The mountain, my inspiration, my bogeyman

My second trip up Mt Kinabalu last week is by far most memorable, and with a slight tinge of regret of not conquering my bogeyman again, the summit trail. The story behind the decision I made whilst sitting in the dark on a long table at Gunting Lagadan a un-heated cabin, staring at two empty bottles, cold, damp socks, not finding a basin to throw up and having that silly altitude headache and everyone asleep ... well, that is a long story. Suffice to say, I had my laziness strike at the wrong moment, and that sitting in the dark and in the cold slows my willpower and makes me wonder why I wanted to try the summit another time in suffering ...

The last time I did the Mt KK trip, about 3 years ago, on Merdeka weekend, I did the peak, and for a good 1 year, I never wished to step near any mountain again! Instead I discovered a world of peak fitness, spurred by the KK trip, and my encounter with KC and his group, and subsequently Rat Race, and my rediscovery of the passion of running. I never looked back.... and what a great 3 years it has been. There were many ups and downs, but for health, my passion in sports, my running career, has taken me from Rat Race to 10k to 21k, multiple 21ks, and finally the Marathon this year. And I decided on a spur of the moment to take on KK again.

I related to my team, who made the trip worth it, that the sunrise was overrated, the Timpohon trail was easier, but no one listened, instead, I am quite proud of those who conquered the odds, braved the elements, and enjoyed the real test of endurance KK brought.

I encountered by bogeyman again, travelling to the summit, and not shy to say I did not make it because on the spur of the moment, I did not want to push myself. Instead I discovered something more real and valuable about the trip - that it was fun to travel at ease, with great company, simple pleasures and when doing the same thing again, makes a difference with the company.

My souvenir for the trip, a deep gash in my elbow, still healing, and my knee is still recovering, although not in pain, but getting up is not as easy as it used to be.

As age catches up, I have that sudden thought, would I dare to venture Everest base camp next year?

And the next question quickly comes to mind, what is stopping you?

40% Effort, 40% Willpower, 10% Science, 10% Technology ... and a heart for glory

This was quite an interesting conversation. It was about our upcoming trip to Mt Kinabalu, done on a one month preparation. I would rank my fitness level and readiness about middle of the pack despite I have run races for a while. Climbing is certainly a different set of muscles... However in terms of Effort, Willpower, Science and Technology, I think I would rank top 3!. Effort because I do believe in training, Willpower because I am an endurance runner first before a climber, Science - I've discovered Phiten (http://www.phitenmy.com/), and Technology - the walking stick I have from China and my trail shoes....!!!

Three years ago, I had not participated in any races, and I climbed Mt Kinabalu, with about 3-5 months of training on and off. This time, I believe I have more of willpower, effort, science and technology to counteract the lesser time for training.

Above all, I believe I have the "heart for glory"....

Anyway, another story here - I saw a malay lady, she was panting up the stairs at Batu Caves last saturday. I was on my 4th round, but almost starting to feel the pain at the calves. She stopped, and I decided to strike a conversation with her to lepak a little. She asked whether I was going to KK, and I replied, yes, next week. I asked her when she is going, she said, in October. Then she told me, she is 54 years old (she looks like mid 40s only) and she was loaded with a backpack and adequately dressed for training. She asked me how old I was, and whether I thought she can make it to the top. I said - "I think you can". She had the "heart for glory" and I knew I inspired her when I said that without hesitation! (She even took a photo with me...). The next thing I knew, she was on round 2 and 3, even though she said she will only do 1 round.

See you at the top!

Siemens 10km Run - what are you running for?

The theme of this year's Siemen's Run is quite cool - What are you running for? I thought about it before the race when I read the info of the run and I guess I did not have a real answer, the closest I would have would be ... I am running for "life".

Running has always been pure fun, and for someone with a non-athletic background or family or physique like myself, this has been my personal achievement, and puts a whole meaning of being alive and healthy.

I had not run for a proper race since the Sundown Marathon, this means almost 1month+. How time flies... the only running I've done is in the gym, and from 2-6km only. However, this 10km was not competitive to me, but still I felt an urge to "do well" because it was ... only 10km... heheh, kiasu. Caveat was that I did Batu Caves stairmaster training yesterday, and my calves was a bit painful...

It was good to meet a few good friends on the race this time, some of my colleagues (about 6-8 of them!) who did not run often, or first timers, came by, Wai Fun and Lee San came with their friend Liew (who was a familiar running face), and I saw KC, Tey, Boon and some of their friends.

This was a well organised race, high turnout, good atmosphere, water stations every 2 km+, a band to send you off, and a lot of cheerleaders on display the last 500m. I ran a pretty slow but comfortable race, and did think that I had a personal best, unfortunately was told it was under-distanced. But, for charity, and all the fun, and for a comeback race for me to running - loads of fun!

Next race? Maybe Penang Marathon if CM Lim Guan Eng can get the funding act together...

My calves still hurts ... this is so strange ... I used to have sore thigh muscles after any race, but from the sundown marathon onwards, I've lost that, is it my running stance? Now my calves hurt doubly due to the race and yesterday's training... hmmm

Hiking to Wangsa Hill / Pak San / Bukit Putih

Runners are asking, so how have you been since the great marathon attempt? The truth is, I've been over-resting! And also, a new challenge came up, and I've decided to do some cross-training over the last few weeks.

This was from a hiking trip last weekend to Pak San @ Wangsa Hill @ Bukit Putih, a surprise little hideout near Taman Cuepacs, somewhere I could not describe how I got myself to. As it is, Cheras itself is unknown territory to me...

The trip is a preparation for our July 20-24 trip to Mount Kinabalu. This will be my second climb of the tallest mountain in Southeast Asia, and not looking down upon this attempt, some last minute training is needed. Actually, this was a last minute suggestion hatched up over an abalone meal, where one of my colleagues decided that eating abalones was too rich despite it being a milestone dinner occasion for that project, and he felt he had to work himself harder for his next target. Me, I'm just in for the ride...

Anyway, back to this Pak San. It was no simple feat. The mountain has levels, we were probably up to Level 6 and then came down. Apparently there is Level 7 and the summit, but my team did not know how to get there. This thing about Levels is almost like those computer games, you battle battle and then you reach the next level... or rather like learning kung-fu...

In any case, we did spend about 3.5 hours there, went up the 6 levels and at level 5, detoured off to a waterfall off the path, which turned out to be a tiny regretful moment, as the detour descended sharply, and that meant, we had to climb back up from the waterfall before proceeding to descend fully.

My calves never recovered from this hiking activity. Furthermore, I sustained an injury to the ball of my feet, as the shoe just cut into my skin, causing a deep bleeding blister which hurt all the way down, as it scraped against the same edge of the shoe. When I got back to the car, I had a 50c coin equivalent blot of blood on the sock, and the whole week it took a long time to heal as it was a common area where any shoe will rub against.

Surprisingly, I loaded my backpack with my DSLR, whom I've ignored for almost many months... so there you go, a few pictures to share here.

Pic 1 - Level 3 - there, you know when you reach each level
Pic 2 - Selamat sampai ke atas Bukit Putih Stesen 3
Pic 3 - A bit of fresh green vegetation
Pic 4 - I almost grabbed this thorny tree crossing one of those fallen trunks. Teaches one to check what you are reaching out for... yes those are thorns...
Pic 5 - Tiny waterfall and some bit of wading and cooling for the sore feet, which was put to a more severe test climbing back up. Not worth it!!