So E.T.Riders and I went to the SBCC MTB jamboree in Bandar Baru Sg Buaya last Sunday. It was a ride we had been waiting for. The last MTB jamboree we went to was sometime last July, just about a week before the fasting month began. There were no jamborees organized during Ramadan nor during the festive month that followed although this did not keep the avid bikers away from their bikes. For them, biking still went on as usual despite the fasting and the celebration.
I am delighted that a large number of bikers from my own fraternity had joined in the jamboree this time. Close to 30 bikers from E.T.Riders were there to participate. Certainly this large number is telling me something about the state of the activity in my own locality if not the whole country. Close to 1300 mountain bikers from all over Selangor and from other states were there in Sg Buaya last Sunday. This however, isn't a record figure. I have participated in a jamboree that had attracted more than 2000 bikers. All this stands to show that mountain biking as a sport is slowly but surely gaining popularity in this country.
Being keen mountain bikers that we are, we just had to be there for the jamboree early lest we might miss the boat. As I said earlier, we have always been champing or chomping at the bit when it comes to mountain biking. So, we were there in Sg Buaya well before the event was supposed to start. And since there's that outdoorsman streak in all of us, we pitched our tents out in the open to rest up the night before the event. I have always been an outdoorsman and I believe this streak in me has been partly responsible for contributing to my pursuit of mountain biking.
So we rode the jamboree trail the next morning: a 36- km course of tarmac and offroad tracks. The off-road portion of the trail includes oil palm tracks, sealed and unsealed tracks through some thinly populated and unpopulated areas and rough single paths in uncultivated areas. The off-road tracks were strewn with the usual hazards: rocks, dead tree branches, roots and ruts. We were lucky though that the SBCC rocks were not too large, the roots too protruding and the ruts too deep. Athough the general topography is relatively hilly, the hills fortunately aren't as big and steep as some that I had encountered in earlier jamborees. Though there are obstacles along the way, these too are not too stiff to cause us serious delay. Still, my take is, although the trail wasn't as hard as some that I had ridden in previous jamborees, it was more than enough to make the whole ride an adrenaline and heart pumping affair.
The SBCC trail was all in all, a fairly manageable trail even for someone my age. At the pace that I decided to take on the trail which included some stops along the way for photographs and for fluid and bananas to re-energize plus walking the bike over some hills, I still didn't do too badly considering the position I managed to secure in the overall standing. Although it was just a jamboree and not a race, participants were still given positions on arrival at the finish line.
With the level of exertion that I applied during the ride, the trail did not push me to my maximal limit. I could feel the reserve of energy that was still left in me that I could use if I needed to. I could tell this through comparison with other trails I had ridden in previous jamborees. But still, the SBCC trail is a beautiful balanced trail which is neither too hard nor too easy. It has all the elements one would look for in mountain biking. I love the single trails particularly those stretches that run through some grass-grown patches in the uncultivated areas. They are beautiful and a joy to ride on. The rain over the previous day had also caused some parts of the trails to turn slithery more so after having been ridden by riders ahead of you. These slithery sections posed an additional challenge to the bikers.
So, if the trail wasn't that hard, how did I fare then?
I would like to look at it more as a way of gauging my own personal level of fitness and endurance than for trying to compare it with others. Moreover, those who were not ahead of me to the finish line could have been so for some or their own good reasons and not for their lack of fitness or stamina. Be that as it should, I wish to put it on record that I wasn't too far behind to the finish line. There were more than 700 bikers who were behind me. With the level of physical exertion that was applied during the ride, I wasn't yet stretched to my maximal limit. This is something that I must be thankful for taking into consideration that I was also the most senior participant in the jamboree -- again, for the fourth time. In earlier jamborees, my performance had been about the same.
So, what does this mean to me then?
Ever since I got into biking, I have come to realize that the sport isn't just for the young but also for someone like me. I didn't start mountain biking until I was sixty. As I mentioned somewhere before, I participated in my first mountain bike jamboree when I was sixty-one and I am still jamboreeing-- if I may use the word -- now at sixty four. So, if you happen to be sixty and feel that you are too old to try something new like mountain biking, maybe you should reconsider your stand. As senior citizens, I can't see why we cannot continue to be athletic and in reasonably good shape for a long time. La Lanne always comes to my mind.
Well, I guess I am not the type who sits around much. Isn't life about movement as some say?
So, I hope to continue to pursue this healthy lifestyle with passion for as long as I can. Like some choose to do, I want to spend the rest of my life in the fast lane -- on a bike.
