Running with horses: Caboolture Historical Village 6hr Run

Nothing is harder than running around the same loop, again and again, using the same leg muscles for the entire time, till the time is up.

This is what happened when a trail runner who spends most of his time running up and down trails/mountains, attempts to run the same loop on flat for 6 hours. I thought that my training would more than prepare me for running on flat ground. I was wrong! The repeated impact and strain on the same leg muscles pretty much destroyed my lower body from the third hour onward, and the rest of the run is reduced to a tired and broken man's desperate attempt to complete the time.

I started the first hour on a 13km/h pace. After 30 mins of running, my bowels started grumbling and needed a release. I held off the urge to complete one full hour of running before i rushed to my car and got my vaseline (i also forgot to apply vaseline on my body, which is the worst thing that can happen in any ultra event, ask any ultra-runner why!), and then bolted to the toilet to release! It probably took 7-8 mins to get back on the track again. And then i continued running.

At the end of 2nd hour, I had completed 25km of running. I was thinking to myself, if i could maintain 12.5km/hr of running, by the end of 6hours, i would have done 75km, which would be a massive achievement! Little did i know that my legs were smashed from the the third hour onwards. Even the compression quad and calf sleeves and my Hoka One One shoes did not prevent the onset of fatigue. By the end of 3rd hour, i had finished 37km of running.

From then on, it was a slog all the way. My speed varied between 10.5km/hr to 11.5km/hr. Very occasionally i would do 12km/hr, but this pace only lasted for a short while, before i went back down to ~11km/hr.

Time passed really slowly after that. My legs were crying out for me to stop. I reckon it's a rite of passage for every ultra runner, in that there will come a time in the race where every single cell in your body is screaming for rest, and yet the only thing that is keeping you from stopping is your spirit. I was holding on to God's strength, which shines the brightest in the darkest hour, and just placed one foot ahead of the other. My goal of reaching 75km has pretty much faded away, and now i just wanted to break 70km in this 6 hours.

In the last hour, I took a prolonged rest of about 5-6 minutes in the beginning, only to realise that i have 52 mins to complete 11.5km, if i were to reach 70km. I started to quicken my pace. It is as if i have detached my spirit from my body, and just plodded along with whatever strength that is left.

45mins remaining, I had 10km to go.

22 mins remaining, I had 5km to go.

13 mins remaining, I had 3km to go. There is no way i could do this, I have to pretty much run a close to 4min/km pace if i were to hit 70km.

My spirit refused to give up! I was asking God to supply me with the strength to run till the time is up, and I would be pleased with whatever result i achieved.

When there was only 2mins30seconds left, I had 1km left. I started sprinting. Finally the clock struck 6pm. The run is over. I completed 69.56km in this entire time in 1st place. The first runner up did ~64km and the second runner up did ~63km. Here is my move.

In a way, I kinda knew that I could have hit 70km if i did not waste my time resting, rushing to the toilet, rushing to my car, and applying vaseline during the run (it should have been done before). Every minute in this 6 hour run counts. Nonetheless, I was happy with the result and how I broke through personal barrier and continued running in the last hour, even though my body has way exceeded the fatigue point. I think this is more important than achieving my target distance.

A big shout out to Deb Nichol, who was doing 24 hour event. (she previously did 6hr run in Feb 2013 and completed 74.66km). We ran past each other multiple times in this event. Her smile, generous spirit and bubbly and cheerful personality really lit up the entire village. She ran 239.54km in the entire 24 hour to break the Australian record!

One last thing to mention - my wife, Rebecca (our cousin from Sydney) and Adena (our friend from Mt Mee) set up a stall selling sushi, spring roll and potato gems in this event. It was a random idea by me because i did not want my wife to wait for me the whole time and i wanted her to have something to do. So we thought selling sushi would be a great idea! Besides, Australians love sushi too! So we pulled together our time, ideas and resources to set up a stall in Caboolture Historical Village. A big thanks to Rebecca, our cousin from Sydney who came all the way here to give us a hand. She really knew how to do business and majority of sales that we had was because of her (other than the fact that the sushi were yummy too)! We gave part of our profit to the Historical Village as a donation for allowing us to use the venue.

All in all, it was a great day of outing for all of us!