26th FTAAA Cross Country 2011

This is my second event of the year and my 1st FTAAA Cross Country experience, thanks to Dett for taking the time to register bunch of us runners (me, Diket etc) at Wisma OCM.

RM20 running event is very rare nowadays, no goodies for this event and only cotton bib plus cotton round neck shirt are available for race kit. In addition the finisher medals are limited according to the categories. The turn out for runners was quite low that morning and you could walk in and registered the run on the spot, i guess most runners are more likely to choose RM50 –RM60 events with lots of goodies, quality branded vest and unlimited finisher medals.

Met the usual suspects/runners before the start race and during warm up. The Otai Mamil was there, but Diket Menchanak wasn’t wearing any tight compression that morning, he explained further that it would ‘overdressed’ if he turn up with MAMIL attire :)

The RBUs present that morning were Che Daud, Aini, Ijam, Diket and myself, Deo the Cheetah wasn’t around due to his commitment towards night LSD at Bukit Subang with Zaki Otoromen. Short races like this are Deo’s favourite events, but he gave it up to accompany Zaki for his training towards Ultra 100.

The briefing for the run was done in casual style with the officer walking around like artiste singing around crowds. The FTAAA officer further explained that top 30 finisher in each category will be given form to fill up later for SEA Games selection, at this time the guy stopped in front of us; simultaneously Che Daud and myself patted Diket’s back and everyone looked at him. The officer smiled at Diket and presume that this must be one of the contender for top 30 spot and at the end of the day he didn’t waste his smile.

Gathering for briefing at Padang Merbok. Can you spot SEA Games potential candidate?
Photos - Ijam

The race at Padang Merbok started 7:45 am for Men Open and followed 5 minutes later by each category, the race consist of 30 % trails and 70 % road; during the briefing the officer said that they tried to accommodate the trails experience as best as they could. I felt a little bit disappointed not able to ‘cangkuk’ Diket for this race as he was in a different category which required only 6km of running instead of 8.2 km.

Che Daud and myself placed ourselves in front of the pack at the starting line. I made a huge mistake that morning, a novice mistake! I did not have a proper breakfast before the run, ate just two bananas before the run. I felt quite hungry when the race started, i started the run pathetically slow and felt that my energy level dropped to all time low, man i gonna bonk this race; thankfully i brought myself a power gel. Quickly swallowed the gel bit by bit till we arrived at the beginning of the trails route 5 minutes later.

The trails route was narrow, a reminisce of Genting Trail Blazers. Everybody slow down as there wasn’t space for overtaking, i felt relief as i could recover and waited for the Power gel to take effect. Most of the runners was wearing non-trail shoes and you could see most them slipped going down hill, i made one right thing that morning by wearing trails shoes .

Finally we were out of the trails and there were some muds and water on the route after that, it wasn’t raining the day before. I guess the organizer decided to put some waters to replicated muddy conditions, the runner in front of me was jumping left and right to avoid the muddy waters, while i just step into the mud and proceed the run – come on where’s your sense of adventure? Immediately my shoes was wet with water and muds, but the Injinji socks i wore does the trick – my feet felt dried although the shoes was wet.

Soon after we were running uphill towards the side of National Monument where the 1st Water station was located. From then on its purely a road race, we ran down from Tugu Negara towards the Lake Garden, from the start of the race i saw Che Daud ran strong and lost him at the start of the trails. Now inching closer to the Lake Garden, i could see him from afar but no Ijam though, at this point i could felt the Power Gel kick-in and had the energy to pace faster, i decided Che Daud would be my pacer from that moment on. Before entering the lake Garden we collected the 1st ribbon and 2nd ribbon would be somewhere inside the Lake Garden.

Finally i reached Che Daud as he about to assault the bad ass hill in the Lake Garden, i overtook him during the climb, from then on i lost sight of Che Daud, i was thinking he must be conserving some energy for the sprint to finish line.

After the 2nd water station, i sensed the race is getting nearer to the finish line. Now in the Lake Garden, i could see the ugly side of some runners, while few run on the route; most took short-cut and run on the grass. I must be one the few runners ran like goody two shoes on the correct route, more likely like an idiot when a bunch of 5-6 runners overtook me on the grass.

I reached the end of the Lake Garden route and ran passed the junctions towards Padang Merbok, further at the entrance towards Padang Merbok Ijam caught up with me, we talked a bit before he decided to sped off; i thought he’s already completed the race. I just maintained my pace as i was about bonk again, it just about few meters to the finish line when i heard footsteps and up the pace ran towards the finish line.

One of the officer asked me to stopped, but too late! I passed the FTAAA officer which in charge of giving out card numbers. When i turned back to collect my card, two other runners were collecting their card. He gave me number 78 instead of 76, i protested to him that i should be given number 76, the FTAAA officer scolded me and said that its my fault that i did not stop and collected the card number. Where did this guy go to school? Maybe his School teacher did not teach him how to use his brain, come on this is the 26th edition of the event. Dear FTAAA officer, if you know how to use your brain you could leave card number 76 and gave number 77 and 78 to the other runners. I then approached the runner behind me to exchange the card number, but he RUDELY ignored me and just went on to change the card with finisher Medal from another FTAAA officer located at the other end. Now i had almost the same ugly experience with King Poco Poco.

Why i rant about this? about Finisher Medals? about positioning?

Some runners considered Medals are keepsakes and represent running episodes/experiences in their life. Like a chapters in a book of someone life. Well i can buy a bunch of Medals from the store and pretended to everyone that i fairly won it. But this is about earning the rights and self respect to other runners. Well i guess many peeps don’t care about ethics and fair play. Cheating and cutting-queues are more important than respects to the distance and to other runners. I just can’t be bothered with these idiots and left the finishing line without uttering another words. But in my heart i know i finish at number 76 with the time of 59 minutes. I wonder what would happened if this incident occurs to the finisher number 100 and 101 (Finisher Medal are limited to 100).

I then met Diket besides the Milo van having his 11th cups that morning, and noticed he wasn’t wearing any medals. Finally it hits me that prize presentation would be held later on, podium finisher would be given the medals on the podium, no wonder he was ‘lepakking’ for a long time after the race had finished. He was waiting for his medal apparently, congrat Diket Mencanak and good luck with the SEA Games selection; i would have no doubts that you would make the RBUs proud!!

RBUs representatives – note that no medal around Diket’s neck

3rd Medal for the year.