#286 - Kota Tinggi MTB Challenge 2014



 

First jamboree of the year for me and my friends.

First time wearing the all new team kit as well :-)

 

pic grabbed from Pinkz Ladyz FB page

 

 

pic grabbed from CycloMotion's FB page

 

 

pic grabbed from Kitty Sue's FB page

 

 

 

It's been a few months since I last joined a jamboree.

It's getting harder and harder to prepare for these

jamborees especially when you have other activities

like DragonBoat and Outrigger Canoe paddling.

 

It's a good thing that Podium Louie (Finisher #6

in Women's Cat) is always there to take care of

Registrations, Deck is now ever dependable to

get us a bus which will fetch us from Novena,

drive us to the race site and back again to Novena,

Efren takes care of designing all Team insignia's

and race kits. All that's left for me and my other

teammates are just to pay the requisite fees and

cooperate with minimum fuss ;-)

 

Ok, so for this race, we cut it quite close by

arriving at the race site with only 20 minutes before

the flag-off. I blame this on us forgetting that there's

usually some kind of traffic jam going to JB on

Saturday mornings. Yes! I think most Malaysian

jamborees that we're scheduled to attend will be

held on a Saturday instead of the usual Sunday.

 

Anyway, I didn't have much practice and so

I listened attentively to the race DJ (he's the usual

skinny guy with the goatee) so that I won't

have any 'surprises'.

 

The race DJ mentioned that the sticker checkpoint

will come first BEFORE the water point. He is very

specific that these two points will be separate. This

is odd as last 2 years, all jamborees combine the

'sticker' checkpoints with the water/food checkpoints.

By the way, I have this fixation with the water

points because it was a very very hot day last

Saturday and I wouldn't want to get dehydrated.

 

And so off we went! I would like to say that

this route is very nice because there is very little

road section. We started on grass and we immediately

went to the loose gravel section. Hehehe it is in one

of these loose gravel sections that our team Ace,

Randy Vega took a spill very early in the race.

Me? I didn't practice so, just finishing this

race without getting beat up is my main priority.

 

At the start people have lots of energy and

most want to overtake everybody else. Hence, I

just let everybody go. I am quite sure I will

overtake most of them later on once the

cramps set in.

 

Anyway, unlike what the DJ said, the water

point came first! I took some water and doused

myself on the head and the back. After a

few clicks more, the sticker checkpoint came.

Nowadays, the Malaysian volunteers have really

gotten to a point where you don't have to stop

and yet when you get out of the checkpoint

you will surely have a sticker, a bottle of water

and a banana stuck in one of your jersey 

pockets. Well done guys!

 

... and then after a few clicks more, I saw

another water point! So it seems that the

organizers have realized beforehand that people

may just faint from the heat and so ADDED

a water point before the actual one.

That is a very nice gesture on the part of the

organizers !

 

En route to checkpoint #2, I arrived at

a place that looks like Butterfly Trail ! You will

definitely know who is from Singapore because

(I kid you not) lots of people were heard whooping

with glee .... until .... I (we all) found out that the

singletrack is just going UPHILL !!! and so

the long, slow slog started. This is the part

where you start to question what were you

doing on that place when you can be sleeping

at home. Anyway, the checkpoint is where the

climb finished.

 

Now going to checkpoint #3, this route is

characterised by a very long climb. I mean

checkpoint #3 itself is located at the highest point

in that area. But even before you get to that steep

climb, it felt like we have already been climbing

for ages !

 

After I finally got to the highest point, that is

checkpoint #3, I doused myself with a full bottle of

water, ate two bananas and admired the scenery.

Too bad I didn't bring a camera.

 

After looking at the 360 degree scenery for

a while I started to go down ... and met Podium

Louie on the way up ! It turned out she got lost

and was cycling for 2km before she realized she

was lost. How she got lost, I don't know. There

were times when I was also alone at the trail but

the trail was well marked and not for a moment

did I get lost. Of course, it meant that I had to slow

down whenever there's a fork at the road and check

where the trail markings are.

 

After that climb to checkpoint #3 (from here on

to be referred as UPHELL), everything was smooth

sailing.

 

Lastly, I noticed this before in other jamborees

but am only going to mention now : at the finish line,

there is a fire engine that pumps water up over the

coming finishers offering a welcome respite from

the heat.

 

After I have exchanged war stories with my

friends, we all took our free lunch made up of rice,

soup, chicken and some pineapples as dessert.

 

Sigh, it is really nice to attend these Malaysian

MTB Jamborees. If not only for the fact that I

hate waking up sooo early, I would go there

every week.