Mt Endure Jungle Trek

'Tahan is the hardest trek in Malaysia. Although Kinabalu is almost twice as high as Tahan, it's actually easier. I simply cannot let you go alone. Don't fool yourself. A youngster like you would have no chance against the world's oldest rainforest,' Mr. National Park Supervisor told me bluntly while checking my papers. 'This trek demands excellent physical fitness and mental determination. There are several hazardous river crossings, challenging climbing and traverses along dry ridges requiring rationing every last drop of water. For a well-equipped expedition with guides, cooks and porters, it's at least 7-9 day roundtrip to this highest mountain in Peninsular Malaysia. And if you get in trouble, don't expect my staff to rescue you.'

'Deal. Sounds fine to me. See you in less than seven days,' I replied and begun my solo jungle trek to Gunung Tahan, or Mt Endure in English. I had just learned from my Lonely Planet South East Asia guidebook that it was possible to do this exciting Tahan trek cheaply - all by yourself. I disappeared in the jungle before anyone had a chance to stop me.

This happened about 30 years ago. I was in my early twenties and relatively fit. I had finished my first marathon run the previous year. I travelled by boat up the river to Taman Negara HQ in Kuala Tahan with a large backpack. I carried the big three of hiking: a tent, sleeping bag and foam mat. I had lots of food as well. Had I known how challenging it would be, I'd probably never have attempted this alone. As none of my friends were neither interested nor capable, I decided to do it. I thought it would be fun. I was confident that I got this.

DAY ONE

Taman Negara's fauna has it all in terms of dangerous creatures, including elephants, tigers, rhinos, snakes and spiders. After hiking just a few hours I found myself more concerned with dangerous flora. Specifically the thorny vine that had arrested my fall down a muddy slope. I yelled in pain as the tiny needles sunk deeper around my neck and body. I struggled a few minutes to grab a knife and cut the vine. Finally I was free to continue. After that I watched my every step more carefully.

Later on I encountered a Singaporean hiker hiking back home. He was shocked and cried a lot while telling his story. He had pitched his tent by the river. Several elephants had stomped over the tent while he was sleeping. Miraculously he had stayed alive and wasn't even seriously injured. The elephants had no intention to harm him. He just happened to camp on their path.

In the late afternoon I arrived at the first campsite by River Melantai. I had advanced maybe about 15 km. In those days we didn't have any GPS to measure the distance. I dove in the water with a big splash to clean myself and wash my muddy clothes. I pitched my tent and enjoyed a cold dinner. I didn't carry a cooker and jungle wood seemed too wet to burn.

I noticed a few black leeches all over my body. It's impossible to avoid those tiny suckers in the jungle. They can easily drop from vegetation to crawl under your clothes. I carefully burned the ugly buggers off with a lighter. You have to let them inflate themselves with your blood first. Don't tear them off prematurely, or you risk getting a bad infection.

I expected a thunderstorm every evening. They don't call this rainforest for nothing. It started before I fell asleep. Laying on a sleeping bag and soft mattress, I felt safe in my waterproof tent. After a while the top outside fabric gave in and leaked badly. By the time the rain stopped, my tent had turned into a kiddie pool. Loud animal noises kept me awake all night as I laid down soaking wet. I imagined hearing scary beasts nearby, but luckily they left me alone. My strategy was to never unzip my tent before sunrise, no matter what.

DAY TWO

In the morning my body ached. I had to make my backpack lighter. I decided to hide most of the heavy canned food high on a tree for my return trip. Then I had a big breakfast. When I picked up my skyblue backpack it was a lot lighter, but covered with hundreds of skyblue butterflies. They must have thought it was their mothership or something. They followed me across the river for a while, which was fun but weird.

The second day climbed over 27 hills. My dirty contact lenses were not usable anymore. No worries, my pace was so slow that I had plenty of time to spot the route markings with my myopic eyes. The highest peak was 576m, followed by a steep trail downhill and seven river crossings. I used a stick I found to stay upright in knee-deep streams. I reached the second campsite after the last river. The flowing waters had kept me well hydrated, cleaned and cooled. I ate something and fell asleep quickly after burning away a dozen leeches. I estimated to have covered another 20 km and was on schedule. I felt happy after about my performance, but the worst was ahead.

DAY THREE

Serious mountain climbing started on the third morning. It was a shorter section than previous days, but all of it was steep uphill to the camp at over 1800m altitude. There was only one small stream about half way up to fill my water bottle. I felt better as it got gradually cooler and less humid. On the steepest rocks bouldering skills were required. I didn't have them, but somehow struggled my way up with bare hands. (Nowadays they have installed stairs and ladders there.) At night I was shivering as it was windy and only about +5°C. I hadn't thought of bringing warm clothing in the jungle. I had to anchor my tent real well to prevent it from flying away in the night. It was awesome to lie on that narrow ridge and watch the milky way glowing bright.

