limits

"For me sport is not only to discover the outdoors, the people, the mountains... but also to discover myself. To explore my limits. When you race just 100 miles, 100 miles, 100 miles, you discover that your limit is 100 miles." Kilian Jornet

I like words of wisdom like this. It makes me reflect and think through stuff when I am at a bottleneck... well, not exactly now, but it just keeps me thinking of what i should do with my life. Setting limits, to me, is always a matter of the mind, be it physical, mental, emotional or career wise. Not that I am going to be like Kilian and run like a pro, but often, when I feel that I have hit the wall, there seems to be always another way, another horizon, another silver lining or another window/door waiting to be opened, somewhere.

Many a times, we are told to know our limits, to be realistic, to be practical, but do we really know our limits? Many a times, the human mind doesn't function purely on logic and anyhow, there are still much to be discovered about the human brain; even emotions, mood changing, or responses to sudden or extreme conditions are already highly complex phenomena.

I think the sky is the limit.

Twist

I just have to make sure that in my mind, I’m ready for being able to play with the pain. –Kim Clijsters

Life is weird with its twists and turns, literally for me today. I had planned a 35km trail run and all went well with a good tempo pace until the 14 km mark when i accidentally stepped into a hidden pothole, covered by wet fallen leaves. ouch! was the immediate burst of pain. then I have to cut short, run in pain for the rest of the 8 km back to my car.

Doesn't help when some runners (think they were seasoned runners) trying to make some smart comments (I know he was trying to be sarcastic) of my shoes, "very bright shoes, very colourful aye?". Ya, I know, I like the solomon shoes, I like bright colours, so what? I am in no mood to entertain and bursted off and ran my last 8 km in negative split, in pain. >:-<

darn! i have just recovered from my sprained ankle and now again. need to see physio next week. darn. 8(

Rest... Move on

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time. Sir Joh LubbockIt's been a while. June until mid Nov was packed to the rim with modules, assignments, essays and exams. In the midst, training for TNF100 was intermittent, resulting in problems and injury sustained at the actual race. So after weeks of intensive massages by Victor and Steven to release the badly entangled deep muscles, I have started to do my regular runs. It has been good so far. just did a 12 km run this afternoon around the loyang and Upper changi area (near the prison), trying to cover all the available slopes around the vicinity. I am going to do more of such terrains to prepare for runs at the trails in and around Melbourne. The one I am looking forward to would be the two-bays walking trail which stretches 28 km from Arthur State National park to Mornington National Park (and back, that will be 56 km). I discovered this route through the Two Bays Trail run (there is a 28km and a 56km route) which will be held in Melb next year 15 Jan. I had wanted to sign up but there is a cut off of 4 hrs for 28km and 8 hrs for 56km. looking at my TNF100 timing, I don't think i can make the cut-off. So, I will explore myself and perhaps this would give me more time to take photos and maybe doing some sketches and drawings. I will be having two intense modules there at the Uni of Melb grad sch of education, but since I am going to be there, must well make full use of the weekends and explore around. 8)oh, I did something for charity last sunday, 10km run for the Run for Hope (formerly called Terry Fox runs). Had stopped doing that for a few years, but anyway, signed up and donated an additional sum for the cancer foundation. met up with a former student and it was a good run. Set off with a moderate pace whizzing in and out of the crowd and did a negative split with a time of 47 mins. had not done a sub-50 10 km for a long time. had a good time chatting with my student over breakfast.I am on a random spending spree. bought some salomon gear from the internet. going to bring over to melbourne.Two running friends taking part in the racing the planet Nepal race at the moment. They are pure inspiration. wish them well.pretty random entry.going to do some reading.

Simple

I like a simple life. I like to enjoy simple things. Kilian Jornet

Indeed when it dawned on me that my age starts with a "4", simplicity becomes my goal. In the midst of all the buzz and rapid changes around, I sometimes yield for that space where I can stop and enjoy the little things that I have glossed over with the excuse of busyness; time with family, time with parents, time with friends, time alone to read, to run, to reflect.

After submitting my final essay for the semester, I had a wonderful "tea party" with some course mates. And I think most significantly, was to meet up and chill with my old friends from my schooldays, "old' in the sense because of close to 27 years of friendship.

I feel blessed.

Less is more.

