Race Date: This Sunday, 24 January 2010

Safra AVventura is an adventure race consisting of multiple disciplines ranging from trail biking, running, kayaking, rope ascend, abseiling, navigation and mystery tests all rolled into one exhilarating race to fully challenge those with a passion for adventure.

My last adventure race was the Penang Eco-Challenge a couple of years back. We did some training prior, but this time round, a BIG FAT ZERO. Read the post HERE to read how it all goes down in an adventure race.

EgaD! This Sunday!!! Wish me luck! Hope I’m still standing for The Killers later that evening!

Geek & Gadgets adventure race, mountain biking, MTB, Safra AVventura

From left: Janice & Grace.

It’s wonderful to see familiar faces at the finishing line cheering you on! Pain and suffering replaced with joy, gladness and sense of accomplishment.

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Friendship, Mountain Bike, mountain biking, MTB, Penang Jamboree

It’s that time of the year where we make our yearly pilgrimage up Penang Hill for the Kayuh Lasak Penang Jamboree. Last year, the organisers took a break. So we were all pretty psyched when we heard it’d be back this year.

Day 1 was spent doing the necessary such as race registration, breakfast shopping and preparing for the big ride on Sunday. It was Jo & Grace’s first time to Penang, so we made sure to cover the famous makan spots around town on Saturday too. That is a separate blog post all together.

Day 2 – Race Day!
5:45am: Wake up, shower, wiggle into cycling shorts, get water bag out of freezer, breakfast, pump tyres, check bike, spray lube, check I have all supplies in bag: spare tubes, tool kit, hand pump, energy gels, happy food.

And we’re all set to go!

We stayed quite close to race central, so it was a 15min warm up cycle to the start point. Met up with the rest of the crew and before you knew it, start horn begun our several hours of torture.

This is the first year I was doing the Penang Jamboree without Wayne, and I did feel anxious knowing there was no one but myself to rely on. For the past couple of Jamborees, it was always comforting to know that he was just a phone call away. This year, I spent most of the ride solo.

It was Me Vs Penang Hill.

As usual, if you don’t manage to get in the front pack, you quickly get bottle-necked at the climbs. What you will see are hundreds of people pushing their bike up 30 degree tarmac climbs with the hope that every hairpin turn would reveal a flatter gradient or downhill section.

Here’s an elevation map from Ming’s bike computer.

At every checkpoint, marshals will give you a little sticker on your race plate to indicate completion of that section. And only if you complete the whole route do you get to be entitled for the grand lucky draw.

A few picturesque highlights of the ride would be at the top of Tiger Hill. There was one point of the ride I just stopped and watched the fog roll in between the hill peaks, nature’s air-con at work.

I finished the race broken and humbled. Clearly my inactivity was showing at my poor performance especially on the climbs. As usual, the hill claimed many victims; riders with cramped legs were sprawled in pools of mud, scattered on the side of the trails like litter. And every now and then, you can hear screams of pain and agony in the distance. Ah, another cramper!

For me, I went home with chaffed inner thighs – friction from my cycling shorts. It’s not pretty and definitely not comfortable especially in the shower when water touches the raw skin.

Again, as I say every year, I’ll be back Penang!

Food & Travel, Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Cycling, mountain biking, MTB, Penang, Penang Jamboree, Travel

I’m about to post a Penang Jamboree 2009 entry, and realised….. I HAVEN’T POSTED THE ONE I WROTE IN 2007!!!!

Here it goes…please remember this was written in 2007
It’s been one year since the last Penang Jamboree, and I don’t know what possessed me to do it again!
Read more…

Food & Travel, Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Biking, Cycling, mountain biking, MTB, Penang, Penang Jamboree, Travel

Morning of the PCC Ride, I woke up with butterflies in my tummy. Nervous because it’s been awhile since my last epic ride, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to survive this ride.

Woke up groggy from the lack of sleep, but it helped that we had a pre-ride routine:
- Get changed, fill hydration pack with bottled water, pack our toolkit, spare tubes, happy food, power gels, hydration salts, grab bike, helmut, gloves and we’re good to go.

We loaded the cars, had a quick carbo-loading breakfast at a near by coffee shop, then proceeded towards the University of Nottingham KL campus assembly point. Once we reached the school grounds, we unloaded and cable tied our ride passports to our bikes.

All registered participants are given a ride passport to collect stickers at every checkpoint.My goal was to get all 4 stickers!

The route was split into 4 stages combined to give you 65km of riding. Here’s the trail explained on the PCC website.

