And so the first edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge has come to a fine ending. No fewer than 206 teams of four runners each completed the required distance of 500km within two weeks. Each team had its own ambitions, some wanting to finish as soon as possible, others preferred to distribute their efforts over the full 14 days and maybe try to set a high average speed, or to just get back to basics. For all teams, though, the joy of running together virtually, and an active outdoors lifestyle in general, was at the core of the whole experience. It was a wonderful time.

The last day on Sunday still added some salt and pepper to the fine dish.

The Singapore-based BSK Second Wave team completed the ATM500 Virtual challenge in less than 39 hours running time (37:55:48) and average speed of 13.18 km/h! With that amazing performance, the team still removed Sherpa’s Angels from the top spot in the Speedster Ranking! Of course, the latter team built around ATM champions John Ellis and Alessandro Sherpa, with David Longo and Chong Mei Sze, completed the 500K journey already in four days and had a significant focus on covering distance as quickly as possible. Still, it is a cute anecdote that teams from Singapore are at the top of both result lists in this inaugural edition of the ATM 500, Run Asia, Run Virtual.

The BSK Second Wave team was led by Belgium's Vanja Cnops, who contributed the longest distance at the fastest average pace to the effort: 136km in 9h 44min, an incredible average speed of 14km/h! The other team members were Britain's David Stevenson, South Africa's Bronwyn Small and Spain's Bernabé Sánchez. Each of them contributed between 117km and 125km in less than 10 hours running time also. This was the third team from the BSK informal running group. Their friends, the BSK Marina Loopers captained by Japan's Rie Sugaya, were the only team to finish the challenge on day 1. They were followed closely the morning after by the BSK Underdogs captained by Paulina Svoboda from the Czech Republic. Each of the three elite captains put in a remarkable performance in their own way: Rie was the fastest 125km one-day completer in the winning team, Paulina lead her team to second place at the end of day 1 with 80km ran despite working a full day at the office, and now Vanja has run the longest and fastest in the speediest team. The Singapore trail queens rule!

Spaniard Bernabé Sánchez Naffziger from the abovementioned BSK Second Wave Team is the only runner who actually signed up for two different teams (to our knowledge). After he finished his 145 km contribution for the BSK Underdogs on Day 2 of the ATM 500, he took a rest for 3 days and then began running again for the BSK Second Wave team! In total Bernabe ran 270 km in the past two weeks!

On the final day we also saw the arrival of the only China-based team in our challenge: the Bund Rockets in Shanghai. They as well recorded a quick average speed of 10.73 km/h and a total time of well under 50 hours: 46: 35:06. Congratulations!

A former ATM Champion also arrived today as part of the special “ATM Team” , which participated under the name “Team Ring-a-Ding-Ding”. Malaysia’s Tahira Najmunisaa was excited to be part of a team with William, Kirk and Kris. This was an ad-hoc team due to popular demand, and they actually only got going on Day 6. Nevertheless, they made it on Sunday by more or less taking equal shares with William covering the most mileage with 140km.

All the finishing teams on the last day were:

• BSK Second Wave Team

• The Bund Rockets

• Sante Barley Drago

• Purva Pascima

• Team Ring-a-Ding-DIng

• JB Ultra Team D

• Aramalt Rungry Runners

• Banteng Srunduk

• JB Ultra Team E

• Ayoyo Runners

• The Antochi

• 4c

• Janji Lari

• JB Ultra Team A

• CH Runners

• Santai Ajak

• Crazy Strong 2

• Team Kampung

• Team Huru Hara

• Komy Samba

• BOG Team Beta

• Kopi2 Harimau 1

• No Run no Beer VN

• Team Bulaga 500

• Takut Lapar Team

• Komy Kayla

• Team Ang

• At the Feet of the Grandmaster

• Rojak Runners

• Rinjani Meraung

• Nang Antap 1

Six more teams reached the 500k benchmark. However, one of their runners did not meet the minimum requirement of 75 km and therefore they are listed at the bottom the results board with an asterix.

All finishers will receive an official finisher certificate in the next days. Those teams who tried, but did not make it, will receive a “trier certificate”.

