3 months ago: Signed up for Genting Trailblazer with Alex. Never stopped asking myself why.

29th Oct 2010:
Carbo-loaded at the Royal Oak. All legit, I assure you…

30th Oct 2010:
Evening: Drove up to Genting Awana to bunk with Gordon/Joyce, and Angela/Sarah. Thanks you, really appreciate it! Received race kit from Joyce who helped to collect it. Contains a T-shirt, a PowerBar, gels for muscle aches, discount vouchers for this and that and most importantly, a tin of Milo! Managed to fall asleep at about 1am.

Our ride. Just *had to* camwhore in the parking lot lah

31st Oct 2010:
6.30am: Woke up. Ate one sausage bun, 3 bananas and 1 Milo. Spent about 20 mins deciding if I should wear cotton Bootcamp T-shirt or almost dry-fit Genting Trailblazer Brooks T-shirt. Loyalty won.

7.45am: Made our way to the lobby. Bloody lift took forever, stopped at every floor. Lots of people taking part in the Trailblazer this year took the run+hotel package, it seems. Located the rest of the Bootcamp people. Made our way to the field. Bloody journey was an uphill walk, that was warm-up for me already!

The trail for this year’s Trailblazer Adventure, all 14km of it

8.10am: Registered (again) at the field. Lady was adamant that our bibs were pinned at a certain angle/ visibility. Got annoyed because it felt like public school all over again where teachers make you do things just because they can.

8.15am: Amused at the crowd warming up aka dancing to Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’, led by a couple of (most likely Celebrity Fitness) instructors on stage who looked like they’d downed 100 happy pills for breakfast. Felt like I should be warming up but remembered that I’d rather die before getting caught grooving to Bieber, even if by my own reflection in the mirror. Recalled an exchange in South Park The Movie:

Newscaster: This isn’t the first bad thing to come out of Canada. Let’s not forget Bryan Adams!
Canadian rep: Yes, well the Canadian government has apologized for him on several occasions.

Hello, beautiful CLEAN people…

8.25am: Went through check list: Partner Alex. 500ml Gatorade and 1litre drinking water. One PowerBar. Two PowerGels. Buff. Gardening gloves. Band aids. Shit loads of salt nicked from McDonalds last night ‘cos I hate leeches. Hate as in I hate war kind of hate. Yeap, everything sorted.

8.30am: … And the 1st category, the Men+Men were off, yeay!! Also contemplated hunting down the announcer and possibly finishing him off with my trademark STFU-You’re-Annoying-Me kick. Didn’t but can’t tell you what it is anyway because it’s trademarked.

8.40am: … And the 2nd category, the Women+Women were off, yeay!!

Did I mention, clean?

8.50am: People starting running so we started running. Announcer #fail. And we the Men+Women and Veterans were off, yeay!!
8.55am: Crap, I’m tired already.
9.00am: Bloody hell, how much more of this must I endure?
9.05am: You’ve got to be kidding me, right?

Walked/ jogged around the golf course. Apparently this was a mistake as you’re supposed to gain lead here, else you’d be stuck in the jungle trailing far behind. Which we were a lot. Why? Only because there are so many teams and only one trail. When the people in front slow down, naturally the people behind had to slow down or stop completely and wait around.

Entering the rainforest!

Once we entered the jungle, the human traffic jam started. Thought we’d be clever to attempt an alternative trail with some other participants, by going up the hill a bit to return to the group. Bit bodoh because by the time we reached the group, the human traffic jam had mostly dispersed and we were still the last few in the trail, haha.

At times it seemed like an endless UPHILL journey, z0mg. Where there were downhills, we tried to slide down when we could because it was so much easier that way. Of course it was muddy at a lot of places: so many people went on the same trail. In fact there were 2 hills where we were supposed to haul ourselves up, that I thought was the most difficult. It was unbelievably muddy and I could not get ANY grip. Combine this with a lack of upper body strength, well it was very tough.

Err do I have to go down THIS one on my arse??

