After having to stay put for more than an hour to wait for sunrise, I was feeling more cold than ever. A quick glance at the rocky terrain, I made quick judgment that the terrain is 'run-able'. At that point I was so desperate to gain some body heat quickly thus I decided to have a small jog and later on went literally running down the mountain. The feeling was awesome! I got a guide saying something about running to me, I smiled and moved on. At that moment, I felt like another participant in the annual Mt. Kinabalu Climbathon and equipped with my awesome outdoor trail shoes, the descending run was wickedly fun. I continued running and later met up with my friend Fazilah, an Aussie guy and his guide. All four of us were running and I followed the Aussie and his guide's technique of running in a big zig-zag while descending. That helped a lot to reduce the amount of pressure on your ankle and it was a safer plus faster way to climb down the mountain. My shoes was doing a massive traction work and it was working excellently throughout the fast pace running.
The only downside of working my way down this way meant that I had messed up with my already weak right knee once again. Previously, my right knee had a sprain all because I was putting a lot of pressure during my favorite event of fast down hill running which happened since last year. It got better after a couple of months but it never really heal I suppose. The pain I experienced were no doubt a reoccurring sprain on my right knee but I was never going to let the pain get to the better of me so I ignored it and keep on going by walking sideways. At some point during the hike down, I slipped twice on the slippery rock and I remembered an Aussie guy asking me twice if I was alright. I was fine really, nothing to worry about. Hehe.
There was a point during this descent that we had to hold on the rope to make our way down. It was steep, slippery and you want to really slide with your gloved hands for smooth glide down. The whole ordeal ended later on with the wooden staircases and every step I took was no doubt painful. It ticks me off a little bit when this Japanese guy who was walking behind me ever since the roping descent kept trailing behind me and following every single steps that I took. I didn't know why he didn't pass over me whenever he got the chance because I sure was slowing him because of my ankle. I remember at one point, I missed a step but I didn't miss my balance so I was alright. A couple of steps later, the Japanese guy slipped on a couple of steps and he went on cursing in Japanese. It was a real ouch moment because he did have a bad fall but he told me he was okay and went all red in the face. Haha.
After an hour and 20 minutes later, I arrived at Gunting Lagadan Hut and had to wait for an hour more since I didn't have the key to my room. No point getting down that soon after all. Hehe. Despite that, Fazilah and I got to mingle around with some older folks who are staying back at the hut. Both Fazilah and myself were the first few people who got back from Low's Peak to Gunting Lagadan and that got this particular Chinese lady all excited. She kept on going on how fit we both are for making to the top in just about 2 hours and kept praising on our stamina. She even went so far to telling her friends about us. Gosh that was slightly embarrassing really. We also got chatting with this cool Korean man who speaks Indonesian, English, Korean and even Mandarin and there was also encounters with the guides.
Clearly, almost all the guides knew about our team because we are local, Malays and have the biggest number of girls in the team unlike other teams. The younger guides were clearly happy to see most of us because we are a bunch of 'sumandak' - girls and some even flirted in a way I found different and also funny from the typical flirts we used to get back in the Peninsular. Overall I would say, the Dusun people are friendly, helpful, honest and sincere. Also they are small in size but are the strongest small people I've ever met. A lot of respect goes to these people.
The descent continued later on around 10.30 am after the team had a hearty breakfast and I enjoyed a good solo walk along with some occasional running too. I met with a couple of guides and porters whom I'd met earlier and a particular guide kept saying that I moved pretty fast and he looked somewhat impressed I guess. Haha. I reached back to the starting point at Pondok Timpohan after 3 hours plus and the last of the teams finally arrived an hour or so later.
All 13 of us made it in one piece despite having sore legs, injuries and altitude sickness. What matters was we have made the seemingly physically impossible possible and the feeling of being able to conquer a mountain is tremendously sensational. The only way for you to know is to have a go at it yourself to test your limit, focus, determination and wants. It was no doubt a mental game throughout and with a little help of training, you are almost certainly good to climb the highest mountain in Borneo - Mount Kinabalu.p.s: I may come back for a second run on this mountain to have a go at the World's Highest via Ferrata!
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