PINS AND NEEDLES

Early last August I was cruising down the rocky trail back into the treeline above Loch Long after a nice wee loop taking in The Cobbler, Beinn Ime and Beinn Narnian when, not paying attention, I smacked my foot off a particuarly agressively spiked rock. At the time it reduced me to a hobble, but I didn't think much of it. For the next month it was giving me issues but it wasn't a huge concern given I barely saw tarmac until I returned to Hong Kong in September. I had major issues with it during the CCC but was able to get through it and shortly there after it vanished.

Fast forward to December and 70km into the The North Face 100- Hong Kong, and while in a solid 4th place, out pops the same issue after months of silence. This time I wasn't able to run through it, and while it was far from the only critical issue I had on the day it was a major factor in me withdrawing at 80km. More than a month later and it is still severely limiting my running. Rest, anti- inflamatories, ice and taping were all duly used to try and resolve the issue with no discernible improvement. It was time for affimative action.

Being based in Hong Kong opens up a whole host of alternatives to 'traditional' sports physiotherapy or podiatry. Affirmative action in this case meant my first trip to the infamous Needle Man.

Alain Chu is well known in trail and ultra running circles. His reputation preceeds him, both in terms of his ability to help runners get over long standing injuries but also in terms of the amount of pain he is able to inflict while doing so. With a reputation like this you have to be pretty committed to proceed with is treatment, and it was with not small amount of trepidation that I booked an appointment to see him.

Chu apparently used to be a physiotherapist (as well as an alpinist) and now runs his own clinic specialising in chronic musculoskeletal pain and sports injury treatment. He developed his own techniques out of a frustration with the results he was seeing from traditional treatment approaches. These treatments involve the exclusive use of needles, with the focus being on stimulating myofacial release by making incisions in the muscle and myofacial layer to encourage healing. Or to put it simply, he sticks needles, really big needles, into to you causing internal lacerations to free the fascia and promote healing. Sounds painful? It is.

Upon entering his surgery your are greated with numerous stern warnings posted at the reception warning needle phobics and skeptics that they are in the wrong place. If that was not enough you are then handed the final rules of engagement in the form of a highlighted print out. If you weren't concerned before hand then you would be now. I was called in for my consultation and explained my issue and described the injury in detail, numbness, pins and needles building up to sharp pain after a while. As I had suspected it was quickly diagnosed as a Mortons Neuroma like issue. Flicking though an anatomy book I was given a guided tour of the problem. Basically I had injured the tissue around the nerve between my 3rd and 4th metatarsal. As this tissue becomes inflamed after running on it, it swells and traps the nerve causing the pain. It was apparently treatable with needling with cutting needles but it would be tricky since it would require precise placement so close to the nerve which might require a few visits to get right. Given the location on the bottom of my foot it would also be very painful and I was warned it was 'more like a minor operation than acupuncture'. This understood I was directed to the treatment room for the first attempt, by now sweating.

I was directed to lie face down on the treatment bed, and had my foot cleaned up (since rather embarrassingly I'd apparently I'd neglected to clean the bottom of my foot properly before hand) , disinfected and then prodded and poked to identify areas of relative tenderness and focus of the pain. He then gave me a warning and I felt the first sharp prick of the obviously substantial needle. Initially it wasn't that bad, but then after after a second warning the pressure increased and the pain became briefly excruciating, and was accompanied by what felt like a light crunch as the needle went deeper into in my foot. I was repeatedly asked if the pain was local or if I felt pins and needles in my toes, as he was concerned about hitting the nerve. The sharp pain didn't last long and remained local, though it sure as hell wasn't fun. Mr Chu mentioned at one point during the procedure that I must have a very pain threshold, to which I joked about something running 100ks in the mountains preparing me for it. I suspect it was intended as a comfort than a statement of fact. 5 or 6 of these painful incisions later and I was done. Despite my curiosity I never actually got to see the needles. 

Fingers crossed it helps me get back on the horse.

