RaYzeef @ malaya: Mt. Rinjani Ultra (MRU) : Misery Loves Company

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Mt. Rinjani Ultra (MRU) : Misery Loves Company

Let the beauty we love be what we do. There are hundreds of ways to kneel and kiss the ground - Rumi

It was a cold morning and i was badly struggling ascending Mt. Rinjani (3,726 meters) the highest peak on Lombok Island & second highest volcano mountain in Indonesia, i could hear Bud Salomon’s laboured breathing behind me. We were pacing each other since W3 and climbed the bloody mountain around 4:30 am.

I was in a dark place, very deep inside my pain cave. I was tired and lethargic, plus my head is now spinning due to mild AMS. Still i kept on stubbornly push my sorry ass up the mountain….very slowly. We’re halfway toward the summit now, I poke my trekking poles forward, suddenly my vision turn black and i lost all control, i fell face down on that dusty mountain ash!

The Race – MRU 52km (5,200 meters elevation gain)

I was keen to join this race, since it’s inception in 2013. But it clashed with my Leadville 100 race in USA. So the past two years, i put MRU on hold until this year. I decided to skipped Leadville this year after two try and find a big race in Europe. Lucky me, after two years of balloting, i got in “Tor Des Geants” race in Italy (September). So MRU is considered as mountain altitude training toward my big race in Italy.

Based on the past results, many strong runners were unable MRU race due many reasons, mostly were the strict cut off time (COT) of the race (22 hours).

My plan was to do the full course route within the cut off time or if things turn bad i will do my best to finish the course in whatever time it required. Its a hard training for sure.

Pre-Race

I plan travelling to Lombok with my Salomon teammate – the legendary Puzi Dolah. I need to pick out his brain for tips and trick to finish MRU as he finished this race last year.

On the morning flight from KLIA it was full of runners, from the registered list the Malaysian contingent is the biggest for MRU & RAR.

We had a bit of drama when we landed in Lombok, transportation miscommunication left us poorer by few hundreds thousands od Rupiah. Lesson learnt, you can get and negotiate your ride on arrival – no need to pre-booked unless you need to.

The ride from the Lombok Airport to Senaru took us more than 5 hours. To my big surprise, Lombok Island is really a big place. It was dark and cold once we arrived at our destination. Had our dinner and slept the night away.

The next day (Friday) it was race bib collection day and drop bag placing with the organiser (only for MRU 52km category). I had packed rice, a bottle of Gatorade, Nescafe Tin & Redbull inside the Drop Bag.

With some of Malaysian best trail runners

The race kit collection was held a Senaru Lodge, one of the most expensive lodging in Senaru. IDR 1.5 million per room/night. We met many runners there, especially the Malaysian runners.

The race start at 10 pm, after Friday prayer at the local mosque i had ample time for rest and snooze.

I have to be honest, i really don't prepare much for this race. I had a quick glance on the map and elevation profile. Later that afternoon, i prepared a short guideline for my plan race splits (hand written). I was ambitious and put 20 hours finish time as my target.

When Puzi saw handwritten plan splits , he quickly copied it. Now i must be doing something right when Puzi copied my plan. And now that my mind is clear, i could see that the plan was messed up, the plan finish time should be 6 PM not 6 AM. Sigh !

Race Day

Puzi and i made to the start line quite late, we arrived about 15 minutes before 10 pm start time. Puzi then excused himself for last minutes toilet deposit, he been complaining all day that we could not go. Now at the final minutes his wish finally answered!

I was happy many friends at the start line, including UTCM’s edition zero alumini Alvin from Singapore and Emmanuel Abadie (Manu), Frenchman living in Thailand. I think the Malaysian contingent was the biggest foreign athlete for this race.

The race started promptly at 10 pm, Elevation 600m – Senaru. The first few kilometres was a runnable sections on paved track (the only runnable section), then the real trail started – it looked like Nuang trail to me (my first experience running/hiking here). I still could do a fast hike here, that’s all i could do. Try to pace myself slower as i do not want to tire myself too early in the race.

