The Men's Health All Terrain Experience

I wasn’t really sure what to expect during the Men’s Health All Terrain race last Sunday. Sure I’ve joined the TNF100 last year and this year, but when I joined this one, it would really be my first to race it. The TNF last year was a “Hey lets just try it” pace, and the TNF this year was to accompany my wife for her first 10K Trail run. But the Men’s Health All Terrain would be my third race so now its time to give my all for this one.

I wasn’t sure how to adjust my pace in this trail race since there are too many variables involved. I was pretty sure racing on trails will give you a lesser time, but my biggest question is how much? But just to get me going, I gave myself a target time of 46-47 minutes which would be less than my normal road race time.

I lined myself in front of the starting line hoping to get a fresh start. When the race started the first 500 meters would be road. I looked at my Garmin as I reached 4min/km to 4:26min/km. Then thought I just needed to maintain a pace below 5 throughout the trail. However, contrary to what I expected the trail wasn’t really relatively flat. It was practically rolling all the way. The trail had also plenty of twist and turns. The pace slowed down to 5 to 5:30. Halfway on the trail I was pretty much drained and exhausted. It was kind of crazy that I was now running at a much slower pace, but my heart rate was shooting rapidly. So I slowly tried to regain my composure, slowed down a bit, and when it feels I can speed up again I’d go for it. As the last stretch of the trail approached I was, in someway hanging for dear life. As I crossed the finish line I knew this would be one of my most memorable races. I clocked 53:04 with a distance of 10.29KM according to my Garmin. It was funny I was targeting for 46-47minutes and the 53minutes almost took the lights off of me. Next time, I shouldn’t under estimate a trail again.

Thanks to Rio, Finishline and Men’s Health Magazing for organizing such a fantastic event. I hope there will be another one close within this year.

The results are also out in Run Rio. I was surprised to see myself to be in 9th place.

After the race, I had my photo taken and saw Tiffin well, who also had a unique experience at the 10K race. We waited for Mark to finish his 15K and we ate breakfast Sta Elena country club afterwards.