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Published: October 3rd 2010
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For lack of sleep for the past 3days, I slept through the entire plane ride. Still I managed to be sleepy Friday afternoon, as if my body knew what was coming. Friday was thunder storm in Barcelona and besides, I didn't wanna kill my legs just yet. Tomorrow will be the toughest physical challenge of my life, Matagalls Montserrat, the total distance of 84km with the cumulative ascent of 6000m non-competitive endurance race. Time limit is 24hrs. Since I made that to be the goal of 2010, I've been working to strengthen my legs. But I had no idea how it would be to walk that much distance and elevation through the night.
The shuttle buses left Joanic station between 1 & 2pm. 1.5hr ride through the windy road took us to the starting pt at Matagalls peak in Montseny nat'l park. The buses were the big tour bus kind and the windy road up the mountain didn't sit well with me. This is not a good time to be sucked into that. Raul and I arrived at the peak at 3p, got the logistics done and swallowed a bocadillo c/o Raul mom, thank you! By the time we arrived,
we were completely in the dense dense fog, which eventually turned into rain.
The time has come. 4:08 start. My card got scanned and off we went. It was really uncomfortable running in unbreathable unfitting raincoat I bought the day before. Luckily, it wasn't raining too long. The beginning was more or less flat and since we were still fresh, we jogged whenever we could. Going through nice hiking trail, we got to the 1st control point (km 9) at 5:20p. There, we got our passes scanned. Soon after, the food point, but the trail has done no damage and I wasn't even hungry. Oh how naive I was then. Continuing on.
After a steep uphill with reward of nice views, we reached the control point 2 (km 20) at 7p. At ~8p, it was dark and we were at control point 3 (km 28) at 9p exact. On the topo map, you can clearly see the ups and downs. But in a microscopic scale, it constantly went up and down through dense bushes and the slopiness wasn't obvious. At 9:30p at km 31, we took a short break at the 2nd food point. There were aquarius (yes,
@ km zero
Ready to tackle that!), tea & clear soup to drink, fruits, cookies, nuts, marmalade and the main course which changed along the way. So far so good, bada bim bada boom. Continuing on.
We reached control point 4 (km 37) at 10:30p. From there, it was downhill to the 3rd food point and the half way mark. We jogged downhill and reached the spot at 12:20a. We took a good break until 12:45a. Every time we stopped though, sweat became cold 😞. Besides being cold, it was gross...I could feel that I was drenched in sweat...anyway! Stuffed and still not feeling anything on my legs, I was ready to rock the 2nd half!
Shortly after the start of the 2nd half, I lost Raul...oh no 😞. I wasn't ready to be walking through the dense bush with me, myself and the headlamp and I had to keep up with the pack. The pack was damn fast! At 1:30a, we were at CP5 (km 51). It was a clear night despite the rain earlier and occasional stargazing while powering through the trail was possible. But the fun ended right here. From there to the next CP, I would say, was the most
Taking advantage
Running the downhill, at least in the first half challenging and critical of the race. Imo, it's not too much to say that it determined the rest of the way. For 5km, the path was steep, narrow and cliffy at times. We were in a single file. Keeping up with the fast pack in this situation was grueling. I was strong still and gung-ho but when I reached CP6 at 3a (km 57), it seemed like we were walking much longer. I mean it was nice to see the CP for the first time.
I guess that was the beginning of the crash. Just about at 4a, I was suddenly hit with sleepiness and legs failing!! Where did they come from?! It was really a digital attack from nowhere. I'm sorry, I could NOT keep up with y'all going rocky steep narrow path!! It was rough with 1 headlamp but no way you monkeys! They'd catch up with me and I lost them in a blink. Between CP7 (km 65) at 4:30a and CP8 (km 69) was a loooong 4km/ 1hr in the darkness and hanging onto branches. My legs had been hurting and didn't wanna move or lift but I pushed it so I could keep up
with the pack whenever possible.
The last food spot was a solace and reality check at the same time. Solace where I can chill; reality check cuz it made it clear that I still had 11km to go, including Montserrat climb. Suck it up, you can do it was all I could say. I stayed there 6-6:30a and off I went, one step at a time. At 7:30a, yet another CP done (km 77). The sun was just rising and it was glowing Montserrat rocks red - majestic. A short flat (relatively speaking...) walk took us to the foot of the steep incline to the monastery. 4th hr of taking 1 step at a time was super hard, especially on rocky terrains, so uncalled for. I don't know how some people came from behind running!!! How are their legs not dead, wtf?? In the middle of the climb was the last CP (km 80). It was 8:30a and I figured that I'd be at the top just about now, wrrrrong. When I finally finished 4 more km of shut-up-n-climb, it was 9:15a...finally finallyyy!!! Can I stop walking now?
Back in my room was where I could really just
stop. I really just didn't want to move and that took precedence over shower so go figure. Shower was difficult with non-bending legs but needless to say, it was refreshing. I was hungry again but not much was open in town Sun evenings. Don't make me walk extra, damnit. Passed out for real at 8p. What an event! So well organized & provided from shuttle to time-keeping, all under $50! I had no chance to starve. How is this possible - no port-a-potty? Everything was in Catalan in this event and I couldn't have done it without Raul - muchisimas gracias!!!
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