Adrenaline Junkies

What does a sane person do on a public holiday? Sleep in of course! But then again, you are not a member of the recently formed “Siau” Club (herein known as SC). As far as I could ascertain after today, this club consists not only of food junkies, but adrenaline junkies too!

On such a beautiful Diwali morning, instead of sleeping in, I was up and about at 7+ am, getting ready to meet my fellow SC members for a morning trek up Gasing Hill. Yeah, famous last words ~ trek. After a hectic weekend and a really long and energy draining Monday, I almost called it off. But for friendship’s sake, prevail I did. : )

I was supposed to take two guys on this trail but that became three due to a last minute addition the night before. Therefore, imagine my utter surprise to see four guys waiting for me at the starting point of the trail. Okay ~ a rose among the thorns. I am cool. I can definitely handle that. Some might say I am darn lucky, taking a group of “young” men up the trail. :P

From the start of the trek, I knew that this group is very different from my other first time converts. I usually leave them high and dry during the initial climb up the steep little hill. This time, I can hear them breathing down my neck from behind. Gee wheez! Why didn’t I expect it since I am taking a group of gym maniacs up the trail? They should be hell of a lot fitter than moi!

And true to my belated realisation, this group are adrenaline junkies! I did say we will be trekking but obviously that word holds an entirely different definition for these guys. They were practically running all through out the trek. My God! Their energy level is astounding!

At one point, my steel laden feet refused to move any faster even with the extra push that one adrenaline junkie gave me. Onward we walked, ran and hopped. We lost one member along the way as he was just too impatient (?) or too excited (?) to wait. As such, we had to alter our route and waited for him at the Watch Tower in the hopes that he would eventually find himself there. Lucky for us, he did.

The good thing was that we then continued to explore a different trail which is along the stream. It’s been awhile since I took the trail along the stream that I had forgotten how picturesque it was. I definitely have to bring my camera along the next time round. After a couple of wrong turns, we found the right trail and once again, my very gungho troop of adrenaline junkies continued their uphill run. Off they went, up and down hills and man-made steps, never breaking strides, never losing breath. I was too tired to keep up by then and with a throbbing knee to deal with, I decided to continue at a much slower pace with another member who had twisted his ankle.

Despite a longer trail and at a slower pace, I still finished in record time of 1 hour and 10 minutes ~ a pretty fast pace compared to my previous efforts. Then again, those attempts were jungle trekking, this is jungle running! :P In any case, I must admit my pride was a little battered. Oh well, Friday is another day and who is to say, I can’t make a comeback? :p Oh shush! Ignore that bit. My competitive devil is suddenly making an appearance!

One SC member likened me to a chemist who has created a potion that has suddenly gone out of control. For me, it’s like lighting a small fire that has suddenly grown into a conflagration! Hahahaha … dramatic as it may sound, I’ll let the truth speaks for itself. :P