Apa Aku Buat Hari Tu...?

Gegaran dan desakan untuk terus mencari kasut trail running menghantui aku. Memandangkan Projek Mendaki Gunung Semangkuk pada minggu ke-3 bulan ni, aku dah tak sanggup nak pakai Salomon tu. Tambahan lagi kami dijangka akan menghabiskan masa trekking dengan average 8-12 jam untuk both days. Maka, amatlah penting sekali kaki aku disarungkan ke dalam sepasang kasut yang sangat selesa bagi mengelakkan pemberontakan di luar kawalan.

Aku dah mengalami gejolak jiwa kacau hampir kronik. Jumaat pagi aku ke Mitsui, Sepang. Ini yang best jadi boss dan kuli dalam masa yang sama, takde sesiapa kisah. Harapan aku ke Mitsui ialah depa mungkin dah restock kasut sejak my last visit a week ago. Aku assume depa ikut macam Nike Outlet, restock barang seminggu sekali on every Thursday.

Aku terus ke Adidas Outlet. Berlakon macam first time sampai, padahal dah tau kasut mana yang nak grab. Takde pulak Response Trail Boost yang aku belek last week. Seorang brader yang nampak peramah approach aku & terus aku tanya pasal kasut trail running. Seemed that he's good at his job. Dia terus pi cari and brought back the shoes, probably the pair from my recent recon. Unlike some other SA, they seemed to have no clue of what product they are selling. Bila aku tanya trail running shoes, depa pi tunjuk kasut lari. Rasa macam nak apply kerja kat Adidas je, bantu & share knowledge to people about sports product.

He brought me size 8UK. I tried it on. Obviously I already knew that it's too huge for me, plus some reviews said that the shoes are a bit roomy on the forefoot. However, it seemed nice tatkala aku bergaya berjalan depan cermin. The colour does matched with the greenery as well.

Aku mencuba nasib to get more info about the restocking process. He said that restocking is done every Friday and items are being send over since they have received the email list that morning. That's today! Jackpot! Aku mintak tolong dia check ada tak Response Trail Boost dalam list tu. Brader ni dengan ikhlas terus ke counter dan check dalam komputer. Aku terus berdoa.

He came back and brought sad news. I requested for the outlet's phone number just in case boleh check semula every week. Dah takde kerja lain agaknya nak check stock?

While driving back home, this mind is working non-stop. He did mention that another Adidas Outlet is at Johor Premier Outlet. I Google-ed their phone number and gave them a call. I know these people are helpful, hence I straight away asked about the shoe. 

Moments later the SA said the words "Ya! Ada bang. Kami ada size UK7 dan UK8." The words that saved the world. And he followed with some discounts promotion which I didn't quite catch the details.

Apa lagi? Aku terus text my nephew in JB and get him to execute the salvation mission. He went later that evening and shared some photos for confirmation. As a bonus, the promotion did reduces the shoe price by half with 5 pairs of socks thrown in. Alhamdulillah.

In the mean time, I have to work out these legs for Gunung Semangkuk. I have 3 weeks which I hope my sprained ankle won't give up on me. Insyaa Allah.

There you go. Please be loyal unlike Salomon :)

Trail Running Shoes

Aku pun tak pasti kenapa jiwa aku dah kembali dirasuk oleh alam hutan. Sejak kembali aktif dengan sahabat-sahabat kejiranan dalam aktiviti hutan ni, mula dah hilang feel nak kayuh basikal. Akal Bujal ni sentiasa aje memikirkan plan outdoor.

After our trip up Mt. Kinabalu, I injured myself. Due to the level of injury and aging factor, the recovery was slow. Now dah masuk hampir sebulan tapi ankle kiri masih sengal akibat terseliuh kat Kinabalu Summit Trail. Masa nak balik turun ke Timpohon Gate, aku terkelendat kaki kiri sewaktu pijak salah satu boulder yang agak licin.