DAY FOUR

In the morning all my gear was dry and my spirits were high. The most difficult part of the climb was ahead. It was a vertical cliff about 250m up and down. There were some old ropes and I was barely able to do it. During the last descent my water bottle fell down accidently. I watched it drop into the jungle a hundred meters below me. I had to make it to the summit and back down to the last watering hole in one day. The summit ridge seemed long, but not too technical. I drank black swamp water from moss growing on the slopes. The 360° view from the 2,187m peak was magnificent. I wrote my name in the visitor book and headed back immediately. I barely made it back to the watering hole before dark. So far so good.

DAY FIVE

Without my water bottle I got dehydrated, confused and lost on the fifth day. After one of the river crossings I took the wrong turn left. It took me a long time to find my way back to the right track. I kept moving on along a river until I stumbled upon the familiar route markings again. It was a relief as I didn't have any food left. With the light pack, I was able to run pretty fast now. I was able to find the stash of goodies I had left. I was completely exhausted. I was so hungry that I ate it all. I thought this would have to be my last night in the tent. I couldn't take any more of this.

DAY SIX

I'll never forget the astonished faces in the Park HQ as I rushed in. They stared at this crazy forest creature, who was covered in dirt and bloody rags. The Supervisor said 'You came back already... Where did you give up and turn back?'

'No no. I made it to the top of Tahan and back here in less than seven days. I did it!', I announced triumphantly at the finish of my 120 km solo jungle trek. Nothing else seemed too difficult after that.




Note: I didn't carry a camera and mobile phones didn't even exist. It was awesome to be able to relive my adventure with Google Maps Street View. All photos are screenshots from there.

The Road to Sparta - book review

My initial reaction to The Road to Sparta is mixed. "There are always ups and downs during an ultramarathon," Dean Karnazes states. The same goes for this book.

On the positive side I was happy to finally be able to read Dean's Spartathlon 2014 race report. The ten chapters (19-29) about the actual Spartathlon experience are the best part. It's all vintage Karnazes including battles with blisters, nausea, fans, journalists, traffic, air pollution, hallucinations, sleep running and out of body experiences.

It was interesting to learn how even a seasoned pro ultrarunner can find it challenging to finish those 246km from Athens to Sparta within the 36-hour cutoff time. Amazingly there is a Vertical K skyrun (a mountain trailrun ascending 1000m by night) in the middle of this road ultramarathon.

The trouble with the remaining twenty chapters is that they must pale by comparison. I found all the  historic stuff borderline boring. I couldn't help feeling slightly sleepy while tracing the genealogy of Dean's calves and stuff like that. But I appreciate it was a 'voyage of self-discovery' for him.

Also way too many pages were decorated by unnecessary adjectives, cliches, Greek words and quotations. Don't be afraid to skip a little here and there - you won't miss anything essential.

References to marathon (both the victory and the modern running race named after it) could have easily been left out. First, the distance from Marathon to Athens is shorter than 42.2km. Second, Marathon was never featured in ancient Greek Olympics. Third, there is no proof that Pheidippides ever ran from Marathon to Athens. It may have been another messenger. In any case Persians invaded Greece a decade later, so the victorious Greek nike-moment was relatively short-lived.

I found it a bit weird that to relive the Pheidippides experience, Mr. Karnazes chose to eat only authentic ancient Greek foods like figs during Spartathlon. I doubt it's so easy to make it feel the same. The roads didn't exist at the time, so it had to have been trailrunning all the way. Also the runners were barefoot or had simple gear like sandals at best, as they weren't sponsored by The North Face.

Another issue is that to really recreate the epic journey of Pheidippides in 490 BC, one would expect Mr. Karnazes to run the same way back just the way the original Ultramarathon Man did. After all, ultrarunners like Marvelous Mimi have successfully completed Double Spartathlon.

Greeks invented democracy. Unfortunately our modern democracies are in ruins much like ancient architecture. We may have saved the banks, but possibly somehow lost the concept of 'rule by people' in the process.

Dean observes: "Suddenly witness to the brutal realities pervasive in this world, I found it impossible not to recognize that in 2,500 years of conflict and warfare between men and nations, not much had changed... Like Greece itself, the Spartathlon had been a dichotomous experience."

In summary, if Dean's first book Ultramarathon Man inspired you to run longer distances a decade ago, you'll probably enjoy reading this one as well. Surely in tough times we can be a bit like Dean in Spartathlon: "I won't give up without a fight."

The Road to Sparta: Trailer from Barney Spender on Vimeo.

Die Hard 50 Mile Christmas Training Run

In a recent Talkultra podcast Zach Miller discussed (transcript of the interview by Ian Corless) his impressive victory of 2016 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 Mile Championships and mentioned: 'But you never go out there and race a full 50 miles in training.'