Expect the Unexpected

Just want to post my thoughts here instead of the NF100 fb page, don't want to add to the negative energy displayed by some of the competitors.

There were so many complaints about how the race was so badly organised and signages not placed etc. I also got lost and did an additional 1-2 km. I also stopped at the Belukar track on my way to the finishing point and wondering whether to go back to CP2. In the end, I checked the map and saw the instructions and went on the right route. I am not trying to defend for the organisers; they have a few areas to improve on, things like changing the starting time of 100km duo at the last min (this I think need to be seriously considered, 1 hr is a big difference because of the heat), not deploying the bikers to do a quick check of the signages, which prof organisers would (at least I know the Sabah and Powerman do), better training for the volunteers (many of them were clueless of directions and I mistook some non-runner volunteers as the TNF volunteers) and the safety patrols (I only saw them cycling up and down but don't really know what they were doing?). Perhaps, TNF can share the organising experience across the TNF races in different countries? Overseas races tend to be better organised, my experience so far. 8)

However, my sharing here is, this is after all an off-road race, being self-sufficient and self-reliant is required, i.e. why the map was given, I am a local and I also got lost. I personally feel that the disgruntlement and complaints from some of the runners were a misalignment of expectations. Some, I feel, treated it like a normal road race, where the route should be clearly marked. But as in all off-road and adventure races, anything will and can happen, the natural elements such as rain and thunder, creatures such as humans (who want a piece of the race such as signage for souvenirs) can add to the unpredictability. Again, a check by the organiser before the race and deployment of staff at strategic points would have sufficed.

Of course, those who hailed from overseas who needed to fork out much more would expect everything to be in its perfect state. I can only empathise with you. Having done more than 40 over races from 10k to ultra distances since 1996, i have seen races that collect premium but turned out worse than this one in terms of organisation. The overseas ones I took part in were many notches above better.

Anyhow, I vividly remembered the Sabah Adventure Race that I took part in early this year, the organiser had to make so many changes to the route because of landslides and weather situations. In the end, the trail runners did an additional 10-15km while the adventure racers did a modified water crossing and third day race. But the organiser was very efficient and good, they updated us at the night briefing before next day's race; (mind you, the map for next day's race was handed out there and then and we have to study the map at night and navigate as we run the next day). I dare say that all the participants had no qualms about the changes and we just bite the bullet and had a jolly great race. One of the top 5 runners whom I have the privilege of bunking in at the same accommodation, got lost along the second day of the race and eventually dropped from 1st to second or third, i think, and he took it in his stride and moved on (I hope so, yip, right? 8))

I think the biggest issue I see in local races is they have become more and more commercialised and attracting nos is THE KPI for many of them (that is one of the reasons why I have stopped taking part in local races, except for this one which has ultradistance), so in Singapore, it seems that quantity triumph over quality.

I am not saying TNF is like that....or may be they are? Why do I say that? There are already many races out there that is half-marathon and marathon distances, why not stick to the ultra-distance or the minimum a marathon distance for TNF i.e. 84 km duo, 100 km duo and 100 km solo and cap the number? was it because of value for money, so much resources deployed, so must well increase the participant nos to maximise the resources? May be I am a purist, so no offence to those 50km duo, I apologise if I have offended anyone. sorry sorry.

Nevertheless, I think with their limited capacity (i suspect the organising team is a pretty young and inexperienced one), they have done their best to accommodate whatever "spanners" that were being thrown at them, for instance, with well-stocked check points and last-minute addition of 100 plus and wet towels plus cheerful volunteers, some who braved the sun for hours, to ensure our safety, e.g. this road marshal that pressed the traffic lights at Mandai road.

My only misgiving and huge disappointment is the rampant and irresponsible littering and wastage by a number of runners. Why can't you just keep the used gel packets in some part of your hydration pack until you reach a dustbin or the next water point? and leave the 1.5 l water or 100 plus bottles at the water points instead of taking them and litter along the trails? Respect Nature? respect our environment? I can't help but remember the Sabah experience, when the Organiser emphasised, re-emphasised and re-re-emphasised the treatment of rubbish to all competitors at every evening's briefing. I guess the huge increase in no of runners this year in TNF kindaf exacerbated the situation (Sabah nos was kept small, TNF Singapore's nos increase exponentially to 1700).

