After the inaugural ATM 500 Virtual Run in June, which did not focus on any elevation gain to be done, mountain lovers can now look ahead to a serious virtual mountain run challenge. ‘Champion the Mountain’ will take place between 15 and 24 August in teams of four runners and it’s all about accumulating elevation gain!

Set up by Asia Trail Girls, the recently launched initiative by our 2019 ATM Champion Veronika Vadovicova, and Sportlicious Malaysia, the virtual event requires the teams to gain as many vertical metres as possible. Despite what some people may have thought, this is not a female-only event. The challenge is open to both genders evenly, meaning in each team of four should be at least two women.

Run at home up your stairs, run up a car park, run outdoors on an uphill road, run in the trails, up the mountain, run on a treadmill or at any place convenient to you. Each member of the team should achieve 2500 hm or metres of elevation gain within the event timeframe of ten days. The top 3 after ten days will be awarded by Sportlicious Malaysia and score prizes.

Visit the Asia Trail Girls official website for more details on race procedures, the terms and registration that will begin this Saturday on 1 August : https://www.asiatrailgirls.com/challenge .

Introducing the new HOKA Clifton 7. Building on the Clifton’s best-loved qualities, the “7” continues to deliver the perfect combination of soft and light. Crafted with the same midsole and ride characteristics, the Clifton 7 features a streamlined silhouette and updated upper made from engineered mesh. Outfitted with a plush collar that eases Achilles pressure, this daily runner is equipped with an intuitive pull tab at the heel for easy on-and-off.

The Clifton 7 is now available to purchase at your local retailer.

#Timetofly

It’s only been a good three months since the praised release of Uglow’s 2020 Capsule One collection, and here’s Capsule Two already! Building further on the core 2020 colours and designs, C-2 is especially made for hot summer weather, with its tank tops and an “open back” for female runners.

As the Uglow press release reads:

“THE C-2 COLLECTION IS A REPRESENTATION OF OUR BEST SELLERS AND BEST PERFORMERS IN WARMER CLIMATES. ROMAIN JEAN DE DIEU (CEO AND FOUNDER) COLLABORATED WITH HIS TALENTED SISTER, ELSA JEAN DE DIEU, TO DESIGN THE COLLECTION. THE PLACEMENT OF THE INK DRIP PATTERN VISIBLE ON THE SPEED FREE AERO 5 SHORTS IS COMPLETELY UNIQUE. NO TWO PAIRS OF SHORTS WILL BE THE SAME. THE RESULT IS UNIQUE IN DESIGN AND PUSHING THE BOUNDARIES OF PERFORMANCE. LIGHTWEIGHT, BREATHABLE, FUNCTIONAL AND 100% STITCH-FREE.”

Despite the cancellation of most running events in the world since March, the Uglow Team has clearly not been sitting in a corner crying. Capsule 2 radiates optimism and joy. As we read in the lookbook: “This is the time to embrace exploration and take the pressure of performance away. […] A feeling of opportunity.”

The new C-2 collection and its vibrant colours certainly create positive vibes!

We kindly invite all runners to join our new Strava Club, appropriately named ‘Club ATM’. Strava is the world’s most popular sports social media platform on which people can post their workout details and track those of others, mainly using GPS data. Already ten years ago Strava became very popular in cycling communities, but in recent years also runners have embraced the app and website around the globe. In these months of event postponements and cancellations, we thought it a good idea to finally launch our own Club on the network. Strava motivates many people to keep up the training activities by seeing what others are doing on a weekly basis. There’s a lot of features that go into tiny details should you wish so.

In the weeks to come we will be posting a number of exciting things on the Club ATM strava page, so join now not to miss out on anything.

Stay tuned !

Back to School is the title of the next episode of our video talk show Tale of the Trail, which airs tonight in Asia at 19:00 Hong Kong/Singapore time. In this slightly longer edition before the ‘summer break’, we talk about the ill-fated Dalat Ultra Trail with Trung Nguyen and Masafumi Yamamoto, who are both in Vietnam and took part in the event. Furthermore, we highlight Grandmaster Robert Butcher, who reveals the reason for his uncharacteristic DNFs in the races before covid 19 struck, and how ATM 500 and Amy Khor motivated him to put the running shoes back on. Amy also brings on Bernabe Sanchez in the “Singapore Connection” part. Bernabe finished the ATM 500 …. twice … in two different teams. And that is not even all he did in the past two months! Looking ahead event-wise, we talk to Seow Kong Ng following last week’s announcement that Ultimate Trails of Penang - scheduled for 10/11 October - remains on the schedule. Last but not least, we find out how 2018 Asia Trail Master Champion Ruth Theresia is doing in Indonesia, after her nasty fall on training in early May.

