At the end of the race season, its time to take it easy and recover from training and racing. I've only been doing easy, medium distance workouts for the last month when suddenly I got an email from a friend in SF who got an email from his friend in Hong Kong, Ryan Blair (NorthFace/Asia Pacific Adventure), who was looking for a teammate for this Malaysian International Eco Adventure race. His teammate for this race was injured the weekend before and needed a sub. The event is a 5 day, 2 person race with a rest day on day 3 consisting of cycling, trail running, trekking, kayaking white water rafting, rappelling, caving and some inline skate.
It was such short notice that within 2 days I was in in Hong Kong. I met Ryan and went for a paddle and run. The next day we went to a 5 hr MTB race where he was doing feed for his teammate. Victory for Piers (NorthFace/Asia Pacific Adventure) who had finished second the year before.
The following day was mostlty travel to Kuala Laumpur in Malaysia. From the airport we went to the host resort in Royal Belum to settle in and attend a race briefing. We were told about the ESPN TV production, course and equipment. We were also told that the next day for dinner the Chief Minister of the state would join us and to be present for the entire dinner and ceremonies. Also the Royal Prince of Malysia would be the one to kick off the the race.
The next morning we strategized and previewed a bit of the course. when we got back, there was a army of police. Apparently state officials and royalty are well protected. But it also turned out that the police were there to escort the athletes, tv crew and staff through the 5 days of this event. Dinner that night was amazing with traditional dance performances and a big welcome from the chief minister. Many speeches and tons of media.
Perak Amanjaya International Eco Adventure 2009
Stage 1-Royal Belum, Banding Island
Tuesday Nov. 2
Run 2k to abseil into lake.
Swim 100m to kayak and paddle 7k to a 1k jungle trek.
Paddle 5 k to bike transition and ride 16k to transition
Run 5k to finish
We lost some time to the leaders (7-10min) on and a few other teams on the kayak. We moved up on the bike and run and finished 3rd 3min from the leaders.
This stage was fast and pretty straight forward. We were super confident going into day 2....but things didnt turn out at all the way we planned.
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