TMBT Ultra-Trail Marathon 2018 - 100K race report

"The Most Beautiful Thing"

The Most Beautiful Thing Ultra-Trail Marathon, or simply “TMBT”, refers to the iconic Mount Kinabalu, which at 4,095m the highest peak in Malaysia. There were things I like, and there were things I didn’t like about the race. In this report, I will share with you how my race went and my thoughts on the race.

TMBT is the oldest ultra-trail marathon in Malaysia with the first race held in 2011. It is also the most expensive 100k race in Malaysia at RM500. This year, TMBT has become one of Ultra-Trail World Tour (“UTWT”) Discovery Races which is part of a new trail running event introduced around the world apart from the more prestige UTWT main events such as Ultra-Trail du Mont Blanc and Western States 100 to name a few. TMBT takes runners through local villages, vegetation fields, hilly tarmac and gravel roads with view of Mt. Kinabalu throughout the entire race. No, this race does not go to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu nor uses the Mt. Kinabalu trek (Mt. Kinabalu International Climbathon however, does).  

I had 8 weeks training block before the race which came after a long Ramadhan and Hari Raya break. The last race I did was Rinjani100 back in May. TMBT wasn’t supposed to be on my 2018 racing calendar. Originally the plan was to do Mesastila Peak Challenge in October. Then as more and more of my buddies, especially Saufi and Faiz were going to run TMBT, I decided to jump on the bandwagon.

After a DNF at Rinjani100, I was looking to make amend at TMBT. I did a lot of hill repeats (1km with 40m gain).  I did double header twice. Double header is a training block I called where I would go up Telapak Buruk (20km with 1000m gain) and then drive for 15 minutes to Gunung Berembun trailhead for another climb (13km with 1000m gain). The average per week over the 8 weeks training log was 43km with 2,446m elevation gain. I’d only done one 100k race which was a year ago at Merapoh Ultra-Trail Marathon.

Here’s how to get to the race venue for out-of-town arrivals. First, fly into Kota Kinabalu International Airport and collect your race kit at Metro town, which is a 15 minutes’ drive from the airport. You can choose to stay at KK where the organiser arrange shuttle bus at pick-up points around KK to take runners to the starting line at Kg. Lingkubang which is 70km from KK. The finish line is at Kundasang about 44km from the starting line and after the race you can take a shuttle bus return to KK. If you opted to stay at Kundasang to enjoy Mount Kinabalu cool weather and its surroundings, you have to arrange your own transportation back to KK.

After I looked into the logistics, I decided to fly solo on this trip without my wife because from a spectator point of view, I found it difficult to arrange accommodation and transportation to the race venue if she would come to support. Plus, I didn’t want her to stay in KK while I’m running in Kundasang.

Finally, race day was here! Started at 6:00am at Kg. Linkubang, I was at the back of the line chatting and snapping photos with Faiz and Saufi. Straight from the flag off, I ran to make my way into the mid pack. I wanted to avoid bottleneck before getting into the smaller trails. After 3k in, we went up a steep uphill road section to Kg. Kebayau and that was not the last. No, I didn’t mean the number of climbs, but the great deal of road sections that you have to run on. The trail to road ratio was 50/50 in my opinion. I wasn’t a fan.

With Saufi and Faiz at the starting line.

Photo by Tsen Shin Yon

Photo by Lee Wei Guan

At the first water station W1, I had a bite of the best pineapple I have ever had in my entire life. I didn’t even bother to eat the watermelons and bananas served. Then I saw Nana (a local elite runner) with a crew waiting for her at W1 and I was like “damn, am I that fast?” But eventually later on the race, I found out the different between elite runners and non-elite runners are simply the level of urgency. I took my time at every water stations to drink, eat and rest (including sleep), while an elite runner would be in and out in 3-5 minutes.

