Training Log Archive: andyhill

First 2km were on road but then headed into the notorious Shahbandar Jungle and wow it was tough. It was so humid and felt like running in a sauna. There were loads of stairs and no flat sections. It was still a little dark, the trails were slippery and there were lots of roots which made it very hard to run. I went into the jungle in the lead but was overtaken by a local Brunei runner and got caught up by another. I was really struggling to breathe and my ears kept popping, and even felt like throwing up a couple times. Not sure what was going on but talking to others at the end this area does it to you and the high rate of DNFs in the 100km were due to Shahbandar. This bit finished at 10km (in 78 min) and I was in equal 2nd about 3-4 min the leader. Fortunately, I felt good again once out of jungle and the next 10km of trail I dropped the guy that was with me and caught and passed the other to be out in front on my own. Got to the 2nd checkpoint at 21km feeling good. And made sure I stopped and extra minute refuelling as it was so humid. By this point I had already gone through my 1.5 litres I originally had plus another litre by 21km. Then hit the mix bitumen/single trail paths solo to the highway at 30km and then a sketchy run along the actual highway to the beach checkpoint at 28km. Downed a litre and hit the beaches feeling good and got to the final turnaround point at 35km, 7 min ahead of Pablo from Spain. Knowing this and feeling pretty good I picked up the pace to under 5 min/km for the remainder of the beaches and final stretch of road back to the finish.

Ended up being a good mix of trails and beaches. Could have done without the highway stretch but it seems unavoidable. I had 5.5 litres of water/Tailwind/Coke and nearly no food as I found it so hard to eat in the humidity. So keen to do many more trails around the Asian circuit.

C • andyhill drinking fluids! 11