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| Day Two Road Book (credit: Global Limits) |
I slept quite well after the exertions of the first day, maybe the prayers of the monks helped too. This was just as well as Day Two had the greatest amount of climb of any day on the race and most of it occurred in a single climb, we would gain nearly 1800m of altitude over around 14km of the race. The first checkpoint was at 10km, approximately a third of the way through the long climb. The second checkpoint was 9km later and would mark the start of the final 9.7km, mainly downhill, to the third camp. Today's route had far less asphalt than Day One which, I felt, was a good thing as trail running is my 'thing' and whilst this meant it could be much more technical than Day One it should be interesting.
Anyway the time for speculation came to an end and it was time to start running again.
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Race restart at the front of the monastery - where I hoped the finish would be yesterday
(Photo credit:Global Limits) |
It was a beautiful day and the scenery promised to be spectacular - if it had been a little more horizontal it would have been perfect.
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| Into the Bhutanese countryside (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
Actually the first few kilometres were a great undulating trail through the forest. So far I had succeeded in following the markings perfectly but obviously that couldn't last. Sure enough five and a half kilometres into the day I randomly turned away from the markings and managed to find a whole different path through the forest. Even better, it got really muddy in places. Unfortunately I hadn't made all my fellow competitors aware of my tendency towards a state of being geographically challenged (lost) and so several of them followed me. It took me about 300m of not seeing any markers to realise that this particular piece of Bhutan wasn't on the race route so we turned round and went back through the mud until we saw something orange. In fact the first orange thing I saw was Sharon in her orange and purple Little Baddow Ridge Runners t-shirt. I also saw a whole line of orange flags, which is probably why Sharon was so surprised to see me emerging from blatantly the wrong part of the forest.
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| Fantastic forest trails... |
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| ...little wooden bridges... |
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| ...and the inevitable suspension bridge |
The first check point arrived quite suddenly but was very welcome and I topped up my water bottles ready to continue upwards. For me the trail was perfect, actually I wouldn't have wanted it any more 'horizontal'. Yes it was challenging but there were sections to be walked, sections to be jogged and enough variation to prevent it turning into the kind of long slog that I found the end of Day One to be.
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| Uphill but what a great trail! |
Eventually I reached the second checkpoint and the summit of the climb - it seems strange to even think I could be disappointed to reach the top of a mountain climb but I'd really enjoyed the run/hike up through the forest.
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| The final checkpoint and the end of the climb (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
Fortunately the trail kept on giving even on the downhill sections with spectacular vistas giving way to views of the valley in which we would be spending the night.
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| Great views from the trail |
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| Looking into the valley containing the overnight halt - definitely in the right place, 'Manu was here!' |
The forest trail became a track which became a road, all downhill so all good. Then the course turned off and up into a farmyard and then up some steps! In the grand scheme of things the 'climb' was tiny but my legs were only expecting 'down' and registered their protest at the unexpected 'up' by cramping up in places where I didn't know I had muscles. The countryside gave way to the town we were staying in, the road 'undulated' a little but as I knew I was nearly there I tried to keep running even on the slightly uphill sections.
Whereas yesterday's finish was a little tricky to find, today's was right at the entrance to the farmhouse we were staying at and so arrived very suddenly. The local children were very excited by the race and were at the finish to greet the runners.
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| Katherine gathered quite an entourage at the finish! (Photo credit: Global Limits) |
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| Tonight's accommodation |
Once again Kurt won the stage in a time of 4:41:40. I was seventh overall in a time of 5:46:56, Sharon was 22nd in 6:48:51.
At the beginning of the day I was very nervous and not at all sure how I was going to cope with the stage. At the end of the day I was feeling great and telling anyone that would listen how that was the best day's running I'd ever done. The trail was fantastic, my photos don't begin to do it justice. The weather was good, I felt good, I was two places higher than yesterday - could life get any better? Well, yes. Tatiana showed me the sleeping area, a large hall. She said we could also use the rooms off the hall. The first one already had several runners in it but the second had no occupants but did have... a double bed! I quickly got my bag and Sharon's and claimed said bed for us. It wasn't the softest and obviously we still slept in our sleeping bags but it was great nonetheless!
I have mentioned the dogs of Bhutan before and decided that I would take a couple of photos of the dogs at this farm. I needn't have bothered, this wasn't going to be the last time I saw at least one of them...
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| I would be seeing more of this mutt than I expected... |
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| 'OK guys, I may be gone for some time...' |
So a great day of running, a bed, what more could I want? Oh, I forgot to mention, the farm also sold beer...
Food, beer and time to retire to bed ready for the third day of the Last Secret!
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