Ghosts At A Potluck Dinner Party

A friend organises a potluck dinner party at a public park on a weekend. Plenty of food and beverage from the contributors—in fact, a ridiculous amount of those. There is music and dancing as well as silly games that we've all enjoyed as kids; and even lucky draws too. Sounds like an event not to be missed.

Not everyone is crazy about such a potluck dinner party, of course, but there are people who wouldn't miss it for the world. The vast majority of those who're attending would gladly contribute in terms of food and beverage in return for the enjoyment they're getting from the party.

But there will be some who're unwilling to contribute—they merely self-invite themselves and appear at the party without any contribution whatsoever and conveniently blend in with the crowd. They are like ghosts, if you like, that are there at the party, but are too cheap to pay for the enjoyment, even if they can afford to pay. They could of course organise their own little party if they want to, except that it's probably not gonna be the same without the crowd and all those exciting stuff?

Thankfully, I'm not a big fan of parties with ridiculous amounts of food, and all the impossibly loud music akin to a war zone. I therefore don't have to sneak into a friend's party uninvited. But on the other hand, I'm imagining that even if I do enjoy such parties, I wouldn't attend them as a "ghost". Quite on the contrary, I'd gladly contribute, because I'm gonna be meeting friends and relatives at the party, and I can't bear the thought of them seeing me as a cheapskate bum.

The point is that I have pride in myself, and I crave for people to admire me, not just for my achievements in life—however big or small those are—but for achieving them in a respectable way. After all, I've always said that if one yearns for others' respect and admiration, then one has to behave respectably. In other words, one shouldn't be complaining when others are looking down on him if that is a result of his own actions.

These were the thoughts passing my mind when a friend approached me recently to share my views on ghost runners in this blog. I know the whole potluck dinner story above is a little confusing, but I wanted to give a proper context of the subject before I dive into it. You will have to excuse me for my long-winded approach, but I just can't help it; I'm born with a torturous mind!

Anyway, if you're unfamiliar with the term "ghost runner", it means someone who'd join in the fun of an organised running event, but unwilling to pay for the registration fee. He therefore runs without a bib. In the past, these people would do it sneakily, and tried to keep a low profile so as not to attract attention. The lesser people know about him, the better. But times have since changed, ghost runners are seemingly proud of "running for free" nowadays. As a matter of fact, they try to publicize about their "achievement" too. They create groups of ghost runners, and they compliment each other for running free.

It's a very long shot, but one of these days, these ghost runners may become sick because of severe dehydration. Or perhaps serious cramps and blisters that require medical assistance. Or even other life-threatening issues such as heart attack and the likes. It would be interesting to know how they would react if they are denied drinks at the water stations; or denied medical help despite emergencies. Beyond that, in an emergency, information such as allergies, or emergency contact etc, will not be readily available to the medics. In some cases that may mean life and death. Unlikely scenarios, I know, but just imagine...

Of the many readers arriving at this blog and reading this post, there's bound to be a ghost runner. I can almost see the smile on your face and the thoughts running through your mind right now. These are far-fetched scenarios that just won't happen to you. For your sake, I really hope that you're right!

The Agony of Seeing Agony

There are many things about my life, especially my childhood, that I sometimes wish I could erase from my memory. I have shared some of them in this blog—for example here and here—and there are many more stories that have not been told. I'm sometimes tempted to spend a stretch of a month or two to put my fingers to the keyboard and tell it all. But then again what's the use?

In some ways, perhaps I have benefited a lot from my rough childhood. I'm convinced that I've become what I am today as an outcome of my life experiences. I see glimpses of my mom attacking my dad with a cleaver when they had their fights. The exact times, locations and causes of those fights have all disappeared from my memory, but my parents doing the Ip Man thingy remains fairly clear in my mind.

So much agony in witnessing all the ugly things that people do; and some of these observations can be very traumatic and have a lasting effect on the observer. Thankfully, however, some of us can learn from the experience. Sometimes, when we do something bad, we're unaware of what we're doing—the gravity of its consequences upon others surrounding us. But when we're observing others doing it, we're better able to realise how bad it actually is.

It is mind-boggling to me that some people can allow themselves to intentionally cause physical and emotional pain upon others. This news article is one example of how ugly people can become, although we've not arrived at the conclusion of the case yet.

