The Rise And Fall Of The Urban Fixies

Once upon a time, in this part of town, there lived a small group of young riders fondly (or secretly) known to the locals as ‘the urban fixies’.


As said, they were riders, free-spirited and young ( late teens  to early twenties)with their DIY fixies spray-painted to perfection. They did not ride but rather flew through town, with their dreadlocks,afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. Their tanned faces sometimes glistening with sweat under the warm sun and their calves  rippled to every crank. They came from nowhere or anywhere. You'll see them when you see them. But when you do see them, either riding in the sun or gliding through the night, you will be awed.

Awed by their simplicity. Awed by the way they carry themselves. Calm. Collected. Focused. Too cool to care. You seldom see them talk. They say , the urban fixies communicate by gestures, by grunts, by eye twitches.  They will stop long enough, not to hang around, but to regroup. Once they are one, they will flock elsewhere.

You could tell, sometimes from afar, that they were happy. And they were peace-loving beings. Non- believers of nuisance and nonsense. They were law abiding citizens, only an eyesore to old folks who fail to understand their self expression.

 But one day, like black clouds creeping in on a beautiful sky, a small new group of riders infiltrated the town. First in small groups of 5s, then 10s, then 20s until it seemed that they were everywhere. It was understood that they were  initially  imitators. As mimics of the urban fixies. They came into town from miles away, riding their neon coloured generic fixies readily available from Kedai Basikal Ah Ba. These bikes were pitifully tasteless but deemed awesome by the new riders now known to the townspeople as 'kampung fixies'; no disrespect to the kampung people.
But as uber cooless could not be replicated or imitated, the kampug fixies failed to carry themselves wisely. They were simply wannabes. Not trend setters. Everything was overdone.

They spun into town making a racket. Flocking the streets as nuisance.They were ruthless, rowdy at times. Loitering and tastelessly hogging parking lots and conquering the roads. An eyesore, an ear sore and a stick in the behind.

What happened to the urban fixies in the mean time? They stood watching as their town was taken over. But as peace-loving beings, they did not reciprocated. Instead, to avoid territorial conflict,they dispersed. They disappeared, one by one into the masses.

Until one day, they were gone. All of them, dreadlocks and all.( **cue dust and debris scattering and rolling bushes for dramatic effect)


And to this day the kampung fixies still roamed the town. Terrorizing people with their hazardous wheelies and lameness. Most are only young ‘uns, not even through middle high,clueless ,trying so hard but alas, are greatly annoying.
God help us.

I believe one day, when the craze has ended and the madness has ceased, the urban fixies will be back. Emerging one by one from the crowd. Slightly older, slightly worn, but they will come back. With their dreadlocks, afro cuts, loose shirts and bowler hats. With their beautiful DIY-fixies, spray-painted to perfection.

They will be back, flying into town, coolness oozing from their ears.


Sekian sessi bercerita saya pada hari ini untuk melepaskan geram kepada kampung fixies yang sangat menyakitkan hati di pekan saya yang terchenta

The Mysterious Watcher

Short post
No time.
On call.

Quick question.
Would somebody please tell me who runs Penonton.blogspot.?

I know Bro Haris runs Run. Mix. Burn and I think I have a vague idea who's running Chap Ayam website but who the heck is in charge of Penonton?
Puas aku cari kat blog dia, talak jumpa ma.

Takde la, bukan nak saman ke apa.
Just want to say that you're doing a very good job.
What will we runners   ( or cyclists or triathletes) do without Penonton.
Gigih cari pelbagai race untuk di upload almost everyday.

Syabas, sir/madam.
You, my friend, are truly appreciated.

Hugs.
JJ & WW (ok, he offers his handshake)

Bonkety Bonk

Hi.
You read it right. I bonked.For the second time this year. Heh heh. It's SCKLM Half revisited minus the hot sun.
But difference was, this time I had fun.
Serious.
It's kinda weird how you could feel so bad and have fun at the same time. I guess last week was a good week. Maybe that explains it all.

Pre-race I guess I was kinda asking for it. We had a late breakfast and then decided before dropping off our kids at my sister's, we'd have our lunch late at Bangi. Manala nak tau semua orang Bangi nak makan Domino''s jugak at 3 :30 pm. As a result pizza sampai lewat, so we ate at around 4 ish. Pastu we polished half a can of my brother's "slimming mixed nuts". I don't get the concept of eating nuts to make you slim but hey, who can resist eating really expensive roasted almonds and pistachios especially when it's not yours.

