Jungle flaws - Salomon xtrail run

One of those unfortunate events when one is caught in a dead beat situation...lost! I was so determined for the race, aiming high to do a nice pacing, placing perhaps & fun. Well, the forest really took it's toll on me.

Cut short of the pre-race morning errands, we were thrilled & pumped & ready to blast-off once the air horn blew off at Kiara Park. With the strategy of hitting the trail in the front pack to avoid traffic backlog, I squeezed myself through other runners during the "screening" league around Taman Tun school. HR was idling in Zone 5 as I hopped on slippery green rocks & squeeze between runners overtaking them.

The trail pounding was kept at moderate upon reaching a more open trail which I presumed Janie's Addiction and Bar-a-cuda. As I looked front and back, I was actually in the same pack with Stephanie Chok & Wong Ah Thiam. Fuh! Laju sangat ke aku ni?! About 10 other seems like strong runners were also constantly pacing together, howling down steep long descents & huffing up steep climbs.

As we reached DS2, which was after Lower Short for drinks, I noticed the pack didn't stay long. I was already left behind. Did I only realised right while typing this post, that my attempt catching up to the group, unaware of the dedicated race route, I followed them to a detour. For what supposed to be a familiar juncture to Snake and Ladder, I made the wrong turn and ended up hammering half of Janie's and Bar-a-cuda again! Aiyo 800 kali! I was biting my lips off thinking of the blunder. It costed me half an hour repeating about 2-3km and another 3km running on the tarmac to get to the Four Cross. I was running with a Mat Salleh & a chinese senior guy complaining of the incident.

As I swerved down 2K and thumping 4K, I knew that I was already in the rear pack. Deep inside my mind, I almost wanted to abandon the race optioning for the tarmac way down. On second thought, nope. I still need the Salomon pouch after paying 60 hardly earned bucks & getting a piece of cheap & wrongly sized non-Salomon t-shirt. I'm not giving up! Ammah! Let the world go round. I'm finishing this race...strong!

I managed to catch up with my newly met senior race buddies halfway into 4K (didn't had the chance to know their names). Jumping, sliding, tree hugging, honking, shouting while overtaking more and more runners on the trail. I crossed the finish line clocking 1:45 hours...satisfied.

Mosin

Got my pouch, photo session with friends & getting "lost" again on the mamak's table with my running buddies before calling it a day contemplating for another running adventure.

Oops! Forget to line up all the trail buddies that shook the forest together, only that they didn't get lost. And better still, one of us won a podium placing! That should be Ling the Great. Won herself in the 4k Women's Cat. The rest that was sharing some sympathy & also laughed with me was Nik, Che, Bacin, Fong, Saiful, Hanchik, Akmal, Alwin & Ajeep.