The Last Secret Ultra - Day One, Punakha to Chorten Nyingpo

Day One Road Book (Credit: Global Limits)

The Great Day Dawns... actually most days start by dawning so that wasn't surprising - me being awake to see it was slightly more so however. It had rained pretty heavily in the night and a few people had found the tents to be less waterproof than they would have liked. Our tent had a small puddle where I had accidentally pushed one of my bits of kit against the side but fortunately it was the dry bag I had taken for my sleeping bag and down jacket so no harm was done - others were less lucky...

Anyway we packed and breakfasted an sat awaiting the call from Stefan to go to the start. As I've hinted already, Stefan likes to make the race an experience and so we were greeted back at the Dzong by 500 local school children who sang the Bhutanese National Anthem for us, I think it was one of the most moving things I've ever heard. 

Stefan addressing the race befroe the children sing the Bhutanese National Anthem

It was also the birthday of Moo Woong, the oldest competitor, a 74 year old South Korean and so the children and runners obviously sang 'Happy Birthday' to him.

Moo Woong - I think he will remember his birthday (photo credit: Global Limits)

 If this wasn't all enough we were blessed by the Lama of the dzong. Obviously we all wanted our photo taken with the Lama, leading Stefan to wryly comment 'This is not the last Lama you will see this week'. No, but it was our first - ever - and so we were a bit excited.

Does this happen at the start of any other race in the world?

What an awesome bunch! (photo credit: Global Limits)

Eventually Stefan managed to restore some sort of order and we were there on the start line of a race we'd entered over a year earlier. we had spent two months in an altitude tent, I had been running around 60 miles per week average and we'd spent a week running in Fuerteventura so we could do 20 miles a day for 5 consecutive days. would it be enough? Now we would start to find out. Suddenly it was go and 50 runners set out across the bridge from the Punakha Dzong to start the 2017 Last Secret Ultra!

Waiting...

...and we are off! (Photo credit: Global Limits)

Out of the Dzong and into the race!(Photo credit: Global Limits)

Now might be a good time to say something about the first stage. As was usual for all stages there were check points at between 8 and 12km at 11.4km, 9.5km and then 9.8km to the finish. The amount of climb was quite modest by the standards of the race, 1263m of ascent and 729m of descent. The first section to the first checkpoint was fairly flat, down the valley to a suspension bridge across the river..

Just crossed the small bridge (photo credit: Global Limits)

 ...and then back up the valley to the longest suspension bridge in Bhutan. 

I thought this bridge was a bit scary - I had no idea what was to come!

CP1 was at the end of the bridge and impossible to miss. Hence the confusion when one of the competitors claimed to have missed CP1. When it was described to him his reply was 'Oh so that was why the people there were trying to give me water...' Not having run for a few days and being very excited lead to me setting off way too quickly. The fact I could see the motorbike leading us along the first part of the course didn't help as of course I thought I could keep up with it. I arrived at CP1 in fourth position and knew I really shouldn't have. However Ryan and Meese gave me a great welcome and some water, one third of the first stage was done!

Not long after CP1 I saw this:

Look familiar?

12km into the race and I'm more or less back where I started - don't let anyone tell you Stefan doesn't have a sense of humour!

I've run through a few sporting venues in my ultra running career, mainly golf courses and football pitches. However possibly only in Bhutan will an ultra take you past an archery tournament! Fortunately they were all very good and I didn't gain any feathery appendages as I passed them.

Bhutanese Archery

The race then passed through a few kilometres of the King's farmland (he didn't appear to be doing any farming at the time) before apparently vanishing over a cliff to a path near the river. By now I was paying for my excessively quick start and I lost a couple of places on the way to CP2.

CP2 - the site of my first wobble!

I arrived at CP2 feeling OK and 'high-fiving' with Harri and Tatiana but as soon as I stopped I felt very dizzy. There was a short sharp climb out of the checkpoint and I felt that it would be stupid to immediately leave the checkpoint, as there was a doctor there, and risk collapsing out of sight. So I sat down for a few minutes and drank some water and electrolytes until I felt better. I lost a few more places but I felt a lot better and was ready to continue.

The final section had a couple of flattish kilometres before we got onto the major climb of the day, almost 440m in less than 6.5km. By now I was very glad I had trekking poles. The climb was along a road so it wasn't technical but I was struggling a bit and definitely paying for my 'chase the motorbike' antics earlier in the day.

I was very happy to get my first view of our finishing point for the day...

A welcome sight - Chorten Nyingpo Monastery

 ...but where exactly was the finish?

Definitely the right way, you can see the flags...

The answer was keep following the flags and tape, go clockwise round the small temple and there you are.

The end of the first stage!

Kurt Alderweireldt from Belgium was first in a time of 3:10:20. I finished in 9th place in a time of 4:03:39. Sharon was not far behind in 15th in a time of 4:22:30. My hope for the race based on absolutely no data whatsoever was to finish in the top 10 so I was reasonably happy with my day's work, especially as the running hadn't quite gone perfectly. 
I was told there were 'showers' and to get one quickly before the rest of the runners arrived. The shower was actually a cold water tap which at least allowed me to wash the dirt off and maintain a slightly cleaner aspect than  I had expected at the end of Day One. As there was no where to change I came back from the tap with just my towel round my waist. This did incur Stefan's displeasure as Marilena had to have her finish photo retaken as there was 'A naked man in my picture'. I would dispute the 'naked' bit but I do fully accept that me in a towel does nothing to enhance the background of any photo, especially not if the focus should be on the plucky race finisher!

The rest of the afternoon was largely dedicated to resting before the unique experiences awaiting us in the evening. I also noticed that the fly sheets and guy ropes of the tents were noticeably more taught than they had been at the first camp, indicating that once again our race director was making sure we were taken care of and that we would all stay dry if it rained.

Hard work this runnning!

The Buddhist monks don't allow photography in their temples so I have no more pictures but what followed the evening meal was a truly unique and memorable experience that very few people get to share. We were allowed to attend the evening prayer ceremony and then receive a blessing from the Lama of the monastery at which we could make a wish. I tried to follow the spirit of Buddhism and asked for everyone to complete the race safely rather than just me.

I had found the first day very challenging. This was fine except that I had the road book and so I knew that every other day had more ascent and more descent apart from the very last day. That day seemed a very long way away...