(Contributed by Esther. Well done, for both the run and the post!)
Trail racing is not pretty. It's wet, muddy and bloody. Plus, it has the tendency to culminate in overly liberal swearing. But it's fun, if you like your fun, dirty and sweaty.
This is an account of my first ( sort of) trail race. In theory, there was a Langkawi race and MSIG prior to this. But both were flat-ish of terrain and the first was mostly tarmac roads. Check out the elevation profile from the first graphic as well as the provisions at the checkpoints for this race. It looked pretty promising, almost like a picnic!
Do note some of the actual check points were not as described on the profile.
Penang was familiar ground to me, I've been here for a few road races, namely the Penang Bridge International Marathon (21 km). But in the murky world of the trails, yes I'm a noob through and through. Lured into the world of trails by my better half. The allure of a good trail run is much like spending time with the man, best enjoyed in their elemental forms, they challenge you but offer you respite away from the maddening crowd. Probably why I fell for both, a tale for another day. Back to Compressport 100 Malaysia: Penang Series.
The first part of the route began easily enough, winding through a sleepy village, bypassing houses and quiet cemetries that started getting spaced further apart, when SUDDENLY A WILD WINDING UPSLOPE APPEARS. ( pokemon reference). From then to Iron Cross it's basically an uphill climb ( read: crawl because it was pouring cats and dogs ). The trekking pole will be your best friend, better yet if you have two,one can never have too many friends. The man had generously offered me one from his pair of Black Diamond FLZ before the run, great stuff! My first time using trekking poles! Might have stabbed a "gaga" or two along the way. DIE! All you creepy crawlies! * swears curse swears *
Anyway, he also gallantly offered to run with klutzy me to Iron Cross ( the toughest segments of the race) but I didn't want to ruin his lead up run to his Lantau 50, so we decided to run individually.
The last couple of kms before Iron Cross were especially treacherous, having stormed earlier during the morning, the trail was very narrow, and strewn with fallen logs, branches interspersed with slippery streams. Quite a number of runners had head wounds because of ducking the logs ( including the owner of this blog, erhems). Runners also had to "bash" through vegetation to make progress at some parts. I honestly thought about giving up, but there's no way out once you get inside, only exit looks to be the end of the trail. Basically, the fear of some ginormous bugs ( or "gaga" as we in Sg know them) landing on me propelled me to move faster. Catching sight of that checkpoint after exiting the trail was like a Snorlax sighting on the Pokeradar. Made it with more than half an hour to spare. A rather embarrassing timing considering when compared to my PB for road races
Having survived that, the journey towards the next few CPs was basically nothing noteworthy other than a few sporadic pokestops. Oops! It was mostly downslope on a tarmac road, steep but not slippery. I slipped into a false sense of complacency and hopped along rather nimbly, expending my reserves. thinking I've seen it all for this race. Obviously, I had not paid attention to the elevation profile during the briefing . BIG mistake!
Last checkpoint was aptly named "1200 Steps". Only learnt that when I enquired rather smugly at CP3 why there were no more trail sections. The nice volunteer told me then that there was a climb involved to the last checkpoint BEFORE the last bit of trail. "bit" is an understatement, so was the "climb". It was up, up, up and up some more, sandy paths within a sprawling temple grounds ( not sure which, clearly can't read those Chinese characters but it was a rather grand affair that temple) before hitting the steps. Thankfully, only the 50km runners had to climb the full 1200 Steps ( I think they did it twice) * evil chuckles * to the CP4 which was the last checkpoint for the 25km runners. The view from the summit was really reminiscent of Lantau. Panoramic view of Penang island. Skyscrapers all safely far far away as they should be.
 |
| Looks like HK Lantau |
The most memorable bits for this segment were the dismal first aid stops and the crazy, slippery downslope. First aiders equipped only with mobile phones and their own drinking bottles?! I learnt much later that the poor man and another friend from Singapore suffered at the hands of yet more untrained first aiders. Now for the slopes, the poles were not much help from here, mostly slippery rocks and sand, I literally slid down the slopes countless times. Basically you pick yourself up, run a couple of steps and down you go again! I was between laughter and tears
It was a painful experience, to put it mildly. Have I mentioned that I'm a clumsy oaf.
What truly moved me to finish the race, aside from the encouraging texts from the man, was a pair of strangers who sort of "adopted" me for the last few kilometres, they offered me muscle spray, told me that the GPS had logged 25 km already so we were essentially running more than planned! They checked back periodically to make sure I did not straggle too far back. We made slow but sure progress away from hilly terrain to the sleepy village and finally the school where we started this morning. Finally, end point in sight!
We took only a handful of pictures. Look at how fresh we were before and how deadbeat and burnt ( actually he still looks fresh -_-) after.
Before ( from the official photographer)
After:
Bimbo bunny's lessons from the trail:
2. Trekking pole, learn to use it well. Can be used to clear paths, bear weight and kill ( oops displace) "gaga"
3. Calf sleeves or high compression socks will spare your legs the mud, thorns and possibly leeches
4. Watch your step (and not pokestops)
5. Strangers can be your catalyst for that last burst of fire.
I'd also like to say I caught a Clefairy and hatched a 10 km poke-egg.
With best regards
The urban-running-bunny
No comments:
Post a Comment