Penang Round The Island Relay - The Cari Teams
It was a trip that had been planned for very long. The 2012 event was awfully fun and syok that we decided that we would definitely come back again after a few years so earlier this year, Shu Wei and Victor started to plan for this event. We actually created the admin group last year if I'm not mistaken and started some leisure talk and brain storming sessions. We had the experience after participating in the 2012 event so this time it seemed much smoother but it was definitely not an easy job as most people had seen. To organize an event for a total of 36 people, it's quite unavoidable for the incidents to happen. People ffk last minute because of the injury, the commitment, etc and it's quite hard to please everyone. But luckily this time this bunch was not much of the DDLY people, everyone were quite easy going and gave us all the support and the utmost cooperation so in the end 3 teams were formed!
3 Teams
Cari Forever Faster and Cari Ignite were managed by Victor. Cari Fakers was managed by Shu Wei. Both of them searched for the runners and arranged things for us. Team members were mostly made up of Cari Runners, Puma Runners and our friends. Why named ourselves Cari Fakers? LOL, it's quite a stupid name I know. All 12 of us are a bunch of fakers, Karkarcooperation.com runners. They all can run 5km in 17~19 minutes, but everyone wanted to claim themselves as the slowest runner. Like Jun Wen and Shu Wei, always say no training and say run very slow but always champion in the race. Fuckers! Sorry… I mean fakers! LOL. And half of the team were injured runners like me or someone who had just recovered from the injury but they all can still run sub-4 pace easily and always win the race (not including me of course). LOL. A bunch of fakers!
Pre-Race
3 teams 36 people plus 3 supporters, total of 39 people departed on Saturday morning from Kepong Tesco after the breakfast. The race started on Sunday morning 4am! We spent Saturday hunting for food and sightseeing around, killing the pre-race jitters! LOL... ok not much of the jitters, it was supposed a fun run!
Race Day Morning
Victor ordered to gather at 2:30am so we had to wake up at 2am. Usually 2am only I go to bed and I have problem sleeping so early so I spent my time checking FB and chatting around. When I was about to sleep it was already 1:30am and yes, I napped for about 30 minutes only but I was not tired! The coffee I had in the day time helped a lot!
2:45am we set off to the starting point! After briefing and some DDLY photo taking session, we left with our bus to our own starting points! The bus dropped 3 of us, Bee Yin, Eddy and me at the station 6. Once again I came back to this familiar place. I ran the same leg in 2012. The problem with this place is there is no toilet around at this hour! We spent 30 minutes walking around looking for the toilet and luckily we managed to find one that was not-supposed-to-use toilet. LOL! Don't worry, we didn't break anything! After the big and small businesses, we still had to wait for another 1 hour for the 5th runner to reach but the pre-race jitters made the time passed so quickly.
First 5 Runners
We killed the time with exchanging info through Whatsapp. Thinnesh and Yong Zhi ran the first 2 batons. They both can run 5km under 18 min, 2 of the fastest among us so definitely they had to cover the longest distance. They didn't disappoint us; both came in overall 4th placing. Then the imba god speed Chris over took 1 runner and put us in a better placing which was 3rd. 4th leg Fabio got overtook by 1 fast runner but he didn't give up and still came in overall 4th. Then our captain Shu Wei ran his favorite route which covered for about 4km with a 3:35 insane pace. LOL! What an awesome performance! He maintained the overall 4th placing too.
At this time, Penang Forward men team was ahead of us by about 3 minutes. College Community Bayan Baru team also 1 minute ahead. Penang Forward veteran team was 30 seconds ahead. Then finally Shu Wei reached and passed me the baton. It was my turn to run.
My Turn To Run
My route was one of the easiest of all 12. It was all the way flat and straight. I started off with quite a conservative 4 min pace. Starting was alright, left knee was pain but bearable. Then pain slowly got more serious so my body involuntary switched to use more right foot and different running gait causing muscles overused and developed other minor pains at the bottom of the foot and knee. Then muscles got tired very quickly especially the calf and the thigh. Not enough speed work in the last few weeks also causing body refused to work harder. I couldn't speed up much. Started breathing heavily and right foot was so heavy even though it was all flat. At about 4km, runner from BM Leopard overtook me. Our position dropped to 5th. I tried to hold up but the gap became further and further. I was hoping to see Shu Wei, I knew he would come further from the changing zone to cheer me up. It was just bloody 6.45km but it seemed taking forever to finish! Finally I saw Shu Wei and he shouted at me! I sped up with all I had and passed the baton to Daniel. Done! All done! So tough!
Checked my time, not too bad, not the top form timing but still had 26:34, 4:07 pace and PBed by 50 secs! I ran the same route again as 2012 just wanted to beat my own record. Not too shabby considered how bad my current fitness was.
7th - Daniel
Daniel's route was the toughest among all. More than 2.5km of the route is as hilly as the Bukit Cinta hill or DPC hill. Some stretches are even tougher than the DPC water tank stretch and they are so much longer! That was the reason we put Daniel here. I think he broke the all time route record by 10 secs (have to wait for the official result to confirm). He overtook Penang Forward veteran and College team, put us in the better placing which was 3rd placing and shortened the gap with BM Leopard runner to about 200m.
