Happy New Year 2012! The year started with a bang and like the bullets fly, time went past in a blink. It was chaos, work was so cramped into the short span of the few weeks before Chinese New Year. The tempers and flare-ups so rampant and often that taking time off is a good idea. There were also the pressure from 'Home & Financial Minister' about financial status, 'incoming windfall', 'extra hidden interests' and sorts. It was tight! The sheer pressure piled up even more just before the Chinese New Year. Situation was bad when pressures from both sides were mounting to pinnacles.
Anyway, was down with a bad and wicked cough since Wednesday, trying me best to keep 'afloat'. The manageable runs were as follows:
23/01/12: HHH, Desa Aman Puri
Chinese New Year – 1st day, nothing to block me from going for run! The morning and afternoon were filled with eating lots of food but the regrets would be later during the run! There wasn’t a large crowd, some less than 40 guys that started the run. I was 5mins late, the start of the run was a steep climb near the roundabout. OnSec was seen bending over, leaning on a tree and ‘talking’ to the ground. I kept on while Doc came from behind to greet us, the climb ended after reaching a path. The path running was good and took us round the hill to see even more hills. The checks must have been very easy as the runners were not even heard! I managed to catch up with the back pack and past them after running downhill through the sapling farm. The cross over the open area, climbing over a short hill and down, got us to the offtracks heading towards the kampung behind the Hospital Sg Buloh. A check near the kampung, enable me to catch up with the front pack; that was broken with some confusing papers. We finally got on the trail behind a house that went uphill, it wasn’t steep but a long gradient climb on the cooling paths. These trails were laden with friendly, blood thirsty, leeches! I stopped twice to pull out some 20 of them!
The uphill seemed endless until we made a right turn up on a clear trail that we headed towards the water pipe trails. We continued on climbing till the top of the trail and down. Another check kept the runners busy, it was broken on the Pacat Trail. It was then all the way downhill again till we got to the sapling farm again but on the other side. We ran on home trail through the usual trails through the back hills of the school. It was a 10km run that the runner took 1hr46mins while I was lagging some 7mins behind. Fantastic sweat with a fair amount of leech bites. Itchy nights coming!
09/01/12: HHH, Taman Agrotek Batu14 Hulu Langat
Ahhh!! It was another area known for its hills and one can expect a good run. The run started with heading towards a small climb that only OnSec was the only one there! The guys were laughing their heads off seeing OnSec’s expressions on finding the first check that was visible standing on the tarmac. The check was broken by none other than the sober Gila climbing the really steep offtracks. We were the first few but there were Cushion and Kecik in front of us! It seemed that Kecik complained of the slope to be somewhat more or less of a 45°. It really was and I could say of even a little more than 50! The climb took some time to conquer and after a left side trail took us into some thick bushes for a downhill run. We soon find ourselves in the usual rubber estate terrains. The hare took us round the hills on the slopes up and down, looping from one hill to another. We knew it was to be nearing the last leg of the run when we climbed the bushy uphill trail towards the bamboo jungle. There was honking from behind and we thought it was the Sumo but at last we saw the co-hare doing another round of the run! He was not having enough sweat and ran the trail again to get some! We got to the used-to-be a bamboo jungle, the sight of the heavy machineries’ trails told us the whole story. The bamboo jungle was left with only small patches here and there. We got to the top of the bulldozed hill to see the rest of the developing sites. The 2km downhill and the tarmac run concluded the 7.5km run with a less fitter me in 1hr26mins.
03/01/12: CH4, Sungai Jelok
The invites to this run were too overwhelming, I was not to escape, I was not to give any excuse and in which if I failed to turn up would cost a good friendship! Though the run was only 3.5km long, it was set on the few steep climbs that gave us some great moments! It was really straight forward on the sloping paths towards the northeast, a steep downhill towards the orchards and then the long and steep uphill through the chilli plants. From the top, it was only downhills that brought us through the rubber estates and past the durian orchard and towards the skoping paths for the home trail run. Nothing much could be said thereafter we finished the run, the CH4 ran its course of the circle and dinner! A night filled with laughs, beers and more food!
02/01/12: HHH, Broga
I was not as fit as the previous day as the previous night’s drinking was heavy, where the Joint Masters were very generous! I think I gained somewhat 2kg from last sitting!
Ah! Broga! Land with hills! We drove towards the back of the temple and parked in the open area. The sun was in full force, the earth was baked and the guys were cowering in every shade they could find. The New Year resolutions were sensed but I doubt there were many. They guys were brimming with smiles to greet everyone they meet. There were guys from Guam which they nearly bought off everything from hasherdaberry, even the clothes on that skinny guy.
The run started with OnSec got to the first check where some smart-alecs were speculating where the hare trail would lead the pack before reaching that first. OnSec was smart enough to stay on paper and broke the check with few other guys. It was on the trail beginning towards the dreaded long climb! Doc was yapping about escaping ‘home nags’ and feel rather better to stay on a torturing trail instead! I do agree at times when husbands were taken for granted. That’s real torture!
The climb was long and we anticipated more ‘good ones’ ahead. Almost everyone was gasping for air, the tree canopies did shaded us from the sun but the heat radiated through, it was very humid. The climb continued on towards the east and inclined steeper. There was a check that didn’t even seemed like one as the runners just kept on forward. We finally reached the ‘highway’ and it was downhill all the way with a nice running trails but we had to keep an eye on the short stumps. We ran past the vast orchards, few Orang Asli kampungs, the few really huge chicken farms and more orchards before the even longer tarmac run through the rubber estates. The weather was not that easy to cope, the sun was setting but not the heat. Exhausted both in mind and body, a good welcome was a bottle of chilled beer! The 8.5km torture that I used 1hr46mins was well worth in terms of beer value!
01/01/12: HHH, Bukit Subang
It was a hot and sunny day as I was caught up with work that my ride nearly left without me. We managed to reach the run site with ample time to mingle around and exchanging New Year wishes. We had the some ‘long lost’ members showing up as well especially those that flew in from Spain, Canada, US, Thailand, Korea and those that drove from Singapore! It was good to see those guys and it seemed that they too really missed Mother!
The run started with some warm up walk behind OnSec towards the temple and themto the right into the OP for the first check. The check was tricky and had the whole pack running in all directions to break the check that was finally found on the opposite hill slopes. It was a clockwise run through some familiar places through the young OP behind the water reservoir, the OP/Jungle side hills towards the south, the southwest OP, the plain ‘plains’ before the long home trail run to come out from near the first check. It was about a 9km run where my unfit and gained on weight body managed a 1hr 38mins.
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