I may not be the Fastest, Talented, or Fittest, but I think I may be one of the more determined sane nuts to participate in this 100 Miles Challenge 2020 (Virtual Edition)
The journey began on 12 Oct 2020 and the participants were given 35 days to complete this challenge. Some powerhouses completed their distances within a go, but the majority completed or will be completing it by installments. I belonged to the second category.
My principal consideration for this challenge is that my participation must not impact my working hour, family time or event the time that I need to perform any other essential tasks. And it would seem that only time that I could afford to sacrifice is ......... my non-sleeping hours.
And here I go, carried out with my plan as if it is a military operation order, waking up at the wee hour every morning (about 4 am+) and attempted to clock back-to-back 10 km+ runs for 2 weeks or more.
Doing Back-to-Backs runs are very psychically exhausting, on Day 11, I noticed that I could no longer carry on with this regime and had to take that morning off for a quick active recovery session. Thankfully, I was about to recover quick enough to clock more mileages on the same evening and the remaining days.
Everyday, I ran by feel, adapted myself to the runs and ran further. For a good 13 days since 12 Oct, I have accumulated enough mileages to be qualified as a finisher. On 24 Oct, the 100 miles challenge Race Director emailed to inform that he had verified my running logs and Congratulated me for a job well done. I am so proud that I was able to complete this event.
SOME REFLECTIONS
Succeed to Plan, and Plan to Succeed, Adjustment to the Plan is a Continuous Process
My original plan was to complete this challenge within 16 days (i.e. running ~10 km daily). Subsequently, I decided to stretch it and try to complete the event within 2 weeks (i.e. 11.5km or more mileages on the weekends. This would means that I would need to cock an additional 10 kms on the weekends to accumulate 80 km weekly mileages.
Establishing Self-Awareness and Self-Discipline
Running back-to-back daily is no simple affair for the average Joe as it is rather demanding physically and mentally. This was made worst as I did not train as much as previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Slowly down is also and important step in order to preserve energy to the new few runs too. On days that I think i can run faster, I kept reminded myself to slow down as any foolish now will jeopardise my mission.
Also, I took really good care of myself for the weeks leading to the event. This was in hope that I will not fall sick before or during the event. Some of the care include (1) sleeping earlier than usual in order to wake up on time for runs, (2) slow down to a comfortable pace in order to sustain for my subsequent runs, (2) took multi-vitamins and anti-inflammatory supplements (such as Omega-3) as a form of precautionary measures.
Remember to Draw Inspiration from Social Media during this COVID-19 Pandemic
Without seeing and communicating with real participants, this event became a fairly boring and quiet challenge. I missed the cheering from the volunteers at the aid stations and the passions from the fellow ultra-runners. Now, the only place that kept me going is the Strava "100 Miles Challenge Group" that was created to track the participants' progress. And seeing these crazy elites completing 100 miles in a go (or 2) truly amazed me, it also inspired me to continue to persist on no doubt that I am just the average "Simon".
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