Malaysian Army International Run 2011 - Edisi PCPJ Zon Utara

So 2 weeks ago, WW told me that his boss pulak paksa him to enter a race in PD.  Pulak,
We were reluctant at first as we were going to be very busy with a reunion in Lumut later in the afternoon on the same day tapi permintaan boss, macamla boleh tolak, kan?
So somehow WW's people got me signed up in the Kor Kesihatan DiRaja team. Which was quite an honor really. Siap bagi their running vest to wear ( which I didn't wear, macam biasa).

 Baju KKD

Baju larian berwarna ke-askaran. Jangan main.

Sangat Grand

Race day, we arrived at about 7 ish since the race was scheduled to start at 8.00. Lewatnya, korang mungkin kata but this is an army organized race la, biasala tu, kate WW.

I was to be in the Women Open 10K which i was a bit nervous about because
1. my last 10K was ages ago
2. training tak sesungguh dulu
3. In the rules and regulation, siap cakap " . Be properly attired during the race taking into consideration that the race will take you through jungle tracks and trails." Aduii, aku berdoala takde trails, but WW told me not to worry as the rules and regulation part was a copy paste version of SAS International Eco-Challenge punya. Cit
4. Tapi knowing it's organized by the army, WW warned that of course the route is going to be challenging.  Kalau tak, tak askar la, katanya. Great.
5. Bila berkumpul, baru nampak ramaaaiiiiinya askar, from all different states, from all different divisions.Dari Sabah ngan Sarawak pun ada turun mari.
6. Muka depa-depa ni semua jenis gaunt, tanned and chiseled. And I'm only talking about the girls !

lagi gambar abang askar tadek motif

During the race briefing, and while scanning for familiar faces (takde sangat sebab tak ramai civillians joining this race), tetiba nampak Deo di depan mata tersengih-sengih seperti biasa. Puh, power la Deo. Esoknya nak buat MR25 lagi. Sungguh gigih.

Dalam pukul 8.00 bila WW and Deo bersama-sama pelari Men Open 22K yang lain di flag off, kami Women Open dan Men Veteran lepak-lepak sambil dengar MC membebel dan merapu. Siap pi interview pelari at random sementara membuang masa ( we were to be flagged off at 8:15am). Tetiba dia interview a Kenyan Woman runner
" My best timing for a 10K is 34 minutes" kata akak Kenya tu.
Dengan otomatisnya, dengar suara-suara sumbang,
" Jom, kita semua balik!"
" Jom balik sebab dah dapat sijil dah tadi!"
Heh heh.

Sempat jugak sembang ngan satu prebet pompuan ni yang based kat PD jugak.
" Adik, kita punya route ni masuk kem ke?"
" Masuk!"
" Ada bukit ke?"
" Ada, kak. Tinggiiiiii, curammmmm"
Dem.

Bila flag off, aku rasa cam aku dok barisan paling belakang. Mana boleh saing ngan perempuan-perempuan berupa lelaki kat barisan depan tu. Dan, ramai betulla perempuan-perempuan berbentuk lelaki dalam askar ni aku perasan. Sampai kadang-kadang kena tengok kaler bib untuik tau dia pompuan ke lelaki ( bib pompuan kaler pink gitu)

Cool kan bib ni?

The first 400m I noticed my Garmin showed only the timing and not my pace or the distance. Double dem. Time ni la nak buat hal. I fiddled with the thing a couple of times tapi still tak boleh jugak. Last-last I decided lari ikut instict je la. My plan for a PB by this time was aborted.

At about 1K we hit the first hill. Gile curam. Triple dem. Almost everybody at this point started walking. Kalau yang run pun macam myself, sebenarnya buat gaya run je tapi pace cam orang jalan jugak. Yang mentalnya, masa mendaki bukit curam ni boleh nampak ada lagi bukit kat atas and you can virtually see the other faster runners making their way up the incline. Gile! Bukit atas bukit.
Masa ni, aku kata bye-bye kat sub 1 hour timing,

Lepas panjat bukit, panjat bukit lagi dan lagi. Sampai ada satu peringkat tu macam ada tiga tier bukit. Orang kat bawah nampak orang kat tengah, dan orang tengah boleh tengok orang kat lagi atas bukit. Ada jugak jalan yang kita baru nak turun downhill sket tapi kat depan nampak ada lagi incline yang lebih tinggi. Mental gila.

Tapi nasib baik geng Mat Tirap ni sangat friendly. Ok, dalam race lain, biasanya runners akan pasang game face dan muka tak bleh blah, tapi what I like about this race is almost every one of the army runners are really-really friendly and funny. Ada je komen-komen yang buat aku tergelak sampai terlupa nak menyumpah bukit. Encouragement sangat tip top.

Dan nasib lagi baik aku bawak air sendiri. Sebab water station ada satu je. Tapi sponging station ada 3-4 kot, which is a lot. And thank God for the sponging station because it was getting hot along the way. Ada kadang-kadang tu, ahem, sebab air sponge tu sejukkk sangat jadi aku pun tergoda take a sip sikit. Mmmm, somehow ada rasa a tinge of Milo. Macamana tu?

Bukits aside, best jugak lari masuk kem ni. Bukan tiap hari depa nak bagi civillian masuk kem. Walaupun aku sebagai army wife pun jarang masuk kem. Baru tau, besau betui kem askar ni, Siap boleh buat 10K race course.

Anyway, almost 1K upon finishing, kami bertembung the faster pack of the 22k Men open runners. Depa baru nak masuk course 10K berbukit bakau gunung ganang  after 12K of pounding on relatively flat route. Adoi, kesiannya.

So I crossed the finishing line at 64 mins at position no 23. Haha seperti dijangka. But I found out from Moey ( finally met Moey of Penonton!) that it was actually a 10.7 K distance. Sebagai pembenci bukit, I'm kinda happy to keep a 5:58 pace at a hilly course like that. Lagipun seperti dikata, mana bleh calen army man-girls dan atlet army yg laju.

Lepas tu tunggu WW balik pulak. Sambil tu lepak-lepak, ambik gambar, sembang-sembang ( remember, abang-abang askar sangat ramah-tamah) dan belek-belek goodie bag. Sebelum race dapat goodie bag ngan sijil, selepas race pun dapat lagi seketul goodie bag. Malangnya, no finisher medal tapi bila pikir nak medal sangat pun tak perlu sebab kat rumah dok berbelen dalam beg dan kat but kereta berlambak lagi tak hangkut dalam rumah.

Tetiba WW sampai with the timing of 2:00:24. WW in his futile attempt to convert from barefootedness to Vibrams for this race, somehow forgot his Vibrams that morning and ran barefoot jugak with no injuries. Glamer sekejap sebab ade oarng ingat dia geng komando.

Military  PCPJ ok

Tak dapat medal tapi dapat ayam goreng ala KFC. Macam race omputehs gitu

Anyway, it was a fun race despite the tough course, Will I join again next year kalau ada lagi? Semestinya.
It was very well organized, traffic was manned brilliantly not only by the military personnels but also the police,and the post run food was quirky but awesome. Despite all the drama of Garmin-not-working-well, bukit-bakau-course, lot of man-girls, sipping-on-milo-flavoured-sponge, I really had fun.

Lepas tu kalut balik sebab nak berangkat pi Lumut.

Well that's my final race for 2011. Phew, what a year!