Anyway, to those TNF competitors who want to have a personal best and expect everything to be laid out prim and proper, then, my take is this kind of trail race might not be suitable for you. Perhaps, you should stick to road races then and get your PBs. For those elite runners who paid the premium to race here and got disappointed by the poor organisation, let's hope they will learn their hard lessons and uphold the high standards that ultra-distance and adventure races should have.

In any case, I would say,

Don't assume,

Expect the unexpected.

Waddle on and run like a trail runner.

No personal attack intended, just my two-cents worth.

Break All Boundaries

This is not an understatement, at least for me. This race, like all races I have taken part in so far, is a challenge of my mental resolve and physical limits, and this one especially, was one that giving up flashed across my mind several times.

TNF 100 was the 3rd race that challenged my running's comfort zone (the other races being 2009 84km sundown and Sabah 60km (which adds up to 75km)Trail run) earlier this year. Mich and many asked me, why do I take part in such races to "torture" myself (I mean now I am limping around the house). I guess, I like to challenge my boundaries, such challenges bring out the best and the worst (my weaknesses) in me and forced me to reflect, for the better.

I have said before that I was ill-prepared for this race, even though I have been running at MacRitchie for a number of times pushing the mileage to 30km. worse still, I suffered a bruised twisted ankle which has not fully recovered. But nothing compares to the actual race. I have set my target to below 8 hrs but I was praying if I could go around 7 hrs, as I had wanted to use this race to gauge my readiness for a trail race in Melbourne.

I woke up pretty early, 4plus in the morning an hour earlier than my alarm, race anxiety perhaps. checked into the MacRitchie carpark at 5plus and decided to nap. met my last minute racing partner, who was superb.

fast forward, the race started well, with a consistent pace past rifle range to bukit timah trails, though quite a few of us made a wrong turn and ended covering an extra 1-2 km. Then things started to go wrong, somehow, I lost too much salt and cramps started to kick into my calf muscles and my ankle began to feel sore. persevere until mandai checkpoint, took a short break and headed into Gangsa trails. By then, i was depleted and my muscle cramps and ankle sore got worse, reducing my pace to brisk walking. By now, the sun was merciless, it was scorching ( i think temp was around 35 degree celsius; reminded me of sabah) and the trails was hilly and undulating. Checkpoint 5 was just before Mandai .265, the slope was very steep, but at least it was dry (I think nothing compares to the Hamburger Hill at Sabah with its slippery and muddy close-to-80-degree-angle slopes).

After that, it was briskwalking and trottling under the scorching sun with occasional running. by now, I was feeling very sleepy and tired and many a times, I felt like just stopping and to take a nap. Somehow, I refrained from this fleeting thought, and all I did was to tap on my resolve and mental strength to push on; at every pit stop, I reminded myself not to stay beyond 5 mins. At this point, I must thank all the TNF volunteers and especially non-race oragniser volunteers like run-to-eat for setting up a pit stop with a wonderful spread of food and drinks and cold towels, you guys are my saviour.

Once, I hit the ranger station, it is about 6 km to finish line, with a limping stride, I somehow found some strength (or whatever was left) to cover these last few kilometres and 3 final km of consistent (dragging) pace. mm... I am quite amazed where did I milk out that last ounce of strength.

50 (unofficially + 2km) in 7 hrs 47 mins. My racing partner did his (he also covered 52km) in 5 hrs 30 mins, wosh!

Though my end result in timing is not spectacular, but the experience is unforgettable.

congrats to all runners.

I survived, with a bee sting, a sore ankle and tight muscles. 8)

We are all children

Ford Ironman World Championship underway.

Anyway, the Friday that just past was Children's Day, so it was a school holiday. However, I had lessons on that day evening for my Masters. So, when guagua wanted to go for a swim in the afternoon and I had to tell him that I need to go for my lessons later, he asked, "papa, why do you need to go for lessons? isn't it suppose to be children's day and it's a school holiday?"

My reply was simple, with a smile. "I am not a child, I am an adult now, so I won't be enjoying the school holiday." What surprised me was guagua's reply, "but you and aunt are children of ye ye (Grand pa) and nai nai (grand ma), mama and uncle are children of gong gong (my father in law). So you are all children."

whoof!!! took me off. that was a good response. At the first glance, it seemed child-like but if I were to think deeper, guagua's response makes alot of sense.

In our parents' eyes, we are all children.

It is a matter of perspective.

Be good to our parents.