A failed attempt at full marathon: Penang Bridge International Marathon 2010

The left knee pain was excruciating at 36km when the traffic police passing by. He waved me to go up the sweeper bus of Rapid Penang, saying the distance to finishing line at Queensbay Mall is still far.

Under normal circumstances it would take me about an hour to run the remaining 7km, now to complete the race with a limp it would definitely take more than two hours, and I still had a home bound bus to catch at Butterworth and needed to cross the Penang Channel in the ferry. So I hopped on the bus broken-heartedly!

In the bus there were a few full marathon participants already inside, most of them were young runners who looked less than 50 years old just like me. The older runners were still running and already near the finishing line. I think they were far more experienced and prepared.

When the sweep bus approached Queensbay Mall, I looked at the long span of Penang Bridge and was surprised I actually ran to and fro on it few hours ago. Although a little bit proud, this was no consolation to the strong feeling of shame of not being able to complete the journey- not even by crawling at the last miles!

The sweeper bus stopped near the Mall for everyone to alight. To our surprise one runner in the bus got down and start running among those approaching the finish line. At that moment it was near to 7 hours completing time. Was he going to claim the finishing medal and thus cheating himself and the rest of the world? For the rest of us we still had a few ounces of honesty- if not running stamina- left so we got down and walked the side way towards Eastin Hotel and runners tent, with that unmistakable injured runners’ gait which quite resembled a duck walking in running shoes!

Around finishing line and Queensbay Mall there were many full marathoners moving around with sunshine smiles and the glittering gold Finisher medal hanging round their neck. I congratulated each one of them, shaking hands, and chatted on my failed attempt and pointed to them my injured side of left knee. They all graciously encouraged me to come again next year and try once more, to which I answered with a halfhearted “ok, hopefully, will see first”.

If I ever try it again, I will pay more attention to weight training so as to strengthen my knees. The same problem cropped up in my previous mountain climbing trips. The Penang Bridge marathon route was similar to mountains. We have a few rise up sections at the Bridge and along Jelutong Expressway, there were where I picked up the ligament sprain.

Gunung Batu Puteh, Perak. 19~21 June 2010

The white rock was mystified behind the midday thick dancing cloud, 

all of us anticipated silently like a pilgrim at Batu Kak,

eyes unwaveringly fixating forward, 

for that sudden revelation of timeless beauty..

- T.H.
 

Gunung Batu Putih，2131 meter, is the eighth highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia. This is the highest mountain I climbed besides Gunung Ledang and Mt Kinabalu. One only needs good stamina to complete the hike to the summit which takes 2 days at easy pace, and certain muscle strength to carry an average of 10kg backpack.

 

Orang asli village, not far from the trail head.

River crossing at "Sungai Y", a confluence of two tributaries of Sungai Woh. The current is strong and the rocks slippery, a wrong foot step will send one and his/her backpack to a good dip- if not being swept away.

Jungle path. We walked an hour to reach 'Sungai Y'.

Our organizer, Encik Hamid, doing stretching exercise in the morning after the first night camping. Dr Joy Mak can be seen massaging her aching thighs, while Zainal Abidin was putting his socks, and Aishah busy taking some amusing snap shots.

Boon Siong in Gua Azan cave, our second night lodging. It is a huge boulder overhanging, quite airy and we don't need to use tents. At night the temperature was recorded at 18 deg.C.

Zainol climbing up wooden scaffolding over rock face to reach Batu Kak.

Fairytale-like mossy forest near the summit.

A well-earned slumber at 5:15pm, after pushing hard to reach summit before dark. Still, on the way down I had to grope in the dark with headlamp on slippery terrain in the drizzling rain- the result was countless bottom ground hits.

Kudos to all the team members- you made the trip so memorable and fun. I hope one day we can go climbing once again. For that particular one with poor fitness level and common sense, he has to buckle up or else nobody is willing to go with him anymore haha..

Gunung Angsi, 5 Jun 2010

Starting time: 9:45am

Summit: 1:30~2:00pm

Ending time: 4:30pm 

GPS log (courtesy of Wikiloc)

All photos courtesy of Aili Piong.

 

Gunung Datuk, Negeri Sembilan, 1/5/2010

The junction to Gunung Datuk, 885 meter, is about 15 minutes from Tampin town, along the federal trunk road to Rembau.  We took our breakfast at Kota town, 2 minutes north of the junction. The nasi lemak and roti canai were not disappointing. After the junction the kampung road is quite scenic with the mountain range on our right side. After another small junction we reached the park HQ. Encik Hamid paid the hiking fee and led a stretching exercise to warm up all the muscles and ligaments. The trail head is after the small jungle swimming pool.

 

The jungle path leading up Gunung Datuk: The trek is all the way up, so there was no wasting energy in ascending and descending small hills like in Gunung Ledang.

 The final push to the top of the 'false peak'. Although it is not the summit which was nearby, most people opt to stop there as it offers spectacular views. The real summit can only be reached through dense forest.

Sg Madek, Kahang, 17/4/2010

A group of birders in action

 

Red-bearded Bee-eater

 

Phallus indusiatus, commonly long net stinkhorn, crinoline stinkhorn, or veiled lady/Bridal veil stinkhorn