What I don't say out loud, I whisper here:: King of Sg. Lembing

I missed King of Bukit Larut when I was travelling oversea, then I missed King of Kemensah Trail too. King of Sg. Lembing came into picture when someone can't make it and transfer of entry was approved by the organizer. That time I was doing some really boring flat training and I wanted to add something different into the month of August, a light trail with some elevation may fit just nicely for that purpose.

Route map and elevation graph for 50KM

At glance on the elevation graph for this race, it doesn't look that tough, the climb at the 44km mark is probably obvious to most people that it will be the toughest of all. But having run some other ultra trails before, I know those tiny ups-downs on the elevation graph are probably going to make it tough for many, a lot of interference to pacing and engagement of muscles. But I like them, running too much on the flats makes me want to do some elevation runs, rolling hills are probably going to meet that need.

I would be telling lie if I say I don't want to win this race, just like every athlete at Olympics, but that doesn't mean I think I can win, to be realistic, I think to finish Top 10 men overall would be a win for myself, after all, I need to set a target to the run. Looking at the cut off time of 9 hours, I put a comfortable 7 hours finishing time, with a possibility of getting to 6 hours if the weather is good and the trail is not as hard as I expect.

So, come the day before race, decided to drive instead of following people's car so that my return to KL can be decided myself, by the time I reach Sg. Lembing it was already evening. Had dinner with the groups and saw many many many familiars faces came for this event, feels more like a carnival than a race, lol!

After dinner, proceed to pack for race, this event allows a drop bag for 50KM runners at 30KM checkpoint, although it is not really necessary, but it showed that the organizer arrange this to help the new joiners into ultra trails, in a way encouraging more runners to challenge themselves into this category. While I may not necessary need it, I thought since it is provided, I might as well make use of it by putting some luxury items like 2 units of VSoy 250ml and a spared hydration bottle with my recovery drink. And we all went to bed quite early on that night. It was a cooling night to sleep in with rains in the middle of the night, that means a wet trail later...

Woke up around 5am (also because of the noise from rooms next door when others woke up early too), get the necessary business done and pack my bags into my car, then we proceed to starting line.

Can u see me? of course u can't...

Photo before start

The race flag off at 7am and immediately I can see the fast legs like Munintaran, Ewegene and a few other runners ahead of the crowd, as it is still on tar road, I tried to keep up with the front pack and maintain my pace whether or not I got overtaken by others. The route brought us through cemetery area and soon we hit the 1st climb shown in the elevation graph. It was a shock to my running since I have not been running uphills in my training, change to smaller strike and increase the cadence abit to keep up with the front pack, able to overtake 1-2 runners who went too fast and slow down significantly. We reached the 1st water station at the end of the climb but too soon for anyone to stop for water. As Ewegene was recovering from his ITB, can see that he is not pushing and being careful on any downhill, that allowed me to keep up with him on uphill and slightly ahead of him going down hills.

There were not much changes in positions at this point except a AngMo passed us at fast pace (later I got to know that his name is Fin West, a strong finisher in this year's SAC), I tried to keep up for a while and finally decided that this move is going to kill me at the end, so I dropped my pace and stick back with Ewegene. The route was continuosly rolling hills, good for runners with good uphill torque, another 2 runners passed us but I didn't bother to chase, staying in a position of roughly 8-9 is within the target and it was too early to spend too much energy. As expected, everyone skipped water station at 5km as well.

Very fast AngMo aka Fin West

After crossing river I decided to take a pee since there was hardly anyone close to me from behind, we had left the rest of the pack quite far behind, give or take 2-3mins gap. Then I started to chase from this point, maintaining at the pace of 5:30-5:45 min each km was good enough for me without have to push too hard, and slowly closing in the gap with Ewegene and another Indian guy who are very fast at uphill. By the time I hit water station at 10km, I was back with Ewegene and later there was downhill stretch at 11km, I started to catch up with the Indian guy in front. And this went on for the next 6-7km until we hit the U-turn point together.

For the 1st time, I refill some water here and collected some "black color" juice specially prepared by organizer, and I was told it was coffee, since it was just coffee so I don't mind some new stuff on the way out. This was the biggest regret I had in the race, the coffee sucks, I am never a coffee lover anyway (still, the coffee, my god, sucks...), it is not up to me to judge, I have to discard the coffee immediately.

The chase went on again, I can tell he was getting tired because it got easier to keep up with him and at some point, I think I am using him to maintain my pace and thanks to the movie "To The Fore", I even think he was my dometique, except, having run too close behind a runner risk not able to see the route clearly, especially on trail. After U-turn I got to see the rest of the pack for the 1st time, with most of the expected runners just slightly behind like Yimster, Jeff, CP Tan, and the others who were also not far away like Seow Kong, Raymond, Jun Chan etc. And Fujii Loh was leading the women category way ahead of the rest of the ladies...-.-!

