Race Day: UPNM Iron Hill Run 2007

I reached Kem Sungai Besi at around 6:30am. Still pretty dark. Then got myself registered. My bib was A001. It would be nice if my final position was one.

Soon, more people came. I saw a bunch of veterans, and chat them up. Tey was there to take photos. Great to meet him in person. I met another guy from my hometown kuantan. So we talked for awhile, while waiting for the time to start. Apparently, the organisers want us all to do some aerobic exercise with loud blaring music. This delayed the time which ought to be 7:30am. Malaysian time lah..

Soon, all of us gathered at the starting line. And the VIP let us loose with a shot from the gun. I started off at a moderate pace, while the pack in front sped off. I didn't want to push myself so much at this point. But still I did ran a bit faster.

There's one water station at 1km before the foot hills. But I forgo it. I have been running enough 12k to know that I didn't need water at all. I managed to reach the foothills just before 30 minutes. Then started the arduous climb up.

What path laid in front, is really an eye opener. It's harder than the road up Genting Highlands, and certainly 10 times harder than Genting Peres. But luckily it's only 1.5km up. The elevation is almost 45 degrees, and 30 degrees. All the way up. No joke. There's not much flat terrain.

At the start, I tried to stay running although a bit slow. I passed by a lot of runners who were already walking. But almost on top, I had to walk a bit. And finally at last, I reached the top, and was given a white band.

With no more uphills...it's downhill. As I raced down, more runners were walking and running up. Soon I reached the bottom, and ran a moderate pace back to the finishing line.

By the way. I mapped this run, at I don't think it's 12km. It's 10.28km. You can view it here.

Time was 52 min 34 sec. Position 21. For your information, the first guy time is 39 min 48 sec.


Runners coming back.


Tey in front photographing runners...




The crowd after the run...I had hoped they would serve more drinks..



Me running very slowly...


A group photo before the race..


See....number 1...only on bib.

Going for Adidas King of The Road 2007

After finding out that the dateline for registration is 21 this month, I quickly drove to KL Sentral to register. But later I found out this:



Damn, wasted 3 bucks for parking...So I head to Petaling Jaya section 14. I manage to get myself registered at the Adidas Factory Outlet Jaya. It's has a nice interior, and I found out that the price of the goods are way cheaper. That's odd..

So I did some enquiry from the sales person. He mentioned that most of the products here are 30% cheaper! So, you could get a pair of racing shoes which cost 300+ for only 220.

During registration they also gave a voucher for Adidas worth 50 bucks. But it could not be used at this store. Only the one in KLCC is redeemable.



But one thing about the qualification time for category A. It's 1 hr 45 mins. Which means, if you want to qualify for some goodies...you have to run 5 min /km pace. Shit...it's quite fast for me.

On another note, I ran another record time for my normal training route (58 min 58 secs) today.
But in my mind, I am already thinking of what route to run for training for 21km.

:)

Sub 1 Hour Record

Finally....I manage to break the 1 hour limit at my usual route. I have been aiming to run faster, and adding up speed. I raced against uphills, downhills, traffic, and exhaust smoke to reach that elusive time by 59 minutes 12 seconds. My previous fastest record was 1:00:17

Once you go faster, it's a matter of reaching checkpoints at times that you know you need to reach in order to reach your finishing time goal. There's one part of the route that I just had to reach at 51 minute mark if I wanted to run sub 1 hour. I managed to reach it after putting rockets on my legs. Then it's all the way to the finishing line.

Speedwork is really not my strength, but I am trying to run faster for this saturday's run.

Malaysian Football Sucks

For the record, I am not interested in football. I don't watch EPL, and probably the matches that I watched would only be World Cup matches.

But looking at the back of The Star paper today, I can't help but feel really sorry for the state of Malaysian football. What is wrong with these fellas? Lose 10 goals in two matches? The only word to describe this would be "shameful".

It's easy to pinpoint a scapegoat, and that's that. And while driving this evening, I heard that FAM chief has resigned. Who wouldn't? If he's a Japanese, he would have commited harakiri.

Here's more malaysian football bashing, if you would like to read.
The sad story of the Malaysian football malaise

"A 12-year-old boy can't name one player from the national team but he can name the first XI for Arsenal."

Bribery scandals have sullied the name of Malaysian football, with more than 100 players banned for life in the mid-1990s. In 1999, a Malaysian betting ring was found to have rigged the floodlights at a Premiership match in London.

