Sabah Adventure Challenge 2011 : Butterfly In Tummy

I have been busy. Too busy with work. Been slogging out over 80hours week (in consultancy term, that meant you worked for two weeks within a week!). Proposals, site work, report review, report writing, travelling, conference calls and the list goes on and on. Weekends was used up for work. Within the first quarter of 2011 i have accumulated 9 days of compensation time (meaning time that the company will pay back for working on weekend) with March scoring 6 days so far.
On one hand, it's nothing to be proud about losing those precious family and training time. Losing your life and f-king up the work-life balance (it remains a myth). Over the past three weeks, i survived on three hours of continuous sleep every night. The only time i see my kids was when they woke up in the middle of the night for pee-ing. Only time i see my wife, was when she wakes me up for work.
I was not alone as many in the office put in those hours and effort; which is starting to show some fruits of our labor. It is true we reap what we sow, and as it is, we are reaping good fruits!
"We won XXX! YYY please work on this with ZZZ!". The email said and i could almost imagine my boss smiling and jumping with joy.
"Thank you for the good work and hard work that all of you put in, especially....", read another email.
In fact, myself and my colleague that is taking over my position in office is starting to sweat about having not enough of engineers to do the work! Definitely a far cry three months ago when most of us are LLB-ing (Look Like Busy).
So, all is great on the work front. But the same can't be said about life. End of the day. When the chaos end...it felt empty.
As most of you know, i will be racing in Sabah Adventure Challenge in April. I hope it will not be premature of me to send out email reminding some of my colleagues and bosses that "i will be working on the BB before and after the race" two days ago, i have applied, and gotten my leave for this race approved since Christmas last year! I am SO not going to give anything up for this (promotion included???)!!!
I have been diligently training until 3 weeks ago. Clocking in good mileage and mastering Kiara week by week. Now it all seems that it is back to zero. At this point of time, wifey, which is training for her first Marathon in June, has clocked the same mileage as me, (possibly more by the day!) with her running over the same period of training; and i am cycling AND running!
My beloved brother, Azly, has been putting in a lot of effort into the race. New bike. New brakes. New rims. Lunch hour reduced to testing out personal floatation device.

"Bro, RM50." The Whatsapp message read.
Some of you might be thinking right now...why in the hell an adventure race need a flotation device? The next few photos tell you why.

Photos taken from Rabani Ayub's Facebook during SAC Recce by Race Director Aman Avtar Sandhu.

That is just part of the whole 3-days story that myself and Bandit (Team Alpha Bravo) will embark in April.

fancy a peek into a man-man fantasy?

Read the level of excitement? That is just the tip of the iceberg. My tummy was having butterflies as the day come closer. And as more imagines unfold from the Race Director's recce...i could not feel more excited and more alive.

The pic above shows what should be a mountain bike portion...i say it looked more like a mudfest - aptly done with a bikini top and bottom.

This Sunday, i will be meeting up with Bandit at his place for a short ride and a QM (quartermaster session) to see if we already have all we need for the race. There are compulsory items that we need to collect/obtain. We got most of the items, almost all but it never hurt to check again. We are planning to race in a minimalist approach and only bring what we need for the race.

Three Identical race jersey for Bandit. Coincidentally, these RM18 jersey were the one we wore when we raced in Explorace years ago.

Hard to tell that these are RM18 a piece no?

Our 60-minutes of fame (advertisements included). Aunties at Carrefour/Tesco recognises us!

I can't wait for April 20, 2011 when i will be leaving KL for the race. This is my key race this year. I might end up with withdrawal syndrome after the race and might crave for more. Thank goodness for the Marathon, the few odd Triathlons and perhaps a few more races towards the end of the year for me to stay sane...

...as to strive to get some WORK-LIFE Balance.

Truth to be told, while the excitement is extreme now, so is the caterpillars in the tummy that is growing by the days before it metamorphorsis into butterflies. I might need some Imodium to prevent some embarrassing moment when the race finally. And when that finally happen, i will fill this blog with photos and stories. 

Taken with this final compulsory item i will not leave home without.

Until then, stay tuned and don't change that dial!