While hi5-ing with the rest on the return trip to 5km check point, I continued to tail the Indian guy, this went on until 23km when he started to slow down more and we also passed another chinese guy who was ahead earlier. I passed them both at the same time and went ahead alone, for the 1st time in the race, I am running alone and by the time I hit 25km water station, another runner leading the men open category was sitting on the floor and the volunteer was attending to him, some injuries I supposed.

So, 25km, mid point check, before U-turn, I knew the leading guy in blue shirt was way ahead of the rest, like 2km of me, and Munintaran was slightly behind together with this guy sitting on the floor, that means he is now the 2nd leader; then the Fin was behind them, he must be 3rd by now, and I just overtook the 4th, 5th and 6th (I was 7th at U-turn), that made me the 4th runner on the course, this was already a surprise to me. But like any ultra races, the real race only begin in the 2nd half.

This is definitely after U-turn...

Here comes the problem, I am a better chaser than a leader in a race, having no one in front and no one behind, I started to get complacent, suddenly the tiny pain in the muscles and soreness become an issue and I allowed myself to walk up every climb and jog even though the next 5km is more down hills than up. I reckon that the 3 runners ahead are probably going to be far ahead, I just focus on waiting for the rest to come closer before I start running again, and I have in mind that who may appear from behind anytime soon..

It didn't happen.

Approaching 30KM check point

And before I know it, I was already at the 30KM water station after a climb, where my lovely wife enjoying her shake leg moment waiting for me.:P This is where I get my drop bag (if u consider a plastic bag with one bottle and 250ml drinks as one) and get some update on how far was the other 3 runners ahead. This is when I got to know that Fin is from men open category and he was just slightly ahead of me by few minutes (always take this kind of info with pitch of salts, few minutes sometimes means much longer). I was already ahead of my target placing at this point, chasing may risk exhausting myself too soon and injury since I was not doing much trails.

Cikgu Mat who led at least 30KM of the race

Munintaran, 2nd Leader at 30KM

"Rob Krar" who led the men open most of the time

The duo that I passed around 23km

My pacer from 11-23KM

Abang Yimster

Ewegene Tan

CP Tan

The 3 musketeers

Must pose abit at water station

Photo with my supporter!!!

Leaving W6 (30KM)

Sorry babe, got to go...

I left the water station after finishing a pack of 250ml VSoy, a few pieces of water melon and changing my bottle (polluted with coffee) with the one supposedly containing my recovery drink (supposedly, yes). Taking a short walk into the short trail before hitting the tar road from that point onwards. My tummy was not feeling well with sudden influx of vsoy, 100 plus and water melon, but it was manageable, all I needed to do was, TO WALK, to let them settle in. Then I realised the recovery drink that I prepared, I FORGOT to put in the powder !!!! so I basically got myself another full bottle of WATER!!! Immediately I discard half the drink I carry with me.

Walk Jog Walk Jog for the next 3-4km of rolling road, still no sight of anyone coming from behind, I guess they were really taking their time to enjoy at 30KM point. The weather started to get hot, luckily the road into the kampung area provided some shades and I was not in the hurry to chase, every uphill was managed with walking. At some point the crews drove passed with a photo/videographer sitting at the back, I had to pretend running abit for the show, but why did they stop at the top of the climb for me that I had to run up? -.-!

At the end of the another rolling hills on the road, I reached the supposedly 38KM point marked with 40KM, 2nd surprise of the day, I saw Munintaran was just leaving the water station!!! and for reason I cannot understand, all runners had to run in a 400m loop to come back to the water station before continuing the journey, I met Fin on my way into the loop. I didn't expect to see him too. In other words, while I took my easy time to walk and jog, they either did that too or they slowed down too.

As the saying goes: "If you can see it, you can take it". I suddenly think, there is a chance that I can win this race with remaining 10km to go. That somehow gave me some booster to stop walking and start jogging, as I left the water station, there was still no sight of anyone coming to this point, in other words, I should really abandon the idea of waiting for anyone to catch up...

Leaving the rural area, I entered the main road where there was no cover from the sun, good news is I have proper hydration throughout the race so far, the heat was felt on the skin but not in the body, I took out the arm sleeves and put them on to prevent sun burn. Though I think I could possibly chase the 2 runners in front, I must also understand running on the road are probably their strength and after all they were faster on flat route, I still don't get any sight of them even until the main gate of Sg. Lembing where we enter the starting point of the Panorama Hill stairs.

