Kinabalu Challenge 2010

Posted by azuan on Apr 16, 2009 in :: All Posts ::, Featured Articles | 20 comments

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, a famous singer, composer, scholar, and social activist once said “Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.”

Life is fun because we human beings kept exploring something new and exciting to embark on. I always see life as a journey full of adventures, some being anticipated adventures while some are surprises that bring twist to my otherwise boring 27–years of living in this planet earth.

Since January 2009, I was searching for one adventure to embark on this year. Something that are not too easy yet something that are challenging, achievable, realistic, fun and most important something that can help me to become a better me. I listed a few ‘missions’ such as backpacking alone to a third world country, bungee jumping, white water rafting, sky-diving or even walking across a log.

~Photo from Wikipedia~

All these are something I would love to do before I die but it is more of a ‘1-day thing’ that I can do anytime as long as I got the time and money. I need more challenging challenge!

I actually forgot about the whole thing until on my recent trip to KK, me and Jiji had so much fun that on the way back onboard Air Asia’s A320 I kept asking myself “what’s next?”. What will be my next adventure? While the question still lingers unanswered in my mind, I made a payment to the Flight Attendant for the Pepsi that I purchased. At that point I got the inspiration for my next crazy adventure.

An inspirational idea from a RM1 note.

No….i’m not planning to become a Sultan.

The other side of the note…..

May I present to you, Mount Kinabalu! The highest peak (4,101m) in Malaysia and 20th highest peak in the world in terms of prominence.

~photo from MalaysiaSite.nl ~

Yes, this will be my next challenge. A challenge that meets all my criteria

a) Challenging – Not all has succeed to climb all the way to the top, kids as young as 7 yeards old and senior citizen as old as 70+ has conquered the peak but there were those who are young and fit who failed. It’s a challenge of fitness, readiness and luck indeed!

b) Achievable – 40,000 per year has succeeded and it has an average success rate of 90%. This can be done

c) Realistic – This is as real as it gets. Something that I can brag about for many years to come

d) Fun – The fun in this challenge lies of the fact that it’s not a ‘1-day programme’. It goes way beyond just going up, take photos and going down. It’s about the preparation that will take months and pushing my body beyond what I am used to. It should be fun and I’ll make it fun all the way I also plan to meet new people through this adventure.

e) Something for me – As mentioned above, I will work on my fitness and I think I finally found one good reason to exercise. I have been giving myself excuse not to exercise and I never see exercising such as jogging and running as something fun. Finally with climbing Mt Kinabalu as a target, I have something that I work for and I can be motivated!

Having listed all the reasons above why I choose this challenge, here are my 3 main objective of doing this:

1) I want to be on the peak and prove to myself that I can be who I want to be
2) I want to improve my fitness and lose weight to 70KG ( I am now 78kg). Let’s face it, corporate lifestyle has transformed me into a lazy unfit dude that can’t even jog for 20 minutes non-stop. I need to have a more healthier lifestyle so I can eat more!

3) I want to meet new people, explore new places and blog about it.

It’s still half-a year away but I’ve begun some planning and came out with the following rough plan:

a) TIMING

Due to the monopoly of Laban Rata Guesthouse and the limited slots availability, I have to plan way in advance and I’m looking at a few dates:

18th,19th, 20th December 2009
OR
25th, 26th 27th December 2009
OR
January 2010
OR February 2010

1 day in Kinabalu Park prior to trekking.
1 day in Laban Rata Guesthouse
1 day in Kinabalu Park to cool off after descend from the Peak
1 day R&R and fun celebration of success in KK city.

I’m in the midst of getting the slots booked. Wish me luck.

b) TRAINING

Mount Kinabalu offers a wonderful experience for trekkers, but it requires me to be at least somehow fit. Long treks at high altitude, be it uphill or downhill, with a heavy load can quickly cause overload syndromes of the cardiovascular and motor systems on untrained and unfit people like me. It does not only provoke a painful experience, but also, under precarious circumstances, it could cause serious health threats that could simply throw off the whole thing.

For this reason, my body needs to be slowly prepared for the upcoming task. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to train the basic endurance and the specific muscles demanded in a mountain outing.

My training plan (*roughly*)

April – May – Fitness light training, jogging around Shah Alam lake 1-2x weekly, Swimming
June – August – Fitness Drill – Running and Jogging around Shah Alam Lake, 2xweekly, Weekend Trekking at Bukit Cerakah Shah Alam, FRIM, Swimming
September – Light training due to fasting month. Swimming
October-November – Jogging around Shah Alam 2xweekly, swimming, early morning and night jogging 1x weekly, Trekking at Bukit Cerakah Shah Alam, FRIM, Swimming 1xweekly
December – Trekking at Bukit Cerakah Shah Alam, Light Night and Early Morning Jog.

The brief fitness program presented here is not intended to increase the muscular mass, but mostly to prevent physical damage through the physiological tension of the passive and active structures, and thus to be able to enjoy the excursions. And of course I want to achieve 70KG before December!!

c) THE TEAM

Right now it’s just me and my travel buddy! He has the experience of climbing Mt Kinabalu and he will be my motivator and trainer for some of the training I’m trying to bring my wife, Jiji but it’s subject to her health and fitness at that time In the meantime, I’m looking for 5 more people to join us. This will help to reduce cost and make it more fun as a group with 1 guide can go to a max of 8 trekkers. Since my travel buddy is a single-and-looking-for a-gf guy, the 5 more people I’m looking for must meet the following criteria
- Female aged younger than 30 (There are 2 guys already so guys no need to apply )
- Pleasant looking (ok this is not real)
- Fun-minded (this is super important)
- Camera Hog (loves taking picture)
- Preferably stay in Klang Valley (so we all can train together for some of the session)
- NOT FIT (so we can go on easy pace)

Ok, the real reason behind the above criteria is to have people that are fun to be part of the team. I don’t want some fit and show off dude to be part of the team and putting pressure on the rest. I want this to be a team effort and of course ground for making new friends

Anyone interested may email me directly at azuan_az@hotmail.com

d) BUDGET

It’s getting more expensive to climb Mt Kinabalu these days and I haven’t had the chance to make a detailed breakdown. But roughly it will cost me RM1,200 inclusive of return airfares on Air Asia and accommodation. For once in a lifetime experience, I’m willing to spend this much money but need to start saving from now

It may sound like a dream. It may sound far from today. But I’m setting a target. And even if I don’t achieve all the three objectives, I could be few KGs lighter, healthier and a happier person. To track future updates on this adventure, I am putting up a new category known as “Kinabalu Challenge 2010” on azuanzahdi.com.

Mt Kinabalu, here I come….