I started brainstorming right there how to fix that this Christmas. I must run a 50 Mile training run!

Christmas Day, 7:02am. I'm getting out to run 50 miles on familiar local trails. The weather is great with slightly above 0°C temps. I start my GPS, turn on my headlamp and head into the darkness. I have prepared well for this - by watching Die Hard the previous night.

Welcome to the party, pal.

Fast forward to evening, 70.8K down. I'm home for my third and last 'aid station' visit to grab food. I'm tired. My legs hurt. I crave for energy, but lack appetite. I feel like it would make sense to quit this stupid training run now. I've hit the Great Wall.

Please don't let me die.



Then I realise Die Hard's bad guy Hans Gruber represents that familiar voice in our head rationalizing us into giving up.

Happy trails, Hans.

I drag myself out to shuffle in the final 10K. I see very few people, certainly not any runners.

80.7km down. I stop my GPS. It's 9:40pm. I finish Die Hard 50 Mile Training Run in 14 hours 38 mins.

If this is their idea of Christmas, I gotta be here for New Year's.

Running Man - book review

I'm guilty of several DNFs, but this book I finished fast. I found Running Man both interesting and inspiring. What's more, Charlie Engle can write and tell a story.

I have followed Charlie Engle with some interest since Running The Sahara came out. I liked the epic documentary produced by Matt Damon. Then I found out he has has done a lot of adventure, bike triathlon and ultrarunning races.

However this is not primarily a book describing all of his races. The most compelling parts of the book are about the crazy ideas he has filled his wild life with: booze/drugs, running across Sahara, and simulating 135-mile Badwater in prison.

The main take-away point from the book is that life is all about adaptation - it's not the circumstances we are dealt that define us.

Running Man is the best endurance sports memoir since Rich Roll's Finding Ultra. Run and get it.

The Case of Disappearing UTMB Points

Christmas is soon here for ultra trail runners: UTMB 2017 registration starts Dec 15.
"Enter the legend! 8000 runners from 5 continents. What about you?"

Me? Yes! Who wouldn't want participate in the "Sommet Mondial du trail running".

Let's visit ITRA to check if I have the required 15 points from 3 qualifying races.

Yes, I do seem to have 6, 5, 4 and 4 "Endurance" points from my races in the past two years. Just ignore those "Mountain" points for now. So far, so good. 6+5+4=15 would buy me a lottery ticket.

Let's now see if they are in UTMB's list of qualifying races, because "It will not be possible to register for the 2017 UTMB® by making reference to a race not included in this list." Got it.

Damn, Ultra-Trail Collserola 2015 isn't listed anymore. I remember seeing it there before. The whole race with my 4 points has mysteriously disappeared! WTF?

No panic, my other 4-pointer Ecotrail Oslo 2015 is there. We're cool.

Also Swiss Irontrail 2015 is there with the 6 points for T201. I would have gotten the same amount of points by finishing the much shorter and easier T139 or T121. Surely 204.8km with +12,000m would be worth seven points, but six is the max they give for any race. Ok, whatever.

So I have 4 + 6 = 10 points. The remaining 5 points should come from  Zugspitz Ultratrail 2016. It is listed, but marked "To be checked" - meaning those points are not available, because UTMB apparently has some minor dispute with Plan B, who organize Zugspitz Ultratrail. Get over it!

OMG! Zugspitz Ultratrail have announced that they have terminated their membership with ITRA and there will be no UTMB points available for any 2017 races.

However when I chose Zugspitz Ultratrail it was advertised as UTMB-qualifier worth 5 points. Unfortunately that's not the case. Had they been honest about this, runners could have chosen another race.

German blogger Trailfieber found out this disagreement is basically about Plan B's Zugspitz Ultratrail failing to respect UTMB's Ultra Trail brand. Meaning UTMB and other UTWT races would like to own everything in the world related to Ultra Trail. Good luck with that.

I travelled across Europe with planes, trains and cars for those points. I spent my hard-earned cash on that trip. I ran all night in rain and mud to celebrate at the finish for those points. Take my finisher T-shirt and medal away, but give me those points you promised!

So now when I'd like to use those points, they aren't valid - only because an ultra trail running race had included the words ultra trail in it's name? Good job, guys!

Fortunately Swiss Irontrail 2017 doesn't have a lottery for T214 in July. I'm a trailrunner, not a trailgambler.

[Edit: UTMB informed that UTMB 2014 finishers will be allowed to get 6p, although normally only 2015-16 races apply. This slight deviation from the usual rules is welcome in a situation where some races are not acknowledged. So combined with the 10p from Ecotrail Oslo and Swiss Irontrail 2015 I can now get a total of 16 points. In other words while I have lost the 9p regarding Ultra-Trail Collserola 2015 and Zugspitz Ultratrail 2016,  I could participate in UTMB 2017 lottery if I wanted. I think Irontrail T214 offers a much better deal.]