Rembau Challenge Report by Dr Mark Craig

Race Day Tips, November 17, 2016

Now that everyone's recovered, there are more stories coming in from teams at the Rembau Challenge Rembau 2016. Below is Mark Craig's version of events.

What a great trip this was - a great bunch of guys to travel with, fantastically organised, and a very tough but enjoyable race, as well as a great cultural experience in the Malaysian countryside and then KL.

I got asked to come in pretty late with 3 weeks to go but luckily had got some training in for the ITU Cross Tri World Champs in the snowy mountains in November. Graham, my team mate (teams of two), only had about two weeks to prepare, and admitted training had been a bit tricky for the past month although he had a good engine! Never mind, off we went to have some fun!  

It was an adventure from the start, being met at KL airport at 5am by a non English speaking Driver to take us in an overloaded minivan 90 minutes away to Rembau, a small village/ town in the country. We were treated very well by the hosts - a taste of being a pro maybe as we got to the (basic but fine)  hotel to be given a brown envelope containing our reimbursement for coming and expenses for a few days. Stephen Hurdley was a bit gutted to find his USD had gone astray but the genial host of the event, Eugene chan, son of one of Steve Farrell's contacts out there, made it up to him pretty quickly. We were lucky to be given 4 rooms between 6 of us after a bit of room jiggling by Eugene the organiser, after we were initially put 4 of us blokes into a modest double room, unlike most of the other teams. Bonus! As you will know sleep is a premium resource on these sort of trips. 

We had a couple of nice days preparing for the event, checking out some of the cycle course (tho it turned out to be last year's!) and local roadside eateries - fresh coconuts lychees and lovely Malay and Indian foods.  It was hot and humid maybe 32 degrees depending if the sun was out, and 90+ humidity such that it felt like it was raining sometimes when it wasn't. 
We got the chance to try the great local food and meet some nice locals as well as teams from around the world - Canadians, Aussies, Europeans other kiwis and Aussies and it was exciting as no one really knew what to expect of the next two days, which is a clearly a big part of the fun about these races. We got an insight into the lives of locals whilst riding around the local villages, such as latex production from tree tapping, and growing the dreaded palm oil (sorry orangutans) and tropical fruits. 
 
So the race days themselves - just great fun essentially - hot, wet, messy, muddy and just all in. The first day long hot and tough, taking Graham and I nearly 8 hours, the second around 5. It was fast (usually) and unrelenting racing all day in the heat and humidity and I loved it. Or 'b@lls to the w@ll' as one of our Canadian cousins so eloquently phrased it. 

The two days consisted of quite a lot of mountain biking with kayaking, 'running'/ hill climbing, fun mystery tests like letter/ number recalls and sack races and coconut shell walking (!), tubing (which became running with a tube due to low water, a very energy sapping section, as was the Mountain biking along the river bed (ie pushing it through silty sandy sections) and biathlon, where one person runs and the other cycles and you switch over tactically where ever.

I reckon this could be fun training exercise, as though it sounds odd, it got pretty competitive as you overtake and then get overtaken by other teams and try to maintain your position on the course. Another Christmas party game maybe, Steve F? 

Day one finished with the biathlon and let me tell you it's a long 5k hilly run back to town after what we had been through. The temptation to ride on just a *bit* further while the other guy runs behind is quite overwhelming, eh Mr Brewster ;) Top winning tip for anyone ever ever doing biathlon again- well, I'll show you at the Chrimbo party should it manifest!

The mountain biking sections themselves were on wide trails, forest or vehicle tracks, with some road sections joining them up and whizzing around on single lane back roads between small farms and lifestyle block sections, quite hilly in parts with some nice fast intervening sections. The runs were mostly really hill climbs, including a murderously steep hill on day 1 going up around 900m vertical up Gunung datak, and we didn't even get to see the view which was up some ladders  20m higher! Thanks for google photos.. Day two runs were a bit kinder, one around some paddy fields, the second up to a waterfall where you had to jump in and swim to the young lad shivering holding up a sign to touch! ( i gave him a quick cuddle, to show I cared) and the third a tough river bed run wading and running along soft sandy banks and criss crossing the river back and forwards to find the solidest line underfoot. 

