Monday, June 28, 2004

The AXN Full Dress Rehearsal...

My write up in :Old Putera Info Blog

Time: 0830 - 1500 hours
Venue:
Mountain Biking:

SC - Kiara Club - Kiara Park - Rimba Kiara - Kiara Park - Kiara OffRoad - Hartamas - SC

Running:
Bukit Aman - Lake Garden park - Muzium Negara - Planeterium - Bird Park - Lake Garden park - Bukit Aman

Attendance:
Alpha: All Presents
Bravo: OP Zuflin @ Kutik not able to make it

Total Distance covered: Far enough to be walking like something stuck up our a$$ today.


Alpha (L-R) : Stupe, Bandit, Doc


Bravo (L-R): Upak, Chipok

We started our ride from Security Commission (since Bandit could give us free parking) and we moved towards Kiara Country Club. After coaxing the security guard that we are the AXN crew, we managed to get into the park and had to show respect to all the horses that is moving around the park (meaning, we are pushing our bikes). We got to the other end of the park, where there is a small door, leading to the Kiara Park.

After some major Uphills and downhills later, we converged at Taman Rimba Kiara, the starting point of the race. We strategised, putting ourselves into the organiser(and the race director's mind) of what would happen on race day. We all came to the conclusion that it will be one hell of a long climb up the Kiara Park, to where the single trail offroad section will be. Lactic acid build up...burn..burn burn...
Doc, Chipok and Upak was superior yesterday, showing no sign of tiredness despite the whole climbing ordeal. Whereas for me and Bandit, we just had to haul our body up the hill. "cadance! Cadance! maintain 60rpm!!" Doc shouted...yes, when the body is tired, telling the legs to do 60rpm is almost imposible as me and Bandit found that we are out of gears on our bike and is doing 90rpm...hahaha...

The offroad trail is exciting and dangerous. With the monkeys as the habitants in the jungle of Kiara as the spectators, i swear i could hear them snigger at us when we fail to ride up slopes laced with brances and roots. When we say single trail, it is only big enough to permit ONE bike to go through. Upak was *baptised* in Kiara, he took a slip and went down the slope, with his Giant bike on him. Doc, rushed to help him. Fortunately, he only suffer some bruises and cuts. Unfazed, he went on to conquer the whole kiara...

As for me, i buat MTB - Mari Tolak Basikal... The condition during the race day will be worse, as 150 participants will be going into the single trial, with at least 10-20 person arriving at the same spot at the same time...traffic jam in Kiara Jungle...SO, anohter strategy cropped up. We will let the gung-ho-adrenalin-flowing-young-warriors to go ahead, get themselves swallowed(or killed) by the trail, then, Alpha and Bravo will move in and conquer the tracks...err...sounds good eh? LOL

Checkpoint BOULDER: View taken from the top fo the slope, before a 45 degree ride down...Yeehhaaaa!!!

We emerged at teh other end of Kiara, ie Hartamas and cycled back to SC.

From SC, we moved to Lake Garden. Refill water and off we went, in full gears, helmets, bags, shorts, shoes, food, humour... We ran, we walked and we looked for visible clues to what and where we will be doing some challenges. We went from the park to Muzium Negara, to the Planeterium where the smell of Ramli Burger almost made us give up our training ends prematurely. From there, we went to Bird Park, being one of the sponsor for the race, we sorta think that a few items will happen in Bird Park. Me and Doc was running in Lake Garden on Saturday and we didn't see anything unusual. BUT yesterday, lo-behold! we saw 2 parallel metal/steel cable running from one of those metal pillars(to hold the net for the park) to another pillar. We also saw anohter anchoring point, which we are sure where the horizontal abseiling will happen (horizontal? yeah, Horizontal!!!). This is also where we suspect some compass/navigational skills will be tested on one of the team members while the other 2 does the rope challenges.(clue: Ms. Race Director said: Watch out for birds when you are climbing to the platform!) Yeah,Birs we saw, some big...really big...OUCH...

As of today, we've not managed to secure any form of sponsorships, but we did recieved a lot of wishes and we would like to thanks all wellwishers.

Apart from that, we've just found out that OP Zuflin(Kutik) won't be joining us for this race. His Father in law jsut passed away last week, and his mother in law is still in coma. With all due respect, we do not think he should, or could, even if he wants to, to be able to commit to the race. With this, Bandit, works his charms and had managed to get the organisers to agree to let us replace Kutik with one new team member. As of the time of writing, Chipok will put in his superfit brother in law...and now, Bravo is back in action...BUT, we still has not gotten our harnesses issue out of the way, at RM250 each, this race is getting more and more expensive...

Our aim? To finish the race this 3rd July, and show to the other participants, That we RMC Boys, will crawl to the finish line, if that is what it takes, to get it done in 7 hours. We are also going to impart all the knowledge gained from this debut race to future OP participants. Talk are also on the way to enrol into the ATMA Eco Challenge.... now, who say that anyone that weighs 80kg(Average) with a 36 inch(average) waist line can't do these kinda stuff? We will prove them wrong!!

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