Team Super Clown @ Genting Trailblazer 2010

This entry was supposed to be updated a week ago, but i was floored by fever-thon and thankfully i felt much better now.

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Team Superclown conquered GT

Pre Race

5.00 am

The meeting point for RBUs was chosen at Mc Donalds/Petronas Tmn Melati. My HP’s battery was out that morning as i forgot to charge it the nite before, i guess age is playing catch-up with us mortal.

Upon arriving, i saw Ziff and Zaki Otoromen just about get out of Ziff’s racing car. Park besides them and offered them to carpool with my car to Awana, which they said yes.

After exchanging pleasantries, the three of us made our way to McD for our early morning breakfast. Diket and Dett was already there at the counter waiting for their orders.

Ijam and Shuk arrived few moments later, followed by Shaz Bananaz and Syed. Nik and Syah plus Jaja and Mas soon arrived to add to the lambongs and the chaos. After breakfast and subuh prayer we start our cars and made our way towards the hills and to the race venue. We parked our vehicles at the cable car parking lot.

7.30 am

We arrived at the football field which supposed to be the start/finish line and made a bee line towards the registration counter. Ijam pickup our team bib’s number and started to put the bib onto our race jersey. We decided to go for Superman theme, Ijam was responsible on finding the clothes and name stitching.

Met Yim and not-so-mystrious partner Che at the field, Ian later arranged a warm sessions for us RBUs. All of us join in except for Che which stayed at the main field following the organizer aerobic dance. After a good warm-up, the open men category made their way to the starting line up just before the flag-off.

The Race

8.30 am

The race was started on time, i estimated about 200 plus teams for this open men category event. Front runners team rushed towards the tarmac leading to the Golf course, and i was caught in the frenzy.

I felt odd and thinking i might started this race much too fast and when looked besides me, it was a scary sight! I saw Corporate Athlete's runners Ian and Syah was running besides me, yikes i have bottled the race and my partner Ijam was nowhere in sight! Aik it’s much too early to cuci mata and amoi-hunting Ijam!

At the starting line up

I was thinking that i’m glad that i didn’t ran too fast till i met Ahmed Lamchanak, but i spoke to soon – his clone, Diket Menchanak blew passed me followed by Nik the pirate king, right there while i’m slowing down for Ijam. Thankfully i had a good breakfast, else i might be swept aside by his trailing air wave.

Leading the way – what was i thinking? (See all the legends behind me)

Finally Ijam arrived and looks like he been pacing Team Remaja Purba, as we made our way out of the tarmac into the trails, the team Yim and Che arrived and we paced together for few moments running the trails before i had to stopped as my shoe laces come undone. Darn it! Gotta find quick laces. Ijam and Team CheYim passed me as i struggled to tie my laces. As i started to run i had a nasty cramps on my thighs, i had to walk/run like a crab for quite some time before the pains dissipate, by then Ijam was no where in sight.

The trail was exciting and the same time challenging, not forgetting the elements of dangers. This is my virgin trail race, so i wasn’t so sure on how to properly run a trails. But i knew that i wanted to completed this maiden race injury free and i decided not push or run run too fast on challenging route especially when going downhill, there was a lot of rocks, bamboo and other things that could injured you if you fell down.

Thankfully i brought along the gloves, it helps me tremendously in climbing for dear life on the ropes. There was 3 killers hills along this race, and the hills is never-ending climbs, you need a strong upper body muscles to carry you through this comfortably, unfortunately i been neglecting core body exercise for sometimes and i paid dearly for it. The hills was too damn tough, i barely made it through the first hill, my heartbeat soared to a record high and i could even hear it pounding as made my way climbing those nasty hills.

On the second hill i found that Team Remaja Purba and Pondok Tandok was also having a difficult time climbing the hills, mind you Remaja Purba is one hell of fast runner in term of road racing, but the trails is a different beast, you need different strategy to tames them. On top of the second hill, i stopped and sit down for a breather. My fuel is gone after tackling the second hill, thankfully i brought along a power gel for this race and quickly gulped down for much needed energy.

Going downhill i met Stupe who was busy taking runners photos, said hi and went off on my way. I was walking/running in zombie state after this, i passed again team Remaja Purba/Pondok Tandok after the little streams before the final hills and killers stairs. There were forest ranger located a strategic point throughout the routes and hills, and there was also paramedic, but please don’t even think about passing out here in the forest – it’s not gonna be a beautiful experience if you do that.

The water station for this race is located at the Long House, which is nearer to the end of the race. So you need to bring your own hydration for this race, which i noticed a lot of runners didn’t take into their consideration, the organizer did however placed a 5 litres of mineral water with some of the rangers/guide which i didn’t hesitated to ask from them.

I finally met Ijam after the killers stairs near the Long House’s water station, from then on we ran a bit before arriving at the obstacle course. The jumped over the first hole, then as i was dead tired i just jumped into the muddy waters feet first, there was a lot of peeps enjoying our show – enjoying watching us bathing the muddy waters. We’re doing fine, until the last commando crawl, my bottle belt got stuck into the net, thankfully Ijam was there to lend a hand and about three teams passed us while i was stuck like a lame duck.

Finally we completed the race in 2 hours time and placing at number 50 out of 200+ teams, i was glad and i was happy. Next year i better train hard as to avoid this year suffering. Upon completing the race we’re given iced cold Red Bull and the crappy wooden medal.

Overall, this is no FUN RUN race. You need stamina, you need to train especially those core muscle groups for upper body strength. For me this is definitely the most challenging race yet, organization for the race was superb except for the crappy wooden medal. I will back with Ijam next year for this, unless he decided to ditch me and team up the RUB GIRLS..he he

Post Race

The RBUs cheering squad, lead by Anak Mami arrived minutes later to cheer for the rest of us. Thank you for the support, next year all of you need to experience this amazing trails run.

After the race, we celebrated Pirate King and Diket Menchanak birthday which was organised by the Ziff Cengkerang and Queen FMV. Happy birthday boys, may all your dreams comes true!

Note:
Photos credit – Nik, Ijam, Diket, Yim, Tey, Zarin, K.Weng