How to define a moment of NOW? Like putting yourself in the middle of a muddy pool, you feel that you ARE sinking -- that's NOW.
18 January of 2009 marked the 1st adventure race for KOMA teams in year 2009, and also the 1st adventure race for Hasfuan 'Alamak, KOMA!'.
Days before the race I saw a committed him because he bought all the gears, all brand new, and ready to rock; early in the morning of the race day I saw a nervous him because he went to toilet for the n-th time before the warming up session.
The 6th Perak Ironbound was the 1st Ironbound race for Aiman 'Alamak, KOMA!', thought it was not his 1st adventure race but being a clumsy him, everything is always like a brand new rocket for him to handle.
Days before the race he had to accept the fact of getting a new partner for the race and that made him even clumsier as he had to act like he's VERY familiar with handling this rocket compare to the relative newbies he'd partner with; early in the morning of the race day I was asked to lead the warming up session, and again he had to act like he's VERY professional in doing that, while holding himself for getting more clumsier.
Hasfuan had problem with rafting -- I mean, all racers had problem with this portion of the race, the portion that ONLY the name indicated 'rafting' but in practice, it was only a portion of soaking themselves in the lake and crossing the lake with the burden of a stack of bamboos.
Hsfuan said something like "I'll settle my business here" when entering the lake, which perhaps meant something like "let's finish this easy job quick here!' to his partner.
Being a comparatively better swimmer in the team, Hasfuan ordered his partner to 'ride' onto the raft while he tried to pull/push the raft to move forward. But obviously they failed, and they had been stagnant in one spot for a quite frustrating period of time, until they found themseves being in the way of another approaching raft.
"Get off from your raft!!" the approaching racers commanded, obviously he was annoyed by this clumsy couple who were struggling with their helpless raft.
Hasfuan and his partner were shocked with the rude way the racer approached them.
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Aiman was holding tight to the raft when another raft approached them. He was trying hard to steer their raft to get out of another racers' way, but a little clash happened and a senior racer of the raft commanded him to jump off the raft.
What da --- It was not a pleasant feeling to be ordered in that rude way, but being the one who initiated trouble to the senior racer, Aiman knew he and his teammate needed to give way, and hence he jumped off from the raft ---
--- and almost immediately, he could feel the ground.
"Hey, cetek lah!" he announced the surprising discovery to his partner who was in fact doing the swim-and-push part. He put up a thankful smile to the senior racer. The senior racer waived them off -- no wonder all the rafts moved kinda swift here, now Aiman understood.
But there was one thing he did not understand -- his supposed-to-be-aggressive partner did not react to the blunt remark of the senior racer, but instead acting so cool and calm... and what was that 'I'll do my business here' remark actually meant?
Business??? No way!! His partner JUST doing his 'business' in the lake..... eeeuuuuwwww....owh grosss.....
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Out from the lake, I think Hasfuan used up most of his energy and his high-spirit as he looked tired and started to mumble.
"I need to stop..." He requested;
"
Ade batu dalam kasut aku lah..." he complaint about the gravels in his shoe;
"
Berat... baju aku basah... berat lah...." he complaint about the weight he was carrying..
".
.beg masuk air lah..." .. and the soaked beg he was carrying.
A Singaporean ladies team overtook them. They were also wet from the lake.
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Aiman was tired when out of the lake, but he realized that there's still lot more to go, and he needed to stay firm and stay tough, at least not yet to break down, because he had a rookie partner to give motivate to.
"I need to stop.." his partner requested -- "no, keep on running, catch your breath.." Aiman reminded him;
"
Ade batu dalam kasut aku lah.." -- "
same lah.. ade batu dalam kasut aku gak.. just feel it, and run.." Aiman did not allow his partner to stop because of the gravels;
"
Berat.. baju aku basah... berat lah..." --- "C'mon, keep this pace.." Aiman ignored that common-sense remark from his partner'
".
.beg masuk air lah" -- "
Meh.. aku bawakan.." Aiman took over his partner's bag.
A Singaporean ladies team overtook them. "Hi~~~~" both Aiman and his partner greeted the ladies.
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Running into the forestry area of Maxwell Hill (
Bukit Larut), Hasfuan started to get over his breathing (and mental) problem. I saw a re-energized him running, climbing and hopping in the jungle. The whole jungle portion included some trekking and river scrambling, which you just really need to move like a monkey and still manage to identify the correct path to go ahead by keeping an eye on the yellow-black stripes marker.
