081209 Wednesday

The Rat Race for Me

Pardon my language. The race was mind fucked up. A mere 4.5km run was by far the hardest, mind demanding race that John-son and myself went through throughout our entire lives. We crossfit for a living, lifting weights much heavier than our bodyweight, pulling and pushing and yet when we were out there, it was the toughest, hardest , mind screwing thing we ever had to go through. It was a freaking mental torture.

My three little toes on the right foot were killing me with the sharp pain after each pounding on the road. Both my feet were burning up from running on the tar road. The first 400 meters into the race and I knew it was a bad day. My legs would not listen to me. It did not move like trains’ wheels as how it is suppose to do. Going down the first slope, I was immediately left gasping for air. I knew then I was screwed. I had 4.1km to go. It did not help watching Jonathan struggling for the first 2 km while passing me. He was literally thrusting his hips forward violently. He too, had difficulty after just finishing the CEO’s Race of 1.5km just minutes ago. If the mighty JW was struggling, I knew I was in for a ride; a bloody long ride.

Prior to the run, Johnson caught a nasty bug and was down with fever, sore throat and a sore neck. He too was not sure if he could make it for the entire run. However he did it but it was hell; literally. I would let him tell you his story when he gets better.

Minutes before the race when all the participants gathered at the starting point, we had an incident that mind screwed us too. The nasty and attitude side of people began to show. We were separated from Edmund by a lady named Agnes who represented Astro. Lynn kindly asked her if she could allow us through to at least be with Edmund and to start off the race as a team. She did the nastiest thing in the whole world a lady, taken from a man’s damn rib could do. She stared at us coldly and moved to the empty spot to block us from going through. I started the race with that lady’s face in my head and like how we do kettle bell swings, I was swinging her head.

2 to 2.5 km into the race, I reached Passion club next to Menara Ta across KLCC. All this while I was pacing Lynn, following her in a range I can identify her runners id. Once I passed that, the mental torture began. I immediately felt like throwing up and my mind kept asking me to stop. In order to overcome this horrible feeling, I came up with an idea. I was going to start counting and just keep doing that till I finish. “1…2…3…11…27...shit” this isn’t working. Next up, I tried Brian Mckenzie’s, crossfit’s guru of running, method of motivation. I was to find an object 200m ahead of me and just run as fast as I could to it then find a next object and repeat it till I finish. My first object was a bloody old tree. Once I ran to it, I could not even focus on the tree. My life just got worst. Lastly, I tried chanting a mantra to myself. “Come on, Hans, you bloody can do it” “Come on, Hans, Pushmore is on your shoulders” “Come on, Hans, Eddie’s waiting at the end for you” Come on, Hans, You can do fran they can’t” It bloody worked. It helped me a little bit in easing the hellish run I was in.

Funny thing about me is that I am always fortunate to experience out of the world, WTF (What-the-fuck) kind of moments. While I was running, suddenly a voice from behind commented whilst passing me with a cocky face “Come on man, you’re Crossfit Malaysia, you definitely can run faster” I was left with another WTF expression. Then, while running again, suddenly another voice from behind whilst passing me “Ini-kah Crossfit Malaysia” with another cocky face. I was how-you-kiss-your-girlfriend-close close to stopping and making history in the entire Rat Race to beat up somebody and still make it sub 25 minutes. I stared at him and just continued. Guess what, the world just love the fattest kid of the Pushmore team like how you all bully the fat ones in school with the taunting and waiving of lollipop in their face. Not once, not twice, but more than eight times I was taunted while running. I swear I did not tattoo a number 2 behind my back to insult them that, that was the number they were getting if they continued running behind me. I figured and left it at the conclusion that they were jealous of my crossfit ass shaped so nicely due to squats.

With every aspect challenged, the last 1.5 km was a climb after Shangri-La hotel to the finishing line. From there onwards, it was all fifth geared. However it the worst 1.5km ever. I could not breathe and I had the throwing up feeling again. My head lacked oxygen and my vision was blurry. The rain and sun combination did not contribute positively at all and I was mind fucked. I just could not run anymore but I did not stop. As I turn into the last hill, I went all out hoping it was the last climb. But I was wrong, after that turn; I had one more turn to go. By then I was fully exhausted. Not to forget I was violently elbowed from behind just before I went into the turn. Like I said, I am a freaking magnet for the nasty and bitchy.

As I reached the finishing line, I collapsed into that famous fetal position after a tough workout. My head was spinning. I always tell the first timers in the gym to let me know how they feel whenever they start their workout. I tell them if they see stars its fine, but if they see black spots, please tell me. I was seeing black spots and a freaking galaxy of them. As I met up with Johnson, a great feeling of disappointment hit me. I did 4.5km in 25 minutes. Only three days ago, I did it in 22 minutes. Johnson did it in 20 minutes but this time he did it in 23 minutes. We both just looked at each other and we both knew. Brotherly instincts, we knew we could have done better and at least widen the window of chance of winning this race. We felt we had let down the team, Pushmore and Eddie. That feeling sucked big time and personally I hate losing. I may sound cocky, but I know I trained hard for it and was capable of so much more.

This race was gruelling. A mere 4.5km but an extremely tough one. The toughest in my entire life and truly a rat race. What I have learnt from this is humility. We crossfitters may be able to carry twice our bodyweight, lift tyres, and throw sandbags, hang upside down and so much more. But that does not mean that we are great in everything. I underestimated a run of 4.5km and through this, I am going to learn from this and train harder not only in just running faster, but on becoming better, as an athlete and also as a human being. Remember, it is not how good you already are, but how great you can be. I will be in the gym tomorrow ….. working on it.

Pre-Run Photo of the Pushmore Team

Edmund

Jw

Lynn & John-Son

John-hans

Congratulations to Jw and Lynn for winning the CEO race and first place for women open category respectively. They are monsters and they showed beastly characteristics today. They blazed the shit and deserved it. Well done guys !

A big thank you to Eddie for allowing us brothers to represent this organization and also for the chance of running in this race. It was a great experience and we truly cherish it. The love and kindness shown from both Eddie and Karen shows us why we are who we are and is a reflection of the Pushmore Community. A place where love and grace flows abundantly. Not forgetting also, our superstar, Chern Shi An who just release his STARDOM album which you can get at our gym, for taking time off to spend a whole afternoon supporting us and taking pictures of us. All this pictures are courtesy of him. Thank you to Ping too for coming. Your presence made a difference and that is why your husband won the race ;)

Eddie, Ping and Karen

Signing out with a new found hunger for improvement,

John-hans and John-son Oei