The inaugural ATM 500 is a wrap! It has been a fantastic two weeks. Both Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master are deeply honoured to have seen so many of you getting out there being active at your own speed and with your own objectives, spread out across Asia and even Europe. As a new concept, this was a major success and we will certainly be considering to set up a second edition. Based on the experience of the past fortnight, it will be even better. Stay tuned for ATM 500, Chapter 2 and in the mean time, keep on running! We hope to see all of you soon on the real trails of Asia again!

The three Singapore “Trail Queens” at the centre of the three BSK teams who coloured the ATM 500 for two weeks: Paulina Svoboda, Vanja Cnops and Rie Sugaya! (pic: Itr.run)

And so we enter the final day of the ATM 500 already! The two-weeks-long team challenge is coming to an official conclusion at 10pm on Sunday night, and according to the data there’s still 57 active teams trying to reach the 500k benchmark tomorrow. On the penultimate day, Saturday, we had 29 big finishers bringing the total of official finishers to 175, and six more teams are under review - mostly because one of their runners did not fulfil the mandatory 75K requirement for each.

On this penultimate day, we also saw the arrival of a very fast squad from the Philippines: The Untouchaballs, consisting of Dan Sagayap, Jeric Occiano, Jeff Suazo and Dio Cerujano - all established distance runners. Their team strategy was for short stints on basically each day of the past nearly two weeks. Short stints with speed! Their total team time is 44:55:10 or an average speed of 11.13 km/h. That is slightly slower than Sherpa’s Angels on the Speedster List, but ahead of Tokyo Nomads and Team Uglow Asia 1. Of course, those two teams also had a focus on more distance per day, but still. Outstanding effort from this filipino team! Their sister team, The Untouchaballs 2, were also a finisher on day 13 and only slightly less quick in total: 49:20:02. This is a team built around Ray Cabanig, whom we also have seen performing well in ATM points races before already. Also Team Infinity Runners (53:35:42), Lahud Data Trail Newbies (54:35:50) and MKRC Not Fast Just Furious (55:51:25) had a lot of pace in them during the past two weeks.

The other finishers on day 13 were:

• Kupi Kupi 76

• Spartan SGX Kalabaw

• SVR

• Raya Perantauan

• Garliari 05 ITB

• The Kouros Club

• MKRC To Infinity and Beyond

• Team BJRC

• Indonesian Spartans 6

• PhilSKy Team B

• LD Mix Runner

• RIOT

• Team UK

• Coq Udang

• Santai Tapi Sampai

• SHEI Angels

• BOG Charlie

• ARA Venger’s Runner

• RMC Virtual

• Retro 1

• Kopi Harimau 2

• SolarCell Team

CONGRATULATIONS to all runners and we hope you had a great Saturday night celebration! To the 57 teams still out there trying to make it on the final day: GODSPEED!

The inaugural ATM 500 Run Asia, Run Virtual Team Challenge is approaching its conclusion this coming Sunday night. We enter the final weekend with 147 official finishers, 5 more finishers under review and 84 other teams still on the virtual course heading for the 500k mark. A few teams have DNFd, mainly due to injury of one of their runners. Generally speaking, these are fantastic results that outperform our expectations by far. Congratulations and many thanks to all of you for making this pan-asian community challenge such a success!

It is perhaps very fitting that the end of the virtual ATM 500 coincides with the first ‘real’ race in four months: at 10 pm on Friday, the main 100k race of the Dalat Ultra Trail event in Vietnam started with a big bunch of enthusiastic runners. We all know that Dalat is unique and that we will need to wait another three months for the next ATM Championship event, but both the ATM 500 and Dalat prove that Asia Trail Master and trail running in Asia have a bright future ahead.

The finishing teams on day 12 were:

• Team Kouprey Cambodia

• The One Peace

• SuperFit Global Team 2

• Running Therapists

• Team Ana

• Brutal Enduro

• Indonesian Spartans 3

• 005 MTA

• LoukPongRunner

• SG Trail Mix

• Run For Beer

• Indonesian Spartans 4

• Ascent Tomatic

Kuddos to all! Two teams managed to stay below 50 hours as a team, running relatively short stints each day but still. Once more a team of Cambodia, Team Kouprey, stands out , but also the One Peace Team. Thumbs up also for the Run For Beer Team including Amy Khor and Robert Butcher, the latter doing an excellent job just coming out of recovery. The beers at the end of the day were well-deserved, indeed!

