded along.

Just as we thought the staircases were the end of the climb-fest, we had to face another few inclinations just before we get back to the finishing area where the obstacle course awaits. Since my energy level was back up, we continued running up these final inclines. We could already hear the voice of the emcee announcing the runners who were coming in. I told Shakhir that we might be within the first 50 teams to arrive at the finish line. That thought alone made me feel excited and I kept on running faster and faster.

The finishing area was already visible from here. Just another few clicks to go.

I guess this was the final climb of all. Upon reaching down, we started to enter the obstacle course.

The obstacle course was the most fun of all. But, it also required some fast thinking and decision making on whether to leap over the muddy pools, or to tackle them on the outsides, middle, or to jump inside and swim in the mud pool etcetera. I had fun this year, as much as I did last year. But it was more fun this time around because I was able to carry my camera in and out of the muddy water without much concern whether it will survive or not.

You can save at least 10 to 15 seconds each time if you leap over the small mud pit like this, instead of going into it and had difficulties coming out of it, as brilliantly shown here by Diket Menchanak.

I managed to leap over all three mud pits, but looks like my partner can’t wait to have fun in the muddy water.

“Waacchhhhhaaaaaaaaaa….!!!”
Nice jump there bro. You enjoyed splashing into the mud, didn’t you? Hihi.

Not having enough chance to train for a dive-in training at normal swimming pool, Diket Menchanak was about to do so here with his first dive-in attempt.

Hehehe.. gimmick je lebih budak ni. Akhirnya terjun botol jugak.

I threw my camera to Shakhir and he managed to capture my muka sememeh as I jumped into the mud pool.

Zarin managed to capture our actions while we were having a fun time.

I did not want to get inside this small tunnel together with him. If one of us (most likely him lah) happened to break wind inside this tunnel, confirm dua-dua orang pengsan serta merta di tempat kejadian.

One hand was holding the bamboo. Guess what his other hand was holding?

Anyway, one panicky situation happened when I lost my camera inside one of the big mud pool. As I slide down the wooden ramp, I forgot to hold my camera and just let it hang from my wrist. When I splashed myself into the mud pool I noticed the camera was not in my hand anymore. I was so panicked and immediately I started to search for it. I kept on grabbing the mud underneath with a big hope that I’ll find my camera. I also told my partner to help search for my camera even though at first he though I was just kidding when I told him I lost my camera. He helped me to search but he grabbed my shoes and tried to lift my leg up. I thought he was joking and pulling my leg, but he really thought he had grabbed my camera. It was so funny, but I was still in panic mode since I haven’t secured my camera yet.

More and more people were coming down that wooden ramp and into the mud. Some of them stepped inside exactly at the location where I lost my camera from my wrist. I was so afraid they are going to further burry my camera inside the mud. The spectators besides the mud pool were busy taking photos of my panic face. Thank goodness, I finally managed to get hold of my camera deep inside the mud after spending about 30 seconds searching.

Going in and out of the mud pit also put some extra force on my calves that at one point my left calf cramped up, followed by my right calf. I had to be careful not to exert sudden movements of the legs, but at some of the obstacles it was just impossible not to do so. I had to live with whatever cramps that came through. As always, pain is part of the game. The fun we had has to be continued.

I was showing my partner how badly my right calf muscle was cramping up.

Gaya dramatik mesti kena ada, saya kan kaki drama.
(Picture from Snap-Attack)

“Banzzaaaaiiiii…!!!”

The final obstacle where we had to do the army crawl. At this point I was thinking of doing the obstacle course one more round.

After I finished my race, I went back to the obstacle area to snap photos of the others coming in.
Seen here Syah and Ian from team MacamBagus exiting the army crawl obstacle with joyful feeling.

Although the fun of the trail run had to stop as we crossed the finish line, but the day continued with more fun and laughter, this time at a slightly different location – the shower room. The cold water they prepared for us to clean up our muddy self was one of the many bonuses we get on that day. The situation in the shower room was hilarious. The water was chilly and refreshing but I had to control myself from snapping away because some pictures may not be suitable for display on this non-18SX rated blog.

“Sahaja aku angkat hadas besar…… Bbbrrrrrrr..!!!!”

“Sahaja aku angkat hadas BESSAARR PUNYAAAA!!!!”

“Kalau nak tau, inilah sebahagian daripada intensif training saya di rumah. Selain daripada Iron-baju-man, saya juga mahir dalam acara washing-baju-man, lipat-baju-man dan juga sidai-baju-man. Setakat basuh kasut dan stokin ni, celah kuku je bai.”

Done with cleaning ourselves up, we went back to the field to had some food and wait for the others to arrive. Each and every team came back with smiley faces all over their faces. It showed how much they’ve enjoyed the race and I’m pretty sure each and everyone of them would want to come and do this race again next year.

Ijam: “Sapa suruh kau ngorat awek yang pakai baju ketat kaler merah tu haa? Aku dah booking yang tu lah. Nah hambek ni selut setepek sebagai tanda protes aku kat kau.”

L-R: Kak Tiff, Kak June and Kak Azza came all the way from Klang to join the fun. Kak Deo came too, but not shown here in the photo. He was busy with some “rubbing” operation somewhere else.

Hanging out while enjoying the sunshine in the cooling weather.

Belum sempat Yim pegi "rub" gadis-gadis tempatan, dia dah kena “rub” dengan pacat tempatan.

Dett: “Tadi masa panjat bukit tu aku merangkak macam ni la. Siap terkentut tiga das tembakan secara tak sengaja. Kesian mamat kat belakang aku tadi.”
Ziff: “Tiga das je? Aku tadi belasah kentut bertubi-tubi macam machine gun kat depan kau, kau takde rasa macam kena migraine ke? Ahahahahaaa….”

"Hello, polis tolong saya. Ada orang ambik gambar saya ni. Nanti mesti dia letak caption pelik-pelik".

Last group photo, while waiting for Jaja and her team mate to arrive.

Wajah riang kanak-kanak yang bakal menuju alam remaja purba tidak lama lagi.

We also had fun witnessing other runners finishing up the race.

Finally, kak tipah emerged with her classic move of tarian puak Iban cawangan Ampang.
We kept on shouting and cheering for her as she continues her muddy dance.
Memang sesuai dianugerahkan darjat tertinggi athlete wanita terlampau untuk musim ketiga berturut-turut.


Post Race

Before leaving back home, we headed to the resort where Ian, Daud and Yim stayed the night before. Little did I know that some of them has arranged for a little surprise belated birthday pool party for Diket Menchanak and myself. There were lots of delicious food such as nasi lemak special Zack n wife, Shaqi’s yummy cheese cake, kari ikan mamak style from kak June with roti canai brought all the way from Port Klang, and some other good food that I should refrain from mentioning as I haven’t had my lunch yet as I wrote this paragraph.

Just like other big celebrations, the ceremony won’t start until we had to listen to the speech from the self-appointed speaker. Ahahahaa.
Sorry Ziff, we know you have the talent to become a public speaker. But between you and the food, we’ll always vote the food against you lah.

Thanks so much to those who worked behind the scene to make this little birthday party, from the arrangements, to the food preparation and other things related to it. It was a very happy moment to me, and I believe my partner Diket Menchanak was happy mencanak-canak too.

It was indeed one fine and fun day to remember, especially when we get to gather around almost everyone. The race was super fun too. I’ll always take this race as a fun race, if I happen to come to Genting again next year.

Dapat medal kayu pun takpe, EnAikAY tetap happy!