It was by far the toughest trail of the year. At least for me it was. The Salomon X-Trail 2012 Run in UPM, Serdang was my first off-road running, and it certainly won't be my last either. I can safely say this is in the list of my favourite three runs of the year. Yes, folk... I think it was awesome...
This was the 2nd time this year I entered a run that started at Stadium UPM (University Putra Malaysia). The other was the Mizuno Run. Of course, the route was entirely different. It is a 10km event, but it makes a half marathon seem easy.
The X-Trail is not designed for those that are not prepared to get themselves dirty. Seriously... If you didn't get dirty with this run, you must have given up at the first obstacle...
[The first and last obstacle of the trail... photographers' favourite spot. Imagine the traffic at the beginning!]
Even though it was tough, the trail was beautiful. UPM is known to be the university with the largest land area in Malaysia and we went through some of it. It rained heavily the previous night, so the trail was muddy, wet, sticky, slippery... not to mention the uneven trails full of cracks in the earth and rocks. To put it simple, the organizers had to use a Hilux to drive through the trail. When I saw the Hilux, I knew that can't be good.
[.... and this puddle was nothing]
I had never run an off-trail prior to this, so I thought my New Balance shoes is good enough. I knew that it would get dirty, but that was all I expected. Boy, was I WRONG!!!
[My "NEW" Balance.... good for road; definitely not for trail running]
If my shoes could speak, it would have cried in pain and agony going through the trail. The number of times my shoes got soaked in water, slipping through the muds, getting stuck in the muds... I just couldn't get any grip and my shoes felt heavy. I felt like a Red Bull F1 car doing a WRC event!!! For many parts of the trail, running was simply NOT an option for me!!
[Don't try this... Totally NOT a good idea...]
[Nobody taking the "highway"... Almost everyone was sticking to the side...]
Since it was never going to be a straight running experience, I decided to take the time to truly enjoy the trail.
[1km into the X-Trail]
[Around 1.5km into the race.... beautiful sunrise]
[The easier part of the trail... the early parts]
[By this time everything seemed easy... and I thought it was going to be a walk in the "farm"?]
[By this time the trail was getting wet... but still cool and beautiful]
[Avoid the puddles... avoid the puddles...]
[Running next to the PLUS Highway]
[One of my favourite view of the trail.... everyone on that side was sliding and walking!]
[1km to go....]
One of the toughest part of the trail was an uneven and wet uphill that seemed endless, which we had to go through twice... and the smell of cows and cow dungs while going up. Yes, cows were a common sight for this run.
[Fresh cow milk for breakfast....?]
[Entering...... Cow-Land "MOOO"]
[Uphill, uneven, wet, and.... smelly...]
The other part that I thought was tough was a section where it was just muddy. You couldn't get 3 running steps without slipping. I just walked!!! If I had the proper shoes, it would have been fine I guess.
[Simply NO way to run in this mud]
[One slip... and you're gone.... WALK!!!]
[Let's do the running motion.... while walking....]
In the end, my Endomondo recorded my time at around 1 hour 36 mins for 11.2km... I thought I was doing 10km...? oh well, it did not matter... I had an awesome Sunday morning. Couldn't say the same for my shoes though.
[A great end to a good run... and Usain Bolt's "To Di World" pose]
There were also cheerleaders before the race began and after the race ended for spectators and participants to enjoy.
[Cheerleaders going through their routines before the prize giving ceremony]
Putting all those fun aside, I learnt something on that day. To run off-road, you need the proper gears, especially the shoes. Salomon makes shoes specially designed for off-road running. I saw the front runners wearing them. Their shoes looked like the wheels of a WRC car... It can stand the tough conditions of trail running.
[Something to think about when running a trail event]
The organizers did a great job with the event. I'll be sure to come back next year. Those who would like to try something different than road running, this is a run not to be missed.