from this feed from Berry View, I think Jag deserves to know what he has inspired people here as an ultra and trail runner. So, here is the translation...... (Thai language: see https://facebook/photo.php?fbid=747904328611934&set=a.109713645764342.10608.100001771208878&type=1&fref=nf&pnref=story) ********* Jag…. and his extraordinary story of ultra distance run of 4 days, 3 nights, 298 km, in the sierras that embrace HK. By Berry View , Translated from Thai by ChorX - Jag Lanante, a Filipino nurse, works in a private hospital. He lives in Bangkok Thailand for years. He could speak-understand some Thai. Despite the language skill he has, he perceives Bangkok as his home sweet home. Many people know him as a “modest down-to-earth polite and smiley person” - This is his third year of being an ultra marathoner. He has gone through TNF100 and O2O – 116 km and he was a winner in O2O event. He actually waited for everyone at the finish line after he finished the race. Other ultra fellows approximated his race pace at 6-7 mins/km for his 100K road trip. - He is a night-shift nurse so he normally trains in the morning after his shift ends in Rod Fai Park. There is no goal for monthly mileage; all he has is only time constraint. His unit is in hours: 2 3 4 5. “I just do my training when I have some spare time”, he said. - Hong Kong 4 Trails Ultra Challenge “HK4TUC” is known as “The Impossible Race”. Runners have to get through all major 4 trails, which are regularly use as the battlefields in HK separately, in the same event!! To finish the race, forget about the full night sweet dream during these 3 nights. This particular race started in Jan 1, 2015 and finished in the sunny afternoon of Jan 4. 2 world-class routes are included in this race too: Vibram HK100 and TransLantau100 (the monstrous trails await: Wilson – Maclehose – Hong Kong Lantau). - There was a rumor that less people enrolled for this event, even though they are skyrunners or skillful ultratrail runners. The elevation gain is 14500 meters…. Jag said it is like climbing Mount Everest 3 times!!!!! - Indy organizer, Andre Blumberg, a German antelope who lives in HK…. who falls in love with trail running…. who could just pop off from his den to his beloved hills in a matter of minutes, has an idea of having such kind of “miraculous race” from his love (or his insanity) in 2011 (follow his scoop in Trail Master here: bit.ly/1vQqxfN ) - There are not more than 5 people registering in this race each year! The race has been organized for 4 years….. there were only 4 persons who could really finish the race….. - And yes….. Jag is the 5th in the history of #HK4TUC - Affliction, no CP, no aid station; only thing he has is a map….. the event is self-supported; the event has no tee souvenir, no finisher shirt, no medal, no points for UTMF-UTMB; no such attraction is provided in order that runners realize the epic of ultra running each runner finds. - Andre believes that everything that runners perceive during the run is more valuable than medals; it’s the chance that one will get into “ultra” mind stage. The survivor(s) will be remembered by the whole village of trail runners at least 10 years and through the lifetime of that survivor….. - Jag called this trip as “Runcation”; He started his trip like a honeymoon trip to Macau with his wife and ended the trip with this fun run and then back to BKK. That’s it!! That’s what he thinks about this whole trip….. Nothing complicated….. except that he needed to prepare for more supplies for this extended running trip. That’s all….. - Through 4 days and 3 nights, he didn’t sleep. The longest nap he had was on the ferry to Lantau. That’s all!!!! - In the course of 298 km, Jag gave an extra bonus miles of 4-5 hours to Andre as he was lost and he would like to solve that himself as much as he could. The Local Chinese who could not speak English also had a great perseverance running with him till all got back to the right course. - Temperature? 17c during the day, 7c during the night + wind factor + 9-hour sunlight - Jag, most of the time, ran alone. He, from time to time, came across some passerby who were celebrating new year. Ultra running is the way Jag celebrated. - 7-11 are only CPs he stopped by for bread and drinks and stockpiling his own food and he had no idea when he would come across the next CP again. - His run is like a “fairy-tale running”; he saw monkeys that are as tall as his waist and fatal greeny red-eyed snakes and he said it was not a hallucination from over-running for sure. - Gear check: Jag uses less-than-10-buck Casio watch. He does not own a GPS watch. It’s just redundant. - We asked “what pace did you run?”. He pointed his finger to his left chest. - Another gear check: He uses only one pair of shoes in this race: Hoka Stinson Tarmac. It’s for road running but at that time, anything that can move him forward is just enough. - As there was no CP to drop off his stuff, he had to carry everything from clothes, food, water, which are approx. 