My first century. Wow, what an experience I can tell you. The race is Titi100, starting from Hulu Langat, we’ll traverse by foot for 100km through the hilly terrain of Genting Peres and through a town called Kg. Chennah then back to Hulu Langat again. The event was organized by Jeff Ooi, Allan Lee and Cally. There were 2 categories for Titi100: the 50km (9 hours cutoff) and 100km (18 hours cutoff). Don’t even ask me why I signed up for the 100km. I have no idea too 🙂

I wasn’t well prepared for this race mentally and physically. Nov and Dec 2013 I battled with injuries and chicken pox which had me sidelined for most of the 2 months. Jan 2014 I raced Watergate 16hrs which saw me walking for 40k out of 55k. Confidence was at rock bottom. Training for Titi I did a 42k LSD once, but otherwise the training wasn’t consistent enough for me to feel good about this race.

The weekend prior to Titi, Kevin Lau and I recced the route. My mind formed a game plan of walking up the 4 big hills while conserving my energy for a big push at 40-60k, the flattest part of the entire route.

The race started at 4pm in a sweltering 39 deg. Celsius heat. Heat was never much of a problem for me, but I did struggle that day. 3k in we met the first of 4 major hills and I stuck to my game plan of walking the hill. That hill wasn’t giving me a hard time as my legs were still fresh. Once I’ve reached the peak, things got rolling and I started to run down hill. It all still feels good at this point. The heat obviously took a toll on many as their pace reduced to almost a slow walk while going downhill.

Reached CP1 (9k) and Wai Yee immediately offered me drinks and food, but I told her a hug will do for now. Yim was there too, and offered words of encouragement by reminding us that the sun will be gone in another 1 hour and asked us to persevere on.  The 5.5k to CP2 was mostly flat, but I couldn’t run it. Legs just felt too heavy after stopping at CP1 so I walked with some light jogging in between. All sorts of negative thoughts came to me, how am I going to finish a 100k when I’m struggling at 10k?

Dragged myself to  CP2 (14.5k) and a volunteer, while refilling my bottle, accidentally spilled the drink right onto my shoes. Soggy socks and shoes are never good for long distance and I thought to myself, how can this get any worst? CP 2 – CP 3 was the 2nd major hill climb, 10km of uphill. I walked and walked and walked. There were a bunch of runners who were cursing the hills as I passed them. My thinking, you don’t blame the terrain in ultra, accept it and have a strategy to tackle it if you’re not strong at hills.

Met Hong Lan half way, and I told her very solemnly that I’ve hit the wall and things aren’t going so well. At 21k, the weather suddenly turned from hot to extremely windy. Someone’s prayer must’ve been answered I thought. Yim drove by and asked if I had a jacket and to start wearing it, coz it’s going to start pouring soon. Sure enough the rain came.

I checked into CP3 (25k) in soggy clothes. Tey was there and took photos of us but not before he asked us to turn off our headlamps, or we’ll look like Guan Yin Ma in his photos, haha. It dawned on me too that perhaps my bonking in the previous CP was due to my nutrition. So from here on, I started to monitor my food intake and made sure that I consume few slices of watermelon, oranges and banana at every CP.

Journey to CP4 was nothing but a pitch dark route accompanied by a full moon above us. It felt like a horror movie scene with fog raising from the ground. Very scary. I ran this entire route alone for almost an hour and a few times I had to look back to be assured that I wasn’t lost and there are other runners behind me. Tackling a night run is never easy, you can’t judge the elevation from a distance and you won’t know which direction the road is bending to until you’re near enough. And with the darkness playing tricks in your head, it gets really daunting.

Reached CP4 (36.5k) and saw Jeff Ooi, who asked if my legs are ok due to my previous injury and reminded me that I checked into CP4 in 5:30 so I was in good time. This CP was manned by Marlina and we shared a joke about bring nails to ward off any potential vampires along the route, hehe! After CP4 was where my game plan kicked into action, I started to push and ran through the flat route. Mid way I met with Frank and Susanah. Susanah had a bit of pain on her ankle and needed to slow down. Had a quick light hearted joke session with them and continued on.

Around 45k I entered into Kg Chennah and this was the most memorable part of the journey. From afar I could see the volunteers waving at us. But directly in front of me, I saw something that looked like dogs or goats in the middle of the road. It was completely dark so I aimed my headlamp at them and to my surprise I saw a bunch of 4-5 kids running around ready to give me high fives. In my mind I thought, “am I hallucinating? Kids in the middle of nowhere at 10pm?”. One kid in a green Angry Bird shirt starting jumping when I got near him so he could clap my hand. I asked him to run with me… and he said “OK!” We ran together about 100m and I asked him “adik ni anak siapa?” thinking he’s one of the volunteer’s kids. His reply “saya anak anak”. Kids really say the darnest things, lol. Going through the village, everytime I pass by a coffeeshop, the village folk will stand up and cheer me. I blew kisses to ladies sitting in front of a mosque preoccupied with their own chit chat session and they clapped me on. Village people are the best and super supportive based on my experience in TMBT and now Titi.

Checked into CP5 (48k) at around 7 hours. This checkpoint was considered the ‘mid point’ where our drop bag was located and we change to fresh gears and refuel. There Suzie Widyawati was waiting for us. Although she had her hands full with helping all the tired runners, she made it a point to get my bag, food and water. Even made me a cup noodle and asked how am I! Appreciate it so much.  Before I left I thanked her and told her that her husband, Arman Arshad (also running 100k) is coming and just behind. Changed to a fresh pair of socks and shirt and left CP5 with Yik Yee and Alan Lau, 2 buddies from my running group after stopping about 30 mins.