It pains me immensely whenever I see my wife in agony. I've had quite a few of those moments. For example, when I saw what she had to go through in the delivery room when JJ was born. It was a difficult delivery, and she had to endure a 13-hour labour. I've also seen her agony in the many endurance races that we've done together. You see, she is not born naturally strong, and she would struggle in most races just to finish the race before the cut off. I've raced The Most Beautiful Thing (TMBT) together with her some years ago, and I experienced that moment when I was struggling to hold back my tears just from watching her in agony as she was approaching the finish line. I actually wrote extensively about that race in 2 parts, here and here. And last week, during the Putrajaya 70.3 race, I was again overwhelmed to see her limping to the finish line in the dying minutes of the race.

Some people are not only unmoved when seeing other people suffer; in fact they have no qualms in causing the suffering themselves! Money and power can be quite intoxicating; people can lose their moral compass and use the power to inflict harm upon others. The rest of us can only watch in awe and disbelief. They are people who look educated, respectable and even being role models to others. But under the surface, they are very ugly and behave in the most shameful fashion.

TIME Ironman Putrajaya 70.3 (Half Ironman) 2016

It's been a year since I raced the Putrajaya 70.3, of which I had a lousy experience as reported here. 3 weeks before that event, I raced the 113 Triathlon Sabah, and I somehow did not taper enough within that 3 weeks for the Putrajaya 70.3. I arrived at the start line still feeling tired. But I also suffered a puncture during the bike leg. It was such a nightmare; in the end, I finished in about 7:14. It was just an awful experience. Shortly after that race, I told myself that I'd be back again this year to redeem my pride.

I saw myself at the start line again last Sunday, 3rd April 2016, this time properly rested after the 113 Triathlon Sabah 3 weeks ago. There were also some other things which were different from last year. I have upgraded my bike wheels to Zipp, with a combination of 404/303. But as any cyclist would tell you, equipment alone won't do much for the overall performance. It all boils down to the training, and since a year ago, I've been improving gradually in the bike discipline. But I'll share my thoughts about bike training next time. For now, suffice to say that I've been adopting the opposite approach of most cyclists—the standard approach of spinning just doesn't work for me; I've wasted way too much time trying to improve my bike by spinning. But more on that next time.

I'd also like to say that 2 days before the race, I bumped into Rupert Chen and Nik Raiha at the expo; and the former duly reminded me to mention his name when I report on the race! Unfortunately, I didn't  have a chance to take a photo with Rupert. What a waste, because he has had a nice haircut, and was all primed for an awesome finish picture in the race. But at least I managed to take a photo with Nik.

Photo credit: Nik Raiha

I thought I'd be able to achieve a faster swim time this year. Unfortunately, there were way too many slow swimmers blocking the way. Maybe I would have been able to break through if they were all swimming freestyle, but many of them were swimming breaststrokes, and after a few kicks to my body, I decided to play safe. I finished the swim in a little over 49 minutes—not the kind of time I had been aiming for—but unlike last year, I felt very good coming out of the lake. Obviously the extra time I've been spending in the pool has helped a lot.

Photo credit: Jack Ah Beh

Earlier that morning, I met comrades from KK, i.e. Dr Shah, Ahmad Marzuki and Rayner. I'm a little sad to say that my friend, Teo Chen Lung, has decided to opt out of this race. I was hoping against hope that's he'd show up on the race day somehow, and we would be racing against each other again, but that was just wishful thinking. 

Loyal readers of this blog would know, of course, that Teo is famous for his so-called killer face when he races, especially if he's winning or doing well in a race. The famous killer face would however fade away if he's not doing so well. Just to give you an idea of his trademark killer face, check out this photo of him when he emerged from the swim during the 113 Triathlon Sabah about 3 weeks ago.

Anyway, to continue with Putrajaya 70.3, I was expecting my Sabahan friends to be ahead of me after the swim, especially Rayner. I'm not known for a fast transition, and I'd usually take a bit of time to fire up my legs after the swim. The Putrajaya bike course is interesting in that almost immediately after the bike start, there's a gradual climb; it's such a shock for the legs! But after a few minutes working on the pedals, I got into my rhythm, and I was actually feeling very comfortable.

Apart from the Zipp wheels, I also adopted a slightly different approach on my hydration strategy. Having experienced the same bike course last year, I started the race this year with only one 750ml bottle containing my Carbopro concoction; and I left the other bottle cage on my aerobar empty. I did that to spare my legs the approximate half kilogram of weight during the first few kilometres of the bike course. I grabbed a bottle of water at the aid station a few kilometres into the bike leg, and then I continued alternating the Carbopro and plain water for the rest of the way. I was still feeling quite fresh after the first loop, but by the second loop, the sun was already up, and I could feel my back getting roasted. My breathing become a little hard. I overtook Rayner shortly after starting the second loop. When I finally rode into transition, I was pleasantly surprised to see 2:49 on my Garmin (bike split). That was an improvement of almost half an hour when compared to last year! Having had a puncture last year, I had a phobia of a dejavu, but the puncture god was kind to me this year.

