Lorong Asrama. The place where I
used to digged shellscrapes, fire trench, did my 'big business' and involved in
defence exercise back in my military days. I’m still wondering why it is called
Asrama, which means Hostel in Malay. Anyway, Energizer Singapore Night Trail
2012 was held at this Lorong for the 2nd time with a new and
challenging 18KM category on the 28th April 2012.
One thing that came to my mind to
overcome this challenging race is the Hill 265. Since I took part in the 18KM,
I had to run up that steep hill twice and yes, that’s the place where I did my
defence exercises many years ago.
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| - Looking for fellow FREAKS as the crowd is building up - |
My goal is to complete within 2
hours. I knew I should have target for a better timing, but since I have something else to do the next
morning, I rather take it slow then to get myself injured.
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| - With some of the FREAKS before the run - |
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| - Last minute tips from the coach - |
The atmosphere was great before
the race. It started off with words of inspiration from Adam 'Onearmrunner'
and warm up exercises from Fitness First. Everyone geared themselves up by switching on their
headlights. The one that I received from the racepack was not bright enough and there are runners who brought their own and there are some who didn’t even need one !! I hope nothing bad will happen to them.
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| - Me and Adam 'Onearmrunner' - |
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| - Flagging-off soon .... - |
The race started at 7.30pm. I was
using my VFF Spyridon as I had tried running with it at MR and it was really good and comfortable, especially the
grip. Things went smoothly for me for the first 6KM until I met the Hill 265. Luckily,
there were not many people on the hill as I was ahead of most of them. There was
a thick rope to assist us up the hill but I did not really use it because it
was on the extreme right and the ground was uneven. So, I just climbed up the
hill like a ladder. Once I reached the top, I was really glad I saw the water
point as I did not consume any water on the first 6KM. Right after that water
point, there were many steep down slopes ahead as most of the runners tried to
slow down to avoid tripping.
My feet hurt a bit as the stones poked through my
VFF. Not like the stones at MR, this one was really huge and quite sharp.
I fell down at the 9KM mark after
tripping down a big stone. I suffered cuts and abrasions on my right knee and
both of my palms. My tights was torn as well. One kind Caucasian lady came up to
me and asked if I was ok.
Some of the areas were muddy, and
again, runners tried to avoid it, creating congestions. Come on, this is a
trail run, not a road run.
I was upbeat when I saw the 12KM
mark as I’m almost there. Here I go again running towards the Hill 265 for the
2nd time. Suka Ada Nyoman overtook me around 13KM.He was really in
good shape 6 days after the Bali Marathon. It was 16KM when I reached the
bottom of the hill and my god, it was super crowded as runners from the 6KM and
12KM trying to grab hold of the rope to climb up. As a result, the rope became
loose and snapped. So what’s next for the runner? They stood in the middle of
the hill, catching up their breath while I kept saying "Excuse me" countless times
to continue my run till the finishing line.
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| - Glad it was all over !!- |
I was so glad and happy that I completed the
race in 1hr 58mins topping up with free Magnum ice cream and ice Milo. Even
though this running event is quite an expensive one, it was really worth every
penny you forked out for this.
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| - The customary group pic with fellow FREAKS after the race - |
*Thanks to Halim Billiejoe for the review and credits to Asree for the awesome pics.
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