Smoking the 2012 Penang Hiking Challenge

Hiking every Monday is a minor addiction. I join 5 or 6 women each week to tackle the trails that snake around the nature preserve surrounding Penang Hill and Bukit Chendana in the name of exercise and friendship. We huff and puff, sweat and complain, but the downhill walk to our favorite juice stand is always a sweet reward. So when signs for the D'nonce Penang Hiking Challenge went up, we had to answer the call.

And such an early call too! The race would start at 7:15 for the ladies, just in time for the sunrise. The 9.5km race had to be finished within 3 hours, by which point the temperature would rise from an already toasty 78 degrees up to 85 with 75% humidity. Ouch. Luckily we were each carrying 2 liters of water to get us through the hike.

The men were off first, and this being a race where people would actually win money for coming in first, there was a small group who swiftly took the lead and finished in like 55 minutes. A friend said they didn't even look winded when they hit the finish line. Ours was definitely a different story! After a short 1km street run (well, fast walk because I hate running) we hit the trail. As we imagined would happen, the people who are used to running, but not used to hills or nature, were slowly making their way up a long set of steep steps. We passed by a lot of people on our torturous way to the first main rest station at about the 4km mark.

Then it was up-up-up again, now on a wet, clay-slicked path to the top of Bukit Chendana. There were a few unfortunate back-ups at this stage of the race, where people who don't want to get dirty + muddy jungle = slow progress. But a few scrapes, bumps and misplaced handholds on thorny palms were a small price to pay for a clear trail ahead. As we rounded the top and headed downward, I was pleased to see that my strategy of keeping up with the fastest chica in our group was paying off -- just 1 hour to the top! And so it was down-down-down again in the same conditions. At this point, I wanted to finish under 2 hours, so I found a running pace, kept my eyes to the trail, and booked it down the hill.

One of our group brought her handy GPS trail tracker system, so the photo above shows our progress.  Her phone ran out of battery at her 1:40 mark, so I drew in red an approximation of the end of the hike. It's hard to tell from the satellite image, but the route is jungle and rugged trail.

During the race I discovered a gleeful thrill in passing people who were losing steam. Our weekly treks had nicely conditioned my mind and body to the terrain.

And guess what?! My trail-blazing Irish friend finished in 1:52, I finished in 1:56, and my Norwegian friend finished in 2:05!!  No winner's circle for us, but we could be rightfully proud of ourselves.