Photo credit: Chen Hong Bing

As I was pushing my bike into transition, I was conscious of Rayner's presence behind me; and when I was running out of transition, I saw him just about to finish putting on his shoes. At that point, I had no idea of Dr Shah's and Marzuki's positions.

As I had expected, the run leg proved to be the toughest part of the race even though the course was mainly flat. The sun had by then risen to be right on top of the head, and there was hardly any shade throughout the course. Ironically, however, the toughest and painful part of the race is also the most exciting of the 3 disciplines. The first few hundred metres of the run was perhaps the most challenging because it would usually take a bit of time for the body to adjust to the task at hand.

At first I had planned to keep my shoes dry throughout the run. But I eventually gave in to the temptation of the inviting cold water in huge tanks at the aid stations. Accordingly, I started dousing myself at each stop. That helped to cool me down, but the effect was just for a mere few minutes.

As I was trotting along at a pathetic pace, Rayner eventually caught up with me. I tried to rise to the occasion by running abreast with him for a few kilometres.

Unfortunately, my legs were just too tired to continue for very long. I slowed down to a walk, and I saw Rayner gradually drifting farther and farther away in the yonder. Before he left me, however, he said Dr Shah and Marzuki were behind us. As I was walking in pain and epic exhaustion, I was suddenly overwhelmed by the dreadful thought of getting overtaken by Shah and Marzuki as well! Accordingly, I mustered the energy somehow to resume running again. Some minutes later, I arrived at the end of the first loop, and shortly after that, Vachel took this photo of me.

But photos can be misleading sometimes. Behind that brilliant smile, I was aching all over. As you can probably tell from the shadow under me, it was around mid day and I still had slightly over 10km to go! Shortly after passing Vachel, I slowed down to a walk again. And then while I was dousing myself with cold water at an aid station, a young sexy girl came running by. She was also obviously tired, but was able to keep a steady pace.

Now there's something about marveling on a woman's sexy figure, especially when that figure is in a wet tight outfit. It's almost magnetic, if you know what I mean. Accordingly, I decided to let nature do the work—I merely focused on her hip from behind and started following her rhythm, and then imagined the song in my mind...

She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was as nervous as she could be
She was afraid to come out of the locker
She was afraid that somebody would see

Two three four
Tell the people what she wore

It was an itsy bitsy teenie weenie yellow polka dot bikini
That she wore for the first time today...

But alas, my joy of pacing with a girl was short-lived as I was once again running out of steam. Perhaps I could have latched on a little longer if I had started fantasizing something about that sexy body. Yes, that might have worked, but the trouble about fantasizing is that it may backfire, because you can just imagine what would happen to men in skin-tight shorts when they get too excited, hmm?

Well, I continued the torture for the rest of the journey to the finish line, all the time thinking of the inevitable conclusion that Shah and Marzuki would be catching up sooner or later. But it wasn't as bad as I had thought; I crossed the finish line in a total time of 6:21:38 with time to spare before Shah finally arrived at the finish line. It's my personal best time at this distance. Marzuki finished about half an hour after me, but it was still a respectable time for a first-timer.

I finally found my way to the recovery tent where participants were chatting and eating. I rehydrated my body with some water and isotonic drinks. And Rupert was also there. When asked, he said he finished with "crappy time". But his definition of "crappy time", actually means the kind of timing that people like me can only dream of! Made me feel like giving him a good kick in his butt. Sadly, my legs were too tired to kick. I must remind myself to kick his butt the next time we meet again!

Then I saw that sexy creature named Wendy Tan in the crowd. She must have finished some 20 or 30 minutes after me. She has a body that's so wickedly sexy that I could just put her on a display cabinet at home to admire the whole day long while drooling. For a while I considered introducing myself, but I was able to shake myself out of the trance and thought better of it. Maybe I should start doing weights at the gym to build some muscles first. Then next time I would have the confidence to introduce myself!

I also met Nik in the crowd, and she was as jolly as ever, and was kind enough to introduce me to her friends, although this old man is not exactly great in remembering names!

Well, there isn't much more to tell. It was a well-organised event except that somebody forgot to switch on the air-conditioner. I'm running a full marathon in the Borneo International Marathon, and the Gold Coast Airport Marathon first before attempting a half iron distance again in the Challenge Nusajaya in mid August. After Nusajaya, I shall embark on serious training for Langkawi in November. Hmmm....very exhausting months ahead...