THE SEARCH

I've recently been trying to get back on the horse but so far I've just not been feeling it. I'm not sure exactly where my motivation went. I think I caught a glimpse of it on Lantau last weekend. I kept chasing it all day, but it always seemed lay just over the next peak. Eventually I ran out of light and couldn't see a thing. 

I guess I'll just have to keep looking until I find it. Or it finds me.

THE NORTH FACE 100 HK- DNF

Running 100k over this type of terrain is, of course, as much about the mind as it is about the body and on this occasion my head gave in first.

Since the summer I have been pondering the concept of racing 100km rather than running it. A subtle distinction over such a long distance perhaps but I've done a few 100k races now but I've never had the feeling of racing them. I don't quite know to describe this and suspect it is completely illogical. I am not talking about racing against people as such. It's more the feeling of pushing yourself, of keeping the effort sustained but managable, of seeing the best you can do rather than just surviving and getting around the course. Many ultra runners may frown at this sentiment, but last weekend my priorities put meeting my own expectations above finishing. I hadn't planned it before hand but after the first 20 minutes or so my legs felt solid so I decided it was all or nothing, and in the end chasing one meant I didn't manage either.

I did not have a fixed time or placing goal in mind (though I hoped to do better than last year), more I wanted to stay on the edge of what was manageable and try to keep the needle there the whole way round the course, while hopefully not pushing too far over this self imposed edge and going into meltdown.

As it was, it was my head which let me down and my legs which could have gone on. Sure, I had plenty of other issues along the way, including bouts cramp at various stages, and unhappy stomach and worst,  a flare up of my old foot injury from the summer which had me walking down part the road from Tai Mo Shan (not the foot injury I was concerned about before hand ironically). These things are however pretty normal when running mountain ultras and which you have to deal with to varying degrees in most races of this length. By far the biggest issue I had was with my head.

I started out feeling very comfortable,which rather suprisingly had me floating along in between 2nd or 4th place until after half way. I would have much rather not known my position or been running near to others to be honest, as thinking too much about the people around me ultimately made me drop the ball. A couple of times I dropped back at check points as the Champion System/North Face guys with a crew just swapped out their packs and kept going while I had to fumble with refilling bottles and restocking from my drop bag. We are only talking a couple of minutes each time but is was enough to lure me into a feeling of 'I must catch up'. This was really stupid of me in the first half of a 100k, especially as it framed my race in the context of other peoples effort. I should have been running my own race and concentrating on managing my own situation but instead my ego lured me into thinking more about where I was in relation to other runners. Most importantly, this distracted me from what I really should have been focusing on at this stage in the race, namely eating and drinking enough. Inevitably this caught up with me and unsprisingly the wheels started to come off soon after 50km. Not in a catastrophic way but enough for the lights to gradually dim and the fingers of cramp to start creeping in.

I probably could, and should,  have soldiered on but unfortunately this wasn't my focus at the time. I lost the heid, got annoyed that I'd 'dropped behind' (incredibly I was actually only 15mins or so behind second at the point I mentally gave up) and as soon as I started to fall into the mindset of battling my body to finish rather than racing I just lost all motivation to keep at it. I didn't want to 'just' finish on Saturday, though writing it now it sounds a bit pathetic and misguided. The irony is that if I had kept fighting I likely would have 'just' finished in the top 5.

After initially intending to quit at CP7,  I kept a painfully slow plod going and eventually threw in the towel one stage later at 80km after walking in the last few km to CP 8. I surrendered 5th place just before I moped my way into the CP.

Lessons to be learned for sure.

