TNF 100km Duo Win

This was the real race, the one that I was looking forward too, and praying very hard that my legs would hold up well and the injuries did not flare up. The annual The North Face trail run. I teamed up with Lai Chee for the 100km Women's Duo - each to run 50km concurrently and the times totalled would be the team's timing.

We reached MR at 6:30am and readied ourselves for the run. It felt like it would be a hot day. Lai Chee and I made our way near the start of the funnel. My role was very straight forward - just finish the run, as fast as I could, and do not drop out of the race. It was a very real possibility a few weeks ago, when I could barely go on for an hour pain-free. I opted to wear my normal road Asics GTs today instead of the hardier trail shoes, in part a worry that the stiffer shoes would trigger my injury. But then I would have to suffer the pain of stones and blisters hitting those softer shoes.

The race flag-off was at 7am. The fast runners ahead sped off while most others took their time to find their pace and rhythm. Afterall, it was a long long race. Some of the guys from the back overtook me, some fell behind. I focused on spotting the female runners. I think there were a couple of them ahead of me at the flag-off. If they were very fast, there was no way that I could catch up. If they were not, I could try to close the gap. My strategy was to keep a lookout and not let any female runners in my race category cut me. That was a wee bit tough, because soon after, Khina whizzed past me along Rifle Range road. So I had to make sure that her partner did not do likewise.

We ran into the BT mountain biking trail. I had only hiked there once, but it was a nice stretch of trail, real trail. My first 10km was relatively fast, but little would I know that the timing would deteoriate swiftly towards the end. After many twists and turns, we finally got to the infamous Lor Asmara and Hill 265. This year, runners had to go through a longer stretch within this section, and that proved to be the killer. It was part of the army training ground, and was hardly considered 'trail' (think lush greens, trees, soft mud....). This was rocky, stony, full of steep slopes up and down, a debris-ed route for tanks to roll and troops to march on. I spent an inordinate amount of time walking through Lor Asmara, as did many other runners. The slopes were so steep that it made no sense to further expend energy running up them. My legs were starting to feel crampy, so I did not dare to run down the long slopes either. Serene ran by and soldiered on very strongly over the terrain. Oops, I was really slowing down and others were catching up very soon.

The area was totally exposed to the harsh heat, it was morale defeating. I trotted along with Ansley for a short distance, and when suddenly he told me we could stop running. For looming before us was Hill 265 - literally a red-soil hill. Last year, it was a culture shock to me. This year, I was mentally prepared for it. In fact, the steep gradient was very good for stretching out my cramped calves and hamstrings!

I took a banana along the way, stuffed the banana skin into the side pocket of my hydration pack and wondered if the monkeys would attack me. We finally wound our way out of Lor Asmara. 30km down, 20km more to go. I refilled my hydration bag, went to the toilet, had a gel and ploughed on. Wayne offered some cold Ribena which tasted really good. Winnie was also there by the roadside with her solo support vehicle-station, ready with an iced Milo for me! Whew! Then across the road, Shirley, Eddy and Jimmy's girlfriend were there with their little support station of drinks and fruits. Thanks everyone!

But the next 20km proved to be the killer for me. My legs were really crampy, and every step threatened to seize up the entire leg. I had muscle cream but it was not very effective. My run became trots and shuffles that were on par with those who were walking. One other lady overtook me, but I think she was in the Mixed category. I hobbled for what seemed like an eternity between Mandai back to Zhenghua, and was devastated to see the signage recording only 5km. :( I took almost 2h to clear that 10km, and was way behind my target.

Freddy and Hee Shen were stationed at Zhenghua. Hee Shen was the photographer, and Freddy dished out nutrition. I took another banana and iced Milo, while Freddy sprayed my legs with muscle spray. It seemed to work, because I could run! I tried to make up for lost time and ran the entire section from Zhenghua to Rifle Range Road. I was still trying to hit a sub-7h, and the window was closing fast. But the effects of the spray wore out at Rifle Range, and I was forced to hobble again. Grrr....

There were more runners now, we had merged with those from the 50k Duo. Entering the trails again, Sok Hwa shouted 'Jia-You' to me and sped off. Then Aileen shot past me too. Arrgh.... but there was nothing much I could do, my legs were out of my control and sometimes I could not feel them when I landed. Alternating between jogs and walks, I pushed as hard as I could and painfully made my way back. I was now totally off-target, way past the 7h mark. My arms felt like needles and pins - it was a first sensation! - and I started to worry if I was getting dehydrated or heat exhaustion or something. I bumped into Eliza, Genevieve, and several others who shouted encouragement, but I was too dead to respond coherently. Going in a straight line was a challenge, and I felt a little disoriented running on the Northern Trail in the reverse direction, with no sense of the distance or markers.

Finally, there was light! Literally. The sunlight. We were back out in the open along the reservoir banks, and everyone was immensely happy to see the sun again. I tried to shuffle as fast as I could, all the while thinking that Lai Chee would have been waiting for such a long time. I finally cleared reached finishing line at 7:29h. The beep from the race timing bib was sweetness to my ears. I walked around in a zig-zag manner - legs were still cramped - and located Lai Chee. She had come in first amongst the female runners at 5:45h. Power! We certainly stood a chance for podium because, for what it was worth, no other teams overtook me. True enough, the organizers called soon, informing us that we won the category! It was my virgin First!

Final tally, our Mt Faber Safra runners did very well at the race. We took the:
50k Men's Duo 3rd
50k Women's Duo 2nd
100k Women's Duo 1st, and
100k Women's Duo 3rd
Well done!

On a personal level, I was rather disappointed that I was 50min(!!) slower than last year. That was a whole lot slower, totally not conditioned and not in form. But I consoled myself to be thankful for being able to run and complete the distance, when even 1 month ago, everything looked bleak and my shoes stared at me. (Mental note to self, to thank my physios.)

Thank you legs. :)


Split Timing:
10km - 1:05h
20km - 1:23h
30km - 1:31h
---- 4h ------
40km - 1:48h
50km - 1:39h
---- 7:29h ---