Physical Feats

It seems like all the other YAGMs have amazing stories of their physical feats–running marathons, scaling walls, fighting flesh-eating zombies, etc.  I’ve felt left out, but now is my time!  April was a really fun month of physical challenges.  One weekend, another YAGM, Erika Randall, and I decided to get SCUBA certified.  It’s really cheap here and is a much more interesting place to get certified than a lake in Minnesota.  So after a day in the classroom, we headed to the waters of Tunku Abdul Rahman National Marine Park.  We learned skills, like how to take off and on you mask underwater, how to find your air hose if you lose it, and, most importantly, how to surface if for some reason your oxygen fails.  It was really fun.  And the best part was that by doing it in the marine park, we actually got to see marine life while we were training.  We saw coral, swam under a school of jellyfish, two sea turtles, clown fish, and hundreds of other fish and creatures I couldn’t name or explain in words.  It was great.  After two days in the water, I was exhausted, my ears were sore from the pressure, but I was pumped about the underwater new world I had discovered.  Sorry, no pictures.  I don’t have an underwater camera or underwater camera skills (that’s another training course).

At the end of the month, Peter Harrits, and ELCA intern doing his internship in Kuala Lumpur, came to Sabah to climb Mout Kinabalu with me.  Mt. Kinabalu is a little over 4,000 meters, making it the highest point in Southeast Asia (if you don’t count the island of Papau which is half Indonesian, but really belongs more to Oceania geographically).  It’s a two day journey.  The first day you hike up and up and up to the Laban Rata Resthouse just over 2km from the peak.  Rest the afternoon and get to bed early for an early rise the next morning.  I got up at 1:40am to begin the summit climb.  It’s an exciting climb up enormous granite slabs, holding on to the ropes and scrambling in the light of the moon.  I reached the peak at 5:30, just as the sun was rising.   It was chilly, clear day without much wind.  From the top you can see all the way back to Kota Kinabalu and beyond.  It’s a stunning view and definitely worth effort to make it to the top.  Coming down is actually where it gets really tough.  The stress on your knees and ankles is really intense, and by the end, there are few people whose legs are shaking and weak.

The very next morning, I ran the 10km race that was part of the Borneo International Marathon.  It was crazy to do the day after climbing the mountain, but it’s very hard to schedule climbs on the mountain, so it was my only choice if I wanted to race.  And I did.  I’ve been running a lot, and I needed to test my progress.  Another early rise–4:30am–to start the race before the blazing tropical sun made it dangerous to run.  I stretched a ton the night before, and was feeling pretty good during the race.  After starting the back of a few hundred runners, I started to pass people as my legs gave their last effort to hold me up and moving.  I was passing people the whole way, feeling good, and enjoying the challenge.  In the last 200m, I caught up to the guy in front of me, and the small crowd in the stands went crazy and we went neck and neck to the finish.   I think I beat him.  Somehow, by the end, I placed 5th in my category (Men’s Open) in 54:14.  It’s not an amazing time, but considering where I started in the back and the mountain climb, and how hot it is here, I feel good about it.

Lastly, I joined the Tuaran Taekwondo club in April.  I’m really bad at it.  My sister was better at Karate than me when I was a kid and I was so jealous.  I haven’t gotten any better at martial arts, but it’s really fun.  I go with Rommy, the Jireh Home driver, 3 times a week and work on my kicking and punching on the cement floor under the coach’s stilted house.  It’s soooo hot without any fans and my feet always bleed, but I’m making friends there, making it totally worth it.  Recently, they invited me to a karaoke party.  I tried to sing in Dusun and succeeded only because everyone was a bit too tipsy to take the microphone away from me.  And I tried “bahar” which is moonshine made from coconut tree.  The tree, not the coconut.  It tastes…It’s strong.  Alright, I’m rambling now, so I’m going to end this blog.  I’ll be joining a Taekwondo tournament at the end of June, so send your prayers my way that I learn to balance before then.  Have a good one!