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Brilliant. Great to read. You are definitely a good writer.

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As a person who believes in the philosophy that when you accomplish something for yourself, you feel a progress in your life. A step forward, in the right direction that you were hoping for. And that gives you great satisfaction. Now try helping others accomplish an achievement in their lives. But not just any achievement. More specifically, being a finisher in the world class duathlon of Powerman, which consisted of a 5km run, followed by a 30km bike track and finished off with another 5km run. So that what I did. I became a volunteer for Powerman Putrajaya 2018.

It was half past 7 on a Saturday night. I took the liberty of having an early dinner which consisted of fried rice with chicken at a Thai stall, hoping that my food will digest in time and I would be able to get an early shut eye in lew of the Powerman event since volunteers (that included me, by the way) had to be ready on the site before 3.00 am. After finishing my meal, I went back home and did my Isya’ prayer. After that, I went into my room, popped up the A/C, set up my alarm to ring at 12.30AM on Sunday morning, counting travel and shower time and all that stuff and went to sleep like a hibernating well-nourished bear in a cosy cave. The thing was I slept too deep than I expected. Too deep and I regretted everything.

I was in the middle of dreaming flying unicorns and rainbows and other sorts of fantasy creatures that never existed, until a figure shook my body. It was my mom, and she asked me “What time are you going to go? (for the event)” and I said “12.30am, ma, let me sleep.” And at the corner of my eye, I managed to catch a glimpse of my watch beside me, and it showed 1.30am. My heart literally skipped a beat. A moment of panic and chaos washed over me. There and there, I stood up straight like a corn stalk and made a bee line to the washroom to take a shower and refresh myself. After 10 minutes, I went out of the washroom, get dressed up, took my things that I had prepared beforehand, took my car keys and straight went to the door in a rushing manner. While I was doing all of that, my mother managed to packed me some spaghetti with seafood and mushroom with a can of Milo. I said in my mind “My mom’s the best”, thanked her for the hassle that she had to went through in the middle of the night and drove off, just 5 mins before the clock strikes 2.

Thankfully to God and with my mad driving skills, I reached my destination 15 mins earlier than expected. Not bad, I say. Most of the roads were closed in preparation for the duathlon, so I had to find another way to get to the parking spot, which I managed to do. The spacious and vast parking was empty, with only a few cars parked there, so I could parked anywhere I wanted. After parking the car, I texted my group leader, Khairul to remind him that I exist (for the head count, of course) and he told me to sit tight and wait on his further orders since he’s waiting for the rest to come. While waiting for my group leader and the rest of the members to arrive (since I came with my own transport), I was starving. So, with 30 mins of free time, I opened up the spaghetti Mom had packed me earlier and I savoured every last bit of it, not leaving a single strand of spaghetti behind. Right after I finished my really early breakfast, I got a text from Khairul.

In the text was the orders and to meet him in front of the auditorium, so bringing my precious belongings, I locked the car and went to the location which was about 6 mins of walking time from where I’m at. On my way there, there was a bunch of busses from multiple institutes and universities like MFI, FTMS, UKM and many more, carrying students/volunteers for the event. There was also special rented busses to assist with the transportation and ambulance, ready on site in case anything undesired happened to the staffs or participants. Reaching the auditorium, which was the meeting location, there was around 150 people at 3am, doing their own business while waiting for further instructions. Some were sitting on the benches, some were taking selfies on the Powerman buntings and starting point, while some were chit chatting. I never met Khairul before, so I just called him, and saw him waving at me while we were on the phone. He’s a tall, slim-shady kind of guy with fair skin with an interesting attitude, not a bad one, just super optimistic and fun-guy (no puns intended). Since I didn’t know anyone there, me being an introvert that I am, chose to sit at a secluded corner where no one was there. Being alone at the moment, breathing in the fresh dawn air, with no hustle bustle of cars and people moving around, was a very serene and relaxing feeling. But in ended abruptly, when I heard a loud speech in the direction of the rest of my CUCMS pals are at. So, I headed over there.

