20km Trail Run
I was pretty much psyched up for this run for the past couple of days. Kinda worried cause I was fighting a slight flu, cough and fever as well. Fortunately, today I felt much better, not 100% for sure but good enough to go.
The target was to complete 20km (16km+ pure trail); I made up the route but using partial of what we did last week and adding Woodcutter's Trail, a much lesser known trail. This time, I wanted to make a route which allows us to do a true loop, meaning starting and ending at the same point without going through the same route again. The usual suspects included JvM, JM and me.....we set to meet at 6am, Venus Drive.
At 5am, I received a message from JM that he is still not well and hence not able to join this epic run. Met JvM at Venus drive and we set off with our lights. As before, the night run was exhilarating. Good thing he still remembered the route as I was a bit blur at the time. Funny thing was here we were running with our lights in pitch darkness and there suddenly 2 guys appeared running in the opposite direction....without lights! Amazing. Before we know it, we were out into Rifle Range road, about 5km from our start point.
Exiting Rifle Range into the trail was were the terrible muddy terrain started. It poured yesterday and it was a generous pour that ran late into the evening. Our pace dropped a lot just trying to find ways to go across the muddy areas. Countless times, the mud simply stuck my shoe to the ground as I lifted my feet! Then into Zhenghua park and soon Chestnut Avenue. The trail leading up to Woodcutters is here. Further down there is trail turn with a huge red warning sign "Danger : Live Firing Area"..this sign blocks the entrance to Woodcutter's and this is where we have to go.
The initial Macritchie trail was bliss compared to this. It was super muddy at points which hampered our pace. We had to double back one time which slowed us down a lot as we went through some super muddy sticky terrain. I was constantly worried about getting lost so I had my GPS phone on one hand and water in the other. A big mistake as this worry probably contributed to me losing my concentration when JvM upped the pace mid-way through the trail and I inadvertently kicked a root and fell. Survived with bruises. I never learn! Fortunately, nothing too serious although my left leg was partially covered with blood from the the knee bruise, I was good to continue. Along the way a group of 3 runners passed us from behind (TNF guys?) and also a lot of MTB coming in the opposite direction. Its a really challenging route for MTB....probably more bike-carrying that riding!
Ahh...finally punched through into Old Upper Thomson Road and JvM still looked plenty fresh while I was almost there. Legs were aching, panting etc. You name it. I called on him to stop and walk for a while which he kindly obliged so that I could catch my breath and recover a bit. I followed his 6:30min/km pace for the last 2km. I was SO GLAD to see my car!
Strangely the total run was clocked at 19.5km while on the map it registered 20.5km. Did the entire course in slightly under 2hr 53mins or so....not too bad I think! Its probably more than a half-marathon for me!
Post run : Remnants of my fall (left knee) and my home made calf compression sleeves. I must say its pretty comfy for running (I used another one for the run, need to wash)....basically its just an old sock! I simply cut of the toes part and slipped it on way through. Looks like I can save 50 bucks as I was looking to buy one actually...currently using it for recovery. I almost always get calf soreness for 3-4 days after this kind of effort!
The target was to complete 20km (16km+ pure trail); I made up the route but using partial of what we did last week and adding Woodcutter's Trail, a much lesser known trail. This time, I wanted to make a route which allows us to do a true loop, meaning starting and ending at the same point without going through the same route again. The usual suspects included JvM, JM and me.....we set to meet at 6am, Venus Drive.
At 5am, I received a message from JM that he is still not well and hence not able to join this epic run. Met JvM at Venus drive and we set off with our lights. As before, the night run was exhilarating. Good thing he still remembered the route as I was a bit blur at the time. Funny thing was here we were running with our lights in pitch darkness and there suddenly 2 guys appeared running in the opposite direction....without lights! Amazing. Before we know it, we were out into Rifle Range road, about 5km from our start point.
Exiting Rifle Range into the trail was were the terrible muddy terrain started. It poured yesterday and it was a generous pour that ran late into the evening. Our pace dropped a lot just trying to find ways to go across the muddy areas. Countless times, the mud simply stuck my shoe to the ground as I lifted my feet! Then into Zhenghua park and soon Chestnut Avenue. The trail leading up to Woodcutters is here. Further down there is trail turn with a huge red warning sign "Danger : Live Firing Area"..this sign blocks the entrance to Woodcutter's and this is where we have to go.
The initial Macritchie trail was bliss compared to this. It was super muddy at points which hampered our pace. We had to double back one time which slowed us down a lot as we went through some super muddy sticky terrain. I was constantly worried about getting lost so I had my GPS phone on one hand and water in the other. A big mistake as this worry probably contributed to me losing my concentration when JvM upped the pace mid-way through the trail and I inadvertently kicked a root and fell. Survived with bruises. I never learn! Fortunately, nothing too serious although my left leg was partially covered with blood from the the knee bruise, I was good to continue. Along the way a group of 3 runners passed us from behind (TNF guys?) and also a lot of MTB coming in the opposite direction. Its a really challenging route for MTB....probably more bike-carrying that riding!
Ahh...finally punched through into Old Upper Thomson Road and JvM still looked plenty fresh while I was almost there. Legs were aching, panting etc. You name it. I called on him to stop and walk for a while which he kindly obliged so that I could catch my breath and recover a bit. I followed his 6:30min/km pace for the last 2km. I was SO GLAD to see my car!
Strangely the total run was clocked at 19.5km while on the map it registered 20.5km. Did the entire course in slightly under 2hr 53mins or so....not too bad I think! Its probably more than a half-marathon for me!
The 20km loop as above....notice the portion early on at Woodcutter's where we doubled back.
Post run : Remnants of my fall (left knee) and my home made calf compression sleeves. I must say its pretty comfy for running (I used another one for the run, need to wash)....basically its just an old sock! I simply cut of the toes part and slipped it on way through. Looks like I can save 50 bucks as I was looking to buy one actually...currently using it for recovery. I almost always get calf soreness for 3-4 days after this kind of effort!
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