End of semester rant

A recent conversation with a friend made me understand that most of the trials you overcome or efforts you have made and satisfaction you feel from it, will never be fully understood by anyone, be it your best friend, your soul mate or your parents, other than the person who matters most. You.

Regardless of whether you are trying to continue training everyday while completing your final year project(Wong, Zaheen, Ting), wake up early in the morn even after spending a long night working just to fit in training (Wong), walking the fine line between completing the daily menu and getting injured (Tareef), missed a bunch of outings with friends just to train (Ting), coming to practice even through you fainted less than a week ago (Kar Sing), worked out consistently even through you were just sick (Afiq, Fitkry) or if you are juggling running, work and a relationship (Ong, Kar Sing, Black, Jiha..).... Kudos to you. The list goes on... It’s true that it ain’t something super great and nobody’s going to give you a freakin’ noble prize for it, but... it’s something. Definitely something cool and something to be proud of.

So, if you have been consistent during training, we salute thee. And if you haven’t been choosing the high road... it’s never too late to start.

DELAYS "R" US!

Warning: This post is about Larian Hari Keputeraan that was ran last last week! So if u're looking for a Newton new year's run update you're at the wrong place!

Ahem... Zaheen if I wait for u're pics any longer, I'll most likely forget more than 50% of the race... couldn't curi any pics from facebook or the net either... so this is all we've got...

This race... haha... must be one of the most under-the-radar yet with generously cash prized races ever, even the super kuat-korek 2009tonton.blogspot.com couldn't detect this race despite it being an annual event. The only scrap of publicity we saw was a banner in front of larkin stadium and on johor government's official webpage. And yet, not less than twenty strong runners from other states managed to turn up on race day (Arul Runners, Calvin Boon etc)! How come??

Firstly tq Jiha for helping us register and Zaheen for driving us there. Wong and I were kinda hyped coming to this event, as it was a staple kakithon event. Me, Wong, Zaheen and Tareef reached Larkin stadium (the dirtiest and most worn out stadium I've been to) at 3pm and started warming up. Met Zaheen's friend, K7 (that's his name, no joke) from Melaka there too.

The race was quite hilly with a series of 3 rolling hills and the sky seemed like it couldn't decide whether to rain or not. Staying true to Johor racing tradition it was around 1km under distanced (maybe Johor developed it's own standards of measurement for the km :P). Tareef was caught unawares and could only finish in 30+ placing, Wong, me and Zaheen were 18th, 9th and 7th respectively.

In a nutshell, it sorta sucked to still be out of 5th after the work i've been putting in, but the extra pocket money was welcome. The race was enjoyable because it was kinda at our backdoor, it was pretty localized (I have absolutely no idea what localized means, but it sounds cool), and the medal box allowed me to fantasize that it was an Olympic medal .

Happy belated new yah, folks!

powerman

Manjung baby! This duathlon had one of the most scenic rides i'd ever been on! Just imagine cranking the pedals up a steep river bridge, and once you reach the top the whole river and cargo freights are laid out below you in all it's glory. Ah.. that was definitely one of the high points of this race. Can't imagine? I couldn't find a pic of the view, but I hope this pic of the bridge helps..

But, that's me getting ahead of myself... haha.. time for a flashback...

(flashback)

I'd took the overnight bus to lumut and reached at 6 in the morn thinking that I would ride to senangin beach first but it was raining like crazy, so I slept at the nearby temple/primary-school/kindergarten till 11a.m.

Rain didn't seem likely to stop anytime soon, bought a 2 ringgit 50 cents raincoat and cycled to Manjung, checked in the hotel that was a stone-throw away from the starting line and continued sleeping till the Moeys came and took me for a drive through the race course. Went to race briefing. Met the usual UPNM Du-suspects. Listened to briefing. Ong reached at 8:30pm. Ate. Talked. Talked a bit more. Slept. What's the point of a flashback??!

UPNM dudes

The sprint race format was R-5.5k, B-32k and R-5k, consisting of a pancake flat and straight square for the run and a to-and-fro bike course across 3 bridges. The organizing was flawless as far as my inexperienced eye could see, many elite foreign athletes were invited to the race too.

Ong blew through the bike course in 51mins and came in 3rd! I was around 7 mins behind at 8th place. Kudos to Sylvia for getting 6th despite being underage! Black and Jiha finished the full distance race in the sweltering heat, crazy stuff man! Plenty of food after the race and at the buffet lunch, Ong got his cash on podium and Black was awarded a tri suit for his loyal participation since the birth of Powerman Malaysia.

Finis.

MASUM BEACH GAMES

Figure 1-1

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

This is the first year that masum beach games has been held. The 5 events contested were: beach football, beach running, beach netball, beach volleyball, and beach takraw (just put the word "beach"in front of the game and it will fit right in. XD) Basically the 3 sports that do not have well defined standards are beach running, beach takraw and beach netball. Hence the organizers were the creators of the rules.