8th - Ee Chuan
Ee Chuan ran the 8th leg. He received baton and sped off. It was a few km uphill then all the way downhill. I like his running form especially the high back kick, so steady and pro! It was so exciting seeing him closing the gap with the front runner! He shortened the gap even more to 100m.
9th - Shau KW
He then passed the baton to Shau. The BM Leopard runner was 100m ahead but when our bus overtook them, Shau was already in front of that runner, they ran neck and neck and by the time he passed the baton to Jun Wen, That runner was nowhere in sight already. He did the 5.7km in 21:50, 3:51 pace! Damn imba!
10th - Jun Wen
Jun Wen, our kar kar cooperation model runner. He was stationed here for some reason. We needed him to turn the tide if something happened. He was one of our core runners. He made the gap even further to 2 minutes, the runner behind was at least 500m away already when he passed the baton to our 11th runner Chee Wai.
11th - Chee Wai
Chee Wai had just recovered from the injury. This run was his first race after 9 months of rest. First race and already so strong! He maintained the lead and made the gap even further to 2.5 minutes! This run was the test for him to decide whether he could resume racing or not and I guess the answer was a positive one! Oh no, one more fast runner returned to the field now!
12th - Hoo Yeen
Our last runner was Hoo Yeen, our favorite Cari old timer! The most experience runner in the team. No doubt at all! It was quite a relax run for him. No one in front and behind him, he just maintained and steadily crossed the line.
Crossing The Line
Finally, we clocked 4:46:58 and got 1st runner up! As what we calculated! Wow! We shaved about 19 minutes off our 2012 record. Cari Ignite mixed team won 6th placing and Cari Forever Faster men team won 7th placing too! Well done everyone!
It was so much fun and so exciting! Coincidentally, it was my birthday on the weekend so they bought a cake and celebrated for me. What a surprise! I was so touched! There were too many photos, chats and notifications until my battery gone in just a few hours. 1 power bank also not enough. Next time have to bring 2! Haha!
Thanks Victor, Shu Wei and all our supporters Voon Ying, Lucas and Elaine for the great help and support! It was fun but quite tiring so we can't do it every year. It took many efforts to organize and arrange! Some more they did it for free! What more to ask! Kudos to all of them! But I do hope we can do it again in the next couple of years! Maybe every 3 years?! I will definitely come back again!
OK, this marked my last event of the year! I will be temporary off from running for a couple of months! I need this off season just to get a life, giving myself some hibernate time for other non running stuffs and the body to recover! But please don't leave me out if there are gathering and events! I will still love to join if there is one! See you guys again next year!
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| Cari Teams! |
3 Teams
Cari Forever Faster and Cari Ignite were managed by Victor. Cari Fakers was managed by Shu Wei. Both of them searched for the runners and arranged things for us. Team members were mostly made up of Cari Runners, Puma Runners and our friends. Why named ourselves Cari Fakers? LOL, it's quite a stupid name I know. All 12 of us are a bunch of fakers, Karkarcooperation.com runners. They all can run 5km in 17~19 minutes, but everyone wanted to claim themselves as the slowest runner. Like Jun Wen and Shu Wei, always say no training and say run very slow but always champion in the race. Fuckers! Sorry… I mean fakers! LOL. And half of the team were injured runners like me or someone who had just recovered from the injury but they all can still run sub-4 pace easily and always win the race (not including me of course). LOL. A bunch of fakers!
 |
| Cari Fakers! |
Pre-Race
3 teams 36 people plus 3 supporters, total of 39 people departed on Saturday morning from Kepong Tesco after the breakfast. The race started on Sunday morning 4am! We spent Saturday hunting for food and sightseeing around, killing the pre-race jitters! LOL... ok not much of the jitters, it was supposed a fun run!
 |
| Before departure near Kepong Tesco |
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| Group photo at 姓周桥! |
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| With Ray and May! AD runners rock Penang! |
Race Day Morning
Victor ordered to gather at 2:30am so we had to wake up at 2am. Usually 2am only I go to bed and I have problem sleeping so early so I spent my time checking FB and chatting around. When I was about to sleep it was already 1:30am and yes, I napped for about 30 minutes only but I was not tired! The coffee I had in the day time helped a lot!
2:45am we set off to the starting point! After briefing and some DDLY photo taking session, we left with our bus to our own starting points! The bus dropped 3 of us, Bee Yin, Eddy and me at the station 6. Once again I came back to this familiar place. I ran the same leg in 2012. The problem with this place is there is no toilet around at this hour! We spent 30 minutes walking around looking for the toilet and luckily we managed to find one that was not-supposed-to-use toilet. LOL! Don't worry, we didn't break anything! After the big and small businesses, we still had to wait for another 1 hour for the 5th runner to reach but the pre-race jitters made the time passed so quickly.
