Wednesday, August 20, 2008

run kakilarik run...

the 3rd malaysia international ekiden run was held on sunday, 10th august in putrajaya. again, it was organized by aleps (alumni look east policy society) dan iyc (international youth centre).

originated from japan, ekidan is actually a relay marathon. satu pasukan akan lari berganti-ganti untuk jarak tertentu. kalau lari berganti-ganti biasanya guna baton, tapi ekiden gunakan sash (tasuki). sash must be worn throughout the race and can only be handed over within the changing zone. sapa tak pakai kira disqualified.

terlepas ekiden tahun lepas sebab tak cukup member. tahun ni cepat-cepat cari member. sebagai ahli aleps, aku rasa sekali-sekala kena lah sokong aktiviti aleps ni. my teammates are zaidi, irwan, zai dan marul and our team's name is kakilarik. walaupun irwan dgn zai je sebenarnya yang selalu masuk lari-lari ni. my last run was actually larian angkasawan back in 2005.


sabtu tengahari tu, aku pegi ambik nombor larian kat iyc. masa tu baru aku tau jarak sebenar larian masing-masing. mula-mula tu ingatkan sorang lari 3km. the total distance is actually 14.3km and this is our running order :
* 1st : irwan - 2.6km (palace of justice - putrajaya convention center)
* 2nd : marul - 2.9km (putrajaya convention center - seri saujana bridge)
* 3rd : zai : - 3.4km (seri saujana bridge - seri wawasan bridge)
* 4th : zaidi - 3.3km (seri wawasan bridge - dataran putra)
* 5th : me - 2.1km (dataran putra - palace of justice)
korang semua sebelum ni berebut kan nak lari tengah-tengah...hahaha. lega aku tak ikut berebut sama dan terus pilih giliran terakhir...

that night, all of us except zai crashed irwan's place. senang nak pegi sekali. tapi dah ramai-ramai ni sudahnya berborak sampai pagi. aku dapat jugak tidur. subuh-subuh tu muka masing-masing macam zombi...


reached putrajaya around 6am and meet up with zai at the starting point. ada briefing dan lepas tu terus dihantar ke zon masing-masing dengan bas. the run finally started at 730am. dari zon aku boleh dengar pistol berdentum. memandangkan aku last runner, jenuh jugak lah menunggu. sempat baring-baring lagi. cuma tak tertidur aje. and about 45 minutes later, the first runner came. harus lah laju gila orang ni lari. lepas tu sorang demi sorang sampai. i started to count when the runner from our category arrived. dah sampai 7 ke 8 orang gitu, terus lost count. confirm lah kitorang tak masuk top 10 kan...

zaidi came at last. muka pressure gitu. dapat je sash, terus aku pecut. menang tu dah semestinya tak so i just wanted to run under my target. my route is the shortest and i guess the easiet. long straight flat stretch. jalan yang paling aku suka sekali kat putrajaya ni. standing along the road are all those spectacular ministry's buildings. tapi tak sempat nak pandang pun. yang aku nampak cuma finishing line kat depan tu je...

and finally i reached the finishing line and clocked 8mins50secs...


penatnya!! macam nak tercabut kaki. kakilarik finished at no 25 from 38 for B category. and i think, we clocked about 1hr15mins for the whole run. ok lah tu untuk pelari-pelari amatur macam kitorang. irwan, marul dan zai were already there. irwan cakap masa start tu dia ikut pecut sama dengan dengan yang lain. masa mula-mula aje lah katanya...lepas tu entah ke mana. marul siap potong orang lagi masa lari naik bukit. hebat ok. zai yang lari paling jauh tapi ok je katanya. zaidi pun kata ok je tapi terus rasa nak pengsan sebab tiba-tiba ada lencongan bila nak sampai dan dah nampak pun changing zone. patut lah aku tengok muka dia stress aje masa pass sash tadi. tapi apa-apa pun, cerita irwan dengan driver bas jugak yang paling hangat. i tell datuk...hahaha!


lepak kejap depan poj tu. berehat untuk kembalikan tenaga. ramai jugak orang. yang paling ramai budak-budak sekolah. yang pakai baju tshirt kuning tu. bagus tu, bagi budak-budak ni aktif bersukan. kitorang tak tunggu pun sampai prize giving ceremony. anyway, all runners who finished the run will get a cert and a medal.



sebelum balik tu, singgah makan nasi dagang kat gerai kak mah kat kg. razak baginda. tak sangka lak ada kampung betul-betul kat tepi putrajaya. sent marul home then went back to kl.

it was a great experience. buat aktiviti yang menyihatkan. next year, kakilarik will run again!

Friday, August 8, 2008

one world, one dream


on the evening of 08-08-08, the beijing 2008 olympic games will finally open.

the beijing olympic not only boosts china's economy and tourism industry but also transforms the city socially and architecturally. now, beside great wall and forbidden city, the iconic bird's nest (national stadium) and water cube (national swimming center) are also a must-see. the design of these engineering marvels are amazingly extraordinary and more importantly, are eco-friendly. the games have yet to start but records have already been broken. both venues are world's biggest stadium and swimming complex.




tonight, i'm ready to be stunned with the olympic opening ceremony. featuring big names like zhang yimou as artistic director, sarah brightman singing the theme song and tan dun among others, i bet this gonna be one of the greatest olympic openings.

hope that malaysia will finally come home with gold medal. and may olympic brings peace and harmony.