Anyway, we got to Putrajaya at about 7. By that time, perut rasa kenyang lagi from all the pizza and nuts so I just ate a quarter of my prerace snack, a cream bun. Pastu, because during my last half, I didn't take any gels and only ran with a bottle of Gatorade, I figured I'd do the same in this race and managed to talk my husband in doing the same. Ya, satu lagi bad choice.

At about 8 berlegar-legar at race site and we bumped into our old schoolmate . Sembang-sembang, kutuk-kutuk, gelak-gelak , last-last terlepas nak cheer on the Full marathoners. Aisey.

Then at 8.10 pm , we went to line ourselves at the gantry. Baru la nampak the famous KakJune with her fans. Gile semua beratur nak tangkap gambar ngan dia. Tinggal diorang nak mintak sign autograph je lagi, Kak June oii..hehe. Had a quick chat and then we were off lining ourselves behind the starting line cam cattle.

Mak ai panasnya. Tak padan ngan malam cuaca lepas hujan. Tak start race lagi pun kiri kanan bau ashem.
Aku konon nak try pace 10:15/per mile. Up sikit la dari last HM.
Huh, hareeemmmm.

Mula-mula start lagi takde countdown apa pun. Sedor-sedor je 'pom' bunyik gun.
The thing I don't like about big races is, there's too much crowd (duh!)
Dia ni himpit dia ni. Dia ni pijak kasut dia ni. Dia ni pasang muka saiko nak menang. Dia ni  siku dia ni.
In small races, everyone is friendly. Almost everyone is like, " Hey, have fun". And the runners are more cheerful.
Yang ni, mula-mula race je pakat pasang game face masing-masing. Adoyai.
Tapi  not everybody la. Korang yang baca ni aku tau tak buat..heh heh.

But the thing is in big races, you'll meet all different kinds of interesting people on the road. Ramai gak yang tegur WW's barefootedness. WW pun pantang tengok rakan sekaki ayam, mesti pakat sembang and then aku pun terkial-kial nak catch up.

Anyway, frankly speaking I didn't really like the route. Sebelum ni pi Putrajaya tak penah pun perasan the rolling hills. Mak ai, route dia asyik naik turun je. Well, WW claimed dia naik turun but I felt that It was like 60% naik je. Naik elevation banyyaaaaakkkk, pastu turun ade la ciput pastu naik balik sampai kadang-kadang tu aku ingat diorang ni nak suruh lari sampai Genting kot. Define your inner strength konon.

Somewhere along the way I said hey to AzHana. Azza, I have this ability to 'cam' people from their backs. Don't ask me how. I just know. I can even cam some of the regular runners by the way they run. Anyway, man, she was doing so good. Aku ni macam separuh mati nak kayuh lagi 10K , dia steady je. Tabik!

After 10K mark which I felt took forever, my legs felt like jelly and I suddenly felt hungry. So walaupun, I was guzzling Gatorade every 2 miles or so, I downed half a pack of Powergel and washed it down with Gatorade lagi. Dapatla sugar rush dalam 5 minit pastu hancus balik. My tummy started churning pulak pastu side stich ada datang mari pulak. It was freaking hot and there was no breeze. But you know what helped?
The random conversation with strangers and fellow runners along the way. Best jugak sembang-sembang sambil lari-lari anak ni. Bila sembang-sembang buat lawak sambil bitch about the hills, sedar-sedar je your already on top of the incline and you're your way down.

What I loved most about this race is the support crew. Fuh, memang tip top. Dengan kumpulan gendangnya, dengan cheerleaders nya, dengan music Pittbull pasang full blast tengah-tengah God-knows-where, dengan metalic-mime people ( I don't know what you call them) sitting creepily atas jambatan cam hantu boncengnya, dengan volunteers yang sangat cheerful if not very helpful and committed nya.
In short, memang BEST GILE.
Aku yang separa nak tergolek atas jalan pon sangat terhibur.

Anyway, I lost count how many inclines we had to go through because I sucked at all of them. Tu la, sapa suruh tak training hills. Padan muko. Dekat nak habis pun ada bantai kasik incline lagi. Masa tu aku redha je la. I promised myself this time, tak larat camne pun taknak jalan We met Kam Kasturie along they way, who gently said, " It's okay, jalan je la". Haha, that's really easy to say coming from a guy who walks with the same pace as my running.

I hate hills shows on my face

(pic courtesy of Kam Kasturie) 

Racing towards the end was the nastiest part. It was a long straight road where you can see that you have to run towards the digital clock but it seems like it's light years away.

