UTMB Statistics and Simon's Race Report

Here is the link to Simon's account of 2011 UTMB. Incisive and personal. Enjoy -
http://www.sandoval.bz/UTMB_2011/UTMB_2011.html

Below is what I saw in my email today. Link: http://www.ultratrailmb.com/documents/Newsletters/Letters/apres_course_EN.html .

With that distance and elevation gain, no wonder our quads were trashed!

Joining UTMB next year for its 10th Anniversary is too tempting and sounds really exciting. Well, let us see. I hope more Pinoys will join it next year. It is an awesome experience!

Cheers,
Jon (back to regular running)

2011 UTMB Race Report (final part)

(last part of 2 parts)

FRIDAY NIGHT

 x x x

First station with cut-off time is Les Contamines – 31km at an altitude of 1170m into the race of more or less 6 hours. Quick mental note made me realized that we could not make it on time with our current pace. We had to run or all would be lost for us. I conveyed this to Simon with whom I was still with. He agreed on the urgency of the situation. Also, I sensed that something was wrong with my right knee, the least part of my body I expected I would have trouble with. Sharp and dull pain inside. With a mere 30km into the race, this feeling was disheartening. So I tried to slow down a bit to figure out what was wrong. Based on my quick assessment, there was none since my knees never gave me any problem during training nor have I excessively abused it during the early portion of the race especially on downhills. To my mind, if this persisted my race would be over even before I'd see the sun in the next few hours. I told this to Simon, who asked if I were okay. I said it was annoying. So we kept moving. This time we were running and passing a lot of runners regardless of the terrain. If it was too steep, we power walked and bombed the downhills. I was very surprised that many runners seemed to be so relax. Meaning, they seemed to be unmindful of the looming cut-off at Les Contamines. At the rate they were moving, these runners would never make it on time because we got to the station barely 7 minutes before the time barrier! In fact, they were about to pack up when we left.

2011 UTMB Race Report (Part 1)

FOREWORD

Some of the entries here will be a little random and worse, incoherent. My apology in advance. I just resolved to "force" myself to write down my experience before the vividness and freshness of the memories disappear. It is strange why this is so. The content of this blog post will be mostly my personal experience about UTMB and will mention Simon in passing. I am sure he will document his own experience in a separate medium which in fact, he has already started doing so.

At any rate, I finally had the chance to go back to Donggwang hills here in Clark where I trained almost daily prior to UTMB. Last week, I headed out after almost one and a half weeks of rest. (Actually, I did a lot of walking in Madrid; so it wasn't a couch potato-type of rest :) I have been meaning to run early last week but a nasty cold hit me. My run at Donggwang was a little solemn since it was meant to express my gratitude to the place (hills) or Mother Nature in general. I remember emailing Simon about my wish to go back after UTMB to Mt. Arayat, Miyamit and Donggwang to offer my prayer of gratitude. So the weather was good enough to go back and as soon as I started, I grabbed a handful of soil, closed my eyes and uttered a simple prayer while letting the soil escaped my hands. Then I continued running until I reached the peak of one of the hills and did the same thing. Stopping from time to time to just absorb the place and appreciate what it had done to me - gave me enough strength ("mountains in legs") to finish UTMB.

Post-UTMB recovery

Greetings from Madrid! 

Simon and I have successfully finished UTMB last weekend. From all accounts (blog, internet, news, etc.), it is by far the most competitive 100-mile mountain race with elite ultrarunners from all over the world. The 2011 edition is also the hardest so far due to nasty weather, added weight of mandatory gear, terrain, etc. (However, I think that even with good weather it would still be a hard race). Some called it "a race of four seasons". It was 170kms with 9,500m plus  of vertical gain due to re-routing. Irunfar.com (a blog hosted by Byron Powell) said that this year's UTMB has only 47% (1126 of 2369) rate of finishers  (you will also get to read many UTMB tidbits from his blog). If there is no contrary evidence, it is also the first for Pinoys to have finished the UTMB. This race is by far the most memorable in terms of difficulty, challenge, weather, terrain, stunning view, organization and support of the local communities of French, Swiss and Italian. More on these later.

