Posted On Friday, July 16, 2010 at
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8:44 AM
by warriorsofwind
The final stage begins with descent into Santa Cruz then the route follows the river bank via poplar groves to Valenzuela but soon the climbing begins. A hard climb to Torre Gallina is followed by a very long descent which takes you into a spectacular valley. The valley track takes you to Salar. From here undulating tracks through olive groves lead to a short tunnel under the autovia and the final 2km surfaced road to Hotel Manzanil finish.
Nothing had to say in this stage, every single runner was trying his best to finish strong. Joshua was allowed to join back the race at this stage. To me, the last stage was like my normal marathon training where most of the route covered tarmac roads and relatively flat. I was pacing with Alison along the way with us overtook each other. It was a great and enjoyable run, when we kept each other going.
Eventually, all the Singaporean runners had completed this stage. Ivy came in last but ending with the most spectacularly with all of us running together holding our Singapore flag.
We had the prize giving ceremony at our last dinner where we exchanging contacts, emails and our experience. This year, the Singapore team had swept across 3 prizes – the most dehydrated runner before the race (Me), the most hydrated runner before the race (Gen) and the most spectacular runner ending last (Ivy).
After the dinner, we had a party on the dance floor at the basement. It was great fun!! Everyone could relax, and truly enjoyed the joy and laughter. It was an amazing experience for me in this race, where I’m fortunately to meet wonderful supporters and runners whom cheering/helping each other up along the run even though we barely known each other for long. The memories could stay with me for the rest of my life and who knows, I might be coming back to the race this year. Ha.. (3 pts to UDMC, Oh yeah!!)
P.S: Chantel’s luggage had finally arrived to the hotel on the last day for race.
Posted On Thursday, July 15, 2010 at
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8:40 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Four was the ”long day “, with more plenty of hard climbs and long ascents. Tracks lead to Cacin, poplar groves and then another big climb to Pocapaja. From there it was just 4km to the finish but climbing all the way. At 61 km, stage four is likely to be the crux of the event for many.
The temperature rose to 43 degrees and no shade was found along the route again. The stage 4 had proven to be toughest stage among the all. But thanks to the organizer’s well planned, most of the runners had adjusted themselves to the terrain and weather’s condition from the first few stages. Typically, the route would cover open fields, single track trail along the gorge, tarmac roads, beautiful lakes, woods and small towns. Apart from running through the woods along the lakes and brief moment of zealous of buying cans of Pepsi for Gen and Chantel in the town, I remained pretty silence most of the time, taking note of my blisters and doing my slow ascent, climbing up the hill one after the other.
Finally, I reached the campsite at 6pm with all the volunteers shouting and cheering up for us. The camp site was up on top of the hill overlooking the sunset and mountainous region. There was a small restaurant beside the camp which the pasta cost 7 euros again. It was an enjoyable rest for me. But regrettably, I heard there was a runner whom lost 4hrs after organizer recover him.
Posted On Wednesday, July 14, 2010 at
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8:19 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Three begins at the campsite and takes the scenic, tarmac road out to Lake Bermejales and then a steep dirt road climb to a forest airstrip and then its mountain tracks all the way through some incredibly beautiful scenery and following it towards Jayena. About 4km before the village you enter another section of single track which takes you to the Bacal campsite finish.
Paul (the race director) promised that the route was mostly all down slope and indeed he kept his promise. This time, we had a staggered start time for the slow and fast runners. Ha. I took the early start time at 8.30am. In preparation of the next day’s 61km and careful not to hurt my knees on the down slope, I decided to take it slow and steady. At the campsite, the organizer invited the nearby villagers to cook for us pallela (Spanish rice) which cost 7 euros. It was delicious!! In addition, they brought beers and goat cheese to sell. Everyone was in a party mood, and this was the first time I could feel the Spanish’s passions and hospitality. The party ended at 10.30pm and most of the foreign runners had took beers and wine before the sleep. Luckily, my freeze dried meal had finally arrived due to postage delay. However, not so lucky for Chantel, there was still no news of her luggage and her supply was running low.
