Apek-Saga Hills and Merdeka Day

When the rendezvous time of 7:00 a.m. was up at the Petronas petrol station along Jalan Cheras, I knew the response for the trail running at Apek-Saga Hills of Cheras on 31 August 2012 was not very encouraging. Other than Chong YF, the Team Lead, I could only see George Seow joining us.

 

Upon reaching the car park, we met Kelly Hoh’s and Jason Lee’s group of trekkers who were also there.  Walking to the trail head, Kelly Hoh related to us her most recent experience of trekking to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro (5,900m; highest mountain in Africa) just one week ago. What an incredible feat!

 

Do click here to view photos taken by yours truly (KC).

 L-R: Beh, Eric, Angeline, Kristie, Elaine, Kelly Hoh, Jason Lee, Tan, ChongYF, George, KC Leong

I quipped to ChongYF that we need to change our invitation strategy if we ever do another trail running at Apek-Saga Hills in future. Preferably, we have to invite those celebrity runners or trekkers of Apek Hill, and then more people would come. We were unanimous in our nomination that Ms DC Tan would be the best candidate ... :-)

 

Going up Apek Hill was a challenging effort as certain parts were quite steep. We ran up the hill rapidly until we were panting with the effort. We waited for the trekker group as we knew they brought lots of food. All trekkers are friendly and generous and they shared their food with us at the waterfall area. With the good times there, I almost forgot that we were on a trail running mission.

 At the waterfall area ... lots of food brought by the trekkers

After refuelling of which the stomach was a bit heavier already, we continue running again to the Pond en route to Saga Station. The most colourful item at the Pond area has to be the brand new Malalaysian flag as it was the Merdaka Day.

 Look! They even sweep the trail! Thumbs UP!

At Saga Station, we chatted with Jeffrey/Lily and Group and have lots of light-hearted conversation since it was a good day – the Merdeka Day. I quipped that Jeffrey, wearing the yellow and green T-shirt – signalling nature and sunshine – is most appropriately dressed for the occasion.

 At the Pond area ... flying the Malaysian flag; it is Merdeka Day!

Fearing that our trail running ‘turbo engines' could be idling for too long, we have a group photo with them as a remembrance and hurriedly ran back to Station 6. We than race down Apek Hill running through the disorganised pattern of steps – one of the highlights of trail running at Apek Hill. It was indeed a very satisfying run on a good and auspicious day, and also meeting many friends at this hill.

Front: Kelly, Ester, Lily, Jacqueline ... Back: Jeffrey, KC Leong, Kam, George, ChongYF

Total distance = 8km (Station 2,3,4,5, waterfall, Pond, Saga Station, Station 6, trail head) ... from Garmin FR610 GPS-enabled watch.

Posted by KC Leong