raja bukit

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

UPDATE: put some pics of the race up.. the original write-up is below. All pictures were taken off the official race website "http://gpracespeda.com/gallery.htm#".


Kale in a breakaway (or so I'm guessing)

I'm in the car following the 3 cyclists.. (the closest to an actual shot of me)

Kale still in a break? (so informative, huh?)

Kale still in a break (duh... told you I didn't see the race!)  

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

so, yes, back to this race. i wish i could tell you more about how the race actually went, but since i didn't actually get to follow the main peloton, i can only give you my perspective of the race.

the race started off relatively slow since there was a pace car.. there were 2 flats within the first 15 mins.. so i was sent crawling to the back of the Toyota Wish minivan that i was in to grab the wheel(s) and then hunt for a spare tire. eddie's daughter was sent to the do the same in the back of the other car and hunt for a tire lever which then didn't work. so i guess that's what girls are good for.. crawling over car seats to rummage around in the back of moving vehicles. hmm.

soon after, one of the girls in their team A got dropped so we dropped back to "escort" her up to the top.. so that's when i missed the rest of the race. the other car followed the main pack (and kale who later went on to win the race) to the finish. we stayed with marianne and her 2 bodyguards hakim and jonathon for quite a bit and then drove ahead to see if anyone else needed water. came across joeyz, k-der and then we caught up with uncle richard, saiful and someone else whom i can't remember right now.

this is the part of the race where i almost get some road rash. as i was leaning out the passenger window to pass them water and "shower" them with water, uncle richard comes up and grabs the car to get a quick tow and stabilise himself. problem was he didn't reach for the window frame. he reached for the door handle. MY door handle to be exact. MY door handle which then proceeded to release the door that i was leaning on. yup.

i found myself letting out a little yelp as i found myself swinging out of the car (not by far, thankfully) with my weight on my toes in the car and resting on my hips which were leaning on the door panel. thankfully, bernard who was driving the car had the sense to reach over and slam the door shut. phew. next time round i'm wearing a helmet even if i'm just feeding!!

so anyhow.. kale finished the race loooong before i got to the top. i got there in time to flash him a grumpy look and then get in the car for the drive down. i was NOT happy that i didn't get to see the race nor get any pictures of him. bah humbug. oh well, in hindsight i know it was circumstancial but that still didn't keep me from being really grumpy about it there and then.

we ended up hanging around till 3:30 (approx 3 hours after the end of the race) in the hot sun waiting for the results and the prize giving. groan. the team came in 2nd, and kale got the "king of the mountain" title, or the "raja bukit" title for coming in first. technically he wasn't the first person to cross the line but since the others that did were m'sian state riders, they weren't qualified to place.

we headed straight back to singapore, and kale drove straight to the last gas station before the 2nd link. i only had to drive across the causeway and to dinner. we had some quick thai food and then came home and crashed. what was odd was that we had gone to Great World City on Saturday afternoon to get some race supplies and we headed back there at 8:30pm on Sunday to grab dinner. we just couldn't believe that those 2 trips to Great World were but just 1 day apart... seeing as how we'd squeezed so much into those 24hours!

the past couple days at work have just flown by. i'm still waiting to hear on my rotation placement so i've sorta had a cloud hanging over my head. it was also selene's birthday yesterday so we went out for a great big dinner at the Bar and Billiard room at the Raffles Hotel. the food was great(except for the live worm that we found.. euuggh). there were 4 different kinds of chocolate ice-cream.. yum! this was her last "teen" birthday so i guess she should enjoy it while it lasts.

anyhow... i'm still working off the remnants of the flu that i had last week..and kale is working off the lack of sleep.. this weekend we tackle our first race together as a team. the mini-tri doesn't count since we started individually at different times. we'll be team "PC Load Letter" - if you've watched "Office Space" the movie, you'll know why we chose that.

the cut-off for the adventure race this weekend is 4.5 hours for checkpoint 6 (out of 8).. so i don't know how good company i'll be by that time. i usually don't do well without food for anything more than 2 hours! AND i'm unfit. the part that i'm concerned with is the rule that says that the team members cannot be more than 100m apart. i told kale that means he can't be more than 100m ahead of me.. he says i can't be more than 100m behind him. i told him that if that's his attitude, this'll be the last race i do with him!

one more day of work this week.. hope i hear something soon.. the suspense is killing me. saturday is Su Pei's baby's first month celebration.. i just got the cutest little booties for him and a little gift-set. the booties have little elephants sewn on and also make a "mild rattling sound"... they're absolutely adorable!!!

ok lah.. enough from me. i'm finally all caught up on my blogging. kale's watching "the science of star wars" on the discovery channel... he's such a geek! although i have to admit that the show is pretty neat (i was pretty glued to the first episode last nite)... and him being such a boy is kinda adorable. after all, it's a good thing he's so different from me, otherwise life would just be really boring!!