Day 1 had a very tough kayak early on. The water level was very low, unusually for the wet season - it hadn't rained in a fortnight, which meant LOTS of getting out and pushing, or even carrying short distances between sections, sometimes every few metres, though there was technique you could use to keep speed up such as punting along the river bed and getting speed up to glide over shallow sections..  a lot of time was lost or won here I think. Pleasingly, a croc was spotted gliding into the water by the Canadians! We had been warned about the possibility but weren't sure if the mischievous Eugene was being serious. [since confirmed on wiki!) Whereas all we saw were lovely sections of river which behorribly rubbish filled as we got near the sea, at one point paddling through a twenty or thirty metre section of pure consolidated rubbish, mostly plastic landfill, but also dead cats I am told. I fear this may be the same throughout south east Asia which makes you weep. 

I have to say it was one of the best organised and fun events I've been to. There were marshalls every few hundred metres (many kids, stand all day in the same remote spot in return for the free orange t shirt) and tape marking the way every 50 or so metres (though this didn't stop earley/ Hurdley, becs/ Farrell and a Canadian team from making a 10-15 minute wrong turn detour on day 2 - all part of the race I reckon ;) Everyone was super friendly including the other competitors and locals, a nice relief from pure tri type A personality stuff, and there were dozens of police and local army stopping traffic every time you crossed the roads! I almost felt like a pro, though our final placing was at odds with that feeling. We shouted a lot of 'terima kasih' (thanks in Malay) to acknowledge them as we went by. 

At the vey end on the finishing field there was a quick obstacle course and run to the finish line where we were elated to finish and be greeted with cold flannels, iced coconuts and big fans to cool us down. Day one was elite racers mainly but day two had all comer individual and teams racing with maybe a few hundred competing. Several went down with injuries or overheating / dehydration including one poor girl racing in full leggings and hijab (it's a Muslim country) who was stretchered away looking suboptimal. 

Graham and I didn't manage to get in the money (top 8 only but well done to becs and Steve who did.) Of course, we should have had them, having caught them half way through day one, but a few sections set us back- graham unfortunately bonked on the run quite badly and struggled with fitness and heat, unsurprising given the late call up, and we got the bungy/ towing cord going too late- once on it makes all the difference in the world, as the person feeling good can max it out up front and use the energy level difference to tow to the one behind and even things up, on both bike and run sections. The top teams were all familiar with this and team work is perhaps the biggest part of the race and learning point. A bit of kayak practice goes a long way too.

There was a nice prize giving afterwards with the local regional King (!), and good facilities laid on like bike washes, some decent food, showers laid on and a bit of a village fair thing going on. The only thing missing was an after party that evening as there was a lot to talk about as you were often racing by yourselves during the day, and by then we had got to know the other competitors pretty well and could have done with a cold beer in the sun as reward. Instead it was back to the hotel and bike pack up for transfer to KL where we spent the last two days having fun. 

KL was great fun, sorry Steve f who missed the rooftop pool and beers day due to a day of gastro, and we had a great massage, amazing local food and did some sightseeing. Eugenes dad ,'uncle chan' took us out for a lovely Chinese meal with his family which was really nice as we got to hear more about Malaysia and the events they run from them as locals, as well as Eugenes' brother who runs a cervelo shop which caught Grahams eye! 

The whole trip was a great experience and great fun - too many funny bits to list. Such as me asking for contact details for a post race massage from our non English speaking hotel receptionist in Rembau (turns out there aren't any), and being given a phone number they found with a quick Google search. Lucky I checked her screen, as the description in English said 'full body massage , including manhood, to be given by some bloke down the road! It was an amusing couple of minutes while I tried to mime the meaning of the word manhood without being forcibly removed from the building.

I'd love to go back and do this or another adventure race again, properly this time! There are undoubtedly a lot of tactics and time saving tips to learn, which keeps it interesting and fun, and would be keen to do some adventure / multisport racing in NZ if anyone else is looking for a team mate! It's exciting as you're racing in real time, no wave starts, less rules, and there's a lot to think about as you go- nutrition, kit set ups, pacing, but also it's not so time pressured as a short tri type race so you can have a bit of banter with your team mate and other teams and the locals which keeps it fun.
Next year rematch, Steve Farrell??! 

 

Mark

 

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