Posted On Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at
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8:13 AM
by warriorsofwind
Stage Two begins by descending into Alhama’s spectacular gorge. There were 4 checkpoints again. From here you travel through the full length of the gorge before heading into the Sierra Almijara. This tough mountain stage includes a new, very beautiful, single track section. From here you begin to descend via the forest tracks before some tough final climbs into Jatar.
Most of the Singaporeans started off strong in the beginning partly due to the beautiful scenery and the less tough trail. Me, Gen, Cat and Ivy met together at the 2nd checkpoint and ran together. However, the event took a drastic turn where we reached the mountain stage where Joshua began to feel unwell. Ivy volunteered to stay behind and the rest of us decided to proceed ahead since we did not want to pressure Joshua on our run.
Once we were out of the mountain stage, we met some marshals and volunteers to ask us about Joshua’s condition. It seems that he was really unwell, and Jerry had driven a land rover parked outside the mountain to pick him up. At the last descend from the mountain, I turned back my head and saw Dr. Bell running across the mountains with her medical box to join Joshua and Ivy. She was really fast!!
By 4pm, we had reached our second camp site and saw Joshua resting at the medical tent. He was ordered to stay out of the race for the next 2 days.
Posted On Monday, July 12, 2010 at
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8:06 AM
by warriorsofwind
The race started at 10am. There was a paint marking on the road or trail to indicate the direction of where the runners should run. In addition, there were 2 road marshals riding on their bikes to check on runners’ condition and route. This year, we also had a research team from Conventry University to study runners’ performance in Ultras and under extreme heat. The research mainly focused on taking our urine sample, weight and readings before the start of the race and conducting interviews after the each stage of the race.
Stage one began with a long ascended of 12km up to the mountain at 1420m with very steep slope. There were 3 checkpoints spread at an average distance of 10km on the entire 37km. Many runners chose to walk to conserve their energy and to settle themselves on the weather condition. At around 15km, I missed a marking and took a wrong turn. It was kind of scary when you realized there was no trace of life along the route, and you were running out of water under the heat. Luckily, I managed to back track on time and resume the run back on the course. The rest of 15km route, were trail running along the vast open field with lack of shades. There was a doctor at each checkpoint to observe the runner’s condition if they could still continue the race.
At the last 2km, I met up with Lam and Joshua walking to the finishing. Joshua was not feeling well and vomiting, with Lam accompanying him. In the end, we all reached the first stage of camp site at the stadium in a small town.
Posted On Saturday, July 10, 2010 at
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7:52 AM
by warriorsofwind
The Al Andalus Ultra Trail is one of the most challenging routes in the world of the ultra trail running which held in Spain, Granada. The race spread across 5 days, in which the runners have to run across mountains, woods, trails and roads under the temperature of 38-43 degrees with semi-support from the organizer. There were a total of 65 participants for this year with 9 Singaporeans participating.
Most of us met at the Granada airport where the organizer was kind enough to pick us up and drove us to Loja, a small town in Spain. Chantel had an unfortunate experience where her luggage was lost in the transition of planes. At the hotel, the organizer held a welcoming dinner for all the participants where we got to know each other from other runners around the world. We were honored to have the Widy Grego (10 times winner of Marathon des Sables) to run with us this year. Although Widy couldn’t speak English, but he was very friendly and communicated with us in every possible way by hand gestures and looking up a translator to talk to us.
The registration started at the next morning, 10am where we collected their number bibs, submitting our medical form, and signing indemnity forms. There was one small counter setup to sell limited gears. At 5.30pm, there was a briefing on the course. By 8pm, we had our dinner by the organizer where we watched over the World Cup Final at the same time. It was fun watching over the participants from Holland and Spain supporting their country, and at the end of the match, both countries’ participants end well with a good gesture and a hug.