So lari lah daku pada tahap kura-kura with WW running backwards to support me. Dekat end of the line,  bila ada banyak orang at the sidelines cheering us on, baru la aku pasang turbo anak penyu nak masuk laut.
Maka bolehla dapat timing sub 2:30. Haha

End of the line, One nice volunteer said to me while handling my finisher's shirt,
" You're an S"
" Nope, " I said. " I think an M"
" Takde la kak, You're definately an S"
She made my day the most.

 With Azza and KakJune. Get to finally chat with you guys. Sorry as usual got to go early for the kids.
Sorry gambar blur sebab pakai C3 jo 

I finished at 2:29.
I wouldn't call this a personal worst. It's a all out effort in a condition that I can't control. I guess I just can't handle overheatedness and too many hills. That's all there is to it.
And the idea bijak bistari Gatorade made it all worse.
Because when I got back, I threw up all my Gatorade. One whole bottle of it.
Heh

Song Sung Blue

I have yet to write about my other interest.
Yup, I like something other than running. Thing is, I can't commit to it fully (partially?) like I do with running.
Last month or two or probably three months ago, I purchased a Paul Smith guitar.
After my younger sister tricked me into giving her one of my guitars, I thought it was better for me to upgrade. And since WW was also thinking of buying a new amp, he contacted his musical acquaintance, Melvin.
I go, " I'm supposed to buy a guitar from somebody called Melvin?"
Because to me Melvin sounds more like a guy who would understand what E=mc2 is and actually cares about it.

But Melvin proved to be quite the opposite. Melvin the music guy/salesperson/musician extraordinaire pushed a Paul Smith guitar in my face, strummed a few notes and I was instantaneously in love. With the guitar la.

Thing is, now Paul Smith is on its stand with me staring at it and it staring at me. Sure, I'd learn some new songs on UltimateGuitar 1 or two days but after that , Paul Smith will be back on its stand, capo still on the 2nd fret and gradually going out of tune.

Bilakah saya akan commit fully?
The callous on my fingers have gone soft.
This is not supposed to happen
Argh


Sekian, drama untuk malam ini.

Hometown Glory.

Masa mula aku dapat  tau ada orang nak organize Marathon kat Taiping ni, aku antara yang skeptical
Aku pikir, sapelah manusia yang sanggup jadik lab rat untu marathon yang bukan dianjurkan oleh runnning club mahupun runners dengan cut-off time yang ntah pape.

Pastukan, pada suatu  hari sewaktu bersiar-siar di shopping mall, I saw a registration booth and I thought, what the heck.
So we registered for the half.

Manala nak tau the same weekend would be very busy for us.  A month after registering, we found out that there would be a gotong-royong kenduri kawin next door on the Saturday of race weekend. Pastu, somebody at the office came up with the idea of having the department's family day on the same Saturday.

Wah, sangat kelam kelibut.

Saturday, pre-prace day, kalut-kalut bangkit pagi to go the family day. As I was in the committee, I had to be there early to make sure nothing was in shambles. The golf club where we held the event suddenly decided to put us in the back seat just because some royalty from Perlis decided to have some function on the same day. As a result, the food arrived 1 hour late and the drinks weren't replenished smoothly as promised.
I was practically on my heels the whole day with my baju kurung drenched with sweat trying to make sure things won't fall apart..
Then at noon bila balik, takkan masuk  buat donno je kan? Kena la tolong jiran tetangga jadik bentara kat kenduri. Angkat pinggan, basuh pinggan, kemas meja, sengih-sengih. Pukul 4.30, baru bleh rehat n kami terus zonked out sampai 2 jam ..ahah. Malam tu pulak pegi open house. Hamik kau.
So due to this, and the fact that we would be running in an event organized by inexperienced people, we braced for the worst.

But the worst never came.
Sure, ada a few glitches here and there tapi overall it wasn't too bad.
Aku bagi point form la

The Good:

1. Small town race, small crowd, no fuss, no lines.
2. The route was nice. 3 uphills but mostly flat. Weather was good although it got a bit hot later.
3. Pakcik dan abang polis traffic yang baik lagi penyayang.
4. Good flow in goodie bag collection, no hassle for race kit pick up. It was so easy getting your race kit, Ian. Contoh my conversation ngan budak jaga race kit,   

                  " Kawan akak tak sempat balik amik bib dia, boleh akak tolong ambikkkan?"
                   " Boleh, akak tolong bagi no I/C dia"
                  " Alamak, tepon akak yang simpan no I/C dia dah kaput. Akak ingat no 74 je"
                   " Takpela, cari je nama dia pastu kami bagi bib"