Last night in Spain, the ‘Los Angeles de Charlie’ also finished their 500k journey. The only full-European team has earned itself a special note and in the coming days we aim to find out more about the runners in the team, and how they got involved with the ATM 500.

Run For Beer Tea: Robert Butcher prefers Guinness after the team’s successful challenge

The Run For Beer Team: Amy goes for Belgian Hoegaarden upon completing the 500k

As we enter the final three days of the ATM 500 Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge, no fewer than 134 teams have already completed their running journey. On day 11, thirteen squads had the honour of announcing their arrival, coming from several countries. Among the better known elite athletes today was Pablo Diago Gonzales, the Singapore-based Spaniard and multiple race winner in the ATM series over the years. Gonzales formed a team called “Doctor Pain” with his pals in Singapore and it looks like he pulled them forward . Despite being busy on the bike in recent months, Pablo collected an amazing 210 km by himself. Running on nearly a daily basis he only required 20:11:49 for that mega distance. His teammates Fran, Raquel and Ramon did their shares nicely, too. A great effort.

Other teams who finished today were:

• Rukut Rukut Team in less than 60 hours

• OFRA Running Squad

• KetaKebal I

• BOG Alpha

• SuperFit Global Team I

• JB Ultra Team A

• JB Ultra Team C

• Bandung Runderground

• Brutal Racing

• Indonesian Spartans 5

• SPR Virtuathlon

• Vertical 2 Sky Mountain Runners 3

25 more teams are now within striking distance of that epic 500k mark and can be expected to reach it tomorrow!

On day 10 of the inaugural ATM 500 Run Asia, Run Virtual, no fewer than 16 teams from across Asia reached the virtual finish line. Team Hallasan from South Korea included. The team built around Been Lee initially looked like it was going to finish very early, but eventually the team took their time to complete the last dozens of kilometres. Still well within the time limit of 14 days, so congratulations to the full Korean team!

Arnie Macaneras, who finished a superb second in UTKC 100 last February, brought his Vertical 2 Sky Mountain Runners 4 home today. An all-women team called Limbang Ladies, presumably from Sarawak in Malaysia, also completed the 500k today - and even with decent pacing, too.

Other teams that finished on Wednesday were:

• Indonesian Spartans 1

• TDA Runners

• Monte Alba Team

• Pinoy Runners Japan

• Team Happy Fit

• ARA Kura

• KedoDOrun Melata

• Night Walkers

• KedoDorun Professor and Prodigy

• Ketakebal 2

• Self Awareness Runners

• Team US

• US Underdogs

It is great to see so many teams completing their journeys this week. We now have 121 official finishers, meaning nearly half of the teams that started last week on Monday. We have no doubt that the remaining teams will likewise do everything possible to fulfil this challenge!

On day 9 of the inaugural ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge, no fewer than 15 teams managed to complete their journey. Among those was Team Javan Hawk Eagle Trail from Indonesia, which also set a very quick total time of 47:51:48. This team also focused on running short but sweet each day, rather than on absorbing a big ultra on one day. Congratulations to Bugi, Rani, Azizul and Mujialif!

Team ROTW from Sabah came into finish, including well-known athetes Bernardo Sanchez and, of course, Wilsen Singgin - who won the Ultimate 230K in Chiang Rai, Thailand last October. Together with Rhey Yang and Emily Andrew they completed their 500k challenge on Tuesday.

The Vertical 2 Sky team from Mindanao in the Philippines, headed by experienced runner Rexel Aguirre arrived home as well. Aguirre himself ran no less than 234 km for his team!

Other teams who reached the conclusion of the ATM 500 were:

• Cebu Mountain Goats

• Team Brutal Strike

• Bara94jul

• Tutong Brunei

• Team MCO

• Team Long Distance Relay-tionship

• Sayap Kiri Squad

• Meratus Team

• 4 Sekawan

• UN Sonsog

• KedoRun Glinding

• Team Ariwo

CONGRATULATIONS to all runners in each of the above teams, indeed!