Stage 1 is a fast and flowing pure cross-country route with very few technical sections. It could be considered an easy ‘warm up’ even though it’s 21km! 70% canopied and no big hills.

Riders are advised to pace themselves well for Stage 2 (19km) where you’ll put your ‘warmed up’ muscles to good use. Again, very few technical sections, 1 river crossing and 70% canopied trails. Get prepared for the big-ish hill climb. The rest of the stage has rolling hills.

The best part about check point 2 was the chilled watermelon the organisers had arranged for riders. That was very much welcomed and appreciated! When your body is that exhausted and dehydrated, whatever you eat just tastes so much better. At that moment, you’re going “OMG this is the BEST watermelon in the world, the bananas taste so good!”. But I bet at any other given time, it would just taste blah.

Oh and forget about hygiene, because by that point, you don’t really care. You’d grab the watermelon with your glove, proceed to chomp it down, dripping juices all over yourself and when you’re done, wipe the excess bits off your face with your dirty sweaty cycling shirt.

Stage 3 is short at only 10km but that’s because there are not that many flat sections so it includes some short hill climbs and fun technical descents.

Stage 4 is the best with 16km of estate tracks, plantations, single tracks, flats, climbs and more climbs and a grand finale descent back to the Finish.

This year’s ride was especially taxing for me, but I’m glad to have finished it. I was absolutely spent, and was just looking forward to a nice hot shower and a big lunch.

In summary: Fantastic cross country trails, although I would have preferred more flowy downhills. Race was well organised as usual, but a shame it started to rain before the lucky draw started, we all left to avoid getting totally drenched.

On a side note, it was lovely to meet some Malaysian riders who have been following this blog *waves*.
From left to right: Nik, Max, Eric, Yew Weng, Chee Han, Wayne, Chi, Ling, Angela, Leon

After a wanton mee and chee cheong fun, we were all set for what seemed to be, a very long drive home.

Thanks to the PCC guys for organising the ride.

Next epic ride: Penang Jamboree 2009… Who’s going?

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Malaysia, mountain biking, MTB, PCC Presidential Ride

First big ride for 2009 was the PCC Presidential Ride in Kajang Kuala Lumpur. Judging from the number of mountain biking posts this year, you can tell how LITTLE I’ve hit the trails. I guess it was the culmination of the break up, lack of motivation and no partner to cycle with. So the PCC ride this year was a little tough mentally and physically.

We all drove up on Saturday morning for the Sunday ride. Thanks to Nik for carpooling and giving me and my bike a ride up to KL. The convoy of 4 cars took about 4 hours from Singapore to KL.

We reached the hotel early afternoon, which meant we had the rest of the day to kill. Hmmm… what to do, what to do…. We went into KL Central, and decided to get a massage! OMG, that massage was the worse massage I’ve had in my entire life! It was rubbish. The masseuse clearly had no idea what she was doing, i felt completely physically abused. Let’s just say there was a lot of hair tugging and back slapping!

We ended the night with a seafood/zhi char dinner before heading home for an early night. I know it’s not terribly exciting, but I just needed to pen this down, so I’d remember what we did.

Read more about the ride in the next post.

Friends & Family, Sports & Wellbeing Biking, KL, Malaysia, mountain biking, MTB, PCC

Feels good to be cycling again… Time to train up for the PCC ride in 2 weeks.

Lizard count is back too…

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB

Filmed for the ESPN Star Sports hitsquad team.

Was just after our ride at Bukit Timah Mountain Bike trail on a Sunday. Was hot, sweaty and out of breath, GREAT for TV :/ oh dear…

Snaps & Clips, Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, video, wayne, youtube

Had my first taste of mountain biking at night late 2007 during the togoparts 11 race, where I had to ride the last lap at sundown. But I title this post my “First night ride” because my recent voyage into the darkness on two wheels was a totally different experience all together. For most of it, I wasn’t familiar with the route, so I had no idea what to expect. All I could do was depend on Wayne’s guidance from behind on where the gnarly sections where.

It was just Wayne, Leon, Nik and I that week, but I’m sure there will be more of us next time.

The experience was out of this world! It brought a whole new dimension to mountain biking. The way you tackle obstacles and drops are waaayy different in the night. And when I did come across areas I was familiar with in the day, scratch that, you won’t recognize the place AT ALL. I think it was the company, fear of the unknown and the adrenaline rush, which made it one of the best rides ever. I HAD SO MUCH FUN!

On a side note, I think my adidas cycling shoes days are limited. It has served me well. Time to order in a new pair.

