Running with horses: The story behind Blackall 100

I have always wanted to run a fast road marathon in home soil, Malaysia.

In 2013, I was in the best shape (fitness-wise) of my life and was ready to give Standard Chartered KL Marathon a crack. Unfortunately the race was postponed due to haze. We were notified of news just 3 days out from the race. I was deeply disappointed.

In 2014, I took a break from running to focus on family and work. We had Jonas in July and it was a great joy having him in our lives. At the same time, I was working hard to complete my surgical exams and trying to work hard to get on the surgical training programme.

In June 2015, I decided to start training for a road marathon again. I thought this is probably my last chance to have any reasonable amount of quality training prior to commencing surgical training in 2016.

I thought i needed a structure in my training, instead of just running by feel. So i used the Hanson Brooks training programme, one which Sage Canaday was a part of. What i like about the training programme, is that there is a good variety of work-out, with intensive work-out sandwiched between easy days. Also the weekly mileage is usually around 60-85km, which was something i could handle, given how busy and tiring family and work are. Yes ideally i would prefer to run 100km per week, run twice a day and on a variety of surface including trails, but i know my timetable would not allow that. So i would wake up at ~5am most days, put on jacket, gloves, head torch, and disappear into the dark cold winter dawn. I would run for ~50-70 minutes and return home. Some days were extremely challenging, and some days i just felt like sleeping in and skipping the run altogether.

After 2 weeks of training, I ran 1:29 for Gold Coast Half Marathon. Surprisingly Ryan Hall (America record holder in half marathon, 59:43) was the pacer for the 1:30 group so I enjoyed his company most of the way. We chatted about his life and the Big Bear Lake (where he first felt the calling to be a runner). I was awestruck by how humble and simple he is. Whenever we reached an aid station, he would always reach out for water and pass them to the runners in his group.

After 2 months of training, I ran 2:56 for the Sunshine Coast Marathon. This became my first official sub-3 marathon.

My ultimate aim was to run the BSN Putrajaya Night Marathon on 24 October. I was aiming for the podium in the national category. However, my worst nightmare was once again realised. The race was canceled due to to haze.

Just when i was overwhelmed with disappointment, my boss Dr Donovan asked me to consider doing Blackall 50km instead, which is taking place just 15 mins from my house in Mapleton forest. Thinking i had nothing to lose, i signed up for the race. I hadn't done any trail running prior to this and was quite anxious about my ability to run a 50km trail race since all my training was on the road. I did a 40min test run in Parklands forest the day before the race and my leg muscles quickly decided they weren't happy with the rocks, uneven terrain, climbing and pounding.

On race day, I was struggling in the first half, almost tripping over the rocks or tree roots in a number of occasions, and barely holding on to second place. Scott - who was in first place, continued to increase his lead on the rest of the field. At one point, i sort of just gave up any hope of catching up with him. There were a lot of negative thoughts, voices which told me I had made a mistake signing up for this race. The trail also became quite technical and challenging as i ran along, and i struggled to find any sort of rhythm. I knew this was going to be a long day.

What happened subsequently would be a major turning point in this race.

I found that as I learned to ignore those voices and focused on placing one foot over the another, i could almost visualise layers after layers of cynism, disbelief, fear (of pain and suffering) being stripped away. It's hard to explain this process. The feeling is like: I have hit the rock bottom, and i am still alive. Why not just persevere and see how the body feels. Moreover, my dormant trail muscles must still retain memory of my past training. They slowly become activated, and i became to feel at home running on trail. My spirit also began to feel lighter and freer. I have arrived at a mental state I have never been before, and I started to feel stronger.

At about 44km mark, to my surprise, i caught Scott. He must have been shocked to see me, and like a hunted animal, he quickly responded by running faster. I was determined not to lose him again this time. We ran stride for stride for the next 2-3km. Finally we reached a long section of road. This is the last stretch of road leading to the finish line. My undertrained legs eventually decided they have had enough and I finished in 2nd place in 4:39, about 40s behind the winner. We were both under the previous course record of 4:45.

Here is the newspaper article on the race, which briefly described the final 7km battle between Scott and I.

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/news/triathlete-surprises-himself-by-winning-mountain-u/2818716/