Salomon S-Lab Kuala Selangor Jamboree Trail Run 2013 : Race Report

Salomon S-Lab Kuala Selangor Trail Run 2013 Finisher medal.

I was in the zone. I was on a constant pace throughout the first 5km. We’ve already hit at least some of the roads and now we are pounding the trails at Taman Rimba Kuala Selangor.

All the penned up energy not used from last week’s SCKLM was seemingly put into here.

Despite nursing a 2^nd bout of flu attacks, sore throat and a sprained ankle; I pushed on and didn’t break my stride. I was determined to finish strong on this one.

Khay Ann passed me almost about the 5km point. A quick hi and he sped off. I didn’t see many Men Veteran passed me; so I had a gut feeling he is going to be at least the Top 10.

I tried to keep at his pace for a while and sped up.

I glanced at my watch; almost 30 minutes. I sneakingly smiled. I used to reserve such speeds for speed 5k on roads but never on trails. I thought maybe it was because of the flat terrains of the trails. I kept cool and tried not to speed too much as I need the energy to conquer the 2^nd part of the route; which is to scale up Bukit Melawati.

Then all my plans went out through the window...

The point Khay Ann turned back and and told me to gostan.

A few of the lead runners were turning back at some point. Not suspecting anything at first but I don’t recall a sharp U-turn at any part of the route. Then a few minutes later, Khay Ann emerged and he quickly directed me to turn back.

“U-Turn back!”. He hollered.

“Wrong Route!”

The gut wrenching feeling of uneasiness sunk in. I wasn’t sure of what to do.

I turned back and saw Yvonne trailing behind me. I wasn’t surprised since Yvonne is a fast female runner and usually gets at least Top 20.

We both looked at each other looking confused.

“What the heck just happened?” We both asked each other.

We started to turn back to run but we knew we lost our momentum. The runners behind us got the news and started to turn back. It created a clog and soon I was on that dreadful “run-walk” thing which I hated.

Damn.

So that is the story of the now infamous “wrong route” incident among the hundreds of runners who was accidently lead into.

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I know there are many who are unsatisfied with the organization of the event and the shortcomings of the organzisers. I was too. But that being said, I had to keep my composure and treat this like any of my weekend runs in the end. I like to run; like many others and seeing my friends running with me is always my greatest joy and pleasure. We all made an effort to get to the start point early in the morning, go through that bloody run and finish the race. In the end, it’s the spirit of sportsmanship that counts.

I’ve arrive at Kuala Selangor the day before with a few of my running buddies. We treated this as our weekend running break. Besides, we wanted to savour the culinary delights of the local cuisines. This was supposed to be my tapering run after SCKLM but since it was postponed; this was going to be my speed trail.

However when I surveyed about the event, I realised a few things. Firstly, this Salomon event has no relations to the yearly Salomon X-Trail organized by Pacesetters Malaysia. Secondly; new organizers. I was mentally preparing myself if there were any shortcomings. I brought my hydration belt just in case there weren’t enough water at the waterstations.

We surveyed the route the night before (minus Taman Rimba) and found out that it was a pretty straight forward route. The challenge was the stairs leading up to Bukit Melawati. I know it’s going to be a challenge and I’ve made a plan to utilize the trail path on the side of the stairs to skip the crowd.

We went back to our hotel after our dinner and survey so that we could charge up for the next morning.

The GCAM Group. Despite not being at GC on the day itself. :P

We were early. Race site is filling up with runners bit by bit. Met up with so many running buddies from many running groups. Finally the GCAM group arrived. We were all excited as we trained at the FRIM trails the week before. I wished I had trained more trails with them earlier on. I seriously miss all the grittiness and the savage beauty of Mother Nature.

The start point.

Julie, our emcee of the day soon called out to all the runners to be at the start line. We were supposed to be gunned off at 7.15am but was delayed by 5 minutes. The Men started first, followed by Women and finally Veterans; every 5 minutes intervals.

