Weekend 22 - JB Eco Challenge - done

Yet, another challenge completed. Rumour has spread around that there will be eco-challenge in JB as early as April. 10km bike- 3km kayak - 10km run team event.. Though I was interested, I hesitated to join as this race is sides more to good runner rather than anything. Simple calculation tells me that it is expensive. However, I was still interested & decided to give it a try, should I have a partner to team up with. A few contacts were made, however after all the calculation; we had decided that the travelling itself was not worth the try. Too expensive for a short race. Hence, no race on this particular week. Lagipun terasa diri mmg tak fit.

Then, en. Razak contacted me to team up. Wei, mahal ba.. kalau tak menang, tak berbaloi sebab jauh, kalau kat KL tak apa lg.. Tak apa, kita buat yang terbaik.. he was confident to go for the race. Confident giler en Razak. So, Y not, & here there we went.. Arrangement made, I had to drive all d way to Melaka to convoy with a few fellas from the ATM team (altogether 3 teams, including novice). Due to Gawai festival, we started late from Melaka to JB. Sampai2 saja sudah habis briefing, sempat makan jer.. <-trademark kite...

Sunday, Race started with MTB, bike jer MTB. tp it was 9km onroad & 1km offroad.. Sharp at 8am, we were flagged off.. I took the leftest side & cut the rest of the pack off... Stef join gak this race, she & teammate is way in front with the leading platoon. they were real strong. I plak drafted another team @ 2nd platoon, sorry that I tak buat kerja langsung.. cucuk angin jer.. the other Mix team were Hiroko & Adhli, Badrol & Lydia, MeiMei team, Julie team , Efa team , etc etc -igt name puan jer..

My partner was behind, takpa, he will catch up soon. After about 8km on the road, we went into a park, on & off road we went. Kejap tolak bike, kejap kayuh, kejap jatuh, kejap gelincir, kejap onroad, kejap offroad.. it was fun. at this time, Stef&partner was no where to be seen right infront. I was with Hiroko's team kejar mengejar. Last 1km was back to onroad, Hiroko went off infront. My partner caught up with me at offroad, began to lead me to catch up with them. Transition was slow for me, as Hiroko already started running towards kayak. Running there was about 1-2km. Me? I was towed all the way running to catch Hiroko. Managed to overtake them last 100meter, then we started kayaking.

It was the 3km kayaking which make our distance further from Hiroko team. They were left further behind. After Uturn, we saw Lydia team overtaking Hiroko.. Come on Lydia, U can potong them; at the same time I was afraid that they would catch up. This time, Dino & teamate were leading. Sharom&partner catching up, Stef&partner was behind them. Managed to overtake Wong's team @ kayaking..

Then again we ran, this time on road all the way. again, I was towed by en.razak. Wong's team overtook. Teruknye tak tera lari. I didnt mind, cume kesian kat partner. We ran all the way, did some obstacle. Then, we saw Dino came from behind.. kes sesat ni, rupanya marshall tak bg direction. Kesian dorg. Finishing 3rd obstacle, we could see Stef & partner right infront. Dekat tu, so partner towed even harder to kejar.. Dorg mmg kuat sgt, still we did our best walaupun mmg tak terkejar.. Not far from behind, Hiroko, Lydia & Meimei was running to do their last obstacle.

Running hard as possible, we headed towards the finishing @ Dataran Johor.

My partner turned around, saw no one & started to slow down. Laju ba, kite all out smpai finishing.. me shouted.. haha, walaupun penat sgt kena tow, tp die yg penat lebih. Mentang2.. Sampai finishing, it was sweet. We came up second, stef was 1st. It was 3mins in between the mixed teams.. 1st team - 3min -2nd team - 3min -3rd team -3min - etc teams... Forgot to take full result plak. Tapi, kwn2 ATM novice yg convoy sume dpt hadiah. Laju dorg lari. mens elite team went to sharomteam,dinoteam,a.wan team , wong team. My gunung friends yg join lari aje (novice) pun dpt hadiah, they got 4&5 after all runners yg serious2. kudos to them. Julie finished after Meimei, they did their best gak, as i think the her partner was relatively new in adventure racing. Efa&partner also did their best in race...

Then, we learnt that our fren went into hospital due to heat stroke.. After all finished, visited hospital.. kesian org kene heat stroke ni, concussion plak.. he went all out to kejar the first team, mmg semangat giler.. Stayed for an hour or two in the hospital, drove back to Melaka, drop kwn2, then straight to KL. Dengan kpla pening, with terrible jam, reached home @ 9pm. Pengsan trus till today 4am. Huhu, bgn2 tgk bini dpn mata, waiting to be unwrapped. Hehe..

Bike loading

b4 race : curi2 tangkap gambo without partner.. partner tgh warming up

ATM team


With ATM

Sian, kene heat stroke.. hope he gets well soon