Kiara Trail Run

Event: Trail run at Bukit Kiara
Date: 14th November 2009 (Saturday), 7.15am

I forced sohkeong to sign up the Salomon X-Trail Run with me. Some more we sign up the 10K category because both 4K and 10K categories cost the same price of RM60. I can't tolerate running a race in Malaysia with the rate of RM15/km (what a nonsense formula... LOL), you know I am a kiasu fella...

The Salomon X-Trail Run would be held at Taman Lembah Kiara. I knew there were trails in Bukit Kiara, as I saw mountain bikers went into the woods when I was walking around Taman Arboretum many years ago, but I never went to see it myself, so I did not know what the condition would be. I asked sohkeong to explore the trails together prior to the event after PBIM, I thought it should be fairly easy by following the race map. Fortunately, Kash and Syah saved us from getting lost! sohkeong and I, the direction idiots, would surely get trapped in the jungle if we do that ourselves!

Kash and Syah invited me to join them for a trail run. They wanted to explore the X-Trail route because they would be doing SCSM on the same day, so they would miss the event. The run was actually organized by Che, who has lots of experience in mountain climbing. He knows the Kiara area quite well, but he still said that he would try to follow the map together with his instinct! You know, sohkeong's and my instinct could never be trusted... LOL

12 people turned up at Lembah Kiara Park, I was quite surprised of the big group. Hey, now I realize there are actually quite some people like trail running! We had a 15 min stretching lesson courtesy of Ian, the professional personal trainer. I must say, the session was really professional! It was also my first experience of stretching with such "high end" postures in front of public... LOL

I saw most folks were equipped with hydration backpack, even sohkeong also had one. Suddenly I felt very regret that I only carried a small 300ml mineral water bottle with bare hand. We headed into the trail, woalala..., it was like the Mesilau hiking trail in Mount KK, even narrower!

I tried to "run" whenever I could, but very quickly I would become winded. It was more of walking and hiking when going uphill. I admired Che who was able to back and forth to check the route for us, he seemed like having boundless energies. Nik was the same too, he could turbo whenever he liked to take photos for us. The group was very supportive, they would wait at certain points especially at the junctions. I remembered there was one junction with lots of branches, each branch was labeled an arrow... so which one should we follow?

According to Kash, this trail is very "technical", the one at TNF 100 is actually much better and easier. Two decided to turn back as it seemed like it would be much more challenging ahead. I, being clueless of the direction, just tried to follow the group as closed as possible. With Shaq as the sweeper, I felt safe and able to put 100% focus on my feet. Since there were quite a number of rests in between, I didn't feel too bad.

After numerous torturous uphill climbs, finally we had reached the most exciting part, running down from the highest point (but not too steep) all the way towards the flat ground area on top of Arboretum Park. Here, I pictured myself as the runner on the Rave Run photo of the monthly Runner's World magazine, together with the confidence given by the Salomon shoes, I ran in full concentration and as fast as I could. I felt this was the most enjoyable moment, it swept away all the doubts whether I should pick up trail running especially in the beginning of stepping into the Kiara trail... LOL

We did not end here yet, we went on to explore another two shorter trails before reaching the car park. According to Che, we did not follow entirely the X-Trail route because of he made some adjustments after seeing some flooded areas, and also followed his instinct. I am not sure how much we had run, but the entire thing took us almost 2.5 hour and we had real great fun! The group was actually having a feast after the run, but unfortunately I couldn't join them, what a shame.

I do feel a bit regret of signing up the 10K race in X-Trail. The route is really tough, at least for me. Anyway, I just follow sohkeong's advice, just do it since I have signed up. I just aim to complete the route, hopefully before the Organizer cleans up everything and leaves no one...LOL. I really want to thank the group for guiding me and patiently waiting for me. I am looking forward to the next trail run!

Other Kiara trail run reports from the group:
http://run-kooky-run.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-trail-run-report.html
http://iamsyah.blogspot.com/2009/11/salomons-x-trail-and-janda-baik-weekend.html
http://lifeashaq.blogspot.com/2009/11/gbss-kiara-trail-run.html
http://cheramiche.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-trail-run-14-nov-09.html
http://enaikay.blogspot.com/2009/11/sneak-preview-kiara-trail-run.html
http://enaikay.blogspot.com/2009/11/kiara-x-trail-run.html
http://www.corporateathletes.com.my/?p=4568
http://runningandsome.blogspot.com/2009/11/thingsof-trail-and-klang.html
http://wcr1414.blogspot.com/2009/11/trails-trails-trails.html



Photo taken from Kash's site


See the muddy fat legs!