The route from CP5 – CP7 was a boring stretch and completely lonely. I was thankful to have tagged along with both my friends for this route. WaiHong came with his car and followed us for about an hour at 50k. We walked mostly with some light jogs in between. I knew early on, this part of the race will be the toughest for me as its around 1am, and my body clock would keep telling me to doze off based on my experience from night races. Many times I felt like hopping into WaiHong’s car and just sleep. But we kept on going and soon enough we arrived at CP6 (56k). This station was manned by Khairi Muin and he encouraged us to keep moving forward and don’t stop.

Reached CP 7 (63.5k) with 2 hours to spare from cutoff. Marlina’s husband Zaini came and asked us what we wanted for drinks. In my completely dazed state I replied I wanted lemonade or beer. Bemused he asked again and I said Coke will do.  I walked over to Marlina and told her that the Jason that checked into CP4, four hours earlier was a different Jason than this. My mind was in a battle with itself. Yim overheard the conversation and told me that I’m talking nonsense now. We shared a light joke and moved on our way. The journey to CP8 was a steep and long hill climb (the 3rd hill), but we couldn’t judge if we could run it because its so dark. We decided to walk whenever there’s an uphill and run whenever there’s a downhill. Alan Lau who is strong on hills went ahead of us, so its back to Yik Yee and myself to fend for our tired minds.

Checked into CP8 (75k) with an hour to spare before the cutoff. A little panic started to set in for us as we have lost 1 hour from CP 7- CP 8. We quickly calculated and realized that if we continue at this pace we might even miss the cutoff to CP9 or saved by grace in a matter of 10 minutes. Luckily this was mostly a downhill run so we ran most of the way. CP8 was also the u-turn point for the 50k runners and the route didn’t feel as boring as before with the larger number of runners now. We met Weng Woo and he updated us on the status on our friends. Sad to hear a few have decided to DNF. As we left the CP, an alarming trend started to become obvious to me. Quite a number of 50k runners did not have any headlamps on or blinkers. They were running completely in the dark!! I wonder why would they risk their lives running in the dark in a new route. Just to save RM 100 and land yourself with a bigger medical bill? Silly.

On the way down, Yik Yee and I decided to use a method of pacing each other while running downhill, one of us will lead the pace and when he’s tired the other person will swap and lead instead. This worked well for us, until one point when I was leading, I lost Yik Yee. Not sure what happened, I waited for a few minutes before deciding to continue.

It was when I’m going down this stretch (about 83k point) that I start to feel really strong again, my legs started to feel better as I kept going. Rather than keeping the cutoff for each checkpoint close, I decided to push the pace a little. Panicking about cutoff is the last thing I want in my mind, so a little timing buffer is always a good thing when our mind is tired at the later stages of an ultra. Somewhere while running down I bumped into my training buddy Kevin Lau for the first time since flagoff. He looked tired and I asked if he’s ok, he said his legs are painful but he’ll walk to finish. His positive response gave me hope that he will go all the way. I asked him not to give up and continued on.

Reached CP 9 (85.5k) with 45 mins to spare. Quickly refueled and went on my way. No point stopping for long since my momentum had started to pick up. Journey from CP 9 – CP 10 was mostly flat with some small hilly bumps. Ran most of it. Also at this point I remember what Wai Yee said to me when I went to CP 1 the day before… “I’ll see you the next morning”. Pumped up, excited I went all the way.

Arrived CP 10 (91k) with 1 hour to spare. I knew then that I had made time and could finish well within the cutoff. As promised Wai Yee was there. Refueled and quickly went up the last hill for the race. By that point my adrenaline was pumping, I wanted the race to end soon, 9 km was what separated me from the finish. There were people cheering us on along the road and as I was about to exit the last hill I saw Soon Chung, who was there to photograph us! I asked him about the status of my friends and got updates on Frank and Susanah (which I had no update since CP 5) that they just clocked into CP 9 in time. All my other friends whom I ran with at some point in the night are just a little behind me. Really happy and I knew they will all make it to the finish.

In the final few kms, I came to a realization that I am about to finish my 100k and what started as a struggle, ended with an almost perfect race strategy. Made the final left turn and I saw so many familiar faces waiting for us: Razif, Hong Lan, Jamie, Wai Yee Nick, Khairi Muin, Allen Lee. Some of them just finished their 50k and stayed back to see us finish, I’m touched by this. Hong Lan shouted something as I crossed the line which made me chuckle: “I thought you hit the wall at 20k and still finish 100k!!”. Surprisingly I wasn’t as tired as I was at the earlier stages of the race. I finished with a time of 16 hrs and 30 mins. Overall a good weekend for ultra running. Learning point from this race: sometimes you may feel like giving up (especially the early stages), but persevere a little and you’ll never know how far your body can take you.

Some credits:

Jeff, Allan and Cally: for the well organized race. I didn’t meet with any hiccup along the way, hydration, food and support plenty. The volunteers were very courteous and kind to all runners. Also being in the course and talking to us really pushed me on to finish the race. Thanks!

Yim: special thanks to you for motivating me along the way. I think I met you the most among all the other volunteers. And your advise came at the right time at CP 7 and it got me through the race. Thanks!

Hong Lan: busy bee came early to take pic for us and still manage to run a 50k and finish top 10. Thanks for motivating me and congrats!

Wai Hong: who made it to the race site met us. I’m really grateful and I felt the journey he took to visit us and back is longer than the time he could spend with us. Thanks bro!

Tey, Wai Yee, Marlina, Zaini, Khairi, Suzie, Weng Woo, Uncle Kelvin Ng: every CP I look forward to seeing your faces and you kept me going. Thanks!

My LYNR and Subang kakis: thank you for believing in me when I’m at my low point before the race.

Saucony Malaysia: for the pair of Mirage 3 that I’ve used  to complete my first 100k race and chase those hills.

***All photos credit to their respective photographers