Singapore's Ultramarathoners in Sahara 250 K Desert Race Oct 4 - 9th 2010

From Left : Jane Peng, Trish Tan and Vanessa Tan

    Today 9th October marks the final torturous day of 6 days of hard running in the sand, in the Sahara desert no less, for 3 of Singapore's ultramarathon ladies. They are Jane Peng, Trish Tan and  Vanessa Tan. All of them completed the race with Vanessa Tan taking 10th position for the ladies category. Trish and Jane Peng both completed in what can be described as a 'take no prisoners' race where one has to train for at least 6 - 9 months with exposure to sand and high heat and sunlight. How do I know ? I am 

proud to say that I am Jane's 'running khaki' or running buddy since the early part of 2010.

  

                                                                       "V" for victory

      From those early days of running 10 to 15 K per run at Macritchie to East Coast Park to completing in a 50K combined run in May 15th this year. Jane has improved her distance to an ultramarathon of 84 K the following week (!),  Since then, she has set her sights on 'racing the planet' and decided to sign up and run 250 K in 6 days which included a murderous 94 Km on Stage 5 ; (it took many competitors upwards of 24 hours to complete this segment !). All this with  a 9Kg backpack and running on sand, with temperatures hitting 40 to 45 deg C in daytime, occasional sandstorms (I hope not) and metres high sand dunes. There are a total of 4 such extreme 6 day marathons, they are :

- Sahara Desert Run
- Atacama Desert Run
- Gobi Desert Run
- Antartica Run

        Well done Jane, Trish and Vanessa !