I was thrilled, as I sat aching and wincing on Sunday night
while shovelling celebratory pizza into my mouth, to discover that 50km –
despite being just 8km longer than a normal marathon – officially counts as an ultramarathon. Which quite simply
sounds much more exciting.
And so, around 3 hours before, I had become an
ultramarathoneer.
All the running that gets referenced in this blog has
actually been building up to something. Sometime in July, I read through the
fug of a hangover and stifling morning heat in the Sunday paper about the vogue
for 50km+ races in HK. Feeling disgusted with how gross I felt, I immediately
found the first one I could see and signed up without thinking too hard about
it. But since then, the early mornings and hours of pounding trail had been
building up to Sunday.
I knew, as I limbered up with my bleary eyed band of supporters
(thanks to Cathy, Trevor and Claire for trogging all the way to the Peak at
630am) near the start that I was fit enough to finish; bit I had zero idea how
I’d actually react on the day, when the trail was clogged with 900 other
runners, ad I’d need to scale 8000 feet in total. The longest proper run I’d
done in training was about 40km, but with much less hill than that, on usually
deserted routes.
I won’t run (haha) you through a blow by blow account…but
here are a few morsels:
Piece of advice – if you
ever do such a thing, try to keep your footing. It tends to help. I fell no
less than 5 times on trail, the first just 6km in, with almost disastrous
consequences. I actually managed to trip so hard I fell off the side of the trail head first and began plummeting down a
slope. I caught onto a tree with arm and clung on until an incredibly strong
fellow runner bodily dragged me back up. This cut both my legs and my arms,
broke one of my shoes and wrenched my thigh. The next 4 were less dramatic but
hurt a great deal…and by the end my shoe was audibly flap-flap-flapping with
every step as the sole started to come away. Something to avoid for the
aspiring long distance runner.
Podcasts on trail are
a treat. But can lead to odd moments. One of my favourite bits of training
was saving up some juicy comedy, news, documentary and history podcasts to
entertain myself with while out for hours on end. For this run, I hoped these
would help keep me sane and distracted from the pain. Instead, it led to
several runners asking if I was OK around 25km mark, as I looked in great
distress…whereas in fact I was hiding behind my sunglasses trying not to shed a
tear at a very affecting radio play. And I had a bit of an out of body moment
as I leant on a tree at 37km in, breath ragged, halfway up a steep mountain
scrambling path, looking out towards China, while listening to Melvyn Bragg
explain the evolution of the Book of Common Prayer. Not sure those things have
ever come together before.
No matter your
achievement, there’s always someone else to admire much more. As I came off
the last hill at 45km, dog tired and almost done in, I knew I was on the home
stretch. But only got the will up to run those last 5km when a man who must
have been in his 60s saw me coming, and began to run to stay out of my way. I
had to run and tuck in behind him to save face, but in the last 200m, he
accelerated away as if he hadn’t a care in the world. That, and the fact that
the over 50s winner beat me by an hour and a half; and the overall winner beat
me by almost three; put things in relief.
Nonetheless, 7hrs 58 and 119th place is fine for
me thank you very much. And even as I winced in the arm chair, pepperoni slice
in hand, I found myself googling when the next one might be. 50km in Sai Kung
in March, you say? 3 big mountains on the way? Interesting…
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