Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Penang Round The Island Relay By Mr Pia LFS


First of all I gonna to tns kau kau lat to the person who provide the inaccurate route information. I ran as leg 8 covered total distance of 7.5km from Titi Kerawang Waterfall to Teluk Bahang Dam. Based on the information provided, it was all the way downhill for the entire distance. Therefore, I set a very high target for myself to finish it within 30 minutes, i.e. 4 minutes pace. Whereas target set by Captain was 31 minutes 15 seconds at 4’10 pace. Both targets were not reachable for my current level of fitness due to the steep incline for the first 2km.

The 1st team (Ah Choon Runners) reached here at approximately 9:15am at a very fast and incredible pace followed by BM Leopard, O2 Hiking Team, Brooks Running Club and KLAVA. Sooner later, our pacemaker supporters reached here and everybody gave me mental support. Tey showed me PM1 suffering pia picture and requested me to give all out like what captain did, DK pulak worried whether PM1 will pengsan or not because he pushed too hard for the 1st 2km flat road, then all the way up without any flat road or downhill. He also told me to run at my own pace because we were quite safe for our current position, the next men open team was very far behind and the first 4 teams were far in front of us (Approx 30 minutes separated from 1st team).

After a while, Ronnie came with the suffering face, so I reversed a bit to receive baton from him, ran at a fast pace although it was steep hills. Few minutes later, I can hear the noise behind from other team supporter (Maybe Old & Young team) and a veteran runner trying to potong gua er sayur. Initially I managed to run neck to neck with him, but that guy very strong on hill run, getting faster and faster. Cinya pressure ler! He finally overtook me, I wanna to chase him back but suddenly their supporter van purposely slow down in front of me and block my way. KNN! My pace slow down significantly and it was already 100m away from that guy. Luckily the road marshal warned and scolded the van driver to move aside, then only I could run my own pace without any obstacle.

Tns, already 7 minutes uphill, still no sign of going down, started to feel the tiredness. I reminded myself repeatedly that I should not walk, I must remain jogging no matter how tired I am, it was a team event! 8 minutes……, 9 minutes gone……, tnmch! Where is downhill arr? I felt like being cheated and fooled. (Who was the guy saying that all the way downhill?)

After struggling awhile, haha! Eventually my favourite and long waited downhill came! I tried to push at a much faster pace but jialat liao, both of my legs heavy as if there was a sandbag tie on my thighs. I can only maintain the existing pace, thus I widen my stride hopefully to recover some valuable time. The downhill wasn’t steep, it was slowly going down with a bit of uphill in between. The veteran runner who overtook me earlier already out of sight and I smell no smoke!

After about 26 minutes jog, I came out of the jungle and the Dam just in front of me, the view here magnificent and breathtaking. But the temperature cinya hot like barbeque with another hill in front of me again slowing me down. After the hill and corner, the finishing line just about 300m in front, so I push all out to pass the baton to Leg 9 which handled by Abu. (If I survey the road before the event, I would have push earlier since it was so near to finishing line!)

My timing for the 7.5km distance was 32m53s, average pace 4m23s per km, not satisfied with my performance because I did not really exhausted like during my training PR in KLCC. It means that I did not push all out yet. I have to seriously overcome this problem in the near future, or else no point to set PR in training but that form does not translate in race day!

Overall I really enjoy the race especially being cheered by our supporters and cheers for other teammates. Thanks to Ronnie for forming a team for this event.

brought 2u by Lai der Pia_kaki @ Pm38

No comments: