reminisce;recall the past: Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

D-day you guys been wondering "Is jangheng that fit to go on a 52km cycling marathon??" Well the answer lies ahead, so keep on reading. This will be something you guys would wanna join if there is in future... =] trust me

So, here goes I woke up around 5.30am, supposingly to be a wake up call by our so called organiser jeremyteoh, but ended up I slept till around 6.15am.

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

I left my house around 6.50am, got there and there was already cyclist outside my doorsteps, they were like cycling in the dark. and yeah I was about to join them, till there were like no where near to be found, all I could see is only their red safety lights blinking from the back of their bikes. So after like 5mins of cycling, I reached Polo Grounds.
The crowd was already like =.='' to me and as usual the typical Malaysians' attitude "never once early"

Many of em' still queuing up to collect their t-shirts, although they wont be wearing it.

Jeremy queuing up to collect his neighbor's t-shirt.

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

There was like so many super+hot+cool bikes everywhere..

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Darrenjit Singh did came and joined the venture with us,

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

So after tie-ing up all those loose ends we headed on to the start position, getting there and lining up was a problem to many, even us....

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

It was like a political "illegal" gathering to me, chaos to be more precise as the participants do not know where they should be at and so on,

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

The event was scheduled to start at 7.30am for us, professional riders but was delayed around an hour for no valid reason. So around 8.30am, the YB who was supposed to be cycling ended up like this,

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

And off we go cycling towards our goal, but what annoys me the most was them stopping cyclist without helmets after they have been flagged off. Aren't they like suppose to stop you before starting the event but oh well I kinda expected it already.
Here are some shots during the beginning of the marathon;

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

p/s: Shots above taken with high risk+speed, that's what I called a PRO~!!

hahahahahahaha; =p

Then it was GurneyDrive; please embrace the beauty of it and not pollute it...

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

At this point, I was starting to get exhausted. Can't believe that they were like F1-ing the whole time during the whole journey. Jeremy even stopped to helped out his neighbor as there was some technical problem with her bicycle, surprisingly he was "so" fit and caught up with us within minutes. WOW!! We head on to Northam Road, then Penang Road, which we were then joined by the Consumer Association of Penang(CAP). By this time round, lots of cyclist were already facing some technical errors with their bike, in e.g. the chain came off, the handle ran out off its track and etc. The superbikers (fellow marshals) led us towards the Jelutong expressway. The journey was indeed very tough as there are lots of flyovers and uneven surfaces, speeding vehicles such as motorcycle, buses, lorries, and etc. Then we made all the way up to Queensbay~!!

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Then its Batu Maung people~, even driving a car or riding a bike will actually take bout the same duration..

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

At this point, I do notice that there are some cyclist are already having a li
ttle break, some already smoking by the roadside, some also having their late breakfast at the roadside hawkers that are available around that area. When we rode pass these bunch of kids, they shouted "Abang mahu minum air?(brother wanna have a drink?). We continued our venture but ended up going in squares, thanks to the "helpful" marshals whom disappear. We stopped by at this Happy Mart round Sungai Ara, Relau to obtain some refill. Then its like "chiong ar"(charge) all the way towards Polo Ground. During the journey, we passed this Bukit Gambir so called "hill" which was so =.=''

Merdeka Ride For Green 2009 (16-8-09)

So, upon arrival, we thought we were like last or something but fortunately, there are still quite a number of people who's still stuck-ed.