Trail running training day 57

It's useless to learn something but not put into practice. It's also useless to practice but not test it. 

It's been a month since I took up trail running. It's been training, training, and more training. So on the 57th day of my 60 days training, I entered King of Kemensah Trail Running Competition. This is the third edition of the competition. The event was organised by Team Pacat in collaboration with numerous  sponsors, state government and local community. 

Since this is my first trail run competition, I signed up for 18km category. Yeah, its far from my objective of 50km but I think this is a good start. 

I'm quite familiar with the starting point of the race at Kg Kemensah but I never tried the track used for the competition. At least I got a good idea of the starting point so I am less worried about being there on time at 6.15 in the morning. I used different track when I was at Kemensah few weeks back. The trail is shorter but harder. The track used for the competition is somehow bigger and 'easier' (of course easy is a subjective concept). The pressure is on the cut off time. I need to finish off the race within 4 hours 30 minutes. This cut off time is not something that I train before. In training, I just run without systematically calculating the distance and time taken to complete that distance. 

The event was well organised. The support system is good. Nothing much to complain. Maybe the parking is quite limited but there is nothing that the organiser can do about it considering the condition of the place of event.

I really enjoy the competition. When I arrived at the checkpoint of 7.5km, my body is still in a good shape. I maintain my pace thought out the race. My strategy is simple, when its ascending, I hike. When vertical I run. When descending, I run faster. Whenever I caught my self gasping for air, I know that I am pushing my self out of my normal pace and I need to stop, regularise my breathing back to normal and run at my normal pace. These has been put into my training for the past one month. This competition serves as a test whether I can implement those training under pressure of a competition. At the end, you are a summary of all your training. If you don't practice, it will show during the competition.

This event was the first time that I used power gel. It works but tasted awful. However, it requires some time to be effective so don't expect immediate impact on your energy level. 

My favourite stage at the event when we need to cross the river. Your shoes may be wet but you can take the opportunity to 'freshen up'. I am fresher after that stage of the race. Anyway, what's refresh you more that the sound of the river deep in the jungle. 

These are what I like when I first took up trail running. The nature, the adventure, the pain, and I need to push my self to the limit. I need to train not only my body to endure the pain, but I also need to strengthen my mind/my will power to keep me pushing forward. In fact, it is my mind who will tell my legs to keep moving. It's my will power that serves as my main cheerleader, motivates me to keep pushing forward. 

My sense of adventure and love for nature makes trail running as an easy choice for me. Despite being a daredevil my self, doing something that I love doing.

I love to LIVE FREE, RUNNING WILD.