Truthfully enough, a Chinese guy by the name of Farouq was shouting out to us where to get the food and water. There was croissant and pastry muffins in a tupperware handed out in a big plastic bag, designated for each group. After we had our fill, we got our microfiber crew t-shirts and was told to get changed and to get inside the auditorium for briefing in 15 minutes. The briefing was done by Mr. Farouq and the manager, Ms. Sarah (not real name,forgot). Basically, they told us to have fun and safety first, especially the guys on the field, since the bike participants move at very high speed, so accidents could happen. Our group was situated at the front of the other groups, so we heard the whole briefing clearly, and then our group which was consisted of 19 people, where separated into 3 smaller groups. The group that had all the flowers girls went to the stage for handing out presents and medals, the other group did anti-doping while my group was assigned as being a bike route marshal, which was basically becoming a walking mannequin that showed direction. For the bike route marshals, we were given an extra Tupperware of food and water since we would be on the field until 11am. After putting away our belongings in a room, everybody went their separate groups.

It was 5.30am and we were led by the bike marshal route leader, to a transport bus, taking us to the routes where a pair of volunteers where needed at each location for the task. There was around 30 people on the bus with the same task. So after 3 stops, I paired with a guy called Am and we dropped off, just 4 blocks away from where we departed. The bike route marshal proceeded to give us our instructions and where to point the direction to the participants. Then he left. It was a 4-way intersection, and the roadblocks wasn’t in place so we had to wait for the RELA forces to come and to set up the roadblocks which was supposed to be at 6.30am. So we waited for them. While waiting, I saw a couple of people 1 block away from my location so I walked there, and I was surprised it was Khairul himself with another guy there, so we could count on each other for assistance. Then, the Subuh azan sounded. With no praying facility or surau in sight, using the 500ml of water, we had our minimal ablution, found a clean place to sujud and we prayed on the ground. Then, we waited for the RELA and waited and waited, but no one came. Then, another volunteer came to us on a bike telling us to prep the roadblocks ourselves since the RELA didn’t came. Then the horn sounded, and we were frantically setting up the roadblocks since we knew we had a time frame to finish the task. But, thanks to the cooperation and mutual understanding between me,Am and Khairul, we managed to do so in time. We were just about to rest our buttocks on the road’s pavement when a Dutch guy with his orange and black sport suit dashed past us on his bike, escorted by a police patrol, that meant he was leading the pack. So, we got back up and readied ourselves for the incoming horde to come.

The first 5 minutes, where pretty peaceful, only a few riders every now and then, since they’re the fastest of them, so we had to wait around 30 minutes for the peak time where there were 20-25 riders on our place at a time. Carefully distancing ourselves and the bike riders, we did our job, as bike route marshals. And being in eye sight of a group that’s clowny and energetic, I could see they had different postures of giving directions to make things fun. It was fun until the point the sun rose up and the temperature along with it and burnt our skin to a crisp like a pork glazed with honey and baked over a barbeque. Even the traffic police in full suit that was situated at the intersection near our place felt the heat, they felt a tad disgruntled and went to find a nearby shade to cool off, their body and steam. We also faced a unique problem, since most of the roads were closed off, people had no way to enter the government complex which was located near the Powerman event, so we had to advise the best solution for them. And of course, there were some that felt it was a big hassle and a waste of their time, well you know, Malaysian attitude. I’ll leave it at that. At about 11am, all the bikes participant had move on to their final 5km running part, so we were cleared to leave. We cleared off the roadblocks and walked 4 blocks back to the auditorium.

On our way back, we passed through the open bike storage, which was separated by a unique number of the participants, to avoid confusion. There were people observing the duathlon by the roadside, giving support and shouting to the participants word of encouragement. There was also a few camera man taking some candid shots of the participants. In addition, there were food trucks, selling like hot cakes fast due to people being famished after doing the super taxing marathon. The price was exorbitant so we sated our need of food with eyesight and smell only. Reaching the auditorium, feeling the cold breeze of A/C on our sweaty faces felt so nice, we searched for a spot to land and took a nap while waiting for the rest of us to finish(until then we could eat, so hibernate mode = on). After about 90 minutes of waiting (yes, that long), we got our food, and ate it in the CUCMS group, which felt so little, since we were very hungry ahah. After we were done, each of us got a black cloth Powerman bag and a certificate. To finish it all off, we gathered around a large Powerman banner and took a group photo, to cement the everlasting memory. And then, we went back home our separate ways at 2.30pm.

Being able to contribute, just our energy and soul to the task at hand,to motivate and assist the participants in any way we could by either giving directions or just by shouting at them to keep going. After seeing the participants giving their all to finish the course, after enduring months of training and dedication and finally reaching the finish line, with a big smile on their face, made all of our pain and sore bodies went away. May God grant me the time and strength to serve and do good to other people and make them feel good about themselves , and hopefully I could rely on other people, when I’m at my weakest.