The reason you don't DNF this race is the cost and the long flight-time. It's at least SGD2,000 for a budget trip of 5days to Chamonix and back and many hours of flying, not counting the time and money spent to clock qualifying points. If money is no problem, then just ballot yearly and enjoy the lucky draw =)
2014 - Rain at the start made sure that it was not the simplest of UTMB races, which was a good experience worth collecting and at the same time it was not one worth forgetting via DNF , cancellation or shortening of race course.
The most runnable high elevation course that I have done thus far, the down slopes were safe to run for most part of the 168km route until maybe the last 20km. I mean even on a gravel track, there was a pathway that had almost no gravel on it throughout the race course. Call it a track within a track. The grassy or soft mud downslopes were even highly comfortable to run on, making such sections 'posh' (thick-carpet experience).
The only trouble that I really faced was when my headlamp started to act as if the battery power, including those provided by the race organisers and helpful runners, was diminishing too fast because of the cold. I mean new to no lights in 5 minutes. I was even left in complete darkness beside a cliff for 'forever' (I meant 30 seconds). I daren't even move an inch until the next runner (Tom) came and I asked for a spare light which wasn't bright enough too. I thus had to run with Tom step for step until the next checkpoint which he had generously offered and kindly led. A didn't have much problems with this as I have always practiced using minimal light and regularly not using my light, but leeching off the light of runners in front or behind me, to save battery. Thank God for 'Kiasuism'.
Reaching the safety of the checkpoint, I had either to find a good headlamp or restart when the sun is out. Good thing for me Rick, Tom's friend allowed me to decide on the first option and I was able to finish the race in 35h+.
Without wanting to give too much away and spoiling the fun for you guys, I would just say the first quarter of the race is relatively simple and the next 3/4 is generally up and down with the rest of the elevation well spread out with each climb up about 800m.
The crowd support is tremendous which I consider the highlight of the race and of course the snow capped mountains. Overall scenery enjoyment cannot beat Indo's which is more dynamic due to the varying landscape.
Probably with all the hype and buzz heightening expectations as well as already experiencing a Liverpool Match and La Tomatina for t his month long Europe trip catered around UTMB, I reached Chamonix a little deflated emotionally. It was kinda weird that I was unable to really feel excited, nervous or anything other than it's something that I just had to go through. The only fun I had from the whole Chamonix portion of my Europe trip was the fuzzy feel when meeting fellow Singaporean friends.
Friday, August 29, 2014
Saturday, August 9, 2014
Mount Rinjani Ultra (MRU) 2014
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
Shoe
Salomon Speedcross (shoe dnfed at about 30k)
AdiZero Trail (brought me to finish then home)
The end of the race is really just the end of the race.. The important part is the big BUT.
BUT it is the start of party and celebration which I found on Gili Trawangan.
The highlight of this 52km race would definitely be summiting the peak of the 3726m high mountain.
 |
| First Time on a Firefly Fokker Plane |
 |
| Bestest Ayam Bakar Taliwang |
 |
| Cutsy Snacks |
 |
| People of Food and Run |
 |
| 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.
 |
| Egg Plant?! |
Noisy bunkmates - handphone, snoring, fidgetty and restless due to anxiety
No accomodation
Trying to force sleep.
 |
| Leeching power off a restaurant next door |
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.
 |
| Spent lotsa time steadying my hands for the best dawn shot on a cameraphone |
 |
| Yet another shot otw up |
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.
 |
| With Puzi |
 |
| Puzi and Singaporean friend |
 |
| Once again flying the Singapore flag high on my beloved Indo Mountains |
 |
| Sole split and stained feet for 3-4days |
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.
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.
Shoe
Salomon Speedcross (shoe dnfed at about 30k)
AdiZero Trail (brought me to finish then home)
The end of the race is really just the end of the race.. The important part is the big BUT.
 |
 |
| Departing to Gili Trawangan |
 |
| My Chariots on Standby |
 |
| The importance of a deep harbour =) |
 |
| Loving all this kind of local boats |
 |
| The Island |
 |
| The Big Feast |
 |
| Aussie friends |
 |
| Japanese, Indo and Singaporean friends |
 |
| No Happy Hours, Only Happy Ending |
 |
| Playing with fire |
 |
| My bartender performer |
 |
| This is the night sky, without flash. |
 |
| Strange things happen at night |
 |
| Pasar Malam |
 |
| Glorious Seafood |
 |
| Flame Grilled - stayed to perfection! |
 |
| Loving the atmosphere |
 |
| SuperMoon - You know it's super when my cameraphone can take this! |
 |
| Taliwang at Mataram |
 |
| What a Spread |
 |
| Finger Licking - Spicy |
 |
| The famed AirAsia Nasi Lemak.. Really good! |
 |
| Cooling off |
 |
| What you see is What I got for the Meal back home. |
 |
| Goodbye Gili and Lombok, till we meet again! |
Friday, March 14, 2014
TransLantau100 2014
Other
than BTS100 which I really tried to understand the elevation and the difficulty
of the terrain that I was doing, I did not study the rest of my ultra-races.
Doing as such meant a shocker for me for the first 22km up till CP2 of
TransLantau 100 (LT100). In fact the difficulty started before the race.
To
begin, let’s start on Thursday 13 March 2014. The work day started just like
any other, but with the motivating knowledge of a trip to HK for the weekend.
