The North Face 100

Running 25km off-road felt so much longer than 25km on road. Trail run is a different challenge altogether. On the road, it's flat. But on the trail, it's up down left right and you need to jump or hop up down left right. In a way, it's more fun and definitely more challenging. Legs no doubt feel more tired, especially the ankle. Used a lot of muscles used to balance and not slip and fall when it comes to running down hills. You need to have sharp eyes knowing where to step and where to avoid cause otherwise, splat!

Been enjoying trail run in Gasing, Gunung Nuang and FRIM not forgetting Negeri Sembilan mountain circuit challenge earlier on.

Last week had a good experience in The North Face 100 in Singapore. Drove down with Michelle, Debbie and Kenny. Luckily changed car tyres just before our trip as we could have been stranded with flat tyres halfway down.

Had our tummy pit stop in Tangkak, savouring their famous beef noodles! Sorry I forgot to snap pix of the delicious noodles. :P

We met Yip, ShihMing and San at Marina Square collecting race kits.
Yip in the 100km solo category whereas all of us doing 50km duo, meaning 25km each.
Duo is a team category. I partner with Michelle and our team name - cRAzY toMEI

Initially I was thinking of doing 50km in the 100km duo but thank God I didn't! I've not ran longer than a marathon on the road so I'm not going to try 50km trail run. Not yet!

Carbo loading dinner was somewhere in Bedok near Ming & Chris's beautiful home. We stayed at their place that weekend. I am already missing their 2 lovely adorable friendly mini schnauzer and australian silk terrier. Very cute and playful.

Our 50km duo flag off time was 10am so no need to wake up early and we even had roti prata breakfast. Reaching McRitchie park, the 100km solo and duo runners have most likely reached their halfway points. We started slowly, slow jog the first 2-3km. Having managed to zig zag our way through the crowd, we set a 6minute pace steadily till halfway check point. From then on, heat from the glaring sun slowed us down as certain parts of the race was on tar road and open fields with no shade! Imagine that!

I didn't push myself cause I seriously couldn't. Still nursing a calf-shin splint injury. The 2XU compression socks helped and softer trail impact didn't cause any pain, just tightness below the calf. But if I was running on the road, 5km and that's it... pain.

So I was glad able to finish the 25km together with Michelle. At first, we target 2:30. It changed to 2:45 from halfway check point. Didn't end there either. She did 2:54 last year so we targeted her PB...2:53 will do. But this year, the condition was way different. Hotter, more humid. True enough, every time I filled up my bottle, half of it was not for drinking but spraying to cool down.

Although Michelle's legs were not complaining, breathing was a different ball game, like fish out of water. Nope, that meant PB didn't work out and with 5km to go, a sub3 will do. But that failed as well. Reaching the lake with 1km to go, our time hit 2:59. Bye bye sub3. What the heck, we'll just finish it. She just wanted to find some place to lie down...and cool down!

Crossed the finish line hand in hand at 3:04

Life saver Lynette was waiting for us with frozen icicles. She's an angel!