The team kept pace with a few front teams where they sorted out the 'where-the-hell-is-the-marker' problems and 'Goddamn-it-this-is-not-the right-way' confusions together. While keeping their own competitive pace moving ahead, the teams spirit kinda shone here -- until the reached the open uphill road again, where the front teams practically disappeared like a 'snap of time' and leaving Hasfuna and his partner behind, together with one never-stop-jogging mixed team and another fast-walking-and-pictures-snapping male team.
They eventually chose to walk 'fast' PLUS jog 'really slow' up on this winding steep open road, inspired by the fast-walking male team and seconded by their own laziness.
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Aiman found himself having problem to push his partner IF he needed some encouragements too to push himself at this moment of time.
What he could really do to not worsen the motivation level of the team was, NOT TO TRANSLATE THE DEMOTIVATING REMARKS THAT GIVEN BY THE UNCLES along the way.
Out of an obvious reason the uncles and aunties they met along the uphill road spoke mandarin to them, with a 'I-salute-you (and your stupidity)' smile by saying something like:
"
Shi fen zhong zhi qian yi jing you ren pao xia shan le..." or
"hai hen yuuuuuaaaan aa~~~~ aiyo..."
.. which means "There was one team running down hill already about 10 minutes ago.." and "there's still faaaaaaaar awaaaaay ~~
aiyo..."
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How to get Hasfuan lifted up his leg and do that little jogging on this track? His partner just nicely inserted some 'fears' onto him..
"
Cube bayangkan --" what if --
"--
tetibe jer Daus and Mega muncul kt belakang kite..." -- out of a nowhere Daus and Mega appeared behind and trying to over take...
... ... ... ...
None of Hasfuan and his partner could smile right after that 'what if'. Obviously, but yet for a less-obvious reason, Daus and Amy of 'Ops, KOMA!' team happened to be the greatest fear for both of them. -- yup, FEAR, not CHALLENGE.
A moment of silence then Hasfuan smiled pathetically and declared, "THAT would be a nightmare for me,
beb!"
..and so both of them lifted up their loafing legs and start running ahead.
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"CP2!!!!!!!!!"
Aiman saw his partner finally smiled after the endless miles of open-road jogging/running/walking/loafing uphill. Seeing CP2 ahead made him so excited and shouted out loud. He ran towards the check point and realizing the ground rules of no more than 100m separation between team members, hence he had to stop and pulled his partner.
Time check at CP2: 10:++ am. The official cut-off time for this CP is actually 12 pm -- meaning they were 2 hours ahead. Great news for their effort. Aiman was so hyped up by the time, and feeling great about his partner.
At the same time he kinda thought of the status of their buddy team, 'Ops, KOMA!', the team that formed by his initial teammate, Daus his buddy.
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The path after CP2 was again jungle and river plus water fall. The 'George-Jungle' running and river scrambling PLUS markers recognizing processes repeated here, but it was down hill this time.
Hasfuan seemed to be very comfortable when going down hill. He was fast and agile -- but not careful enough. I was not sure how many times he held on a thorny plantation and even got stung by thorns, but I salute his fighting spirit, although everytime when he happened to get stung by thorns, the way he screamed and paused his pace was really really really worrying.
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"Aaaarggghhhhhh~~~~~" for the n-th time his partner screamed out of pain or frustration.
"Again?" Aiman turned around, looked at his stopping partner who stood there and trying to get the thorn out of his flesh.
"You OK?" Aiman did not expect any reply from his partner. From the previous screaming moments like this, he knew that his partner just needed a little time before he proceeded with his Tarzan move.
He himself got thorns and cuts, and fell down for a few times as well -- no doubt, the path they were running on was a new path and there were shrubs everywhere. But it's also a good timing for them to catch their breath.
"Where are the other racers?" While sucking the water from the bladder, he kinda noticed that both of them were the only human being standing in the middle of nowhere.
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Where are the other racers? Hasfuan was struck by the question thrown, almost randomly, by his teammate. He looked around for the black-yellow marker, and almost immediately, he found one tied on a tree ahead, "
Depan." He instructed. Hence both of them move forward, while keeping themselves alert of the marker, for they had been deviated from the right path for quite a few times.
Suddenly they heard bushes shaken behind, somebody tried to overtake them. It was a Sabahan male team, running from behind and the team just needed to give way. One of the Sabahan guy has a striking tattoo on his arm. They overtook them, swiftly ran into the corner ahead.
"Catch up! C'mon.." Hasfuan and his teammate ran into the corner as well, following the Sabahan team. Both teams were running, at almost a same pace, but the Sabahan teams moved swifter in the forest, across the bushes and shrubs.
Very quickly, the Sabahan team disappeared in front of them.
"Damn...." Hasfuan sighed in amused.
