Sometimes I wonder where I put my senses when I do this kinda of things... I mean paying to hurt myself?? This 'wonderment' happens especially when I'm really tired, injured and in the thick of things.
Well that 'moment' came during the recent jungle hash when I had to climb an almost verticle wall of mud, was already very wet and dirty, panting like crazy and trying to grab a slippery rope with a wounded hand with shoes caked in mud. That was just one of the many similar challenges that I had to go through.
But after it was all over, it always ended up with me wanting to have another go at it. That's how I have managed to climb so many mountains. The feeling of success and sense of achievement is so intoxicating, I can never have enough. Like a friend nicknamed "Deeno" used to say when we were at the peak of Mount Trusmadi (Malaysia's 2nd tallest mountain) , "
Kesakitan tu hanya sementara, tapi kejayaan tu untuk selama-lamanya", which means pain is only temporary, but success is forever. I totally agree (the bragging rights for this cannot be purchased, brother/sister... hehehe).
Before the ordeal. Left to right : Lim, me, Edrin, Mafiz, Shahrul, Mafeitzeral, Ruslan, Halim)
All set to go.We participated in the GT last Sunday and I have to say that I'm satisfied with my achievement... we got number 84 out of 137 participants for our category. I partnered with Edrin and I think we finished the 14km route in less than 3 hours (I forgot to clock myself). Mafeitzeral and Mafiz finished ahead of us, while Lim-Shahrul and Ruslan-Halim came later.
Some obstacles that we had to go through near the finishing line.
Ouch my butt!
Spidermen? We had to walk in this very sticky mud. Edrin trying his luck to look for gold. Hahah..
We decided to do some 'posing' by going on all fours. Heheh... Actually the mud was too deep to thread. So we went 4WD instead.
Finitto!
The usual faces...
(don't ask me who the 2 guys on my left side were... they just entered the frame voluntarily)However, I'm very unsatisfied with the organizing committee of the GT. There must be at least several idiots and boneheads that made stupid decisions that spoiled the event that could've been excellent:
1. The T-shirst that were given to us were not the sizes that we ordered and paid for over the Internet when we did our on-line registration and payment. How difficult can this be? Why would they take orders for size in the first place if they cannot fulfill them? How come other runs which were participated by thousands more can give us the correct sized t-shirts whilst GT organizers had less than 1000 participants but still couldn't get this right?
2. In addition, the lady that handled the counter was rude and shouted at people. Where are your manners? First they failed the t-shirt sizes test, and then they failed the customer service test too. This is the picture of the rude lady. Shame on you.
3. There were no medals for the late finishers, including Ruslan and Halim, who got really frustrated and upset especially with the fact that the medals were available but not given. The organizer (another different lady) gave stupid reasons to hold back on the medals, which one of it included "keeping the medals for next year". What?!? The medal was printed with the date of the race "2 November 2008"... How can it be relevant for next year? Those people who finished late deserve at least a token for their participation and finishing the challenging race especially when the organizer had promised that finishers would receive a medal.
Not until the late finishers had to go through some argument with the organizer (who was still adamant) that they got their medals - not from the organizer but from a kind lorry driver who out of his own accord took the medals from the back of the lorry and handed it to everyone. Thanks to him, otherwise things might have gotten hairy and we may see a lot of complaint letters going to the media.
Too bad this blog entry was more about complaining because my feelings were very strong about this... both my good friends, Ruslan and Halim, 'fought' hard to complete the race but almost went home empty-handed.
On another note, well done everyone for completing the gruelling race!