Reached W1 Pos 2 Senaru 5.8km (Alt. 1533m) in good time – 1:17 hours / 11:17 pm. On target, i gave myself 11:30 pm to reach here. The volunteer gave us one bottle of mineral water (600ml) each, i refilled my hydration bottles and took one Powergel here before i restarted again.

One Malaysian guy overtook me between W1 and W2, he gave me few tips on the trail as he been here before recceing few days before the race. Strong climber this guy, i thanked him for the tips, encouraged him and asked for his name. He goes by the name Wazir and i introduced myself. He replied that everyone knows “Razif”, then he immediately gone into the dark night. The trail swallowed him.

I kept my rain jacket inside my Salomon vest bag, as it was not very cold for me. But that soon change when i hiked up an open Savannah trail like area, it was sandy and dusty. After a while, i decided to stop and put on my rain jacket to take shelter from the cold mountain wind. The markers could be improve in the future for this race as i took a wrong turn and goes up into the wrong trail of the mountain looking for W2.

As i was slowly hike up the cold dusty mountain trail, i heard yelling !

Damn ! Then i realised the W2 was located down on my right side. I had to turn back and went down to the aid station. They had tin Milo, water and food “lepat”. Met bunch of familiar runners here, Mark Itol from the Philippines and Malaysian comrade – Zul and Wan Panjang.

W2 – Pelawangan Senaru was at Alt. 2600m, 10.5km from start line. It took me 3:30 hours to reached here. It was 1:30 am, Saturday – damn! I was late 30 mins of target time due the wrong turn. Never mind, i was thinking that i would made up the time by running downhill during next section.

We left W2 together (Wan Panjang, Zull & I), as i reached the route going downhill i was stunned! Damn my sorry arse! It was a steep drop into the dark abyss. Not possible to run due to the steep rocky vertical down hell. I had to slowly find my steps going down the narrow rocky path. I kept reminded myself that this is only a training run, don’t screwed yourself by getting injured before the BIG race in September.

Found Mark Itol standing motionless somewhere down into the bottomless pit, i asked him what’s wrong? He was cramping badly ! I gave him some of my salt pills before proceeding further. He said “thanks Ray, you’re a life saver”. No worries mate, its our responsibility to help and make sure our fellow runners get support that they needed. Someday, we’ll be needing that help from our fellow runners in the trail – Karma works like that.

Found another runner, a caucasian runner had sprained his feet. It’s all over for him, i pity the guy. I wished him luck as he made a slow painful ascent back towards W2.

Finally made it to W3 – Segara Anak Lake (13.5km) Alt. 2,000m.

Overall timing was 4:39 hours, it was 2:39 am. Overshoot my target by almost an hour. Looked like i need to improvise, ditched the old plan. The new plan was to finish within COT, i need to reached Rinjani summit before 9:00 am.

They had plentiful of Water and Lemon fruit here, all the guys were at W3 – Zul, Wan Panjang, Ben10 and Bud Salomon. I was surprised to see him there, i thought he was long gone by now.

After a short break, i proceed to next aid station. Only 3.5km and going up. In between we got lost few times in the dark due to the lacking of markers. They need to put more markers or blinkers even better during night time.

The climb to W4 was arduous and i was getting slower, i felt that my energy left me. My nutrition plan was screwed, i need solid food. Banana would be more beneficial than lemons.

I was pacing with Bud starting from W3, he looked spent ! Not everyday you could say that about Bud. He hadn’t had proper training for this i guess. I was also tired, had to stop several times to refuel and catch my breath.

Finally we made to W4 (17km), Plawangan Sembalun Alt. 2600m it was cold due to strong morning wind. It took me 6:30 hours (4:30 am) to reach W4.

At his aid station we had access to our drop bag, i had Nescafe Tin, Redbull , Gatorade & packed rice here.

