The Most Beautiful Thing 2012

        “Damn!! Wikipedia let me down this time” I thought when opening the computer after I finished the second edition of the Sabah 100k Ultra Trail Marathon in Borneo. There was a lot of things going through my mind in last few hours, but none of it counted with the definition “An ultramarathon is any sporting event involving running and walking longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 km”  But let’s start from the beginning J

         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!

“Kiteboring” – Search for the perfect spot

          Kiteboarding is an amazing sport. With its unlimited range of things you can do when you are tight up to a kite and sliding your board though the water or air it’s really a sport for almost anyone and everyone finds its own style of kiting. This is when we are talking about you and kite only. But there is the third and essential element which makes all of this possible…the wind, the sea and the environment around in general!! And to be honest, there are better and worse places when you can go kiting.

          So what are the perfect conditions then? Empty one meter deep crystal clear lagoon with absolutely flat water and constant steady cross-onshore 20 knots wind. Kiting in such conditions makes you forget about the surroundings and concentrate on just riding, jumping and tricks…and each session will be pure unforgettable pleasure. But as it is always…nothing is perfect J

          I have been kiting in many places. I learned in Dubai on a crowded deep beach with straight onshore wind blowing all beginners right back to the shore. Far from perfect. Then we were going to 200km far shallow empty beach, but wind in UAE in general is weak so many times we didn’t even inflated the kites. Far from perfect. I also went for a week trip to Hurghada in Egypt, which was supposed to be great spot, but there was no wind for a whole week. There is plenty of wind usually…just a bad luck. Far from perfect anyway.

          Then I moved to Qatar. Kiting on shallow lagoons with small waves in 16 knots wind with little gusts is actually very good. Pity that the wind is unpredictable and if there will be one week of wind and one month of nothing! Almost perfect.
          But then you hear the other talking about amazing places around the world and feel like you just give it a try. So I went to southern Spain kiting on open sea with big broken waves and medium gusty wind. Getting used to the new conditions took me almost whole trip! Average.

           On the way back we stopped in southern France to kite in 35knots on lagoons with pretty gusty wind and small waves. Not being that tired and having more time for finding the right lagoon, I think would have been great.

          And because my dream of kiting in a perfect sport still lived, with Jitka we used August Islamic holidays and went for a week trip to Sri Lanka to kite on mirror flat water with steady strong wind. That is what we have been told!

           Kalpitiya is a village in the middle of nowhere 3 hours drive north of Colombo. During the summer monsoon season the strong winds blow from the west into many closed lagoons along the shore. Because there is little tourism the accommodation options are limited, so we paid pretty high money for staying right on the beach in a bamboo wooden kind of kite camp resort.

           Shortly said…if you expect too much, you often get disappointed!! And it started right when we came and they put us into the room behind the kitchen and toilet and the first night when we heard through thin wooden wall everything from the last guy finishing his beer and going to pee to the first cook to start preparing the breakfast and going to pee. Then we moved to a semi protected space in the first floor of the kite centre, where wind was blowing in though curtains and holes in the wooden walls. After everyday breakfast of toast bread, marmalade and egg, not even a shower corner built from palm leaves and shower tube hanging from a palm tree in the middle could surprise us! All of that luxury for only 55 USD per person per day…fair deal! I was kind of expecting that…Jitka a bit less!!

           All of this would be no problem for me if I could waste myself kiting and die in the bed after whatever dinner they serve. The first two days was almost like this. We launched from the hotel 5x5 meter launch spot with wind often dropping to zero and landing your kite on a bush and rode one kilometer to the other side of the lagoon onto the sand bank. The only tiny flat spots just behind the sand bank were always occupied with others or school so I was riding outside in small waves and only little gusty wind. But I had fun for sure and managed to learn some new tricks. Jitka had less fun because she was struggling with her 7m in wind on the low end. Swimming murky water didn’t help her at all!

          I was still expecting that super clean steady wind to some, but instead we got something what I’ve probably never experienced yet. Gusts ranging from 12 25 knots and lasting for a minute easily!! In conditions like this even riding on the flat water over lunch time when everyone left to eat, didn’t save our mood from dropping. There is not much fun on waiting with your 9m kite for enough wind sitting in the water and then once you ride and airborne being tossed back down in another gust! The last two days the wind even almost died in the afternoon, so our frustration was complete! Time to leave this “Kite paradise”

          Fortunately we planned also for a three day roundtrip around Sri Lanka culture sights, which saved the holidays. We hired a van and went cruising through ancient cities full of spiritual peace. And it definitely replenished us with some fresh energy and we enjoyed all the dense green jungle with standalone rocks in the middle, wandering around white Buddhist temples and ruins and going though busy local market streets or multi-religious districts of the capital Colombo.

          We were leaving…well…torn apart. On the other hand we were looking forward to go kiting to our desert wind, but on the other hand we wanted to stay and go explore Sri Lanka more, because we saw a lot of potential in the parts of the country where we didn’t go…understand it that I’ve heard about a great kite and surf spot on the east coast J

          So the search for the ultimate kite spot is still on!!! But next time no gambling…straight to Mauritius J