Le Sabuns Ultra’s Ramadan Night LSD

Last Saturday was a busy weekend, Inspirasi Wawasan an NGO that i am proud to be part of – organised a Charity drive to collect donations for “Rumah Kasih Nurul Hasanah”.

We decided to organised an Iftar with the kids at the house, followed by Tarawikh prayer. The event end with giving “duit raya” to each of the kids.

I felt all the kids needed was a hug and a little bit of love. If you have kids, hug your kids today.

Thank you to all donors, your contribution is highly appreciated.

 

Then i rushed back to Putrajaya for le Sabuns Ultra Ramadan Night LSD. We had about 50 plus runners that night, there were food and more food.

Thank you runners for bringing water, food and friendships to our event. I remembered we started with 10 runners back in February, le Sabuns Ultra is growing fast.

Le Sabuns Ultra organise night LSD every 3rd week of the month (Saturday). Join us if you want camaraderie and extend your social network within runners community. All are welcome.

Karen Loh, the MWM’s founder  arrived much later and she brought sahur.

Thanks Karen, your pasta was a great success. Please share the recipe :)

 

Our usual briefing starts around 10 pm, and our speaker for the night was Azlan Aiman. Thanks for sharing your tips on running.

In the past we had Alex Au Yong and Puzi Dolah as speakers, maybe i could try to convince our Sport Minister to join the event in near future.

Runners ran an LSD distance of 10km to 57km that night, Jeff Ooi and his posse Mun Ngai and Shine started earlier in the afternoon. Talking about commitment! Good luck Jeff, Mun Ngai, Zinov and others for Mt. Rinjani Ultra.

I completed 31km that night, which bring my weekly mileage to 113km. Thanks Karen for pacing me the last 10km, please remember our pledge to run Badwater when we turn 50  lol

Everyone was given a soap (sabun) each at the end of the LSD, thanks Zul Hassan for sponsoring the soaps.

Thank you for coming to our le Sabuns Ultra LSD and hope to see you next month.

SCKLM Fellowship Run

Runners assembled at Dataran Merdeka at 6:00 am (Photo: KK Yum)

This year edition of SCKLM was postponed from 30th June to 39th September due to the haze issues. Personally i think it’s the best decision and a brave one, runners health and safety should be number one priority.

Most of foreign runners were arriving in KL when they announce the postponement, hotels booked, flight booked but there’s no Marathon to run. We as Malaysian we did the next best thing – organised a 21km LSD for our foreign runners friends.

Thanks to TPRC, Pacesetters and SCKLM for organizing this run, completed with Marshalls and water stations. The route was from Dataran Merdeka to Petronas Hartamas, u-turn back and end at Padang Merbok.

Zinov, Ray, Fred, Khairi &Kam at the summit of Gunung Nuang (1493 meters) – Highest mountain in Selangor. (Photo: Fred Tai)

A day earlier, i was at Gunung Nuang with few friends. Fred Tai, a Malaysian working in Singapore was in town for SCKLM and decided to join us run up to Gunung Nuang. Although, Fred said that he worked in KL before it’s his first time to scale up the 4th highest mountain in Malaysia.

6 hours and 2,000 + elevation gain later, we completed our mountain training. Fred was happy, he couldn’t get enough of Gunung Nuang. Beats doing loops around Bukit Timah in Singapore (elevation 163 meters) he said.

On Sunday, i started the LSD or Fellowship run with Azri, we’re 6 minutes late. All the runners assembled at Dataran Merdeka had already left.

Oh boy, i haven’t run this nostalgic course since i move away from Kelana Jaya. I trained for Craze Ultra and Berlin Marathon here last year. At my training peak’s i did back to back Marathon distance LSD on consecutive Saturday and Sunday. Sweet memories i must say.

It’s still dark when started running, upon reaching the water station near IKIM i met with Syah, Nik and Shahnaz. We ran together until reaching the 10km marks, the Hartamas’ Petronas Station.

Group photo at Petronas Hartamas Station (Photo: Tristupe)

More familiar runners arrived soon after, it’s kinda nice to get reacquainted with these runner friends. It’s estimated about 300 runners were there that Sunday morning – making it one of the biggest LSD in the Malaysia.

With Billiejoe and Asree from Freedom Freaks SG.

I end up the run by pacing Syah till Padang Merbok, i still couldn’t match his Avatar speed after all this years. I need to grow longer legs :p

Till we met again in September, keep on training smart for SCKLM. Run safe and run far.

