The Endurance Asia Podcast – Details, episodes & analysis

We are back with an exciting weekend of ultra trail racing with the ATM Championship at the classic TMBT race in Sabah, Borneo. Endurance Asia will be live at the race and finish line on Saturday and in preparation, we caught up with Series Director, Kris Van de Velde and previous guest Chris Timms who will be represeting Singapore.

With Kris we discuss:

• How the ATM season has gone. Some of the highlights? Best performances, most exciting races, best courses.

• The structure of the ATM points system and the finals. How the countries compete against each other. 

• The reason for choosing TMBT as the final race.

• Who he expects to be at the pointy end of the male and female race

• The teams he expects to perform well

With Chris Timms we discuss:

• How he feels representing Singapore at the ATM finals?

• How ATM season has gone for him? The highlights?

• After a top 10 finish in 2022, What his expectations are for this year?

• Who he expects the podium to be? Winning team?

• His recent addition to the T8 ambassador list

• The new Singapore Running Club, Falcons and how that came to be.

• His plans / goals post ATM final

You can follow the race and live streaming at:

• ATM FB page

• Instagram Page

• Dot Tracker

You can follow Chris Timms at:

• Instagram

• Facebook

• SG Falcons RC Insta

This week we were joined by Natalia Dau, Rockstar Arms, to discuss what she has been up to for the past couple of years and more importantly, what’s coming up in the next couple of months.

We discuss:

• Her 4 marathons in Sydney, Singapore, Gold Coast, Tokyo last year

• The 4 ultras she ran in 2023, all of which she won and a couple of the ultras outright

• Her first book Run like a Woman

• Project1000, Natalie’s goal to run 1000km from Thailand to Singapore and raise $150k for GRLS charity

You can follow Project1000:

• www.project1000.run

• https://www.instagram.com/rockstararms

• The charity https://www.womenwin.org/grls/

Ric and Scott catch up after to discuss what’s been going on the world of Ultra Endurance including Tomo’s 3rd fun run at Barkley Marathons.

Vincere Zeng at 31 years old is a record holder in the high altitude mountains, becoming the first Singaporean female to summit Everest and K2 back to back and also the first Singaporean female to summit K2 and to do this all in one year.

We catch up with Vincere to discuss:

• How it came to be. Where her passion for adventure and exploration come from. How she progressed to take on high altitude mountains from trail running in Singapore.

• How she planned for two expeditions in the same year and also 2 mountains in her Everest expedition

• The company she chose, 8k Expeditions and how she worked with them. 

• Tell me about some times you’ve been deep in the Pain cave and how did you get yourself out

• How do you Train for your major expeditions or races. Especially in Flat Singapore 

• How do you think about Nutrition leading up to a challenge and during

• Plans for rest of 2023 and Asia Trail Master

You can follow Vincere on Instagram, Facebook, Strava

We reconnect with Ben Pulham the founder of Coached, a Singapore-based testing lab and - surprise - coaching service for athletes of all stripes. A former pro triathlete himself, Ben - together with in-house sports scientist James (Jim) Webster - is an expert in helping people perform better. 

Listen to our first podcast with the Coached team that goes into more detail about the testing they offer and Ben’s background as a professional athlete. https://www.enduranceasia.com/podcasts/coached

Find them online at https://www.coached.fitness/,  https://www.facebook.com/Coached and https://www.instagram.com/p/CLdWCTzHu3x/?hl=en

In our interview with Ben and Jim, we discuss:

• Diet and the benefits of lower carb

• The athletes they are training inc top triathlete Arif

• State of Singapore athletics

• The track sessions they run every Tuesday in Singapore

• Goal Setting

• Sweat testing and importance or supplementing with minerals in Asia

Podcast hosted by Ultra Endurance enthusiasts Scott Pugh and Ric Stockfis.

We welcome Christ Timms to the podcast this week to discuss the trail running community in Singapore. Chris has been on the podium at a lot of races around South East Asia the past couple of years and was in the top 10 of last years ATM Finals in Mt Apo Philippines. We catch up in Red Dot Running Company store where he is an elite ambassador to discuss his background, training, the Mountain Goat Challenge and plans for the rest of the year.

