Route 68 Challenge 2017 - 84K race report

Pain is temporary, but pride is forever 

Where do I start? That's the question I ask myself every beginning of the year. Went through a list of running events for this year and had my eyes set on Route 68 again. I've done the 50k distance last year and had a blast, so I wanted to try a longer distance. They changed the 70 km distance to 84 km and I was down with it. They also added a new distance of 100 miles. That's a totally different ball game altogether. We are not going there. 

TRAINING

Running season starts as soon as you start training. I prepared for 3 months (January-99km, February-103km, March-120km). Stuck to my running schedules, tried to watch what I eat, lesser time spent at the gym and stopped all physical contact sports like football and futsal. I only did 3 LSD run of 20km each in the last month before the race. Boy, I wished I had done more earlier but quite satisfied with my overall training. Thank you to Zahid and Faiz for the 2 out of 3 LSD runs. It's always a great time running with your peers.  

RACE DAY:  2200 START (15/4/17 SAT)

First race of the year and the longest run I'm about to embark, I expected to be there early to calm down those butterflies in my stomach and do all the necessary warm up stretches. But in reality, I arrived 10 minutes before the flag off, dropped my bags at the drop-off counter, and went on my way 5 minutes after the flag off as the last runner. After running alone in the dark for 10 minutes, I finally caught up with the back end runners and only did my stretches at the first water station at KM5.

This was the first time I ran through the night, so I took a 2-hour nap during the day. Grabbed a Subway sandwich for dinner 8pm which again I wished I had it earlier as I was burping and feeling gassy up from digestion until wee hours of the morning. Route 68 has the simplest route for a running event which is basically a u-turn after you have reached the far end of a relatively straight road. You will constantly see people on the running back and forth. 

I reached KM42 u-turn at 4:37 am in 6 hours 30 minutes. The water station was held at Bentong rest house. Here they served hot food and drinks, and runners can resupply or change gears from their own bags deposited earlier at the starting line. In my drop-off bag I had a pair of shoes, socks, shirt, cap, wet tissues and a bar of Sneakers. I ate my snack, drank hot coffee and ate fruits that was served. I didn't take the Maggi noodles they had and the fried rice tray had finished even before I arrived.



At 5:00 am I was back on the road with 9 hours to spare before the cut-off time at 2:00 pm. I was feeling confident with myself but I knew the hardest part has yet to come because it would be an uphill battle all the way to KM67 water station at Genting Sempah. Stopped for Subuh prayer at KM49 water station. The sun's rays started beaming down at 8:00 am and it's going to be a really hot day ahead.

0600 Sunday morning 

MIND GAMES



I could no longer run for the second half of the race due to fatigue. My feet hurt with every step I took. It hurts even more when I stopped to sit at water stations, and became even harder to get back on my feet and be on my way. I settled with fast walk covering about 5km in an hour. So, I started being calculative and knew if I maintain this pace plus taking shorter breaks of 5-8 minutes at water stations I can still cross the finish line just before the cut-off time.



I've never felt so much pain from running before. I started to doubt myself. I was like this distance ain't for me. I should've stick to normal marathon. This is insane! Then, I started saying to myself "pain is temporary, pain is temporary, pain is temporary but pride is forever". I started making promises - if I finish this, I can retire Route 68 and no need to come back next year, and I'm going to take two day MC tomorrow (I ended up taking only one day MC). Few words of encouragement from runners and also volunteers really helped me came out from that dark place, self doubt and pressure I unnecessarily put on myself.



THE LAST PUSH

Came out the hardest section of the race which felt like eternity, I was badly beaten physically and mentally. It was hot and I had chafes in all the wrong places. I could barely put up a smile. I was not having it anymore. Finally, reached the KM67 Genting Sempah water station around 10:30 am with average pace of 13'40" per km with less than 4 hours to go before the cut-off time. I was running against time. The section that I was looking forward to in the entire race was the final stretch towards the finish line which was a 15km descent. I was optimistic and tried to run but to no avail.



About 1:40 pm on my last legs, I crossed the finish line. What a feeling it was. I just completed my longest run ever. I was happy, grateful and utterly exhausted. Congrats to all the runners out there that weekend. Thank you to all runners who ran and walked with me, encouraged, pushed and cheered me on along the way. Thank you to all the great volunteers for your energy and support. Lastly, thank you to Mira for being patient, supportive and helpful from the start to the end of the race. I would have ended up in the medical tent if it wasn't for you.



So, what's next? On to the next challenge!

Crossing the finish line

Officially retired from Route 68 Challenge 

Crew love

 Signed off