Photo Credits: Wilson Chong, Maggie Tsang, Edwin Yung, Derek Leung, Rupert Chamberlain, Daniel, HK Run, KK Run

KOTH- HONG KONG ISLAND

King of the Hills (KOTH) is a now legendary race series which has been running in Hong Kong for the last 15 years or so. The series comprises of 4 races per year, characterised by rough terrain, steep technical climbs and descents and a low key approach which belies the very tough courses and traditionally strong fields. The races are split into 2 distances, full and half 'marathons' which in reality means 30-38km for the full and 18-24km for the half. These are by some of my favourite races in Hong Kong. There is a no down to earth vibe about them akin to Scottish fell races, which is more than can be said about the increasing hype surrounding a lot of other local events lately.So last Sunday nearly 900 runners over two categories gathered at Repluse Bay for the first race in the series. This race traditionally attracts the largest field of the season because of its easily accessible start and finish point location on HK Island, something which has pros and cons associated with it. The half marathon started at 9am with the full kicking off 30 minutes later in and attempt to avoid to many bottle necks. It wasn't to be an overly successful strategy.

After the signing in we gathered at the start line just up the road from the beach ready for the off. The first few minutes climb up the road before hitting the trail proper. This at least strings things out a little because once you hit the trail its pretty tight for the first 800m or so until you reach the main trail. I quickly settled into 3rd spot with Vlad Ixel and Santosh Tamang, a HK based Nepalese runner just ahead of me. It was the last I was to see of Vlad all day. At the top of the technical access trail the course climbs up the first few part of the main trail up Violet Hill before turning off onto the contour trail high above Repulse Bay itself skirting around the hillside. The first few km of this trail is awesome, quite rocky and technical but fast. Super enjoyable, especially on fresh legs for once as I normally only find myself here at the end of the MSIG 50 when my legs are in pieces. Unfortunately, the trail gives way to a concrete catchwater path which is much less fun, not helped by the fact that only 10 minutes or so into the race we were already overtaking the back markers from the half marathon. I trundled around here just behind Santosh shouting 'left' or 'right' every few hundred meters. We were passed on this section by Michael Skobierski, a guy whom I had seen around but had never spoken too before, and he soon took off ahead. I overtook Samir just before the climb up the steps to Violet Hill. Unfortunately this section was packed with people and it was impossible to get in any sort of decent rhythm when fighting past the conga line of slower runners. This was to be the theme of the day. Despite my legs feeling pretty decent, by half way up I had already lost my racing mojo. I kept at it the best I could, easing past the hordes as politely as I muster. To be fair, most people were very good about letting us past but it still put the breaks on things a little and took a lot of the fun out of it. There were however the usual few morons who refused to take a half step aside and a number of people listening to music so loud they couldn't hear calls from behind which didn't help my humour much.

Descending down from Violet Hill to Park View, there the first check point is located, was much the same story. Here the hordes queuing for water slowed me down some more and meant I didn't drink as much as I should have, especially considering I'm still racing with just a tiny 385ml Simple Hydration bottle stuffed in my waistband (which necessitates a bit more drinking at CPs to keep the show on the road). Eventually refilled, I took off up the climb towards Jardines Lookout but I my motivation was was already waning and I was getting lazy. As if to confirm it, I  soon heard Steve Cale behind me. Steve is very strong on the hills so I let him trot past me and then just sat comfortably in a few metres behind him, happy to have him break trail past the back markers. We ran the climb, which passed in no time and with minimal effort but all I was thinking about was the course split ahead near the top of Mt Butler which takes the full marathon runners off on an extended and back marker free loop.

Reaching the turn off was a bit of a relief as soon we were on the nice rolling section of ridge line on the Wilson trail down off of Mt Bulter and to Sir Cecils Ride (you have to love the names of some of the hills and trails....in Hong Kong reminders of the British Empire are never far away). We were soon onto the much less impressively named Hong Pak country trail. This rolling gave me the opportunity to strech the legs out a little but by now I was feeling positively mediocre. Towards the end of this the course marking was starting to get a little ropey, presumanbly due to hikers taking them down. Fortunately I'd scoped out this section the previous weekend as it was a bit fuzzy, having only done it once before. Just as well as there were a few spots where it was less than clear but Steve and I made it to General Rock without getting lost. Here where the course turns up an absurdly steep and technical trail heading straight up the side of Mt Parker. This trail involves hands on knees hiking,  a bit of scrambling over boulders, with a few sections needing the help of ropes and one a fixed metal ladder. It had rained the night before so sections of the trail pretty slippery and there were quite a few bits requiring grabbing onto trees, rocks and whatever was around to haul yourself up. We stayed together all the way up the climb, dipping into the mist and cloud towards the top. We eventually trotted out onto  a gloomy Mt Parker road near the summit radar station and flat footedly slapped our way down the paved road to Quarry Gap and the CP.