Quickly got back after work to pack my stuff for the trip and race, before
meeting YMT at the airport. Did not even manage to get HKD which YMT confirmed
that he should have spare.
 |
| Carbo-loading |
 |
| Roaming the streets and eating 'Lap Sap" |
 |
| Makan before race - Crazy good honey chicken wings |
We got ourselves checked-in and with some lion dance performance, the race started.
It
was the beginning of the first ‘2 checkpoints’ and it was here that I realized that
elevation was not the only thing to look out for, but the amount of continuous up/down
between each CP that really mattered. The 750m up Sunset peak and the immediate
decline thereafter really sapped me (like as if there was anything left of me
after not sleeping for the 2nd night at this point). I was really
sleepy, exhausted and doing Zombie-walking already. After CP2, I knew that this
will be the CP where most runner will DNF other than the mid-point which was
more convenient for transport and also at least to ‘complete’ half.
I was awaken by a concerned runner and I was freezing. I started off shivering until I reached CP3 to grab some hot noodles to warm up and rested just abit more before feeling refreshed.
 |
| Taking a photo from the rock I slept on |
I was awaken by a concerned runner and I was freezing. I started off shivering until I reached CP3 to grab some hot noodles to warm up and rested just abit more before feeling refreshed.
 |
| CP3 |
To
keep things short, refer to the below PrintScreen to the main reason I
completed, coupled with the Whatsapp support from SG friends that I didn’t want
to disappoint.
 |
| Respect nature/the terrain by being prepared and well-equipped for the race, but even more so, respect yourself by training hard and racing easy. Know that you can never be fully prepare for every situation, but in spite of (injury, weather, …) many have overcame and triumphed. The race is tough only after you have trained hard and gone through it, not when it has yet to begin! |
I concluded that this race like Vibram HK100 should be divided into 2 parts, one being difficult and the other easier. For VibramHK100, it was easier on the first half and LT100 should be easier on the 2nd half just because my mind wouldn't comprehend a more difficult part 2. With that, I decided I was going to find out what laid ahead and I wouldn’t want a DNF knowing that I was right and missed that chance of cruising through part 2.
 |
| Me, before reaching Tai O CP (I think) |
 |
| Somewhere before CP5 |
I
Reached Tai O at 57km, caught another 30mins of eat and sleep and I was back on
a relaxed pace until before the climb up Ngong Ping where I met fellow
Singaporean Runner Calvin Kuan.
It was an enjoyable and chatty climb up followed by a deceivingly long 5km before I bode him farewell after CP7 to try to finish before the end of Saturday and not to let the girlfriend wait too long.
 |
| Calvin Kuan at the Cable Car Station |
It was an enjoyable and chatty climb up followed by a deceivingly long 5km before I bode him farewell after CP7 to try to finish before the end of Saturday and not to let the girlfriend wait too long.
 |
| Wisdom Path |
 |
| Gate to no turning back! |
 |
| Lantau Peak |
 |
| Misty Mountain |
CP8
– 9 was relatively flat but somehow felt longer than expected. In fact I was
getting concerned almost finishing all my water and meeting runners along the
way who were clueless about how far more the next CP was.
Upon
reaching CP9, I thought of just running past after refilling water, but decided
to eat a little, just in case there was no food at the end or stalls were
already closed at this late hour.
I
checked that the last 5km was flat all the way to the end, but ultimately realized
that there were quite a bit of rolling hills. I decided to do this 5km stretch
at tempo pace, held back from going all out just in case I somehow have to walk
the last part of it. It went according to plan and I overtook all that I could
see along the way back. 1 km from the end, suddenly a slightly more senior HK
runner ran past me. Hmmm, a quick finish was
going to become a sprint finish I guessed. I followed his pace, he
opened his stride, I opened, keeping the 1m distance. Every about 150m, I felt
that he tried to pull away, but I was going to keep this exciting for both of
us by completing the race together at such a pace. It was fun, but I wasn’t
sure where the end was, although everything was familiar now. I just followed
until about 300-400m from the end, when my feisty competitor checked back on me
twice and tried to break away. Then I knew game on, it was going to be either
me or him in this race. I checked my breathing just in case and knew that I got
spare. When he finally slowed, I sprinted to finish!
My
friendly competitor, whoever you are! Kudos to you for making me go all out at
the end of a 100km. To me you are the winner, because me being a junior came
back just seconds ahead of you =) Respect!
TransLantau 100 2014 Results
TransLantau 100 2014 Results
Notes
Train
lotsa steps, climb 2-3 steps up as well as down.
Vibram
HK100 1h30m – 1h40m between CPs with 300
– 500ml of water
LT100
2h-2h30m between CPs with 500ml – 900ml of water
Rumour has it that race director intends to increase the difficulty of this race each year.
Race is mostly up or down and seemed to have only 20% flats.
Shoe
Salomon Speedcross - first 60k toe rub against front of shoe that went away after I started getting pacy. Running slow may have affect run gait, since I did not face this problem during training. This shoes since day 1 haven't been stable for me, causing sprains, but I wore em for Lantau just to finish 'using' them.
Rumour has it that race director intends to increase the difficulty of this race each year.
Race is mostly up or down and seemed to have only 20% flats.
Shoe
Salomon Speedcross - first 60k toe rub against front of shoe that went away after I started getting pacy. Running slow may have affect run gait, since I did not face this problem during training. This shoes since day 1 haven't been stable for me, causing sprains, but I wore em for Lantau just to finish 'using' them.
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