00:00 Intro
01:00 D-2, Practice Run
07:43 D-1, Briefing
08:29 Climbathon

I participated in the 31st Mt. Kinabalu International Climbathon. It's a 26km race with 2,700m D+ elevation gain, climbing up to the summit of Mt. Kinabalu at 4,095m and back down. This historic event has seen Kilian Jornet win four times, including consecutive victories, and Dai Matsumoto also claiming a win. (You can find videos on YouTube showing Kilian and "Emperor" Miyahara climbing together.)

The course is 13km one-way, starting with 4km of road climbing about 500m, followed by 9km of mountain trail ascending 2,200m, which needs to be completed within 3.5 hours. My strategy was to run hard on the initial road section to warm up, then try to keep up with the runners ahead on the trail. This worked well, and I reached the mountain hut at 3,200m altitude faster than expected. However, from there, possibly due to the altitude or overexertion, my quadriceps (not hamstrings) started cramping, significantly slowing my pace and putting me at risk of missing the cutoff time.

What happened after that? Please check it out in the video.

In this race, men over 40 were in the "Men's Veteran" category, with 65 starters and only 12 finishers (18% completion rate). The overall completion rate across all categories was 17%.

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