Photo by Geoff George

Photo by Nasier Lee

The best part of running through villages was when local villagers came out to sell carbonated drinks like Coca-Cola and isotonic drinks which were not served at water stations. It’s hard to give them a pass especially when you came across one that was set up in the middle of the forest after a climb. I bought drinks three times from them. At KM38, there was a shuttle transfer on the main road for 100k runners due to landslides on the route leading to W5 which have yet to be repaired since 2017. From W5 (KM38) to W6 (KM50), I ran with Abang Jamadi. Shout out to Rojak Runners for setting up refreshment station for free for runners on the way to W6.

On the way to W6 which was the halfway point and also the finishing line, you have to go up another long uphill road to Perkasa hotel located on top of a hill. At this point, I was annoyed with all the road sections. Felt like I was running a road ultra, rather than a trail ultra. Anyway, the cut-off time for W6 was 17 hours and I arrived in about 10 hours plus. The second half of the race would be tougher because you have to run through the night after you have done a whole day of running. Sleep deprivation would play a big factor. I ate food provided, took a nap and went for a toilet break. I even saw the first 100k runner, Daved Simpat, crossed the finish line. It was a cold 1 hour and 40 minutes spent.

  

Photo by photog

With the 100k champ, Daved Simpat,
before I went off into the night for the second half of the race. 

Fast forward to the coldest and highest point of the race at 1,700m elevation, the infamous cabbage farm loop in Mesilau at KM70. The weather and trail condition that night was great because it could’ve been worse if it was raining and the vegetable patch could quickly turn to a mud fest, which was mentioned in the race guide and warned by runners who had ran TMBT before. It was already midnight and I was really sleepy. When I came in W9 (1,600m elevation) at KM76, I went under the tent to sleep straight away. Most runners slept here were covered with their emergency blankets. When I woke up, I was shivering and had a hot cup of noodle before I left the water station. It was a really cold hour spent.

The climb down from Mesilau to Liposu Lama was mostly downhill. It was on the way down from Mesilau when I saw Iqbal and Zahara, and further down was Saufi, who were making their way up. When I reached W10 at KM84, I saw Erin and Kimi sleeping on a chair before I sat in front of them and accidently woke them up (my bad guys!). It looked like they had been pushing through the night and was on their way soon after that. It was around 4am in the morning; I felt like a sleepwalking zombie and was trying my best not to fall on my face. Up to this point, I have been running the night section all by myself. Finally, I decided to have some company, so I caught up with the next person up front. He looked as horrible as me. His name is Alai and we chatted a bit. Then, the funny thing was when I suggested to Alai let’s just sleep at the next water station until the sunrise, before making the final push to the finish line. He was down with it! 

We reached W11, the last water station at 5am, slept like babies for a good hour and by the time we left the water station, it was already daylight. There was another 11km to go with 850m gain mostly on gravel roads all the way to the finish line. The climb seemed like forever but I didn’t care. Actually I was hoping there would be another 1,000m gain somewhere because in the end I only got 4,412m elevation gain off my Garmin FR935 and in my mind I felt like I did 4000+m of vert. The actual total elevation gain was 5,255m.

Towards the final KM’s, I started to hike faster. Then I was running. Then Alai was running too. The time was almost 9am and both us knew the window for sub-27 hour finish was shutting fast. We were running as if we haven’t just run 99k beforehand. And then there was the last corner and finish line. Crossed the finish line at 9.01am. It was exactly 27 hours and 59 seconds since I started the race from Kg. Linkubang the day before. The goal was a sub-30 hour finish. Anything below that was a bonus. Later, once the official result was updated with the stoppage timing extracted from the W5 shuttle transfer earlier, my official timing became 26 hours 48 minutes and 27 seconds! I felt like I won the whole damn thing.

Final push towards the finishing line with Alai (in blue/black) close behind me.
Photo by Ang Siang Chie

With Alai after the race.

Rinjani100 2018 - 60K race report (Part 2)

WS 3 – RINJANI SUMMIT (3,726 m)

Distance: 4.12 km

Total distance: 22.78 km

Time spent on feet: 3:33’40”

Time spent at WS: 19’16”

Elapsed time: 11:45’48”

The terrain to the summit was nothing like I could had imagined. Starting with solid sand track then passed through thick sand track where the sand went up covering the ankle, and finally loose gravel that sinks with every step forward. Condition got worse when my vision became blurry from the dust blown by the strong winds. I tried my best to keep moving, but found myself stopping every so often to catch my breath. It was really hard to maintain any consistent movement. Eventually by God’s will, I reached the summit at 10:56 am with about 30 minutes to spare before the summit 12 hour cut-off time. I spent a great amount of time at the summit, more than I should considering that it was a check point with no water and food. But one must take selfies and simply taking in the view. At the summit there were Ayie, Rem, Fahmi and Ecah. 

