Final Preparation Before My 100 mile Road Race

I was out on a run on the road behind my house and this guy stopped me to take a picture. It came in handy because I used it to send to the race director for the pamphlet. 

Only person from the US that signed up for the race. 

My hundred mile race is only a couple days away and I'm making my final preparations. There has been a lot of planning and preparing that has gone into getting ready for the 164K (100 mile) Race Across Taiwan. The best part was the training. Getting out and seeing new places and taking pictures along the way has been a real treat and much needed time to clear my head of all the difficulties that we have been facing at work. The most challenging thing has been signing up and figuring out bit by bit what I might expect. Unfortunately the race organizers have only given a small amount of information, most of it involving strange requirements like a mandatory helmet after 58 miles.... Other than this I have a map of the course that will hopefully work on my phone for navigation during the event.

The first thing I did was study the map, translate the aid stations names and write down when the aid stations close. These are a couple screen shots of the course and the elevation gain and loss on the course. 

I'm not sure if this is right but 8,703 meters translates to 28,553.15 feet of gain and 9,117 translates to 29,911.42 of elevation loss. To put this into perspective Everest is 29,029 feet.

#1 Puli Start

#2 卓社隧道前道 Zhuo former club Tunnel Road 12K (7.4 miles) Close 1153am 

#3 武界水庫隧道後高地平台 After Wu Jie Tunnel Reservoir 23k 14.2 miles) Close 147pm 

#4親愛國小Dear small country 35k (21.7 miles) Close 351pm 

#5 台14-投71叉路口 Taiwan 14- 71 47K (29.2 miles) Close 555pm 

#6 哪嚕灣民宿 Bay Bed and Breakfast 58.5k (36 miles) Get Jacket Close 8pm 

#7鳶峰 Kite peak 71K (44.1 miles)Close 1024pm 

#8 昆陽 Kunyang 77K (47 miles) Close 1136pm

#9 小風口 Small air 84K (52 miles) Close 1am 

#10 觀原 View original 93.5K (58 miles) Close 253am 

#11 碧綠 Dark green 102.5K (63.3 miles) Close 456am 

#12 慈恩 Mercy 110k (68 miles) Close 527am  

#13 新白楊 New Topol 119K (73 miles) Close 7am

 #14 洛韶 Luo Shao 128K (79 miles) Close 837am 

#15 西寶 Westwood 138K (85 miles) Close 948am

#16 天祥 Intertek146k (90 miles) Close 11am 

#17 布洛灣 Bullock Bay 156K(96 miles) Close 137pm

#18 Finish 106.5K (102 miles) 

The second part of the preparation process was getting everything ready. The strange part about this race is they're requiring the participants to have a helmet after a certain point. They didn't mention how long we have to wear it, but it might be for forty miles. I don't know exactly why it is required but you might be disqualified if you don't have one. 

Runners are also have to wear a real reflective vest. I ended up using some bungees on my regular running hydration vest to keep everything simple.

At a certain point they are requiring a warmer jacket. This weekend I went out and bought a cheap Taiwanese down jackets that way if it gets lost it's not a big deal. After looking at the weather it seems like I might just be carrying it around most of the time in the back of my vest.

Other gear that I will be carrying

-sunglasses
-headlamp
-extra battery
-gloves
-bottle
-money
-phone
-ipod
-Tailwind (electrolyte drink mix) 
-soap
-first aid kit

Everything else is going to be with Adrien. She is going to be taking a bus along the course and I will hopefully be able to see her and drop off or get anything that I need. Some of these things are...

-extra clothes

-medical supplies

-extra shoes 

-warm clothes/rain gear  
-medication for altitude sickness 

This is a rough summary of what I'm bringing and what I'm doing in preparation for this race. I'm not a seasoned ultra runner and I don't quite know what to expect but I have done one other race. I hope that I have learned a little from that and will help me be more prepared. In reality there are always and lot of unknowns with any event like this. There is probably a few more. Since I'm in Taiwan and there is a real communication barrier between me and the race directors it always makes things more interesting. No matter what I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to get away from my boss and seeing some new places!