Race course = Race + Course

Race:
1st 10 km. Starting point from Pantai Murni to Titi Hayun.

Course:

• "Check your pace, at your own speed." He recalled coach Firdaus' advice;
  
• "Look at how you run during the last futsal game -- If there's somebody who's not as energetic as you but run like you, he'll probably die! -- My point is, channel your energy wisely. " He knows CK might be a little bit exaggerating, but point taken;
  
• "Don't get influent by other runners -- it's just the starting point of the damn 44.7km.." Zana his teammate reminded him, while both of them running side by side, 70m away from their other 2 teammates: Daus and Wan.
  

Race:
5 km after first 10 km. From Titi Hayun, hike up 1000++ steps of 'staircases', shoot straight to the 15-km-check-point, the peak of the Mount Jerai at 1200++ m above sea level.

Course:

• "OK -- now, take your own step.." He doesn't think that he did actually fully get what Daus was trying to say when the team reached in front of the thousand steps of Mt. Jerai. He just shot up, abandoning his teammates behind;
  
• "I need to make sure I still have the energy when I come to the foot of Mt. Jerai. I believe I will be mentally refreshed when hiking up a mountain and running in a forest, and I don't want to waste that moment just becaue I don't have enough stamina anymore to perform in the mountain and the forest.." All in his mind was thinking of the conversation he had with someone very important, when they were talking about the worries he had for the race.

Race:

15 km check point, peak of Jerai.

Course:

• "You just SHOULDN'T leave your teammates behind!!" A senior racer from another team pointed at his face and commented. He felt annoyed, but seeing his teammates finally arrived at the check point after 40 minutes wait, he understood that he could just ignore comment.
  

..but he's still annoyed.
Race:
From the 15th km to the 27th km, from peak to the foot of Mt. Jerai. Downhill, he ran side by side with Wan. Zana the only lady teammate was having muscle pain at her limb, plus her 'not having eaten enough for breakfast' problem, she was slowed down. Daus was with her.

Course:

• "Take good care of your knee." That was the sms sent by Lina a night before the race. He sort of remembered that sms when he realized that going downhill, plus the tiredness factor, he's actually putting great pressure onto his knee. He's in pain, and really really really wanted to stop by and have a break.
  
• "You can slow down, but NEVER EVER you stop." The lesson learnt from his last race in Genting Trailblazer was like a pinch for him. He's in pain, but he did not want to stop, like he did not want to repeat what he got from that Genting Trailblazer race.
  

Race:
The 27 km check point, foot of Mt. Jerai. Came to his surprise, he saw Kak Yus, Huda, Nurin and Amie -- the supporters group of their team was waiting for them at the check point. Wan and himself felt so relieved to see them. Both of them decided to stop and waited for Zana and Daus, while being fed by the supporters team with Kit-Kat and all sort of moral supports.

Course:

• "You stopped, and you sat down.." Coach Firdaus paused, before he made a strong remark of dissatisfaction, "sitting down in the middle of a race is a HUGE MISTAKE for a runner, and how could you?" Coach Firdaus commented sternly, during a after-race postmortem session.

Race:
The 27th km to 37th km. The 10 km rocky trail was covered under the sun of 1 pm to 3 pm, in the middle of the open padi field. The Aiyo, Koma! team started to feel exhausted. Instead of keeping up their 1km/hour pacing, four of them started to slow down by only slow jogging and even walking.

Course:

• "It's all about the mental strength, it's all about the will power; it's all about the mental strength, it's all about the will power......." He kept repeating the theory that he had listened enough. He truly understands that it is easier to chant it than to act on it. He felt heated, exhausted, bored, his not-cushioned running shoe was hurting his feet every step he put on the rocky path, his right knee was in pain..... Up to one point, he could even felt his body was loosing synchronization with his brain, and even worse, his brain was building tendency to listen to his body..
  
• "You can't even lift up your leg, how could you run?!" Coach Firdaus' comment for his last race in Genting Trailblazer, again, was like a heavy bell swinging in his mind.

Race:

The final 7.5 km back to Pantai Murni, the finishing line. They saw the entrance to Pantai Murni, but the race course by-passed the entrance, and followed an outer ring route passing by the beach to enter the finishing line.

Course:

• "They would better make sure this is right!!" Wan started to curse. By-passing the entrance to finishing line was like seeing a Vanilla ice-cream with fresh lime topping in front of you but you are not allowed to touch it. No, it's WAY MORE frustrating than that.
  
• "That extra outer ring route is not designed purposely to fool everybody," after the race, Coach Firdaus explained to the racers, "it's the milage that they have to fulfill to meet the Full-Marathon standard."
  

Full Marathon?!!!!??? Very well.

Race:

About 3 km before finishing line, Aiyo, Koma! team passed by the quarantine post where the racers have to wait for their left-behind teammates before they approached finishing line.

Course:

• "Luckily we reach here in one team, all four are here.. It's so embarrassing waiting in that quarantine post..." Daus pointed out the weird thing about this quarantine post. The rest agreed. They heard the racers in the quarantine post cheered on them.
  

Race:

200 m before finishing line.

Course:

• "Zana, can you still run?" Zana's condition was the main concern of the other 3 guys in the team since peak of Jerai. Zana nodded, "let's run toward the finishing line."
  

********************************************************************

20 December, 2008, 4:08 pm.. Aiyo, Koma! team ran to the finishing line of the Jerai Eco X-Country Challenge 2008 after 8 hours of running through a distance of 44.7 km. They ended their endurance test at the 16th place out of 45 teams. The thrill and excitement were shared by their supportes/ logistic team who waited patiently and waited in faith to Aiyo, Koma! at the finishing point of the race.

Aiyo, Koma! would like to thank all the supports and helps and motivations and advices they received from their friends and the family of KOMA. A race course is called a 'race course' because along the race, racers learnt and aspired -- they learnt from the advices and tips, like a course in a school; they aspired from the drive of their love, like a course for a dream.

ps: all pictues posted here are courtesy of www.jeraiecoxcountry.com, except the last 2 pictures where you can find the Aiyo, Koma! team and their logistic/ supporters team posing after the race.

pss: I accidentally bumped into a Doctor's blog who was in the team that ranked 15th in the same race... and I started to recall that that Doctor might be the one who commented me at hte peak of the Mt. Jerai.. what a small world! Clcik here to read Doc's funny and detailed post about the race: http://opdochisyam.blogspot.com/2008/12/its-not-as-easy-as-you-think-jerai-eco.html. !!

psss: Hey I justrealized that many runners do BLOG as well!! (it's kinda cool for me as this proved that the perception of 'orang kasar tak reti bahasa' is TOTALY WRONG!! ) Click here for team AAC MMU's story during the Jerai Race. Congratulation to Ajis, Panjang, hanis and Nana!