Photo: Irwan

Lunch with the Freaks at CM. (Photo: Sam E)

le sabuns Ultra: Night LSD March Edition

36 runners turn up for this monthly LSD held at PoJ last Saturday, 7 of the runners were strong ladies preparing for their first Full Marathon at Malaysian Women Marathon (MWM) in two weeks time.

While others doing their last long run for Twilight Ultra Challenge (TUC) in Singapore and Sabah Adventure Challenge (SAC) respectively.

And we had the pleasure of having our Lantau Ultra Marathoners attending and running their post recovery run, all 20km of it. Congrats Shine and Jeff Ooi in completing their 100km race recently at Hong Kong. I’m sure all the new runners appreciates your presence that night.

After a simple briefing on the route and safety precaution, we starts the LSD around 9:30 pm. It was hot and humid weather that night at Putrajaya, a typical weather nowadays.

Simple briefing before the start of the run.

The bad weather doesn’t stop most of the runners in completing between 30km –50km distance that night/morning. The ladies were a strong bunch, running non-stop for their 30km distance – the final long run before their impending debut at MWM.

Good luck ladies, i’m sure you going to rock and finish that historical MWM under the watchful eyes of the imminent Race Director – Karen Loh.

And good luck to the rest of the runners doing TUC and SAC.

I will be volunteering at MWM and giving back to the running community by supporting one of the Water station. Let me know if you have any request at my WS, ice cold coca cola perhaps? Ice cream? Gatorade?

See you guys next April for our monthly le sabuns LSD.

All photos belong to Team Pacat.

Birthday Weekend

Last week, i celebrated my 41th birthday.

What better way to celebrates your birthday, than running 41km LSD.

That’s right, Friday night after work i ran 4 loops of my favourite route at PoJ. Although it was raining heavily in the late afternoon, it’s darn humid comes nightfall.

There’s no medal, cheers or finisher tee when i completed my 41km that night, just me and my train of thoughts. That’s all i really wanted on my birthday, to count my blessings.

Honestly I feel like 28 rather than 41. lol

I’m at the best shape of my life. I gotta admit it, i’m really thankful to god for blessing me with good health. To be able to pursue my passion at this stage of my life is the real “birthday” gift. Bliss :)

Comes Sunday morning, i celebrated my birthday weekend by running 30km of trail with two great friends. I completed 3 loops of Gunung Nuang trail (from entrance to Camp Lolo).

After a while, the trail of Nuang grows on me. It’s becoming my favourite trail now, it’s technically difficult compared to FRIM trail. The painful pleasure of it’s ascend and the speedy downhill on the return way back to the base – it’s Nuang signature appeals.

The best birthday weekend ever, 101km of total mileage with 1590 meters of elevation gain to boot. Can’t wait to do 42km birthday run next year :)

Photo: Azmil Tayeb

March Night LSD: the Sabuns Series

Invitation to join running night LSD.

March Sabun Series.

• Event : PoJ50K
• Date : 23 March 2013 Saturday
• Time : 9pm – 7am
• Distance : 10KM – 50KM or your preferred distance.
• Route : PoJ - PICC – PoJ - Red Mosque (10KM+-)
• Meeting point : Palace of Justice Putrajaya (at big parking beside PoJ)

No medal, no finisher Tee, just pride that you run the whole night with fellow nuts.

Bring your own drinks and food, bring more if you can and we share among friends ala-pot luck :)

See you soon, be there or be square.

Photo of last month LSD.

le sabuns ultra: Feb Night LSD

First wave of runners at 9:30 pm @ PoJ

Last Saturday we had a Night LSD session at PoJ. Many came to our first LSD session for the year, we accounted about 24 runners came that night. Some even drive all the way from Kuala Selangor, that’s what i called commitment!

The first loop (10km ish) we ran together, as to show the route to the first runners coming to Putrajaya. Then we all ran according to our pace or group pace. This LSD is to promote more runners embracing running beyond 42.2km – the Ultra distance.

We want more people representing Malaysia running Ultra Marathons all over the globe – hopefully one day our dream will be realised.

Our sabuns model for the night.

 

The Extramiler himself came to join us.
Nice to see you Alex, it’s been a long time since you ran Putrajaya.

 

Carin – our marshal on bike that night. Thanks for the support

When you got 24 runners running the first session, i guess we are on the right track. The distance covered that night ranging between 30km – 45km, i only managed 43km due to cherry berry during the run. The LSD started around 9:30 pm until 6:00 am the next morning.

