Chasing The Rain Clouds

… but we were a tad too late.

Answering my invitation for a second attempt of Kiara Park – Bukit Aman 30km route LSD run, four other companions gambled on the cloudy dawn. I did it alone previously, on a hot morning. And this time I was just as glad that my second attempt will be accompanied with hilarity, apart from the very handsome weather.

You just need a pair of running shoes to run, right? Wrong!
You need shoes, socks, cap, shades, Heart Rate Monitor (HRM), stopwatch, Fuel Belt water bottles, Road ID and waist pouch.

And if you are the King, you need some secret drinks too.
No one knows what the majesty was drinking that day. Some rumors were saying that it was air ketom.

6:40am, these kaki lambung were more than eager to hit the road.

The weather in the morning was cooling enough to our comfort. We took off from Kiara Park, heading towards KLGCC while climbing those Double-Hills-lookalike long stretch gradients. The morning cool breeze that hit our faces injected loads of internal bliss. So we carried on in the pack with a very comfortable pace.

Still on their first gear, warming up.

After passing Bukit Kiara Equestrian Club, we ran alongside Sprint highway, passing through National Science Centre on the right side.

Running through the autumn-ish dead leaves.
(Wow, bulu kaki sapa tuuu?)

King Mambo showing his latest ‘hommie’, still in progress.
“Jemput datang rumah minum Gatorade ye!”, he invited us.

We ran passed Hartamas and Plaza Damas without making a stop at the Petronas since we were all still have our tanks full. The further we ran, the higher the tendency for us to get stomach cramps. Oh no, not from running hard or fast. But stomach cramps by laughing rolling rolling (gelak guling-guling daa) due to the non-stop lambung sessions we had.

Syah hit the highest ‘kena lambung’ score of the day with the hilarious plan of becoming a relay swimmer for triathlon.
I had to hold my stomach, it nearly got cramped, seriously.
We had the biggest laugh behind this LHDN building.

We also saw few other runners as we crossed Jalan Duta getting towards Bukit Tunku. Few weeks from now when SCKLIM 2010 is getting nearer and nearer, this area may see more runners clocking their LSD mileages on Saturdays and Sundays.

We also met Doris and her gang.

Did I tell you that I love running on this winding road with trees on the sides?

As we ran nearby the Sasana Kijang, we started seeing some SCKLIM banners on the streetlight poles.
Model-model sedang berlatih posing bersama tiang lampu

After 1hr 35min, we made it safely to Bukit Aman car park after trudging for about 15.5km non-stop. Some suggested we should sit down and help ourselves with a bowl of the yummylicious bihun soup each, but that would be suicidal as we were only half way through. We spent few minutes there for our first hydration refill.

Time to re-load our mobile hydration systems.

If last time when I ran to here alone, I was hallucinating of driving back home instead of running back to Kiara Park because of the morning heat. But this time, the pretty cloudy and cool weather, together with friends, provided a good motivation for the home run.

And my friends bukan calang-calang punya orang tau. One of them just got promoted from Ketua Kampung KLCC park, to President of poco-poco runners of KLCC park.
I should have video-ed him showing his poco-poco skills.

“OK, good. Muka camera-man memang lebih hensem daripada pokok pisang!”, they told me.

Out of all, for me, if I were to push myself to run very long distance, I would always choose to run an out-and-back route. Reasons being, no matter what, once you’ve done halfway through until the turnaround point, there’s no short cut you can make to get back to where you started. Slow or fast, flat or hilly route, hot or cool weathers, you just have to make your way back home. That will give you the mileage endurance and mental power to get you going the distance.

Coming up from Hartamas Condos towards Plaza Damas, in full focus sebenarnya dah penat gile mode.

Though it was already in our 18th or 20th kilometers, I had a second wind to tackle the rolling routes from then onwards. I switched to over-drive mode and ran at higher pace while climbing up, as I honestly needed some strength in that department. I don’t want to succumb to my oh-i-so-hate-the-hills mentality forever and ever, so I better start to wrestle it.

The long awaited second re-fuelling stop at Petronas Hartamas finally arrived. I quickly grabbed two bottles of Gatorade and sat down for a breather while silently persuading my tired legs to stay put with me for another 7km-ish or so, to get back to Kiara Park. Once again, I can’t emphasize more on how much the cool weather has helped us all.

Refreshed, and ready for our home run.
“Kasi lambung sama diaaaa..”

Drizzle started to visit us as we departed from our stop. Luckily I brought along a Ziploc plastic bag for my camera. Looking over to the sky on our way to the equestrian club, we were chasing against the rainy clouds.

Surely enough we were already spent out and with the low energy level, shifting to our highest gear was impossibility. The heavy clouds finally poured down blessed water from the sky and that’s where I totally enjoyed the remaining 5km of the run. Fortunate enough there were no lightning or thunders. I can’t recall when was the last time I ran under a heavy rain, but even until now, I still love it so much.

Shakhir enjoying the run in the rain, while listening to Shuk karaoke-ing Ramli Sarip’s songs.

I felt like a 10 years old boy.
The heavier the rain, the more I like it.

The heavy rain didn’t even dampen our spirit to finish our 30km run strongly. The total running hours of 3hr 20min that we had was my best ever feeling of any LSD I’ve ever done. Didn’t even feel ‘that’ tired, as compared to any other even shorter LSDs run under the hot sun.

And our fun didn’t end as soon as we stopped running. Shuk brought along a football-sized fresh seedless red oh-so-juicy watermelon, as our post-run fiesta by the park. Thanks Shuk!

“Gaban Z Potong Dua, zaaasssss...”

Dett: “Ala ala alaaa uchuk uchuk, meh sini I suapkan U tembikai ni meh…”
(Syah hampir terkena stroke mengejut sebab gelak kuat sangat)

Nyummm.. nyumm.. nyumm… sluurrrppppp…

“Tak rock laa kunyah tembikai kecik-kecik ni… “

The reward for being the camera-runner-man of the day was very.. ermm.. rewarding.

And don’t be surprised if five adults could finish up all the watermelon in one sitting without any guilt feeling, and could still smile and ready for another big breakfast at home.

All in all, it was a superb second Lambung Sampai berDarah outing for us. Syah scored the highest lambung score of the day while King Mambo get his chance to ‘relax’ a bit (a bit aje, but still parah jugak pendarahan telinga dia), Dett won the award as the quietest-but-strong runner of all, Syuk clocked his fastest speed work running down chasing a golf ball in the rain, and I won the award for eating the most watermelon sampai buncit. If only the others could joined us, it would be double or triple the fun.

And last but not least…

Alahai… manjanya mereka berdua ni. Cute sangat!

Ahahahahahahahaaa…..

And if you are thinking that all this, this and this blogs are having the same entry title is just a mere coincidence, think again.

Enjoy the whole series of pictures I took.
Click to go to the album and feel free to play the 'mari-buat-dialog' game.