I paced slowly the first 500m but steadily increased my pace as I went on. I was on fire!

Entering the trails of Taman Alam Kuala Selangor. 

The trails were pretty flat but a good challenge for those new to trail running.

First CP. Already messy as everything wasn't ready.

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The "human traffic" after we U-Turned.

 Momentum broke. Hangus! I was silently cursing.

I was hollering at runners to make way as I ran pass through them. Yvonne was following closely behind me. We still couldn’t believe that we were sent to the wrong route.

Did we miss the signage? Was there a marshal?

Our pace got even slower as the clog up got heavier; but not until it was a standstill.

We reached the point where we were supposed to turn right instead of left.

The "mistake point". Where the heck are the markers and marshals?

 We guessed correctly. No signage and not even a sight of a marshal giving directions.

Now all we see are the slower runners right in front of us. I feel so geram!

Yvonne, Foo and myself. Not giving up, we went on.

Me and Yvonne concluded that this is not going to be speed run anymore but we did console ourselves to carry on and treat this like any of our weekend free runs. A few quick pictures with Foo whom we bumped along the way and I sped off.

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The stairs heading towards Bukit Melawati

Here I am at the stairs climbing up Bukit Melawati. As expected; the clog up. I overheard a few of the runners contemplating to skip the Bukit Melawati part and just go back to the start point. That means bypassing the marshal and skip at least 2-3km. Less than a few seconds later, a huge group of them were gone. I rolled my eyes and carried on without giving a 2^nd look. I loathe the idea of “short cuts” and cheating. I carried on by climbing on the trail path alongside the stairs where majority of the runners avoided. It was tough but at least it put a little sense of “trail” into it.

Since time wasn't the issue now; camwhoring and enjoying the view at the top of Bukit Melwati.

The elevation up the hill was pretty gradual and easy. Not long after, I reached the top to a beautiful scenic view of Kuala Selangor. There I met the BWC group; Gabriel, Adrian and Sean. A few camwhoring shots and I sped down the hill and straight to the finishing line.

Not of course without a few monkey shots of the “residents of Bukit Melawati”.

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Congratulating Khay Ann.

Emcee of the day, the ever lovely Julie Wong.

Who will win? Finally it was Wai Yee who won "Best Dressed".

Khay Ann receiving his prize.
4th position of Men's Veteran Category.

The finishing line is near! I could feel it.

The bomba team was spraying water at us. It was a welcoming sight and it was cooling to a hot, humid day.

Closing to the finishing arch, I was met with a short queue; no longer than 30m.

WTH..... can’t I just past that finishing line? I made a mental estimation that I crossed the line and stopped my watch. I slowly trailed the queue to get my goodie bag. From a far, I saw some volunteers only started to pack the goodie bags. I could only watch in disbelief.

I kept quiet, took my medal, bag, food and walked on to meet up the GCAM gang at the sidelines. We were bitching about the race but still kept light-hearted about it. We took the extra kms as bonus training. Khay Ann who has returned earlier has secured the Men Veteran 4^th position! Adding to the fact that he went through the wrong route too. Amazing!

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The conclusion:

There are really loads I wanna say but I would love to keep to the positive notes.  Yes, the organizers had their shortcomings and many have shared their displeasure all over Facebook. So let’s keep this constructive and hopefully that many will be able to squeeze some joy out of this disorganized event.

1.       Yes, most of us did the wrong route but that actually did measure up to about 11-15km depending where the runners did the U-turn. So it means the original route was under distanced; which was about 8.9-9km (for those using GPS).

The route that I took. 

2.       A real good route of a mix of trail and road (including the wrong path). Flat terrains and a good throw in of Bukit Melawati. If done properly, it would have been a fantastic running route. Not forgetting the great scenery too!

3.       Way too many loop holes & shortcuts. But this is due volunteers and manpower shortage. But a true real runner would know better than to “cheat” and take short cuts.