Refilling quickly here I took off after Steve and we bombed down the Boa Vista trail, but soon we were once more back to dodging half marathon runners. It would have been nice to kick on here down the fantastic technical but runnable trail but it was practically impossible with all the back markers. Eventually we popped out onto a wider section of trail reading onto the paved section back down towards the HK trail. Here I was again able to stretch the legs a bit, opening a small gap to Steve and I soon I caught sight of Michael ahead. I was a bit surprised that he had stayed out ahead of us for so long, though admittedly we hadn't exactly been pushing the pace. We climbed the steps up to the next technical section and were confronted by a hands and feet climb up a sections which is usually roped. The next section is an enjoyable reasonably technical sandy descent winding its way down to the river but again it was clogged with other runners and it was by now becoming a bit of a chore. A short section of rock hopping down the river bed and we rejoined a wider trail. By now I had unwittingly distanced Steve and soon Michael had also dropped back so I knew up a reasonable place and eventually popped out onto another short paved section. Back on the trail around Tai Tam resevoir i was feeling quite good but again there were backmarkers to be passed, though people made every attempt to let you through by this point it was still slow going at times. The full marathon turns off at the foot of The Twins to add a extra climb over the two hills and a long contour ride back round to the start. A quick refill at a very confused CP and it was the hands on knees grunt up the 900 or so steps of the first twin. I managed to muster a reasonable effort up here and then onto the final hill. I took it pretty easy on the steps down the other side as they are at a little awkward when striding down them and I was not longer in any mood to push on, assuming that Vlad would be way ahead by now. I decided to have my 4th gel of the day coming down here which probably describes something about my progress at this point.  The remaining contour trail was completed at what can be described a medium effort at best before turning off down the last section of tricky technical downhill back to the road. Changing my cadence here caused me to start cramping a little, probably due to the minimal fluids I'd been taking on board so I stopped for a minute to stretch out and massage my quads while clinging onto a tree. I hobbled on and by the time I reached the road it had passed. I trotted my way down the road and onto the beach to finish in 3.19, in second place, around 10 minutes behind Vlad.

All in all it was a decent result, but it it was a shame not to have felt like I had raced it as such but I guess that can be seen as a positive aspect of the performance too.

As a side note, it was the first time I have raced in UVU gear. I was pretty pleased with how it all felt. The shirt is excellent, though I still need to get my hands on a singlet too. The shorts were good too and the front mounted gel pockets worked really well despite my misgivings. I'm still not 100% convinced about the fit of the liner and might look to replace the drawstring but considering how picky I am about these things that's already a result!

Next up is The North Face 100 HK (if I manage to shake of this dodgy foot that I seem to have picked up over the last week.....)

Photo Credits: Wong Ho Fai

UVU RACING

 'At UVU we believe that the best equipment never gets in the way of the service it provides. The best gear is the gear you forget you’re wearing.'

I was fortunate enough to hook up with UVU Racing recently. It was clear from the beginning that aesthetically there was a fit and after a few initial conversations and checking out some of the limited information available about them so far,  it was clear that we shared a similar philosophy about the gear we use for getting out in the mountains. Of course, it is also a bonus that it is all grey.