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, Night ride

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, Owwiee, pulau ubin

Here are the out-takes of the Pulau Ubin video from the previous post.

Till next time…

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, pulau ubin

It’s great to be back on the saddle. I’m reminded why I fell in love with the sport to begin with.

I swear it wasn’t planned, but all the girls happened to be in blue that morning

Here’s the latest addition to the Blursotong productions. Two Pulau Ubin rides edited into one video, watch in HD if you have the bandwidth, less grainy. Enjoy!

Sports & Wellbeing mountain biking, MTB, pulau ubin

After a VERY long hiatus, Janice dusted off the goat and joined us for a ride at Bukit Timah Nature reserve last weekend. Albeit a short ride, it was sufficient to get her used to riding off-road again.

Circa May, 2006

September, 2008
I had my biking buddy back again.

It was fun riding with the girls, for once we weren’t outnumbered. It’s such a male dominated sport its hard to find ladies to bike with.

Jan, Waynetta, Cheryl pushing up the gnarly section near the barrier

Cheryl crankin it, and made it.

Carrying our bikes up 3 flight of steps near the end of the trail.

Jan, I’m putting this on record.

Janice has hereby promised that she will be riding off-road at least once a month starting from this month onwards.

Here’s to many more OFF-ROAD rides, this is us Doing the Angela Gray “DTAG”.

Sports & Wellbeing Bukit Timah, mountain biking, MTB

This happens every single time, the night before a big race, I start to regret not training enough for it. I just wish i started ‘regretting’ weeks earlier. Now I’m all nerves for tomorrow’s Krankin @ Kent Ridge. I wish I would for once, feel READY for a race. But then again, it’s like an exam, no matter how much you study, you’re ‘never ready!’.

I went for a practice run this morning, and i couldn’t clear all the climbs…. and I was completely out of breath after one round… shit, I’m screwed.

Oh wells, just finish the damn thing Angela. For the love of the sport and to support my good friends at DirTraction.

Sports & Wellbeing Kent Ridge, Krankin @ Kent Ridge, MTB, Race

Click HERE for details

Sports & Wellbeing MTB

A weekend ago, we all went over to the Tampines trail for a couple of rounds, a trail which we’ve all gone round plenty of times. But not too long ago, PLing had a pretty bad spill on a gnarly section near the bridge.

So on the first round, Rebecca, thinking she should go slow and easy, still had a pretty bad spill down the rocks and got her shin pretty badly chewed up.

On the second round, it was my turn. I was going too slow too and the bike was taking me down the left into the water. But luckily I managed to throw the bike away from me and grabbed on to the bridge. But the fall didn’t come without injuries.

As my nephew would say it, I got an Ouwweee! The bruise was there for a week! Which meant no skirt or dresses for a week! That part now is almost un-ridable due to the weeks rain and erosion.

Here’s adidas Wayne, i say that because he actually took time this morning to match his shirt with his shorts with his socks with his shoes!

Sports & Wellbeing Adidas, Cycling, mountain biking, MTB, Tampines, Tampines Trail

About three weeks back, we went to Bukit Kiara KL for some DH-ing with the Gangsa boys. Wayne really wanted to go up to try out his new Turner DHR. It’s a sweet little thing in gun metal grey. I shall write about that trip and last weekend’s a bit later. But first, check out the Wayne’s new desktop picture I did for him? He loves the cartoony effect.

Doesn’t he look so “garang”?
(GARANG – Malay for ‘fierce’ or “powerful”. Can mean “impulsive”, “courageous”, “foolhardy”)

Also made a new post icon for him too. So if he ever wants to post about bike stuff on this blog, he’ll have that little icon on the left.

Geek & Gadgets MTB, Photoshop, wayne

The longest 84km of my life.

We were support cyclists for the Adidas Sundown marathon, the last time were doing this, it was for the 70.3 half ironman last year.

My day started really early, Wayne and I were running errands in town, so I’m surprised I managed to stay awake all the way till 7:30am the next morning.

Adidas lighting the way for runners

We rushed to pack and load the bikes at 7pm and headed towards Changi Village to report for ‘duty’ at 8pm. Wore my ‘Race Official’ bib, whistle, walkie talkie and I was good to go.

Wild boar William and Wild boar Wayne
Initially, I was assigned to lead the marathon category (42km), but we had someone pull out. So I had to bike the Ultra-marathon category (84km) instead.

DirTraction Crew
I’m not too fussed, how bad can it be right? It’s just going to be double the distance?!