Ayie during the summit attack.

All covered up to face the strong winds and dust.

Alhamdulillah, I'm on top of the world.

WS 2 – SEMBALUN RIM (2,638 m)

Distance 4.20 km

Total distance: 26.98

Time spent on feet: 1:38’06”

Time spent at WS: 37’12”

Elapsed time: 14:01’06”

Descending from the summit, this was where the slipping and sliding started. I lost count how many times I fell on my ass. Visibility worsens when the cloud came and I still couldn’t see clearly. I even got myself lost for a while as I missed a turn and went off track. When I reached WS 2, I went to seek medical attention straight away. They rinsed my eyes with water to clean off the dirt caught in my eyes. Ayie offered his Brahim’s Nasi Goreng Ikan Masin which was way appetising than my Hutan Ration food bars which tasted like chalk block. Then I took a 15 minutes nap before Ecah came in WS 2 rushing me to get going as I had been there for quite a long time.

WS 4 – POS 1 (1,410 m)

Distance 6.19 km

Total distance: 33.17 km

Time spent on feet: 1:46’34”

Time spent at WS: 9”

Elapsed time: 15:47’49”

Hiking down Bukit Penyesalan from Sembalun Rim was not easy either. I kept slipping and falling. When I reached the vast grassland at the foot of Bukit Penyesalan, only then I could start running. Motorcycles are accessible here, so you could start seeing local motorists (gojet) were going back and forth picking up runners who had called their race off. From RP250,000 you can take the gojet all the way to the finish line if you don’t want to make the long journey back on foot. The price gets cheaper and cheaper once you are close to the village. They offered me RP150,000 but I only had RP100,000. Plus, I wasn’t planning to call my race off just yet.         

Descending from Bukit Penyesalan.

WS 5 – BAWAK NAO (991 m)

Distance 5.00 km

Total distance: 38.17 km

Time spent on feet: 52’57”

Time spent at WS: 8’09”

Elapsed time: 16:48’55”

It’s all runnable from the grassland at Pos 1 to the vegetation fields entering Bawak Nao village. Managed to catch up with Ayie going into WS 5 where the drop bags were. I changed into a fresh pair of socks. There will be two more major climbs with less than 4 hours’ remaining. Technically, I knew I wouldn’t make it to finish line. I wouldn’t even make it down Bukit Pergasingan. A lot of runners knew this too and decided to end their race here. I saw runners turning back to WS 5 as I started my climb up Bukit Pergasingan (1,700m). Even Ayie who left the WS 5 with me decided to turn back and end his race. I kept going alone as dawn approaches. I wanted to see how far I could go.  I wanted to climb Bukit Pergasingan, and Bukit Pergasingan didn’t disappoint. After 4KM in, I came out from the forest into an open grass field as the sun sets behind Mt. Rinjani. I was alone but I was happy.

Ascending Bukit Pergasingan during dusk.

DNF – BUKIT PERGASINGAN TRAIL HEAD (1,700 m)

Distance 7.28 km (WS 6 LIKUN - 11KM)

Total distance: 45.45 km

Time spent on feet: 3:45’52”

Elapsed time: 20:34’47”

In the distance, I could see people camping at the top of Bukit Pergasingan. I thought there would be a WS at the peak, but later found out as I was passing through that the young locals would go up Bukit Pergasingan on the weekends to have campouts. Here, I bumped into race marshals that were making sure tape markers are still visible because they said the kids climbing up Bukit Pergasingan would purposely take it down. Finally, after 20 hours, 44 km and 4,668m elevation gained, the race sweepers caught up with me, cut off my race tag and I officially DNF at the top of Bukit Pergasingan. It took me a good hour to make my way down. When I came down, I saw Ecah sitting at the trailhead probably pondering back on her race. We walked back to the race village which was about 3 km away.

