I must admit that I was a little worried about the terrain that day coz I've never done Genting Sempah before. I was quite nervous that morning than ever before coz I dunno what to expect. Surprisingly, I must say that I kinda enjoyed Genting Sempah and the terrain was 'just nice'. Not too hard, not too sissy hehe. I had a few scary moments though coz the road was narrow. One time, I was approaching a corner and in front of me was a 10-wheel trailer making its way towards me. The back wheels of the trailer was only less than a meter from me. Another time, I could hear a lorry coming from behind me and I was approaching another corner when a lorry suddenly came from opposite of the road and missed the lorry behind me by a few meters. Moral of the story: drive a lorry at Genting Sempah instead of a bike next time :P
Then after that, it was downhill all the way to Bentong. Damn I was so scared I almost peed in my pants! My downhill speed was actually about 25-30 on that stretch! Haha.. so what if I'm a sissy :P
Gathered at Kolam Air Panas 10km from Bentong and at Bentong we went to have ais kacang and ice cream in Kow Po shop. And it was worth it coz the ice cream was so yummy! I don't know the price coz the organizers paid for it hehe.. BTW, I only had RM5 in my wallet :P seriously..
The ride to Felda Mempaga for our lunch was not that easy. It was rolling, badly. I was in the middle pack and we had some Letua boys as our sweepers. They set the pace for us and let us draft them until Mempaga. Had our lunch and I noticed my left knee hurt a little. Asked Rahim, the Letua coach to check on my bike position, whether it had contributed to my knee problem. He fixed my saddle and seat post position straightaway.
After lunch, we headed for Temerloh and faced some really wacky rolling hills. I thought Genting Sempah was bad, well this was worse! It can't even be called rolling hills coz after conquering the hill, the road was flat. FLAT! How to roll like that? Not much momentum at all. Tak pe, sabar sabar. I was really on the verge of giving up, wanted to stop and breath so many times but I thought if I did that, I would lose the 'feel' and will be slow at getting back on track again. Downed one chocolate-flavoured Powergel and got on with my ride. 10 minutes after that, reached the re-grouping area where we stopped for half hour before making our way for the final 20km.
Day Two: The Ironman distance(180km)
Route was mainly rolling in the morning and flat in the afternoon. I positioned myself in between 2 chatting cyclists. They potong sayur, I potong sayur. I just stayed in the middle to draft. Layan jer. HR was around 138-145, while going at a speed of 25km/h. I made sure I stayed in the middle of the pack but the rolling hills were too yummy to resist. And becoz the group slowly clumped together at the foot of the climb, I tried to decrease my cadence and not change to lighter gear, but I felt like the cramps are starting. So I made a split second decision and just breakaway and go for the top of the hill! The guys were roaring at the back, eager to see my backside, methinks haha.
After that, we came to another hill which I managed to cross successfully without any cramps or mishaps. And the downhill was a good practice. I learned to let go and just enjoy the ride down while concentrating on the road in front. That morning I managed to do 65km/h! Wow! The feeling was just amazing. The important thing was to hold the handlebar tight and follow the white line on the road as a guide.
Next, we came to another hill which was supposed to be the last hill in the ride(yeah right). My domestiques(the 2 chatty guys in front) told me, we are going to face another hill, where most people kantoi(kantoi apa aa in English??). So I anticipated the worst. Maybe it's as steep as Bukit Tangga.. but it turned out that it was a long incline, that's all. Like something we normally get in Putrajaya. I waited, no one made a move. Then suddenly AJ did a breakaway and rejoined the pack again not too far in front. Apa lagi, aku pun breakaway jugak aa! HAHAHA! I huffed and puffed my way on a steady under 20km/h pace to the top of the incline. 2 other cyclists followed me, I guess I temped them too much with my butt haha.. cannot stand a lady potong sayur the pack maa..
I constantly looked back at the pack to make sure I didn't leave them too far behind. Then we reach our next pitstop for lunch. The heat was so bad that some people decided that they'd skip the afternoon ride due to the weather. When we stopped for lunch, we already did 100km already. Another 80km to go.
The strategy was to cycle for one hour, to do around 25km/h speed and stop every hour to replenish/drink. At the first stop, I went to get some water and ice to put into my jersey to cool down. But there's no ice left, all the ice had melted. But the water in the container was still cold and looked tempting. I told the driver, can you please pour the ice water on me so that I can cool down? He gave me a weird look, "Are you sure?" I said yes and he poured most of the ice water on me. Felt great and finally my body felt cooler and fresh as daisy.
