Nabil.Food.Art: Penang Eco 2019

I needed a build-up race before Mantra Summit Challenge 75k (5,680m +/-) in July 2019. Penang Eco 50K was two weeks after Hari Raya and would be the perfect training block after one month of fasting in Ramadhan. So, it means that I have to forgo Raya open houses and one family trip for weekend trainings.

If I go down, I’m dragging someone with me! And that person is a newly turned dad and former high school buddy of mine, Hafizan, who has never ran a trail ultra-marathon, let alone a road marathon distance. I have been dragging him everywhere I go for training leading into the race day. This was also my first gig in a short 50K trail race and I went in with a mindset to race (as much racing there is for a mid-packer runner like me). I have goal for a 10 hour finish and then I will see where I stack among the finishers. The 50K route is the second half for 100K runners and the final third for 100 miles runners, where the huge junk of the elevation gain comes from for the race.

RACE DAY

Hafizan is all smiles at the starting line of his first ultra marathon

Flag off was at 1:00 am. I like to run right in front of the middle pack to avoid bottleneck situation when I reach the first climb. Around 4:00 am after 14KM in, it started to pour as I went up the third climb into a durian orchard. Since it was durian season, there was no guarantee it was safe to run through the durian orchard during a thunderstorm. I can hear durians falling from the trees and hitting the ground.

When I reached CP7-Berapit at KM20, the second check point for 50K runners, I saw Izuan sitting on a bench and had already retired from the race. He is usually a podium finisher for short races and this was his first attempt at a 50K race. Unfortunately, he decided to end his race early due to heavy rain which makes trekking through forest trails more difficult and dangerous. It was still pouring when I left CP7-Berapit and ran through housing areas, paddy fields and tarmac roads searching for orange spray paints of letter “E” on streetlight poles until I reached CP8-Temple at KM28. Isn’t this considered to be vandalism of public property?

It was already the break of dawn when I arrived at CP9-Tokun Dam at KM34. Tokun hill is a popular place to hike among the local hikers as I bumped into few on them on the trails and more at the trailhead of CP10-Tokun Hut at KM37. Finally, the sun came out to play around 10:00 am as I went past through the final CP11-Seraya Tinoga at KM46. I cannot tell how many times I needed to backtrack because I missed a marker. But, it’s always great to see runners working and communicating with each other to connect route between markers.

I was back at Sungai Lembu Chinese School and crossed the finish line around noon after 11 hours. 1 hour off from my target. They held the finisher ribbon out for every runner crossing the finish line which fooled me into thinking I had secured a top finish but only to be greeted with silence from the crowd and organiser.

“Dear future organiser, finisher ribbons are for those who come in first place only. Ultra-runners are physically and mentally exhausted after running the whole day to have their feelings being played like that at the finish line. That is not cool!”

In case you are wondering about Hafizan, he crossed the finish line around 5:00 pm (COT 18 hours @ 7pm) in one piece but had a bad fall and sprained his ankle early at KM20 during a downhill section. He could have thrown in the towel looking at the state of his injury but he decided to finish the race with 30K remaining basically on one foot and dragging the other. Respect is given where it is due! And you earned it man!

Distance: 50.33 km
Elevation Gain: 2,841 m
Time: 11:02:10
(Recorded using Garmin Forerunner 935)