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"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.
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With Saufi and Faiz at the starting line. |
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Photo by Tsen Shin Yon |
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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.
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Photo by Geoff George |
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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.
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Photo by photog |
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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.
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Final push towards the finishing line with Alai (in blue/black) close behind me. Photo by Ang Siang Chie |
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With Alai after the race. |
