KRI 12km Run: Killer Hills

Home run...

The next day after the Cameron's bike leg, was the KRI run which I had signed up. Starting course is exactly same as the KRI's century's ride, that I've participated last year.

Thanks to Lydia Yeow who had helped took my bib, albeit they put me in the wrong category. So a new one has to be written.

Ray Ng & Michelle where there too, which was a surprise cause I think they would lay off after Angkor Wat run.

Before the start, I didn't expect much. Just see if I could run as possibly fast as I could. I did hope that the previous cycling adventure haven't left me debilitated.

After the horn blew, and 2km into the run, it became apparent that hills will be a major hurdle. Now we are talking about elevation say 30-40% at certain stretch. All I could do is making sure running cadence goes up on uphills, then sprint like mad on the downhill.

In this manner I was able to hold 3 and 4th position throughout the race. But as always, I don't want to press the accelerator to the max, cause I don't know the route. I don't know if one downhill will lead to another uphill, so I had to stay safe.

But there's one guy behind whom I tried to keep a safe distance. I didn't knew that he (Wong Lip Soon) was in a different category.

Finished the race in 52 min on the dot, position 4th, much to the surprise of my younger brother.

Michelle managed to win the women's and she was even lucky to won the first lucky draw.

Ride: Tapah - Brinchang

Weird name, considering this is in Perak state..

Lata Iskandar I think, water was crystal clear..

Ringlet...

There's lots of FWD like these still ploughing the roads...

Ah...flats..

Tanah Rata...I do hope it has 'rata' terrain. Rata means flat...

Brinchang is terribly unscenic. I prefer the road up Tanah Rata from Ringlet.

This is where your tea comes from.

Alan Tan (2nd from right)

I've never done Cameron Highlands before. So, as part of the familiarization course, I decided to drive up to Tapah, to climb up to Brinchang.

The drive from KL took almost 2.5 hours. When I exited towards Tapah from the highway, it was drizzling lightly. I was thinking of actually not doing it. After some thoughts, I thought as long as it's not pouring cats & dogs, it's doable.

Parked at Kg Pahang, and started the long climb at 9:41am. At first it's a bit of flats. Then it gradually build up into an ever winding, twisty turning road, with an elevation steepness that doesn't wary much. Except for the few last km to Ringlet.

Now, I've brought a powerbar for this excursion. But when I stopped to consume it, it was actually already very old, apparently from the broken plastic cover. But being so famished from all the climbs, I took 2 bites. Then decided it's too unpalatable and threw it away.

Luckily Ringlet wasn't far. So I stopped for a hearty lunch and some drinks.

It was a bit cold as well. And I didn't actually know what the elevation was at this point.

Now Ringlet is a nice small town, and the roads aren't that steep either. I enjoyed the flats for a few km, before another long winding uphill road towards Tanah Rata. After that it's another few km to Brinchang and it's all done.

Total time up is 3:55 plus rest. Distance is 61km. So if you start from Tapah, it would be around 65km.

Then I proceeded the long trip downhill. I thought things would be great as it's mainly a downhill course. How wrong it was, when I was stuck to a fast-slow traffic headed by a bus which had to slow down to a halt while negotiating sharp turns. I couldn't find the room for overtaking as well, cause the road is terribly small without any extra emergency lane at the side.

On the way back, I met with Alan Tan, who had an unfortunate car broke down in their treasure hunt event.

After around 7 hours, I managed to reach back safely.

Carl Lewis The Legend

Through an invite from Jamie, Nike held a close up with the legendary Carl Lewis. He has 10 olympic gold medal to his record, with 9 of it gold.

Frankly, I've only heard about this guy. So I googled up, and was really surprised that he's in the ranks of the greats in track & field.

When he finally turned up, the audience was kind of awestruck by this big man.

There were some key important points in his talk.

1. Analyze your competition. He treats his races as a job, does alot of strategy, and analyzes his competitors strengths & weaknesses.

2 . He hardly goes to the gym to do strength training. Most of this is achieved through other methods on the field. He laments that younger sprinters are bulking up, which does not necessarily makes you faster cause you need to carry lots of bulk.

3. Before race, he trains his mind by getting in focus. This means no treating pre-race as a party.

4. You can only run your max speed for 10m. So in order to run a 100m, once you reach maximum velocity at 60m mark, the rest is maintaining posture while remaining calm. He noticed that most runners slows down considerably at the end of the 100m, so if he can maintain the speed plateau, he can pass them at the end.

*This is another aspect of sprinters which is revealing. You do push your body, but your mind has to be calm & relax to do it. Alexander Popov (olympic swimmer) does this as well. Maintaining speed efficiently is of paramount importance.

5. Get a good coach. He attributed his early success to his coaches who improved his time.

Well, he's still looking good. Although a little tummy is obvious. Finally all of us took turns to get a picture.