Fat Old Man Running: Turbo Snail Run 3.0

Sunday 27 April 2014

Turbo Snail Run 3.0 - Report

Mount Serapi and Selang Trail Viewpoint

What a clear day it was this morning when the Turbo Snailers went up Mount Serapi yet again. What's more the ground was extremely dry. There was only a short stretch of wetness. It was especially nice since I forgo my running shoes for trail shoes. Most of the runners in Kuching had signed up for the Wishesland Charity Run. Yours truly had been running too much heading towards Borneo International Marathon (4th May 2014) and wanted to do something different. A climb is always good for my legs. Quite a few said they would join us but by Saturday most of them for some reason or another couldn't make it. I joked to MBF that maybe it would be only the two of us up the mountain this time. Last week it was so crowded going up thanks to the 3-day weekend. This time around it was virtually empty. Plus the sun was out in full force and there weren't any low lying clouds.

We met up with Evelin, Rashidah and Aminah. Two of them were training for their Mount Kinabalu climb in September. There weren't really runners. Yours truly is always trying to recruit new runners. Hopefully they will go for the shorter events next time. As it stands they like to climb. If my schedule permits it I don't mind joining them once in awhile. As for the climb up Serapi it was as easy as it gets. Talk about muscle memory. The second time in eight days and it was cruise control the whole way. Met up with a group going up. We took pics together. They took a nice group pic of us and I told them to Google up "Fat Old Man Running". The bald-headed dude is me, said I. I hope it sunk in. For all our technological marvels I forgot about Bluetooth. I am old, so please forgive me. We never know, they might actually see this and send me the pics in due time. On the way back the three new ladies amazed me by running down. They went at a goodly pace. I who love my precious knees chose to walk down with MBF.

They waited for us at the start of the Rayu Trail. It was decided that Evelin and Rashidah would follow me to the Selang Trail, and Aminah would follow Nasa down the Serapi Trail. A hike up the Serapi Trail is 5km. Whereas the Selang Trail is 1.5km long, but this is a real jungle trail, and added on the Serapi Trail it makes for a longer hike. There's a view point there (see pic above) that gives a good view of Santubong on a clear day as this. The three of us rested at the viewpoint and just enjoyed the panoramic vista. Then it was a mad dash back to the HQ. We met up with Aminah and Nasa. We then went our separate ways only to meet up again when we had some comfort foods at the coffee shop, of which ice kacang was one of them. No need to mention what else we had. All told this was a good workout for the legs. This was a nice break in routine. Running the whole week can become monotonous. An injection of a climb or trail hike helps a lot. Different leg muscles most definitely got exercised. Hopefully for the next Turbo Snail Run we will do something even more challenging. Happy running always everyone!