UVU Racing (You Versus You) is a new company producing ultra running apparel. The focus of the brand is to produce apparel of the highest quality designed to support runners in their quest to challenge their physical limits. The first range will be publicly available in 2015 but in the meantime you can read more about their philosphy here: www.uvuracing.com

UVU were kind enough to send me a selection of items including top, shorts, gillet and wind jacket. I've only tested the gear a few times so far so all I'll say at this point is that it is superb. The materials, construction and finishing is incredible, light years ahead of most other stuff out there. There is very little gear available that is even comparable, the top for example doesnt have a single stitch on it. This is apparently thanks to their close partnership with KTC, probably the most advanced outdoor apparel manufacturer out there today. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into the design and detailing too and the items combine well as a system. I'm still playing with a couple of different sizes to dial in my prefered fit and will be testing it more over the coming weeks prior to racing in it. 

An exciting aspect is that I have agreed to provide them with some detailed thoughts and feedback on the gear over the next few months, so I will aim to share some of that here going forward.

MSIG HK50

I wasn't expecting too much from this one. 

Since getting back from Malaysia on Monday night I'd been hobbling around with a very tight left calf and a tweak to my right ankle. I went out for a wee leg stretch on Saturday, the day before the race, to test the water and things were not pretty. My ankle was sore but manageable but my calf was not happy at all after only an easy 50 minutes trot. Not ideal. The rest of the day was spent grumbling and alternating between ice and liberal application of diclofenac gel.

On Sunday morning things didn't feel as if they had improved much. I decided in the taxi going up to the peak that there was a pretty high chance that I wouldn't make it to the finish so I might as well go for it and just run until my leg told me to stop.

Anyway, as we lined up it was clear that we were looking at quite a competitive field. RD Michael Madess of Action Asia Events was obviously trying to up his game a bit and had flown in a few people including Salomon international team runner Yan Longfei from China and Caine Warburton from Austrailia, along with a few top local guys including Wong Ho Chung from Champion System Adventure/ The North Face. There were also a couple of really fast guys (Linus Holmaster and Vlad Ixel) running the 24km event which goes off at the same time and covers the first half of the course before peeling off. 

Soon the gun went off and we were soon haring around Victoria Peak. I managed to behave myself for all of 3 minutes before deciding that I might as well wind it up a bit more on the tarmac and go after the leaders, at least until the trail proper started, that way avoiding the need for any passing manoeuvres later on when it got narrow. So off I went after them, not really pushing hard, just going at a quicker than sensible pace for the start of a 50k race.

I got to the start of the trail just behind Vlad which was a bit of a surprise, and eased off a bit going down the first steps letting him go at the bottom of them as my calf started to complain. After easing off a bit to try and shut it up over the next couple of kilometres with no effect I decided instead just to press on. But now all concept of a sensible race plan was out the window. I ran on at a fast but sustainable pace up to the first check point at around 1okm. I arrived here in a slightly stupid 46 minutes and after refilling with the usual standard of AAE check point efficiency off I went. By now I guessed I was leading the 50k race but I wasn't 100% sure and I had no idea where the 24km guys ahead of me were. After the first few hundred metres of climb up Peel Rise it became a little clearer as one of them into view. We exchanged a few words about me doing the 50 as I passed and off I went.

I bashed out the next section of lovely rolling trail to near Wanchai Gap without any drama, then down and around Mt Nicholson. I intentionally took an quick breather and hiked up the steep steps up onto Middle Gap, the one major climb in the first half. I ran this without issue, easing off the throttle for a moment or two on the contour around Mt Cameron to get a gel down me. Around half way around this I heard a cow bell ringing ahead of me, and about a minute later I passed Andre ringing his bell and shouting 'only two k to go' which made me laugh. I wished. Onto Blacks Link and down to Wong Nai Chung Gap passed in a blink and I was at CP2, half way in 1.58. 

After chugging down far too little water for the section ahead and refilling my bottle,  I took off, now realising I was definitely well off the front of the 5ok race.  Ohoh, this was new. At least now I wasn't even thinking about stopping due to my leg though. Actually, by this point I think my leg had long since got the message and had decided just to play along with the rest of my body the best that it could. I didn't for a minute think I'd be able to stay ahead of the field for another 25km but I thought I might as well try my best to make it difficult for them.

