Race Report Vietnam Trail Marathon 2020
Beautiful landscapes, the most friendly people, a great course and my first trail running race win. The Vietnam Trail Marathon (VTM) 2020 42 km was a wrap.
After having enjoyed the VTM 2019 over the 42km distance, I thought I would come back and do it again. 2019 was a year of experiments, optimizing my running (& life) on many fronts and trying to figure out how to become a stronger and better runner (& human being). That lead to changing my diet (now plant powered), to midfoot running, focus on strength and stretching, and of course mental training. With that foundation, VTM 2020 was a nice testing ground to see some results of those experiments.
#RaceReview:
VTM starts in the city of Moc Chau, 5–6h drive west of Han Noi. Weather was great, 20 degrees, not much humidity, blue sky. 7am start, 42km and about 2,000m elevation ahead of us.
The course quickly takes you into the mountains, and after 5km we are all facing a 350m climb over 1km. For some reason I found myself leading the pack, which was a position I happened to keep for the rest of the race. After the first climb, one gets to run through beautiful fields and valleys of blossoming plumb trees and lots of little village sprinkled alongside the course. The local H’mong people wearing their beautiful colorful clothes and waving happily when passing by are making this a very enjoyable experience.
From 8km onwards until 32km, the course is either pretty much flat or downhill, so I got to bring out my running legs and I was pacing through the hills. Many times I found myself surrounded by squadron of local kids running with me and/or villagers lined up to give high fives, take selfies with me and live streaming on Facebook. A truly special experience.
From 32km until the finish line we got to face more uphill sections, with some small downhill in between. Some parts were fairly technical as we ran through some lush and rocky jungle.
The finish is in an extremely beautiful landscape of tea plantations. No better way of finishing this race.
It was a start to finish lead. I finished the 42km in 4h27min, 20min ahead of the second runner. That meant I spent the entire race running by myself, cruising through the landscape, and not necessarily racing against anyone else, but rather racing against my own mind. I shaved more than 1h 10min off from my time last year — pretty happy about that.
Overall, a great race: very well organized, flawless course marking, four check points with water and fruits and an amazing atmosphere in the valleys and at the finish. Congrats to Topas Group and David Lloyd. I am very grateful for all the support along the way and the amazing prices (Salomon Shoes, Garmin watch, and more perks). I can highly recommend this race to anyone that wants to explore this part of Vietnam with its great landscapes and kind people.
#NutritionReview:
Some more thoughts on nutrition, as I think it is an important element of a good racing strategy and I get asked this question a lot. I have struggled before with hitting the wall several times (my heart rate suddenly jumps up and my body shuts down for a few minutes) and so I decided this time to do everything to sail through this race smoother. Which meant I drank every single time when the thought of water popped up in my head. Just a little sip here and there, but it kept me much more hydrated than before. In total I must have drank around 4 liters. Because I sweat quite a bit, I also took every 30–45min a salt stick tablet to balance my sodium and potassium levels. That helped tremendously — no more hitting the walls! At each food station I downed bananas, watermelons and some other fruits. I burn around 600 calories per hour, so I ate self made energy bars. I cannot stand the sweet and hard to chew commercial energy bars, hence I decided this time to make some myself beforehand. A mix of nuts, chia seeds, figs, dates, salt and some other flavors got me some really yum bars that also had 150–200 calories per bar. What a treat during the race. With all that, I only needed two gels and no other high end nutrition.
I do like to think that my change to a plant based diet three months ago also contributed to the fact that I felt much lighter and fresher. I have already seen good results in December when I improved my half marathon time by over 10min, and now I was curious how a longer distance would feel when powered by plants. It felt amazing!
#BodyReview:
Only in December I started to train properly again, clocking 320km / month, including some great 21km runs/races in Singapore and Germany, but only one 30km training run in Da Lat. Hence I wasn’t surprised that the first 30km felt pretty good, averaging 5min/km pace (apart from 13min/km pace for the uphill parts). I wasn’t surprised either that from >30km, I’d struggle a bit as I haven’t trained that distance for some time. The last 10km were also uphill and the sun was out. I only got to maintain a 6:30min/km pace and didn’t feel that great either. Time to train some longer distances.
#MindReview:
Mind over Body. Fair enough, it isn’t a 100km race where mental strength makes a huge difference. However, I did apply some mental exercises before and during the race that I think are worth noticing.
The night before the race I did some visualization exercise (brought to me by Jesse Timm), where I visualized many parts of the race, e.g. how the start and the finishing would feel, how it would feel to cross the finishing line first, etc. With that in mind, I went to the start the next day feeling confident that I could own this race.
Another tool I used was ‘look in the mirror and build up some aggression’. Taught by Ned Phillips, you got to look sternly in the mirror the morning before the race and store a lot of positive or negative energy inside you. That little bomb can be used during some tough moments during the race, when a little boost is necessary. I used it at 34km when I faced an annoying uphill and it helped me to get through it.
Lastly, as I was running alone the entire time, I needed to have something that keeps me going. I thought I remembered correctly that last years winner (big shout out to Tom Spearman) took 3h30min, so at least I should finish in under 4h. That goal pushed me quite a bit. I was clearly happy that I finished first, however a bit disappointed that it took me 4h27min. Only in the finish I found out that Tom also finished in 4h27min and I got his time wrong in my head. Funny how the mind works…
Congrats to everyone!
