This story is probably not going to excite anyone coz once 100K virgin is broken, everyone assume you will survive any race below 100K. They are right to some extend, but not entirely right to assume.
After last year virgin 100K and confirmed with Translantau 100K, I am pretty sure I do not enjoy so much of midnight run/walk, so I am glad I did sign up only 50K and add up bit of challenges by signing up the 25K next day too. Both races originally were supposed to be 55+28... I may be a bit over confident that I will survive this 50K race, but I too have target timing to achieve, in case you don't know, this is actually my virgin 50K ultra trail...
Last year at 50K mark I did 11:40 hrs, this was with the early section traffic jam and a nice lunch break at pineapple ridges before completing the miki loop. This year, before the release of the course description by race director, I actually set a target of sub 11 hrs, given that there will be a 1st 5KM elevation and the total elevation is slightly increased. After reading the race director's guide with an estimated finishing timing of 10-12.5 hrs for AVERAGE runners, I work on the math and elevation graph again and I decided that I WANT TO BE JUST BETTER THAN AVERAGE, so there you go, my stretched target became 10hrs.
As you can see, cheatsheet ver.1 says 11:00 hrs target.
Cheatsheet ver.2, target became 10:00 hrs
The race flagged off at 7am sharp and it was a small stretch of easy trail before turning into a steep uphill climb on tar road. Having had previous experience of getting stuck behind slower runner, I managed to speed off a little before hitting the uphill, and that, was hell of an uphill, except those strong runners ahead, everyone walked up the 3-4K hill. What followed next was downhill in trail, anyhow I was still stuck behind other runners, since it was still early in the race, I decided to take an easy break here and wait to see if the trail will get wider.
The trail didn't get wider but people got slower, after 2-3K I have rested enough and decided to over take and charge on till the hanging bridge area which was last year starting route where most people stuck for at least 30-45 mins. Arrived at WS1 ahead of target time of 2:00 hrs, somehow gave me a good feeling for this race. From this point on, it was much easier to run solo with some occasional meet up with runners who slowed down up hill. One bad incidence here was I overtook 2 foreigners and made a wrong turn under their sight but they didn't even make any effort to call me, I came to realize my mistake pretty fast and managed to overtake them again and this time, no fxck was given, no hi no bye.
Managed to get across the familiar route towards WS2 that was gradually uphill in less than 2 hrs, a good 20 mins ahead of target time to be better than an average runner. Followed was an uphill climb where the split with 100K runners was and the rain for this year came slightly early around 12noon. Took sometime off to chew my lunch and catch some breath at half way point. I managed to hit WS3 by 12:30pm, a slight slower than planned time for this segment but still ahead of total time.
Leaving WS3 was a steep downhill via concrete stairs where I fell last year, this time round I took extra care to slowly move on step by step, Solomon Speedcross really can't do well under this kind of route. Strong veteran Kian Chong overtook me here at this point together with a few more Guai Lou. Just when I finally get off the stairs, the insole of my shoes misaligned due to heavily soaked, and this continued to haunt me for the rest of the race whenever I ran downhill. Having the insoles moved in the shoes had me stopped and remove my shoes to manually put it back in place and tighten my shoes further to stop it from moving a couple of times.
4.5K from WS3 to WS4 though was short but there was a steep uphill similar to the 1st 5K of the race under the rain, the misty view over the Kinabalu valley was very nice, same location last year, was heavy down pour to the extend that me and Patricia missed the WS4 all together... This year food was served at WS4, I spent sometime here to take my lunch, replenish the drinks while adjust my shoes again. At this point, I was quite certain that I will be travelling the remaining of the race either together or not far from a few foreign runners.
Did I tell I bump into the Australian guy who finished ahead of me in SAC ? :) And yes, we finish this race together at the end...
From WS4 to WS5A was a long stretch of route going through highway, long stretch of it... I practically spent most of the journey walking between a few big guys who has brighter reflective vest and better blinking light. I also found out that TMBT route actually had leeches coz I found one on my socks before it managed to feed on me.. :P
Turning from highway into trail before final WS5A was where I lost the few guys and traveled alone. I missed Patricia somehow, lol! Probably this was the only time I actually spend time and energy to look at the surrounding and slowly catch up again with some of them in front. Together with my buddy met at SAC, we exit the trail into the main road leading to the finishing line. Unfortunately this time, I depleted my energy too soon and didn't managed to make my final dash to the finishing line and yup, I failed to be better than an average runner in race director's guide. Clocked 10:02:14 and finished 18th in male category and 19th overall.
Was I happy? Certainly.
Did I achieve the result that I wanted? Yupsolutely
Tired? Yes and No, energy depleted but I knew at some early parts I didn't push hard all the way. It could be the reason why I ignored the sign of energy depletion too.
Took my time to change, to connect back to internet world while trying to finish as much left over food and drink in my hydration bag as I could, just realized I ate up only 1/3 of the food I prepared, shame on me for such poor intake. I waited until Chang arrived before I went to take my proper dinner in the hotel. After dinner, I knew I couldn't wait much longer as I need to handle my transport to my hotel and get as much rest as I could for the Hasuu Tasu the next day. Like last year, many people withdrew from the race due to heavy rain again, van after van returned transporting the runners from different check points. I was lucky to find one of the driver to drop me at my hotel J residence on his way back to fetch more runners.
By the time I settled down in the room, unpack and repack my hydration bag for next race, it was already close to 10pm and it was extremely cold due to whole day's rain. Though with no fan no aircond in the room, I was wearing jacket on the bed, using the poor signal trying to check out on the rest of the team if they have completed the run safely...
It was a pretty cold night that I even had to wear jacket to bed until I lost consciousness into dreams....
Day 2, I was thinking to run it as normal as I could, yet I set quite a challenging target at 4:40 hrs, and after the release of the race director's guide, I was crazy enough to adjust my cheat sheet to match the average runner's timing...
Before race director's guide
Slightly adjusted to meet AVERAGE runners' standard.
The race started with slight drizzling in the morning and I had some side stitch from the beginning. Tried to pace and follow Renee for the 1st few KM (on the road most of the time actually) and slowly adjust and regain my rhythm to run.
Coming to uphill stretch on the road I just carry on with slow jog trying not to walk, and slowly I was overtaking more and more people until I can hardly see anyone in front. The route later enter trail after CP where I met the 100KM category bunch, lol! and in the trail I was more comfortable with the run.
Tailed a foreigner couple for almost throughout the entire trail until I lost them and as I approached some of the familiar ending, the feeling of missing that important junction and ended up with empty bottles surfaced, I will remember that moment forever...
There I went on with the right junction and dash towards the finishing line (since I already know how far it will be from that point onward). Surprised and happy to finish no.7 in less than 4 hours as I started slow, hard to tell how many people ahead of me.:)
The next question always will be: Will I return for TMBT again ? may be No for now, I have nothing to prove.
Don't I want to repeat the 100KM category to see how much I have improved since the 1st time doing it? Yes, I want to know, but with 2 experiences running almost the same 1st half, I roughly estimated my finishing time if I were to do it again, with the same harsh weather condition, perhaps less weight, better fueling strategy, stronger mind and more experiences on the same routes. So, may be save the time for other races 1st. 3 years later may be?
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