The next 8km or so is also super quick and it passed in an instant. I started to get a few twinges of cramp in my hamstrings climbing up the road section here but I just gave it a poke as I ran and kept on moving. Fortunately it didn't come to anything and I was able to carry on at a decent clip. By the end of Sir Cecils Ride I was starting to feel the fast running though, and stopped for a soaking of cool water from the spring there before hitting the CP at 33km in 2.45, still miraculously in first place.

I gulped down as much fluid as I could without throwing up before disappearing off around the contour trail towards General Rock. I started dawdling around here, exactly the same as last year and suffering from the heat, which was now close to 30 degrees. I bumbled towards the turn for the biggest climb of the day, a rough and bushy scramble up the side of Mt Parker. Shortly after starting this climb I knew that my legs were toast and that it was only a matter of time before I got caught. By now things were painful enough that I barely noticed my calf anymore and I was more concerned with nursing my twingey hamstrings up the stupidly steep climb. Its quite enjoyable if you have the legs for it, but unfortunately mine were rapidly deserting me. Sure enough, around half way up the climb I heard someone behind me, and I looked round to see Longfei just behind me. We stuck together for much of the climb. At one point I stepped aside to let him through thinking he would disappear ahead of me but the gap didn't really get beyond 10 m or so. The top section of this is quite technical, requiring use of the ropes and trees to clamber up. Popping out onto the road I was just behind Longfei who walked a while to the next steep section of climb to the summit radar section. This surprised me a little and gave me a little hope....it also meant I felt I could walk it too and take a breather. On the climb I passed him as he paused to stretch out a bit and kept going down the rough and technical descent down to the Boa Vista trail with him just behind me. This is quite a long descent and by the time I got the bottom I was starting to feel it. We stuck together for the first rocky few km of the trail back uphill to Quarry Gap before he put in a roadie style kick to drop me. This should have been my first clue as to his background.

I pulled into the last check point just as Longfei left and went through the same routine. With hindsight I should probably have drunk a bit more here as over the long final section I knew I was becoming properly dehydrated. I left the CP and could still see him ahead of me up the steep steps leading to the top of Mt Butler but I now was just maintaining rather than feeling I had any chance of closing the gap. It was the same up Jardines Lookout, I could see him but I was toiling and having to nurse my hamstrings to fend off a few twinges of cramp. A quick skip across the road at Parkview and the final climb up Violet Hill. half way up here I saw Andre with his bell again who informed me I was still only 1.30 down. Frustratingly I couldn't do much to pick up the pace by now but I still managed to keep running on everything other than the stairs to the top. The descent was slower than it should have been but by now I needed to take it easy on my hamstrings in case they locked up. I stumbled my way around the super rocky first half of the contour trail grumpily battling my way past the hordes of Sunday hikers, who as usual were treating their outing like an assault on Everest. The trail becomes a concrete catch water path for the last few km and here I was able to pick up the pace a bit and stretch out my legs without fear of cramping. I knocked this out at a solid pace and soon popped out onto the road at Wong Nai Chung gap and down the steps to finish in 5.03, 3 minutes and eight seconds back from Longfei, the sore leg and plans to stop early long forgotten about. The next runner home was Justin Andrews, a strong American runner living in Chengdu, China who finished in 5.15. I am not sure what happened to some of the other pre-race favourites but there were certainly a fair few DNFs.

I was happy with the result but not as positive about it as everyone else seemed to be. Initially I was slightly vexed that I had been dropped but not exactly blown away. Surely I could have found such a slight difference in there somewhere? As it turned out it wasn't entirely surprising that Longfei proved a bit stronger than me on the day. I was soon told that he was a graduate of one of the Chinese state athletics academies, and a 2.15 marathon runner. He had also placed highly at the Sky Running World Championships in Chamonix earlier in the year. I suppose this should be some sort of consolation but in the end the chance of an elusive first win against a strong field had escaped my grasp despite having run a good 1o minutes faster than last years winning time.

