Founded in 1998, Sabah Adventure Challenge is South East Asia’s oldest and most established adventure race. The event features both a 3 day 120km adventure race and a separate 3 day 100km ultra run through Borneo’s Crocker Mountain range. The competitors race their way through the rainforests of Northern Borneo, crossing chest high rivers, and orienteering through local villages and through mountainous terrain to navigate to predetermined checkpoints. The Race location is kept secret until the day before the event to prevent anyone obtaining an unfair advantage.
The race that I entered was the solo category, which is a multistage Ultra, broken down as follows, Day 1 - 35KM, Day 2 - 40KM, Day 3 is a mountain climb followed by orienteering (total 20-25KM).
Day 1.
The day began with a 4.30am start in Kota Kinabalu where we boarded minibuses for the 2 1/2 hour drive to the start location within the national park of the Crocker mountain range. It was difficult to rest or sleep on the long drive as I was filled with the nervous anticipation of what lay ahead. The trip was spent sharing stories with other runners about the various events each of us had competed in.
Eventually I arrived at the start location and had 20 minutes to make last minute kit checks, don the sun block and fill up my race pack’s water bladders to their 2.5 litre capacity.
After Speaking with a few of the runners, one thing really stood out, I was the only one that resided in such a cold climate, the others seemed to be a mix of Brazilians, Portuguese, French, locals and Expats, whom had lived and trained in South East Asia for years. This did little to put me at ease about what lay ahead.
8am and the race began, with temperatures already above 30 degrees – As expected the race began at quite a fast pace and was led by a runner sporting a Brazilian flag on his pack. I was struggling to keep up but managed to keep him in sight and it wasn’t long before a few of us broke away from the main group. Navigation was difficult as the maps provided were old British Army maps from the 50’s and not the OS maps I am used to back home which resulted in a few wrong turns and a mix up of the placings so it was difficult to ascertain my position until I got to the 4thcheckpoint and was told there were only 2 runners ahead. With the temperature increasing well into the morning a 1km stretch running through a mountain river was a welcome break from running on fire roads and plantation tracks. As I stepped from rock to rock I could see wet footprints and I knew I must be closing in on the leaders so pushed on and soon caught them before the next checkpoint. From then on it was a close run between 3 of us swapping positions until the end of the day, by which time we had covered 35km and had climbed nearly 5000ft. I finished the day with a mere 2 second lead.
Day 2.
Another early start, after a nights camping at the base camp. We found out at breakfast that a cobra had been spotted near the tents and could no longer be found making us all a little nervous to say the least and keeping the organisers busy snake hunting!
7am and off again on a longer days running which started with a steep climb just to get us warmed up in case the sun didn’t manage to do so. I wanted to take advantage of the earlier start and slighter cooler temperatures so pushed on quickly knowing we had at least 8km of exposed climbing before the route took us into to the rain forest and under cover from the sun. I managed to maintain a good pace and as we entered the rainforest I was joined by a English Lad who lived in Kuala Lumpur, we ran together for the next 2 hours exchanging stories of our running exploits. This terrain was like nothing I had run on before, single track, up and over logs, streams and rocks, whilst being torn to shreds by rattan thorns and attacked by insects.
Day 2 felt much harder, not only because of the longer distance but as a result of the previous days fatigue setting into my body. The heat was really starting to affect me and I was using more water than I could carry. Eventually after almost 5 hours of running I reached the final climb and finished the day in a shade over 5 hours which gave me a 26 minute overall lead.
Day 3.
Heavy rain through the night meant one thing – LEACHES!!
This was the final day and it involved a straight run of 4km and an 800metre ascent up a mountain, straight back down, collect a map and then some orienteering to finish.
I was very nervous knowing that I had a good lead but couldn’t afford to mess up and had to be cautious especially coming down the mountain as to avoid any injury. Again a 7am commencement and it was a sprint start in order to get a good position on the single track up the mountain, as overtaking would be very difficult if not impossible. The climb seemed to go on forever and I eventually reached the checkpoint at a magnificent waterfall where I scanned my timing chip turned around and headed straight back down passing runners still on their way up whilst being attacked by leeches that preferred my legs to the leaves they were happily resting on.
Final checkpoint and time to collect my orienteering map which showed 15 waypoints, I had to select any 6, get a stamp at each one and then back to the finish. The navigation proved a little easier than expected but I was certainly feeling very tired and my legs and feet did not want to take me any further but knowing I had nearly finished gave me the motivation to push on and I arrived back at the finish after 2hrs and 18 minutes, at the time not knowing my position as each runner could select different waypoints and routes for the navigation section.
As I approached the finish line, I was greeted by loud cheers, photographers and my girlfriend telling me I had won! Amazing, I came out here for an adventure and to do something totally different certainly not expecting to win especially against such high calibre competition from all around the world. I had managed to gain an overall lead of 50 minutes by the end of the final day.
What an experience, not only the race but the surroundings and over the 3 days I have made some good friends whom no doubt I will race with again.
Well done from TE NW.
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