My Mother-In-Law

It was slightly over a year ago when my mother-in-law collapsed in her living room. She was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance where she spent the next few days under doctors' supervision, and then when she was discharged, my wife sought my permission for her mom to come live with us. I replied in the affirmative immediately.

Although I've been married for over 20 years, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I did not really know my parents-in-law that well. Apart from knowing that my mother-in-law is a gullible person, there wasn't much more that I knew about her; and I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't at least a little worried about what I would find out about her. Of course I make the rules in my home and I made it crystal clear to my wife from the very beginning that I wasn't gonna do something just to please her mom; I would be myself still, and if her mom gets offended by something that I've done or said, then that's just too bad!

During the one year since my mother-in-law moved to my house, I've learned a lot more about her. I can confirm that she is indeed a gullible woman, but there's more than that, of course. She is perhaps 90% deaf, and suffers from issues related to old age such as forgetfulness—she can never remember to switch off the lights, fans and TV, for example. She also regularly forgets to close the water tap, thus resulting in emptying our water tank.

She has the habit of being the commentator whenever we watch TV together. Of course she spends almost the whole day sitting in front of the TV watching reruns after reruns on Astro, and by the time I want to watch a programme, she probably knows the scripts by heart already, and simply can't control herself from wanting to tell what comes next. I'm sometimes tempted to keep reminding her not to spoil the show, but unfortunately she's either too deaf to hear what I'm saying, or she's just too forgetful to remember what she's told. In due course, when I'm stuck in the traffic jam on my way home from work, my mind starts to wonder; and I'd imagine stuff like buying a duct tape to be used when I'm watching TV at home. Traffic jams, as you probably already know, can give rise to ugly thoughts!

But sometimes she does get tired of watching reruns too; and she'd read the Bible instead, or she'd doze off on the sofa while the TV is watching her sleep. I'm guessing that the sounds from the TV has a soothing effect on her ears, as are lullabies to babies, even though it's practically impossible for her to understand what the sounds are all about, thanks to her deafness.

Conversations with my mother-in-law may sound a lot like a broken record player, since one has to repeat like a hundred times before she's able to grasp what is being said; and like most old folks, she has the tendency to repeat and keep repeating the same topic over and over again. If one is not careful, his blood pressure may shoot through the roof from just having a conversation with my mother-in-law.

Having one's mother-in-law living under the same roof is not for the faint-hearted. To be fair, however, not all mothers-in-law are like mine, because I've seen some old women her age, and found that they're still quite sane. But I'm proud to say that I've survived for a year, and I'm confident that I can survive a lot longer too. People have been asking me how I did it, and my answer has always been the same—I treat my mother-in-law sympathetically, and always bearing in mind that one of these days I will become old and sick like her too. When and if that happens, I'd imagine that I would appreciate it very much if the young ones could also understand why I'm like that.

Getting old, sick and senile can be quite scary. Sometimes, I catch myself observing my mother-in-law from the dining table as she's watching TV and I'm overwhelmed with feeling pity for her. And then again my mind starts to wonder, and I am horrified by the thought that my wife may end up looking like her mom one of these days! Damn all these scary thoughts!

The Ironman

Many of my family members and friends are aware that I'm active in sports, and that I'm in fact an Ironman. Not everybody knows much about being an Ironman, or how to earn that title. So let me explain quickly what it's all about. 

The Ironman is just like any other brandnames out there, and in the sport of triathlon, it means a person who's conquered a 3.8km swim, a 180km bike, and finally a 42.2km run, one after another continuously, and all within a total cut off time of 17 hours. In some events, the cut off times may be a little shorter. The title, once earned, will remain forever.

To an average person, it may seem impossible to even swim 3.8km, or bike a distance of 180km, or run 42.2km, let alone doing all those one after another within 17 hours. But I have always said that the race itself is not the toughest part. In my opinion, the toughest part of becoming an Ironman is in the months and months of training when one requires a lot of discipline. He trains on a daily basis for what seems like eternity, and at the height of the programme, he has almost no life other than training. It is there during the months of training that most people would fail!

Now some people know quite a lot about being an Ironman—they know, for example, about the ridiculous distances in the 3 disciplines; they know about the training programmes etc; that all the training can help to improve the fitness and endurance. But what they seem not to know is that we are still human; we are still flesh and blood, and we are not immune from falling ill sometimes! It can be frustrating when people say something like, "But you're an Ironman; how come you have the flu?"

