Saturday, April 7, 2007

3rd Training @ MR

Tigger and I started off the training early. He picked me up from my friend's place at Shunfu and we reached MR about 5:50am. I would be running in the dark for the 1st part of the training, and I would be wearing my Nathan hydration pack. This was to simulate the actual race day condition in South Africa since it was compulsory to bring along a hydration pack. After filling the pack with 1 litre of water, we set off at 6.05am.

The route inside the trail was dark. So I used my Ericsson hp's light to shine on the trail. Tigger was using his head lamp light. At one point, I almost tripped as I did not see the root. I was very lucky that I need only a few extra steps to find back my footing. Phew. We exited from the trail at about 6.40am and noticed that the sky was getting brighter. Hmmm, Bee and company should be starting their run now. We proceed to climb over the 2 hills, across the golf course and towards aircon road. Before we proceed, I wet my shoes to simulate the crossing of stream. I hoped this simulation helped. After having some water, we went into aircon road. Wow! This stretch of road was really magical. It was as though there was aircon being installed at every corner of the road! It was cooling and nice. Now I understand why runners love running into this stretch. I must come more often to MR to train in future.

After coming out from aircon road, we turned left and there were more hills! Tigger reminded me to take it easy and not to run too fast. I acknowledged and just took small quick steps up the hills. At the same time, I also whipped out my camera to take some pictures of the monkeys who were hoping that we dropped some food for them. We kind of ignored them and went back to the toilet. Up ahead, I could see Bee, waiting patiently. :) We took more water and I wet my shoes again. Then we continue our run.

I was so glad to have Bee running with me. This Tigger was one hell of a strict! I couldn't really slack. :p We then went towards the SAF Ammo Base direction. There were even more hills here! By then, it was already 9am plus and pretty humid. After we made the u-turn at the camp, we saw Ronnie running towards our direction! Goodness me. He started at 6.45am and had made up so much ground! I was pretty demoralising. After taking some pictures, I decided to leave Bee in Ronnie's good hand. Tigger and I continue towards where we come from. It was more hills! And back at the ranger station, I had more water. The morning was getting hot. It was then the same way as the ultra except that we ran inside the trail after the fitness corner. It was a different route and I enjoyed it better than running on the road although I can't seems to visualise how far was I from the end.

Eventually, we reached back where we started at around 10.20am. We took 4hrs 20mins to cover 25km! It was a very slow effort. The only consolation was that we had numerous stop break to drink water, take picture and wet my shoes. :p We were also surprised to find Francis, HoHoRunner, Burnz and Cosmic already back. Hmmm... They must have taken a short-cut in Tigger's pressence...

Then, we saw Bee and Ronnie. Bee looked bad. Apparently, she tripped inside the trail and suffer quite a deep cut at her chin. After a quick cleaning up, HoHoRunner and company sent her to Mt Alvernia Hospital. I hope this incident would not stop her from future running inside this trail. The MR although is tough, is really a good training ground. Although I only started to train here 3 times, somehow, it gave me confidence for my 50-miler event. I hoped I am right!

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