Team T.O.U.G.H dnf @ 132km

Alright, I've given myself one whole week for the entire thing to simmer in the back of my mind and slowly settle in. What now seem like a distant memory did actually happen one week ago strating 4:30am. It was a gargantuan task that we looked to conquer. Here's the skyrun as I've experienced.

It was just about 6 months ago, Yang and Wilson were having one of their trademark post training nutrition when they stumbled upon the Mind Alpine Challenge – a 100 mile ultramarathon in the toughest trails of Australia (note the word "toughest"). So Yang had this crazy brainwave and rang me up, basically going "hey Shawn, we found something crazy to do. Wilson and I are going to do the MAC as a team, we want you to join us." Of course, I went all "what?!? Are you serious?" I let that thought linger and linger in my mind, thinking I've got to be hopping mad to attempt something like this without any prior ultra experience. 100 miles in 48 hours would mean we have to move at a constant pace of 4km/h and get 8 hours worth of rest. Might sound easy but here's the catch – we were ascending peaks, mountains if you will. Not just any mountain, the tallest peak in Victoria! Mt Bogong, Mt Feathertop, Mt Loch, Mt Hotham, and lots in between. Vertical distance covered will be approximately 6000m. It was indeed much more than what I would ever fathom putting myself through. So the thought stayed at the back of my mind, tickling my fancy at the oddest hours, but quite dormant on the whole. The summer break arrived and we all went back to Singapore. The 2009 Standard Chartered Marathon was next on our calendar.

Yang pulled his ITB really bad during the SCSM and was forced to walk more than half the course. Still, we finished. On a side note, SCSM has really become some sort of a cliche run that Singaporeans do, just to get their hands on the finisher tee. There is no more challenge in it, and I'm not saying so just because I've done the MAC. At the end of SCSM 2009, I vowed never to participate in another SCSM again for the simple reason that it wasn't a pure sporting event. an 8 hour finish time is nothing to be proud of but you still get a finisher tee anyway. Simply put, the challenge is gone. Back to the story. Yang pulled his right ITB pretty bad and was forced to the sidelines. Meanwhile, Wilson was calling me up and urging me to commit. The plan was to run as a team of 2 with Yang as our team manager. I gave it some thought and finally committed. I really trust Wilson for several reasons. He is a seasoned adventure racer with many big races under his belt. Ironman, Keen, XPD etc. On top of that, he was an ex commando officer. Now you don't get any crazier than that! So I was looking forward to some crazy training that would get my fat ass back in shape since I've put on quite a bit during the winter. We had all of 3 months in Singapore to train and the very first thing Wilson suggested was to get me signed up for MR25 Ultramarathon.

The MR25 – a trail ultramarathon that was unknown to most Singaporeans purely because this was one for running enthusiasts. The goal – to complete at least 5 rounds of MacRitchie in no more than 2 hours per round. My first taste of the trail would end miserably due to inadequate footwear and preparation. My feet were shot with blisters because stupid me was running the trail in Nike Frees. I managed 2 rounds, which was all of 21km. I suppose I should be somewhat happy, I did a half marathon on my virgin trail run.

Things stepped up from there, Wilson was getting me more and more into trail running and I loved it. Nothing beats running with nature in the morning to start your day. I was introduced to Jasmine, who was an international ultramarathoner that trained with Wilson. That's when I found out that she was one half of the women's team. The other half, Yihui, would come from the Singapore Women's Everest Team. Yes you read it right. It was one of the girls that have conquered Everest. As you can see, I was in deep shit with zero experience training alongside 3 seasoned athletes. Training was to intensify with Wilson planning a steep mileage programme. It was to start with a 20km Friday night run at 10pm followed by a 30km Saturday morning run at 6am, all aimed to train us to cope with sleep deprivation and night vision. This programme tapered upwards weekly to 40km runs, then 50km runs etc. All this and more as we had stair climbing sessions in the middle of the week! First we conquered Duxton Plains. Yup, all 50 storeys with 5kg full pack, 4 times. Then we managed to sneak into the stairwell of Republic Plaza and did that twice. And then there were gym sessions as well. As you can probably tell, I was burn out most of the time, because while I can take the gym sessions and stairs, the runs always leave me gutted and before you know it, the weekly cycle is complete and we started on the next. My greatest achievement in Singapore was a 7 hour 50km trail run, period. I was doing a marathon every week and I was really burnt out!

It was time to come back to Australia. Moving had to be done as I've got a new place and lots of new stuff needed to be bought. In the 2 weeks upon returning, I have essentially done almost zero training. It wasn't good and I felt the fitness that I had so painstakingly built up over the last months going down the drain. I feebly started 7km runs with pack. For stairs Wilson suggested the 1000 steps of Dandenong. To its credit, it was the most magnificent trail climb I've ever seen. I love the Dandenongs and I've been up the steps a few more times after that and many more to come I'm sure. Exactly one week to race day and we were scrambling because 2 of the original support crew suddenly had to pull out and we had to reorganize fast. Kudos to Brendan Hills for efficiently organising our support! With everything settled all we had left to do was to make it to Bogong Village.