I'm approaching 51 years old soon, and I feel like I've never been any fitter than I am today, even when I compare myself to the times when I was in my twenties. My resting pulse is down to about 40bpm and these days jogging between 5km to 10km at a pace of say 6min/km is not very tiring to me. 

But actually, I do have some issues such as a bit of pain in my joints, especially my knees. This lately, I find that recovery takes a little longer. I still have to be careful with what I consume, or else I would see my cholesterol level rise at an alarming rate. Although my blood pressure is generally within the "normal range", I notice that it may rise to a "borderline high" on some occasions; I mean it will rise for no apparent reason—not just when my wife sends me a text message, asking me to buy a large pack of tampons containing 30 pieces at the pharmacy near my office.

So you see folks, we Ironmans are human too, and we are very much like any of you out there. We did not come from the planet Krypton, wearing our underwear over our tights. We do fall sick every now and then just like anybody else. The next time you see your Ironman friend under the weather, please don't be surprised—he is just being human. 

The only difference is perhaps we're dumb enough to torture our bodies—for only God knows why—so that we can spend a ton of money to race for an entire day on a weekend, and then earn the title Ironman.

113 Triathlon Sabah—The Nail-Biting Finish that Didn't Happen

I've raced so many types of endurance races, each with its own epic excitement. I thought the Ironman Western Australia (IMWA) last December was the ultimate challenge against my friend, Teo Chen Lung. But when I beat him in that race, he swiftly challenged me to yet another race, which was yesterday—The 113 Triathlon Sabah, held in Nexus Karambunai. 

In the IMWA, I beat Teo by a mere margin of approximately 15 minutes, and according to Teo in that race he beat me in the swim and run legs, although he acknowledged that I won the bet, because I crossed the finish line first. As soon as I agreed to the challenge in the 113 Triathlon Sabah, Teo bought a new bike, i.e. the P5 Cervelo which he said was the "fastest bike in the world" based on wind tunnel testing. Upon reaching KK, he made further upgrades to include a power meter and some other installations. Although he was supposed to have gone for the Hong Kong Marathon earlier this year, he decided to cancel that trip, so that he could focus fully on beating this old man!

I knew that I would lose to Teo in yesterday's race, because it was a much shorter distance. I have said before that I just don't have the speed to put up much fight against younger opponents. But although it was an uphill task, I decided to at least put up a good fight for an epic finish. I reckoned that even if I'd lose the race against Teo, I'd at least make him run for his money! What made me even more pressured was that Teo said he will try to beat me in the run leg; and when he has caught up from behind, he would tap me on my shoulder before overtaking me! That absolutely made me even more determined not to let him tap my shoulder! To achieve that, I would have to attack his weaknesses starting with the swim. 

Well we are both not very good in the swim, but I felt that I had a slight advantage. You see, both of us used to have the "sinking-legs" problem when we started swimming a couple of years ago, and I've invested a lot of time and efforts figuring out a way for a solution. I have since solved that problem, and gone on to work on my strokes and kicks. On the other hand, Teo's biggest mistake was when he bought a wetsuit almost 3 years ago. That wetsuit absolutely sealed his fate as far as swimming was concerned. He's been training with the wetsuit about 90% of the time, and at times he'd swim several kilometres in the pool per session. I'm not a big fan of yardage when it comes to swimming; I'd rather focus on the technique. But just to make sure, I made more visits to the pool starting from a couple of weeks ago.

On the other hand, I've been neglecting my run a bit, but I thought no matter how fast I can run on an ordinary day, during the 113 Triathlon, I would be very slow anyway. So I had to gamble a bit on how I would balance between the 3 disciplines. I also decided to shed 2kg over the last 2 weeks from 72kg to 70kg, just to make sure that I get to my optimal racing weight.

Yesterday morning was an amazing start to say the least. I arrived at Nexus Karambunai at exactly 6:30am, and then as I was unloading my wife's bike, I realised that I had forgotten my cycling shoes at home. A single journey from my home to Nexus would usually take about half an hour, and the flag off time for the race was at 7am. It was obvious that there's not enough time, and I resigned to the fact that this was gonna be the end of what would have been an epic challenge against Teo!

But the thing to do in an emergency is to keep a cool head. After offloading my wife's bike, I floored the accelerator in my crazy attempt to get my shoes at home. I must have been going at an average of 120kph for most of the journey home, my front wheels vibrating violently; and of course I was cursing everybody on a leisurely Sunday drive who's blocking my way. It was still very early in the morning, and there wasn't any traffic jam, but I felt like the whole world was conspiring to slow me down; all the traffic lights along the way were red! But in the end, I made it back to Nexus at 7:15am, clearly I had missed the flag off. Still keeping my cool, I parked my car at the roadside, offloaded my bike and rushed to the transition area. I had planned to beg the Race Director to still let me join the race even though I was late. I didn't mind the late start as long as I could still join the race. Upon reaching the transition, I quickly racked up my bike, laid out my stuff, grabbed my googles and swimming cap, and rushed to the beach.