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| KL Cari group photo! |
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| Group photo with Penang Cari! So big group! |
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| Cari Fakers group photo before flag off |
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| Station 6 Cari runners - Qiyan, Bee Yin and Eddy! |
First 5 Runners
We killed the time with exchanging info through Whatsapp. Thinnesh and Yong Zhi ran the first 2 batons. They both can run 5km under 18 min, 2 of the fastest among us so definitely they had to cover the longest distance. They didn't disappoint us; both came in overall 4th placing. Then the imba god speed Chris over took 1 runner and put us in a better placing which was 3rd. 4th leg Fabio got overtook by 1 fast runner but he didn't give up and still came in overall 4th. Then our captain Shu Wei ran his favorite route which covered for about 4km with a 3:35 insane pace. LOL! What an awesome performance! He maintained the overall 4th placing too.
At this time, Penang Forward men team was ahead of us by about 3 minutes. College Community Bayan Baru team also 1 minute ahead. Penang Forward veteran team was 30 seconds ahead. Then finally Shu Wei reached and passed me the baton. It was my turn to run.
My Turn To Run
My route was one of the easiest of all 12. It was all the way flat and straight. I started off with quite a conservative 4 min pace. Starting was alright, left knee was pain but bearable. Then pain slowly got more serious so my body involuntary switched to use more right foot and different running gait causing muscles overused and developed other minor pains at the bottom of the foot and knee. Then muscles got tired very quickly especially the calf and the thigh. Not enough speed work in the last few weeks also causing body refused to work harder. I couldn't speed up much. Started breathing heavily and right foot was so heavy even though it was all flat. At about 4km, runner from BM Leopard overtook me. Our position dropped to 5th. I tried to hold up but the gap became further and further. I was hoping to see Shu Wei, I knew he would come further from the changing zone to cheer me up. It was just bloody 6.45km but it seemed taking forever to finish! Finally I saw Shu Wei and he shouted at me! I sped up with all I had and passed the baton to Daniel. Done! All done! So tough!
Checked my time, not too bad, not the top form timing but still had 26:34, 4:07 pace and PBed by 50 secs! I ran the same route again as 2012 just wanted to beat my own record. Not too shabby considered how bad my current fitness was.
7th - Daniel
Daniel's route was the toughest among all. More than 2.5km of the route is as hilly as the Bukit Cinta hill or DPC hill. Some stretches are even tougher than the DPC water tank stretch and they are so much longer! That was the reason we put Daniel here. I think he broke the all time route record by 10 secs (have to wait for the official result to confirm). He overtook Penang Forward veteran and College team, put us in the better placing which was 3rd placing and shortened the gap with BM Leopard runner to about 200m.
8th - Ee Chuan
Ee Chuan ran the 8th leg. He received baton and sped off. It was a few km uphill then all the way downhill. I like his running form especially the high back kick, so steady and pro! It was so exciting seeing him closing the gap with the front runner! He shortened the gap even more to 100m.
9th - Shau KW
He then passed the baton to Shau. The BM Leopard runner was 100m ahead but when our bus overtook them, Shau was already in front of that runner, they ran neck and neck and by the time he passed the baton to Jun Wen, That runner was nowhere in sight already. He did the 5.7km in 21:50, 3:51 pace! Damn imba!
 |
| Leg 9 view, my favorite scene! |
10th - Jun Wen
Jun Wen, our kar kar cooperation model runner. He was stationed here for some reason. We needed him to turn the tide if something happened. He was one of our core runners. He made the gap even further to 2 minutes, the runner behind was at least 500m away already when he passed the baton to our 11th runner Chee Wai.
11th - Chee Wai
Chee Wai had just recovered from the injury. This run was his first race after 9 months of rest. First race and already so strong! He maintained the lead and made the gap even further to 2.5 minutes! This run was the test for him to decide whether he could resume racing or not and I guess the answer was a positive one! Oh no, one more fast runner returned to the field now!
12th - Hoo Yeen
Our last runner was Hoo Yeen, our favorite Cari old timer! The most experience runner in the team. No doubt at all! It was quite a relax run for him. No one in front and behind him, he just maintained and steadily crossed the line.
Crossing The Line
Finally, we clocked 4:46:58 and got 1st runner up! As what we calculated! Wow! We shaved about 19 minutes off our 2012 record. Cari Ignite mixed team won 6th placing and Cari Forever Faster men team won 7th placing too! Well done everyone!
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| Group photo! |
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| 1st runner up! |
It was so much fun and so exciting! Coincidentally, it was my birthday on the weekend so they bought a cake and celebrated for me. What a surprise! I was so touched! There were too many photos, chats and notifications until my battery gone in just a few hours. 1 power bank also not enough. Next time have to bring 2! Haha!
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| First time celebrate my birthday with so many people. :D |
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| Thanks for the cake! |
Thanks Victor, Shu Wei and all our supporters Voon Ying, Lucas and Elaine for the great help and support! It was fun but quite tiring so we can't do it every year. It took many efforts to organize and arrange! Some more they did it for free! What more to ask! Kudos to all of them! But I do hope we can do it again in the next couple of years! Maybe every 3 years?! I will definitely come back again!
OK, this marked my last event of the year! I will be temporary off from running for a couple of months! I need this off season just to get a life, giving myself some hibernate time for other non running stuffs and the body to recover! But please don't leave me out if there are gathering and events! I will still love to join if there is one! See you guys again next year!
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