Earlier this year I was visiting my friend in Phuket and it occurred to me that I am significantly larger than he is. I have known this guy for more than 20 years so this kind of hit me that it is irresponsible for me to have let myself go in such a way. I was at that point in time a blob compared to him and we are around the same age.
He never fat shamed me and he didn't need to, I can do that to myself. But when I was visiting his girlfriend's pharmacy and they had a digital scale in the shop and I stood on it and it just said "error" instead of telling me my weight I chuckled but it wasn't really that funny to me.
I was over 100 kg and the scale couldn't measure anything that high. It was on that trip that I decided that I was going to change my life a bit and I really have been doing that.
The major thing to me was to cut out a lot of the drinking that I was doing because that isn't healthy in any capacity. I also think that as I have become older that I can handle hangovers a lot less well that I used to be able to, and avoidance of that was a very strong motivator for me to do something else in my life.
During some of this my friend asked me if I wanted to join in for a 25km race in the jungle areas of Phuket and because I am a competitive person by nature I said yes. Then I had to set out to actually be in the kind of shape where I can do something like that.
There's the overview of the trail run and there are a couple of things to take notice of here. One is that it winds around a lot so this isn't going to be like a "run" so much as it is going to be a trail in the jungle. In Phuket, which is mostly an over-crowded tourist shithole, this can't have been easy to pull off. If you look at the bottom right of the picture as well you will see the elevation chart and this is the thing that kind of concerns me the most.
In the past half year or so, I have been training with running 5 and 10 km runs on my own in the streets here and for the most part these are something that I can accomplish without much difficulty. It has taken me many months of dedication to get to this point and I am proud of it. However, since where I live is almost entirely flat and at sea level, those hill climbs are going to be something that I might not be entirely prepared for.
We get 6 hours to complete it, and the stretches where it is all going uphill obviously are going to be the most difficult, the parts where it is all downhill is likely where I am going to jog but this idea that I am going to RUN UP A HILL is definitely not going to happen.
It could end up being like this and if that is the case this wont really be a running race at all. I am ok with it being either but I won't really know what I'm going to get until I am there and have already started it.
I do know this, I am not going to be one of the guys that sprints away from the starting line trying to be up in the front. I will likely let those "experts" go on ahead of me and just chill in the middle of the pack. I have no illusion that I am going to be one of the really fit people that is there, in fact, I know that I am not.
I can run a 5 and a 10k no problem - ok, let's be honest, it is a problem and I get very hot and angry during the runs - but all of my runs have been completely flat with just a curb that I have to jump over every now and then.
I'm a little concerned about portions of the trail that are like this and I know they are like this because these images are taken from the organizer's own website. I think I will probably not like running very much with completely soaked shoes and socks.
One thing is for sure though, I am not going to give up.
There are a lot of different categories in this run and one of them is 100km. Those people are a different level of hardcore than me and they are expected to be exercising for more than 24 hours. Yeah, I think I'll save that for a later date.
But this will be a bit of a trial by fire for me because I've never really done anything like this before. I am not in my 20's and the past several years of my life haven't been terribly active.
The good news is that I am nearly 15kg lighter than the last time I hung out with my friend and I am faster than he is now too. I do not think I am in much better shape than he is though.
We are just competitive with one another in almost anything but also are encouraging towards one another. I know that we will not allow the other person to give up and if it takes us 6 hours it takes us 6 hours. I am going to try to finish it in 5 hours or less. Think I can do it?