It was cold, i quickly access my drop bag and refilled my water bottles with Redbull and Carbo Pro. Bud did the same, he was on Carbo Pro same as mine. Shared the tin Nescafe with Bud, i really need to be fully awake for the next summit attack. Caffeine was what needed in that early morning hours, Bud brought with him 3 in 1 Coffee mix but there's no hot water at W4.

I was cold and contemplating on wasting more time at W4 to eat my packed rice. I needed to move to get my core body temperature up, decided to eat the plain rice later when i ascended the Rinjani peak. That was my big mistake for this race, summiting Rinjani without solid food for the vicious summit attack.

The Summit Attack

Now it’s just another 5km Vertical Climb to the W5 (3,726m), about 1,100 meters of steep climbing.

As soon as Bud & i reached the bottom the climb, we could see the steep sandy loose volcanic ashes on the ground. One step up, three steps down. Damn! This is useless. I had to use the trekking poles to hold my position every time i climbed few inches up. It took me forever and a lot of energy for this climb and i had only one powergel for fuel.

The ascending of Mount Rinjani, Lombok Island, Indonesia (3,726 meters / 12,224 feet) during Mt. Rinjani Ultra (MRU) probably was the hardest mountain climb I ever did. It was amazingly painful awesome experience.

Photo Credit: Wan Panjang

It was still dark when we came across the front runners coming down from the summit. Among them was my friend Manu, he was killing the race. I asked him how far to the summit? He replied “it’s fuckin far man”, i could see his tired face as he replied truthfully about the brutal climb. Sorry i asked, might be better if he just lied to me haha.

Next we met Puzi, he was talking and complaining about something….

We continued on and the sun now beginning to show up behind the horizon. It was a beautiful sight to be hold, we took a breather and took a couple of photos with mountain at the background.

Relentlessly we continued the climb, as soon as the sun shone on the mountain peak we could see small figures of hikers on top of the mountain. It was far……..i was screwed and my energy have long left me.

I regained consciousness few seconds later, get my ass up and boldly continued the painful ascent. Another humbling experience for me to remember that we are all mortal being, so fragile compared to other god creation – the mountain.

Finally after 4 hours of pushing my body through the thin mountain air, i finally conquered the highest peak in Lombok Island at 8:30 am. Just 30 minutes before the cut off time, 10:30 hours since the start of the race.

I had to sit down and ate a handful of dates to refill my long lost energy, all my water gone now. Thankfully, Wan Panjang spared some of his water for me. See Karma reward my previous kindness in my time of need.

I didn’t stay long on the summit, after taking few photos, i followed Bud “skiing” down the summit. I felt something on my knees on the way down, i couldn’t fly downhill as usual. I had to reserve and run down slower than my actual plan.

Reached back at W4 (27.4km), 1:20 hours later at 9:50 am. I was beyond spent, my fuelling plan gone to hell. The summit attack took more energy than i expected, but in the end i made all the way up, that’s what count.

Sat down at W4, Mudin was there and help to serve me water and the “lepat” food. I had three lepat, a bottle of Gatorade and one powergel. Saw Puzi and Alvin already arrived back from W6 – Pos 2 Sembalun. These guys are freakin fast!

I refilled my water bottles and ready to continued the battle, the plan has now changed. I will try to finish the distance even though i overshoot the COT. I was really determined to finish this and believe on past experience that i could managed to do this.

I left W4 for WS6 with Mudin, unfortunately my knee decided to have an off day coming down from “Bukit Penyesalan”. It was either i risk more damage to my knees or be smart and stop at the next aid station. I decided that i had enough of training at MRU and saved my knees for my real race next month in Italy. Hoping for a fast recovery.

So that’s it, i was disappointed to end my training early at W6 – Pos 2 Sembalun (31.2km) Alt. 1570m. at 12:25 pm (14:25 hours).

Sometimes we can only plan, but never ever give up. I might lost the battle, but i will win the war.

Gear used: