TLDR:
Pain. Grit. Hallucinate. My very first 200miler as a single-stage tarmac event. 😵.
Pre-event:
Planned to attempt this over the National Day long weekend. Studied the route-map for nth time, spinning it in all configurations for start-sleep/rest-end points. Typing out 10km-markers and possible timings on excel. It was too much for my brain. After days of staring, I finally landed on my ideal plan! Or so I thought…
D-day (6 Aug):
Showed up fresh and perky at my “ideal” start point at the Marina Barrage and saw signages about special event zone. It suddenly dawned on me that I might not get back to the area when I finished on 9 Aug! Alarm bells went off in my head. Googled NDP road closures etc, and made an impromptu decision to shift my start point “forward” so that I would clear the Esplanade/Gdns area first. Took a Grab over to Little India, where my office was, took a selfie and a deep breath, and started my watch. Off I go!
Reached the Barrage again, and took a photo with my little SGP flag, ahh the feels of National Day. The first 50km or so was quite straightforward. Got to Changi Beach Point and took a photo of the “pointing finger” sculpture. I checked on my knees often because I had some issue recently during runs. Gino did a fantastic job (as always) with releasing all tightness the day before and also taped the relevant parts. Happy to be pain-free so far! Arrived at Punggol area to catch a glorious sunset before looping around the Waterway Park and taking the PCN over to Sengkang. Many runners and cyclists were out that evening. 100km suddenly felt “easy”, oh if only I was ending soon. I eventually meandered to Chomp Chomp area and knew that I was nearing MR.
D+1 (7 Aug):
Arrived at MR around 730am. 118km done. Melvin was there with fresh clothes and a McMuffin. I took a quick shower and headed off. Ran through northern trail to Windsor, and surprised that legs were still quite fresh on the trail! Spoke too soon because I died in the exposed heat on Old Thomson Road. Bought two packs of iced drink and sat at a carpark to cool down. Got to Yishun Safra and a torrential downpour started. I waited it out and took the chance to eat and rest. When there were no signs of abatement, I bought two ponchos from 7-11, donned one to block the wind, and continued in the rain. That was the start of my sole-blister. Somehow made it to Belukar Trail and Rifle Range. It was dark again, and I hurried on, looking fwd to some sleep at my parents’ place enroute later. Alas! the physical and cognitive slowdown meant I had to catch some winks at bus stops. Twice x ten minutes. Hitting Lor Sesuai up and down before sleep point was wicked. I saw my sleep buffer slowly dissipating… Grrr….
D+2 (8 Aug):
214km. Reached home with no time to sleep. I slurped a huge bowl of porridge with marmite, dunked feet into ice buckets, recharged all my gadgets, and took another shower. I had to tape my blister too, each step was a pain. 30h left for 108km looked comfortable (naive thought). Heading out on Brickland and Jln Bahar, I was absolutely toasted. The heat plus pain, I was reluctant and distracted to move. I texted Marie to ask whether she could treat blisters, next thing I knew, she was coming down to NTU with her rescue gels etc! 🙏x1, I owe my continued movement to her. It started raining again, and I whipped out a new poncho. I felt sleepy by now and just going through mechanical steps.
Getting to Yuan Ching was like finding the end of the world. I ate some packed rice and moved to Pandan Reaervoir, where it went downhill. I hallucinated about why I was there in the dark and where I was going. Thankfully there was only one way out. I asked Marie to meet me at Sunset Way, but I dozed off at Clementi til she called (luckily not for long!) I was so afraid to fall asleep and miss the times. I hurried over to meet her and so thankful there was someone to keep me sane. Took a snooze at West Coast and in NUS. Marie ran home to get me her trekking poles (🙏 x2) and they were so helpful esp on Vigilante and Pepys. I was sleep walking zig-zag by then.
D+3 (9 Aug):
We hurried to ARC for MacDonalds breakfast and kopi-o. Last 30ish km! Reached Mt Faber and I posed for an almost-300km milestone photo. But the last section is always the most painful and endless. Each time I stopped, it was literal pain to restart my legs. The damn blister caused me more anguish than muscles or anything. At some point, I tried not to sit down at all. The 10km through Tanglin, Ridley, and Botanic Gdns was a whirl-mess. It was burning (we were both trying to sneak under twigs of shade), we were tired and sluggish. The slower I moved, the faster the time ticked on. I was panicking. We got to Stevens Road and it was about 5km to the end. With 1h left, omg! Marie said it would be a hard push and I was not prepared to be cut off. So we “sprinted” abt 8min pace (what I thought I did VS what I really did), she led the way and I simply followed. Two crazy ladies cutting through Orchard Rd, me clacking the poles throughout. We might really get heat stroke! Somerset. Istana. Cavenagh. Why so far?! KK Hospital. Melvin had walked out to check because I way exceeded my estimated finish. I dropped off my hydration pack and poles and just went for that last 400m to Little India. Omg! Done! 76:41h, so close to the 77h COT. Incredulous & unbelievable! Happy National Day!
Thanks so much Marie for accompanying me for 50km and keeping me going (plus all the photos) 😊, and Melvin for meeting me with fresh supplies and picking me at the end. 😍😘
Shoutout to Coros Vertix whose navigation mode kept me on track, lasted on full features with only 1.5x recharge. It ended with 30% juice. 💪
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