ipoh fellowship ride 2008

started off to the nkve highway around 1130hrs from damansara tol. traffic was ok and some parts of the highway are upgrading to 3 lanes road either ya coming down from south or heading north. exited through tapah and headed to kampar for some makan time! anyway, it's been raining since i got to ipoh with heavy downpour along the highway until i exited at ipoh selatan tol. gosh, this going be a fun ride for tommorow! check in the hotel and headed to jusco a couple of hours later to makan dinner. the place my wife and i went called "bamboo" something. couldn't remember the name but it is at the 1st floor heading towards the GSC cinema area.

this is the place

prawn with mayonnaise and dragon fruit

ohh...the juice is superbly done!

sinchuan style noodle

next morning at 0430hrs, woke up and get prepare for the ride. rendezvous at nasi kandar nasmir just beside the tesco ipoh there. 0600hrs head off to mk land office for the registration. got my number # 071. :D can't hardly wait to flag off the ride!

well, flagoff around 0800hrs i think...riders are getting excited and eager to sprint out like they had never been ridden for years. the crowds was echoing with noises luckily we are way out of radius within the neighborhood. alas! we had a lift off...my riding mates sprinted fast ahead of me where i need to catch up upon them. it wasn't easy as i used to start slow and steady, sprinting ahead of others zooming past other riders was my very first time. adrenaline rush was all time high on that period of time.

there were hills after hills at stage 1, which i never anticipated during this ride. with the fitness level i am having those hills never been easy at all. by the time i was about to reach the first checkpoint i think i had drained out. should had save some of the adrenaline... :( pushing my bike uphill was a torturing event. but what goes up must come down! downhill was awesome and the snake like trail was totally mind blowing. that was the most enjoyable moment i ever had. by the time i had reached to the 2nd checkpoint, i was totally worn out. to add some salt on the wound, the 3rd checkpoint was entirely uphill for about 7km! ok, thats it for me! i'm done! took the chicken loop to the 4th checkpoint which some mild uphill and flats all the way back to the finish/start line. that took me around 1hr 45mins for some 15km. i know it's a long time but to tell you the truth, i was actually struggling back to the finish line. each of my every muscles in the body was calling out pain, exhaustion, dehydration (forgot to drink water) and my brain cells are not actually working properly.

looking back the trails and suffering i went thru this fellowship ride, it was all well worth it. or else it won't be called mountain biking for no reason..haha..organizer and the sponsors of this event did a wonderful job and did not let down anyone who participated this event. two thumbs up for the ipoh fellowship ride 2008! :D