Sundown Ultra 2011, 24-hour count down to race-start, Part-1,2

With 24 hours left to the race-start, there was nothing much I could do for the state of fitness.  The only things I could do was to give my body the last-minute "fuel" and rest it deserved before I put it to the physical stress that my body had never experienced before.

Mental Torture
Was I scared?  Yes, I was scared as hell.  Every time when I thought of Jamie's blog post at http://www.jamiepang.com/blog/?p=3028, I had shiver down my spine.

Yes, the cutoff time was "silently" increased from 16 hours to 18 hours.  However, deep down in me, any finishing time that is longer 16 hours was considered a failure to me... I had been targetting 16 hours finishing time ever since I started training.  All the researches, runs, pace-setting, time-management, nutrition plans, was targetting for 16-hour cutoff.

Mentally, I would quit in the middle of race if I knew I could not finish within 16 hours... the end.

Thinking about my low training mileage, my lack of experience, and my longest 46k LSD, I mentally prepared myself for a DNF.  I started to plan for 2012 revenge even before I started 2011 run.

24-hour Time Management
Instead of doing what most runners did, I was "gambling" with my time management in the final count down to the race-start.  Only if I won the "gamble", I could very well overcome the #1 enemy of Sundown Ultra: sleepiness!

I was trying to adjust my biological clock, just like the way we overcome "jet-lag" after long-hour travelling across several timezone from west-to-east vice versa.

Working backward in-time again...
- race-start at Saturday 6pm, I must arrive at Marina Barrage by 4:30pm to pick up my race-kit.
- to arrive at Marina Barrage by 4:30pm to pick up my race-kit, I had to leave hotel by 3:30pm.
- to leave hotel by 3:30pm, I had to start preparing by 2:30pm.
- to start preparing by 2:30pm, I should have already slept for 8 hours.
- to get 8-hour sleep before the race-start, I should sleep at Saturday 6am.
- in order to sleep at Saturday 6am, I planned not to sleep the whole Friday night.

I was gambling very BIG.

24-hour count down
To catch the Friday 8:00pm Fireflyz from Subang Airport, I took a taxi at 4:30pm from home... that explained how nervous and anticipating was I.

Arrived at Subang Airport 4:50pm, too early to check in, too early for dinner, too early for anything.  Burnt my time at Starbuck surfing the Internet about "hybrid" animal and gadget.

6pm, checked-in, followed by herba-chicken noodle for dinner.

Then, it was waiting time in the departure area enjoying the beautiful sunset by 7:30pm.  Plane at the foreground was the exact plane I took.

Flight took off at 8:00pm...

It was 9:15pm when touched-down at Changi, the place where I spent countless nights preparing for exam about 20 years ago...

How would I expect, 20 years ago, that I came back to the place for such an adventure.  Life is so un-predictable.

Realising that my Maxis' line has no roaming in Singapore, I purchased a tourist prepaid mobile line at Changi airport.

Due to the "special nature" of Sundown Ultra, all participants were told to bring their handphone...

...the reason was...

I was pessimistic.  I saved the number "98957914" into my phone immediate after reading the rule.  I repeated and recited the number a few times while travelling to Singapore.

The organiser, I guessed, was as cautious as they could.  It was a logistic nightmare as 899 participants were spread a long 50km route... off-road and in-road!  It was not an event that anyone capable or dare to hold!

10:15pm, arrived at the hotel which is within walking distance from Clark Quay, Boat Quay, and not too far from Marina... at least from the map.  The TV in the room is also a multipurpose interactive console, that display a welcoming message to the guest, was really impressed...

After settling down, time was just 11pm+.  According to plan, I should stay awake until 6am... had all the time to spent.  Spent quite a fair bit of time browsing through the console to find out important info like weather forecast...

...with "good news" for 25/6 and 26/6 weather...

... and map...

Referred to the map, I was trying to figured where to get good hawker food for carbo at 12am.  Bored, I decided to take a walk outside to see what could I get at this hour, especially Chinatown is just "down the lane".

I walked from Eu Tong Seng Rd --> New Bridge Rd --> Kereta Air Rd --> passed Chinatown --> South Bridge Rd --> Boat Quay --> Clarke Quay... failed to find hawker that was still open for business.  Yes, there were many eat-out, but not hawker style that I was hoping for.  Plenty of pubs and hang-outs at the two "quays"... but no hawker food.