Simon and I are thankful that we crossed the finish line in one piece (it was fun to spend with Simon the days leading to the race. They became bearable). There were precarious  moments, at least in my case, during the race which I will try to document in my full race report. Right now,  I am very thankful for the support of my family (it wasn't easy to train when you have a full time job, a wife and 4 kids to take care of), relatives (who during some of their occasions like birthdays I had  to abandon or leave early), friends and a few sponsors. They were there to help make running UTMB a little bearable. As mentioned in my last post, I would make sure that my sacrifices would all be worth it. Perhaps, I deserve after all this recovery time in Madrid, limping and all :)

Cheers,

Jon (finished in 44 hours and 57 seconds which will again elicit  a comment from Rick G. :)

pre-UTMB race thoughts

It's 8AM here and I am sitting and having coffee out on the balcony of our unit while looking at Mont Blanc. Simon and I have less than 10 hours (18:30 local time) before the start of UTMB (12:30AM in Philippines). We both had a good night's rest. I'm suprised I was able to sleep soundly. Let's see if I can take a nap later.

Last night, I asked veteran ultrarunner Rick Gaston for advise on clothing, etc. vis-a-vis nasty weather for Friday (weather forecast is rain with thunderstorm, gusty wind of 20-60kph, hail or snow from 2,000m asl and freezing temp of -3C. I think the wind is the killer. -3C plus that wind, temp will be much lower. We hurdle all these and we'll be fine for the rest of the race.

The goal for this race is obviously to finish within the cut-off time of 46 hours (longer than the usual of 30 or so hours). Breaking my time at GNW100 is definitely a bonus but I'll take it one step at a time. UTMB presents a different set of challenges like weather, terrain, elevation, etc. Like for instance, I ran several times here and particularly took note of the terrain. It's rocky and made a mental note to avoid, among others, ankle sprain. I have always believed that a smart ultrarunner focuses on things he can control and not on those he cannot like weather, terrain, etc. It only makes sense.

My training did not go well as I wished it should. I trained solidly for GNW100 than for UTMB. the only difference is that UTMB has more almost daily hilly terrain runs because of the place in Clark called Donggwang. Simon, on the other hand, allotted 1 year for this race. Wow. So I would not be suprised If he finished ahead of me :) I remember Peter advising me that there should be "mountains" in your legs when running UTMB. True. It is his unique way of saying "specificity of training". Yeah, I agree. Jael was kind enough to send a SMS this morning to wish us luck and others via FB like Uncle Willy, Beth, JJ, BR, Jonel, Vener, Josaw, Jomar, Ricky,  Boss Red, Andrew, Retzel, Cesar, Rey J. Paolo, Yasmin, Jerry K. my siblings, family, cousins (Rhommel, Rvey), Rodel, members of Clark Roadrunners, Ed, Saturnino and others. Thanks guys. 

So let us see later how things will go. Just preparing for this race, time, costs and all, and stepping behind the start line are worthy of ultra runner's dream.   

It is 10:20AM here and we have to go to supermarket and to buy and cook our lunch. Better cook and eat our own food. Safer and cheaper that way. Next race is Western Sates 100 in US and if I am not lucky in lottery, there is always Spartathlon in Greece.

Cheers folks! 

UTMB Epiphany

Greetings from Chamonix!

This blog post was composed during my connecting flight several hours ago. Perhaps, the long flight and lack of sleep have taken its toll on me. Getting emotional at certain times is nothing new to us.

I know I sound incoherent. This has something to do with the Japanese movie I saw onboard Qatar. The title is PEAK - the rescuer .

12 - 9

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/102962896

This is exactly a marathon distance.

We started our run a little before 12 midnight at Miyamit. Weather was far from hospitable. It had been raining for almost two (2) days prior to our run. It did occur to us that the condition would be far from ideal which, on hindsight, is good. Simon said it aptly - the worse the condition, the better it will prepare us for UTMB. I could not agree more. Peter decided not to come due to some important reasons. We understood and figured he was better off not being around since he would not have perhaps enjoyed the weather and unnecessary waiting. 

The night before our run, I had to "escape" from my Uncle Orly's 60th birthday party which was not easy since he is someone very dear to me. The cold beer he served me was just staring at me on the table for hours. Explaining to the rest of the family that I had to run for 9 hours or so in some of the inhospitable or god-forsaken terrains under such weather condition at such ungodly hours would be an exercise in utter futility. No use. It is like talking Greek to them. So I let my wife do the explanation. I was told that my escape and adventure last weekend did  raise a few eyebrows. Oh well. What can I say, we all had to make some sacrifices and come UTMB, I will darn make sure they are all worthwhile.

You would not believe the condition of the terrain now after the Miyamit Falls junction. It is surreal and felt like we were on a different landscape or planet. Cracks on the ground are everywhere like it was a result of earthquake at 8-9 on a Richter scale. The thick fog, eerie silence and darkness heightened the experience. Obviously, the constant rain and other elements shaped what is now the trail. It was fun though hopping from one crack onto another. We twice saw on the trail the nocturnal cats -  civets. We were startled when our headlamps hit their eyes which glowed ominously in the dark. That should explain the fresh droppings on the trail.

