Racing Qatar Stage 8: TMBT 2013

          The Most Beautiful Thing means The Sabah 100k Ultra Trail Marathon in Malaysian part of Borneo. 100 kilometers and 5000m of elevation gain through super steep hills and jungle! Sounds like fun right? That’s exactly why I was coming down there for the third consecutive year. OK…it was also because I was on the podium on the previous years and had the entry for free J But this time I was not coming alone! Four friends from Middle East joined me for this challenge which promised to be the toughest out of all the three editions of the race!

          I came to Borneo on the evening before the race as usual. Checked in the hotel and met with Jaro and Milan. During dinner we chatted about how we were and how we trained. Milan had run Leadville 100 mile race a month ago and was struggling with injured ankle since, so he hasn’t trained. Jaro was not training much either because of UAE killing summer. I tried my best after I came back from my holidays in Czech Republic, but ran maybe 150 kilometers in the last month, so nothing much either! But apart from that we were obviously very well prepared J Not much time for anything else! Sleep, breakfast and lets run!

          The next day on the start we had to unfortunately wait for an hour more because there was a huge queue of 500 competitors for crossing a suspension bridge five a time, but it went quite fast as we chatted with some familiar faces from previous years.

          When it finally started I sprinted forward to be close in the leading group of the race, because shortly after the start there was another suspension bridge to cross and I didn’t want to get stuck in there! Once I was behind it I could start focusing fully on the race, because the rest of the field got obviously stuck in one hour queue again!

          The first part of the race was almost the same as the first year and I was recognizing many places making the navigation and route finding easier. I was really hot and humid, my heart rate was high, but I tried to keep some decent pace anyway on the first flat 10k. Another annoyance was that everything was wet and muddy, because of heavy rains in previous days. There were also many river and water crossings so practically from the start to finish I was running with wet shoes! But what to do. Everyone had wet shoes!

          But the trail was fun, narrow with sharp curves, though trees and canopy, jumping over roots, up, down…when running like this focusing on the trail, you just don’t mind some surrounding discomfort J

          When sky-climbing though pineapple plantations toward a short jungle look I caught up again with Jimmy Tee, the guy who won the 2012 edition ahead of me and the guy who trains as many kilometers in a week as I do in a month! Also runner Hedilee was closely following me, but from his heavy breathing I hoped we wouldn’t last long. So our group of three was running together through the jungle following the leading guy somewhere in the front.

          I was a bit faster on the technical downhills so I outrun Jimmy on the way towards the water station 2. We had to run the same beautiful narrow path cut into the steep mountain slope as in 2011. I remembered very well, because that time on my kilometer 65, I caught the second breath and was flying. This time I was not flying that fast even on my kilometer 20, because the terrain and weather were really exhausting and the progress was slow. I got to the 25k checkpoint after 4 hours of running! “It is going to be a long day” I thought when changing socks and throwing out leaches from my shoes!

          Jimmy obviously was taking this race seriously so he rushed in the checkpoint just after me, quickly got some water and ran away. By the time Hedilee also caught up and we continued together. Not for long as I was again faster on the downhill on a slippery concrete staircase. Next came a long steep paved road climb. I was walking fast, but I felt like I was losing energy and spirit! Baking on the sun and drinking disgusting waster I got at the last water station definitely didn’t help. I spend some time refilling my camel bag and Hedilee caught me again. But when we turned again away from the paved road and I got in the better mood in the shade under the trees and with dirt under my soles, I saw him for the last time!

          And then started raining! It not just some rain, but a proper tropical rain shower. My shoes were soaked wet in a second and from the dense canopy around the narrow mountain trail water was dripping straight onto my head. For a minute I kept the rain cooling me down, but soon it became too uncomfortable, I put on my Goretex jacket and continued in a happy pace J I think that sometimes the extreme conditions can evoke an exceptional power in me to resist , endure and make me stronger. And this time it was extreme.

          Well…it could have been more extreme and I almost wished it was! In that time I was already high on the mountain so I missed the majority of the rain, because the cloud was showering the below valley and all the other slower competitors for more than an hour! It caused some rivers to rise and made some crossings impassable trapping hundreds of runners inside the jungle! I luckily escaped the mayheim over the ridge to the other side and enjoyed the last 10 kilometers before the half running over the undulating wide dirt road familiar from 2012 race course.