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"
Tak paham lah aku!!" Aiman really did not understand, "
Macammaner lah diorng blh gerak laju giler? Kite pun lari gak kan?" seeing the over-taking Sabahan team disappeared in front of them, he was really frustrated and amused.
Both he and his teammate really tried to find an answer for it:
"Yeah maybe next time we should wear hand glove, they don't have to worry about the thorns.."
"Yeah and wear long pants as well..."
"......"
Then they heard bushes shaken from behind again. Another overtaking team???!?!! No way. Aiman turned around. He saw the Sabahan male team approaching them.
Huh? Why...?
The team overtook them, for the 2nd time; and swiftly turned in the corner ahead, then disappeared in front of them, for the 2nd time..
"
Tak PAHAM lah aku!!!" Aiman got frustrated, for the 2nd time.
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Despite of the humiliation of being overtaken by one team and THEN overtaken again by the same team after they got deviated and back to the right path, team 'Alamak, KOMA!' reached CP3 and then the abseil point at about 12:++ pm. The official cut-off time for reaching here was actually 3:00 pm, meaning they were 3 hours ahead of the cut-off time -- and Hasfuan was so excited and still high-spirited, and he FINALY was allowed to clean up the gravels in his shoe while waiting for their turn for abseiling.
The cliff was very slippery. When all geared up and all ready, both Hasfuan and his partner made their abseil way down. He had a comparatively smoother start of abseiling when his partner fell at the edge of the cliff and got the his show and fingers clipped in between the abseiling rope and the edge of the cliff.
He proceeded with his abseiling down and leaving his teammate struggle at the edge, until he found himself stuck in the middle.
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Aiman failed to keep the balance when he was about the abseil down and he got his shoe and fingers clipped at the edge of the cliff -- AND THAT's PAINFUL AND.. erm UGLY.
With the help of the marshals, he managed to get out off the embarrassing situation and got himself recomposed, looked down and targeted the touch-down point, sat-back on his harness, took out the camera, found his partner was already down there, then push himself away from the cliff, let off the grip of the rope at his back, abseil~~~~down to where his partner was.
Aiman's partner was actually stuck in the middle of the X-m cliff, and shouted like an annoying baby complaining about something like the belayer did not let him off. Aiman took out his camera and snapped a picture of the baby, then gave a not really useful advice like 'swing your hand away from your body', then abseil on, going down-down.
He still could hear his partner shouting like a baby when he touched down. While the marshals helping him taking off the ropes, he snapped another picture of the baby.
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From the abseiling to CP4 there's an about 2 km open road of running. The team felt good about their time and did not really want to waste it. They ran all the way to CP4 -- the check point that required the racers to complete 3 tasks: orienteering, kayaking and a mysterious test in Taiping Zoo.
Being a former participant in an orienteering race, Hasfuan was counted for the 1st task of team 'Alamak, KOMA!'. 13 points to be collected, and they were all scattered within a radius of your-bloody-hell-long-distance. Miss to collect 1 point will bring a 5-minutes time penalty. I still remember the 2 warnings that Hasfuan's teammate gave him prior to the task:
1. "
Wan, aku fail nih bab orienteering nih.."
2. "
Wan, kalu kite tak buat terus orienteering nih, time penalty 1 hour 5 minutes
jer, untung lagi.."
..and Hasfuan's response was the typical passionate and high-spirited one:
1. "OK,
InsyaAllah, aku boleh.."
2. "Why?
Kite buat jer lah.. complete-kan jer lah..!"
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".
.aku fail
nih bab orienteering nih.." I fail totally in orienteering -- that's the very frank confession Aiman made to his partner before the race -- throughout all the race disciplines, the orienteering task was a most disastrous nightmare for Aiman. Being the BIGGEST LOOSER in sense of direction, he put no hopes on carrying out the task but to count on his partner.
..anyhow, they had a less convincing start for their orienteering task. They FAILED to oriented themselves to find the starting point for orienteering (how about that?). Realizing his main pilot was not anymore in a good mental condition, Aiman suggested to skip the task for the sake of time- and effort- saving.
"Why?
Kite buat jer lah.." His partner did not see how the strategy of 'skip-and-earn' works, and insisted to go on with the task.
Well.. it's your call. Aiman had to agree with his partner's passion, had to agree that being a rookie like him in adventure race, it's always more important to try every task rather than try to win...
..but soon enough, Aiman had to agree that he should've insisted on his strategy of skipping the whole orienteering task, as he saw a mental broke-down pilot not knowing anymore how to navigate (and even drive) the flight, and a mouthful of unpleasant words came out from his mouth.
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Hasfuan and team quitted the dreadful orienteering tasks with only 5 out of 13 points collected. They spent 1 hour and 30 minutes running like fools and on top of that, another 40 minutes of time penalty.