Day 9 brings the total of finishing teams to 103. With five more days to go, will the remaining 140+ teams also make it? We certainly believe in it!

The second week of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge started how it will also end next weekend: with the spotlights shining full on Vietnam. The Dalat Ultra Trail is coming up this Saturday, the first ATM Championship race in four months and the only one for the coming three months as well. Vietnamese runners are clearly getting excited and are finalising their preparation for the big event in the cool southern highlands of the country. No fewer than three Vietnamese teams completed their ATM 500 journey on Monday - most likely no coincidence. Grand Dory & 3 Turbo Team, Team Run n Beer and RnB Dream Team 10 were happy finishers and with a few days of rest are likely to hit the trails in Dalat full on! Congratulations to all those runners!

A second team from neighbouring Cambodia also reached the virtual finish line of ATM 500. Team Phnom Penh thus follows into the footsteps of Team Kim KoK, illustrating that Cambodia has entered the regional running community in great style!

In Thailand, the CS Thailand arrived home and Canadian Michael McLean guided his Smiling Assassins home from his current base in Phuket as well. McLean is the captain of an elite squad that focused on training rather than competing over the past week, though. Fredelyn Alberto - co-ATM championship leader at the moment - ran three marathons in a row with a more-than-solid pace, something that even last year was still her weak point as an elite trail runner. Kristian Joergensen prepared himself in Denmark for his ‘Everesting’ attempt to the benefit of Medecins-sans-frontieres this coming weekend, and Tahura Trail winner Jeff Campbell put in a 35K in a time of 2:24 on day 1… In case anyone was wondering if this quartet had turned out-of-shape ..

Team Pyxis from Philipines was the only team from their country to conclude on Monday. Big thumbs up to them!

In Indonesia, the Lombok team RIOT was an excellent finisher on Monday. Lombok, the fantastic-for-sports island to the east of Bali is facing a particularly difficult year as the tourism industry has collapsed, so we hope that the performance of this running team inspires the local community to stay strong. Another team from Indonesia, this time from the main Java island, Team Wong Edan reached the virtual finish line as well. This team consists of two female ATM Grandmasters: Ina Budiyarni and Sri Wahyuni, the latter also known for ranking third in the 2018 Asia Trail Master Championship. The two experienced ultra runners were joined for the occasion by David Wahyu and Gandha Kristyandi. Especially for Sri Wahyuni, the ATM 500 turned out to be a very welcome pleasant experience. On her personal instagram, the Surabaya-based runner reported to have miscarried not so long ago, with all the emotional devastation that comes with it. The virtual ATM 500 challenge was her comeback to running, also thanks to the encouragement of her three teammates in Team Wong Edan. Given this background, it is amazing that Sri Wahyuni ran 140K for her team in the past week!

The first week of the inaugural ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge is a wrap! For seven days we have seen great excitement throughout Asia and we are happy to see that no fewer than 78 out of 250 teams have already reached the virtual finish line, i.e. the 500 km mark. On Sunday, 22 teams joined the others on the official results board (see below PDF file), of course taking advantage of the weekend leisure time.

Team SoFARsogood from Singapore, consisting of Zen Chew, Sean Tat, Low Mun Cheong and Neo Lay Peng managed the quickest pace of those 22 teams with a total time sub-50 hours. This team also adopted a strategy of seven relatively short daily stints rather than going for an ultra long distance on any given day. Sean Tat ‘s 42K marathon was the highest in distance, but a time of 3:46 indicates a fine run, indeed! The Malaysian Baby Shark Dududu Team and the second Uglow team from Hong Kong, featuring a.o. Matt Leung and former Vietnam Mountain Marathon winner Sayaka Matsumoto also finished their 500k challenge with a similar approach.

People adopt the strategy best suited to their running characteristics. Several people even hike on mountain trails rather than run on flat roads. In the ATM 500 Run Asia, Run Virtual, all is possible. What counts is to cover a distance of 500k within 2 weeks.

