Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Penang Ultra 100 - 2014

End of 2013 or early of 2014, the Penang Ultra 100 first surfaced in facebook page when Penang Ultra 100 created an event. Saw few of my running friends clicked "like". 


Running around Penang island something new, something that never have people doing it before. Something interesting to consider to join. 

Today's the event become official and endorsed by Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng. 

Read, read and read. The killer part is the Penang Hill ! 5km over 670 meter elevations ! It's sound challenging ! 



To-date, Malaysian Ultra race i ever joint were TMBT 2011 held in Kota Kinabalu, where i paid RM300. After that, there's no 100KM ultra race in peninsular Malaysia. Now, 2014, there's Ultra road race in Penang that cost RM260 (early bird) and i suddenly felt expensive. *facepalm* Where's the kick! Previously joining HK100, TNF100 Philippines i paid without hesitate nor heart feeling heavy! 

Perhap i know Penang too well? I think i just need a person to fire up the flame and push me into the hell. 
Perhap i no longer likes road race? I only joint Sundown 100 road race as my first Ultra Marathon in 2011.   


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

G5N - First stimulation G3N - 17-18 Jan 2013 Gunung Nuang!

It's good to back to trail running since i hang up my hydration bag somewhere after April 2013, after TNF100 Philippines. 

It's the Gunung Nuang hikes. 

4:00am wake up
4:45am leaving home. 
5:20am felt hungry, stopped by at Batu 14 the chinese kopitiam shop for paos. Had Red Bean pao & Char Siew Pao with coffee. 
6:00am reach G.Nuang car park and the gang were leaving for their runs! 
6:20am my turn to start my hike! Its just pressure-less, no expectation, 2 gels, 1 Clifbar, snack bar, 2 500ML of POCARI drinks & 1.5L of water in bladder & the most important thing - Petzl Nao which the main drive / motivation i decided for the hike. Need to warming up / utilise the Petzl Nao where its shines ! 
Glad to have Khairy to pace / accompany from beginning until Pacat. 



I never expect i had my personal best time for Nuang to peak and return - 6 hours 20mins. 

The POCARI drinks works wonderful ! 

The gang finished 1 loop of G.Nuang and their continue 2nd. Meanwhile, Im just relax, busy body sitting at pondok. Hungry. Went to Batu 18 chinese kopitiam shop (where i were here on Tuesday for Asahi Ride) for lunch. Ordered fried rice (which i saw Liew ordered on Tuesday, its were looked nice, smell nice), 2 half boiled eggs, 100 Plus, Kopi Peng. 


Before leaving, tapaos fried rice for friend who said he will completes his 2nd G. Nuang loop by 5pm. 

From 2:30pm until 5pm, im were seating at the pondok with Nuang keeper. So many campers were coming. FYI, for a big group who wish to camp at Nuang, they are required to list down all names and details, get Batu 18 police station to endorse before they can camp @ Nuang. 

By 4:30pm, he's back! 
We were leaving for Nuang peak @ 5:30pm where he's 3rd, me 2nd. 
On the way up, so many people were surprised / shocked to see he doing it again! haha... famous yo! 

We noticed, there's 3 main trail shoes wearable by hikers. Salomon, Brooks & New Balance. 
There's even full range of Salomon products from head to toe wear by some runners/hikers. I was keep thinking, really need that boh? As if you're doing some Killian ultra running! 

The sky become dark around 7:30pm, show time begins! It's time to on my Petzl Nao! Friend & i both have the same model. We shines in the dark. it's hassle free, no issue hiking up Nuang in dark! 

Surprised! Surprised! Guess what's happened. We met a young couple who only have a brave heart & ego to concur G.Nuang peak waiting at somewhere after kem Pacat. It's never crossed in our mind that we should ASK them to return but to let them tag with us, worse, we guided them, we worried for them. 



This slows us down a lot. We were waiting them. Husband is first timer, wife mentioned she hikes before, sound like experience hiker, looks like experience hiker. pity the husband. 

It's around 10:30pm when we were reached at Peak. Its windy, its cold, and for us, we wanted to go down as soon as possible, but...but... but... speechless.... (Dont wish to share it here). We met the mystery guy! he hikes up ALONE in dark and he U-turn to go down with us. 

We going down. Again, with much much slow slow pace. morale de-motivated. Keep telling myself that it's not everyday we can help people. It's just big failure in inception my mind ! 

Worse, the torch light aka RM10 LED light that you we can find in pasar malam runs out of batteries. Here the young couple are smart - THEY BRING SPARE BATTERIES! Worse, after batteries change, its not working anymore. We continue without the light, lagi slow. 

Friend offered his Petzl Tikka spare headlamp to the young couple. Our speed improve a bit. We reached at Kem Pacat at 11:30pm and its run-able, where we left the young couple behind. Aiks, i cant run fast as others and my turn being left behind alone... but I gotta speed up downhills. It's all about calm in heart and mental, and keep going without thinking left right in mind. Focus on each every steps downhills. 

Regroup at Kem Lolo. Glad to have friends back! We reached at the last 5km point at 12:30am. Another 55 mins to go! On the way back, surprised to see people were just heading to campsite. First young couple, another couple and followed by a group of 5, and another group of 7! People are so desperate for camping nowadays?

Quad muscles are giving signal of soreness. Walked all the last 5KM. Finally crossed the gate in 8 hours! 

What's an adventures in G.Nuang. I had my personal best time and worst time! haha. 

it's good to have my Petzl Nao perform excellence & serve me well in the dark! 


What's he doing at female toilet entrance at 2:00am? He stick a note with hand phone contact there! What's his purpose? To seek friendship to end his #Foreveralone ?

We were so tired and we cant afford to have luxury of waiting for the young couple. 
Friend is posting note with his contact number hoping the wife of young couple using his headlamp will seeing his note and contact him to arrange for return. 
Pity my friend's headlamp. 


Congratulation to friend who did G3N from 6am until 1:30am or earlier as he have long legs walks faster than us and leaving 2 of us behind. 
Congratulation to Lee, mystery guy aka new friend who did G2.5N 
Congratulation to myself who first time did G2N. 

Future? Stay tune some hot chili run. You know where to find, if you're experience runners. 

Sekian my sharing. 

P/S: Writer is just an ordinary ultra runner who uses Petzl Nao and he is not paid to promote Petzl Nao. He did Sundown 100 2011, TMBT 2011, Vibram HK100 2012, TNF100 Philippines 2013. He brought his Nao back in end of 2012, where he was first using Petzl Nao in Ultra event in Philippines on Feb 2013 (too shy to mentions as the writer DNF the ultra event) and at the same time, he shares / showed his Petzl Nao around during the event, and by March 2013, he thinks he managed to poisons a few ultra runners namely from Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia which he planted in Feb 2013! haha.


Remark: The above posting first appeared in my personal FB on 18 Jan 2014. 

Saturday, January 04, 2014

LYN Runners 2014

It's 2014! My running group LYN Runners have new running T ! It's still the same design but updated on the color of the T-shirt from 2ndSkins with Vaporlite technology! 

Dont you loving the T-shirt? hehe... On the right is old shirt and left is new shirt! 



Photo credit to LYN Runners member : Junie Ho
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