        Puh, tak payah bagi a copy of I/C bagai.
     5.Enough water stations. They even had energy drinks macam tin power root tu and bananas.
     6. Supportive aids at the water stations - they serve you water and they cheer you on.
     7. Oleh sebab small crowd la, I managed to get podium. Dengan timing yang tak seberapa. Hantam sajala
     8. They gave me 4 different medals. One participant medal, one finisher's medal, one qualifying medal ( I  have no idea what I qualify for) and one 8th placing medal. And a trophy! Makcik kayo! ( kayo medal jo la, duit tak dapat pun)
     9. Plenty of Milo and post run food. Goodie bag ada banyak harta karun : 1 isotonic drink, 1 energy
         drink, 1 balm ( macam tiger  balm thingy), salonpas ( wajib ada) 1 mineral water, instant white coffee
         powder dan 1 lolipop berbentuk tapak kaki ( so appropriate!).
    10. Cheap! Registration for half marathon is only RM30.

The Unexpected (Saya ikut cakap sifu saya)


1. We were mostly running on our own. Traffic was manned only at main junctions. Yang lain pandai-pandai
     korang le. Rasa cam LSD pun ada. Nasib baikla most Taiping motorist adelah bersopan santun, kalau tak ramai jadik roadkill.
2.Insufficient route markers. At times we had to rely on the police and water station aides for directions. Route marker untuk kenduri kawin serius lagi banyak dari route marker race ni. Distance markers pun yelek.
Mostly we had to depend on runners in front of us to see where the route was going.
Tapi according to full marathoners, they were well taken care off. I guess officials tumpukan their whole attention on full marathoners kot. Nama pun Taiping International Marathon.
3. A few race officials acting more like pakcik keypoh rather than being proper professional race officials. Puh geram sungguh. Pagi-pagi lagi, spoke to me like I'm in standard one.

"Eh nombor awak tu selit la belakang tudung, haa baru nampak" ( padehal aku memang tengah buat pun)

   " Ni apa ni bib pon senget. Tadak orang tolong ke , girl?" (Takpela uncle, lain kali saya bawak protractor untuk ukur)

    " Girl, you boleh ke lari ni?" ( takdela, saya nak lompat bintang)

 Yang paling best, just as I was crossing the finishing line,
 " Girl,ada lagi ka orang belakang you?" 
 Ayuhai uncle, betapa hinanya daku dimatamu.

4. The race officials claimed that the cut off time was 5 hours and a half for full marathon but nobody was there at the finishing line when Ian crossed it at 4:40. Kesian gila. Nasib baik he such a nice guy.
5. Tak nampak pun medical aid mana-mana along the route. Agaknya kalau kau pengsan tengah jalan, teruskanlah pengsan sampai the next runner finds you.

Ok, kali ni ada gambar. Wanwon at last ingat untuk bawak balik kamera.

           Timing 2:14 je. Like I said, race kecik dapat la.

Budak nombo A020 tu senyum jo walau  apopun torjadi. 

Sapentah pakcik sebelah tu aku pun tak perasan.

And yup, you saw it right. The grey pants are definitely back. 

Run as you can

I have to admit it. It's been tough to properly train this year.
This time last year, my fitness was the best it has been in years. Weekly mileage was 40-50 Ks per week.
La ni kalau dapat 20K per week pun kira alhamdulillah.

Truth is, I have other commitments. I lack the time. And maybe, just maybe a little bit lacking of motivation.
Last year, when I'm back from work, dead tired or not, I'll lace up my shoes and go for a 6 K.
Now, I'm so pooped from work that sometimes I just laze on my sofa, doing nothing but watch the kids play from inside and wish somehow, magically, just maybe by watching my kids run around, I'll burn the extra calories as well.

When I run on the treadmill, my kids won't allow me to go for more that 40 minutes.
" We bored!" they'll say
" How can you run for so long and call that fun?" they'll  poke.

And I'm caught in between.
But I'll always favor my children. I will always be on their side.
I guess that's the dilemma of a running mom.
You have to make sacrifices most of the time.

But I guess it's okay. I'm not training for anything big. I'll be lucky if I get a PB for any half marathon this year. It no big deal. A PB is nothing but a PB. You don't get a prize, you only get to gloat for a few months, tu pun kalau orang lain paham..
Contoh:
Cik Bedah: saya punya PB half adelah 2:06
orang lain: huh, lama nya hang lari 

See?

Hurm, actually scratch everything I wrote above. Who am I kidding?
Actually, most of the time I don't miss the extra mileage. I just miss the eating-everything-without-gaining-an-ounce-of-weight part.
Ha.
That's more like it.
Baru bunyik cam JJ khennn?

saya harap anak dara saya tidak dressing macam di atas.

