Post 100KM body effect

How your body feel after running a 100km race (The North Face 100, 100km Ultra Trail race in Hong Kong on 11-12 Dec. 2016)

1. After crossing the finish line: Cannot speak, don't want to open my mouth, feeling hard to breath. Just change my top and wrapped myself a big towel and go home immediately. Cannot have the joy of finishing. On the way home feeling the sun is so bright that i don't want to open my eyes. 
2. After 3 hours: sleep, breathing is strange, still like in a dream. 
3. After 6-7 hours: eat 2 steam eggs, congees a bit, no appetite, legs is so stiff. Dinner no appetite. 
4. After 1 day (Monday): Walk is pain, legs is strange, difficult to walk downstairs, feeling pain. Want to eat rubbish. Feeling the sun is so strong and don't want to open my eyes.
5. After 2 days (Tue.): Swell, both legs and feets are swell, fatigue. 
6. After 3 days (Wed.): Went to Physio, massage a bit. loosen up the tight muscle. No appetite. 
7. After 4 days (Thur.): Can walk downstair properly still abit of strange at my right knee. 
8. After 8 days: First Physio to just loosen the muscle 
9. After 9 days: Diagnosis of ITB problems and have my first acupuncture 
10. After 16 days: Feel magical that i have no problem at all to walk downstair, say only 5 %. 
11. After 22 days: Run my first 5km. OK. Muscle memory still there. 

The North Face 100 Hong Kong

Everything starts with my stupidly sign up for this race after i come back from Ulanbattar in June. But the #guts, #determination and #preservance to FINISH today is not stupid at all.

Crossing the finish line at 25 hours 53 mins on 12 Dec. 2016 for this 100km Ultra trail race in Hong Kong.

The North Face 100 Hong Kong
Distance: 100km
Elevation gain: 6300m
Weather: Day 27 degrees celsius (feel like 33), Night 13 degrees celsius
Wind: 3-4 North Wind
Humidity: 54% Dry

The race starts 8AM at plover clove, i have already changed and my bag is all loaded with my power foods and more than 1.5L water. Charles drove me there with my classmate which made me feel comfortable and I'm not worried at all ;) I just need to tighten up my lace and i was urge to move to the start line 30 mins before the race starts. It is actually a good move to the front out of 1500 peoples with 100km and 50km mass starts for a better timing. After several photo taking, chit chat we starts. I'm excited and knowing it will be a long day, i'm actually quite relax at the starts. The first is a bit challenging as we have to run up to a 1:100 400meter slope to reach a bottom neck trail. So i ran as much as i can to try to get a good position.

Up to the Pak Sin Leng trail, i feel great, preserved my speed but run as much as i could and in the meantime i'm very careful to keep a distance behind the runner. i keep running with my pal behind Iris and Sally, they set a good pace and i feel confident running behind them. Before CP1, my pal Sally twisted her ankle and she ask me to leave her and then i just go. Feel bad about this, but i cannot do anythings. I found that I'm clever that i didn't drop my pole at the CP1, as theres tons of runner even within our own group and it will block the runner behind. So when i pass the CP1, i didn't stop and pull out my poles immediately and continuous to Session 2!

Why I'm doing the North Face 100

I made a plan in 2016 to RUN. Many first in 2016 to start with my first marathon in March followed the 100km on a 3 stages race in Gobi in June and to ended by the North Face 100km in Hong Kong.

I wanted to finish a ultra marathon after i complete the Gobi as i realized that the Gobi cannot called it as ultra. Any distance beyond 42.195km run is called an Ultra, so the Gobi is disqualified.

So i search on the internet and found out that there have a race called The North Face 100km and then i enter the lottery sign up, and surprising i'm IN. That was in August and the race is in December.

The North Face Hong Kong is great, they have teamed up a TRA The North Face Running Academy with the Elite runner Ho Chung Wong as a coach to trained 10 peoples who sign up this 100km race for 3 months till the race day and luckily i'm one of them! I feel super bumped and can't wait to just run flying in the mountain that i imagine the road is flat with a bit of sand, like HK trail. But it was totally not and i'm so wrong.

After i trained with #TRA for a month, Iris Chen one of my classmate told me this race is a UTMB points collective race. And i looked totally odd, what is this? I don't need points, i just want to finish a 100km RUN in one go so that i'm a Ultra marathoner. She said, this is not a ultra marathon, this is Ultratrail. What? No? What happened?

#TNF100 is a 100km #ultratrail individual race, one of the Hong Kong grand slam ultra trail series. Earned a reputation for being one of the hilliest and most challenging trail running races in Asia. Tackling 6,300 meters of cumulative elevation gain over 100 kilometers, to finish this tough challenge within 27 hour cut off time and have to cross each of the check point within a check points cut off.

So, never too late. By knowing the race i just trained is not what i expected that can actually run. i told myself why not spent this time to know further our Hong Kong trail and mountain. And why not Ultratrail? So, that's how i begins.