The 9 Dragons Ultra 2019

Posted on January 31, 2019 by talkultra

The 9 Dragons Ultra presented by HOKA ONE ONE is a challenging, multi-day trail and ultra-running event taking place on the 1st to the 3rd of February 2019, in Hong Kong.

The first race, starting at midnight on Saturday, consists of an 89km (50 mile) trail run with a an elevation gain of 5,070m. Sunday features an entirely different 50km course with a further 3,550m of elevation gain.

250 places will be available to runners who hope to aim to complete both events over the weekend –The 9 Dragons 50/50– and a further 250 will compete in either the 50 Miler(82km) or 50km race.

Elite runners, Julien Chorier from France, Magdalena Boulet flying in from the USA and Frncesca Canepa from Italy will trade blows with local talent that includes, Ben Duffus, John Ellis, Kazufumi Ose, Chor Kin Law, Jeremy Ritcey, Hisashi Kitamura and Jacky Leung. For the women, Corinne Williams, JCY Ho and Ruth Theresia will provide the competition at the from of the race.

History

A transliteration of the Chinese 九龍, gau lung, or “Nine Dragons”, Kowloon is named for the eight mountains which rear up behind the plateau—and one final dragon besides.

Legend goes that Kowloon was named in the year 1278 by the boy Emperor Bing, of the Southern Song Dynasty. Noticing the eight hills of Kowloon (Kowloon Peak, Tung Shan, Tate’s Cairn, Temple Hill, Unicorn Ridge, Lion Rock, Beacon Hill, Crow’s Nest), the emperor was pleased to name them the “Eight Dragons”—but a quick-witted courtier pointed out that the emperor was a dragon himself, making it nine dragons.

What was Emperor Bing doing counting mountains at the southern tip of his empire? Well, he had nowhere else to go. For the whole of the 13th century the Mongols had swept down from the steppes, moving south through China and crushing the ruling Song Dynasty. First Genghis and then his grandson Kublai Khan stormed south, pushing the Song back, and back, and back.

By 1278, Emperor Bing’s older brother, 10-year-old Emperor Duanzong of Song, had been pushed out of Fujian province and fled south to Guangdong. After Duanzong died from an illness contracted while running from the Mongols, the throne passed to 7-year-old Emperor Bing. The child was crowned at Silvermine Bay, on Lantau Island.

But Bing’s reign was not to last. The Mongols pressed onwards and just one year after the emperor’s coronation, the Song Dynasty made its final stand against the invaders. At the naval Battle of Yamen on March 19, 1279, a Mongol navy of some 50 warships smashed the Song flotilla of more than 1,000 ships to pieces. There was nowhere left to run. Lu Xiufu, the emperor’s most loyal general and statesman, picked up the 8-year-old king and leaped into the sea, in search of an honorable death. Kublai Khan had unified China under his fist, and the sun dawned on the Yuan Dynasty.

You can visit the “Terrace of the Song Kings,” in the Sung Wong Toi Garden park in Kowloon City. It’s home to a rock carving which commemorates the two-year reign of the Song kings in Hong Kong.

But the legacy of the last emperor of the Song doesn’t lie in a rock, but in those eight dragons: The boy emperor who named a city.

RACES

The 50-mile event will begin at 11:59pm on Friday 1st of February 2019 at the Po Leung Kuk Jockey Club Holiday Camp near Yuen Long and finish at Tai Po Tau Playground. The cutoff is at 19:00pm on Saturday 2nd February.

The 50 Mile course starts at the Po Leung Kuk Jockey Club Tai Tong Holiday Camp near Yuen Long, and finishes at Tai Po Tau Playground, an 8 minute walk to/from Tai Wo MTR (East Rail line). It crosses Kowloon and the New Territories in Hong Kong from West to East. The route uses a variety of trails including the MacLehose and Wilson trails, and has an accumulative vertical gain of 5,070m.

The 50km event will begin at 07:30am on Sunday 3rd February at Tai Po Tau Playground and finish at Shing Fung Studios. The cutoff will be at 20:00pm on the same day.

The 50km course starts at Tai Po Tau Playground, an 8 minute walk from Tai Wo MTR (East Rail line) in the New Territories and finishes at Shing Fung Studios in Kowloon, running from North to South. The route uses a variety of trail including the Wilson and MacLehose among others, and has an accumulative vertical of 3,550m.

50/50

250 places will be available to runners who hope to aim to complete both the 50 Miler and 50km events over the weekend – The 9 Dragons 50/50.

50/50 – Men

Julien Chorier
Ben Duffus
John Ellis
Kazufumi Ose
Chor Kin Law
Jeremy Ritcey
Hisashi Kitamura
Jacky Leung

50/50 – Women

Magdalena Boulet
Corinne Williams
Francesca Canepa
JCY Ho
Ruth Theresia

Lanzarote Training Camp 2019 – Day 5

Posted on January 22, 2019 by talkultra

Plenty of soft sand today with a really specific session out in Lanzarote’s small dunes. It was a 60min run to the dune section and then a prolonged period allowing everyone to run up, down and around the section.

All about understanding how the sand reacts, how much energy you expend and what is the best approach.

Soft sand was followed by a run to the coast and an opportunity to explore one of the many volcano on foot before returning back to the coast and eventually Club La Santa. It was another 4-5 hour session.

The afternoon had a talk by Elisabet Barnes on how to look after your feet for a multi-day race and this included practical taping solutions.

The day concluded with an easy evening shake out run.

