Gede Pangrango Marathon 2022

This was a postponed race from 2020.  Was really looking forward to it then as I promised to join with my Indonesian running friend, Jusuf, whom I met in Tahura Marathon at Bandung.  We had always wanted to meet again for a race in Indonesia and when we finally wanted to do this, Covid hit in 2020.

Finally opening up in 2022, me and Jusuf checked with the organiser and we managed to reinstate our slot to go for the race.  So taking place on the 25th June, I quickly went to book the flights by Scoot, a budget airline to go there.  I also booked the race hotel , Anugrah Hotel.  This is in Sukabumi, I thought since there is going to be shuttle bus there, I might as well make use of it to go to race venue.

Sukabumi from Jakarta Airport

Due to Covid, I can only travel to other parts of Indonesia via Jakarta.  The race takes place at Sukabumi which is about 160KM away from the City of Jakarta.  The instructions given by the organiser were vague, but I was lucky enough to trot my way through to the public bus area at the airport and catch a long ride to the city of Sukabumi.  Gede Pangrango are actually 2 mountains near the city.  I reached the airport around 11 plus am.  Managed to hook on the 1pm bus to Sukabumi, fare ride is about Rp 195,000 and it took my about 6 hours to get there, reason being the bad jam along the way.

By the time I reach, the race pack collection at Anugrah Hotel was already  closed, I thought travelling up to the start point at Selabintana National Park.

The Race

This race come in a few category, 27K, 42K and 67K.  Elevation and cut off time, to me is really quite tight.  Taking up the 42K, I already began to feel that I might be able to meet the cut off.  The elevation is about 3,950m and 19hrs.  Without any real running roads or mud roads.  With my very limited training at Macritchie and even Bukit Timah Hill, which both are very structured with good pavement, I felt that this race was going to be real challenging to me.  This is especially so after 2 years of non travelling and not climbing real mountains for sometime, it is becoming worrying. But in any case , since my mind is set, I should go forward!

Location

The Gede Pangrango, are two summits in West Java.  They are also volcanic, just like Ijen Mountain, I am always very in awe with the beautiful scenery in Indonesia.  But to speak the truth, I do not really like their Rest and Relax, comparatively I feel that Thailand has better tourism deals than Indonesia.  Maybe it is because their transportation is very bad, always in jam and confusing.  It can be not so foreigner friendly.  It is lucky that now we have TripAdvisors and other platforms to find out about how to get to places and also with reviews of hotels.

The Hotel Anugrah is not bad for stay.  They have proper clean sheets, large rooms and most importantly hot water for bath.  This is the most important thing for me after a race.  They also have hairdryer on loan.  There is also a swimming pool in the hotel.  For a double room without breakfast for 2 days, I paid about S$107.00.  Which I feel is very reasonable.  There is an Alfamart nearby for your to grab last minute needs.  The hotel also have cafeteria and also proper restaurant, but I did not get to try it.

In Action….

The 42K starts at 4am in the morning on a Saturday.  The crowd was thin, I guess maybe its due to Covid.  Although travelling to Indonesia now is more relaxed without having the need to download their tracing app, many people are still skeptical about travelling abroad.

I was the only lady for the 42K and there were no lady doing the 67K.  The beginning was dark and really cold.  Most of the runners looks like hardcore people who had done some serious trail before.  Somehow, they seemed to know each other, so I kinda felt like in the wrong place.  But well I tried to blend in making small talks and shivering in the start line.  Taking a short almost 1 hr ride from the hotel to the start at Selabintana.  The race base was a building, the volunteers were resting there and stocks for the water points were also there.  The first thing I did was to collect the bib which I didn’t collect the day before.  After which, there was a health check done, but not ART was done though.  The health check was mainly to ensure that we are well to climb the elevation.

The whole race consist of 3 summits, basically we climb up to Gede , Pangrango down to Cibodas and back Pangrango.  The start and end is at Selabintana which to many runners who told me, was filled with leeches.  Most of the local runners would start from Cibodas rather than Selabintana because of that reason.  To speak the truth in my whole forest experience, I had never came across leeches.  This race I finally met them at the end.

Long Story Short

As usual there are so many things to talk and rethink about in this race.  But I will cut it short as I am also not such a great trail runner but can just share some of my thoughts.  First thing being the only woman in the race made me felt really honoured.  As in all Indonesian races, I always like the fact that they will sing their national anthem before the race, it was so much so that I could remember the anthem tune myself.  Beside the travelling adventure, the race itself was quite a thrill for me

Being all trail all the way with elevations and steep descending after and after.  I began to realise that the training in Singapore is not enough for this place, especially the technicalities, like fallen branches steep side slopes.  But the scenery itself was really money cannot buy.  The rest points set up by the organiser was really basic with energy gel, local instant bur bur ( porridge) which I instantly fell in love with and also personally went to Alfa mart to grab some home.  The only funny thing is that they dont put that much water to the bur bur making it kind of like a savory cake.  As for me I prefer porridge to be porridge, wet and watery.  So the guys serving me were like feeling strange when I keep insisting that they put in more water.

Scenery

Going up Gede and Pangrango is a torture but you will be greeted with amazing view there especially for Gede, the ridge line is simply amazing and you wont even remember to take video.  I wished I could just sit there the whole day and watch the sun go by.  Surya Kencana Edelweiss park is another amazing place to be , after winding through the forest of Selabintana, you will be greeted by this big valley with Edelweiss flower.  It gives you an European feeling but actually it is in Indonesia.  To speak the truth after 2 summits I was already broken.  The all the way downhill to Cibodas was not exactly that easy too, with thick vegetation to tons of rocky road to the check point, it can be really taxing to the legs too.  The check point was in the Botanical park itself.  We had to tread through a hot spring with waterfall, it was really scenic and fun too to have the hot spring water run through the feet.  There were also many campers in Cibodas as it was a national park.

After we left Cibodas, the sky was tuning a little rainy and it was slowly getting dark.  I began to feel that I will not be able to hit the cut off time as I am really bad at night especially experiencing all the terrain in the day.  I felt that it will be challenging to do the night portion with that kind of terrain.

Through the Ridge

When we hit back the ridge line it was dark and drizzling, feeling cold was another thing we needed to combat.  But we had to keep moving.  When we reach the final checkpoint before the finish, it was about seven plus evening.  Sky was already dark.  Took a bit of rest and we pushed off.  I was lucky that Jusuf knew the way well because the markers are so hard to see mostly.  It was worse at night.  From The Surya valley, it got more difficult back to Selabintana finish line because firstly the lack of visibility, many times we thought we were lost not able to see the tracking markers.  Secondly, our watches were out of battery, I thought maybe it was due to the altitude earlier on that caused the battery to run out fast.  It got really misty too so light was difficult to see what was ahead.

The leeches were back also.  At this time we managed to meet up another 67Km runner and followed him through the finish line.  Although we were 2 hours late, I was glad at least I managed to finish the race so that I know how was it to do such elevation at such a short time span.  I guess there were loads to learn from this race, beside the technicalities , logistics and also battling the height is another thing.

Final Note

Was really glad to have done it with Jusuf.  Finished this business but not quite done nicely yet.  I told him that I will come back next year to clean up the unfinished stuff.  Well as of now, relax first and plan for the next race!