Sundown Ultra 2011, How It Began

(picture by Yang)

Rewinding back to 7+ months ago... 'ultra' was never in my list of goals to achieve... not until the occurrence of the following sequence of events.

Sunday, 8,August,2010
(Eve of Singapore's National Day)... my usual passtime of surfing the net and runner's blog.  Saw Dr. Foo of http://www.lifeisxtragreat.blogspot.com/ posted a new blog posting at his blog titled "Goodbye Sundown 2011" at http://lifeisxtragreat.blogspot.com/2010/08/goodbye-sundown-2011.html.

Was thinking that Foo could really plan way way ahead of schedule... it is just August,2010 and he had already started to plan for mid-2011 run!  Why did he have to plan so advanced in time?  Little that I knew he was aiming for something much bigger than I thought... the catch-phrase was at the end of his post: "intended maiden ultra marathon".

That was the first time my running-itch-nerve was tickled... mmm... Foo was probably true that: i think one should try ultramarathon at least ONCE in a running life time.  Was thinking, may be, just may be, I should try it 2012.

Sunday, 14,November,2010
While on my way to Mid Valley Megamall for a family outing, I received a sms from Foo informing me that Sundown 2011 is opened for registration... and it is a good opportunity to train for Oxfam as the distance is up from 84k to 100k.  The sms instantly clicked!

Came to think about it again, I was quite illogical at that time... Oxfam is a 48-hour team-based trail-walking but Sundown Ultra is a solo 16-hour city 100k... the two don't really mix.  Or I should say, Oxfam is a non-runner's charity event, while Sundown Ultra is a money-making running event for elite (or "idiot")... definitely not for 1-time marathon-finisher.

Friday, 19,November,2010, 2pm
Got home early from work.  It's been about 1 week since Sundown Ultra was opened for registration.  Out of curiousity, went to the website and took a peep on the number of registrations so far.  To my surprised, more than 100 out of 600 "seats" had already been grabbed and it was just November,2010!

I started to get "panic" (was in fact "kiasu" when I recalled), fearing that the "seats" would be sold out like hot cake just like Sundown Marathon.  Losing my conciousness and logic-thinking capability... I spent less than five minutes to decide and to register... followed by credit card payment and I was done, not knowing what laid ahead could potentially get myself injured, or even killed.

The only picture I had in my mind was probably I should visit the beautiful island country where I studied 20 years ago... and then worked more than 10 years ago... time flies.

That's how the journey started.  I signed up one expensive and tough race.  I had no idea how to train for it. Zero.

I blogged about my madness at http://ys-electrical.blogspot.com/2010_11_01_archive.html.

I had no fear at that time... thinking that time was on my side.  I was ignorant.

Like Alan Cabelly said (copied from Sundown's facebook page): "Any idiot can run a marathon, but it takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultra."  I think I am qualified to be that "special one."

Not knowing that what followed was such a lifetime experience.

The illusive journey started on 20,Nov,2010.