This April, former national coach Chow Kwai Lam was convicted and fined for match-fixing in Singapore.

Now Malaysian football has sunk so low that fans would rather watch European football on television than turn up for their own national team, said Hashim.

"We are so concentrated on the English Premier League and our former colonial masters," he said.

With such deep-seated problems, Malaysia also faces a difficult task in curing a sickness that pervades not just football but all sports, explaining why the country has never once won Olympic gold.

"It's a monumental task," said Hashim. "It requires an overhaul of the whole machinery, and also public understanding."

Malaysia will be keeping their fingers crossed they can get the public back on side against Uzbekistan on Saturday.

Anyway, what I would like to highlight here is, what really makes an athlete, or a sports person.

It's the desire to accomplish something big, and the will to win, no matter the odds.

A real athlete puts sacrifices to win. He/she knows what it takes to win the competition. And basically to win, you gotta work harder than the rest. I remember reading how hard Lance Armstrong trains. So hard that his team mates can't take it after the 2 days.

There's no shortcut to winning. You just gotta train harder than the rest.

For some motivation, view how Al Pacino gave a motivational speech to a bunch of football players.

"I'll tell you this, in any fight, it's the guy who is willing to die, is going to win that inch..."

Trip to Pantai Kerachut on Penang Island

Actually, I went down Penang with my friend for an ex-colleague's wedding dinner. But somehow, got lucky the next day for a trip to Pantai Kerachut.

Yea...the name sounds a bit weird. To go there, you got to get to Teluk Bahang at the northern trip of the island. You'll reach a nice fishing village. There's two ways to get to Pantai Kerachut, which is by boat, or jungle hiking (3.3km). This will take approximately 1 hour for one way.

Yeap, we are more adventurous. So we choosed hiking instead. 3.3 km might not sound far on road, but in the jungle with lots of hills and valleys, it's a bit exciting and takes longer to complete. The place at that area is designated as Penang Taman Negara, which is good. The path ain't so hard. Some parts are cleared and hard cemented, so you could easily put footing.

Once we reached the beach, it was a nice sight to behold. The beach was sandy...no rubbish in sight. Some guys were fishing at the jetty nearby.

But somehow, there's no one swimming. And what surprised me most, is that they have a conservation centre for turtles laying eggs on the beach. We got to see a tong with young turtles, which will be released tomorrow.

There's a lake nearby, which is not so deep. But it provides a nice view, surrounded by vegetation and hills.

Reminds me of my next trip end of this month to Redang...:)


Arriving at Teluk Bahang


We started to hike..


Nice view at teluk Bahang


The path of the forest is rejuvenating...


The jetty at Pantai Kerachut.




This lake name sounds advanced...i forgot what's the name. Metramiktik?




Marking of turtle's eggs.

UPNM Iron Hill Run 2007 12KM

I have just applied for UPNM Iron Hill Run 2007. The challenging part of this run is to run up the hill with a height of 287 meters, starting from 70 meters.

To get more details, please refer to this link:
Register for UPNM Iron Hill Run

Date: 21 July 2007
Distance: 12km

For myself, I made a trip to Kem Sungai Besi, and handed over the registration form which you can print from the PDF online.

Ulu Yam Waterfalls

Last Sunday, my younger brother and I went to a nice spot in Ulu Yam. There's a few sections of accessible waterfalls.

Upon reaching our favourite place, I really don't want to say this...but some people just don't care where they throw their rubbish. It's fine if you want to have some snacks, lunch or drinks...but please bring back your rubbish. The sight was really appaling, with polestrene plates beside the stream, and beer cans on rocks!



So, we decided to get a plastic bag and pickup those stuff...

Downstream there's a deeper pool, almost double my height, and not really a safe place to swim. I think there happened an incident of drowning in the papers.





It was noon, but the water is really cold. Swimming here is the nicest stress reliever you could find.

We were quite alone, as it's still early. But soon some other guys came by. I don't mind others joining the fun, but some of them were smoking..and making fires. Personally, no offence to smokers, but I think they should ban smoking everywhere, except the smoker's house. 3 million plus adults in Malaysia smokes. Why would someone want to do something to kill themselves slowly and painfully is really something I don't understand.

There's no reason to smoke. Doctors, studies have given so many reasons to quit.

If you want to get high, go run a marathon. That'll get you high for days.



Then we dropped by the Ulu Yam Lake for some roasted nuts, and a nice scenery. The dam is probably 2km from where we stand. I was thinking...heck...should try swimming here one day.