Posted On Friday, April 23, 2010 at
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11:38 AM
by warriorsofwind
We reached Dali in the morning at 6.45am. The slept in the Sleeper bus was tolerable except a few itches at my back perhaps due to the bed lice. Jane was not so fortunate. She couldn’t sleep in the bus.
The driver whom to pick us up was waiting for us for an hour freezing in cold at the bus station. My first impression of Dali city was immaculately clean, with wide opening roads and quiet traffic. The Sam’s Hotel (http://samshoteldali.com/)was decorated in a mix of traditional style Bai Courtyard with comfortable, and generous room space. :)
After putting our things, we headed to our first destination -> Changshan where our dear lady landlord arranged a transport to bring us 
there. We took a cable car up to the mountain (~2400m). Perhaps it was due to the high altitude, it was tougher than usual for us to walk up the stairs. At noon, the weather turned bad and was raining heavily. We were totally unprepared. Luckily, I had my umbrella with me but my beautiful, hairy legs were exposed to the cold. The rain last for 2 to 3 hrs.
The descending from the mountain was a whole new experience to me. The cable car was we took exposed, with no shelter at the top. Once reached the foot of
the mountain, We walked back to the edge of the old town to have our lunch (4pm). May was complaining our meal time was totally messed up. Hehehee
Then after, we took a local bus to Erhai Lake. Gen was really tough in her bargain skill. She managed to reduce the ferry price from $150 RMB to $80 RMB. The sky started to drizzle again. There was not much to see at the other side of the island. We were back to the mainland at 6.30pm. By now, the bus service had stopped.
A man approached us telling his friend could drive us out to the old town. I suspected the guy was telling lie and the lady driver was not his friend. Nevertheless, we agreed to him by forking out $50RMB, to give us a ride to the foreign street, Dali Old Town.
Walking in the old town was an enjoyable experience. The old town was buzzing with pubs, shops, cafes and local eat house. We stopped over a cozy café to have a coffee and desserts. Based on the staff’s direction, we managed to locate mountaineering gear shop which manned by 2 young pretty looking ladies. May and Chin Yen both bought a gore-tex China brand trekking shoes, while Jane and Gen each shopped for small items. The price was reasonable and not much discount was given.
At 10pm, we had our dinner at Panda Restaurant before taking a cab back to our hotel. It was midnight till then. Yawn…
Posted On Thursday, April 22, 2010 at
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10:43 AM
by warriorsofwind
Finally!! After weeks of preparation, phone calls and emails, we had made it to the final day. For a moment, I couldn’t even think that the trip to Yunan would pull through.
I woke up earlier at 4am and did some last minute packing before heading to the airport at 5.30am. Chin Yeh called out and informed me our plane was malfunction and we were shifted to SQ instead. He hurried me as our plane took off at 7.10am instead of 7.40am. Great!! That was the last I could need, Surprise! Now, I worried if the rest of the guys could make it to the airport on time. We were all being hold back at the check in counter for an hour before managed to board the plane.
Reached Bangkok 10 a.m. The flight to Kunming was not too smooth. After 2 unsuccessful took off by the pilot with the last nearly felt like a crash, we were transferred to a new Thai airplane. In the end, the whole flight was delayed by one hour. Oh gosh!!
Once touched down at the Kunming Airport, we quickly took a ride to the West Bus Station to buy our sleeper bus tickets(1150pm) to Dali. Subsequently, we proceeded to cloudland hostel to book our accommodation for our return trip before going out to do some shopping. The sky started to poured heavily at 8pm. We were all freezing in cold. The locals told us the city had not been raining for 6mths. We had brought them rain. OMG! I hoped it was not going to rain in the mountain. *Praying hard*
there. We took a cable car up to the mountain (~2400m). Perhaps it was due to the high altitude, it was tougher than usual for us to walk up the stairs. At 
the mountain, We walked back to the edge of the old town to have our lunch (
