AN article in one of the newspapers dated April 26, 1991, had this heading: "Teacher kicks smoking and takes up running".

Adnan Osman was a 50-year-old teacher at SM Taman Desa 17 years ago. He has run 12 marathons since. Adnan has also climbed all the 12 mountains above 2,100m in the country. He reached the peak of Gunung Tahan 15 times and Gunung Kinabalu three times.

Last year, he took up cycling seriously. This month, he and his cycling partner, Mazlan Rahmad, will push the limit of their ageing bodies. They are cycling to Beijing.

Adnan admitted that it was only in his 50s that he took exercising seriously. Today, despite his age, he is involved in extreme sports - kayaking, mountain climbing, marathon running and cycling. He is a fitness freak.

Adnan is a regular at my favourite teh tarik joint. The stall belongs to Idrus Buang and his family.
Situated just next to the PJ Old Town bus station, Warung Rus is frequented by interesting individuals including a number of Datuks. Many are pensioners.

There is a former speaker of a state assembly, an English writer and a driver cum body guard of a rich towkay. And, of course there is Cigku Ahmad Mahmud, who will enter history as one of the few who represented the country in two different sports - decathlon and rugby. Ahmad was with Universiti Malaya's sports department until he retired.

The orang kuat at the warung is Bang Din or Shamsuddin Hassan, an affable political operator who has an ear for even the most virulent attack against the party he represented. The warung is as multiracial as it can get, Chinese, Indians and Malays sipping teh tarik or teh Abang Boleh and Misai Kuching or savouring rice with asam pedas or ikan keli goreng prepared by Kamariah the cook.

There are always heated debates on almost every topic under the sun, politics, of course, eliciting the most attention. A few days ago, there was a furious discussion on why a sportsman as illustrious as Cikgu Ahmad was not included as one of the torchbearers during the Olympic torch run here. In fact, he was not even invited as a guest.

Adnan is taking his trip to Beijing seriously. It is an adventure unlike any other beginning in Kuala Lumpur just in time for the opening of the Summer Olympics.

The entire distance would be 9,000km crossing the Malaysia-Thailand border at Bukit Kayu Hitam, then to Bangkok, heading towards Vientiane in Laos, later to Hanoi and from the Chinese border town of Nanning, heading north towards Beijing.

There will be places like Trang Ranong, Songkhran, Nakon Ratchasima, Beung Khan, Than Hoa, Liuchow, Guilin, Wuhan, Jinan and Tianjin that he and Mazlan will have to pass through - names that are as strange as the culture of the people.

The journey will take almost two months if the duo cycle an average of 100 to 160km a day. They will have to endure traffic, dust, heat, probably even rough roads and gravel dirt tracks. Adnan will be cycling the Old Faithful, his touring bicycle, a Chromolly made in Taiwan.

It is not just the cyclists that must be super fit, their bicycles too have to be strong and fitted with the necessary accessories. Adnan and his partner have been training rigorously since last year, the latest was a punishing trip to Cameron Highlands and down to Gua Musang and back.

At 67, there is a limit to what the body can take. But Adnan is no quitter. He has dreamt of this journey almost his entire life. It is a golden opportunity that the venue is Beijing as the last time the Olympics was held in Asia was in Seoul in 1988. You never know when the next Olympics will be held in Asia, he will tell you. But at that age? "Humans are made of steel, there is no limit to what we can do."

He understands the perils of the journey. It is not that such a distance has not been covered on a bicycle before, but dangers lurk everywhere. He believes a person of average fitness would require at least three months of monitored training to attain the fitness level to undertake the challenge.

Adnan is no stranger to pain and sickness as the result of his efforts. He was hospitalised for sampling yak steak in Nepal and suffered altitude sickness at Mount Everest.

Adnan was a teacher all his working life. He was trained at Brinsford Lodge Teachers College in England in 1962 and 1963. He came back to teach at various schools, including a decade at Royal Military College.

But it was after leaving the profession that he found new satisfaction in outdoor sports. He was once the vice-president of the Association of Backpackers Malaysia.

He started High Altitude Treks, a company that takes trekkers to Nepal and Tibet. Last year, he took part in the 100km Petaling Jaya-Port Dickson run to raise money for a girl with kidney problems. He has participated in two 24-hour endurance walks. He found it gratifying that he was running marathons with his former students, many of them half his age.

You would think the idea of putting Malaysia on the world map of endurance sports would get help from many quarters. After all, as his letter to potential sponsors put it, "it will inspire young Malaysians to explore and chart new frontiers in physical and mental endeavours". He wrote, met, cajoled, pleaded and even threatened everyone who mattered.

A newspaper organisation wrote back to say that they were not interested in publishing his journals. A number of companies turned him down. He wrote to the Youth and Sports Ministry for help. He never knew they were so efficient. His letter dated Jan 10 received a reply a few days later. The answer was no.

But nothing will stop him, certainly not sceptics, not even bureaucratic sloth.