Man Against the Clouds: 2012 First Challenge

New Year Challenge 1.1.2012

While most Malaysians are sleeping soundly after celebrated new year night, some avid runners were preparing for their very first 2012 running event as early as 4am..it was Newton Challenge 12km and 25km which taken place at Bandar Kinrara, Puchong, Selangor..The organisers has chosen same route as 2010 edition, but slightly changed it at some part of the hilly section for both 12k and 25k category..meaning both categories did not use the same route after U-turn section..for me, compromising new year celebration for competing in an event like this was not a big deal since im not so eager in taking part counting down during the new year eve..that should be an advantage for me..

Departing for Putrajaya to Bandar Kinrara did not take a long time..its about 20 minutes journey and even can be shorten by increasing the car speed (not recommended)..we arrive just before the flag off and had enough time for warming up and saying hello to fellow runners..the event was flagged off exactly at 5.30am for 25km category and it took almost 5 minutes to clear the starting point..as expected, my strategy was to run in slightly slow pace (7min/km) to loosen my muscle before entering the hilly section..the first 5km was good and my body was giving a good respond and successfully completed the first 10km climb..i stopped at the Puncak Jalil Petronas to perform Subuh prayer and proceeded the run..comparing to 2010 experience, i was already 'sayur' (hit the wall) when entering last 15km section and walked all the way after final checkpoint (16th km) whilst this time i finished the run non stop and clocked 2.55hours!!(last year was 3.45hours)..unfortunately, i did not manage to register for this event, but i was running using my friend's bib (not recommended) since he encountered a hamstring injury and could not compete in the race..

Felt great can finish the run within 3 hours with this type of route..to all finishers, u must be proud of yourself!!its not an ordinary route with so many deadly (was it appropriate??) hills to be climbed..in addition, this time Syafiq and I were running for a cause..our secondary schoolmate was diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma cancer last few weeks..since he was in critical situation and wanted him to fight the pain, we tried to show our great support through this..hopefully, it would give him hope that he was not alone in fighting it..so we decided to put a shout out at our back and received good luck wishes from runners passed by (it did not mean i was slow...hehehe)

Back to the running story, the medal design was frustrating because it does not stated finishers' category..by the way, for overall review the event was a success and hopefully will be continued by the organiser..one thing that i loved about this event is its epic route..i enjoyed challenging myself with the route and satisfied with my performance (even the time was not good)..NOT BAD lorhh..congratulation to all runners for showing up and finished the race no matter how hard..

This will become a remark to start year 2012..next event?? (will be updated soon)

p/s: dear Haikal, please be strong and our prayers always be with you