Some of these runners already committed to TMBT and SD100 later this year. Thanks to all runners that came to our session, we will see you guys again next month – this is a monthly event at PoJ.

Sabuning session in progress

Come join us next session, bring your own hydration and food. Most importantly, bring your friendships. See you soon at PoJ.

Maiden River Jungle Marathon

I was supposed to run KOTR’s 16km run.

But, i was under mileage for this week quota.

My Saturday’s 20km LSD was interrupted by the news of the passing of my dear old college friend. Succumbed to cancer on Friday night, i spent Saturday grieving and attending her funeral. These days the reunion old friends took place in either Hospital or cemetery – and i hate this! I really do.

If i do KOTR, i will be under mileage. What happened next was magical.

Due to work commitment's – Arman had to let go his RJM’s bib. He was generous enough to give me his bib, thanks a million dude.

With that i DNS this year edition of KOTR, seduced by RJM’s bright lights.

Band of Marathon brothers (reunion of the Songkhla 3 Musketeers)

By 4:00 am race day, i arrived at race site at Pekan Batu Batu 18, Hulu Langat. I said my hello to Kak June, Azza and Kak Tiff, once i located them busy packing the goody bags – they were there as volunteers.

The 3rd edition of River Jungle Marathon (RJM) started at 5:00 am. It was a simple affair, a simple briefing before hand and then we’re all off. I decided to start the Marathon at the back with Ijam, we’re the last group to cross the start line.

I decided not to carry water bottle for this Marathon,  as i was confident with the arrangement done by James Wong – the race director. As a runner himself – i believed that James knows what runners want. The water stations was perfectly located between 3 – 5 km apart.

My game plan for this RJM was to clock the required mileage and treated as another LSD. Most important thing was to take it easy and avoid getting injured as the BIG race is coming closer.

I started to increased my pace after 2km, i was warmed up and had to say goodbye to Ijam. The first 10km i was famished, i only had a slice of Gardenia bread and a cup of hot Milo prior running RJM.

Two Power Gels only – that’s what i brought with me that morning. After the 11km and passing the 3rd water station (i think), i caught up with Karen and Catman. I decided to stop for Subuh prayer at one of the Surau around 11km, took me about 10 minutes. For Muslim runners, if you plan to run RJM next year, worry not; there are many Surau and Mosque along the route to perform Subuh prayer. You only need to “tepuk dada dan tanya iman”.

The weather was great and very cooling that morning, i just loves the cool weather.

After Pekan Batu 14, runners turn left into Jalan Sungai Tekali where the inclines towards Bukit Hantu began around 17km. Suprisingly, i felt energized after two days of resting.

I ran all the way towards the top of hill.

After 21km, while running downhill i finally caught up with KA. Damn this boy was fast, he was pacing with Cikgu Syed and completed the first 10km in 54 minutes. Prior, I passed Jeff Ooi with his costume dress on top of the hill.

Finally after 23km, i arrived at the bottom of the hill. The water station was a welcome sight, plus Bananas was served there. I took 2 bananas for instant energy, took a Powergel earlier at around 14km and planned to use another one around 30km. When you run LSD, you don’t need that many Powergels to fuel your run.

Running besides the Semenyih dam was a beautiful sight, i concurred that this is the most exotic and beautiful Marathon in Malaysia.

While running towards the u-turn, i saw Shine and Karen on the other side. I increased my pace tried to catch up with this strong bunch of runners.

Found out that poor Shine was injured when i passed him around 27km. Try to look for Karen and Cikgu, but they’re long way in front.

The Coconut drink served at 30km water station was the highlight of the run (for me), sweet coconut drink – immediately replenished my energy.

Finally saw Karen’s ponytail after that, such a strong runner. I finally caught up with her after 31km. Overtook Cikgu at 32km – he was complaining about his knees. Again? it’s like Songkhla Marathon. Cikgu started the Marathon too fast and paid dearly at the second half of the race.

Kak June was waiting at finish line with finisher medal for all runners – fantastic to see a familiar face waiting for you to congratulates and loop the medal around your neck. Thanks Kak June, even though you cannot run these days but still manage to conjure that special inspirations for us runners.

Special thanks to Yim, for photographing all the runner photos after he finished his run.

Completed my 15th Marathon (10th FM) in 4:20:21 , better timing than SCKLM with the hills thrown in. I satisfied because this 42.195km was the easiest FM for me, i’m beginning to understand how to run the perfect Marathon – just like i understand how to finish sub-2 HM timing.

