Out of the Transka run, safe and sound. I stepped aside after covering 55km of actual race distance in just over 19 hours of running. No physical issues whatsoever and more than anything I was just confidently done with the jungle bushwacking and endless mud pit elements of it all. All in all I felt great though and am really happy with my run. I got lost twice, for decent chunks of time and distance. If you were following the live online tracker and thinking look at how far off course that GPS signal is that was me carrying the thing right along with me. I added something like 5 hours of additional running and something over 20km. I officially covered 75+ jungle kilometers and didnt see the need to run the first ever Transka 100 miler :) I assumed the lead of the race about thirty minutes in, and over the following hours a group of three of us (two locals) had created a large gap over the rest of the field, then I got lost for the first time. After over an hour of full jungle bushwacking in circles I got back on course around 12th maybe? Through the night I got myself back up into 2nd place again, just a few hours before sunrise. A few hours after sunrise I blew my second turn of the race and eventually knew my day would be coming to an end before the official finish line, though I did actually celebrate my own finish because Im proud of how I ran and how I fought my way back up through the field of runners. I hold zero remorse for having to step aside in this one. How to best sum up what this race actually is? Unbelievable is a word that comes to mind in terms of the fact that without course footage I think it difficult to accurately convey just what a slog this thing is. It was primarily a jungle bushwhack through overgrown vegetation on top of giant slip and slide that was surely the worlds largest and burliest mud pit. The running aspects of the course seemed few and far between. The positives. My handhold mud scrambling techniques have finally been perfected. My pain tolerance for paper cuts is at an all time high after the jungle foliage had its way with me while slicing and dicing away at every piece of exposed skin for hours and hours on end. I thought I had experienced mud during UTMB in 2012, now I know what real mud is. I have a dark complexion that may hint at a good tan since arriving, but its really just the mud that I cant seem to scrub off my body. The race organizers are volunteers are fantastic, every single one of them. I didnt get shot, and the unexpected gun firing less than 30 feet from where I was standing while off course attempting to figure things out effectively eliminated any sleep fatigue I may have been experiencing. Christian the local hunter, with a voice exactly like Andre the Giant, helped keep me alive with well needed water, bananas and a friendly smile. This will likely be the quickest recovery ever from a near full day of running. It was just a lot of fun to go through the full night again, as it had been almost 15 months since Id gotten to experience that. Eventually Ill do up a race report, but for now, some much overdue sleep awaits. Best of luck to those still out on course and thank as always for all the incredible support through these adventures!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 00:13:32 +0000
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