Overall, Rinjani100 is a top and well organised trail running event. I recommend that you should try to do it at least once. It is challenging and brutal, but it is so unbelievably beautiful. I didn’t get the race ending I wanted, but I am grateful I had the opportunity and ability to be in this incredible mountains. I wouldn't made it this far without the support of my family especially my wife for putting up with my training and those who came on runs and hikes with me. Lots and lots of people helped me on this journey.

** Recently, Lombok has been hit with two major earthquakes on 29 July and 5 August. At least 90 people have been killed, hundreds more are injured and thousands of house damaged from both quakes. If you want to help out the relief effort, Rinjani100 team has set up channel for donation (monetary or goods and medical necessities). You can reach out to them at the contact numbers below: **

Rinjani100 2018- 60K race report (Part 1)

"I can accept failure, but I can't accept not trying"

RINJANI 100

The Rinjani 100 ultramarathon was by far the hardest race I have ever taken part. The 60 km category comes complete with a package of 5,324 m of elevation gain, or roughly 16 times up and down the stairs of KL tower and you have to finish in 20 hours, the official final cut-off time. The route takes you up the volcanic mountain of Rinjani – yes, volcano that spits hot lava and suffocating ash - which its last eruption was less than 2 years back in September 2016.

Many had forewarned me that it is impossible, insane and somewhat stupid to do over 5,000 m elevation gain in 60 km under such a tight cut-off time, which also includes an arduous climb to the summit of Rinjani (3,726 m a.s.l.). Many have tried, but only few have succeeded. For the past 2 years, there were only 43 finishers combined for 60 km category (2017:24 finishers, 2016:14 finishers) and 100 km category (2017:4 finishers, 2016: 1 finisher). I knew about this before I signed up for the race and bought the flight tickets, right?

TRAINING DAYS

I did and started training for every single week since January for 17 weeks till race day and logged a total distance of 758 km and elevation gain of 27,108 m which comes to an average distance of 45 km and elevation gain of 1,595 m per week. Training days were long and hard. There were ups and downs, but I’m thankful for those who came on runs, hikes and climbs with me, making it much more bearable and a little less lonely. The times I spent during training, were the times I spent away from my family. Training days required commitment, discipline and sacrifices.

TRAVELS

Along for the ride is my manager and support crew who is my wife. It was on Thursday when we landed at Lombok airport after a 3-hour flight, and another 3-hour van ride, and we finally arrived at Semb;alun (1,100 m), a village located at the slope of Mt. Rinjani. We stayed at a guesthouse about 5 minutes walking distance from the race venue. There were not many shops nearby the race venue, so food options were limited. The one where we had lunch on the first day eventually ran out of food the next day due to the unexpected high volume of customers from the RInjani100 crowd. So we had to do a little bit of walking and exploring. My advice when racing outside of the country would be to pack some canned or dried food in your suitcase in case local food couldn’t satisfy your taste buds. Rookie mistake learned.

Mt. Rinjani from the window seat. Stunning!

Mt. Rinjani from our guesthouse doorstep. Breathless!

Getting acquainted with trekking poles with a short 
hiked up Bukit Telaga in the morning of race day.

Getting a taste of the trails around Sembalun at Bukit Telaga.
That view though.

Race pack collection.

At the race briefing later that evening.

RACE DAY

The start point for 60k and 100k was in Senaru, a village 30 km away which was about an hour drive from the race venue (finish point). Shuttle buses were provided for participants around 9.00 pm and the ride was bumpy and winding. I started to feel light-headed and dizzy. My head was spinning from the ride that I had to lie down for 30 minutes when we arrived in Senaru. Definitely, it was not the start that I would’ve wanted. There were others who even threw up from the ride. Thankfully, I managed to recover quickly and started to feel better after my short rest.

Race ready faces with Malaysian comrades.

With wifey before the race.