The whole trip-on-feet took about 1 hour... a very good "pre-race" night walk at crazy time.

Sleepy and tired after the walk, I finally got back to the hotel empty-handed at about 1:30am.

Without choice, I ordered food from the hotel "room service" menu for desperately needed carbo.

Supper was served at 2:16am.  I had all the energy-packed fries, spaghetti, and hot chocolate...

It was just 3:00am when I am done with the supper.

To beat the sleepiness, I did a final check on the items to be brought along for the long journey.  I could not believe that I actually needed so many things until I laid them on the floor for the photo.  Could I carry, at least half of them, for 100km in 16 hours?  I was doubly scared...

A quick run down the list of items...

Fuel and supplements for the out-and-back journey:
- Picnic chocolate bars, 3 pieces x 2 ways;
- ORS salt, 2 packages x 2 ways;
- Panadol, 1 dose x 2 ways;
- Endurox R4 (white powder on the bottom right corner), 8x3 teaspoon x 2 ways.

Non-consumeable:
- confirmation slip for race-bit collection!!!
- contact lens, 1 pair x 2 ways;
- hydration belts with 3 bottles;
- 1 "collapse-able" water bottle, just in case;
- anti-scuffing gel;
- counterpain;
- handphone!!!;
- GPS watch;
- 30 Singapore bucks;
- IDs.

Wearable porchs and belt:
- arm porch;
- python porch;
- hydration belt.

From the list, only half of the "fuel and supplements" would be transported to the 50k half-way mark.  I would be carrying the rest of the items with me like my body parts... could I do that?  I was wondering.

3:30am, I was still battling with sleepiness, trying to stay awake until 6am.  I turned on the TV, but there was not many interesting program to watch... unless I pay for the "pay per view" shows.

Switching back-and-forth from TV channel to channel, I finally landed at a program that I had never watched before... the "Dog Whisperer" of Discovery Channel!  Frankly, I was surprised by the program.  I admitted that it was really an eye-opening seeing the way the host handled different kind of dogs.  It will be a must see program when I am back to KL.

5:00am... I finally defeated by the sleepiness.  Frankly, it was one of the most pressurized sleep.

In order not to sway too far away from my original plan (of sleeping at 6am), I did a slight change to my plan.  I set my alarm clock to wake me up at 6:30am... for the complementary breakfast at the hotel.

5:00-6:30am... "short nap".

6:30am, woke up as planned.  Had heavy breakfast half-asleep.  Saw the uncle who delivered my "room service" at 2:30 earlier.  He looked at me with "one kinda" look... must be thinking that I had been starving for too long!

7:30am... after filling my stomach with more carbo, I got back to my much needed long sleep.  All lights were off... all the curtains were closed... TV was off... room was completedly dark.

Alarm clock was set to wake me up at 2:30pm... yes... pm = afternoon.

Sweet dream...

2:00pm... woke up even before the alarm ring.  Tried to convince myself that it was in the morning of a good "night sleep", I quickly did my normal morning ritual... including clearing my bowel.

Then separated the essentials into 2 portions... one portion to be carried with me for the first 50k, and the other portion for the "special need" bag to be transported to the half-way 50k U-turn.

Attire for the first half...

Shirt, bearing special "sentimental value", is my first ever running shirt, the super durable Nike shirt I bought when I first took up 'running' as hobby back in early 2009.  The same shirt I wore for my first 1k, 5k, 10k, 21k.  Pant is Adidas, shoes is Adidas Supernova Glide, sock is New Balance... very basic... which really worried me whether I was missing anything out when I saw the "sport fashion show" at the race start.

Attire for the second half...

Shirt and pant is Adidas, shoes is Adidas Adizero, socks is also Adidas.  Why everything Adidas... because I am relatively inexperience... would usually get everything I need at one stop.  Again, very basic.

The reason I used Supernova for the first half and Adizero for the second half... while training, I found out that:
Supernova: heavier but very cushioning;
Adizero: lighter but less cushioning.
As I would be doing faster running (hence more bouncing) with fresh pair of legs for the first half, so good cushioning might be good to preserve the freshness of legs.  Whereas for the second half, more walking with tired legs, hence lighter but less cushioning shoes.

