Sunday, August 12, 2007

Ultra Run 103km: Cheras-Hulu Langat-road to Kuala Klawang

As I am writing this, I still have difficulty bending my knees. Yesterday's run was great overall. I started to run at around 6:30am.

The route is the usual. Going up Ampang Hills. Then reaching Kampung Sg Tekali, which is another hill. Then finally after 30km, reaching the foot of the hills to Kuala Klawang.

The plan was running 20km through this road, and back again, totalling 40km. It's not an easy 40km. I had to run 9km uphill, then the next 22km was up and down. I remembered this was the place that broke me on my last 84km. The wheather was a bit cloudy, which was great since it shielded the sun rays. But I couldn't stand the high level of humidity. It was humid and not much wind.

After reaching Genting Peres, I met Ngae, who was training on a bike. After reaching the distance marker at 22km, it's time to head back in the opposite direction. From this point, I had covered 50km. I headed back to a natural water outlet 1km before. As I walked back, I noticed the sky turned dark blue, heavy with rain. After refilling my water bottle, the heavens poured. So I had to take some shelter among the trees nearby, which wasn't much of a help. My shirt and pants soaked, as well as my shoes (which I really don't want to). I stayed like 50 minutes shivering in the thunderstorm. Nothing much I could do except to wait it out.

After the rain turned drizzle, I returned back to the tarmac. How could I run in rain soaked shoes? My only worry is that it will make things worse when the skin expand due to water, which will render the feet unrunnable.

But I keep on ploughing through. Mainly because of the coldness. I was shivering, and the only way to get warm is run. As I neared the 40km leg, I bought some rambutans for refilling. But actually, I was dreaming of fried rice and iced coffee before.

When I reached some place around Gabai, I stopped for an iced coffee. I didn't felt hungry. Maybe it was because of the rambutans. Earlier, I had brought along 1 powerbar, 1 muesli bar, and 2 bananas, which I had all consumed except for some powerbar, caused the taste just sucks. I had also had nasi lemak earlier at 20km mark.

After having iced coffee, I felt my running legs again. So I ran and ran, and finally reached Hulu Langat bt 18. Then I ran another 3km to reach a restaurant. It was already 9pm then. I decided eating dinner would be a good idea becaused I still had like 16km to cover. I had tomyam, rice and iced lemon tea.

After that I keep on running until I reached Hulu Langat bt 14. I still felt I could run, which was surprising. I still had one major ascent to go up (Ampang Hills). So I ran consistently until half way up, walk the tough part, then continued running to the top. From the top, it was all downhill 3km.

Finally I reached the bottom, and ran / walk the remaining 6km. I reached home just after midnight, and was still a bit soaked in rain. I had ran 103km in 17 hours 32 minutes. 51km dry, 52km wet.


Going up Ampang Hill..

Almost reaching the top of Ampang Hill

The bridge at Hulu Langat bt 14. It's a small sleepy town, but very near KL.

On the way to Kampung Sg Tekali

Had nasi lemak here for refuelling (20km) . I had too because there won't be any food stalls for the next 50km.

Going up Tekali hill

Had some water at a small stream after the top of tekali hill

View at Tekali Hill

View at Tekali Hill

Running up Tekali

Some limestones at tekali


Lake Semenyih

Running past Lake Semenyih

On the way to Kuala Klawang


After Genting Peres...going to run another 11km

After Genting Peres..


At this point, it's 50km


The water station nearby the 50km mark.


A nice view of the slopes. It was still drizzling.


At the top of Genting Peres. Am heading back to Gabai.


Had some footwork done due to blisters. It was better after that. My foot was soaked, with no extra socks. Will remember to bring extra ones after this for longer run.


Had some tomyam with rice for dinner, before banging another 16km.

21 comments:

Raymond said...

Im speechless!
The tom yum looks delicious,must be so hungry ya.Anyway,the Chinse Hungry Ghost Festival has started,better not run so late until midnite at places like perez/tekala,u never know what will happen haha

yipwt said...

dun worry raymond,..i'll be so hungry..i'll beg the ghost for some food...jking..hehe

John said...

Will you like to take part in the 50km run in Alor Setar on 7 Sep? If you don't find it too short for you, come and join me in the run.

bola2api said...

103km.. dem.. that's far...

Anonymous said...

Congrats on meeting another target! Whenever I feel like quitting on my weekday 8-10 km, I'll remember how you did over-100km.

yipwt said...

john, i am still thinking about it. The only thing is Kedah is too far.
50km is far really. :)

hi bola2api...it's really really far. You just need to break down the goals. That'll make it easy.

hi haza,...why not try more than marathon :)

Jamie Pang said...

*gulp* enough said!

Jaja Shah said...

whoaaaa!

Unknown said...

You are incredible...and doing it on your own all the time!

Anonymous said...

Salute and kudos to you !!!

You are real crazy ! You are Malaysian version of Dean Karnazes ! I will nickname and call you DK if I happen to see you in any of the run.

Raymond said...

He is a crazy runner but i like that coz he put average msians to shame for his tremendous and extraordinary feat!

yipwt said...

ngae, didn't expect to bump into you at genting peres. I am not sure who wants to run a 100km with me :)

meng, dean karnazes runs 100 miles, 200 miles, over 30k feet in total elevation. This is no where that.

aiyah raymond,...it's hard..yes. But it's doable. I think if you have ran a full marathon before, you could run an ultra. How far the distance depends on how hard you want to go. Of course, that must be followed by lots of training.

Anonymous said...

amazin,am curious wat runs thru ur head during all those hrs..been in those situations b4,sometimes u think wats life really about...anyway its a gud workout...if u cycle bet u c more things n go further....:)..

ice

Unknown said...

I have done ultra runs and am seriously biking long distance now. Between the two, the hours on the run is much meditative, you seem to be one with nature/universe and in another realm. As for long hours on the bike, I can't get that feel. May be it is the speed we zip along or the heart pumping crazy climbing that blardy hills or the mechanical sounds from the chain...

yipwt said...

ngae, yea...i do get that kinda feeling. Feels like at home on the road. So far away, yet feels like you belong there.

CP Waterman said...

Wah.... wah...... wah..........................................


H2O
Paris

Keipo said...

Wah...really salute....! May be plan as first chinese to run penisula and east malaysia one day one marathon non stop ? cheers....!!

yipwt said...

hi Tey,

Yup..maybe one day. But it's hard to run non stop. For example lets say you want to run from Johor to Perlis, I think it's better to break down the run. For eg, 60 to 70km per day.

TriStupe said...

*Get down on knees*

I So ENVY and RESPECT you!

Anonymous said...

Hi Yip, heard about you from Ngae. He's been joining my crazy challenges lately, since we did a 100k together last year. For a few years, I've been dreaming up and then attemptig distance feats, like runs up Genting, 8km swim, 400km bike rides, 24hr events. For no reason just to see if we can make it. Not organise, no sponsor nor publicity or kiasu BS. I'm not a good or habitual runner for sure, but sounds like you have the same sort of idea and fearlessness. Keep it up. S

yipwt said...

hi S,

You sound like you have the same thinking as mine. Say...we could do some stuff together.

talking bout publicity...reminds me of the chap who swam 64km and got 50k from Umno Putera.

But you gotta salute that guy...64km swim...is something I want to do one day :)