Figure 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4

UTM Team (Clockwise from Top Left: Women's volleyball, Men's volleyball, the crazy football dudes and superstar/bus driver)

We reached Port Dickson Polytechnic on thurs at 5 something and were accommodated with the rest of the unis. Everything was arranged by utm: accom, transport, allowance, clothing, etc (A million thanks to Mr. Rizam, Mr. Idris, Kak Zul, Abang Afiq, Abang Haikal). So all we had to do was fool around on thurs and fri, then run on sat and sun, a pleasant change from rushing to the bus station and finding a decent place to spend the night!

1.2 Objective

Memperkenalkan sukan pantai kepada para pelajar IPTA dan

menggalakkan aktiviti sukan di kawasan pantai. hahaha...

2.0 Methodology

2.1 Participants

Due to Ting being unable to form a women's team (not persuasive or too shy?), utm only sent 1 men's team (Me, Wong, Zaheen and Fitkry-new dude). There were 16 teams in the men's category, among them were a couple of familiar faces UM(Amirul, Azwan and Roger) and the UPNM triathletes.

Figure 3-1

New kid on the block

2.2 Research Instruments

Legs

2.3 Research Procedure

Fastest 3 runners timing will be taken into consideration. Teams were released in 2 minute intervals, to avoid congestion at the obstacle course. The track was 80% beach and 20% road with 4 obstacles included (commando crawl 10m, 10foot wall, tires, and 10 hurdles) which was tiring like hell! Just try jumping hurdles on the beach where you can't jump off properly.... your privates will be in serious danger.. hahaha... Our "strategy"? Run the prelims all out, sleep, then run the finals all out again!

Figure 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4

3.0 Findings and Discussion

3.1 Preliminaries

Zaheen ran a 20min, me and Wong each 30s behind. Our average should have been around 20:30 but the results were 21+, this shows that there is a time displacement between the timing chip system and the starting clock. 1st in prelims... but wouldn't hold back even if I could do it again... 1st was a great confidence booster man! 1thing i learned about Zaheen from this race was that his level of confidence and competence was exceptional, while me(hurdles), Wong(wall) and Fitkry(wall) were each worried about the obstacles, he never doubted that he could complete them, and was the fastest among us too!

3.2 Finals

Regrettably, we were 3rd, behind UITM (avg19:30 mins) and USM(avg 20+mins). There was a bit of controversy, and many people were "beach"ing and making accusations. I felt like "beach"ing too.... but accusations without concrete evidence are not quite fair. Fitkry had a cold but still performed admirably even though it was his first race.

4.0 Recommendations

4.1 Recommendations Based on Findings

Train at hurdles before hand(hurdles were a "beach" for me...)

4.2 Recommendations for Future Studies

-Mass start perhaps?

-A safer wall

-Cordon off the running track so there won't be an issue of ppl running on the compact sand and on the grass.

-use a starting mat for the timing chip at the start too.

5.0 Conclusions

1. UTM did not win a gold this outing. The best performance was a silver for the women's volleyball.

2. Found out that no matter how hard I try, I'm unable to take a race with the word masum attached in front as "for fun".

3. The beach was beautiful.

"Where oceans bleed into the sky" (Linkin Park, The Catalyst)

UTM Eco Run 2011

During the flag off (picture from www.news.utm.my)

Finally, we all have the chance to race on our home ground, this has been an event that we all excitingly waited for, hehe
A week before the race, we have done a trial run to gauge our timing & strength.
Zaheen, Chow, Tareef, Fahim & Li Ting joined the 15km race while me & Kar Sing joined the 21km race,hehe
The race started a bit late and the it was already quite hot during the early stage of the run.
Since the route was all around UTM campus, we all have huge advantages as we can always plan ahead mentally on what might be expected next, hehe
There are a lot uphill n downhill for the run, which is one of UTM unique part, hehe
Zaheen finished third(just 1 minute behind the champion, hehe, just a bit more), & Li Ting 1st for 15km (walau le, congrat, hehe)
Gan who just came back from Penang Marathon & Powerman, was not fully recovered for the run, while Tareef who just bought his new Vibram, improved a lot by clocking a decent timing, hehe
Credit should be given to Gan who has been working hard to keep the team together, he also helped Amirul from UM to participate in the race. Amirul went on to finish fourth in the race.
This was a great race for me & Kar Sing as we finished 2nd & 5th respectively, hehe
After the second climb up to Kolej Perdana, i just let the downhill to carry my leg forward.
That is when my vision started to become blurry as i felt extremely tired.
I cant recall any memory after i reached the junction (before making the big loop around the stadium and enter the stadium for the last 200m on track to the finishing line), except that my leg was moving fast and a lot of people were calling my name (hehe, home court advantage)
Felt very grateful that i am still able to finished the race.
This run has taught me a great lesson, it remind me on the things that got me started running in the first place.

"You never achieve success unless you like what you are doing."
--Dale Carnegie

No steam or gas drives anything until it is confined. No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated, disciplined.
-- Harry Emerson Fosdick D. D

Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever.
-- Lance Armstrong

From Buddha saying
"Amidst gain and loss, fame and defame, praise and blame, happiness and pain, let us try to maintain a balanced mind"
"Like a solid rock that is not shaken by the wind they remain unmoved"