The steps reminded me of the Translantau stairs, but it was manageable, as I know the climb is only 200 metres+, it won't take very long with this kind of steep ascent. Very soon I spotted a runner in front of me, initially I thought he was one of the early finisher of 10/21km category who came visit the hill, but later I realise he didn't look like taking an easy trip, I decided to use him as benchmark, everytime he stopped to catch breath, I forward 20 steps, when I finally overtook him, I got to know he was the race leader at the very beginning!

If he is here, that means, the other 2 won't be very far ahead! Suddenly I have additional boost to walk the stairs faster and faster, then I managed to catch up with Munintaran who seemed to struggle abit with this stretch, I passed him and hit the end of the stairs to the junction where I bump into Rob Krar (Fin West gave me the feeling of Rob Krar) again! As he came from the left, means he obviously took the wrong way, I let him lead the way to the right to compensate his lost time in exploring the left and save my time from guessing. Both of us reach the Panorama hill check point together and made the U-turn trip to descent and I let him lead since coming down is more advantage for the runner in front.

And he dusted me in less than 30 seconds... I couldn;t see him anymore as he sprinted down the stairs while I struggled with coming down the stairs after losing touch on running down stairs...Met the rest of the runners again on the way down and they weren't actually very far behind.

At the end of the down hill, I was directed to the left where another road hill awaits, I was surprised to see Fin sitting on the road side, he was not feeling well, I spent some water on him to cool his body down (hopefully) and proceed to slowly climb the hill. For the 1st time, I was leading the race.

2-3km later I was back to the town at a very big junction, no marker, no marshal, I know turning right is to the finishing line and I know we had to loop the town before finishing, so I guess this could be the right way, I took out my phone trying to call the RD anyway to confirm. Before I decided to hang up, Fin caught up with me and told me this is the right way, so both of us traveled together head to the town. Finishing line was ahead, it felt weird with such under-distanced but it didn't matter anyway, and whether I finished 1st or 2nd, it didn't matter too coz I know he struggled more than I do at this point.

As we crossed the finishing line, the RD came charging at us and shouted that wrong way and we had to loop another 5km using the left route at that junction to cross hanging bridge and come back the other side of the town... For that split seconds I had that fury surged, but good thing about running boring flats, unlike running trails, it trained your patience and keep you at zen, for long hours it tame your beast mode, I was able to keep calm and made the choice the return to the right route.

On my way out, I bumped into Cikgu Mat (the 1st runner I overtook at the stairs) and signal him to the other way. Having run out of water and unsure when is the next water supply, it was hard to run fast to catch up the lost time every though I was not very tired, resort to walk-jog mode with Cikgu under the noon sun. Luckily there was a water stop 2km down the route, the water came on time, solved my thirst and cool my body down, after refill I was able to continue to run again. Cross the hanging bridge and I was on the return trip back to the town. Then again, running alone I was complacent again, slowed down, walk-jog till the next surprise water station again, lol!

Angel Tang was like an angel there, I tried to get some coke in but too much of gas I had to spit them out, it is not working. Angel told me I was 2nd runner passing, then only I realise Munintaran was already ahead when we took the wrong turn, it didn't matter much anyway. Left this last station and I was already on the way back to familiar route and hit the main road of the town and crossed the finishing line, again, with a timing of 5:33 hrs.

Finally crossing the finishing line

Need to pretend suffering abit

Photo with the legends and elites

Photo with Jerome

Photo with Jerome and 2 Tan sisters

All winners of 50KM category

This is really awkward...

Announced the King and Queen of Sg. Lembing, but, crown ler?

The after story:

The race report is just my personal story of what I saw, felt and did during the race, it may not represent the race itself, like for me there was no shortage on water stations but it may be for other slower runners.

The route for Sg. Lembing was surprisingly very run-able and for runners venturing into ultra trail, this is probably the most gentle route you can find, though the organizer can always improve the support further with additional fruits like banana and oranges. I would prefer to get more trail route than the road hills.

Rolling hills are good route for me as it allows some rest on the different muscles used in both up n down hills respectively, the course is wide enough for big group to run together.

Though the cut off at 30km check point at 5hrs and total cut off at 9hrs may sound challenging to some runners, runners must understand what they sign up for and most importantly train for it. If it doesn;t challenge you, it doesn't change you, and ultra trail races often don't get very accurate distance, with some personal deviation from the route, you probably won't get the right distance, thus always expect to run extra 1-2km to next water station. Always prepare for the worst to happen like extreme weather and running out of water earlier than planned, this is where u can do something about during training.

Before you complaint the Panorama hill is killing you and start cursing the organizer, take a look at the profile below for Translantau100K where the 1st 20KM aimed to eliminate runners unfit for the course and at 2nd half another 2 hills to further reduce the number of runners on the route. Pay some attention to the time for slowest runner to meet the cut off, yes, it is done in the middle of the night if you are just meeting the cut off.