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SUPPLEMETARY TO TEAM MANAGER’S REPORT FOR THE 28TH
ANNUAL PENANG ROUND THE ISLAND ROAD RELAY 2005
We
won! We won! We won! At long last after four years (this
being the fifth) of team KLAVA participation, we were
finally crowned the veteran champion for this ye! ar’s
annual 72.2km road relay. It was no easy victory though.
This year’s competition was the toughest with the top 3
veteran teams fielding some of their fastest runners
ever. The results speak for themselves. In spite of
clocking their fastest time in 5 years, Old & Young
(O&Y) was still unable to defend their title which they
have held for at least 4 straight years. This year USA
sports apparel manufacturer, Brooks join the fray,
sponsoring one team each for Open and Veteran category,
thus attracting a number of top national and state
runners. However, they were not a balanced team; their
inclusion of a few weaker runners denied them of even a
podium finish in the Veteran category. Between these
three teams, the lead changed hands at various stages
taking turns to be in 1st, 2nd or
3rd position! (see separate chart).
However the result may not paint a true picture of the
runners’ performance. Sometimes a runner was overtaken
not because he was slow but because other team/s has
placed much faster runner/s at that stage. But by seeing
the actual terrain and the time returned by the rest of
the team’s runner including those in the open category,
one could have a better indication of the runner’s
performance. With yours truly following the runners
along the route by bike, & able to witnessed the whole
action live, I’m proud to say that our KLAVA runners
have done their very best- a 100% effort. Read on and
you’ll know why this was a hard fought battle!
Ever
since we won the senior veteran category for this year’s
Penang’s Round The Houses Road Relay and was also
leading by more than 4 minutes at one stage in last
year’s Penang Round The Island Relay, I believe our
opponent have taken notice of our presence. They have
assembled much stronger teams and were prepared for our
challenge. They also have the home ground advantage and
a throng of supporters complete with an arsenal of
machineries including bicycle, motorcycles, cars,
pickups & Lorries. They knew the route forward and
backward like the palm of their hands! I wonder how they
would have fared if the event w! as held in K.L.?!
Would they be able to send a full strength team not to
mention any supporters?! As for KLAVA supporters, we
have a one and only supporter who came all the way to
Penang by bus and meeting up with us at 1.00am on race
day! He is Mr. Siew, who could only come after his
Saturday afternoon work meeting. Thanks to him and his
expensive camera, we have some very clear pictures of
the event’s scenario captured for all to see.
In this long distance
event where the baton changed hands eleven times, if the
opponents are also very strong, having fast runners is
not enough! One must also need the right strategy; be
familiar with the route i.e. distance & terrain;
mentally prepared; teamwork; supporters (moral support &
inspiration) sufficient rest; food and drinks while
waiting; and last but not least, motivation
(incentives/bonus) all play important roles for a
winning formula. These come with experience which we
have nurtured over the years, having taken part for four
consecutive years & progressing from strength to
strength. Ahem! Ever since we have been runners-up for
the last two years, yours truly have been thinking on
how to get this “extra” push which can make the
difference between winner and runners-up. In the absence
of home ground advantage and lack of supporters we have
to make up for these deficits with this “extra”
something. This come with the possibili! ty of reward
should we became champion. With these factors in our
favor, we were a complete, all rounded team ready to
throw in the challenge.
Our
runners were a committed lot, with strong comradeship
and team spirit. Most of our runners have taken part for
a few years (see separate list), so they have sufficient
experience with the terrain and hence the appropriate
running pace. The placement of runners in the most
suitable stage is crucial. Any mistake could cost a team
a number of minutes. Putting Nanchappan as our first
runner gave us the leading edge of
approximately 100m (sorry, he was too
fast f! or our cameraman, he could only managed to snap
his behind at the baton exchange!). Being a top runner,
his pacing is very consistent. Although he still wasn’t
quite satisfied with his own performance this time.
Looking at the results, I beg to differ as he returned
an exactly identical time as his last year’s i.e. 28min.
40sec! That speaks a lot about perfection! With a head
start, it was up to our 2nd runner, Selvam to
fend off the challenge from O&Y top imported runner,
Appaman. Being one of the fastest runners, Appaman
eventually closed the gap and overtook him nearing the
last km. However, Selvam didn’t give up, with about 300m
to go, he out sprint Appaman to regain the lead (sorry,
photo not clear, he reached the baton changing line too
fast/early, it was still dark!). Then our 3rd
runner Krishnan has to do battle with O&Y’s runner. They
were running either side by side or were following each
other very closely for most of the way, seem like two!
training buddies! (See photo) I thought it was a matter
of time before one of them will not be able to last the
pace and fade away. However, it was not to be, our
Krishnan have to accelerate his pace to shake off the
opponent’s challenge with less than 1 km to go.
The
increased pace gave us a lead of about 100m when the
baton was passed to our 4th runner T.Y. Lim.
Although the distance for this stage was only 3.9km but
it was the last 1km that was most challenging. It was
very steep and winding. The minute a runner was unable
to maintain his pacing, the other runner/s from behind
would move faster to try & overtake-to make the kill so
to speak. Although the gap was closer, we were still in
the lead after this 4th stage (the only
challenge to Lim was a car! See photo). The Brooks’s
runner was gradually catchi! ng up. At about haft way,
Salehuddin was overtaken by this very fast runner (see
photo). Yours truly knew that this was the time where
moral support was essential. With our encouragement
shouts & cheers to maintain the pace and not fall too
far behind, he ploughed on. This was very important
because otherwise if we were too far behind,
psychologically, our other runners will find it
difficult to catch up. Hence the gap was not very far
when our 6th runner received the baton. He
soon caught up with the Brooks’s runner after about 1km.