Then the second surprise of the morning. The race had not started! It must have been about 7:20am when I arrived at the beach, panting and my heart rate over the roof! I was accorded with a loud cheer for making it to the start line after all. I felt like I deserved a special trophy for the new record I've set for making that journey from Nexus to Damai and back in just a little over 40 minutes!

It turned out that the flag off was delayed because the Fire Brigade folks were late. They were supposed to inspect the swim course and then give the greenlight before the race was to start. Thank goodness this is Malaysia, and tardiness is a common thing; and in this case it helped me to catch my breath! But soon the wait became unbearable. The participants were rather anxious and everyone was worried about the precious time slipping by. The temperature was rising by the minute, and everyone was becoming restless.

Some tried to remain calm by meditating...

Some were discussing about bike technologies and bike splits...

While some were actually doing the split...

But in the end, at about 8:15am, we were finally flagged off. Because of the long delay, the organiser decided to shorten the swim leg from 2 loops to just 1 loop. However, one of the buoys had drifted slightly farther from shore, resulting in the swim leg becoming a little longer than 1km. The foreshore area was a little rough and the waves were hard to swim in. But as we got beyond the second buoy, it became much more pleasant to swim. I had by then lost track of Teo, but there was no time to worry about him at that point. I just continued swimming as calmly and consistently as I could; and a little over 25 minutes later, I emerged from the sea, not knowing if I was ahead of Teo or not. But no matter, if Teo's ahead, I would fight hard to catch up in the bike leg.

It was nice to see the transition area still crowded with people. In the past whenever I raced the triathlon, I would always arrive at Transition 1 just to find a deserted area with just a few bikes remaining. But not today. I put on my "wings", then my socks and cycling shoes, sunglasses and helmet. Then a few gulps of my trusted Carbopro; bike off the rack and off I went. 

At that point I still did not know where's Teo. But I was determined to fight during the bike leg. There's 90km worth of cycling to accomplish that! I wasn't gonna lose the bet without a fight! Little did I know that Teo was actually behind me at that point. I found out later that he was about 2 minutes slower in the swim. But 2 minutes is not really a big deal for a race of over 100km. That deficit can always be offset in the bike leg, especially with the help of his super P5! Coming out of transition, I suspect Teo must have started rehearsing his killer face that he's so famous for.

I took my time to build up speed during the bike leg. My heart was still beating like crazy from the swim. When I felt a little steadier, I began working on the pedals. Along the way, I overtook Hakimi and IM Dr Shah. Then some other participants. But after about half an hour, Teo was still nowhere to be seen. I began to feel a little worried. At the U-turn in Serusup, I took note of my time, and then on the return leg, I saw Amy, Hakimi and Shah. Shortly later, I finally overtook Vachel. Anslem was further ahead, and Boneventure of course was drafting behind him. Rayner was also a few minutes up ahead. Then suddenly I saw Teo coming from the opposite side of the road! Looking at my watch, I noticed that I was about 2.5 minutes since I reached the U-turn behind me, which meant, at that point, I was about 5 minutes ahead of Teo! Still not good enough, but it's a long ride still.

I continued focusing on timely nutrition and pedalling consistently all the way back to Kelapa Bakar, and as I was approaching that U-turn, I saw Anslem on the other side of the road with Bonaventure drafting behind him. Rayner was not very far behind them.

We repeated the Kelapa Bakar-Serusup for the second time. But on the return of that second loop, the wind started picking up like never before. It was quite a struggle. I saw my average speed dropped from 34kph to 33kph to 32kph; not so good news for my plan to build up the gap against Teo. The last few kilometres as I was approaching Transition 2, I had to slow down to rest my legs so that there's something left for the 21km run. As I was cruising that last stretch to Nexus, I saw Rayner up ahead, and I eventually overtook him too.

But Rayner was faster in his transition. As I started out for the 21km run, I saw Amy coming into transition. I wasn't sure how much lead I had against Teo then. But I knew that it's not much. Shortly after I passed the T-junction heading to the lagoon, Teo was making his approach to T2.