 

I only took one Powergel for this FM, and managed to conserved my energy through out the run.

Glad to finish this Marathon injury free, now that the training almost completed, it’s tapering time and planning for 100 Miler race hydrations, food and mental perseverance.

See you nuts in few weeks time – we gonna have a blast running our maiden 100 miler and 100 km.

Craze Ultra LSD @ Putrajaya

About 30 nuts / crazy runners turned up for this event at early hours in Putrajaya.

When i arrived 5 minutes before 3:00 am, Arman and the rest of the guys was already at rendezvous point. They seems eager to start this maiden 12 hours LSD, among familiar faces was Kam Kasturie, Arman, Zinov, Catman etc.

I was not surprised when Shine was already there running from 6:00 pm a day before, plus Paul Lee join the fun at 11:00 pm. These runners are already an icons among the local Ultra Marathon runners – Meganuts!

At the end of the day, Shine and Paul Lee covered 84km and 50km respectively.

We started the event by a simple briefing given by yours truly, i stressed on the safety during the runs and Shine added by reminding runners that this was not a race – just run at your own pace.

Briefing before LSD

Craze LSD officially started at 3:20 am, and the weather was super nice – windy and cooling.

The first group ran the 11 km loops about an hours plus, quite a fast pace – maybe due to excitement running this LSD.

When we arrived back at rendezvous point for refuelling, Jamie and Nick just arrived. Thanks guys for sharing the pot-luck water and food.

The first group start at 3:00 am

The second group was lead by Jamie, they intended to do about 30km LSD distance.

I stopped for Subuh prayer after the first loop and when i continued running after that the sun was about the rise. It was a beautiful sight around Putrajaya, more runners arrived around this time.

Jamie and the gang stopped after completing their 30km ish run around 9.00 am.

The second group start at 5:00 am

After that, only three of us left standing and running – Arman, Zinov and i. The sun was out in the full force after 9:00 am, we’re roasted alive while running the remaining of our target distance. But we need this run in the hot sun – to acclimatize with the real harsh conditions during the Craze Ultra Marathon.

I managed to completed 50km only, just not feeling to go further. Arman almost completed his 50km target – but his office called and he had to leave at 48km.

The food and drinks that day – thanks guys.

Congratulations to Zinov for completing the longest distances in his whole life, he completed 50km that day. An accidental Ultra Marathon was born, and his official maiden FM will be this coming River Jungle Marathon.

More gossiping than running – that what we actually did :p

It was nice to catch up with these bunch of down to earth runners, we shared experiences and tips during the break – thanks Shine, Paul, Jamie, Nick etc

Overall it was a successful event, and a few of the runners requested us to organised more of this LSD at Putrajaya in the future. We will plan something – just watch out for announcement in FB guys.

Maiden 12 Hours prep for Craze Ultramarathon

This idea came about when Shine and I discussed about Ultra training plan for Craze Ultra on FB. We set the date and venue, created the event on FB, invited few nutcase, voila 21 runners committed to run this Ultra LSD last i checked this morning.

If you are running for Craze Ultra or Ultra wannabe, just show up and run with us. There’s no fee or charges.

Come join us running or support our fellow Malaysian Ultramarathoner.

Date: 1 Sept 2012 (Saturday)
Start: 3 am - End: 3 pm

Distance: as much as you desired.
Route: Palace of Justice - PICC - Putrajaya Mosque - Palace of Justice (11km loop).

1st batch runners: Start 3:00 am
2nd batch runners: Start 5:30 am

No medal, No finisher Tee, just pride that you run the whole night with fellow nuts.

Bring your own drinks and food, bring more if you can and we share among friends ala-pot luck :)

See you soon, be there or be square.

Royale LSD

It’s a week before SCKLM, i finally ditched the 2:30 am WC game for early shuteyes – well it’s only another England game, what do you expect? I’m glad i missed that game, found out in the morning it was scoreless.

I arrived at Bukit Aman’s car park around 6:15ish, thought i was late but upon arriving at the scene there’s not a familiar face insight. Shah came a few minutes later and thought that we might came to the wrong rendezvous point. After i assured him that we came early and he made few calls, all the gangs arrived just before 6:30 am. There was ten of us that Saturday morning, all Kings in our own ways – Diket, Shah, Shuk, Syed, Ziff, Nizam, Det, Nik, Azmar and myself.