And there they go
Well how wrong was I!?! After 42km, my bum was starting to numb and hurt from all that sitting down. It came to a point where I had to stand and cycle for awhile just to get the blood flowing.

And because we were cycling at running pace… no disrespect to the runners, but it felt sooo loonnggg.

Jeanette and me at the finish line

9 hours 14mins and 36 seconds later… Ladies 1st position crossed the finish line. My job was done. Congratulations Jeanette!

When we were driving home, it started to piss down really heavily. We felt so sorry for all those runners still on route, they must have been drenched, cold and tired.

You know what’s the best part? Going home, taking a HOT shower, turning on the air con, having a piece of toast, and climbing into cold bed sheets exhausted.

Geek & Gadgets Adidas, MTB, Running

Preparation started on Friday night, Wayne and I had so much things to pack, its almost ridiculous the amount of things we brought down to Tampines! But i think everyone appreciated the effort, because we were totally prepared for everything.

We had first aid kits, deep heat, cold drinks, food, ice, TF2, tools, bike stands, tables, chairs, ground sheets… EVERYTHING!

Line of bikes before race start.

Post race report
The race went alright, Wayne signed me up for the Women’s solo category, which meant 10 laps of 10km non stop around the Tampines trails. There were other categories such as duo, mixed duo and quads, but I guess I wanted to see how far I could push myself.

The race started with a 200min sprint to your bikes, which meant a slow jog for me. After the scuffle to get your bikes, it’s an uphill battle to overtake people on the crowded switchbacks. Oh i must add, it was a super mud fest that day. urgh.

My biggest fan and support.

The day started off sunny, but on my 5th lap, the sky suddenly turned to a dark blue grey. When i was going through the pits, it was announced that the race has to be stopped due to bad weather. The sky opened up and lightening streaked across the skies. (WoooHoooo!) In all honesty, I don’t think i could have finished the 100km!!! My legs were already screaming on the climbs by the fifth lap.

With Leon in the rain.

I must thank the support crew, they were wonderful. I don’t think anyone can do such a race without any help. Thanks y’all! Really really appreciate it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon cleaning the bikes, unpacking, and took a short hour nap before getting ready for dinner. We picked up Benny boy, Ian and Jason and headed to Dempsey for the post race gathering.

Post race dinner at Fabricca Dempsey Road
I had a good time laughing and chatting over beer and hot dogs. These bunch of people are just so carefree and fun to be around with, it must be something in the mud.

The starstruck boys and Tinker Juarez. Oh… he’s just a * 4 Time US 24 Hour Solo Champion * 3 Time NORBA XC Champion * 2 Time Olympian * Gold Medallist, Pan Am Games * ABA BMX Hall of Fame * Mountain Bike Hall of Fame * Three top 10 finishes in World MTB Championships, that’s all. No big deal right?

I forgot to bring my camera along, so I’ll have to depend on other people for photos.

This one courtesy of Colin, thanks mate!

And this one by Noel Chian.

Oh yes, I also met one of my blog readers, Llyod and his friends at the race. A big hello to the Pinoy mountain bikers I met that day!

Sports & Wellbeing BikeAsia 100, MTB, Tampines

Tomorrow is the BikeAsia 100 off-road bike race at Tampines MTB park. Didn’t really blog about it because I wasn’t sure if I was taking part in the first place.

Wayne signed me up for it, so I guess I’ll be doing it.

I don’t know how I’m going to complete this race, it’s 100km!! I hear all the roadies going “oh a 100km, that’s not far, a couple of hours maybe”… no no, this is 100km off-road , it’s a different game altogether! Plus I haven’t trained AT ALL for this… seriously, I have not done much XC riding at all, been a naughty naughty girl and spent a lot of time at Gangsa. Then there was the fall, which wipped out two weeks of riding. Last weekend was DH Clinic at Kiara…. Shit… I’m screwed!!!!!!!!!

Argh! Angela don’t be such a baby, it’s not impossible…

Well at least I’ll be in company of good friends.

I know Leon and Joshua are going as a duo, Yew Weng, Ming, Birdman are in, and I think Jason, Ian K & Benny Boy (on his v10!!!!!!) will be doing it too. For the ladies, I think it’s becks, Janice, Cheryl, and Athena. Would be a great time to catch up.

Another crucial element of this race is the all important support crew. Wayne is heading up the tent for a few of us, and I believe the OMJs and AAA will be beside us as well. Whoop~!

Wish me luck!

Geek & Gadgets BikeAsia 100, MTB, Tampines