Making rough calculations in my head, I had perhaps a little over 10 minutes lead over Teo at that point. Teo was of course gonna catch up sooner or later, especially since my legs were getting tired. But I wanted to make him work hard for it! Still, because I had the lead, I decided to reward myself with a rest—a big mistake to make at this stage of the race. But I was feeling tired, and if I were to force myself, I may invite cramps.

As I was making the U-turn near the lagoon, I noticed that Amy had caught up with me. Still a long way to run, and I was torn between wanting to keep up with Amy and conserving energy in anticipation of a last-minute energy requirement to fight Teo. I ran and walked and Amy was coming closer and closer all the time. I could almost feel her breath behind me!

In the end, the inevitable happened. Amy overtook me at about 5km into the run. I felt tempted to increase my pace. But I had to be careful not to burn out. The exhaustion was overwhelming, and the temperature was sheer madness. In the end, I decided to be patient and played safe. It wasn't till we arrived at the next water station when I saw Amy again. I just grabbed a cup of water and continued. A short while later Amy came from behind and suggested that we pace each other. So we continued running and walking together for a few kilometres until we completed the first loop of the run.

During all this, I haven't forgotten about Teo, because I knew he would strike sooner or later. I knew that he couldn't resist the dramatic finish with the famous killer face. I just continued keeping my cool. All the muscles in my body were screaming for me to stop, but I wanted to fight till the end!

Well, I continued running with Amy for the next few kilometres until I judged it fairly safe to increase my pace. Whatever plans Teo had in his mind about a last minute strike, I was just gonna give it all that I had in my legs. Accordingly I started building up the gap against Amy. Slow and steady, one step at a time, just focus on the finish line. And then approximately 100m before reaching the finish line, one last pathetic look over my shoulder to find that Teo wasn't there! And this was how I finished the race in 5hours 59mins.

Never say die! If a nerd like me can do it, anybody can do it too! I'm not sure if the happiness was because of finishing or because I was able to beat Teo again. I only managed to get 6th in my category; and it was a very strong field. But I'm so glad the torture is over! Amy finished just a few minutes after me and emerged champion in her category. 

I waited for Teo to arrive. The minutes passed. Rayner arrived at the finish line, Shah and Vachel too. But still no Teo. In the end I decided to go take a quick shower. Later on, I found out that Teo had finished in about 6hours 41mins. I had expected a nail-biting finish against Teo, but it was an anti-climax. It doesn't matter; I'm just looking forward to a hard-earned dinner at Sutera!

It was a well-organised event except for the shortened swim. According to my Garmin, the run was only for 20km as opposed to 21km. And as expected Mia got yet another pyjama size L finisher T-shirt despite my special request to the organiser to set aside one XS T-shirt.

I was also honoured to finally meet the famous Rupert Chen whom had an interesting outfit when going up the stage to receive his champion trophy!

Photo credit: Tsen Shin Yon, Douglas Yu, and Dr Shah and friend.

Ultra Trail 101

I have lost count of the number of visitors arriving at this blog seeking information on running the ultra trail marathon in general, as well as The Most Beautiful Thing specifically. I suspect that many of them were newbies, although perhaps they have run several road marathons.

As a matter of fact, there is an abundance of resource out there on ultra trail running, including books and magazines, online articles, and these are mostly written by professional and elite trail runners. There is actually no shortage of information. However, the majority of trail runners are not what one might describe as elite runners. Most of them are ordinary folks with desk jobs, and they're running trails merely for the sake of having fun while savouring the beauty of the countryside. But at the same time, they are also hoping to finish within the cutoff times, and earn the finisher medals in the end. Well, I range myself among the latter group of mortals. I'm certainly not born a great ultra runner; far from it, when I hit the trails, I'd struggle immensely!

This post is intended to be a brief guide for the newbies, or for ordinary folks like me, whom may wish to indulge in ultra trail running. As for the seasoned or elite ultra trail runners, please bear with this post as it may seem like it's plagued with too many wrong advice! But after all, we are the weaker breed of the human species that can't handle the kind of physical exertion that the elites can. So here goes nothing!

Training

The first thing to know about ultra trail running is that you will need to train for it. I know that sounds like an obvious advice, but you'd be surprised at how many people actually registering for the ultra trail, but are unwilling to train for it. I shall not dwell too much about specific programmes, because unfortunately for most of us with full-time jobs, time is a luxury that we just don't have enough of. After allowing for work, family and social obligations, there is very little time left for training. The only way to do it is to make the time. Meaning sacrifices will have to be made, i.e. forgoing some other things or obligations.

