By coincidence I entered the 2011 edition one year ago, by even bigger coincidence I won that race and as a consequence I had a free entry for 2012 edition, so I kind of had to come this year also. But that was not a problem because I wanted to come! I felt more experienced, stronger, faster and prepared. I was looking forward to be running again though all that beautiful landscapes along rivers, in the jungle, crossing hanging bridges and small villages and I was ready to learn from the past and give everything in those couple of steeper ascents I knew I had problem last time. I was ready to enjoy even more than I did last time J
Few months before the race day when the course was
announced, because I was really busy I barely noticed that there had been a
major route change due to some landslides and that the course became “a bit”
hillier! “Yeah…second part will be tough with these three climbs, but should be
OK” I chat in a good mood with my friend Ford at the prerace briefing. “If it
doesn’t rain…everything gonna be fine!” we closed the discussion and went to
sleep. I fell asleep still with a sweet smile of someone who doesn’t have a
clue!!
The next day, on a beautiful and fresh mountain morning below the majestic Mt. Kinabalu, it didn’t rain, but while watching the opposing mountain side with a road winding up, I finally realized how serious some of the local climbs can be. The initial worries were quickly forgotten in the prerace rush and when many racers recognized me and wanted to take a picture. Btw: Having my race video from 2011 being played on a big screen in the briefing room with people pointing at me standing aside saying “Look…it’s him!”...simply nice J
“BANG!!” And all 350 (140 from 100k category)
runners were on the go. My strategy was a bit different this time. I knew that
last time I lost a lot of time not running up the hills and running downhill
slowly, so I wanted to change that. And I did! I started in the lead of the
whole field for a short while going my planned pace, which was “This is a pace
to achieve some good result. I will go like this as far as I can. I can always
slow down later J” I’m not sure if this a good ultra marathon
strategy, but it works for me! Soon I was passed by few 25k and 50k runners
along with two 100k ones. “No problem” I said to myself, because the second
part of the race strategy was “When I get to the half, I’ll see what I can do
next”. And with Ford we watched them run away.
The course gradually climbed to its highest
point among the cabbage fields right below the Mt.Kinabalu around kilometer 15.
There I was in my realm. Running sky high on a thin technical trail winding
between the fields and farmer huts with a towering mountain on one side and a bottomless
valley on the other was like from another world. Without thinking I speeded up,
left Ford behind and enjoyed the flight not paying attention to countless small
but steep ascents and descents along the way.
Runner’s mental state is very fragile and any even the
smallest disturbance on annoyance can shatter it into pieces, which are really
hard to stick together again. And with your mind goes down your body, your
performance and speed! And such small stone fell into my mind just before
kilometer 30 and it started an avalanche.
Almost at the bottom on one particularly steep descent,
which I blasted down still in the spree from the fields, I overlooked the next
marker, stopped and looked back if I had not missed any turn. “Man you are
wrong!! There was turn for 100k runners at the last checkpoint. I’m doing
25k!!” a runner behind me shouted. In such moment, when you are set for running
only, you are not ready to perform any logical thinking which would say that it
is impossible to miss a big signboard with such information, so I cursed the markings
and started climbing back up. Obviously in couple of minutes I met Ford and all
the other runners coming the same way!! This time I cursed myself for being
stupid and started running back again. But it was not the same happy run
anymore.
By the time we reached CP3 at 30km I was sixth
and running slower feeling every steep descent taking toll on my muscles and
tearing more pieces from my shattering mind. On the route profile the almost
10km descent to CP4 looked mild. In reality it was a strenuous steep slope on a
wide gravel road with a view of the opposing same steep climb. When I reached
bottom at 38km, thoughts about the course and meaning of such race were
bubbling in my head and when I started climbing the same thing up again, they
reached the boiling point!!
I like running. I don’t like jogging or walking, because I
like to run! I like to feel the speed, the movement, the freedom only running
gives! “THIS IS NOT A RUN!! THIS IS NOT A MARATHON!!” I screamed though the
forest while slowly walking up the hill like I had 50 kilo backpack on me!
Further I got more serious my thoughts became. “I’m doing this for fun right?
And this is no fun at all. I’m just destroying my body for nothing!” After some
more sluggish climbing my stream of despair reached its very bottom. “I don’t
have to do this! There is absolutely no gain from it. The second half is even
worse. No piece of flat ground to run at all!! Only walking up and down again
because everything is impossibly steep! And even if I win the free entry for
next year, I don’t want to come to do this again. Finish!! I QUIT!!” and I was
90% decided to stop and drop out from the race when I reach 50km checkpoint.
