Expect the Unexpected

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 training for it, I have been having loads and loads of regret. First, I actually hate the super long slow run in the trails that span up to 7 hours. It got so bad that I began to dread the sessions. But those are behind me and now all I have left is to fly to Kota Kinabalu and ......

The million dollar question is - will I be able to complete. My friend thinks I can do it in about 12 hours against the cut off time of 15 hours. 15 hours for a 50 km race? I can only imagine the event organiser set such a generous cut off is because the race is going to be super tough. And if that is an understatement, like here in Singapore, it has been pouring over in Kota Kinabalu and the first consequence of the race is that there has been landslide and the original route had to be rerouted. And the result of the rerouting is that the overall elevation gain has jumped from 2910 m to a whooping 4000 m! Throw in the foreseeable muddy conditions and I am really having the jitters now.

Maybe I should pray for more heavy rain so that the race gets canned and I get a nice holiday in the rain? Whatever it is, I really don't know what to expect. The only thing I am sure I can expect is the unexpected!

Wish me luck, won't ya?