Thursday, September 20, 2012

TMBT 2012 Race Results & Post-Race Report - Made Top 10! :D

SLIGHTLY overshadowed by wife making top 5.. but you can read all about that in her blog I'M SURE. hehe.. so just wanted to share the elation, tho like the wife remarked, it's really just syiok sendiri since we didn't have any target time or position. Still a nice feeling to have come through a competitive event with a decent position. 


Staring at results, makes u wonder what if I had pushed a bit harder in the beginning, or did my pacing differently etc... results do that to you, don't they? heh.. that's what keeps us fighting I suppose.


Check out wife's achievement! Top 5 oooo... very proud of her. First local girl lagi. Wonder whether sponsors will entertain if we use this to ask for sponsorship. hahaha.. 

So the results finally came & with Race Director Aman's thoughtful post-race comments. Reading it I had a few thoughts of my own. Just to share some excerpts:

On TMBT's philosophy.. 

AmanWe are a small organization, who’s goals are very different from event companies and corporate event companies. We do not want/need the big corporate sponsorships and we certainly want to avoid the ‘mickey mouse sponsor’s’ gala before and after the event because we want the focus to be on you and you only. This has always been our philosophy from the beginning and sometimes, big sponsor’s don’t see things the way we do, which is why we did not enjoy working with the 1-2 big outdoor brands we worked with in the past. When a country manager has different ideas from us and is interested in sacrificing the aims of the Sabah Adventure Challenge for mass numbers and and severe damage and destruction of race course routes and village trails, especially through the jungle paths and plantations, it goes against how we see things and we are more than happy too walk away from a sponsorship deal.

What is important is we hold on to our core values and our beliefs of what is right and what is wrong. We are not in the business of pasting sponsor logo's for the sake of it just to make a race poster look 'beautiful.'

Bin: That's one freaking awesome philosophy if you ask me. Mickey mouse sponsor gala reminds me of......... Nike Run :P


On Mandatory Kit List...

AmanYou must realize by not racing with headlamps, you are putting yourselfs at risk if you are caught on the race course after dark. You're race is over and all the money you have invested in the event would be wasted. And, let's not forget, whilst other runners are abiding to the rules, you aren't and against the spirit of competition and this should not be repeated again.

Bin: That's right! Hit them hard Aman.. rules are rules are rules, they're there for a reason! 


On Rubbish...

Aman: Once again, runners were dumping bottles, empty energy bar/gel packets throughout the race course and it was bad. We had made it known prior to the event that rubbish could be disposed of at water stations but this was completely ignored by a small number of runners. A review of the penalty’s for this will need to be done for future races on how we can better improve preventing this from happening again.

Bin: I'm speechless & this is so unforgivable the penalty for rubbish throwing should be to run the opposite direction so that every runner can see THAT FACE OF SHAME! I mean c'mon folks... we do races like TMBT coz we love nature & yet..  sighhh..


On Race Course...

Aman: So, for some, the 2012 race course was perfect. For others, they felt it wasn't their cup of tea. I again, had stated this race course was not the originally planned race course but some people have neglected to realize this since they don't read the email updates we have been sending out every month for the last 6 months.

Bin: GUILTY. But to my own defense I did try to catch up with the emails, I just ended up confusing myself... and the wife... So do we need headlamps or not?? No no no.. our starting point is at KK HQ laaaa... etc. As for the race course - there really isn't much to say, everybody signed up knowing routes were not fully known nor fixed, so TMBT don't owe nobody no perfect race course...! Besides, at the end of the day all that matters is that we showed up & took on the battle.


Speaking of battle, nearly forgot to give tribute to my faithful NB 876, it performed brilliantly during the race. No blisters, nothing. Yanking it out from the plastic bag with dirt & dust still covered all over it brought back instant memories :) ...  yes I admit I'm still thinking about TMBT! Sobs!


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