BRM 600 - My Take on The Whole Journey (Part 1)

I think by now everybody knows that my Dad, Farhan and Aliff took part in what some may say the longest cycling event in Malaysia. It took place on the 22 September 2017, where the guys had to cycle for 600km from Kuala Selangor to Simpang Ampat and then back to Kuala Selangor. The official cut - off time for 600km was 40 hours and what may seem like an impossible mission to accomplish, the boys did it with 3 hours to spare.

Brace yourselves... this is going to be a longggg entry...... (600km long) 

The preparation for this massive undertakings wasn't short of an epic task. Being the natural engineer at his heart, my father has to get all technical. He laid out the route, planned his speed, where to have a short break, where to sleep, where to eat and like he said it himself, even planned on where to pee. It was planned right down to the minutes, to make sure he finishes on time. And like any other event, he shares this with the entire family. It literally took 1 month and the whole village to help them achieve this goal of theirs.

So whats my role in all of this??? --- I am their trusted safety car driver and cheerleader. But I didn't do this alone. I had my mom, brothers, sis-in-law, cousins, and nephews with me in the car. (i told you it was a village). 

2 weeks prior to the event, we started to do practice runs of the real route. The first weeks was from Kuala Selangor - Teluk Intan - Taiping. While 2nd week was from Taiping - Teluk Intan - Kuala Selangor. I am now, somewhat used to being the long distance driver. But I noticed that this one was more challenging due to the fact that the routes chosen by this committee was going through a massive re-construction works. The road condition was really bad which includes bumps, cracks and big holes.

The day of the event came, and we started at Kuala Selangor. The cyclist has left for the event at 7am, and we were scheduled to meet at Teluk Intan around 11.30am. After packing, my whole team, made our way to the 1st checkpoint and decided to stop to buy some ice, and re-fill the cars petrol, it was planned on perfectly and our ETA was 10am. Suddenly, ibu realised that we had left our spare bicycles at the hotels. Panicked, worried that the bicycles would be stolen, I made a quick u-turn to get to the hotels. The rest of the crew, tried - and failed (calling the wrong hotel) - and then succeeded to get in touch with the hotel. The bicycles are still there... (phew!)... Arrived at the hotel, zharif straight away loaded the bikes on to the car and started our journey to Teluk Intan again. This time! our ETA was 11.00am. Pergh~ that thing setback us for 1 hour.... I tried to drive as fast as i could with the heavy traffic and all, when suddenly we got a text from the cyclist saying that they are about 20km to the checkpoint. OK! they are ahead of schedule, at this point... they were going to arrive before the safety car. We were supposed to arrive earlier, and prep with the meal for them at checkpoint 1 and with this thought in mind, adik..being the trooper that he is... he google-ed the nearest nasi ayam available and placed an order. So, I head for the restaurant to pickup the nasi ayam, but the un-reliable location available on the google, lead us to a false location. Another 10mins setback, and we thought to just abandon the idea and went to the checkpoint straight away. The cyclist were about to leave when we arrived, but we managed to re-fill their water bottle before they set off to their next checkpoint. Dissapointed that we didn't arrive in time, we took our time and had our breakfast at the checkpoint.

stressed faces of not arriving in time at Teluk Intan

We continued on to the next checkpoint in Kuala Kangsar. We head for Aida's hometown where, mama Aida had cooked the dinner for the cyclist. Alhamdulillah, we didnt have to search for it in town where we were not familiar. Driving across the small towns towards Kuala Kangsar, I realised how beautiful our country is. Its quaint, quiet, and peaceful, away from the busy city. The views of the paddy fields, and the rivers made this drive an unforgettable experience. Its 3.00pm when we arrived at Aida's hometown and its about 2 hours before the cyclist were scheduled to arrive. We had a quick break, the babies had a bit of time to cool down from being in the car for half-a-day. We left for the checkpoint at about 4.45pm, and the cyclist arrived at 5.00pm, still ahead of schedule. Our next destination would be Simpang, Taiping where we will be spending the night.

Boomerang by the river in Parit while waiting for Zharif who went for Friday Prayers

After checking in to the hotel in Simpang, I had a quick lay down on bed. I thought I had about 1 hour to rest for a bit, but I was wrong. The cyclist again arrived earlier then expected. Zharif quickly jumped right on to fill up the water bottles, while I gather myself to continue on to the next checkpoint. The cyclist wanted burger for their dinner in Simpang Ampat, so zharif and I went to search for the nearest burger stall we could find. We even bought extra ice, and water, refreshments you could say, just in case they need it. We then drove to Simpang Ampat. The road up north was dark, without any lights, and I was quite worried for the cyclist. Alhamdulillah, they safely arrived at the next checkpoint at about 10pm.

They devour the burgers, and had a quick rest before they had to cycle another 60km to the hotel where we have checked in earlier. I left about 15minutes after they all left, and I arrived at the hotel about 12am. The cyclist arrived at the hotel, at 1 am and got ready for their rest, so they could continue on the next day.

To be continued...