Wifey's First Offroad Adventure

"It is all in the mind. What the mind says, the body will follow"
Wifey signed up (or rather, i signed her up) for the coming 21km run in June. Her racing exposure is limited to a few 10km run she did and the 30++km walk to accompany me during Ironman 2010.
So, why did i even think of signing her up for the 21km? (To start with, no, this did not make her love me more).
Truth is, i know she can do it. And i just love to push the envelope a bit further.
Yesterday's trail run was also a run up/first official training for her first trip to Sabah - and I've signed her up for the Race Up The Sky series, i.e. run up Kinabalu. She has a spanking new Brooks Cascadia 5 and it was de-virginised today.

I must do my best to ensure she gets the support she needed to complete these races like how she was always there during my races all these times. It is time to give back to her.
The trail-bashing/hike/walk/run/crawl today was attended by myself and wifey, Jabir, Bandit, Budin, Khalil and Sheikh (Budin's colleague). We started at 0700hours and headed towards the first 1km which is mostly rubber plantation. Already, within the first 10minutes, i was dripping with sweat. But today's weather was pretty alright compared to two weeks ago where it was super-humid.

The first 4km was a predictable climb to elevation 350m above sea level (asl). It was a mainly walking affair as i was still testing the water to see if my iron level is up to it. Wifey doesn't seems to sweat a bit, but as the trail progressed on, she was sweating.

Hike Hike! Run! Run!

From 4km onwards, it was a flat and downhill trail to the river crossing at KM6. Wifey did struggle a bit on the downhill part as she has not ran offroad, let alone running offroad, downhill. I must say she held up pretty well despite (she thinks) that she were holding everyone back.
I find myself reminding her that today isn't a race and it was an introductory crash course to trail/hiking for her.
For precaution, i brought along a hiking staff/stick so she could use it as a "third-leg" to stabilise or to move her forward. It is nothing shy to have some of these to help - in fact, Bandit has two and he was very much looking like he was ski-ing through the course.
Even myself, during the Hash Challenge, has resorted to use two hiking staffs to support/help/push/stabilise myself.

At the river crossing, i could see just how happy wifey was as she did not have any leeches on her legs, or anywhere and it signal the U-turn of the activity today.

Little did she know i had a wicked plan to detour and bring the group towards a less travelled route that leads to the northwestern fringe of the Klang Gate Dam.

The detour was only a short 1km in and 1km out. And it was a small elevation (gain of about 80m) that we have to overcome. The trail at this detour has a lot of fallen trees and shrubs. The ground was slippery with moss and the damage to the environment, minimal.
We were rewarded with an even bigger river at the end of the trail and it took everyone just 1 minute for us one by one to start immersing ourselves in the river.

It was ice cold and refreshing. The overheated body were instantly cooled off and fatigue removed.
Wifey took the chance to sit with both feet in the river and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The rest of the boys, well, became boys.

After about 30 minutes, we packed up and made our way back. It was another 4km before we reach base camp and everyone made it out safely and satisfied to have covered about 16km in 4:30 and burning off 3000kcal.

As for wifey, she survived two leech attack - on on the shin, one on the underside of her arms. The pain only sets in, or perceived to set in when she realised she had the leeches hanging on to her.
That, is really a proof that the mind is at work.
And my theory of "Mind Over Matter" really does meant "If you don't MIND, it doesn't Matter".

No one should really complain with scenery like this

Well done Wifey! You made me proud. I will gladly put the 2XU calf guard over your tired legs tonight (thought you think it's sexier if you put them on yourself) and good to see you waking up fresh today with no pain/fatigue on your calves.
My butt/glutes is a totally different story altogether.