Stage 5 (Santa Cruz Del Comercio to Loja, 37km)
Posted On Friday, July 16, 2010 at at 8:44 AM by warriorsofwindThe 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.
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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!!)
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