VS. our toughest rivals

Hey, before I start this post, I gotta give a shout out to Amirul for helping us apply for a hostel and later paying for us and collecting our bibs even though he had a fever! Thanks man!

A little clarification about the title, here's a brief (and maybe slightly biased) chronology of the kakithon-UPNM MUDS rivalry:

2008-first ever MUDS, Men's University category Ong 1st, with close competition from UPNM

2009-Men's University category Ayie 1st, followed closely by UPNM

2010-Chan Jun Shen Men's University Category Champion, with Ong coming in second

So there you have it.... I would be lying if I said that this was just a regular race for us. For the uninitiated, MUDS is not the plural for mud but a duathlon (run-bike-run) series of 3 events with the overall winner crowned as duathlete of the year/best university.

Me, Ong, Wong and person X rendezvoused with Amirul at UPNM on race morn after we unloaded ourselves and the bikes from the car and met with Syahidan who was there without uni's support too. (Question: Izzit possible to fit 4 people, 3 bicycles and 2 bags into 1 car? Answer: Hell Yeah! All you need is a bit of yoga skills!)

The run start felt crazy fast to me, most likely due to Edan pulling the pack. Ong kept within 10m of Edan while I was further behind. Got into T1 and found my bike without much ado thanks to Ong standing beside it, got on and tried to follow the first pack but was left in the dust with Edan and were eventually swallowed by the chase pack.

Our group proved to be too laid back on the bike portion and couldn't bridge the gap with the Ong-Chan-Amirul group. Hence we found our-self about 40s behind when we entered T2. Caught a glimpse of Ong during the U-turn with him leading Chan and Amirul. Finally, I was running abreast with Chan just before the final straight, felt like puking during the final sprint but managed to finish 2nd without incident. Wong wasn't so fortunate, as he had the bad luck of getting injured during last sunday's 1 Malaysia seremban run and encountered gear problems on the bike.

Okie! Enuff of this monologue, here's a buttload of pictures to tell the rest of the tale!

Fast start!

Found my bike easily thanks to Ong..

Transition 1.0

Transition 2.0

Wong: Watcha lookin' at buster?!

Champ (rear view)

Aiman and co.

Edan and co.