I guess, with the increasing number of ultras 'runned' into my system, I would like to think that it's a collection of mental training. Experiences that I can playback and remember the previous success to inspire the current victory. BTS in its entirety has 'stretched' me beyond comprehension. Thus far, every race I ran would be checklisted against BTS in terms of overall difficulty, ease of navigation and craziness of elevation and Mount Rinjani Ultra (MRU) was no different.
The highlight of this 52km race would definitely be summiting the peak of the 3726m high mountain.
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| First Time on a Firefly Fokker Plane |
Having been informed about the amount of elevation compacted into this 52km race and its highest altitude, I decided not to rush this race to prevent altitude related issues. Having some HDB blocks & Bukit Timah as my highest altitude training and discomfort going from 1600m to 2600m quickly at BTS, I decided to use the full 18h which I initially thought was the time limit given for the 2013 MRU.
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| Bestest Ayam Bakar Taliwang |
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| Cutsy Snacks |
Reached Lombok on Thursday 7pm after a 1 day stopover in KL and joined some new friends at Kuta Lombok for the night. Had a hard floor sleep at Kuta as we squeezed 3 man in a room, but sleep was unnecessary when I had Ayam Bakar Taliwang. No questions, just EAT.
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| People of Food and Run |
We awoke at 5am and the 7 of us in 2 cars headed for the 3h drive to Senaru. Upon arrival, we realised that lots of runners who booked their accommodation way in advance had their confirmation resold probably to higher payers closer to race day. This was real stressful for many who wanted to catch a wink or two before the Friday midnight race.
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| Only problem was that the lodging hasn't been completed |
Lucky for me, FT and YM had booked a room a month in advance and they were already there the previous night to secure the stay. A point to note for this race is to make sure you call in closer to race date probably 4 weeks before and even a week before to multi-confirm your accommodation. Maybe book at 2 different lodges as you can easily sell off the extra one to desperate runners as there is a major shortage of accommodation.
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| Egg Plant?! |
Anyway, the more ultras one ran, the more you will be prepared for any kind of contingencies during the race and usually the more stressful parts are before the race when you can't get enough sleep due to a variety of reasons such as the following:
Noisy animals - chicken, dogs, crickets, etc
Noisy bunkmates - handphone, snoring, fidgetty and restless due to anxiety
No accomodation
Trying to force sleep.
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Leeching power off
a restaurant next door |
Regardless of the pre-race situation, just get to the race point positive and excited. You can always find time for sleep during an ultra. 1-2h should not be a prob if completion withing the cut-off time is the main goal. With that kind of sleep halfway through a race, its always like racing fresh again the next awakening.
Back to MRU, FT, Me and YM in descending order of age respectively, made our way to the start point casually and in so doing, reached just 10mins before flagoff, which felt good compared to the 1h wait at the race-pan in Singapore.
Upon flagoff, I was still excited as we had just arrived and it felt good. 12mn flagoff was good for me as I would usually start to think about the drag of the race 5h into it and for this race, it was about sunrise in 5h time and I would be refreshed. Also, it was planned that most runners would be between Plawangan Sembalun W4 and Rinjani during sunrise.
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| Spent lotsa time steadying my hands for the best dawn shot on a cameraphone |
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| Yet another shot otw up |
Sunrise came and I took time enjoying it and slowly climbed up Rinjani. I was prepared for the infamous slidding pebbles of the volcano where almost every step forward was met by the step sliding back almost to the previous point. I just took time to appreciate this difficulty. Another experience I had was when I held my breath each time it got dusty and after the dust passed, I would be out of breath and gasping due to the high altitude. This was really funny for me and I enjoyed the 6-10 pants after every hold of breath.
I reached the summit, thankful that I didn't have any altitude allergy except for a lingering headache for the whole of the race, which I was told could be mild altitude sickness.
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| With Puzi |
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| Puzi and Singaporean friend |
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| Once again flying the Singapore flag high on my beloved Indo Mountains |
Anyway I tried to spend more time at the peak, but after about 10-15mins, I had to take-off dashing down the slope again due to frozen mouth and hands and also when informed by a volunteer that I was 10h plus into the race. I was shocked to learn that I took so much time up and just wanted to complete this race instead of doing it with a specific goal. The freeze also gave me problem talking when I met FT and YM on the way down. Almost 75% down, I cleared my shoes and saw a lady hiker that I recognised from the same flight and she told me that the time was 9.15am and not the 10plus that I was wrongly informed of. Anyway it was good to know I was on track and this gave me renewed vigor.
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| Sole split and stained feet for 3-4days |
My second time at W4 and I realised that my Salamon Crossfell was falling apart and wanted to change shoes at W4, but was told by voluteer the dropbag was at W6. The moment I heard this, I thought regardless of the dropbag's location, as long as the sole was dangling, I would complete the race. True enough at W6, I was told that W4 was actually the dropbag location.
Focused on the end goal and expecting all kinds of nonsense, I quickly got climbing back to W4 for the 3rd time. Somehow the 1000m was tougher than expected. My legs are well tuned to do about 1000m of straight elevation as long as the average step wasn't more than 90degrees for the section. Somehow this section of climb really kept me desperately looking out for the top and this was the second time in the race I had to readjust my goals - Just Finish.
Reaching W4 the 3rd time, I was met by the typical 'no more water' news that I had come to expect of my Indo races. Also inspired by a HK lady who mentioned the next checkpoint was generally downhill and happy that I finally got the shoe changed, I left immediately as soon as I saw her leave.
The only mouth of water I had left was divided into 2, where I drank half when I was very thirsty and kept the other half till I saw WP3 for the second time. Drank up 2 bottles of Pocari, loaded both my 600ml bottles and took an extra bottle of Pocari when told there may not be water at the next cp.
I made sure that I had enough fluid for the whole way back, regardless of the situation of the cps coming up. Nothing was stopping me now. The last 600m climb up to Plawangan Senaru (W2) was reached at comfortable pace with an Ang Moh who did just 65-85k of weekly training for MRU! However his knee had some recurrent problem and slowed.
Upon reaching W2, I just wanted to hit back before sunset, guessing it must be 5.30pm by now - probably 1.5h to sunset. Sounds reasonable since it was all downhill.
I got off to another slippery start as I am inexperienced on dusty slopes, but as the slope down finally gave way to mud and roots of what I am accustomed to in Singapore, I was firing on all cylinders. The sprint down was enjoyable as this seemed really like the only truly runnable section. This last down slope I am sure was done in 48-50 mins.
Reached back in 17h30min or so. Yumz!
Notes
Keep going as this is a short race. Lots of time to rest (walk slowly) on the slopes of Rinjani.
Another reason why you should do the climb up Rinjani slower is that the next climb
Don't forget to plan 2 nights at Gili Islands after the race.
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