Good thing Simon lent me his pair of trekking poles. It immensely helped me to navigate the muddy and slippery terrain. Now my initial reluctance to use the poles has changed. I will carry them during the UTMB. 90% of the runners cannot be wrong. One of the highlights of our run is stopping at the turn-around point. Wind was howling and the rain had not stopped. The few minutes of pit stop was enough to bring our core temperature down and gave a us a chill. This is something we really have to consider seriously for UTMB where the temperature is even colder.

  

Well, the Falls was raging due to the volume of water coming from the hills. The picture below will show it. We finished in 9 hours plus change. Strange that we were not sleepy during the wee hours in the morning. After the run, it brought us to the realization on what will be the cut-off time for the 42k race in Miyamit. 12 hours? 15? 

Next week is another 42K (at least for me) at Miyamit and a climb at Mt Arayat the next day before tapering. By the way, 42k trail marathon and 50 miler races in Miyamit are tentatively set on 12 November 2011. Tentative because  I noticed that so many ultra races are being held left and right which I hope are not being conducted just for the sake of just holding them. It seems we are now being saturated with events which significance, importance, continuity  and timeliness have yet to be established and considered. I will post in Facebook on these events when everything is settled. 

Cheers,

Jon (almost ready for UTMB)

mudfest

Déjà Vu

That was exactly what I said to Simon Sandoval last Saturday before our 8-hour run at Miyamit. Déjà vu indeed.

I recall vividly the countless hours I spent at Miyamit training for GNW100 last November. Just driving again to the place brought a lot of memories or perhaps sacrifices just to finish my first 100-mile race. Now, I am at it again. If this training ground worked for GNW100, I did not see any reason why it should not work this time for UTMB which is equally a mountain race. As they say, stick to what works for you.

HO CHI MINH, CLARK-PORAC run (leg 1) & NUVALI

HO CHI MINH

Last weekend when my wife announced that she had a business meeting in Vietnam, I hastily decided to come along for several reasons (in order of importance) - I have not been there,  pho, people, food and tourist attraction.

I mean their pho (noodle soup) is one of the tastiest and healtiest around. Cheap too and of course, the best way to get the gustatory experience is in Vietnam itself. So after a couple beers (Tiger and Heineken) during our first few days, I decided to lace up my shoes and go for a 10 miler although on a road. For runners, I think the best way to see a city or new place is on foot. The experience is never quite the same as when one is riding a car or taxi. My only regret is when we went to Europe in 2008, I failed to run in Germany, France and Italy because we were underdressed. Too cold. I think it is a good investment (experience wise) to go around the cities by running. Right now, I plan my vacation around running and vice-versa. Anyway, here are the pictures in Ho Chi Minh with my wife:

NEW PLAYGROUND & ACHTUNG!

ACHTUNG!

Calling all trail runners, guides, even soldiers, fugitives from law, insurgents (joke) and others who have knowledge of the trail that connects Clark to Subic via San Marcelino, Zambales based on the post of the anonymous in the comment section below. Please email me. Thanks. Cheers.

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Oh my. It has been a while since I posted here. Why? For several reasons. Foremost of which is there was nothing significant to write about. Although I am quite busy now training for UTMB which is slated on 26August of this year.

UPDATED Miyamit to Pinatubo Trek

UPDATES (as of 15 April 2011, 9PM)

All is set for tomorrow. Those joining the adventure will meet at 2:30AM, Clark Parade Ground (Fat Ass venue) parking lot. Jerry will bring extra water jug for everyone during the trek and rice wrapped in banana leaves. See you. Cheers!

EXCITING MONTHS AHEAD

With BDM races behind us, we cherish the fond memories they left in the lives of the runners - ultrarunners to be specific. Memories that are forever etched in our mind. Most of us are now relishing the victories and perhaps, even staring at the buckle, medal and trophy proudly displayed at home or even at the office. Majority of the runners are still perhaps recovering and enjoying the downtime while waiting for the sore legs and feet to heal.

THE CULPRIT AND UTMB

CULPRIT

I had been nursing a tender left plantar - the part or spot below the forefoot. It is something not necessarily painful or debilitating as I still could run but it was annoying to say the least. I had not experienced this before, during or even right after GNW100. Even when I paced my 2 runners during the QCIMarathon, there was none. The soreness became apparent while running Milo Finals up until Fat Ass although it did not prevent me from racking up more than 110K of weekly distance of training.