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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.

Latest RBU

Dear friends/runners/RBUs please welcome Fazli to our running community.

He started running in early 2010 to loose weight and get healthy, recently as a new year (2011) pledge he started his own blog and wrote his maiden entry.

Please visit his blog and give him our support.

Welcome Fazli to RBU network, keep Running and Blogging.

Rise of the MAMIL

It’s here and you are helpless to contain it from spreading.

In my last entry you can see the latest runners joining the revolution of MAMILs in our running community. Sadly Deo the Cheetah have turn to the other side, the MAMILs side….he he

MAMIL (Middle-Aged Men In Lycra)

Diket wrote about this MAMILs invasions in his blog last year, in the end he became one the MAMILs. Diket Mencanak is one of the earliest MAMIL together with Ian and Nik. Thankfully, Syahsully survived the ‘lambong’ from becoming one of the MAMILs.

Men beware, please observe these photo exhibits as proof :)

I wonder who’s next?

Finally the most important Exhibit!

Team RBU @ 10th Pacesetters Track Meet

“Runners should Blog and Bloggers should Run” – RBU

Team RBU made an unforgettable debut at the Track Meet organised by Pacesetters at Selayang Stadium last Sunday.

Seven distance runners answered my call for Team RBU, although not all of them are Bloggers but they’re definitely runners; hopefully we could see some of them writing down their running experiences in near future.

I would say that it was definitely quite a difficult task to assembly a team of runners for this event, not many runners interested to run track as its a different kind of challenge.

Initially, i was only looking to send a team for the “Mixed Open Relay”, which would consist of two men and two women. Nearing the due date, more runners informed me their of their interest to join the team, by then the team of four runners was already completed. I decided not to disappoint these avid runners and look for few more runners to complete the Team RBU, i was thinking if we got eight runners (four men, four women); we could enter all the Team events.

Mawar Suria completed the puzzle as the eight runners, a few days before due date, and most of these runners are now a proud new members of the Pacesetters Club (PACM).

Introducing the Team RBU Track 2011 - Ra.Y, McIjam, Azhar, Fiki, Shanaz, Ilyanna, Aini Kasim and Mawar Suria.

I decided to seek help from Ketua Reban (KR) for training purposes, we had only one practice at the MPSJ Stadium Track a week before the event. Only Ijam and Aini attended the practice, other members of the team was unavailable and i had food poisoning during that weekend. Unfortunately, Ijam was injured during the practice and hopefully he would recover before the race.

Nervous about the event, one fine Thursday afternoon i went down to nearest track and practice with my new spike shoes. Found out that i wasn't as fast as before and i also injured my right feet after the training, darn it! Just what i need before the big event, i found out later much of the team was suffering injuries here and there, but they stick on to the team and made it to the D-Day. I said to them it’s only a fun run..no pressure to wins any medal (i don’t think they believed me..he he)

RACE DAY

Based on the strength of the runners in Team RBU, i speculated we could target a swoops of 10 medals. At the Stadium on the race day, we realised that most of us do not know what to expect for the day to unfold; and honestly deep down inside we didn't expect to win any medals at this event as it is our first experience competing as a Team.

Lets face it, Team RBU is a underdog team, prior to this; i guess nobody really know who we were, except for those who frequent out blogs. But we made a quick impact at the stadium, all of us was uniformly dressed in the Team RBU blue vest, which made us stand out from the other team. Thank you KR for your help in redesigning the RBU logo and the vest printing.

15 events was the menu for Team RBU on that fateful Sunday morning, it started with 3000 meters (actual distance 3.2km) event. We had Shanaz and Azhar for the 7.00 am event, only runners for this event required to wear timing chip. I keep the faith on this two to deliver the medals for Team RBU as these two are strong runners. They paid my faith with Gold and Bronze, Shanaz bagged the Gold for category D Women (age group) and Azhar won Bronze for Category D Men, he beat Ronnie See for 3rd placing, mind you Ronnie is quite a fast runner.

Congrats Azhar –first time running track bagged Bronze.

Team RBU Medal tally - 2

After the 3k event, it’s 200 meters individual race. Category D Men was very competitive, all the fast runners was in our category. Ijam, Fiki, Azhar and myself ran but no medals. Different fate for the girls, Nana and Aini won Gold and Silver for 200 meters in Category E; while Shanaz bagged Silver for Category D.

Team RBU Medal tally – 5

100 meters individual race was next, Ijam pulled out as he felt some kind of injury around his thigh. It was Fiki, Azhar and me ran 100 meters – still no medal! Superfast runners were many in Category D, i guess lack of talent or lack practise could be our excuses..he he.

100 meters – Category D

The girls did extremely well, Nana and Aini sweep 1-2 finishing in 100 meters Category E (Gold and Silver respectively) and Shanaz add a Bronze for he 100 meters Category D Women.

Team RBU Medal tally – 8

The team event came next, the first one is 4 x 100 meters. Finally the Team RBU Men broke the duck and won Gold in Category D, the girls match our Gold with their own Gold in Category E, 4 x 100 meters women.

I realised when arriving at the stadium that morning, our girls are in two separate age category, two in E and two in D. We had to downgrade two members from Category D into Category E, that was the reason the girls ran in Category E in team events.

During the 4 x 100 race i noticed Ijam was so nervous that he almost ran onto the wrong lane, i shouted out loud to him after i passed the baton. He quickly recovered afterwards. Ijam was so out his elements that day, ones could see that he was in a nervous state during the whole ordeal (unlike him). He never ran track before and not to disappoint us, he ran with an injury. Thanks Ijam, your team spirit is priceless!