          Another heavy rain shower caught me on the last 500m uphill to the half, but it didn’t matter I was almost there! It took me long 7 hours to reach the 50k mark! I quickly checked the gap I had on Jimmy and Vlad. Vlad was just way too fast with more than an hour advantage, but Jimmy was almost in reach with some 20 minutes on me. Previously he was complaining about how the race was tough, so felt my chance if the conditions remain same or better become worse to make the race as much uncomfortable as possible ;)

          I quickly reloaded some nutrition and dry socks from my drop bag and left. Apart from being tougher than previous years, there was another big difference. I felt great! I felt strong. I had no crisis so far. I could run downhills in decent pace without any pain. I could run flats and speedwalk uphills without problems. No stomach sickness, dehydration…nothing! This was different because the previous years I was caught in exhaustion, anger from the course, extreme muscle pain…many things that made the race a hell and made me force myself not to quit! This time it was a pleasure to be on the course J

          I blasted a fun technical downhill through fields, climbed another hill and got onto another familiar section from the last year. Unfortunately there was a long section on asphalt road and the rain was not coming! Exactly the opposite was happening, because the skies were clearing and a beautiful red sunset was coming up on the horizon! At dusk I was already high below Mt. Kinabalu on the famous loop through muddy cabbage fields, my favorite part of the 2012 course!

          I put on the head lamp, reflective vest a jacket and dashed though the nigh, jumping over deep holes, water pools and gliding on a slippery trail. Trail runner’s heaven and there was no time to think that I had run 70 kilometers already that day!

           Once I got back the checkpoint 8, where I already had signed up when going up to the loop, I could finally check how far the guys behind me were. To my surprise the first runner came there one hour after me and that was almost two hours ago. “And I have probably even more advantage now, because I ran the loop quite fast!” I though and this fact made the last super long downhill much easier. “If I just keep running like this and nothing serious happens, I can make the podium again ;)” and I took off into the night.

          This 10 kilometer section was mostly steep downhill and it absolutely killed me last year. It was at kilometer 30 and after that I was seriously thinking to quit! This time I was much quicker at kilometer 80 and was enjoying it. Kilometers were flying past and I was getting closer and closer to the finish running a known route reducing chances of getting lost and mentally helping to feel the progress! And my route knowledge also helped in the last steep climb. I remembered it to be quite short, but it wasn’t! It was actually super long and exhausting. I think I got into some kind of crisis there walking up tiredly at 4km/h, but still thinking “I remember it was just behind this corner!” But it obviously wasn’t and the climb lasted an eternity! I couldn’t push more because there was nothing much left and also my head was telling me that it was not necessary, because everyone was so far behind and ahead also. Jimmy somehow got scared that somebody might catch him and blasted the last downhill escaping me from 25 minutes, I was keeping on him almost the whole second half, to more than one hour in just 10k!!! And I thought I was running fast J

          When I finally got on the flat road I remembered leading to the last year finish line I realized that this year the finish was on the hill and I would have to run all around that hill to get there. “Another 6k of climbing up?” I desperately asked myself. “I will die!” But to my great relief the course was heading on another path straight up to the finish line at a shining hotel on the top of the hill! I could see it already and it helped greatly to scale those final meters!

          And again I was there, in the finish of a 100 kilometer run! If I was ever not sure if I can do it, now I could be certain J Although it took 16 hours to complete making it the longest race I have ever done, it was enough for a bronze medal! I lost more than 2 hours on the winner and more than one hour on the second, but also gained more than one hour on the fourth J

          Milan finished in 19 hours with injured ankle, Jaro abandoned in half point because of fatigue and lack of sleep and Davy had to give up at 25k for foot injury. Overall only around 40% runners completed the 100k! It was a very tough year!

          What to say! It was great race and this time I was enjoying it all the time. Beautiful and challenging trail running terrain, no crisis and podium finish…what to ask more. Maybe to have paid the entrance fee and flight ticket for the next year to help me decide whether to come back :D

           First year first, second year second, third year third…fourth year fourth? Nah!! All good things are three J