7/29/2019 Rachel Runs... River Jungle Marathon

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by Rachel Joseph

Rachel Runs...River Jungle Marathon

 This is the second time I have

run this beautiul boutique

marathon, which has been held

annually over the past three years.

 The date had changed slightlyrom the previous year which

meant that I had only been back 

rom the UK or 4 days and was

heavily jet lagged. I think I had

maybe 45 minutes sleep beore I

had to get up, get ready and drive

to Pekan Batu 18, Hulu Langat!

 This year there were 412 participants,

compared to 389 last year and 51 in the

rst year, so word is slowly spreading.

Having ewer participants and being

o the beaten track does make you eel

less like you are just a bib number! The

acilities are great and you see the guys

rom The Marathon Shop who organisethis run, driving around in VW rescue cars

(they are sponsors). As well as the usual

water, sports drinks, energy gels and

deep heat sprays, runners were oered

a young coconut to drink at one o the

water stations and home-made sour

plum ice lollies at another. They were

salty, but sweet, and absolutely the right

thing at the right time!

 There is a saying to remember when

running marathons. “At the start don’t

be an idiot and at the end don’t be a

wimp”. I think it denitely sums up

my perormance on this run though!

I was sleep deprived, jet lagged and

had done all my training in cool, at

Northumberland. A couple o months

previously, I had recorded my best

time to date at the KL Marathon so mystrategy or this one was really just ‘let’s

get round’! I considered not running but

I had oered a riend a lit, I really enjoyed

it last year and had received the coolest

medal and T-shirt I ever got rom a run

so I didn’t want to miss out on scoring

another one!

I set o strong thinking, ‘let’s get this

done with and back to bed orthwith’!

It was dark and due to the rural area,

we all had head torches on. I always

have a bit o a ‘moment’ at the start o 

running events when the crowd surges

away as one. Running is oten a solitary,

yet powerul activity so to eel all those

individuals pooling their energy togetheris exhilarating.

 There are 2 u turns on this run, I guess to

get the distance to 26.2 miles, but I nd

them absolutely soul destroying and

think they should be banned. The rst

one wasn’t too bad as it was still dark 

and not very long but the one at 25k is

really awkward as it’s light and you have

to say ‘hi’to all the people you are passing

which is pretty distracting or the solitary

runner such as yours truly!

Anyway, the crowd thins out as everyone

nds their groove and I’m starting to

enjoy mysel, remembering why I LOVE

running so much. I’ve got my ear goggles

on and I’m listening to Bob Dylan sing

‘when your rooster crows at the break o 

dawn’when a pre-dawn rooster does justthat! We run past the mosque and hear

the rst call to prayer. Both are sounds

that give me tingles up the back o my

neck and x me to my location and the

moment (not Bob, with him I could be

anywhere)!

I’m going great guns as the morning

light starts to eke in. I approach the big

hill known as the ‘Spirit Breaker’, a climb

o 800m over a 3km distance. Last year

I had to walk up this but I was eeling

strong and so maintained a slow jog all

the way up. The other side leads down

to the breathtakingly serene vista o 

the reservoir and the depressing u-turn

I mentioned earlier. I got to the 25kmpoint, a little over hal way and just

thought, ‘I’m done’. I had been keeping

hydrated and kept taking the energy

gels but I had reached the bottom o my

energy reserves.

I managed to keep plodding or the

next 10km, eeling like I was running on

umes. I didn’t really ache, I just elt that

my whole body was tired and I wanted to

sleep. It’s the only time on a run where

the soles o my eet were eeling sore a nd

I think I must have been slapping them o 

the road all wrong. At 35km I permitted

mysel a little walk which I never do as I knew what the result

would be. I thought, ‘This eels GOOOOOOD’! So, all I could

manage to do was run-a-bit-walk-a-bit or the next 7km to

the nish line. The road was lined with the type o long grass

which eels so sot. I was letting my ngers run through it

and really enjoying the sensation when KK, a guy who used

to run with my old training partner Sandy, ran past me and

said, “Smell the owers”. I welled up as he had captured just

how I was eeling. I didn’t need to race to the nish line

when my body was blatantly reusing and, look where I was!

I just had to enjoy the moment. I caught up with him again

later to have a chat and that was probably the best bit about

‘bowing out’. I chatted to other runners and caught up with

riends I hadn’t seen since the last race! A guy called Shine

who is normally much speedier than me, was struggling

with knee pain. I asked him how he was doing and he was

completely unperturbed telling me, ‘That’s just lie’. It made

me realise that we all have o days.

About 1km rom the end, a girl asked me how I was doing

and I gave her the rather dramatic response, ‘I eel like I’m

alling apart’! I bet she wished she hadn’t asked! I managed

to hold all my aculties together and even break into a run

or the nish line where I received a hero’s welcome and my

impressive medal and t-shirt. I chatted to some riends then

headed back to the car or my ask o tea! So, once again I

ail at being a super athlete but succeed in having a un day

out!

 The Marathon Shop are organising a second marathon

called the ‘Island Ocean Marathon’. This will hopeully take

place in April 2013 although the location is still top secret!Participant numbers will be capped at 1000 entries. D espite

vowing I was only going to do hal marathons now or the

sake o my joints, I think I’ll nd it difcult to avoid signing up

or this one as its River Jungle sister is such an unprecedented

eel good event.

Photographs by Tey Eng Tiong

Rachel Runs