TNF100 Singapore 2013

Just a sudden thought that doing this 100km race should carry 2 UTMB points, a quick call to contacts since race registration had closed and I had sponsored race entry to the race for YMT and me. Since it was a local race and this 2pts could be useful and also I had yet to do a local ultra, I ran.

3 weeks before the race and I upped as much mileage as I could to get the confidence to do the distance. Familiar route, no pressures.

Ashley Ng (Guy in yellow) always sponsor equipment

Race day came,
Race vest borrowed.
Water checked.
Gels checked.
Headache checked?!?!?!

At the start

I wasn't counting on a slight flu and headache and was hesitant to start the race, but my contact 'stirred' me asking if I could finish the race when he passed me the bibs earlier. I retorted, that I would complete even if it meant crawling back.

Started off real slow. First 8k in 1h20mins I guess. Finished all the BakKwa YMT passed me as I was concerned about it being oily. Everyone I knew was way ahead and I saw them only at the KTM stretch which was a U-turn.Throbbing headache continued and we got along pretty well. As long as I did not jerk too much, the pain was manageable.

As I saw familiar faces on the U-turn, I kept my spirits up and ran bravely, picking up a little pace and caught up with YMT at probably 24km. From here we ran together and even took about a 2 hour nap upon reaching back at the start point/halfway mark. We went into the dropbag tent and as there was a fan, found ourselves instinctively sleeping at the one of the empty shelves meant for dropbags. This was a great move as it allowed us to fall into a deep sleep due to the regulated temperature.

On the repeat

Overslept and 2 hours later, we started off with the 25k participants. It was a slow and sloshy mess due to an ongoing drizzle. Too many runners in MR's narrow stretch restricted our pace, but we were not complaining as we had just awoken and were just warming up.

Just repeat what we did last night, the same routine and we were done. All 100km of it in 16h.
After the race, I was drained. The organisers had restricted 100plus to 50k runners and somehow we did not manage to get any gels along the way. The saving grace was the 2nd loop at KTM track, where some cool volunteers provided us with beef goulash and a hard-boiled egg that I managed to find from the ground. I mean imaginary tears welled-up. I did not take my own gels as I was lazy and hence saved it for my next race =)

I can't wait to get the tag off me.. It's finished!

 

Did the first 50k in Mizuno Wave
Amulet 3 and the next 50 in Adizero which provided the necessary grip on the freshly muddied trail.

Weekly 1-2 30ks with at least 1 at MR is good for training. Visiting MR regularly for 10 - 20ks would help you understand this terrain, especially when you have to do it twice in the race. Lung bursting, ass-jellying, body-floating hill repeats of up to 5 times on the slopes of Island Club Road, gave enough confidence to walk up the slopes during the 100k race.

This race is good for noobs before they spend any money doing other overseas race. Most of the hilly overseas race, seem to be >50% more tough.