The other teams who completed their journey today were:

• THK2 Runners

• Team Falcon

• Butterflies

• Ultra Trail Girls

• Sakieu Ge Uyuhan

• BOG Delta

• Run4Life Davao

• RFI Trail Virtuathlon

• Team Pinoy

• Antam Saja

• MKRC Squad Ghouls

• Team Otucan

• Vertical 2 Sky II

• Liposu logot2

• Wong Edan Kui Kebas

• Ular Sarkodes

• Mana Mo Lari

• Team Achilles Davao

• Running Buddies 2601

• Retro 2

Day 6 brought another 12 teams to the finish of the inaugural virtual ATM 500 Team Challenge. One team in particular caught the attention: Team ‘Office Girls On The Run’ from Philippines. An all-ladies team who completed their 500k journey in an amazing time of 45:38:28, or an average speed of 10.96 km/h..

Of course let it be clear that the ‘Speedster List’ is just a gimmick. Teams who finished the ATM 500 on the first couple of days were obviously more focused on distance than on running pace. Nevertheless, it is a striking effort from this Filipino quartet consisting of Seannah Swift, Rose Russell, Nhea Barcena and Edna Agoo. They clearly had a dedicated strategy for this 500k challenge, and broke it up in six relatively short stints each per day. The longest stint was delivered by Barcena on day 1: 38 km in a time of 3:54, already indicating a solid pace. The rest of the week clearly did not tire her too much - maybe it was quiet in the office during the days - because on Saturday she recorded a stunning 15 km in 59 minutes 23 minutes! They were all flying on their last day, reportedly motivated to break the time of Sherpa’s Angels. Agoo did 32K in 2:44, Russell did 20K in 1:51:59 and Swift a 26K in 2:14:50! We certainly hope to see them back soon on the trails of the Asia Trail Master Championship!

2015 ATM Champion Arief Wismoyono led his Bandrex Bajigur team from Bandung in West Java home on Saturday as well. Wismoyono showed great form this week with fast times, such as 83K in 8:12:41 on Day 1 and a very fast 5k in 20:20 on day 3. It is great to see that Wismoyono still has that kind of speed in his legs, after two years were exactly that key element of elite running seemed to have gone missing. His protege in Bandung, Yusuf Aprian took the team’s lion share with 153km and Alan Maulana also proved his running velocity with 95K in 9:41:27. Novita Wulandari did great in completing 125k in a time of 20:53:39.

Over in the Davao area of Mindanao, the first of five Vertical 2 Sky teams reached the finish, and ironically it was “team five”. It’s the team led by Manolyn Mamugay, multiple race winner in her home region. Marjones Abugan, Marvin Concubierta and Henry Seron Jr flanked her for the past six days.

Also the Borneo Running Team, Team BisaKol, The Expandable Runners, Team Pace Siput Runners and Team AyuLizanCicaWeda were great finishers on Saturday.

The Borocay Spartans from Philippines, ASIA 2 from Thailand, TSRT from Brunei and Lari2ID from Indonesia all showed some quick times of their team’s respective members during the week. Those teams also completed their challenge now.

The fifth day of the inaugural ATM 500 Team Challenge saw another fourteen teams reach the virtual chequered flag. After five days of running, no fewer than 43 of the 250 teams have managed to complete their challenge. Just like two days ago, teams from Borneo Island somehow captured the attention on Friday. Of all finishing teams today, the Kalimantan-based Borneo Extreme Team set the fastest time of 59:01:42 and up northwest in the Malaysian State of Sabah, Milton Amat brought his family team home before the start of the weekend.

Milton actually could not run too much anymore the last two days as his tally had already reached 250 km, and remember each team member must fulfill a minimum requirement of 75 km. At the end of the day, this team ran not 500K but almost 550K in total, with Sabah’s trail running star taking 262 km for himself and Lukas Tingal another share of 126 km. Milton’s sister Egnes ran 76 km and Milton’s son Rheo did a fabulous 83K - in just under 9 hours, by the way.

Quite some more Indonesian teams completed their virtual journey today. Carla Fellani’s Child Warrior Indonesia team made it, as well as the Indonesian Spartans 1 and the Makecee Academy. Congratulations to all! Slightly under the radar because they began modestly in the beginning of the week, the ‘Miners & Friends’ team also finished. A team that consists of 3-star Grandmaster Lily Suryani - back from a period of inactivity and the opening of her own Warung Medali in Sanur, Bali - and Grandmaster Dendi Dwitiandi, the event organser of the forthcoming Bali Ultra Trail in November - a Candidate Race for the Asia Trail Master Championship series.Their team was completed by Faisal and Adi.