4.       Water station was pretty alright but very close to being a mishap if some of the runners didn’t step in and help out.

5.       The whole event would have been a great success if done properly. Having both Salomon Trail series (S-Lab and X-Trail) events is a great addition to the running events in Malaysia. Unfortunately it wasn’t so. IF ever this event were to be done again next year, it has to come back with a HUGE bang and gain the trust of runners again.

Anyways, I still had a great time despite all the fiasco. We all live to fight another day.

So chill my friends. Let’s just all emphasise of what’s to come next time round. :)

The Return of Live Great Run 2013

Just recently a few select of us fortunate bloggers/runners are invited for a special appreciation dinner from Great Eastern to kick start off The Live Great Run - 2013 Edition. A huge success last year; this run was catered to all different types of runners from competitive, amateurs to recreational levels.

I was one of the invited guest as I blogged about the event last year; which in my opinion was one of the best organized running events I've went. Met the many familiar and new faces at the event and we all had a very insightful discussion with the GE team. 

Runners would not be disappointed this year as GE has many things installed. The obstacle courses are back! It was one of the more interesting parts of the run last year that had everyone talking about.

Here is a breakdown of what we were treated that night.

The night started with an opening from the lovely emcee from Great Eastern, Ms. Wong Fong Yee who is the Assistant Manager of Brand & Communication. Do not be fooled by her as she is an avid runner and has already completed 4 full marathons! I myself sudah kalah lar....

Next up was a welcome address by Ms. GG Kam, the VP & Head of Marketing & Consumer Management. And she herself is an avid runner! She is prepping for her Half Marathon for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon this coming September.

Next up was Alexandra who gave a quick run down of the event and what is upcoming during the weeks leading towards the event on the 15th September.

So let's see...

The usual 12km and 3km runs are back on!

The NEW route for the 12KM runners and there will be obstacle courses along the way.

The 3KM Fun Run route. Great for the couples and families. 

The slideshow ended and we all had our small sharing and discussion among bloggers and the ever friendly GE staffs.

All I can say is that I can't wait for 15th September and it's gonna be a good 2 week tapering before SCKLM 2013!

All the attendees. Bloggers/Runners with the team from GE. 

For more information about Live Great Run, click on HERE. 

Registrations are already opened and you can register here at http://greateasternlivegreatrun.com/index.php?page=registration-fees

SCKLM 2013 is postponed & thoughts about it.

Well, it's official. After a week of speculation, it has finally been announced that the Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2013 is going to be postponed to 29th September 2013.

More info could be found here for the organizers.
http://www.kl-marathon.com/

Despite the mixed reactions from the public, honestly I think it was a wise decision. Personally, I am recovering from viral fever and I am not at my peak. And I slowly see friends and love ones getting sick or admitted to hospital closer to the event date. Yes, in a way I was sad and disappointed when I got ill. I was off training for 10 days during my tapering weeks and I had a tough time trying to get back my momentum. The announcement of the postponement couldn't come at a better time.

So let's analyse the whole situation:

1. The Haze - Despite being almost cleared, it still pose a health threat. You will never know what will happen on Sunday. Of course, I did say that I was going to pretend that I was running the "Marathon Des Sables" aka The Dessert Marathon. But jokes aside, it does pose a health threat especially when you are doing a full marathon. Imagine all the dirty air you are sucking in. It's like stuffing your face in a vacuum cleaner bag!

2. The "3 Month" bonus - I'm looking at the situation positively. To some who said that they trained hard and they weren't able to run is a bunch of "bull". I wouldn't believe that one just train for just this ONE event and do not do other runs the rest of the year. AS of now, we have an extra 3 months before SCKLM. So for those who fell sick; this is some payback time. And in between, there are so many competitive races. Just re-direct your priorities and don't have to be unhappy of the whole situation.