Right as Rain

Hi.again.
Somebody commented recently that nobody ever really blogs regularly now 'cept for me and Diket.
If you can call blogging once a week as 'regular'.
So I'm wondering if anybody still reads this anyway.
Anyway, I replied that this comes naturally to me, I've been blogging since I was 17. On and off.
And then, I realized that statement made me look like a dork.

So what if I'm a dork?
Arf.
?

Anyway, since you're here, I guess I should tell you what happened at Taiping Heritage run.
Like I said earlier, ni run main-main punya. Letihan cam hampeh. Weekly mileage rarely exceed 20K. I just ran during Ramadhan to see how much weight I could lose.
2kg, by the way.
Which I easily gained back in 4 days during raya..
Hi.

So sebab lari main-main, makan pun pulun-pulun. Mind you, I usually watch what I eat pre -race. I stay away from food that will most likely make me feel funny during race. Tapi sebab main-main kan, the day before we went to an open house.
Makan.
Uuu, rendang kaler hijau. Apekah? 
Makan. Makan.
Jemputla, kak. Ni rendang itik spesel.
Ha? Itik? Alamak. Dah selamat dah masuk perut. Redha je la.
Then pi rumah Ian.
Makan mii kari sedap. Mana-mana mi ngan kuey teow anak-anak aku tak habis, aku pulun.
Gelak-gelak. Makan-makan.
Balik rumah parents aku. Makan lagi atas niat carboloading.Late night plak tu.

Esoknya, my tummy don't feel so good. But ignored it.Amik air sembahyang siap-siap konon
Sampai race site, tummy agak memulas. Nampak port-a-potty. Ingat macam kat PBIM.
Bila masuk tadak air. Terus takdak selera. No1 je sempat, tu pon sebab ada air kat singki.
Did I mention hujan? Hujan mak oi.
Tapi biasa la tu, Tepen.
Amik air smayang ngan air hujan, first time.
Abis solat, simpan barang dalam keta,  tetiba dengar orang dah flag off.
Semua orang lain dah lari, aku baru terhegeh-hegeh nak mula.
So we started at the back of the line.

So lari je la.
Route agak sama ngan tahun lepas.
But it was still raining. Best pe. Sejuk je.
Sambil lari sambil sembang ngan cik abang. Pok pek pok pek.
" Manyak pandai ooo," kata sorang uncle dari Penang ni. " Lu banyak tenaga lari oo"
I get this a lot from uncles.
Diorang encouragement memang tip top.
Padehal diorang lari terer,umor dah cecah 60'an and steady je potong aku.

Sampai Kamunting, lori banyaknya mak ai. Sekali dia lalu tepi, cam ribut.
Ingatkan U-turn kat Sekolah Bukit Jana, rupanya nak dekat sampai Changkat Larah nun (okay, I'm exaggerating)
On the other side, nampak Yim pakai baju trademark dia, Ray ngan kawan dia ( tak prasan plak sapa) pastu tetiba je Deo potong kami. Ni mesti dah 2 kali round.

So larilah lari ( cilok syed punya jap). La la la lu di du.
Sapa nak potong , potong la. Aku siap bagi, " Sila, sila"
Semua ok je, tapi bila 4K lagi nak habis, tetiba rasa adehh lemaunya.
Larian gila-gila santai, jadi gila-gila struggle plak.
 Rasa cam nak jalan je. Tapi dah dekat. So lari la dalam kelembapan siput sedut.
Abang dan pakcik polis dok bagi encouragement, " sket je lagi, sket je lagi"
ada mamat rambut afro dok tepuk-tepuk tangan.
Luar aku sengeh, dalam,'  otak hang aihhh"

Last-last abih jugak. Takdak la rasa nak pengsan tapi penat jugakla.
Cross je finishing line, nampak sorang pompuan dok senyum kat aku.
Rupa-rupanya my Oral Surgeon's wife, one of  the head nurse in my department.
She was diagnosed with cancer last year and had just finished her course of chemotherapy.
" Hi, " I said, " Who are you waiting for?" Assuming anak dia dipaksa rela masuk race bajet budak sekolah.
" I've just finished racing, " she beams.
"What?"
" 10k " she smiled proudly .
And I'm baffled. That's so inspirational.
I tell almost everyone at work about it (  she's still on sick leave)
But everyone's more interested in asking if I won.
prffft.

Anyway, I ran it in 2:20. Finished 20th.
Wawasan 2020.
Medal besau, berat tak hengat.
Serius kalau libas mat rempit boleh mati.

Sekian terima kasih
p/s kali ni tadek gambar sebab
a) Wanwon lupa bawak balik kamera
b) gambar nak cilok dari orang pun nunjuk tudung kelepet

Huhu