Last two weeks aku hiked to Kem Lolo with my kids and neighbours. The gripping uppersole of Salomon membuatkan kaki kiri aku menjerit. If I want to keep on hiking in the future, I need to replace the Salomon.

So the homework and recon works pun bermula. Kembali membaca trail running shoes review dan window shopping. Dah lama aku tinggalkan kerja ni. Dan dah macam-macam jenis kasut trail run yang tak pernah aku jumpa. 

To cut short the story, aku rasa dah boleh shortlist the options.

• Aku tak pilih New Balance sebab rasanya design dah tak sejiwa dengan aku. Design dan pilihan warna yang agak pelik untuk usia aku. Aku tak tengok harga sebab astetik pun dah awal kena strike out.

• Aku revisit Brooks Cascadia. Aku pernah ada Cascadia Pure Grit. Antara yang pernah aku belasah sebagai all rounder dari trail running, hiking, bike touring dan sneakers buat jalan-jalan. Disebabkan multi function, aku bagi thumbs up, tambah pulak aku beli di warehouse sale semurah RM150 sahaja. Tapi sekarang Cascadia 10 dah RM400+. Aku cancel.

• Salomon? Price too steep. Selepas aku lenjan XA Pro 3D ke Pine Tree Trail, Gunung Datuk, Gunung Bunga dan eventually Mt. Kinabalu, aku rasa aku pernah pakai kasut yang lebih selesa dari Salomon dan jauh lebih murah.

• Nike. Antara jenama dan design yang paling aku minat tapi tak pernah bertemu jodoh, walaupun running shoes dia. Aku pernah ada Nike ACG dan memang puas hati. Kasut tu juga terkubur di tong sampah Stesen Keretapi Dabong sebaik aku tamatkan misi Gunung Stong. Kali ni aku terpikat dengan Nike Terra Kiger 3. Design yang habis minimalist dengan pilihan warna yang simple but yet attractive. Puas hati aku tawaf separuh kedai Nike dan Stadium di KL mencari size, cuma ada beberapa outlet yang availabe. 

Nike Terra Kiger 3

• Eventually aku came across sepasang kasut yang agak pelik di kedai Adidas. Dah banyak outlet aku menerubus tapi boleh pulak outlet ni aje yang aku jumpa Response TR Boost ni. Aku ada jumpa di Mitsui sebelum ni tapi sebabkan takde saiz, jadi aku abaikan pencarian. Tapi kali ni aku test sarung sepasang. Mantop gak feel dia. Balik terus baca online review. Setakat yang aku baca, majoriti bagi good review walaupun tak semua kata perfect. Biasa lah tu.

Adidas Response TR Boost

Pre-conclusion aku belum buat tapi setakat ni aku berat kepada Response TR Boost. Nike Terra Kiger 3 mungkin aku kena abaikan sebab penggunaan aku bukan setakat trail run aje. Aku akan lenjan juga untuk hiking dan daki gunung, just like the old days. Hence, the minimalist concept yang ada pada TK3 aku rasa tak cukup untuk beri protection pada kaki aku.

Saya sepasang kasut

The Pirates - Me, Zairin, Aik Liang & Junifer

Remember my previous snippet about the boy whom was explaining to me about a pair of Adidas shoes? It really does teased my sense of humour till now when recalling the phrase by phrase coming out of his mouth. Perhaps he was still new with the job. Looked like just finish school. Here goes. "Ini kasut baru Adidas. Kasut ini ada tapak getah. Tali juga cantek. Dalam ada lapek. Tengok dia punya cushion, tebal di depan dan belakang". OK. That was enough to take me back to my genre about completing an essay in school days. Ammah! i.e. Normally the popular ones was "Aku sebatang pen". Why la? Perhaps it was the only object visible while trying to squeeze all those points and sentences from the brain to the hand. Cool eh? Talk to the hand!