Now its time for a few weeks off racing to sort the legs out and get some solid miles in before the next one at the end of November and the scarily hard TNF 100 in December.

Photo Credits: Action Asia Events, Andre Blumberg/Paper.

MT KINABALU CLIMBATHON

The Mt Kinabalu International Climbathon in Malaysian Borneo is a legendary mountain race, now in its 28th year. The course has varied a bit over recent years but it now once more retains the simple premise of running up to the summit of Mt Kinabalu and back down albeit with an added road section to finish in Kundasang town. Sounds easy. It's not.

In its current incarnation the event is split into two races. The Summit race is intended as the application-only elite event,  a 33km route which climbs straight to the summit at 4095m before descending back down to 1200m. The 23 km Adventure race is the open event which climbs to the half way point at around 2700m before descending along the same route.

I managed to get one of the places in the elite event, and even though I'm quite a long way away from even being close to elite. Arriving at the start it was clear that the 'elite' part of the entry requirement was being rather loosely enforced, it seeming to be more of an insurance policy to avoid to many ill prepared or in experienced runners trying to race to the summit. There are is quite a tight 3 hour cut off imposed at the summit, which means that the majority of runners get turned back early.

After picking up my bib and waiting about for the slightly comical race briefing it was off for dinner, the traditional gear shuffling and an early night at our nearby cabin.

After a somewhat alternative pre-race breakfast I trotted the 2km along the road to the start line ready for the 7am kick off. 82 people lined up in total including a handful of other runners from Hong Kong including Clement Dumont, Claire Price and Nora Senn and a couple of the top people from Taiwan who I vaguely recognised from HK races last year. There were also a handful of favourites including Dai Matusmoto from Japan, a few Nepalese, Daved and Safrey both Champion System/ The North Face runners who had raced well in HK a few weeks earlier at the 2 Peaks along with a number of African runners there presumably to try their luck for the substantial prize money. From the off they certainly didn't look like they knew what they were letting themselves in for, as they were clearly road or cross country guys and so it was to prove.

For once the start has a really nice relaxed vibe about it, a lovely contrast to Hong Kong. I guess people knew the extent of what lay a head and saw no sense in jostling for position. The horn sounded and we were off for a fast and hilly 4km on the road before we hit the trail. It wasn't long before the road kicked up with some ridiculously steep sections, and indication of what was to come. I ran most of this section more or less with Clement, Ruth (a North Face sponsored Kiwi living in Taiwan) and Safrey Sumping. Upon hitting the trails proper I decided to calm things down a little and soon they had disappeared ahead of me.

I settled into a sustainable hike up the increasingly steep trail, breaking into a trot occasionally where the ground allowed. We were already at about 2000m altitude at this point but so far I was feeling perfectly fine. I had decided beforehand to take a conservative approach all day. I had never run, let alone raced, at this kind of altitude before (I think my previous max in a race was around 3000m at the Bettelmatt Skyrace) so I decided not to push it too much on the climb/decent and open it up a little on the final road section if I had anything left. 

The trail itself is really technical and quite eroded in places with a lot of exposed rocks and steep steps all the way up, interspersed with occasional sections of wooden steps and ladders. The lower sections are through dense forest which open up into pine forest, then rocky bouldery terrain with bushes then finally a massive granite expanse with fixed ropes. Awesome terrain but relentlessly steep. Rarely have I found myself smiling while grinding up a hill this long steep, but today was one of those days, possibly helped by the fact that while I was pushing on I wasn't exactly killing myself either. In any case, I was able to stay comfortably within myself the whole way up and never had any problems despite a few amateurish stumbles on the fixed ropes. Around 3000m it started to drizzle, just as we hit the granite section. It was not much but just enough to make the rock slightly slippery and make me immediately question my choice of footwear (Inov8 F-lite 252). It soon cleared up and nearing the top the front runners started to pass me at break neck speed on the way back down. I couldn't believe the speed the were descending at. I trudged on, by now keeping pace with a Filipino runner who having to push it a bit with the climbs judging by his laboured breathing, which made me realise I was coasting a bit. It was only I crept above 4000m I really started to feel the effects of the altitude and those last 100 vertical metres of light scrambling were painful. I touched the summit cairn in a decent but far from spectacular 2 hrs 45 mins and took a couple of seconds to look around and reflect on the biggest continuous section of climbing I have done since I started running in the mountains, and the fact that it was perversely enjoyable. Before I knew it was plummeting back down the rock face.