3. Make your current goals into better ones! - I personally was aiming that SCKLM would be my race to beat my PB. But now I have more time to better improve myself and probably I could do better in September.

4. Satisfying everyone (or maybe not) - Well, it's hard to satisfy everyone but we have to count our blessings that the event is NOT cancelled. There has been many international events that has met with challenges and was postponed/cancelled and whatever. The organizers made the call and we have to respect the decision made. No offence, but seriously you want to run in the haze? I want to feel a great sense of achievement after my run; not be rewarded with an asthma attack (God forbid).

5. Keep Calm and Keep Training - As runners, our trainings will always go on. So don't be sad and hold your head up high! Keep a positive mind and take this as an opportunity to further improve yourself. Who knows that by September; you will be able to do better than your initially would.

So there you have it. I hope my thoughts make sense and I believe many would agree. Whatever it is, we would still continue to run. Make the best of the situation and let's just concentrate for whatever races that you will be doing next week 7th July before the fasting season.

Gambateh everyone! :)

Race Report : Mizuno Wave Run 2013 + my last weekend LSD.

The finisher medal

Yes. It has been that long since my last blog entry. I’ve meant to write something; especially on how I was training up for SCKLM. But then I realised, I’m just gonna stress myself out and putting my expectations too high. Instead, I’ve opted a more realistic goal this time and not beat myself up.

Besides that, I had things to take care of. And it was all for the best. J

So back to the topic!

Mizuno Wave Run (for the first time) is being held at Putrajaya with a distance of both 16km and 7 km category. At first I was surprised; being that it was usually done at UPM with the usual 10km route. But I’m always open for changes.

However this time (because of training plan as well), I’ve opted this race to be my LSD + extra mileage to make up at least 32km. So there was no racing for time.

The start line

 My morning started at 4am at Palace of Justice. Made prior arrangements with Hui and Tilak to do 16km first before race started. But my morning started badly with tummy upsets. Blame it on the swimming I did the day before when I swallowed (TWICE!) a mouthful of pool water.

The portaloos were still locked. Maybank toilets were shut. I ran around like crazy until I found one that was hidden away from view. Thank goodness. I quickly did whatever I needed to do and met up with the guys.  Chatter was to a minimal and we started with our run. The first 10km was pretty good and I manage to keep my marathon pace with Speedy Hui; whom just finished Sundown the week before and he still looks fresh. Gotta salute the fellow.

Then, it happened again......

Dammit! I was in agony. I slowly let the guys head on as I didn’t want to hold them up. To cut the story short, I had a few options:

1.       Stand and wait for help. Flag any passing vehicle down.

2.       Take a chance; look for public loo. In pain.

3.       Be daring; Do the bushes.

Bullocks, I almost did option 3. Really desperate.

Finally I did find one loo at Dataran Gemilang and I couldn’t be any happier. But I was all too exhausted to carry anything on after that.  I slowly jog towards my car and heard the emcee announcing that they will start soon. At this point, I was contemplating if I could still go on. I gulped down a bottle of water, downed a pack of gel, headed towards the starting line and see how things went.

Met a few buddies and the gun was off. I treaded along the crowd and my mood was slightly lifted when some showed support and encouragement. Petronas was just in sight in less than 1.5km and I quickly bought a bottle of Gatorade to keep myself hydrated. Everything went smooth from thereafter.

Although I wasn’t able to keep my expected marathon pace constantly, I still kept going and the tummy behaved. Fortunately the weather was fine as the day progressed.

The route was generally flat with gradual rolling hills. It was a breeze for regulars as it’s reminisces MH & PNM race routes.  I had a good time running alongside friends I met along the way. Most were just curious why I’m on a slow pace.

It’s good to be just enjoying the race instead of racing for a new PB. It was all the joy that made me forget all the pain. Not of course until the last 2 water stations ran out of water! Not wanting to break momentum, I just went on.

