Saturday, February 04, 2012

Leading Runners Into Kiara Trail

Condolences to Kenny Kwan on the demise of his beloved dad yesterday. We felt your lost and be strong like you are everyday.
The plan this morning was actually running Gasing Hill (inner loop) that was to be lead by Kenny. Due to his absentee, i was requested to take the lead with KC Leong and the venue changed to Kiara.
Everyone was at the Park carpark by 7.30am and there were 18 of us, of which 4 were the regular that i run with in trails. With the long weekend happening, many figured out the best way to spend it was to run, and run more, and run again. Being amateur athletes with fixed 9-to-5 job has it's drawback unless one does it professionally and dedicate the morning and afternoon to training.
The turn up was very commendable. Trail running has gained a popular following!
The plan was to run for 90minutes, covering the trails in Kiara and passing as many known trails as possible. I suggested that we start off with Lung Buster all the way up to Twin peak, down dirty deeds, towards 2K, go into part of 4K and finish off with Magic Carpet. Should gives about 8km worth of heart pumping trail.


About 1km from the starting point, we passed a portion of the trail that has some bees or wasps. I was stung first right behind my head, maybe twice (as the pulsating feeling seems to be radiating from two spot). I immediately ran faster and dropped to the right as i heard more behind shouting. Unfortunately, a buddy, Jason, suffered the most stings. It was painful experience and this was his first trail run in a long time. He bailed out soon after and i found out that he went to the doctor. 
16 stings, at least
I carried on and we ran up to Twin Peak, passing the new trail that was done by the downhiller that runs parallel to the main trail and ends at the Latok Kong shrines. By then, most are already drenched in sweat and heart was already at the correct heartrate.
Running down Dirty Deeds has always been a fun thing to do due to the twist and turns and constant gradient that will thrill even the most uptight runner. I certainly had fun and this time around, with a wider lense (other than my iPhone), I managed to keep up with two very fast ladies that showed/share how to run down the trail at 12km/h (5:00 pace). Video will be shared separately (slow internet uploading at home)
We went to the lookout point that overlook Hartamas and Mont Kiara before exiting at the road section and bumped into common face. Roland and Mike was doing their thing in Kiara!

From there onwards, we headed to 2K loop and part of 4K before exiting at the Kiara Hill crossroad and heading down back to the park. We decided to skip the portion where the bees/wasps attacked us for safety reasons. All in all, it was a 1:32 (moving time) run that covered 7.3km. With average speed of 4km/h, it was a slow run but good enough to start off the Dragon Year for more hardcore training.




Today, i bumped into many mountainbikers friend. I believe they all thought i changed sports and now only runs. :) I stick to my vocation, i will do all swim bike AND run. :)
With Bean. Been a while buddy!
With Shangpion Champion on his 29-er


King Stan of Kiara. All Hail!
I must get myself more familiarised with Kiara - We missed out on Magic Carpet as i took the wrong turn a 4K loop. Else, there will be additional 2km of trail to run through making this a as-close to a 10km run. Apologies for that - i truly can't live up to Kenny Kwan's reputation and knowledge of Kiara!!!






7 comments:

  1. Good run .. happy to see you and wifey running ... sweet couple ..

    ReplyDelete
  2. Kiara is da bomb. You can run the same place 15 times and it still feel different. :)

    And thanks for the compliment. She makes me look good. :)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi! I'm interested in running the Kiara trail but have not done so because there wasn't anyone to lead. Do you know how I may go about this? When is the next trail run? Can any members of the public join in? Lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Ivy, of course public can join. We arent super runners (me at least). Kiara you need someone familiar, you can get lost, but staying on main trail will lead you out most of time.

    Not sure how to let u know when or how, if you have Facebook, look for TRAIL RUNNERS.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Yup I do have Facebook, however searching for Trail Runners has given me a myriad of results - none of which I think is the one you meant. It would be great if you could link it here? Sorry for any trouble. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ivy! Silly me. :) Here you go:

    http://www.facebook.com/groups/256648927696331/

    see you soon!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi, me too. Always wanted to run Kiara but don't know the way. Probably I can just tack along.If its okay if I join in? Can you let me know when is the next run? Tks

    ReplyDelete