We arrived on the Friday afternoon prior to the 4:30am start on Saturday and I got a first glimpse of the kind of people we were up against. They were all really fit looking Aussies! During the race briefing, Paul Ashton, the race director, acknowledged us as the only internationals for this year's race. Singapore had sent 2 teams and all 4 of us were hoping to do Singapore proud.

Final preparations that night was frantic for the girls, while the guys took it easy and went to sleep at 10pm. We awakened at 3am in time for a hearty breakfast and lots of photos. I had a surprise visit from Ellis, who came up to support me! We were pretty pumped heading down to the start line. This was going to be a good race.

Flag off. TOUGH was going strong hanging with the leader pack. We powered up Spione and were soon up in the high plains. We were on of the first to reach the first checkpoint at Warby Corner, where our support Brendan and Ashley were waiting for us. We pushed on again after a 10 minute break on the Bogong loop. The path up Mt Bogong was long and arduous, but the view at the top more than made up for the climb. It was spectacular. We pushed on and was back at Warby Corner before 5pm. That was a marathon distance loop. We had our delicious cup noodles at Warby and headed towards Langfords Gap where the full crew was waiting. Upon arrival at Langfords I experienced first hand the kind of support crew Wilson was raving about. As we came in, they came out and took our packs off. We were ushered to individual chairs and our shoes removed. Each were given a jacket to keep warm and a bowl of soup and hot chocolate were shoved at us instantaneously. Man, I felt like a king. A hot meal came shortly after as we got some rest before the final push of the day. We left Langfords Gap at 6:45pm and headed toward the iconic Pole 333, afterwhich we continued up to Mt Loch where our crew would be waiting with our dinner and sleeping tents. The climb up Mt Loch was horrible to say the least. I was dead tired and the climb went on forever. The winds on the top of Mt Loch was epic, so strong that it can actually blow you away. We were cold, tired, and miserable. Looking forward to just getting into the tent and getting some shut eye. We found the crew at 12:45am, got into the tents and out of the cold. Dinner was served and we got 3 hours of sleep. Waking up was going to be a bitch.

4:30am Sunday. Brendan woke us up and Yang gave us some breakfast. I took my first out field shit since 2 years ago in the army. But then again taking a dump in 100km/h winds was nothing like the mild nature of Lorong Asrama. We set off a little after 5am towards Harrietville, the only checkpoint that was an actual town. We arrived at 9:45am with me limping slightly, favouring my left knee. We had our 2nd breakfast there before our ascend to Mt Feathertop. As you can see, we were pretty well fed! But then again, we were suffering from runner's brain. To quote Paul Ashton – "runner's brain is no brain at all". Halfway up Feathertop my knee was starting to act up pretty bad. It would hurt when I stop, so I had to keep moving. Unfortunately my fitness level did not allow me to keep moving, so the struggle was there. Getting up Mt Feathertop was an experience on its own! It was really rocky and steep so one misstep would mean certain death. However, like Bogong, the reward came in the form of a stunning view. We were off Feathertop and heading down Diamantina Spur by 2:45pm. That was when the twist of fate occured. My right knee started acting up really bad all of a sudden, leaving me essentially legless. The Diamantina spur was described in the course notes as steep and some bashing required. It wasn't lying. In fact, lots of bashing was required! Imagine my agony going down the spur when I could not place any weight on either knee. A 2 hour descend stretched to 6 hours as I slowly inched my way down. We were literally going at 1.5km/h. Wilson found me 2 tree branches for me to support myself. When we finally hit the bottom it was well dark. We still had a cut-off timing to meet. We had to get to Pole 333 by 12am and it was 8:30pm. We were 4km away from Pole 333 and were racing to meet the cut-off and embark on the final leg to Bogong Village. I was pretty stoked by then, even with 2 bad knees. We proceeded to climb the trail to Weston hut which was a really steep climb. I remember going pretty strong until I decided I needed a break. Within a minute, I was shivering uncontrollably and starting to lose lots of body heat. Wilson pulled me off the trail and started a fire to warm me up. I was nearing Hypothermia and my legs just wouldn't go anymore. After 132km I was just a wreck. Team TOUGH called it quits there and then. It was 9:21pm. We would have made the cut-off. Till today I still feel really sorry not being able to carry on. Wilson was nice enough to stay with me, but I sense deep down inside that he was quite disappointed. I was rescued by the race director at 4am, which made up for half my race fee I reckon.

And so my Bogong experience came to an end. Was I disappointed? Yes. I would very much like to have completed the race, but I am proud of what I have accomplished. 132km for a total noob is no mean feat. I've hung with the best of them, and I've forged friendships that would last a lifetime. The Mind Alpine Challenge ranks top on my list of greatest moments in Australia, for now, and I'm sure many years to come.




... that is till I complete it next year. Hmmm... let the thought simmer Shawn, let it simmer.