i did something crazy yesterday: an ultra marathon at macritchie reservoir organised by mr25
the challenge: to run a minimum of 5 loops of 10.8km to qualify for a finisher tee shirt and cert
it was one of the toughest things i have ever done in endurance racing, possibly tougher than my experience for langkawi ironman
the race started at 7am and there was a fairly sizeable number who started - easily more than 100 runners
for me, i was doing the race with charles teng, a fellow triathlete from the group animiles, some of whom we met in langkawi
the first round was ok. legs were their freshest, of course, and we took about 1hr 10mins to complete the 10.8km loop
the second loop was also fine and we finished it a few minutes faster than the first loop, probably because the crowd of runners had thinned out from the first loop
the third loop was when my body started to protest against having to run on such undulating ground that was alternately rocky and softish
it was what i call the east coast syndrome: the 20+ to 30km stretch when the mind starts asking "why are you doing this??"
after resting for 7 minutes after the second loop, my morale hit rock bottom, pardon the pun, at having to tackle those rocky slopes again
all credit to charles who pushed and motivated me to keep going
but, it did not stop me from thinking repeatedly that i wanted to give up
so what, i thought. there's no shame in calling off a race when the body is suffering so
we managed to trudge through the third loop then started thr fourth loop when my stomach started going loopy
more specifically, i started to experience what i usually do in longer-distance events - i got all bloated and windy and that was mostly what i thought about throughout the fourth loop: going to the toilet
by this time, i was thinking seriously about giving up after the fourth loop: it was late morning and the sun had come out in full force
like an angel, anna from animiles appeared after our fourth loop with morale boosting food and drink. i had a date with the toilet and let go as much as i could
i was so wiped out by my stomach that i could barely eat a sausage, while charles enjoyed his chicken rice
nonetheless, our spirits were lifted after this lunch break and i felt good enough to carry on with a fifth loop
however, charles' old ITB injury was flaring up badly, so we decided to walk for most of the loop. in any case, it was almost impossible trying to catch up with any runners in front because there were hardly any left!
the fifth loop was the easiest, relatively speaking
it was also our slowest: about 1 hr 50mins, or as charles pointed out, slower than it would have taken us to run a normal half-marathon!
we ran our way to the finish line and completed the day's mission in abt 7hrs 30mins, or about 1.5hrs each round that we had planned
it was very slow but given our inexperience with offroad racing, i was glad i stuck it out for the nike finisher tee shirt. wahahahaha
having had this experience now, i would recommend hivelocity's sundown ultra instead. it sounds crazy having to do 84km instead of 5 x 10.8km, but trust me, it will be a more pleasant experience! :)
Written by boonpin
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