Route 68 Challenge 2016 - 50K race report

The longest footrace of my life (so far)

510 days, 73 weeks, 17 months, and over a year later, my sabbatical from the running scene is finally over. I am back and feeling better than I had before. 

Where have I been?

My last run I joined was the Penang Bridge International Marathon back in November 2014. I clocked my best time for a marathon (4:57) and that capped off my running season for 2014. Then life changed; transitioning to working life after graduating, surviving a highway motorcycle crashed, playing weekend football with JAFC, but mostly work work work work work. I still keep up with the regular short runs over the weekends and had Standard Chartered KL Marathon 2015 insight, but everybody knew how that went down. I had only one goal for the year and that was to run one marathon. That's basically how my running season for 2015 went - without a single race at all. 

Where do I start? 

I went on the running blogs and checked for events that will be held this year. SCKLM is still in the second half of this year and that would be too long for me to wait, plus there is a high chance of last year's debacle repeating. As a result, I went for next best thing, Route 68 Challenge 50K Ultra Marathon which would be the longest footrace of my life as my comeback race.

Training

Training was simple, short and fast. Only 4 weeks of high mileage runs a total of 150KM and then tapered for another 2 weeks before the race. Taper week was disrupted with a climb up Mount Kinabalu a week before the race with the family. Why not ?

Climbed Mount Kinabalu during the taper week

Race day

I was joined at the starting line with my fellow running buddy, Zahid also known as Ah Seng (and now UltraSeng), who was also making his debut 50K Ultra Marathon but never ran a 10K, half-marathon or a full-marathon race before. When you're as strong as a horse, you skipped many levels I guess. 

0700 start

With Ah Seng (the one in red) taking it easy for the first 16K

[Photo by: Rany Tan]

Ultra is a different ball game compare to marathons. The gears - everybody was running with a backpack carrying things like drinks, foods, energy gels, caps, sunglasses, reflective vests, headlamps, lotions and more. The aidstations - they had soft-drinks, biscuits, candies, fruits, even nasi lemak, and more. The crowd - from the runners to the supporters were smaller in numbers. And finally the route - although it was a road race, but the hilly terrain gave that added challenge which is usually associated with Ultra races.

At the KM25 u-turn checkpoint, enjoying nasi lemak for breakfast

The first 16K was a decent uphill run. It was a cool morning, the route was covered with trees along the way and I felt good. Then from KM16 Genting Sempah checkpoint it was a downhill run all the way to KM25 u-turn checkpoint and I still felt good. But, the 9K uphill journey back to KM34 Genting Sempah checkpoint was where I started having problems. Muscles in my legs feeling tight, plus with the current dry season in the country, the afternoon sun can really take you out. The last 16K downhill run back to the finish line was not as straightforward as it seems either, especially when you're tired and your legs were beat up, it felt like forever.

Passing through a crime scene where a dead body of woman was found,
you don't see that everyday

Always nice to see supporters opening their own aidstations for runners.
This one came with a tent for solat

Couple hundred meters left to reach the finish line.
I'm ready to get this over with

[Photo by: Tey Eng Tiong] 

That forever feeling eventually went away at 3 p.m on a scorching hot Sunday afternoon in mid-April when I crossed the finish line. And just like that, I completed my first 50K Ultra Marathon, the longest footrace of my life. Thank you everybody who supported, helped and pushed me to the finish line. I am totally grateful for this experience. It feels great to be back =)

After 8 hours of running, the suffer fest has ended

[Photo by: Mira]

List of names who were looking for different kind of tauge and
congrats to all runners who managed to find it