Craze Ultra 100 miles 2020

First time taking part in this event although it has been around in Singapore for sometime.  Frankly speaking, I am just not very apt to do some kind of trail or elevation training in Singapore, not because I am damn good or what, but just that I feel there is no point cos it is never the same type of terrain compared to overseas.

Well, each its own.  The whole idea of doing this 100 miles was out of the blue.  One of my friend Rand said he was going to do it and kinda invited me.  I forwarded this event to another of my super long ultra running friend, Andrew.  I did not expect him to really accept the challenge and sign up.  The rest is history.  I thought since he signed up, I cannot let him down, I actually signed up.  Since my past 100Km, I have been thinking of just improving the timing and techniques in trail.  Doing a 100 miles never crossed my mind.  And little did I expect to do it in Singapore where there are no mountains etc.

Signing Up

The race is virtual, given the situation now, everything is virtual.  I guess it is going to be a while before we can travel again.  Maybe this rice will be nice enough just to have a taster of what a 100 miles is like.  The race is organised by the Running Guild and the main man behind the scene is Ben Swee, who is also a very accomplished runner himself.  The cost of registration is $45, you can chose to do the 100 miles in one shot which will bring you to the hall of fame ( and you have to complete it in 32 hours) or you can chose to do it in multiple sessions from 12 Oct 2020 to 15 Nov 2020.

The Team

So, I was thinking of doing this alone maybe with Andrew and Ronald only.  Kinda used to doing things alone furthermore in Singapore it is not that bad.  But little did I know that the both of them were stars! They had a big entourage and the the whole operations involved so many supporters etc from Team Reebok and also the Spartans gang.  Through them I got to know many people which I had not been doing from the past year.  The supporters itself is already one WhatsApp chat group while the runner team is another.  The team comprise of Andrew, Ronald, Lawrence, Neyton,Hansel, Lizzy, Trisha, Hansel and me.  There was also one bicycle support guy, Raymond , who followed us throughout.  I , however, did not put anything on the bike because I thought I should just simulate a real trail with loads of luxury now.  This is because we are running from MRT stations to MRT stations.  This meant there are toilets, proper convenience stores and even a quick DNF escape route.

The Race

The Tuesday before the actual race on 24th October, we all had dinner together and chatted about ourselves.  It was the first time we are doing a 100miles except for Lawrence who had done one trail 100 miles overseas.

I end up printing our bibs and also laminating it for our race.  As I laminate the bibs, I thought, this is like finally one time I am running with so many people for so long.

24th October was a Saturday.  The plan was to start 9 am and go from MRT to MRT total of 72 of them.  Starting from East Coast Park and ending there too.  We went in 3 groups, Ronald, Andrew and Trisha was one group.  Me and Lawrence second.  Hansel and Lizzy the third.  Along the way, there were supporters joining in and out and in and out.  But the more consistent one were Darylyn, Petra, Niro.  There were a few others who companied us throughout the night.

The route was interesting starting from East side, we went to the West and change to the North.  We had a little trail section from the Yew Tew to Kranji.  As the night falls, we finally had our dinner around 10pm at Ang Mo Kio.  Comparative to the original plan, we were late and behind time.  I guess we didn’t realise that going though the normal roads will pose some delays with traffic lights and narrow paths.  The start and stop caused a little delay in time.

From the North down to South, Liz left us at Novena as she felt she could not push on and do not want to injure herself.  We continued on to the Yellow line, eventually at Dakota, Trisha also left us.  Trish had already covered 100Km by then which was quite a feat as she had not done any 100km before this.    It started to rain after that, rain meant more delays.  We stopped at the Serangoon kopi tiam ( coffee shop) after NEX.  This was the place I used to frequent when I was working in Fujifilm.

At this point there were a few supporters and 3 bikers with us.  I was still in same group with Lawrence, Noel, his friend had joined us from town.  Z monster is slowly creeping up on us.  I somehow was still quite hyped up with the adrenalin and stuff.  As we sat there waiting while Noel had his Wanton Mee.  Lawrence took a quick nap.  We were wondering when will the rain stopped, even at a point in time wanted to just push off to the mid way change up point at Macritchie Reservoir, where we left of bags for a change up.  The usual chatty Lawrence is now pretty quiet, he then revealed that his feet was feeling some sort of pain.  But he felt he could push on.  In the drizzling state, we left for Macritchie.  In my mind, I only thought, we got to finish this, investment was too deep then as we only left like 40 plus KM to go.

Thoughts

To speak the truth, I did not felt as treacherous as the 100km in trail. I guess the lack of elevations really do save a lot of pain and energy.  Furthermore I was more a road runner, it does help a lot to do the first 100 miles on road.  This was my first time running with so many supporters ( although I carried and settled my own loads).  Its a different thing, you have to think of others and also manage everyone’s feelings and needs.  Now I begin to realise why those elites have to be alone, because there is simply no time to entertain others.  But at the same time, I enjoyed this process because this race is some what for fun and just testing my limits.  I enjoyed the companionship and learnt a lot of working together just like the days in Army.

Last Stretch

The last stretch was the most painful as we gave up the thought of going from station to station.  The second day was too hot in fact by 10 am the sun was scorching, we decided to go to Funan and do loops around City Hall area.  I really forgot how torturous it was walking around the buildings like a zombie.  Clocking my final 14km there.  First to finish was Andrew, then Me and Lawrence. Ronald seemed to have something wrong with his watch because personally I felt he clocked the longest and yet he took more time than us.

Was really glad that this thing is checked off, of course, was happy to have done it.  Every race has its own taste and feeling, I felt this one had its own fair share of pain and fun too.  The best part was to have known many new friends in the process.