Jogja Marathon – My First Road Marathon In Indonesia

The Course Description From The Event Website
The course is located at  Prambanan – Sleman The Special Region of Yogyakarta. This race runs through some villages’ road with Mount Merapi as the background and several historical ancient temples. The race village is located at  Taman Wisata Candi Prambanan (Prambanan Temples Complex) which is 16 km away from the Yogyakarta downtown area.

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Goat Run Series #1 – Mount Guntur

Race Description From RD
Test your physical and mental strength and endurance on a steep route of Mt. Guntur. The race will take you from 700 meter above sea level, located city center, straight up high into 2200 meter above sea level. Mt. Guntur well known also as “the miniature of Rinjani” will challenge all runner to beat them shelf.
Against the cut off time. Last climb to the summit will be most demanding section of the race before finally all participants are rewarded with astonishing view of Garut City and its beautiful create. From the summit you can enjoy a spectacular view of Mt. Cikuray and Mt. Papandayan.
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Tahura Trail Marathon 2017 –  Rumble In The Jungle 

Race Course (translated from the race website)
Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda (Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda Park), is located in the center of Bandung city, West Java, which is what is left from Natural Conservative Land. Taman Hutan Raya is also served as the lungs of Bandung city. It s located about 5 km (3 miles) from the Gedung Sate.
The trail marathon course is a 42 km course that would go through Bukit Bintang (Bintang Hill), a single track in Batu Lonceng, Kasur Cibodas Mountain, Cigombong, Maribaya, and Gua Belanda (the Dutch Cave). The course is 70% single track with 1549 m elevation gain (5082 ft)


Going Commando
We arrived in Bandung by train on Saturday late morning. I haven’t ride a train since like 25 years ago or so, and surprisingly it was very convenience and comfortable. But my friend and his family train’s car was not so much. After having a lunch and a little shop hopping, we went straight to the Taman Hutan Raya, where the expo was held to pick up my race package. It was also my first time to be in this “little jungle” close to the heart of Bandung city. It was pretty neat but it just seems too fabricated. The expo was not that big but they had a few trail gears and accessories booths, too bad they did not carry my favorites stuffs. Since I was worry about the marking, this would be my first trail race in Indonesia, so I went to the pre-race briefing. Surprisingly, there was not many people there, probably it was only less than 20 people. After the briefing, we went straight to the hotel. Before we went out for dinner in the hotel, I prepped up my race gears and nutrition, and I found out that I did not bring my running underwear. After smashing my head to the wall couple times and messaged with a bunch of friends, I concluded that running commando was inevitable. And to make tomorrow would be more interesting, we had thunderstorm and heavy rain all night. Perfect.

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Halim Runway 2017 10K – The Longest 10K Yet 

This race was my first race in 2017 and in Indonesia. Since I moved back to Jakarta in November 2016, I still had not figured out about my running routine nor schedule, especially for trail running. So I decided why not to jump back to 10K road race, the distance that was the beginning of my running life 8 years ago. Also it would be a good training race for my trail marathon race in 2 weeks. I was a little nervous for these 2 races, since I had not put enough training other than in the gym.

About The Race (translated from the race website http://ayolari.in/lomba/halim-runway-2017)
Halim Runners (Runners HLM) is a community whose members consist of a combination of military and civilian runners. Halim Runners was established on January 7, 2015 and this inaugural Halim Runway Running 2017 race held in the stadium Labda Prakasa Nirwikara, to celebrate Halim Runners 2nd anniversary. This second year race’s theme was Running Towards Healthy Indonesia.
You would experience the thrill from noisily running aircraft that would not exist in other races!! This competition will be held in two categories, 5K and 10K, but only the 10K course that would have a sight of those aircraft, so make sure you are ready to run the 10K !!

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Grindstone 100 – My Last Great American Race

“Grit, endurance, temporary loss of sanity. You might need all of these if you want to attempt Grindstone. If you want to finish, well, just keep in mind this is, without a doubt, the hardest 100 miler east of the 100th meridian. Now that you’re hooked, Grindstone is going to be an incredible adventure for each and every entrant. From the beautiful start/finish location at Camp Shenandoah to the monster climbs and the solitude of single track ridge running, you just can’t beat Grindstone… but you can try!”

– Race Director (Clark Zealand) –

Course Description (Wikipedia)
Grindstone 100 miler is an annual 101.85 mile long ultramarathon that takes place on trails in Virginia’s Allegheny Mountains, usually the first weekend of October. The race starts at Camp Shenandoah, a local camp of the Boy Scouts of America. Beginning at Camp Shenandoah, this out-n-back course ascends and descends Little North Mountain before climbing over 2400 ft (740m) in 4 miles (6.4km) to the summit of Elliott Knob. The course then proceeds north following the ridge-line of the Great North Mountain range, crossing over to and following the Wild Oak Trail before continuing north to the summit of Reddish Knob. Runners continue north to Briery Branch Gap before retracing their steps (without summiting Elliott & Reddish) back along the course to Camp Shenandoah. Runners climb a cumulative total of 23,200 feet (7,140m) and descend a total of 23,200 feet (7,140m) on mountain trails before reaching the finish.

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