Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Kiara Trail Run - Overtime and Magic Carpet

Kiara is a superb playground. Last Saturday, i ran from home to Taman Tun to meet up with a bunch of runners going into the trails to clean Kiara up. So, i ran a boring 4.5km from home to the park and that was when the fun begin. I had rode "Overtime" once before when it was still being built by hand and sweat. Almost a year later, Overtime has seen completion. With a decent length of about 1.3km, Overtime was built on a former construction dump site that has been "reclaimed" by nature. Judging by the size of the tree trunks, it is estimated to be about 7 years since it was abandoned. I had the pleasure of pacing with Charles Frew and Raymond Ng at their "comfy" pace for that short 1.1km distance that took me roughly 7mins 15seconds to complete. Overtime starts from the Park connector junction with Lung Buster and ends at the other end of the park connector closer to the tarmac.
1.1km of winding fun at Overtime!
This 1.1km provides enough undulating trail that will raise your HR from 110bpm to 160bpm within the first 200m. More so if you were chasing the like of Charles, which is a strong runner.
The next trail that we did was the Magic Carpet, which was the first to see destruction. Another 1.1km long, it has less bend and more straight that is compensated with a lot of undulating trails that make you gain and lose altitude (between 10-20m) fast.
You can see how the new Magic Carpet replaced the older (dotted line) below the orange track.

These trails were built by bikers using their funds and their sweat. The very least some of us runners could do is to help with the cleaning up as we are on two-feet that allow us to manoeuvre around easily. From the Magic Carpet video, you can see the anti-climbing fencing that stretches from one end to the other - and it makes you feel if there are "wild" animals that the park/authority/developer is trying to prevent from coming in.
Kiara will not be there forever - and i suggest that if you are reading this and feel that this place deserves to be preserved, please sign the petition here and help spread the words and raise the awareness. Continue to put pressure on these little Napoleons and make them realise that what they are doing is counterproductive. One can only hope - and by hoping, we all wish one day, these voices will be heard and appropriate steps will be taken to stop the destruction.

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