TNF100 Camsur 2011: My First Trail Ultrawalkathon err, Ultramarathon (Part 1 of 2)

Getting jittery before the race

It was the height of naivety.

First, I never did a trail run. I am a road runner. Second, while the endurance of my first road ultramarathon helped me with the endurance and all that, a trail ultramarathon is far different. And last, what the hell was I thinking?

I did finish it though. It was not a strong finish. But it was a good one. 

With Roch before racestart

TNF100 was supposed to be my break into ultramarathoning. But as luck would have it, Mayon 360 came around calling. I remember likening TNF100 as the main course and the Mayon 360 as just the appetizer. I could go without the appetizer but still went with it anyway. I was almost in taper mode after the run in Albay with 21 kms as the farthest I have run. That was for a month! I basically slept my way to the start line.


This is one race that has a lot of hang-ups that I would detail on my review. But you know what they say, all's well that ends well.

I don't think I was in tiptop shape a few weeks before the race. I haven't been sleeping well lately and promised to make it up at least a week before the main event. But I didn't. I knew beforehand that sleep would catch up with me in the latter part of the race.

The race started at 4 in the morning at CWC grounds. I remember a couple of runners I shared a room in Camsur talking about our target times. I couldn't answer as I didn't know what to expect. This is my first trail run ever! I was determined to finish at least before the day ends. I was giving myself an imaginary pat on the back and telling myself that my shorties can do it. We were there early so we waited for a couple of hours before gun start. A drizzle poured but not for long. The gunshot was fired and off we go and let me use this again, like lab mice in a maze.

Mt. Isarog at dawn break

The route started on a kilometer or two on asphalt before we shifted to trail. I was struggling as the stones along the way were wrecking my balance every now and then. I knew I was getting left behind. Soon, we got to some flat course over a sugarcane farm before the 1st arduous climb began. It taxed heavily on my knees. I even had a couple of cuts on my fingers from the bamboo support they installed for the real steep portion of the mountains. Soon, we got to the first waterfalls. I thought it was an early gift for all the hard labor we have done so far. I stopped for awhile and took some pics and off I went again being left behind by the people I was pacing with awhile ago. Everything was almost going awry with a numerous slips that I took. Those were total pains in the behind literally. I almost got lost when instead of going up further I went down to the stream. Good thing, I wasn't that far yet. I went up and treaded a bit more, got to the clearing and caught up with the guys I was pacing with on the second aid station. Yeah, that's a lot of stories for two stations only.

Amazing falls!

Photo by R. Cabusao

Catching up - Photo by R. Cabusao

Cute kibitzers

Another falls

I took it slowly a bit before leaving them and tried to run to get ahead of the other guys. I was slowly gaining momentum. I was beginning to be unstoppable—not even the short rain could bog me down. And I was hearing Rascal Flatts playing at that moment. Well, that morale upswing didn’t last long. While going up, I met an Aussie runner who has been living in the Phils for a couple of years named Robert. I noticed we were wearing the same shoes and compared notes on the shoes’ performance. We agreed that the traction was poor as I slipped a lot of times. It was good pacing with him. He was already complaining the blisters on his feet and it’s bothering him a lot.  In his words, he’s not okay from the waist below but is okay from the waist up. But there was one thing more; he noticed his hands were swollen. Mine weren’t. I wasn’t really sure what it was until we got to the Logistics point (48thkm) which we reached at 4 in the afternoon. The guys there said his body wasn’t absorbing water well so he was given some salt caps and at the turn around point, the marshals gave him another drink that was high in sodium. We took our time at the logistic point. I changed shirts and ate some bread while he changed shoes and nursed his blisters. 

Robert scaling down the limestone stairways

Robert in the fields

Click here for Part 2 of this article.