We continued our journey for another hour. We came to roads where the wind was blowing us all over the place. I made the wrong move by not staying with the front pack but cycling happily on my own.. until a strong wind almost blew me off my course while I was going downhill. Damn, I thought. I almost cried coz the wind was relentlessly blowing and trying to get me off my bike. Anuar advised me to use big gears in front and smaller gear at the back so that the bike feels a little heavier and I could cycle downhill. I trusted him and when the next downhill came, I did as told and cycled downhill while holding the bars tight so that the wind won't blow me away.
It was the scariest experience ever. As scary as last year's riding in heavy rain at Bukit Putus. Finally we arrived at the next stop and I checked my speedometer to see that I actually went at 78km/h during my downhill stint just now! Double wow!
After the final re-group, we cycled into Cukai and Kemaman. I tried to follow the front pack but they were going at 36km/h. I tried chasing them at 32km/h but gave up after 5 minutes when I noticed that I only have 5 km to go, so there's no use to push myself. I joined myself with the back pack, where I told Jack to maintain the speed of 25km/h so that everyone else can follow us. We led the group into Kemaman town and managed to finish a few minutes after the front pack. At the same time, we managed to provide the others protection from the strong wind.
Day Three: The Century Ride(160km)
With another 160km to go, I went to AJ for some last words. I said, "AJ, please give me some motivation coz I really don't feel like cycling today." He said, "Just enjoy the ride, ya, don't worry too much about speed. Do it at your own pace." I made my own reflections towards my journey so far during stretching. I have come this far, I can do this, it's all in my mental/mind.
We continued our century ride to Kertih, first 10km was generally flat, followed by another 30km of really rolling hills, but not as bad as the first day of our journey. I followed the pack closely, didn't want to be left too far behind. At one downhill, I sort of had a good gap between me and the pack and I gave them a chase again, so that I can benefit from the draft and can conserve some energy. During this, I tried to pick up a few cyclists to join me chase the pack. Then I saw Kam and offered him my draft. I asked him, "Are you OK? Do you think you can manage to push a little bit to the front pack? Then we can rest a little by drafting them." Kam indicated that he's OK to join me, so at the word "Go!" we made our way to the pack. I used a heavier gear and pumped my way to the front at the same time not leaving Kam too far behind. Then when we finally joined the pack, it felt so great. A relief. At last we could cycling and coast and enjoy the ride while the front cyclists were doing the pulling.
Then, there it was, the mother of all hills! It's a little steeper than Bukit Tangga and I can see some people in front stopping in the middle of the road to unclip and get off the bike. That was pretty dangerous, considering there were a few cyclists behind them actually cranking away on their bikes! I endured the pain and just concentrated on the road. HR went up to 170, which was, by my standard, quite low as I normally hit 180 easily on the inclines in Putrajaya. Maybe the 3-day stint did wonders to my stamina, I thought.
The road down was unbelievable. I never felt so relieved that the blardy hill was over! Haha! Now my task was to get into the front pack again as they were already out of sight. So I changed to lower gear and gave them a chase. A few times I was tempted to use the big front crank but I was worried I might overdo myself and pushed a little too early. There was still 100 more km to go.
The route was generally flat, so I maintained at 28-30km/h for 5 minutes until I finally re-joined the pack. What a relief! Finally I could breathe properly! Not long after, we reached Kertih and I had a well-deserved 4 bananas(good to last me for 2 hours) and plenty of water.
Then we continued another hour and half to the next stop. I thought we were going to have lunch at Zafrul Enterprise coz it was already 12 noon so I didn't even bother to eat or drink enough. Suddenly, the marshal said, 5 minutes more and we'll be off for another 30km. I was like "WHAT??!!" In a frantic, I gobbled on 2 bananas and a quarter of Powerbar and drank 2 cups of water.
Then we continued for another 30km before coming to our lunch stop. A mishap happened to one of the cyclists where he almost fainted on the bike thus making him unable to unclip his shoes in time, causing him to fall face first on the road. His road rash was seen on the left side on his face, the skins on his chin, cheek, nose and upper lip were scraped. Gory, I tell you.
After lunch we continued our final journey to Kuala Terengganu. An hour later, all of us arrived unscathed and we congratulated ourselves for daring to finish the entire ride.
The feeling is indescribable. Relief, happy, excited. Felt like jumping all over the place, but of course I had to mind my manners hehe..
Looking forward to another long journey next year. Maybe we should just stick at 400km and not more.. hehehehe
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