Merentas Desa Terbuka Milo / Power / MSSKL / POAWP ke-24

Date: 15th February 2009

Day: Sunday

Venue: Tapak A, Lake Garden, Kuala Lumpur

Category: Women's Open (Azyei, Leo & myself) & Men's Open (Arib & Rijal)

Distance: Women's Open= 6.5km, Men's Open= 8.5km

Expectation & target before the run & before seeing other runners:

1. Azyei & Leo: To complete the run.

2. Rijal: To complete the run dengan penuh gaya supermodelsz

3. Arib: Top 100

4. Myself: Top 50 (ada hati nih)

Expectation & target before the run but AFTER seeing other runners:

1. Azyei & Leo: To complete the run. Tak kira within allocated time or not janji abis.
2. Rijal: To complete the run dengan penuh gaya supermodelsz, as usual.
3. Arib: Complete the run within allocated time.
4. Myself: Complete the run within allocated time.

Reasons why our expectation & target suddenly changed:

1. Ter'psycho' tengok para pelari lain nang hebat.

2. For Men's Open, masya-Allah, the guys looked like professional runners.

3. Ter'psycho' dengan gila babsz bila tengok orang lain warm-up lari laju macam nak masuk acara lari pecut 100m. Semua series nih. Semua gegeh!

4. The other runners mostly came wearing 'I have completed 30km run' T-Shirt, tak kira from apa-apa marathon from mana-mana tahun (eg 2008 ke, 2006 ke, yang penting kebanyakan runners tu semua pernah lari 30km ye).

5. The other runners looked so much an experienced runner compared to us (their face, their legs, their calves, their attitude).

6. We goof about too much, we laughed too much and looked so poyo and damn nervous compared to them.

7. The others wore their own T-shirt. Kami je yang pakai T-shirt cross country free yang besar macam kain selimut tuh.

8. Luckily we brought extra T-shirt along, so after rasa yg sangat malu dengan penampilan kami yang seumpama orang-orang di sawah padi tu, we changed to our own shirt. Cheh. Poyo kan.

9. Realized that most runners around that morning belong to a running association, or at least an unoffical running group.

10. Yang lain ada gaya pelari. Kami ada gaya pelawak. *tengah warm-up pun siap buat gaya jalan catwalk & larian ala movie Apocalypto, camner tuh*

I was so foolish, I didn't stand in front when the race was started. I stood at the back (paling belakang to be exact), together with Leo & Azyei. Since my target has suddenly changed from being in Top 50 to 'Just complete the race lah', I reckon standing anywhere when starting race shouldn't matter. I mean, who am I compared to these seasoned runners? I'm just a recreational runner, right? Right?

WRONG.

I actually planned to do 3 things during the cross country, if only I'm able to do it of course.

No.1- Finish the run:

I managed to do this. Azyei, Leo, Rijal & Arib all did this too. Well done to all of us! Woot! Nang hebats! Hahaha.

No.2- Never stop running:

This is a bit hard to maintain. Because I started the run by standing at the back and I obviously underestimated my own pace, I got stuck behind hoggers and walkers quite a few times. There were occasions when the path was suddenly narrowed down and became too tight and causing multiple bad bottlenecks. There were also others who were not so considerate and have 'WIN WIN WIN' stamped across their forehead. These peeps man, they'd shove and push you at will just so that they can be ahead of you. Yang bestnye, diorang ni pandai buat perangai kat narrow path je, ie kat dalam hutan yang denai dia very slippery and slopey. Aku rasa macam nak libas je pelepah daun yang banyak duri kat muka diorang. Series. Mangkok sungguh.

No.3- Run with my Nike Zoom & Nike+ so I'm able to keep track my accomplishment:

Of course I ran with my old battered Nike Zoom and my beloved Nike+. I didn't listen to any song while running this time. Based on Nike+, this was what I did on 15th Feb's run:

Total distance: 8.06km

Time completed (termasuk tulis nama kat borang finisher dan ambik air kat station breakfast after the run): 59'15"

Average pace: 7:20min/km

Calories: 389

Gila kan? Lari nak dekat 8kilo tuh! But as what they say, respect the distance as per given and declared by the organiser. Maka ye lah, ye lah, aku laras 6.5km aje lah.. Arib waited for me at the Finishing Line and gosh, I was extremely surprised when I knew I was in Top-15 in my category. I was asked to fill in a small ticket a.k.a finishing form and was given a Finishing Medal immediately after the run (pic will be uploaded lated ya). Yang paling aku tak dapat lupa was the conversation between me and the Urusetia right after I finished my run:

Kakak Urusetia (KU): Adik. Ambik borang ni, isi nama.

Aku (J): Okeh okeh *tercungap-cungap*

KU: Tulis nama penuh aaaa.

J: *tulis nama & handed the form back to KU*

KU: Eh, adik tak tulis pun dari persatuan mana.

J: Hah?

KU: Adik dari persatuan mana?

J: Apa?

KU: Persatuan.. Dari persatuan mana ni?

J: Saya tak ada persatuan la kak.

KU: Takde persatuan?! Abis tu adik dari mana?

J: Saya dari Ara Damansara kak! *poyo tak jawapan aku. I seriously dunno what to answer la*

I thought I saw number 15 on my finisher form, but Arib told me I got number 13 and not 15. Whatever, yang penting Top 15 okey. Kira okey la kan. Target Top 50 tapi dapat Top 15. Bak kata cikgu aku kat SMSJ dulu (Mat Pro orang panggil dia), 'Takpe, tak dapat nombor dua, dapat nombor satu pun jadi'. Hua hua hua.

Fyi, Arib dapat no.81, maka dia pun dapat medal Finisher jugak. Not bad for a first timer like us huh?

;)