8-10 kilos. - He didn’t think of trekking poles but he got a great assistance from a fellow runner who got himself DNF earlier and lent Jag his trekking poles. It was actually the first time Jag seriously used trekking poles. - Jag’s cap has the red-white-blue strap of Thai flag on it. Under the visor, it said “Thais can do it”. He brought that cap with him to just convey the message that he is from Thailand and he would fight this battle to represent Thailand. - Khun Boy or KK – Run and Eat with KK – volunteered to drop Jag to the pier to run another 70K on his last day. Khun Boy is the one who shared the story on FB that the whole trail villagers here in BKK followed the rest of the rest till Jag reached the finish line. - Survivor of the race will kiss that greeny postbox. It’s like a tradition that may be inspired from Hardrock Hundred Mile Endurance Run in Colorado, USA , that all the finishers will kiss the rock at the finish line. - Andre was waiting with his Rose Champagne to celebrate Jag, his only survivor in the race. - Jag tearfully hugged his wife and whispered “We are going home, Kathy. Thank you for being here for me”. - After getting to finish line at 5-ish pm, Jag and his wife had a flight to catch at 8.30pm. He got back with that smell of Rose Champagne shower. He did not really have time to enjoy the moment that much as he was afraid he would miss the flight and his wife had to work on Monday morning. - We asked Jag, “you just trained only on flat path lap after lap in Rod Fai Park….. How could you bear with tough hills?”. He smiled and said “in the battlefield, it’s just “keep finishing and eating. I haven’t thought of what I have trained”. - We further asked “but body uses different muscle sets on flat and hill trail?”. Jag repeated, “in the race, do our best. Don’t think too much about muscle. Just move forward”. - “What do we have to know about the long 300 km run?”. He replied “run-walk management is the key and most important thing we need is smooth uphill-downhill landing. The race will teach you”. - “What is the hardest part of this race?”. He answered “every part is hard. It’s really hard when you think there is 298K 250K 150K 50K 10K awaits; I don’t know what I will encounter next. Would it be steeper hill? Warmer? Colder? Getting lost again? Hungry again? Getting sick? Especially the last part, Lantau; it’s really steep and technical trail and I faced it under the weakest body condition in the last few hours before the day ended. - But ultra is ultra; don’t think about quitting when you were moving. When you move, it’s “ultra level”. Don’t you dare blaming race routes, course, organizer, weather, sharp rocks. The only thing you can blame is just you yourself. - “ultra” is a type of mind set. It is “I’m alright and I will reach the finish line”. - We asked “how about your wife?”. He said “Kathy didn’t show that she was worried or told me to stop running. She will be at the start and finish line” - When we talked about followers who was cheering Jag in BKK, he said “thank you and see you in Rod Fai Park. After 2 weeks, I will evaluate my condition and so we all might see each other at TNF100 starting point in Khao Yai at 100K!!! *** I have a talk with Jag and P’Pok, P’Oun, Golf. At the minute we saw him off from the arrival gate, he walked as if he just finished a mini marathon even though his eyes showed his tiredness and fatigue from this tough race. His dry lip, his smile and laughter, and sparkling eyes told us he was just back from the mysterious land and his experience and feeling after reaching that land is intriguing and really worth to discover. The only person who knows about this could only be a person who enters to 100 mile entrance…. We shot questions like an M16 shots and exploded all laughter in the van as if it is the soundproofing room. We touched Jag’s back, 300K finisher. He had a low fever which is the only indication of millions of collective pressure and fatigues he had. It’s the part of the weak body that he would soon let it heal itself. It is worth going out to have a glimpse of wind and sky throughout 4 days 3 nights and Jag realized there was something going on in his mind that only person who knows about it is he himself…… We dropped Jag at his house in Charan 92 Rd. He said bye with his smile under his friendly moustache. We blissfully looked at Jag before leaving him in that silent night that all houses turned off the light to sleep mode. Empty streets are about to bring us to the next morning that the long weekend has ended and BKK is back crowded again….. Story in our heart still goes on and in. I’m sure P’Pok, P’Oun and Golf have a reflection of themselves in this ultra road; it’s clearer than before, clearer than the limited experience we have had. Or may be it is clearer than the myth of the statistics, or may be ultra itself has elevated our soul, ultra itself is not sports anymore but breath of soul. We will have to wait till we reach that moment alone on the miserably rocky path….. Until now, I still absorb the power of peace, perseverance and modest state of mind from the man who ran 80 hours. The thing that is in Jag might be the same substance as what Dean Karnazes dropped when he told about distant running: “There is magic in misery”. And ultramarathon is like religious experience Murakami told in his book “When I talk about when I talk about running” It couldn’t be something else because Jag at least has done exactly the same thing and it is something Dean Karnezes also shares in common: If you want to run, run a mile. If you want to experience a different life, run a marathon. If you want to talk to God, run an ultra Special Thanks The Trail Master Andre Blumberg
Posted on: Tue, 06 Jan 2015 08:05:04 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015