To be honest plummeting sounds fast when in fact I had one of the worst descents ever going down here. I'm normally pretty solid going downhill but I was all over the place on the super technical descent, tiptoeing around with zero confidence in my footing and fumbling around while descending the fixed ropes. I felt like the city kid out of his element that I am in reality, the urban mountain runner rather than just the mountain runner. I laughed at myself more than once on the way down here. I immediately lost sight of the Filipino runner. Once off the rock and back on the dirt trail/stairs I was moving a bit better but the damage had been done both to my time and my confidence. A bit further on a tiny runner from Malaysia skipped past me on a super steep section as I was again fumbling around. I passed a couple of the African runners on my way down here, by now not looking like they knew what had hit them. I was soon passing other runners along the way who had been turned back after not making the cut-off including a Scots ultra runner (from Dumbarton no less) who I had bumped into the previous day.

The descent was never ending. At the Layan Layang hut the course forked and took us onto the Mesilau trail which was a lot more challenging and undulating than it appears on the curse profile. Along here I ran with Petr, a Czech guy living in Taiwan for a couple of km before leaving him behind on one of the nasty short sharp climbs. After what seemed like and eternity I popped out onto the notorious road section. At 9km its a peculiar addition to a mountain race of this caliber, long enough to inflict some serious pain. The biggest issue is that its generally steeply downhill with some nasty climbs thrown in, in short it is hideous and especially bad considering your legs are already wasted from climbing and descending the highest peak in South East Asia. To make matters worse the sun came out in full force here and I could feel myself stewing in the heat. None the less, for a hill runner I cope with tarmac better than most and soon I was buzzing along the road at a decent pace. After a few km I saw a runner ahead of me who turned out to be the Malaysian who passed me on the descent previously. He was toiling and I soon caught and past him with a wave of encouragement. The climbs on this section were hideous but the worst aspect was that the descents which were so steep that the bottom of my feet were burning at times as I slapped my way down the tarmac.

The last horrific km steeply uphill to the finish was all about survival and I crossed the line in 5hrs 16 mins, pretty much bang on what I had in my head time wise before the start. This was good enough for 9th place overall. As I crossed the line and stopped I stumbled a half pace, the heat finally getting to me,  and someone caught my arm and lead me to the shade of the medical tent at the finish. A bottle of cold water and a sit down for a moment and I was fine and ready to laugh at the crazyness of it all.

The race was won by Dai Matsumoto in a record time, followed by Daved Simpat and a Nepalese army runner Homlal Shrestha. Clement ran super strongly to finish 5th overall, however the standout performance for me was Ruth Croft winning the ladies race by a country mile in an incredible 5hrs 01 mins. Ruth already has a serious running background having won here last year and easily winning the Fuji mountain race in Japan earlier in the year but this was a next level, world class performance on a crazy hard course that was good enough for 6th overall. I'm pretty convinced that a similar performance would have her at the front of some of the major European skyraces. It will be interesting to follow how her racing develops as she clearly has serious talent. Claire Price also had a great race to place second overall in the womens elite event.

A final thought on two things. Firstly, it was only the next day when I realised how important this race is to the people of Malaysian Borneo/ Sabah as it was covered on both front and back pages of The Borneo Post newspaper. I don't think that even happens in Chamonix during UTMB. Second observation- the Sabah Flag has to be a contender for one of the best flags ever.

I'll be back next year to wave it high.