In retrospect, those 2 were the only tough bits for me. Actually I found the trail to be fun. Long and tiring yes, but for some reasons I’d expected worse. Benefits of psyching yourself up, perhaps. Painful too, because I’m not used to going uphill and downhill THIS much. Never even did Gasing Hills, heh.

Mud and dirt and scratches? Used to them so they didn’t bother me at all. Saw a few baby leeches writhing in the mud, ewww. Jovial Genting Trailblazer committee member told us that we were going through a 130-year old rainforest. Also pointed out a HUGE tree that looked like a descendant of the Magic Faraway Tree.

The easy parts!

We probably annoyed some people because we were rather noisy. Heh what to do, too excited mah. Actually I just tried to keep my spirit up the best way I know how: talk crap. When you have pseudo confidence, the real thing follows rather quickly. Trust me on this one! I believe it’s mega important because if you’re new to the whole thing, your morale takes a beating after a while. Kick Miss Negativity out the door as soon as you can; she has no place on your mind or in the jungle.

Take a breather, enjoy the sights and sounds as the jovial G.T. committee member kept reminding us. After every hurdle, tell yourself that it’s just the beginning (because it was!!!). Laugh and joke with your fellow participants, lend a hand or a leg or a bum if you see that they’re facing difficulties. Look out for the person in front and behind you; it’s not cool to kick them down to get ahead.

The beginning of the obstacle course!

Most importantly, pick up after yourselves, you lazy bastards. We saw leftovers of shoes (because you were too cheap to buy a good All-Terrain pair), water bottles, PowerGel wraps… Hello, if you can bring them into the jungle, then you can bloody well bring them out right?

Throw rubbish everywhere like that, not shy one ar?

After the slopes in the jungle, these babies are not a problem!

I wore tights and shorts on the outside. Great decision to double up for the bottom because of the sliding. My shorts ripped at the few final obstacles, how ironic? My pair of All-Terrain New Balance is intact and served me well. Should have worn thicker, longer socks. Gardening gloves was a handsaver, it allowed me to grab branches and other stuff easily without hesitation.

And the chilly water hits you like that…

I downed 500ml Gatorade and maybe 300ml water after that. Didn’t need water stations, not that we saw any for the most part in the jungle. Swallowed one pack of PowerGel, nasty stuff ewww. Didn’t really notice a difference, or perhaps it worked in the background. Only felt a bit hungry about an hour before the end.

Got out of the jungle, had to go through a route in the open air that is under the sun to reach the obstacles course. Mid-day sun is no fun! I’ve different skin tones now. Burnt a bit of my face too.

“Is that an eel or are you just happy to see me?” Sorry, can’t resist!!

Obstacles courses: plenty of trenches filled with water, baby hills, things that you have climb above and over. Got thoroughly wet. Hit my toes against a rock when I jumped into the trench. Missed my footing, lost my balance and unceremoniously fell hard into the water as I was climbing over the ropes. Think I was grinning ‘cos you know, I’m crazy.

Lots of friends cheered us on by the sidelines, yeay! So it was mostly a fun-to-complete rather than racing-against-time thing.

And by the way, what was with the people who skipped the obstacles?? Why did you sign up for Genting Trailblazer for, then?

Champions in our eyes!

1.10pm: Ran to the Finish line with Alex, yeay!! Actually I don’t really know what time we finished. Dzul just counted for us, so I guess it was 4 hours 20 mins? Honestly I thought we’d do better. You know, in under 4 hours. But whatever, YEAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Collected our Finisher medals, a thin and really cheap-looking piece of wood on a colourful band that looked like it cost RM2.00. Whatever, YEAY!!!!

Had fun and adventure with a GREAT partner, Alex and GREAT Bootcamp friends. YEAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Final unsorted notes:
All the Bootcamp in the world DID prepare me for Genting Trailblazer. Photos from Selva, Zairinator, Cynthia, Alex and Rozinah. Yes I’m in f- unbelievable pain now. Yes the pain will go away, I know that. No I’m not joining again next year, ask me again next year.