Countdown to TNF100

I can’t believe it, the moment of truth is coming, and my excitement is definitely building. TNF100 Philippines is almost here!

Today, Thursday, is my last day at the office for the week. Because of this I have to finish every task that I have, hastily—all because of this race. So in a way I was rushing work so I can join a race! We’d be off for Clark tomorrow morning, and really, I can’t believe that race day is almost here!

For the past few days I’ve been pretty busy dealing with what to bring. Thankfully last Tuesday I was able to finish packing my AS4 bag (the one that I left with the organizers to bring to Aid Station 4, some 35K from the start area of 100K route) but the weird thing about it was that it was almost all food! I jokingly refer to the two batches of grocery purchases I had to fill up this bag as “takot mauhaw” (afraid of thirst) and “takot magutom” (afraid of hunger).

Of course not all of these items went on this bag, some I took for my base camp bag. After handing over my AS4 bag to the organizers last Tuesday I suddenly realized that I hardly have food on my base camp bag (relative to the other bag). This bag would contain the other non-food necessities like clothes, chargers, lights, etc. and aside from this I’d be wearing my trusty Sandugo Pilot hydration bag throughout the race. Support groups aren’t allowed on the trails so these three bags would do the job for me. Of course this doesn’t mean that the race organizers don’t have to do anything on their part—my support bags were setup with the assumption that the organizers would provide us runners with adequate water at the very least. We would definitely appreciate it if there were more.

The previous trail run early this year was my most expensive one until TNF100 came along. There were so many required items that I have to buy (since I only started running barely half a year ago) but I learned a lot during the process. The trail running aspect of this ultra brings forth one of the things I also love doing—trekking, and many items I got for this race I can use on my future climbs.

This would be my second trail run but my first ultra marathon race. I’ve had an LSD of ultra marathon distance before but here in TNF100 I’d be attempting to do my longest run so far—100K. Yes you read it right, 100 kilometers. I mentioned that this would be my first attempt at the hundred, and just finishing it is a huge accomplishment. Hopefully He would allow me to finish this race and do it still in good condition. Good luck to all runners! Hope that we all have a safe run! Enjoy and don’t forget to respect the trails! (And I hope it doesn’t rain!)

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The Chronicles of an Ultra Trail: