Finally, a Taste of a Trail Run!

So, I did my first run this year – a half marathon – if the one that I did at KL International Jazz Earth Run about a month earlier wasn’t even considered a run. This time I did it in Muar, or at Muar Cross Country Half Marathon to be exact. It was also an overambitious plan of conquering Mt Ophir and running for a half marathon back to back on a single weekend. Erkk!

Muar that I found out was such a big and busy town. Located at the mouth of Muar River, it is a town that has a very long history where beautiful buildings with historical values still exist in abundance.

One thing a quickly noticed when I arrived in Muar was the very bad sense of direction among Muar people. Seriously, they can never tell you how to get to a place without sending you tailing behind your own tail first.

They even have a problem estimating a distance. Our tour guide at Mt Ophir told us that the famous Soup House was just across the road from The Store when it was actually a few blocks away from that damn shopping mall. Grrr!

So was the case when we were looking for the Kopi 434 restaurant famous for its locally produced coffee. We asked at least three persons and all of them had failed to give us the correct instructions. In the end a group of Malay family told us how to go there but not before they asked us to take a taxi. Meh.

The run had almost been jeopardized by the damn haze blown over from the damn neighboring country. Looking at how bad it was, it was quite pre-determined that I was not going to do the run. I didn’t want to risk my health just for the sake of running for a (half) marathon. After all, it was the idea of the whole thing – to stay healthy.

But still I went to pick up the race pack nevertheless, at Chung Hwa High School – the co-organizer of the event and where the run would take off and finish at. I liked the school very very much. There is something so sentimental about being at a high school as an adult. Heh.

Quite miraculously, the haze seemed to have blown off to somewhere else on the day of the run. It wasn’t the clearest air but it was much better than it had been the day before.

My running partner had to pull out from the race at the very last minute because he was a bit overworked at Mount Ophir. It would me my very first time running as a stranger to everybody in a race. I actually had no problem but being a stranger means I became quite too observant than I usually was. I had nobody to talk to distract me from anything around me. LOL.

I saw how some of the participants were being a little bit too jolly than necessary. They’d pose for a camera in all the poses possible as if they were the only persons in existence. I couldn’t help but feeling a little disgusted by how they behaved at such a not-so-young age.

Then I remember all those stupid poses that I made myself do in front of a camera every time I went for a run. My gosh! 😛

To tell the truth, I was quite surprised to see the number of participants. It was announced that they were at least 500 participants altogether with one hundred of them came from Singapore. It was also announced that the eldest participant was 71 years old. 71 damn years old! One word: RESPECT.

The run had a very hilarious warm-up session. It was a bunch of aunties (or probably one or two teenagers. It was still dark LOL) doing an aerobic dance to a series of catchy music. I couldn’t help but dancing on my feet a little. I even caught myself clapping when they played the Nobody Nobody but You song. Damn.

Then the flag-off. It was a smooth run with an ample number of uniformed officers and volunteers to keep guard where necessary.  It was a far cry from the disastrous Taiping International Marathon that I joined in last year where participants were made to look after themselves while running on the rather dark roads.

Fresh from a climb to Mount Ophir, I felt the first attack of a muscle pain when I was only about two kilometers away from the starting point. The more I tried to ignore it, the stronger I felt it jabbing down my left thigh as if protesting against my overambitious plan to run a half marathon less than 24 hours after climbing a mountain.

I don’t know why but I felt that everybody was moving so fast and I was being left behind. For a moment I thought about pulling out until an uncle caught up and asked me to keep moving.

“Run with me. Slowly but moving. Don’t stop. I might need your help later” he said while beckoning at me. “I am not sure if I can help you. I can’t even help myself”, I said before running side by side with him. For the first time I encountered how words of encouragement could really help when you are on the very verge of giving up. 🙂

Apart from being chased after the a bunch of barking little puppies, there was nothing out of the ordinary until almost half of the run when participants were made to run on what appeared to be a trail. The trail took us deep into the countryside, across farms and villages where villagers and farmers were about to begin their routine of the day.

I finally had a taste of a trail run – something that I had always wanted to do for quite some time now. I just wish I had the right shoes because I could feel I could have a better pair to run on the dirt and the graveled and sometimes grassy trail.

But it was all so exciting. The smell of the countryside and the farms and the sight of cows looking curiously at us while we wheezed past and the bleating sound of goats and buzzing grass-cutter all sending more enthusiasm into the air!

Some of the participants would even stop to pose excitedly with the cows – even taking pictures of them while feeding the goats! Judging from their high level of excitement at the sight of those animals, I assumed that they must be Singaporeans. LOL.  Kidding. I was as excited as they were. WE don’t see much of goats and cows in KL too. 😛

It really was a great run. I enjoyed every moment of it. Every now and then I’d stop to take a picture or two although I had been telling myself not to take too many pictures while running for a marathon. I just couldn’t help it. Not on this one.

The water stations were perfectly distanced from each other. For the first time since I started running back in 2009 I came across a water station that offered Coke for drink and it had never tasted so good.

The very last drink station was set up by a family with kids who were so kind to offer Milo for free. They’d give us words of encouragement and tell us that we were almost there. All of these had surprised me very very much.

I finished the run quite in style, patting myself on the back knowing that I had no body to do it for me. 🙁

The refreshment that waited for us at the finishing line was more like a feast with plenty and plenty of bananas and watermelons and apples I wondered if they did any research on the right estimate before placing their order. Kidding. 🙂

And never in my history of running had I ever been offered a fresh coconut at the finishing line! NEVER! It was too much of a luxury that no other organizers could afford to offer. Kudos to the organizer!

It was more like a warm up for the upcoming Standard Chartered KL Marathon in which I’d run for a marathon. A real one.  And I’m already feeling the nerves !

Gawd!