Report: Larian Rimbathon

By Aiman Cheah Tiong Chap

Venue: Forest Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM)
Date: 3 August 2008
Time: 9 a.m.

This event started later than usual. I had expected it to start late because the entry form says reporting time is 7.30 - 8.00 a.m. Should there be a big crowd, the people in charge of distributing the bibs may need a little more time. Therefore, I took my own sweet time to go there, reaching there at 7.45 a.m. It did not matter as I used motorcylce. No need to worry about finding a parking space. I had wanted to bring along the whole family but the children slept at 2 in the morning. So common sense told me to let them to have a good rest at home! Anyway, both the children are recovering from flu and cough.

The run started at about 9.10 a.m. after the long speeches and warm up session. I find that the warm up session was quite good but most of the participants were already impatient to begin the race. Normally, we would have completed our race by 9.10 a.m.!

I did not expect to do well, so I need not have to fight for the pole position. Any way, there were not too many runners at the start. I had a good start, no one was blocking my way. Only my stamina blocked me from running. I stopped after running 3 minutes. It was an uphill jungle trail. I thought I had gone slow enough to maintain my pace.

I had a second stop at 5 minutes and a third stop at 8 minutes. However, I was hoping to get a second wind after the third stop. I managed to maintain a steady pace, overtaking some of the runners who had overtook me earlier when I had to stop. I had overdone it again about 2 km from the finishing line. The runner in front of me was in my category. My rhythm was somewhat affected because when I was near he, he pulled away.

I overtook him but could not distance myself from him. In the process, I was out of breath again. Luckily, it was my final stop! Decided to follow him instead of running ahead of him. About 100 metres from the finishing line, a secondary school student sprinted past us. I kept cool and stepped up my pace. The runner in front of me did the same.

I'm sure, I could not get past him if I remained behind him. Took a risk and sprinted past him in the last 50 metres. Luckily, he did not respond. I had gone all out and had he responded, I would have given up. Surprised to finish in 9th position in 34minutes 24 seconds in the Men's Junior Veteran category.

That was a very encouraging result considering that I had to make four stops during the race. I think I have mastered this 'technique' of stopping during a race as age is catching up and training has become more inconsistent. I had the same problem in Kangar and still managed to bag the bronze medal. I did not have proper training due to time constraint.

Rested on Monday and Tuesday after the TESCO walk on Sunday. Swam for 1 500 metres on Wednesay and Friday. Thursday was off because I had to take my mother to UMMC for her routine check up and took the opportunity to take my children to the doctor as well for flu and cough medication. On Saturday I only ran 6.3km. Ironically, I did not have to stop at all for my normal 6.3km run. I did 32minutes 55 seconds. That gave me the confidence to be a little competitive.

I bought the Rimbathon t-shirt which was sold at RM5 - children size. It was for the SK Kepong PTA fund. Other sizes were sold at RM8 and RM10.

It was a long wait to get my prize - a certificate and medal. It was almost noon after the photography session. Wonder why the organizer kept us for so long to give a medal and certificate.