Trailblazing in Genting

This i a waaay delayed post on Genting Trailblazer 2008 (02 Nov 2008).

I ditched our trip to Padang to come to this, and my original partner (Jim) abandoned me 3 days prior to the event to attend his daughter’s concert. Don’t worry, Jim – I would have done the same… Luckily, Jawa was there to fill up, knowing he would run for free. This is the first trailblazer for both of us, and my very first trail running.

This year will be a total of 14km run through the jungle and additional obstacle course at the end. I figured this will be like going to my grandmother’ old place in KK in the monsoon season, climbing the makeshift staircase after a good dunking in the river, or moving through the virgin forest in search of wild mushrooms and ferns. Such good times...

We arrived in Genting quite early through thick fog and cool weather, and joined Hassan, Aznil and few others at the mosque after a short 45 minutes drive up. I had a Sneakers bar, some water and few bananas for breakfast, and was raring to go. We walked to the Awana and register ourselves in the Adventure category, met Ian and Pat, and the other usual suspects. Took some photos before everything gets dirty, and aprox. at 8.40 a.m., we were off running through the golf course for a good 3km. Having enjoyed road running, I have left Jawa behind who was struggling after a hiking expedition the day before, knowing all so well he is going to zoom past me in the jungle.

Expectedly, as we entered the jungle, Jawa did zoom past. I was there trashing my Reebok, and slipping everywhere. Some areas were really quite mind-numbing to a newbie like me, tapi aku belasah saja lah (Urban Studio works came to mind). After that, the course looks a bit monotonuous, except for few areas where we had triple slider, and we had to climb almost 90 degrees up (and behind some slower runners queuing). And of course the ‘stairway-to-heaven’ before the water station, that long climb saw many fellow runners sitting with gaping mouths at the step. At this point, I have been having slight discomfort on my left knee from the fall I had when entering the jungle earlier. Tapi pancit jugak, ooo…

Arrived at the WS, had a good gulp while waiting for Jawa to come along. From then on, we jogged our way pass the Long House, and we arrived back at final obstacles. I almost had cramps from jumping into the cold water, but that was pure fun nonetheless. I recalled many childhood memories out of this obstacles, especially the day out in the flood, or fishing in the sawah padi, and ended up chasing the buffaloes, or even simply trashing ourselves in the murky water of the ‘taliair’ at home.

We finished at no. 48, with time just over 2 hours. Not bad, lah. We came out in one piece, although I have crashed my knee. Some points worth considering – to get a proper shoe for trail running (my Reebok is no longer fit for running), glove, and heavy hill runnings. Ware we coming for Trailblazer 2009? Hell yes!

Next shall come the Penang Bridge International Marathon, where I shall run the 25 km Half Marathon. Malaysia buleh!