Open Season

It has been awhile. It has been a long festive season, and when I came back to office today, it is eerily quiet. Next week will be buzzing with cookies containers littered everywhere.

Raya was a fleeting affair whenever we celebrate it in wifey's hometown. There's always a scramble to Cucur Udang Mat at the Stadium for iftar, last minute groceries shopping, scouting the last chicken for rendang etc. My NB1224 were idle in the boot untouched, as I shut one eye to the Taman Bandaran stretch. Takpa, bagi chan...

When the raya did come, I must have chuckled my mother-in-law with a sight of my regular cornflakes breakfast, which of course I substituted with some rendang etc later.

We traveled back to KL on the second day of Raya, and the next day, we were running up to Kem Pacat in Nuang. It has been almost a year since my last Nuang run, and it was refreshing to be back. I have always loved its downhills, and dragged the climbs. We managed to do a sub-2 to Pacat, and quickly returned to Lolo for a customary dip in the pool.

Nope, no front crawl here...

Cuba teka siapa ambik gambar :)

Gorgeous! and it was almost deserted. The tall trees have lots of potentials of hopping places at night... err... the Ramadhan is over, so beware!

 Yim doing poco-poco training. Good coordination there!

 Our reward. The water is brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr... we shrunk and lost 2 kg

 V is for Vendetta!

The progressive 3 days when I was supposed to be in the office were spent home. Our babysitter took her leave, and since wifey couldn't get off work, I spent 3 days getting acquainted with Aiden. Almost exclusively breastfed, she is exclusively close to her mother, and would wail in my arms. The first day was crazy to be in my towel walking around the house all day. OK, maybe too much information... hehhehe. But I did not have time much for other things as Aiden demands to be held all the time. The moment I put her down, she went all blown up like a broken record. Poor Iris...

The second day, I put on a carrier in the house, and managed some work from home. I managed a decent lunch, and Aiden was visibly less cranky. 

The third day, we were like best buds... Aiden was cracking her unbelievably sweet smile, like Iris was when she was at that age. That small dimple on the left corner of her cheek. And I managed some quality time with Iris, which was good.

I am now feeling all the mothers out there :D!

Come Thursday, I hit the trails again. Wifey was compassionate enough not to even ask where was I going to run, and what time I'd come back :D. It's like the best bonus ever!

Yim, Ian, Che, myself, Irwan, Shanaz, Zack, Frak, Peter and Jamie

This time, it was 10 of us (with Ian, Che, Yim, Jamie, Frank, Zack, Shanaz, Irwan and Peter). & of us running the FRIM trails. After a quick prep, we had a short warm-up run, and stretched, courtesy of Corporate Athletes. Few yoga poses later, it was time to rumble. After 3-days hiatus, I was ready to stab myself silly :D. On deck was a 25km trail all the way to Hospital Sungai Buloh, and the prospect seemed daunting. 

After a short stretch of road, we hit our first inclines, and soon tapered into the Dream Trail. I so love this dreamy trail, less technical and rolling. It is a little bit too dense compared to Kiara, but very fun with ups and downs, and I was once again dreaming of similar trails in Avatar. With no people around, it felt like trailing in a different world altogether. 

There was however, at a stretch sandwiched between 2 big boulders when I swear I saw a grey decked roof and house, but it did not when I passed it. Hmmmmm... what was that?

The stretch before he first incline. Even the roads in FRIM are neat

Before we were regally ushered off the Sungai Buloh Trail. We smiled to early...

We later found out that the plan to go to Sungai Buloh was shot down by the Park's ranger. We could not get pass him, and after some bickering on Che's part, we hit the Steroid Hill instead. I worked my butts and quads off to reach the top running, and it was awesome! We ran down the hard lateritic soil, which felt like stone bumps from my shoes, and tried to avoid them whenever possible. We regrouped again and after leech-checks, we headed down the way we came from when we passed Yip and his group. We came down the Tea House, into the staff quarters and the long stretch of road with no shades, and back to the car to refill.

Steroid Hill on the incline. Not hard, you say?

 

Steroid Hill from below x much more!

Thanks to Photoshop, the awesome view gets awesome-er!

Leech checks! Jamie won the price for the fattest leech

Some of us were ready to retire, in between the free flow of cold melons, raya cookies, bananas and mineral water. I could see a look in Jamie and Frank, as same as my feeling of how short the run was. I kept asking Jamie of the time, in a way to force him to think that we are still early, and another loop is possible... hahahahah (sorry Jamie!). We did agree to run again, although I was high on melons. So Yim, Frank, Jamie and I started running again, leaving behind the rest of the gang, but later rejoined with Ian. 

 Tengah susun ayat nak ajak kaum buat another loop. And thinking about topping up in the evening if he fails to do so

 The spread never cease to fail us. Thanks Ian, Yim, Jamie and Peter :D

Tengoklah betapa gebunya betis Zack. 

We hit the Dream Trail again (yay!), all the way to the Tea House, and back. I felt all hyped and high from the sugar in the melons, and in between burps, I followed Jamie in hot pursuit. All in all, we covered a decent 25k run - Ian, Jamie and myself, after Frank and Yim opted the shorter loop. Funny thing about loops is, it always felt shorter the second time around. After half packet of asam boi later, we reached the carpark in a super steady run alongside Ian and Jamie.

Running alongside strong and seasoned runners are priceless!

It was a great day, and keeping up with the program and finishing the designated mileage was sweet. The next in line is a Bukit Aman LSD on Saturday, and a last-kopek Newton simulation in Kinrara on Sunday. 3 more weeks to TNF and counting.

Newton 25, TNF and Genting Trailblazer are in tow, with the likes of Powerman, PBIM and SCSM in the pipeline. What busy end of 2010 for many.

And thanks to the whole gang yesterday. I sure do miss other Geng Kaki Lambung etc though :D who have migrated to better use for their feet. And Yim, jangan layan FRIM alone ok... I am just a shout away!

OMG!

p.s: all pics credit to Ian, Jamie, Shanaz.