Squads from the Philippines have been doing great all week, and it was no surprise to see a few more teams coming in. The Team Kamote Runners features Grandmaster and Championship placer Cecile Wael, along with Emanuel Manongsong, RL Plaza and Rick Crescini. Circumstances made it difficult for them early in the week, but here they are now. The Boracay Dragonforce team, Team Ninja, Team Cholo Flight Multisports and Team Cordillera were more Filipino finishers.

A second Bruneian team successfully accepted the ATM 500 challenge. Team Last Minute Runners with Leo, Dayat, Pie and Yaza. Thumbs up!

The Flying Bird Team, Spirit 50 Team and Team Kepala Batu were three more great finishers before the first weekend. Among the many outstanding performances of the week, we noted a 50K in 4:23:44 by Tedjawirja Sunadinatha on Monday - member of Team Spirit 50.

We are sure that on the weekend many more teams will aim for the virtual finish line and we wish all of them ‘good luck!’

In the Speedster Ranking, the Sherpa’s Angels with Alessandro Sherpa, John Ellis, Chong Mei Sze and David Longo are still leading with an average speed of 11.39 km/h . It’s a gimmick, but have some teams planned a two-week-long strategy containing short but fast sections each day?

Day 4 of the inaugural ATM 500 Virtual Team Challenge again witnessed the finish of no fewer than eleven teams, after only three yesterday. Some big names of the ATM scene were among those, including the Sherpa’s Angels Team, which includes reigning ATM champion John Ellis and his predecessor Alessandro Sherpa. Under pressure by the Tokyo Nomad Team from Japan in the ‘Speedster Ranking’ , the international team managed to put the hammer down one last time to run home in a total time of 43:54:52, or an average speed of 11.39 km/h. Note that this great performance was not solely achieved by the two champions. Both David Longo and Malaysia’s Chong Mei Sze proved to be in top shape as well! The latter covered 129 km for her team in a time of 12:44:08.

The Japanese team also managed to reach the virtual finish line in a total time of 44:59:11, slightly quicker than. the first of the two Hong Kong-based Uglow teams with Elsa Jean de Dieu as captain. The team only had 13km left to run after yesterday and they left that job to Bryan Crane.

The first of the Cambodian teams completed the challenge, too. Team Kim Kok has been one of the revelations this week evidence of the growth of the sport in the Southeast Asian country. In Indonesia, we saw the Team OD led by Taofik Hidayat from Bandung Explorer take the virtual chequered flag. Team Dalagan joined the six previously finished teams of the Philippines. Grandmasters Richard Akol and Tin Salazar, plus ultra specialist Rolando Espina and promising young talent Godwin Mirar - age 19 - had a good final day as well. Interesting that the youngster Godwin Mirar took the lion’s share of the team with 170 km in 16 hours 11 minutes.

Team MRKC IV, based in Malaysia, nicknamed itself “the Undertrained” , but if they can finish 500 km in only four days we would like to know what happens when they are properly trained. Great job by Eddie Wong, James Willis, Reiko Yamashita and Nicolas Terrien. An extra applause for 71-year-old James Willis, who contributed 138km for his team!

Over in Singapore we had a surprise as the Good Vibes Runners made it home despite not being on the top leaderboard yet yesterday. A great push on day 4 by Cassandra Ansari Hie, Ana Robillard, Kevin Legris and Trung Nguyen. The latter is a special case, too, as he is currently in a compulsory quarantine centre in Vietnam, where he ran the corridors up and down to reach his minimum required mileage!

Cirque de Sore Legs is a contender for “best team name” later on, but they made it clear they did not take the ATM 500 jokingly, as they completed their 500k journey as well. Well done Elliott, David, Kerensa and Steve.

Run Free is the team built around Kent Wei, with Elle Wong, Appu Kops and Adli on the roster as well. A great effort on Thursday meant they also reached the finish.

Last but not least, the all-girls team “Girls Run The World” in Hong Kong followed into the footsteps of Veronika’s Trail Girls on Fire and completed their challenge. Big kuddos to Stephanie Pezot, Fang Wei, Sherlyn Fugaban and Syazana Alia Sabrudin!