Join our 2020 Training Camp HERE

Lanzarote Training Camp 2019 – Day 2 and 3

Posted on January 21, 2019 by talkultra

Day 2 and 3 at the Lanzarote Training Camp have been full-on. Shane Benzie of Running Reborn has been looking at everyones run technique and providing guidance for improvement in group and one-to-one sessions – Shane has been a huge hit with everyone and his advice invaluable.

On day 2 we took all groups for a long 5-6 hour walk at a fast pace. Over the years on the training camp we have understood that a key element of successful multi-day race is an ability to walk with ease and at pace.

Day 3 started with glorious sunshine and our famous or infamous volcano hill reps. They are always a hit! The sun came out, we had blue skies and fluffy clouds.

In the afternoon, we had a run out to our bivouac location, inside a volcano. An opportunity for many to test out dehydrated food, sleeping bags, sleeping mats and also their packs with weight. It is always a fun night and this year even more special with gale force winds and rain – quite the experience. It really was brilliant!

Join our 2020 Training Camp HERE

: Elisabet and Sondre training in Lanzarote in 2019. They will return again, January 2020.

Lanzarote Training Camp 2019 – Day 1

Posted on January 18, 2019 by talkultra

Day 1 on the Lanzarote Multi-Day Training Camp and the usual sunny and warm Canaria weather deserted us with some strong winds and the occasional rain shower. It’s all about perspective though and as one runner said, “It’s considerably better than being at home or at work!”

The morning session was a 22km out and back run to the coastal town of Famara. Groups were split into 4 ability based groups:

Sondre Amdahl leading the ‘speedy runners.

Elisabet Barnes leading a mixed group of runners.

Inge Nijkamp leading group 3.

Ian Corless leading a walk / run group.

The camp is all about finding a natural balance that provides the participants with a comfortable and solid group that provides the perfect stimulus from which to progress.

A break for lunch and then the afternoon kicked off with a stunning talk by Running Reborn Coach, Shane Benzie. He discussed all the aspects, through practical demonstration, that make us better runners.

Groups were then split into 2.

Group 1 went to the run track with Shane for a practical workshop. Shane individually filmed runner and gave guidance on improving technique.

Group 2 had an easy 8km run.

As always, the evening RnR process is all about getting together for a social drink and evening meal.

It was a great start to the 2019 camp!

Jasmin Paris breaks The Spine

Posted on January 17, 2019 by talkultra

Jasmin Paris has long been regarded as the Queen of British mountain running! Her record on the Bob Graham Round and other rounds, her victories in skyrunning and her down to earth, no nonsense approach have endeared her to all fans of the sport.

Yesterday, she won The Spine, a 268-mile run billed as the UK’s toughest race race, in 83 hours, 12 minutes and 23 seconds. It was a record breaking performance that not only provided victory in the female race, but an outright victory. Even more stunning was her time… It obliterated the existing female record of 109 hours 54 minutes and more notably, the men’s record of 95 hours 17 minutes set by Eoin Keith.

The gap between male and female competitors in ultra running has always been closer – the longer the race, the better women perform. Ann Trason proved this many years ago and more recently, Rory Bosio placed in the top-10 at UTMB. However, Jasmin’s victory here at The Spine is turning heads and rightly so.

To provide perspective, she has just appeared on the UK’s BBC Breakfast Show!

Starting on Sunday January 13th at 8am from Edale, Jasmin soon set her stall out running with past winners Eoin Keith and Eugeni Rosello. The trio pulled away, opened a gap and those in the know, me included, wondered could Jasmin pull something special off.

At Hawks, Eugeni and Jasmin forged away from Eoin. It’s not unusual for the lead to change in such a long race as sleep requirements vary and therefore one can expect many variables. At Alston, Eugeni slept as fatigue and sleep deprivation took its toll. Jasmin saw this as an opportunity and pushed on.

At Greenhead, Jasmin had a lead of close to 2 hours. But one sleep and a charging Eugeni could change all that… No! Jasmin seemed unstoppable and took little rest. It was soon becoming clear that Jasmin was not only in a race to win outright but set an overall course record.

Strong winds, cold and rain were relentless but conditions in comparison to past editions were good – there was no snow to slow the pace.

A recent mother, news came out that in addition to obliterating the race at a ridiculous speed, she was actually expressing milk when she took a break! And talking of breaks, over the duration of the 268 mile journey, this amazing inov-8 athlete slept less than 8 hours.

At the finish, Jasmin’s story had become world news. Social media was illuminated with her story and mainstream media was suddenly interested in our niche sport of ultra running.

This victory makes us start to ask a question about records and in future, should races just have one classification and one course record? Jasmin and others before her, have proven that women can compete and more importantly, beat the best-of-the-best.

It’s a stunning era for the sport and Jasmin is a true ambassador and role model to take the ultra running torch into a new era.

Many congratulations Jasmin!

Update:

Eugeni Rosello looked set for 2nd place but had to withdraw just 6km from the finish. The mountain safety team escorted him off the hill – such a sad end for a valiant battle. This opened the door for Eoin Keith who was 1st male and 2nd overall.

Episode 167 – Camille Herron and Tyler Curley

Posted on January 14, 2019 by talkultra

Episode 167 of Talk Ultra is here… HAPPY NEW YEAR! We have an interview with woman on fire, World Record breaker, Camille Herron. We also chat with Tyler Curley all about Western States. Speedgoat Karl co-hosts and Th Godfather of Trail, Kurt Decker provides the interviews.

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NEWS

00:37:48 Interview with CAMILLE HERRON

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01:06:20 Interview with TYLER CURLEY

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01:55:14

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