But sometimes things are not as easy as they seem J
I was still going on the sixth position in that
time. I thought I was, because I didn’t pass any of the runners who passed me
before. “Hi there! What are you doing here?” I asked in awe the guy coming
suddenly from behind who was the first to pass me at the beginning of the race
with his buddy. “Yeah shame!! We got lost”. “We???” I thought realizing that
the second guy had to be also behind me. So I was going on fourth then. I
thought I was, because to my further surprise when in ten minutes I reached CP5
at 46k I was third! “Ford got lost too?” I couldn’t believe my eyes. And the
crown was put on top of it when in another 25 minutes at CP6 at 50k I was
second!! All guys got lost except one I saw around 20 minutes ahead.
“Yee…gogo…you are the winner…you are my favorite!!”
I’ve heard an older lady shouting when I was entering the CP6. I don’t know if
she really knew me, but in that time I believed she did and together with the
fact that I was second I sat down, opened my drop bag with the gear for the
second half and realized “I just cannot give up now!!! It just wouldn’t be fair
from me and to the others!” And I was off again within a minute. And once I was
on the following super steep and long descent to the next valley I relieved
“Giving up from such reasons is actually not an option at all!! I would be
cowardish and not within a spirit of racing! And I’m not like that!!”
After 5 hours and 50 minutes I was on the run
again and there was no turning back this time. So I had to start racing…again!!
And that I know definitely better than giving up J But because my legs were in pain and I was pretty tired, I had to pull some
aces from the sleeve to have chance to defend my second position and maybe even
close down on the first runner. “I don’t like to do it, but once I have it…I’ll
give it a try” and I swallowed a painkiller pill I prepared for the cases of
emergency. I guess there is a reason why some racers use it, because it helped
and together with the new impulse after starting the second half I pretty
quickly descended into a valley which looked like the deepest in the world.
When the slope finished, I virtually landed on a small
wooden bridge, “recovered” on ten meters of flat surface and started climbing
the same 30% slope back up on the other side! Simply insane!! And like this it
went with small variance basically until the end of the race. Wherever there
was a flatter bit I tried to run. But in condition like I was in, it took me around
500 meters to get the legs moving and switch from stumbling giant stride to a
slow run. But by the time another impossible ascent or descent came, which I
had to walk through, so after that I could start again!! Frustrating,
exhausting, annoying, boring!!
One small upside was around kilometer 70 though. After
climbing up another skyscraper trail I ended up on only mild sloped forest
track cut into the side of the hill top. I decided to pull my last ace in the
sleeve and put some trance beats on! And because that bit was almost 5
kilometers long I built up quite a pace. Suddenly everything worked as it
should! Enjoying the run though the forest, waving arms in the rhythm of the
music and suppressing by my speed the pain of fatigued muscles and falling off
big toes nails! I even started to think “If I manage to run like this, I can
catch him”. My appetite lasted until I landed on another bridge after CP9. “Does
anybody think this is normal!!!” I shouted into the void of the late afternoon,
lost in between towering mountains. Pure despair! I managed to run a couple of
bits more before the CP10, but there I was out of my second breath completely.
“I took him down from 40 to 25 minutes” I said
to the marshals. “If I can run now I still have a chance”, but I simply couldn’t.
And with the nightfall I conceded to all my race ambitions, calmed down and
just moved forward across more ridiculous climbs and descents. But I were still
moving ok speed in comparison to the others somewhere behind, because at the
last checkpoint 4k before the finish I was still second. I was expecting some
drama like last year when I was caught 1k before the finish and had to sprint
for the win, but nothing happened. And I was there J
I actually don’t remember much how I felt when I crossed the
finish line after 13 hours and 41 minutes of continuous movement though the
bestial Sabah terrain. But for sure I was happy J Happy that it was over, that I finished second in
international competition of experienced ultra runners, happy that I survived,
but the biggest happiness was that I didn’t give up! I don’t know when I
finally learn that giving up if you still can go and have a way to finish is
the biggest of defeats! It feels easy at the beginning, but its weight will
fall on you hard sooner that you think and you will regret big time! It’s just
not a way!! I was lucky this time J
I was thinking that the correct definition of an Ultra
Marathon includes only running, but as Wikipedia says, walking 100k is also an
Ultra!! So I guess the organizers are right, although they should better call
their race “Sabah 100k Ultra Trail Marathon – The Kneecracker J”
I won a free entry for 2013 edition, still a lot of time, but
I think I would be up for another Highlander Challenge J Funny how you quickly forget
and collect all your shattered pieces after it over!! By then…see you in the
trails!
1 comment:
After reading this, I wanna go for it too! :)
Post a Comment