The 20km LSD was the menu of the day, a lil’ bit of advice if you plan to do shorter LSD, pls keep it to yourself else you’ll be treated like a King for the day like Ziff. He intended to do 10km LSD but end up with around 20 km :) anyway congrats the new King.

The route was from Bukit Aman to Hartamas and reroute back to Bukit Aman, the pace was slow and i tag along with Ziff at the back. The group moved together like this until we arrived near Stadium Hoki, all of the sudden the pacers in front slow down and join us at the back, i could see it all in ziff’s face “hampeh, abis la aku!”. Ziff was surrounded by us and we all follow his pace, there’s no room for escape he he. If someone were to look at us running there and then, they might mistaken Ziff for a VIP running surrounded by bodyguards, hence the Royale LSD.

We arrived at Hartamas’ Petronas for refuelling around 7:40ish, after few minutes break we headed back to Bukit Aman. On our way back we bumped into Che Daud at around Stadium Hoki Jalan Duta, he joined our group running back towards starting point. He supposed to join us earlier for the run but held up for some reasons, anyway it’s nice that he could finally join us for the run. The sun was up and shining at the time, and its getting quite warm for our comfort. About 4km near Tijani, all hell broke loose, everyone (except for a few martyrs) push the NoS button and off they go frantically running away from the sun. I suspected that a few of these runners are actually Vempire…he he. Next time i’ll bring garlic, just to test my theory…

It nice to run LSD in a group, it took away all the loneliness in running alone plus it fun especially with the “lambung” session.. he he. Ijam and Zaki would dearly gonna miss this fun, hey guys next time join us, you dunno what you’re missing out :)

It was about 19km run which ended around 9.00ish with a good breakfast at the Bt Aman car park stall. To all GKLs and RBUs, good luck next Sunday for KL Marathon, i’m looking forward to a good race with 16,500 plus peeps that day.

LSD@Putrajaya

I was informed earlier that there will be a simulation of Sundown Marathon on Saturday night organized by the usual suspects of Running Bloggers(RB). Although i’m not taking part in Sundown, i could use the LSD as part of my mileage towards preparation of SCKLM. Ijam did convincing marketing job in promoting this running-get-together through his messages left in all blogroll listed in his’ blog…good job Ijam..he he

Group photo before the run (Photo taken from Haza’s FB)

I arrived at the Palace of Justice just before 9.00 p.m. and soon after Yimster arrived, followed by others Running Bloggers Diket, Nik, Shuk, Zaki111, Ian, Ziff, Syed, Khairul Anuar, Sharafali, Che “Glowie” and others (i might forgot some of them). There’s about 14 runners running their LSD that night, i met most of the RB in the flesh for the 1st time that nite, except for Ijam, Zaki111, Che and Yimster. Kash and her husband arrived later followed by Haza all the way from Kelang, but Haza was there NOT to run but came to support bunch of us running our LSD – well the camaraderie between us runners is something special if not magical.

Photo taken from Ijam’s blog 

After the “official ceremony” of taking group photos, the LSD was off and running at around 9.15 p.m. lead by Kash. I’m at the back of group with Che, Ziff, Ijam and Zaki111, the others was in front doing much faster pace than us. The route of the LSD is about 10 km or 11 km, starting point from PoJ towards the Putrajaya Mosque and then reroute back towards the PICC. Although it rains earlier in the afternoon, the Putrajaya weather still humid when we started running, after a while we’ll drenched in sweats. Most of the guys did 20 km to 30 km LSD that night, Che did 1 loop (10 km) and i ran about 15 km of Putrajaya, i just started recovering from injury and this my 1st week training and i do not intend to push too much too soon. It’s a nightmares having injuries and miss out of all the fun running!

The rest of runners stopped after 1 loop for toilet and drinks break, but i continued on completing half of remainder loop. As i about to complete my run, i ran into the rest of the runners starting their second loops. Most of them still in jovial mood running, that’s the difference between running solo and running in support group. I thought i saw Shah somewhere in the group, he must came later on.

I had few minutes after the run talking to Frank, he’s doing another Ultra in Sundown. He shared some running and shoes tips with me, thank you Frank and best of luck in Sundown. Ziff completed his run soon after Frank continued another loop, he told it’s pretty fast for an LSD and he even made a PB in his pace that night…he he. Congrats Ziff! I had to leave early for early morning drive to the north, but i had great fun running with these beautiful peeps, lets do it again soon and how about suggestion of pot luck LSD – everyone brings fruits, waters, curry puff etc..