Fifty Under The Sun

The weather this morning was simply beautiful for running. The rains the past couple of days shrouded the place (well, my place anyway) with a layer of mist and running whilst shrouded by mist all around you simply puts you in a dreamlike state. Which probably explains why I wanted to pull the covers over my head and sleep the cool and cozy morning away.

It does't help when the wife is tucked dreamily under the sheets sleeping and my dog jumps on the bed and plants herself between the wife and me under the sheets and continues snoozing away. That's when all my lazy genes in me just cries out 'to hell with your run, just sleep in la!'. But it's a good thing the wife woke up and kicked my lazy butt out of bed cos otherwise I would have really missed the beautiful running weather outside.

In about 3 days time I'll be attempting the Putrajaya 50km (P50K), an unofficial, small scale run. Organized by the Pacat Adventure Team, a bunch of hardcore ultra fellows to give ultra wannabe pretenders like me a chance to feel the torture of a 50k run around the very hot, humid and almost devoid of shade Putrajaya area. Which is why I'm praying for weather like this morning.


The run starts at 7am and ends at 4pm and the temperatures would start soaring way before noon. I'll probably finish the run looking darker than a golliwog! While this run isn't really a race, it's more of a self-sustaining LSD, albeit with water and aid stations, there still is a cutoff time of 9 hours attached to it. If you're not back by then, you'll be shamefully picked up and dumped back at the finish and made to squat in an open field and have insults and rotten eggs hurled at you by these hardcore ultra fellows and then made to sweep a one kilometer stretch of Putrajaya on your own.

Okay, maybe I made that last part up but the 9 hour cutoff time is true. My training hasn't really stopped since the Standard Chartered KL Marathon, in fact I've upped the weekly mileage quite a bit but even then I'm not really too sure if I have what it takes for the P50K. I'm going to be doing this on my own without the company of two people I look up to and it's going to be a mental thing all through the 50K, that is if I don't take the chicken exit, catered for ... urmmm ... chickens who can't hack it. Yes, they really do have a 'chicken exit' along the route.

A lot of preparation need to be done for the P50K and I haven't even got down to doing anything yet. I've yet to study the route, in fact I have no idea what the route is like save for a few sections. I don't know where we'll be running and it's important to actually be familiar with the route cos the number of people running this is very low, this being a limited number of participants event and there'll probably be times when I'm unable to follow these runners and be on my own. Not knowing the route is not an option. I don't want to end up in Sabak Bernam or something.

My gear, hydration and fueling needs still need to be looked into as I'm using this event to gauge what I would need for next's years TITI 50K road race, yes I've signed up for another equally grueling 50k next year. That's probably even worse but we'll leave that for another blog post. Maybe I should just stick to 10k races, so much less things to prepare.

Next year's race calendar has more or less been planned, the main ones anyway. I don't intend to take part in many races next year cos the ones I'm targeting are already going to cost a lot just to take part in. I can't afford to be running every single race that crops up. A lot more emphasis will be put on training and really, really long runs on both the roads and trails. I'm just hoping no downtime (or at least not too much anyway) from injuries or sickness will arise to ruin my plans.

Comments

  1. Awaiting ur post 50k report. Good luck. Hehe

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    1. Hey, I know you. You're my ex-friend ... hahaha! What la you, leave me alone to run this. The report will be full of suffering, that's for sure :D

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    2. sorites, capn... Super Q will be attempting 2 marathons in a day sometime in the future or something like that, right? :P

      all the best and just keep moving your legs, be it run, walk or crawl! :)

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    3. Yvonne, I'll make sure he does that 2 marathons in one day for abandoning me ... hahaha!

      My strategy for Saturday is to run at first, then walk and finally crawl across the finish ... hahaha! God help me!

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