Hell shit.
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Aiman knew his team was not anymore holding the ticket to the top ten when he saw Zana and Fariz of team 'Fuiyo, KOMA!'. In fact, both 'Alamak, KOMA!' and 'Fuiyo, KOMA!' did the kayak task together, and was even left behind by team 'Fuiyo, KOMA!' in that 3 rounds of kayaking.
His teammate's mental consistency was totally OUT at this moment of time -- many more unpleasant words came out from his mouth, PLUS some actions that really showed his frustration -- like the one trying to hit the suggested 'long stroke' that almost caused the kayak capsized...
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Zoo's mysterious test was easy. The team had to remember at least 3 scientific names of 4 animals inside the zoo. Being a two-men team, it's pretty obvious that each of them would memorize 2 scientific names, then head to zoo center to submit their answers.
Hasfuan was very good in memorizing that 2 scientific names with a mouthful of alphabets, provided he was left undisturbed.
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Done memorizing the scientific names of a
Kijang and a
Landak, Aiman was clueless where to run to next as his partner was the one holding all the directions.
"Hey, where's next?" While following his running partner, Aiman tried to verify the direction, "Buddy,
maner nk per---"
"
JANGAN CAKAP DGN AKU!!! ---- " Aiman was stunt, his partner's reaction was almost instants, "-
-- I'M MEMORIZING!! ---"
Yeah so do I. Duh? Aiman saw his neurotic partner turned around, went back to the mysterious counter and read back the scientific names of his animals.
Raising his eyebrow, Aiman smiled. His funny and lovely partner just made the scientific names of
Kijang and
Landak messed up.
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Done the mysterious test meaning there's the last CP to check in for the team. I saw Hasfuan's ability of navigating regained and his mental recomposed AFTER done with his little business in toilet of Taiping Zoo. Well, being 't
he King of Toilet' of KOMA's racing team -- fair enough.
CP5 located back in the lake garden where they performed they orienteering. Being a consistent looser of sense of direction, his partner really took the advice of Hasfuan and not running back to the garden using the route they came from. Hasfuan showed the team a simpler and much much shorter route to get to CP5.
The final task in CP5 requires the racers to cross the lake by walking on a 'floating bamboo track'. Both Hasfuan and his teammate managed to get it done without anybody falling off from the track -- good enough for the condition of he 'floating bamboo' which were NOT floating at all.
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Before leaving CP5, Aiman heard Fariz and Zana cheered on them. The team 'Fuiyo, KOMA!' was still there to finish their orienteering task after the kayak. He has full confidence on 'Fuiyo, KOMA!' as Fariz and Zana formed a steady combination for the race. He started to think of 'Amboi, KOMA!' -- the only ladies team under the flag of KOMA -- where are the girls? How did they do? He believes Amie could cope with all the huff-and-puff of the race but how about her rookie teammate, Uyun?
Heading to the finishing line, Aiman was feeling great and proud of his teammate. But at the same time he was still wondering about the status of another men team of KOMA, "Ops, KOMA!", in fact, he was worrying about his buddy, Daus. He hadn't seen them since the flag-off of the race..
Where are they? Where's Daus? Pondering about the same wonder, they reached the finishing line.
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How to define a moment of NOW?
Daus was the first to jump onto Aiman and gave him a great hug; Kak Yus, Kak Lina and Ayin cheered; Aiman tapped Hasfuan's shoulder -- At the finishing line, that's 'NOW' -- a moment where all the huff-and-puff, muscle pain and mental torture finally paid off;
How to define a moment of NOW?
Hasfuan bore with the disappointment of wasting more than 2 hours in the orienteering task; Aiman bore with the disappointment of not being able to be in Top 10; Daus bore with his disappointment of not able to finish the race; Zana and Fariz bore with the disappointment of the improper race arrangement that made them failed to complete the race -- At the moment of disappointment, that's 'NOW' -- a moment where we just have to stay firm with what we believe and what we proud of, despite all the frustration we received from a race, and life.
How to define a moment of NOW?
Like putting yourself in the middle of a muddy pool, you feel that you ARE sinking; like abseil from a vertical cliff, you feel that you are going down; like your shoe's full of gravels and little rocks, and you feel the pain and annoyance while running --- and after all, we still feel enthusiastic when somebody come to you and say "Till the next race" -- The passion, the enthusiasm -- That's what being 'NOW'.
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while Adam, feeling worried about his leg's condition, claimed in relief, "I feel no-guilty if my leg has to slow me down.." he thinks he's going to take his time struggling with his condition, without holding back the rest of us.