The Tale of the Trail will be published as usual on our facebook page, YouTube channel and here on the website, too.

Today we received the official announcement of the cancellation of the 2020 edition of The Great Malaya Trail in Malaysia, scheduled for 26/27 September. The 50K race on the programme of the event was an ATM Championship points race.

Apparently, it is felt by local authorities in Selangor that the event date comes too soon for a safe and secure happening.

The 2021 edition will take place around the same time.

While last week, also TNF 100 Malaysia threw in the towel, two other Malaysian events have announced they are confident on keeping their event on as planned: the Ultimate Trails of Penang on 10/11 October and the Jagoi Heritage Run in Sarawak, Borneo, a week earlier.

Introducing the brand new Clifton Edge from HOKA available now to buy in stores. The Clifton Edge is designed to make you feel like you can run forever. With a combination of responsive cushion and their softest, lightest foam yet, it features a snappy ride and unique heel geometry designed to provide a smooth impact and gliding sensation. Clifton Edge is a culmination of all of HOKA’s innovation to date. Step into the future.

FEATURES

• Embossed TPU yarn delivers a premium finish with targeted support in the forefoot and eyerow

• Padded collar delivers enhanced comfort at the ankle

• New vertical pull tab for easy entry

• Early-stage Meta-Rocker allows for a responsive ride

• New high-resiliency foam offers a lightweight, springy take on signature HOKA cushioning and ride

• Extended heel creates a softer landing and smoother transition from heel to toe

• Rubberized EVA outsole delivers lightweight, wraparound midsole support with a snappy feel

Sudden flash floods following heavy rainfall in Dalat and surrounding forest areas around noon on Saturday forced an immediate stop to all races of the Dalat Ultra Trail event. Runners were evacuated by the organisers and local rescue teams. Tragically, one runner was swept away by the strong mud streams and was found later, drowned. Several other runners also got caught by surprise, but they were all safely evacuated. The experienced team of Vietnam MTB Series, organiser of DLUT, was quick to stop all races as a horrendous rainstorm battered the area. It was therefore especially sad and shocking to hear that one person did not survive the attack of nature.

The dangers of flash floods are once again made obvious. Last year, a similar situation led to the TMMT race in Malaysia being re-routed whilst underway. Although Hisashi Kitamura decided to swim across a river , nobody got hurt that day. 

It was a bad day for ultra running that will serve as a reminder of the inherent but often ignored dangers of our sport. On the same day in Ukraine in Southeastern Europe, a professional female ultra runner, age 33, died of a stroke following overheating and dehydration in a 62K local race held with temperatures of 38 degrees.

Before the race got cancelled in Dalat, a handful of long distance runners had managed to reach the finish line already. Hung Hai led nearly the whole 100K race by himself in wet conditions and won this year’s extreme edition. Another Vietnamese runner, Lanh Le scored a great second place and Frenchman Gaetan Morizur managed to just outrun Valentin Orange for the third spot on the podium. Pre-race favourite Nhon Trong decided to stop at CP 5 with fever in the early morning. First woman in the race before the stop was Julia Nguyen Thi Duong. She reached CP7 safely. 

70KM B-Race: Tan Hy crossed the finish line momentarily after Hung Hai as winner of the 70K. He preceeded Si Hieu Nguyen by half an hour and Quang Duc Nguyen by 55 minutes. Strong performance by Tan Hy. Bowdery Grant took 4th and Vu Tran fifth.

All celebrations were obviously cancelled.

Brief race summary 100K/70K before the cancellation

It was hanging in the air already for a while, and today the cancellation of the TNF 100 Malaysia has been officially announced. Stakeholders argued it best not to continue with the 2020 event, even though it still six months out on 5 December. All runners who had already registered will get a full refund by the event organiser, MMTF Consultant, in a bold move that will certainly go down well in the community, already battered by many cancellations and postponements this season. Finally, and important in the context of the Asia Trail Master Championship, an alternative and shorter race around Taiping may be considered for the same date in December. That is of course subject to the covid 19 situation in Malaysia, which hopefully keeps on improving in the next couple of months. More information on this is expected not before the end of August.

Last week, another Malaysian event in the ATM Championship, Ultimate Trails of Penang, scheduled for 10/11 October, announced it is currently still on the programme. It is likely there will be some restrictions and special requirements, but these will be announced in accordance with guidelines from the Malaysian and local authorities closer to the event date.

A shorter alternative event is not excluded for the same weekend in December

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