The Last Secret Ultra - Day Five, Paro to Drukyal Dzong

Day Five Road Book (Credit: Global Limits)

Day Five was the longest day of the race. We would basically explore the valley in which Paro was situated before heading upwards to our last camp before the final push up to the Tiger's Nest. As the day was 53.5km long there were four checkpoints very evenly spaced at 10.7km, 10.3km, 10.8km and 10.0km leaving 11.7km to the finish. Strangely I had been looking forward to the long day. There was a lot of tarmac on it and it promised to be quite hot in the valley but whilst the total up and down was considerable (2048m and 1745m respectively) it was more of a series of undulations rather than the monolithic climbs and descents of the previous days. All in all, even with the longer distance and the tarmac, I felt it favoured my running strengths more than many of the previous days. Of course all this was pure conjecture until we actually started running...

In order to giver everyone the best chance of finishing in daylight, those who had taken more than 24 hours total running time to reach the end of Day Four started an hour earlier than the rest. That meant that 19 of us started at 7am. Sharon was highly excited as she was the 19th of the 19 'elite athletes' on the later start.

The finest Ultra Runners in Bhutan at that moment - possibly... (Photo credit: Global Limits)

I set off quite quickly but I had no qualms about walking the steeper uphill sections. This was going to be a long day and it wouldn't be won in the first 10km. It could however be lost there. Speaking of lost...

Just over 7km into the day I decided to stop following the markers and run down the road into a village instead. I ran less than 200m before I stopped to look for a marker and instead saw an old man with an outstretched arm pointing back the way I had come...

Mike and Loz had been close behind me but hadn't seen my error. As a result they would spend the next 20km believing I had taken off at an awesome pace and was some way in front of them - not about 400m behind and dropping further back all day.

The course was along a road/track until the first checkpoint where we turned off the road and into paddy fields.

Leaving Checkpoint One (Photo credit: Global Limits)

Primarily this blog is my story of my Last Secret Ultra. However there are one or two others that have been mentioned and so I feel it is time I mentioned again the other member of 'Team Dwarf', Joey Sharma. The race was not being kind to Joey. She had gone down with a quite debilitating chest infection and, combined with the altitude, it had lead to her not finishing the previous day. Unlike many ultras a DNF is not the end. Obviously you can't be part of the overall rankings but you can start the next day and keep running as much as you can (subject to the doctors' permission obviously). Despite really not being very well Joey was undaunted and started Day Five. When I passed her she was making plans to buy coca-cola at the first open shop she found. She may have been one of the 'dwarves' but her spirit was enormous.

The spirit of the Last Secret in a picture (Photo credit: Global Limits)

There was 'another' that seemed determined to get to the finish too. I didn't see 'Dog' on Day Five but from the pictures he looked to have been following Dan and Gary. hopefully he decided to follow someone else before they went for their own little off course excursion...

Dan, Gary and... 'Dog'? (Photo credit: Global Limits)

Crossing the paddy fields (Photo credit: Global Limits)

A path across the paddy fields

 

Another beautiful day!

 After a while we left the paddy fields and climbed up towards the second checkpoint. I could pretend my plan was to visit the Rinpung Dzong back in the valley but the reality I spontaneously turned right for no terribly good reason and ran down a couple of hundred metres before I realised I'd better run back up and get on the course again. 

'High Fiving' with the local children with the Rinpung Dzong in the background - where it should be
(Photo credit:Global Limits)

Another great view towards Paro

 At Checkpoint Two I was asked if I had got lost - Loz and Mike had apparently enquired just how far ahead I had managed to get only to be told I hadn't passed CP2 yet!

After Checkpoint Two it was down hill to a long straight road that ran parallel with the runway. Unfortunately I didn't time my arrival to properly see the 'interesting' approach that aircraft have to make to Paro Airport so I just had to put my head down and run until I reached the end of the airport.

 

Paro International Airport

Welcome to Bhutan - the sign at the exit to the airport 

 After the airport the race continued along the Paro - Thimphu Highway until we crossed the river.

Another of Bhutan's suspension bridges

Looking into the Paro Chu - I would get much closer very soon...

Due to the recent rain the river was somewhat higher than it was when the course had been checked the previous week. As a result it was somewhat 'challenging' (virtually impossible) to walk alongside it with either getting shredded by thorn bushes or getting wet feet. It was in no way dangerous but if it hadn't been for the usual plentiful marking I would have been less sure someone hadn't sent me in there for a laugh....

After getting a little damp the course turned back towards Paro. The road wasn't the most exciting thing but fortunately the road signs provided some amusement. When I first saw this I thought it was warning drivers about runners but closer inspection indicated it was probably warning there was a school nearby.

Beware of runners?

 However the most entertaining were the 'road safety' signs. There were rhymes...

...warnings against drink-driving...

 

...there were puns...

...and ones that just wouldn't be acceptable in many Western countries!

Eventually I reached Checkpoint Three at a viewpoint for Paro airport.

Paro Airport - again

After a while the course took us back down alongside the river - this time on a very solid path - and then back across the river. From there it was a run of around 5km alongside the river to checkpoint five. I adopted a run-walk strategy based on counting lamposts, running to a particular feature or building or just generally doing anything to keep myself going as it was getting quite hot and this wasn't the most interesting part of the race to say the least.

Down by the river

  Fortunately I'm quite used to the 'mental challenge' this sort of running brings - so much so that I ran straight past the bridge back over the river to the final Checkpoint...

Back on course! (Photo credit: Global Limits)

After the final checkpoint the course went away from Paro and towards our final overnight halt. However the final few kilometres were going to be far from easy for me. I was making a particular meal out of trying to cross a river on some slippery logs when I felt a pair of hands on my waist and heard the words 'Don't worry, I've got you'. Alison was much more poised and balanced than me - I was more like a new-born deer with an inner ear infection - and she had caught me up and decided to take pity on me and help me across the big scary bridge (actually about two metres of logs above 50cm of water). There was also a fair amount of balancing along paddy fields and Alison was soon ahead of me - as was Andrew, who I had left behind on the long boring road bits but again was much better than me on the shorter, interesting wet bits.

More paddy fields

 I had also had a few stomach issues since just before the last checkpoint. I hoped to get to the finish but eventually I had to stop and deal with them. This left me feeling rather better and once we got off all the scary bits I caught back up with Alison. Soon I had my first view of today's finishing point...

Drukyal Dzong - yes, the finish is at the top of the hill naturally

 Just to increase the mental anguish, all the runners that had already finished were at the camp at the bottom of the hill - many with beer.

Our camp - but you're not quite finished yet...

The finish! Quite a climb but so worth it!

Happy to have finished! (Photo credit:Global Limits)

Kurt took his fifth stage win in 6:13:05. I was just over an hour behind in 7:18:13 and seventh place. I was very happy with that as I had finished further behind Kurt in terms of time on some much shorter stages. Sharon finished in 8:45:05 and 22nd place. She crossed the line in tears, mainly from emotion rather than pain as this was her furthest ever single run and she finally realised that she would be able to finish the Last Secret Ultra and get to the Tiger's Nest. I never doubted that for a minute but it's very hard to convince her just how good a runner she is.

Emotional finish (Photo credit:Global Limits)

You've done it! (Photo credit:Global Limits)

 After finishing it was time to go back down the hill (there was a short cut) and join the others in beer drinking. The mood was particularly good in camp that night - especially after Nigel built us a 'small' camp fire.

Sitting round the camp fire

Tomorrow there was just the small matter of the final 15km to the Tiger's Nest. How hard could that be? I would find out very soon...