3:30pm.  I was all done with the preparation.  Hang the "NO DISTURB" label at the hotel door knob and headed to the hotel restaurant for more 'carbo'... my big mistake of the event!  I ate another 2 plates of spaghetti and 1 hot chocolate... which proven to be too heavy and disastrous for the first 25km of the run.

As almost all my training run were done with empty stomoch, the 2 plates of spaghetti were too much for my un-prepared stomach.  I was suffering from side-stitching from km-3 onwards until about km-25 (about 9:30pm).  The very annoying side-stitch-ghost came on and off throughout the first 3 1/2 hour of run.  I burped very frequently during my fight against the 'ghost'... with spaghetti-filled gases came out from mouth and nose occasionally.  At one point, I almost tried to stop and force myself to vomit out the extra 'load' before carrying on.  However, I didn't do that at last as I knew the side-stitching will go away once the spaghetti is digested... which it did after 9:30pm.

4:00pm... took a taxi to the race start at Marina Barrage.  Little that I knew Marina Barrage is such a new place that even taxi driver had no idea of where is it.  He stopped his taxi after rolling for less than 200m, told me that he didn't know how to go there and probably I should try another taxi.  However, I managed to "con" him that I knew the place, hoping that there would be enough road signs along the way.  I told the Uncle Taxi to bring me to the Marina MRT, and I would show him the way... I was lying... hehehe...  I had no idea whatsoever of how to get there.  I was lucky that, thanks to the road signs, the Uncle Taxi managed to get me to Marina Barrage even without the "expert" direction... phewww!

4:30pm... reached at the race start right on the dot.

The beautiful Marina Barrage.  It is unbelieveable that what you see below is actually the roof-top of a building!

First and foremost, collected my race package and bib.

(picture by: Mr/Ms. Unknown)

The whole process took me less than 1 minute.

My race bib (on top) and a sticker (below) to be pasted on the "special-need bag" to be transported to the half-way mark.

My "nickname" was printed on the race bib... something special about ultra.

Threw the whole pre-packed bag with halfway essential into the "special need bag"...

I decided not to ship the camera to the halfway mark as I believe I would be too tired to take any photo at that point.

With time to spare, wondering around the race start ground.  Pay special attention to the following video to understand how we could run up/down the roof...

Saw some familiar Malaysian faces including Yim and Frank.  Frank was running around a fountain for warming up, I guessed.

Now, my worry and uncertainty grew to the new height when I was wandering around the race-start ground.  Most of the runners were well-toned physically, well-equipped with big proportion wearing 'compression' attires, and lot of them were carrying 'camel-back'.  I was really doubtful if I could survive without 'compression', 'camelback' and below average body-tone.

The following photo with cones layout on the ground guided the runners to the roof top for a 'grand finishing' tomorrow.  I hope I would still be running in between the cones in 16 hours, from the right to the left... my dream for the whole long night to come... would I be running in between the cones from the right to left in 16 hours?

Nevertheless, there would be 899 "special kind of idiots" running from the left-to-right in between the cones in less than 1 hour leaving Marina Barrage for a long long night...

5:15pm.  Instead of worrying, I thought it was better for me to take a short last minute nap before the torture started.  So, time to deposit the camera and towel at the bag depository... the only things I needed if I had a 'happy ending' tomorrow, hopefully...

5:20pm... took a nap at the race-start ground on the hard concrete floor, ignoring all others, ignoring the evening sun.

5:50pm... proceed to the eye-opening roof top of Marina Barrage, was amazed by the beautiful layout at the start-finish...

The road to the 'century finish'...

Another view at the race-start... was having mixed feeling...

6:00pm sharp... the race-start honk marked the beginning of my life-most-daring adventure...

At race-start, my head was blocked by the left arm of first man-in-orange...

... few seconds later, was on the left of camera lens...

Can you just imagine how nervous was I seeing that almost everyone was wearing 'compression'?!!  I would say a good >70% of runners were in 'compression', mostly with 'camelback'.  I was super nervous!

Someone took the following photo when I was sleep-running away from Marina Barrage at the background.  I guessed we were about 300m from the race-start crossing the first concrete bridge.

...again, was surrounded by much better-toned bodies and man-in-compression!

Still didn't know what would happen in the next 16 hours.  Would I be on my feet travelling in the opposite direction in 16 hours time?