I came back at the finish line and clocked 28km total at that point. I need another 4kms to make up the 32. Queued to get my hydration and goodie bag, say hi to few of the guys and I went on to continued my run. It was a lonely run again as I was alone again on the long winding road. I decided to join back the route somewhere around PICC and saw the remaining last runners making through the final 2 km. I slowly joined them, quick nod and moved on. One of the bike marshals kept encouraging me to push on. I slowly smiled back and politely told him that I’ve already finished my race and I’m just doing the extra. He chucked a laugh and told me to carry on; nodding the same time in acknowledgement. Yes, we runners are crazy sometimes. Oh.... the things we do.

500m more to the finish line but I decided since that I’m on a roll; let’s just roll out another km or so just to rill up 33-34km.

All in all, it was a great race and to double up as my LSD. If only that I didn’t had that tummy ache attack; everything was fine.

The organization of race was good and the organizing team were great. Except for the minor hiccup on the last 2 water stations. Route wise is great with gradual rolling hills.

And now let’s hope all my hard work wouldn’t go to waste; especially now that the haze is terrible.

Crossing fingers the weather will clear up by SCKLM. 

What weather is this?

3H = Hot, Humid, HAZE.

I can't explain what kind of weather is this and it's seriously driving me nuts.

It is my tapering week and I so happened to be sick. I hardly get sick (the most is just a small flu or fever) but the haze is taking a toll on me. 

Now that the McD Olympic Run has been postponed due to the haze (or so they say); I hope that SCKLM won't be affected by it. I pray the weather is clear and I hope my body can recover soon. 

So to all my fellow friends prepping for SCKLM next week :

1. Drink loads of water. And I mean loads and loads of it. It's recommended that you take at least 2 liters a day. Toilet breaks will happen frequently too.

2. Take supplements; especially Vitamin C to boost your immune system.

3. Watch your diet. Although it's a little too early for carbo loading now; it's not a time to chow down on our hawker delicacies. Especially fried food. 

4.  Get enough sleep. None of us wants to look like a zombie on race day.

5. Be positive and always keep happy thoughts. :)

Someone is turning me into an internet MEME?

Hi all!

First and foremost it has really been some time since my last blog update. Thousand apologies.
Been very busy with things (sorting things out) and I have been training for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon. Hope that everyone is doing the same and everyone's training plan is going accordingly well.

So why the sudden blog post? Well, initially I was planning to write something but this came out instead.

Let's start with this picture.

This my dear friends; is a picture taken by the amazing running couple Ashe & Vivian at the recent Mizuno Wave Run 2013 at Putrajaya. This is the usual me doing my silly poses in front of cameras during races. Some how this particular one took a life of it's own today.

I have "unwillingly" turned into a Kamen Rider. It was just so plain hilarious that I almost did fell off my chair when I saw it. I'm sure many has; judging from all the Facebook "Likes" & comments in Ashe's FB page.

And then, this next picture took life.

This one probably sealed the deal cause I almost laughed till I had stomach cramps!

Thanks to Ashe and Vivian for the brilliant photo and captions. I did my part to be silly (as usual) ;)

(Latest update as of 11/06/13 @ 12.15am)
Lina tagged me in another pic where another fellow runner "photoshop-ed" me into something more "appropriate" looking.

Cukup Kamen-Rider for ya? Somehow I feel more like Speed Racer in this leh... Lolx!
Thanks for the incredible edit from YeeHoo Leong. It was indeed a good one! :)

This was probably what I need after a long LSD run. I was at 28km in the midst of a 33km run; so the quirkiness was a good push through. Thanks again for immortalizing the photo.

That is why I often say that the strong support of friends during a run (irregardless of training or competition) is important. You can always count on someone to cheer you up and motivate you.

THANKS AGAIN ALL!

AS for now, I'll continue reading all the funny comments and YES, please someone find me a Kamen Rider suit (cause that's what you all requested, right?)