However, in his eagerness to catch up and this being his
1st outing i.e. inexperience, he was unable
to maintain his pace and suddenly started walking! (No
photo-read on to know where’s yours truly & the
cameraman) Luckily our reserve runners and others
following behind him saw and motivated him & spurred him
to continue. At that time Siew & I were further ahead
waiting for his arrival to take his photo. After being !
informed, I followed him the rest of the way,
encouraging & urging him on. Eventually the gap was not
that wide. The 1st three positions remained
till the end of the 6th stage.
With
Brooks in the lead, KLAVA in 2nd placing and
O&Y’s King of the Mountain determined to take advantage
of the long hill climb; this was the most thrilling
stage, full of suspense and nail biting. All 3 teams
placed their hill specialists on this stage. Our Jalil
may not be the King of Penang Hill but he was still the
Prince in his own right, being overall runners-up at the
Cabaran Kembara Circuit for the King of Mountain crown.
Upon reaching the start of the steep! climb, suddenly
the O&Y supporters on motorcycles became a hive of
activities. Armed with whistles, they were like police
outriders in front and at the back of their runner,
opening up the road for their runner to run straight
ahead along the shortest route, cutting through the
winding turn (see photo). With these backup, very soon,
their runner had overtaken Jalil. I told Jalil to keep
his cool (steady), to follow their track and not allowed
the gap to widen too much. Prior to the race, I have
alerted Jalil about this fellow, the King of the
Mountain so he didn’t made the mistake to match him step
by step. All 3 runners were within sight of one another
at the baton exchange.
Now it
was left to Guna with his previous experience at this 8th
stage to do his stuff. This was a long route and
although the climb was not as steep as the 7th
stage but nevertheless it can be very exhaustive.
Approximately half way, the descent begun, riding behind
him I can see that he was running strong and taking the
sharp corner like the O&Y’s runner. He eventually
overtook O&Y’s runner for 2nd position. Due
to the cloudy sky and the shade from the trees lining
the route, the road was still wet & rather slippery. It
was at one of those sharp and steep bend that he
misplaced his footing while looking backward for traffic
(this was not necessary as the assigned officer and
myself were following behind on motorcycles to slow down
traffic coming from the back). He momentarily lost his
balance, tripped and fell onto the grass verge close to
a ravine (sorry, no photos because our cameraman was not
prepared for the unexpected). For a ! moment my heart
sank as the baton was knocked off his hand & rolled
towards the ravine. Oh no! This is not going to be a
repeat of the incident which by a twist of fate, caused
our DNF (did not finished) on our 1st year
participation in 2001. Thank God, he quickly recovered
his composure, stretched out to grab the baton and
sprang back to action. We were relieved that save for a
minor scratch he didn’t injure himself and was able to
continue at his normal pace albeit a bit shaken at
first. I assured him it’s alright because O&Y’s runner
was not in sight yet (the road was twisting & turning).
From 3rd
placing, we have moved forward to 2nd.This
was where teamwork comes in, seeing that Brooks have
placed a weaker runner at the 9th stage, Vincent being
the technical & experience one, must not only overtake
this Brooks’s runner but also to increase the lead to
build a buffer for the remaining runners just in case
our opponents were still strong in these remaining
stages. This was one mission our Vincent was most
delighted to accomplish! There was evidence as he could
wave & smile when one of O&Y’s photographers took his
photo along the way! The Brooks’s runner was also
eventually overtaken by O&Y’s runner.
By the next baton change
to Yasan at the 10th stage, there was a lead ! of more
than 2 minutes. With a make-shift headband (using Good
Morning towel!) tied around his head, he looked like
Rambo on the run! (See photo). Yasan managed to hold on
without giving away too much of the lead i.e. still have
approximately 350m gap. There was news that O&Y 11th
runner was very fast as compared to our runner, Tee.
Good thing we have built up this buffer because O&Y
runner managed to trim about 1 minute (approx. 200m)
from the gap. Comparing Tee’s time with the other
runners, he actually ran quite fast but only thing the
other runner was faster.
Now was the final and
most exciting part. Can our last runner Raja last
(pardon the pun) the pace?! This was his first outing
here (last, last, first-confused?). From the 2 previous
time trials, (for Pg.R.T.Hse.R. Relay ‘05 and
Pg.R.T.Isl.R. Relay ’05) he was fond of starting fast
and fading away towards the end. So, yours truly
reminded him of these 2 instances (remember fast will
not last) and instead to do run it at a consistent pace.
He rose to the occasion and ran the race of his life to
win convincibly by nearly 3 minutes. After crossing the
finishing line, he almost collapsed with exhaustion, a
totally spend force (see photo). So that is how we won!
Yours truly wish to
salute our runners for their commitment and dedication.
We are so proud of you – YOU ARE OUR HEROES! (S! ee
photos). Everybody has gone all out to make this win
possible. What with the “never-say- die” attitude; of
not falling too far behind; of physically falling
(pardon the pun.) down but still recovered to run; of
pushing the body to the limit – to the point of
vomiting; of going down on all fours in exhaustion after
the race. The victory was plain ecstasy. Every member of
KLAVA team was happy with the overall results. As I have
previously mentioned, our membership may be small but we
are the “chili padi” when it comes to team events road
relay.
Lastly, yours truly wish
to thank the runners, not forgetting the reserve
runners, Applaidoo & Peter who also played very
important supporting role of ferrying the runners;
providing drinks, communication links, moral support
etc.; our sole supporter cum cameraman Siew; our
part-time timekeeper (pun not intended), Y.F. Lim (he
came twice out of 5 time-trial sessions but only clocked
once, the other 1 session was postponed due to heavy
rain) and all those who make our trip possible.
Reported by: Eddy Choo
Date: 22/12/05
Click here for all the photos
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