The Most Beautiful Thing ( TMBT)Borneo Ultra Marathon 2017

The Borneo Ultra Marathon is also known as TMBT or The Most Beautiful Thing because of the beautiful scenery and landscape that runners get to view in the race.

Organised this year on Saturday 16 Sep to Sunday 17 Sep 2017. The Compressport TMBT Ultra-Trail® is the oldest ultra trail running race in Malaysia, deemed to be ” The Most Beautiful Thing”, the race brings participants through a tough trail around the famous Mount Kinabalu, in East Malaysia Sabah. Mount Kinabalu stands at the height of 4,100m, making it one of the highest peaks in Southeast Asia, it is also a world heritage site. The race promises extraordinary scenery of nature but at the same time enough brutality to achieve one of the highest DNF
(did not finish) race in Southeast Asia.

The 4 categories this year ranges from 12km, 30km, 50km to the final ultra distance of 100km. River crossings, going pass sling bridges, extreme forest conditions, changes from hot to cold weather are just some of the highlights that participants will get to experience.

The 100km Ultra race
Before signing up the race, I was skeptical about it as the longest I had done was 42.195km a full marathon. To take up this challenge was because two of my good friends decided to give this race a challenge. I decided to join them and gain the experience. What could be worse, at most just DNF.

The 100km race has a cut off time of 32 hours. Inevitably, you will need to go overnight somehow, unless you are really that fast to finish the race within 12-13 hours. There are altogether 12 water stations. With Water point 12 being the last and finishing line.

The Race experience
We finished this race in 28 hours and 30 minutes. It was not an easy feat, numerous suspended bridge crossings, forest bashings, rain, heavy rain, sunshine and heat. Of course in between the numerous water points which we pull ourselves to get to.

All the water points are halls of schools or some village congregation halls. There are toilets, ample rest areas, portable water was in abundance, the water points are also filled with enough ration like banana and cup noodles. Medical assistance can also be sought here.

The total elevation for this race is about 5,000 plus metres. The race organizers throw in a series of uphill ascends towards the end making it even more challenging for the runners.

Participants from all over the world came to join this race and we got to meet many folks both familiar and unfamiliar faces.

Going through the finishing line as a main relief for us. We got to finally get our medals and finishing tee shirts.
Although there is also a changing room for us to shower and get a change of clothes to, the room is really old and the toilet does not really have good shower.

The shuttle bus service which we bought was also quite messy and unpredictable. But in the end we all managed to get back to the hotel.