Gila 100km Part 1

Maybe we are too bored or what, we signed up Gila 100km by Running Guild. We can choose clock 100km at one go or multiple submission from 24 May to 13 June 2021. Elevation gain is 1,253m. To put the elevation gain in perspective, our Bukit Timah hill is 163m so you can imagine the slopes… 

Jianhui and I have been doing recee for the past few weeks. And from the short runs, we can do feel that this route is not going to be easy. Nevertheless, we wanted to attempt this predetermined 100km route at one go. So, we planned to start this challenge this weekend either at 6pm or early morning. As I was feeling unwell on Saturday, we decided to start on Sunday 2.30am.

I must be too excited or what. I couldn’t sleep at all until midnight which means I only have 1.5hrs of sleep before Jianhui woke me up. When I am up, Jianhui has already prepared the snacks and water bottles! Feeling so loved. So our backpack has 2 packs or Oreo biscuits, 1 snickers bar, disposable raincoat, powerbank, handphone wire, ez link card, credit card, cash, sunglasses and water! Jianhui has the map, torch light and his favourite army jungle hat. 

We left house about 2am and went Sheng Siong to buy 2 bottles of mineral water. Then we happened to see one empty cab and so we ran down the stairs to catch the taxi. 

We headed to ulu Pandan to start the race. Seriously, if I don’t have Jianhui to navigate the route, I would definitely get lost! And so we started running in the dark at 2.45am. As what we have expected, it’s up and down slope. Definitely not as easy route as compared to the 3 reservoirs ultramarathon. During the run, we were kinda excited whenever we see potential Gila runners but they are always so fast that they will over take us and then they will be out of sight. 🤣 

Not sure what happen but my left leg is strained, so I got this pulling effect whenever I try to run. Sian. Anyway our strategy is to walk but then it seems like we are walking so slowly that we are behind schedule. And so we kinda know that we are not going to make it within 18hrs for 100km. 

And so after ulu Pandan, we headed to old Holland road. It’s all about landed property so far. From old Holland road, we headed to rifle range when we ran down the Swiss Club road… which is landed property again. Then we are back at Holland road again before we turn to Namly Avenue to see more landed property again. 

By now, it’s about 6am+ and we are heading to Orchard road. Now, we see more condos and it’s no longer dark. The weather is not so sunny as of now. We are happy to find 7-11 to buy Nescafe coffee as both of us are feeling so sleepy right now. It’s our lucky day as the coffee is $1 per can so we bought 2. With the fuel, we feel more alive. However, I think I drank too much coffee as I needed to go toilet urgently. Finally, we reached orchard MRT station and I can finally relieve myself. After this, we continued our walk along Orchard road. Then we decided to detour to Forum’s McD’s to buy sausage McMuffin meal. Best decision ever.

After our breakfast, we continued our walk. We must be happy after our breakfast that we ended up walking the wrong route. We were supposed to walk Nassim Road but we ended up at orange grove road. Luckily, we realised this early so we could still u turn to continue at correct path.

From there, we headed to bontanic gardens, followed by Kheam Hock Road. By now, the sun is out and so we took out our sunglasses and jianhui started to wear his jungle hat. 

It just seems forever to reach Macritchie. We went toilet at Mushroom cafe, top up our water bottle before we made our way to old Caldecott broadcast station. As Jianhui has came here before, he knows the route pretty well. Same old thing, up and down slope before we make it back to Macritchie. Back at Macritchie, we bought isotonic drink and top up our water bottles in preparation for the the finale. We also ate Oreos. 

This time round, we running anti clockwise direction. At this time, I am happy to enjoy the shade. We also started to run and my legs don’t feel that strained. By now, Jianhui’s garmin battery is running Low so he started charging his garmin. However after charging, we realized the watch stopped the distance.  So he got to restart his watch at 0.

Time seems to pass faster inside trail. I was really happy to see Jelutong hut but we still has to walk/run to Rifle range (again) before we reach Bukit Timah Nature reserve. My handphone battery is about 30% but I decided to charge my phone at the same time. 

By now, we are about 45km+ so you can imagine how tired we are. When we reached Bukit Timah Reserve, here we go up and down the stairs. The stairs were really high so I had a hard time climbing up and down the stairs. 

Around 2pm, we were finally back at visitor centre. We were supposed to climb the hill again but we decided to call it a day since we had clicked about 50km. It’s a pity that we couldn’t continue but we figured out that it’s going to be really late if we were to continue the run at Bukit Timah. It’s time to be home to see our girl. (I do miss her though when I am back home, she always gives me nonsense.)

We were so tired that we called a cab to fetch us home. Though I must say I’m kinda disappointed that we didn’t manage to clock 100km at one go, I guess we should listen to our body. Now, we need to plan another 50km! 

Thanks Jianhui for being my guide as always and taking care of me. I wouldn’t be able to run 50km without him. Thanks dear!