WS 1 – SENARU RIM (2,636 m)

Distance: 11.33 km

Total distance: 11.33 km
Time spent on feet: 4:05’18”

Time spent at WS: 12’31”
Elapsed time: 4:17'49"

The flag off was at 11.30 pm from Senaru (600 m) and the route took us along 7.5 km of rain forest vegetation with some runnable sections. Once we got out of the forest and into the open section of the mountain, cold gusty winds welcomed us as we made our way across rocky and dusty hills accompanied by thousands of night stars along the way to Senaru Rim. This was by far the coldest section of the race that I had to put on a second layer of windbreaker over another windbreaker I was already wearing once I reached WS 1.

WS 2 – SEMBALUN RIM (2,638 m)

Distance: 7.33 km

Total distance: 18.66 km

Time spent on feet: 3:14’20”

Time spent at WS: 20’43”

Elapsed time: 7:52’52”

After a while we got a break from the strong winds as the route took us straight down the hills into steeply rock boulders to Segara Anak lake crater (2,000 m). Throughout the race, we would passed by trekkers and several campsites for those who were making their climb to Mt. Rinjani. As the sun started to rise, the beauty of the mountain presents itself. I cannot believed my eyes of the stunning landscapes facing the lake as I made my way up the steep incline towards Sembalun Rim. Hungry and tired, I decided to take a longer break and eat before the demanding climb to the summit of Rinjani.

Making my way up to Sembalun Rim with
Segara Anak lake crater in the background.

To be continued...

SCKLM 2018 - half marathon race report

"Starting strong is good. Finishing strong is epic"

BACK TO BASIC

I realised that since I started running (full) marathons, I have gotten complacent and comfortable with running long and slow. Then I started running ultra-marathons which the pace is even slower than marathon races. You need to run efficiently but not necessarily fast. I didn’t find the need to work on my speed like running on a track and doing intervals speed workouts (I have yet to run on a track). But after another failed attempt to finish sub-5 at SCKLM last year (5:20), I knew I needed to work on my speed which I have neglected in my running. So, I decided to join half marathon category with a goal to finish sub-2. I did it once at Seremban Half Marathon 2013 which I crossed the finish line right on the dot in 1:59’59”.

TRAINING

Training has gone well building up to race day. Started training since the start of the year with average mileage of 40km per week. 10k runs on weekdays after work and longer runs over the weekends. Mixed it around with trail running and hiking to lessen the impact on joints but we all know the real reason as Kilian Jornet once said “flat is boring”.

RACE DAY : 0530 START (8/4/2018 SUN)

I was excited to be running for the first time with Boy (Mahzan) who was going to be my pacer and a frequent sub-2 finisher. Flag off was at 5.30 a.m. and straight out of the gate, we quickly settled in our stride with me leading and cutting our way through the crowd for the first 5k. Boy said we were going too fast as the adrenaline rush got the best of me, he quickly took pacing duty onwards. Pace was good. Timing was good. Legs were good. Everything was good (so far).

What is every runner’s worst nightmare during a race? Yes, taking care of business in the porta-potty. At KM12, mother nature called and I had to do exactly that. Thank goodness I was the first person to use that particular Superman-changing-room as toilet papers were still wrapped in plastic and there was no funky smell (sorry next person though J). I’d already conceded that I would not get my sub-2 finish today, so I told Boy to go ahead and get that sub-2 finish for us. I kept looking at my watch counting the seconds and minutes. I had lost seven minutes.

Grumpy stomach gone, chugged down two cups of water and off I went. I kept running a 5:30 pace and started to estimate my finishing time, it was still possible! I picked up the pace, skipped the last two water stations and in the last KM sighed a huge relieve when I spotted the 2:00 hour pacers. I crossed the finishing line with 44 seconds to spare and the biggest smile on my face. Alhamdullilah.

Always finish strong in a race because you will never know the outcome. And I’m glad I did. Congratulations to SCKLM on their 10^th anniversary marathon and all finishers. See you again next year and if you read this till the end, thank you!

With my boy, Boy.

Supporting her on her 10k run. Congrats sayang!
Maybe one day we'll run a marathon together.

Signed off