For the 4th continuous year that this race has been organised, I did not take part. Ha ha, I am not up to that calibre to do an ultra. But a number of my friends are. And to these people, I salute them for their perseverance, tenacity and endurance to take up to 18 hours to do a run. Me. Probably will kill myself if I have to run anything more than 5 hours.
Anyway, even though I wasn't running, there was no stopping me from soaking in the actions by dragging my sleepy body down to support my friends. Of course, over the years, the support stuff has been getting more and more pathetic. First year, we had a big group, all sort of food including a barbecue, it was down to drinks and some bread in the 2nd year, last year it was just some drinks and this year, we only had coke and coffee. This was mitigated by the fact that the full marathon had been spin off earlier and so it was just 900 ultra runners.
After leaving the house, we cruise around the race route looking for familiar faces and stopped to give them a sip of hot coffee or coke before we eventually settled at the East Coast Park with fellow Ocean 9 pal, John to wait for everybody else to turn up. And bit by bit, one painful step by another, they staggered passed us enroute to the 100km finish line.
Our fellow TNF Trail Run series run leaders who took part in the Ultra:
 |
| Alvin |
 |
| Kelly |
 |
| Francis |
Mindful of the limited drinks that we have, we gave only when asked by runners ensuring sufficient drinks for our own friends. But at this point in time, what counts for these runners is not just some refreshments but words of encouragement and support to see them through to the next mile and the next.
And they did it!
No comments:
Post a Comment