Team RBU Medal tally – 10

Next team event was 4 x 400 meters, the length of 400 meters is one whole round of the track if you are not familiar with track distances. The men managed to get another medal for this event – Silver in Category D. The golden girls of Team RBU once again struck Gold in their 4 x 400 meters category E, this was one of the highlight of the whole event. The organiser decided to combine all age group at one go, as it would saved time. So you could see different age group racing against each other.

Shanaz started as the first runner brilliantly but still trailing the Category F School Girls Team, they wore red vest. So it was the Blue versus the Red team, second runners was Mawar and she did well when overtook the second runners of the Red Team. When Aini took over from Mawar, it was a comfortable lead; but the 3rd runner of the Red Team was gaining fast on Aini, she almost overtook Aini at the last 100 meters.

Watching the girls running all day, i could see that Aini was reserving her energy, and i decided to ran on the field besides her and cheer on; when she heard footsteps behind her, she quickly pushed on the turbo and passed the baton to Nana our last runners. Nana ran well and made sure the Gold was ours, congrats girls – that event was the highlight of our day, all the spectators in the stadium was on their feet cheering madly.

Team RBU Medal tally – 12

The final event was the Open Mixed Relay, which the first runners ran 200 meters, second runners ran 400 meters, third runner ran 600 meters and final runner ran 800 meters. Ijam was badly injured after the 4 x 400 meters event, and sadly he had to called it a day. We managed to lured a runner to take his place, Team RBU had two teams for this event and both team ran quite well but other team ran faster, no medal for this last event.

Congrats to Pacesetters for organising different challenge for runners, thanks to all runners and teams who participated and particularly Team RBU for your huge support. Hopefully this will be an annual affairs for the RBUs.

Final Team RBU Medal tally – 12

6 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze.

Gold	Event	Category	Gender
6	3000	D	Women
	100	E	Women
	200	E	Women
	4 x 100	D	Men
	4 x 100	E	Women
	4 x 400	E	Women

Silver	Event	Category	Gender
4	100	E	Women
	200	E	Women
	200	D	Women
	4 x 400	D	Men

Bronze	Event	Category	Gender
2	3000	D	Men
	100	D	Women

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Shanaz	D	Women	3000
5	D	Women			100
	D	Women		200
	E	Women	4 x 100
	E	Women	4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Nana	E	Women	100
4	E	Women	200
	E	Women	4 x 100
	E	Women	4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Aini	E	Women		100
4	E	Women		200
	E	Women	4 x 100
	E	Women	4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Azhar	D	Men			3000
3	D	Men	4 x 100
	D	Men		4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Mawar	E	Women	4 x 100
2	E	Women	4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Ray	D	Men	4 x 100
2	D	Men		4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Fiki	D	Men	4 x 100
2	D	Men		4 x 400

Name	Category	Gender	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Ijam	D	Men	4 x 100
2	D	Men		4 x 400

Photos: Tey, Shanaz & Aini.

KNN update: Pacesetters Track Meet 2011

KNN news update, fresh from the track of Stadium Selayang.

Team RBU successfully made its debut appearance on Pacesetters Track meet 2011 yesterday, and its was a day for the underdog Team.

Ray the Team Captain was targeting for 10 medals to bring home for this event, but the runners of Team RBU surprised everyone and exceed expectation when they bring home 12 medals from 12 events category.

Medals – 6 Gold, 4 Silver and 2 Bronze.

Congratulations Team RBU – Shanaz, Ilyanna, Mawar Suria, Aini Kasim, Ray, Azhar, Fiki and McIjam.

Reflection 2010

“Andai kasturi hilang harum
Mawar tak berkuntum
Cinta tak bersambung”

A year went by so suddenly i felt, that's what happened when you really had fun.

Yeah i live my life to the fullest and had fun, no regrets and i cherished every sweet, sad and bitter episodes life had to offer in 2010.

Summary of my races in 2010;

15 16 selected events (mix categories)

5 Half Marathon

• Putrajaya Night Marathon, Energizer Night Race, NB Setia Alam HM, Standard Chartered KL Marathon, Penang Bridge International Marathon.

1 Full Marathon

• Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon

1 Trails event

• Genting Trails Blazer

8 9 short distances events, including two back-to-back events in the same day.

• Chap Ayam Family Day Run (10K), NB Pacesetters 15K, Siemens Run (10K), Shape Night Run (12.3K), Newton Challenge (12K), Nike City Run (10K), Hooha Fun Run (5K), Mizuno Wave Run (11K) and PBIM (10K).

Never that i thought the very first Half Marathon that i did in Putrajaya Night Marathon (PNM) in February 2010, would end with my maiden Full Marathon at Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon (SCSM) in December 2010.

Here’s to more Running in 2011.

Best Medal Design

It’s between my 1st FM medal at SCSM and Hooha Gold Medal. My choice – Hooha’s bling bling, it’s heavy and it’s Gold medal with colours.

Sweetest Moment

Crossing the finish line at SCSM, my 1st FM.

Toughest Race

It’s either my 1st HM at PNM or Genting Trail Blazer.

My 1st HM was a disaster, i ran without proper training and zero LSD.

But Trail Blazer to me it much more challenging, especially with the two vertical demonic hills.

Favourite Race

The Chap Ayam Runners Family Run 2010, met for the very 1st time Ijam the Clown and Zaki Otoromen.

Best Race

The back-to-back run, (1) Nike Run + Hooha Run and (2) PBIM 21K + 10K

Sad moment

After ENR, i injured my PF. It was very bad and painful at the same time. Had to lay off running for six weeks, and every time i read running peeps blog update; i was crying inside coz i couldn’t do anything about it.

2010 My Year of Running