The first Hong Kong-based Uglow team also arrived in a fast time on day 4.

A wonderful introduction to Cambodia’s trail runners: team Kim Kok is already in the finish on day 4

Team MKRC IV claims to be ‘undertrained’ but covering 500k in 4 days seems otherwise :-)

Singapore’s Good Vibe Runners had a big day today and crossed the 500k mark as well

Trung Nguyen had to run his share in the corridors of his mandatory quarantine residence in Vietnam!

An excellent day 4 for Team OD in Indonesia: they made it!

A strong Filipino team with Grandmasters Richard Akol and Tin Salazar, plus ultra specialist Rolando Espina and young talent Godwin Mirar. Bingo on day 4!

The Tokyo-based Nomad Team was topping the Speedster list yesterday, but on the fourth day they had to relinquish that spot again to Sherpa’s Angels. But they arrived at the 500k mark and we saw some outstanding running by this team during the week!

After the grand excitement of the first two days of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual team challenge, day 3 turned out to be a little more relaxed. Three teams managed to complete the 500k distance, while another 23 teams brought themselves to the 300km mark. The three successful teams today included Bocor Runners Balikpapan from Kalimantan, the often overlooked Indonesian part of Borneo island. It’s a great introduction to their running community, as previously Kalimantan runners had not really featured anywhere on the Asia Trail Master circuit. A sign of more to come?

Day 3 could be called Borneo Day, in fact, because a second finishing team also resides on the third largest island in the world: Team Darussalam from Brunei! Both teams also maintained a decent pace over the 500km with an AVS of over 7,5 km/h. Great work! To put the cherry on the pie, another Borneo athlete, but this time from Sabah in Malaysia, Milton Amat, made sure to get noticed in our ATM 500 as well. Milton chose for a family squad to take part in our running challenge without any competitive ambitions. However, the number 3 of last year’s ATM Championship and multiple ATM race winner, brought his personal mileage of the past three days to 245 km! So, if anyone had any doubts about his current state-of-form, Milton has just provided the answer.

A third team completed the 500k challenge today: team Pinikpikan TR from Philippines. Unfortunately, it is one of those teams of whom we have very little to no information, but the team includes Jenni-Vi Fontanilla who won the women’s Pilipinas Akyathlon last year in the Cordillera mountains close to Baguio. We will further update tomorrow on this great team.

Other regular elite runners in the Asia Trail Master series with daily office jobs seem to have started a competition between themselves for the so-called ‘Speedster Ranking’, which lists the teams in terms of their average running speed. In this list, Sherpa’s Angels - with John Ellis, Alessandro Sherpa, David Longo and Chong Mei Tze - was toppled yesterday by Team Uglow Asia 1 - with a strong Elsa Jean de Dieu, Paul Fournier, Guillaume Perrot and Bryan Crane. Also Cambodia’s Team Kok was mixing with the best in this game. After Day 3, we now suddenly have the Tokyo Nomad Team from Tomohiro Mizukoshi setting the fastest pace. The Japanese team that also includes Yuichiro Shimatai, Yuri Norimatsu and Satoru Yanoma was very productive on Wednesday and upped its pace to 11.25km/h. Sherpa’s Angels were short and sweet, too, and now show an AVS of 11.22 km/h - only marginally slower than Tokyo Nomad. Team Uglow Asia 1 focused more on distance today and ended with 487 km in the bank. Tomorrow it’s a splash & dash to the line for them. Their average speed is currently 11.10 km/h. If anyone in Hong Kong wants to see trail runners sprinting over just 2km tomorrow - contact Team Uglow Asia 1 for details :-) .

Team Heal As One from Philippines was a finisher yesterday

Tomohiro Mizukoshi’s Tokyo Nomad Team has upped the pace significantly and is now engaging leading the “Speedsters Ranking” ahead of “Sherpa’s Angels” and “Team Uglow Asia 1”

Sabah’s ATM protagonist Milton Amat has brought his family team to the 400km mark by running 250K by himself in the past three days! Now it’s up to the others to ensure they have each team member’s minimum requirement of 75km.