When preparing for an ultra trail race, I'd continue running the midweek sessions as if training for the ordinary road marathons. Which means approximately 3 sessions of about 10km run each. I would love to do more, but that is all the time I have. Then the weekends are more punishing—a back-to-back running on Saturdays and Sundays. Start with say 2 to 3 hours of running, preferably on trails of course, on Saturday, followed by another similar session on Sunday. However, the weekend workouts shall increase in distance (or duration) over the weeks and months to a point where the Saturday workout becomes longer than the Sunday workout. In my case, as I drew closer to the race day, I have trained up to 13 hours on a Saturday, i.e. spending the whole day from the wee hours of the morning up to sunset.

The only bonus advice that I can offer if you are preparing for The Most Beautiful Thing is to include lots of hill training over the weekends. So hills, hills and more hills. And when you have done that, do some more hill training. Get the idea?

Weight

Apart from keeping your body weight to an optimal level for the race, you will also have to be careful with the weight of your bag. There will normally be mandatory items set by the organiser. These are items that must be carried with you throughout the race, failing which may result in time penalty or even disqualification. Other than that, try very hard to keep things to the very bare minimum, because it's so easy to get carried away, and the bag can easily grow in size.

Race Pace

I marvel at the elite runners; they surge ahead at the start gun, and they can keep it up till they cross the finish line. I'm afraid no such thing for the rest of us—live with it! I have always said that the vast majority of failure cases in long distance running is because of surging out too fast at the start gun. In fact, I happen to know some people who can run a 1:45 half marathon, but can't go below 4:30 full marathon even after a few attempts.

The key is to race smart; perhaps even walk uphill and run only on flat surface and going downhill, something like that. That way, you can save precious energy. Try to resist the temptation to waste energy, even if you feel like you have a lot to spare. But god dammit, just watching some of these energy-wasting antics can really make my day—I can almost feel the joy of the moment!

Nutrition

Unlike the common road marathons, nutrition is of paramount importance in the ultra trail race. It can make or break the race for everybody including the elite runners. An average human body can store up to about 2000 calories of glycogen, and that amount is simply insufficient for the entire ultra trail distance. Which means the runner will have to consume something to replenish depleting calories during the race.

What I normally do is to begin eating approximately half an hour into the race, and keep eating every half an hour until I cross the finish line. This means you will have to carry enough food with you, at least enough to make the next aid station. The only proviso is to control the portions. All you need is an approximate 300-400 calories per race hour. That is to say about 150-200 calories every half an hour. I usually rotate between energy gels and other solid food. But 300-400 calories is not much; most people can easily consume that amount per hour. Eating too much food at a time can lead to stomach discomfort. But beyond that, there is a more significant reason. Eating a big meal tends to draw more blood into the digestive system and for a longer period too, thus leaving lesser amount of blood for the muscles.

The other thing to bear in mind is of course hydration. If you are not sufficiently hydrated, that will invite a host of problems; a kind of chain reaction that will ultimately affect your performance. So the short advice is to drink enough liquid throughout the race.

Anyway, try to resist the temptation to over-indulge in food since some stations offer an assortment of irresistible goodies, especially if you're stealing somebody's Kodak moment by over-doing the nutrition thingy in the background, hmm?

Cut Off Times

Before I sign up for any race I'd usually want to know about the cut off times. Then I ask myself if I have it in me to meet those cut off times. If not, then can I train my body to be able to meet those cut off. If the answer is still "NO", then I would not register. For I'm allergic to failure, and I'm a realistic person. If it's beyond my ability, I will stay away. I can accept that I can't possibly conquer all the challenges out there in the world. I am satisfied.

But some people are not like that. They find an interesting race, sign up for it, and then enjoy surprising themselves on the race day. Perhaps it's like reading a murder mystery or watching The X-Files on tv, where the lesser we know at the beginning, the more fun it's gonna be at the finish line.

Nevertheless, if you are like me, i.e. having that dreadful disease kiasunisis, then you will want to train hard enough to meet whatever cut off times set by the organiser. A time limit is there for a reason; it is a race, not a tour of the countryside. Don't grumble. If you want to go for a stroll in the woods, then by all means, don't join a race, join a tour instead.

The Finish Line

In most races, crossing the finish line is the climax of the challenge. In fact, that's the one single goal that everyone is after. Of course in the process of getting there, we also get to enjoy the ups and downs along the way; all those beautiful scenery; new friends met; the kind of experience that money can't buy.

The irony of it all though, the finish line for most people is not really a finish line at all. The newbies reading this post should be warned that running the ultra trail can be addictive. Once you have crossed a finish line, you will want to cross  many more finish lines. It is in that sense that the finish line is in fact the start line in a strange way!

Good luck on your next ultra. Happy trails!