OK. Sunday was an eventful one. Not so la but having to meet up with lots more friends was enough to make my day. After the toss-ful (defined "lambung"), LSD on Saturday, I was bouncing all over the place throughout the day - that explains the very long entry. I was so excited that I decided to run the Firefighter Run 2010. Det was delighted upon knowing the decision though I did not sign up for it. This was my first "pirate" run. Perhaps should sign up for next year and secure a place for the 100 medals provided. Any other junior veteran up for the challenge?

Since it's at Dataran Merdeka we decided to just bring our motorbikes. There you go, two runners-rempit thrashing through Loke Yew in the crack of dawn. The closest parking secured and we were welcomed by the usual KL race atmosphere. All the familiar faces stretching, warming up, catching up for updates and photo shots. Det placed himself inside the gantry while I joined Zairin and his friends chit chatting at the sidelines. Runners were flagged off and when Det yelled to us "pelari haram jom masuk", we joined the party. - hampeh lu Det.

I only managed to greet salam to Kash and Ian - lama tak jumpa ni. Kash seemed cheery and she shared her 50+ km night simulation and yet to get a sleep. Pergh! Talking about human power and survival instinct. Wishing she have her confidence now. Kash informed me that Shuk and Syah were already infront. I waded myself through the crowd together with Azman and Zaidi, talking about Adidas customized shoes - I am in shoe hunting remember?

After passing Tijani 2, I decided to push my pace a bit. Considering yesterday's long-slow-distance menu was extracted from Hal's, perhaps a combo with runners'world 10k TT might do me some good. Legs seemed pretty much energized. In front of hockey stadium I caught up with Zairin. He was walking with Aik Liang while enjoying a cup of "pirated" drink. A shout of "lambung", he decided to join me. Aiya! I regretted my invitation la pulak. When he noticed my pace, he seemed excited. Lucky we had the Jalan Duta killer climb to slowdown but not until we reached the descending part. We were still chatting though I find it a bit arduous to complete a three-words sentence. So I went "huh!?!"and "hmmmph!"at times when the going gets a bit tougher.

The climb up the ramp to Jalan Parlimen was another crazy feat. He was pacing me and amazingly I managed to catch up despite my blinking heart rate. This was where we caught up with Det. "Common pelari halal! Let's join us for the last push!" - lambung balik. Hehe. The three of us were running like mad towards Bulatan Dato'Onn while having sun rays blinding our sights. Det slowed down at Padang Merbuk when his HRM screaming like a bomba siren. Zairin was pushing harder and I was struggling to tag along. Crossing Bulatan Dato' Onn, I asked to confirm where to finish? On the padang or at our motorbike? Since we don't deserved any medals, certs nor drinks, we gave the final dashed to where we started earlier. Crazy buggers. We Hi-5 each other for a great run. I knew he was happy too. Thanks dude.

Packed up and left for Nasi Lemak Antarabangsa at Kampung Baru with sunny side up and sambal sotong. Ammah! We haven't completed our mission for Sunday morning cause the next agenda was to continue with shoe hunting. We were the first to enter Adidas Pavillion and Stadium that morning I guess. Asking like mad about the customize shoes offered by Adidas. Too bad the time taken to complete a pair will miss the KL-Marathon date. It's cheap though if you have the Adination Passport - 50% off! OK, no luck with Pavillion. Throttled on to Asics in Berjaya Times Square. Very the generous discounts for old models. I was shaking already when the SA told me they have my size. Aiyo! Want or not la dude?! Where on earth you can afford to grab a pair of Asics at this price? It's GT 2130 somemore! Got Editor's Choice every year for each of it's siblings i.e. GT 2140 (2009) and GT 2150 (2010). What so great about this shoe? Beats me but I had a pair way back in campus life and it stayed loyal throughout my classes and my evening runs - undeniable. Now I got lambung-ed by the Myanmar SA pulak. She was friendly enough to convince me to buy. What the heck? Once offered, twice shy somemore ke? They offered a 30% off but this dude wanted more. Pushing my luck, I asked for 35% and include in some courtesy jokes. Voila! Det, let's go home before I changed my mind.

You complete me