Running Sucks

So we found ourselves on the way to the biggest and longest race of our life. This was it. All the past few months of pounding up and down Mt Faber every Tuesday evening, the endless weekends training at Bukit Timah was climaxing here in the foothills of the highest mountain in South East Asia, Mount Kinabalu. I have a very simple plan to do this. Cover the first 20 km in 5 hours and the balance 30 km in the remaining 10 hours. That should be doable. By my calculation, by the time it get dark, we will be out of the jungle and on the final stretch which was supposed to be a long long climb up on Jalan Kinasaraban to the finish line at Perkasa. But like all good story, the plot changes and the unexpected set in. We set off on our allocated bus to the start line at 5 am. The journey took a fair bit of time even in the light early morning traffic and we arrived at our destination just slightly before 7 am. One funny thing happened along the way though. For some unknown reason, just...

In another 2 days time, I will be doing my longest race ever. For most runners nowadays, 50km is probably no big deal but for someone like me whose last full marathon was back in December 2008, this is going to be hell. And to add to what is already going to be a long haul which will foreseeably take me up to 15 hours to complete, throw in Mother Nature and I going to have an epic struggle coming up. So how did I find myself in this situation. I turned 50 last year and i wanted to commemorate the occasion by doing a 50 km race. But I left it late and couldn't find any suitable race in the end. Fast forward to early this year. When the date for The Most Beautiful Thing, a ultra trail race in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah was announced, a light bulb went "ding". It is on 14 September and just 2 days after I turn 51. And the distance was actually not 50 km but 51.3 km which fit in even more nicely with my 51st birthday! So how can I not sign up for this? But since I started t...

I gotta a decent mileage on the shoes and had the opportunity to test it out in various conditions so I guess this is as good a time as any to write what I feel about the Altra Lone Peak 1.5. Design : I covered this in my earlier post. Still need getting used to the bright red color which really stand out but overall I have no problem with the design. Weight : With my size 12, it weighs in at 345 gram which is fairly decent for a trail shoe. More importantly, after running in it for 3 to 4 hours in it, I still didn't feel its weight. Maybe it is because the upper material is kinda soft unlike some trail shoes which are hard to the feel. Cuushioning: There is minimal cushioning. Heel to toe drop is zero but the inclusion of a "Stone Guard" rock protection helps helps to reduce the impact and poking from sharp rocks. But the minimalist folks won't really like this as the outsole and midsole adds up  to a fairly substantial stack. But for me coming down fro...

The list of mandatory items are scary. There are so many items and to make it worse, my little North Face hydration bag is not able to contain all of them. It was either get a new bag or borrow from someone else. But in the end I settled for using an additional waist pouch to contain the other stuff. Top of the list is my 3 years old North Face Enduro Boa . Into it goes the Geigerrig Hydration Engine which in plain speak is water bag. The  bag is rather small especially after putting in the 2liter bladder bag, there is not much space for anything else so the add on is the small little Mizuno waist pouch (foreground). The hiking pole gets strapped onto the Enduro bag. (1) North Face Enduro Boa Hydration Bag (2) Black Diamond Hiking Poke (3) Mizuno Waist Pouch The rest of the stuff that goes into the bag and pouch. (1) Strobe Light (2) Wet Wipes (3) Home-made first aid kit comprising spray plaster, heat rub, bandages, plaster, anti-bacterial wipes (4) Luminous vest (5...

The Army Half Marathon was the first race that I took part in back in 2004. So I always have fond memories of it. Over the years, I signed up for it 7 times, ran 5 of it and did not start 2 due to injuries. The last was in 2010. Since then I have stopped doing it, disappointed by the sheer size of it and the consequential poor race experience. This year, however, seduced by the super low registration fee of $12.00 for NS man and the promise of 3 event apparel comprising a race singlet, an event tee and a finisher tee, I signed up for it. I also thought that this could be a perfect way to test my race fitness for the upcoming biggie. Big mistake! First was - there was no event tee. Okay maybe I did not read the fine print that it was either a singlet or tee. That I could accept. But the race day itself.... it was a huge huge disappointment. The flag off time was 5.15am. I never understand why they need to start a short 21km race so early. So I had to get up at 3.30 am to ma...