• Chris’ background. Where he’s from and his day job

• How he first got into running.

• How his running has evolved.

• His recent race performances such as his win at the UTSG in Singapore and podium at Bukit Lawang Orangutan Trail

• His focus on building community?

• The Mountain Goat Challenge and how the event played out.

• How he inspires and motivates his kids so engaged in running, swimming.

• What’s next in his calendar, how he’s looking to improve.

• Favourite gear.

You can follow Chris at:

• Facebook

• Instagram

• Strava

Off the back of the 2023 edition of Hardcore100 H1 Ultra in Philippines, we catch up with race director Jonel Mendoza as well as competitors Nikki Han, Will Hayward and Viirginie Goethals to discuss one of the first and one of the toughest hundred mile races in Asia.

First up we speak with Jonel to discuss:

• The genesis of Hardcore100 and how Jonel decided to map an Ultra Marathon around Mt Pulag and Mt Ugo

• How he managed to get qualifying spots for Western States and HardRock

• How the race evolved over the years

• Notorious for being on of the hardest races in Asia, Jonel tells us how it has changed for 2023

• Talks about the partnership with Robert Watson to run the event

• The plan for 2024 and beyond?

We are then join (35:30) by Nikki, Will and Virginie to talk about how this yeaers event played out from an athletes perspective.

We cover:

• Recovery after H1

• Why they all signed up for H1 this year and what has been their history with the event

• What their expectations were with the new route this year?

• Their preparation and training block?

• How everyone prepared right before the event?

• How the race went for everyone, the high and low points

• The sleep depravation

• Organisation and check points

• Would you come back again?? 

• What they learned, do differently in future races or H1

• What’s next for each of them..

Checkout H1 and their other races https://kotm.intrepidspirit.com/

Follow on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/kotmph

We talk with Janet and Steve about the 2023 edition of HK100, the first in person since 2020. How the race went and what they thought about the performances. We also cover:

• how they both first get into trail running 

• What made them decide to start HK100

• How the race has evolved over the years

• Discuss some of the returnees every year inc John Ellis and Jeremy Ritcey doing every year <16 hours.

• We discuss Janet’s role as President of International Trail Running Association.

• We talk about PTL, one of the toughest races in the world and their 2 finishes

You can follow HK 100 on Instagram and Facebook

Check out the website to look at prior results and sign up to 2024 - https://www.hk100-ultra.com/

Check out ITRA for your race results and score - https://itra.run/

We welcome back Tomokazu Ihara from his 4th attempt of the Barkley Marathons and his best effort yet, achieving a fun run in 35:55 and getting out on the fourth loop with 27 seconds to spare!

A momentous year that saw 3 finishers for only the second time ever and the first finish since John Kelly’s last finish in 2017.

Tomo has been dedicated to this challenge for the past 7 years and it’s inspiring to hear his story of dedication and tenacity to an event that has the highest DNF rate of any known race.

Follow Tomo on Insta, facebook and his site www.tomospit.com

GODZone Chapter 11 , Fiordland is in the books and what a historic week it was. We saw the very last expedition adventure race of Nathan Fa’avae’s career and one last win to cap of a tremendous career with Team Avaya.

We catch up with race director Warren Bates to recap the race and pay homeage to the leader of the greatest ever adventure racing team.

We suggest looking at the Dotwatch map as you listen to view the section discussed in the race

We discuss:

• How has the last week went for RD Warren Bates

• What it was like being back in Fiordland for the first time in 5 years. What makes the area so special and why they chose to go back

• Expectations going into the race. Who did Warren think would be competing at the pointy end, what parts of the course did you expect to be the most challenging 

• Talk about team Avaya. How good are they really??

• Honour Nathan Faavae and what has he meant to this sport

• What the future of the sport looks like. What Warren thinks of athletes and teams like No Idea and Fear Youth coming through.

• How to make GZ more accessible to international teams.

• Talk to us about your history in adventure racing

• What’s up next.. Inaugural GODZone AU event..

Listen to Chris Forne of Team Avaya on the podcast last week and Nathan Fa’avae on the podcast in 2020.

We are delighted to welcome Chris Forne, lead navigator for Team Avaya and winner of the Endurance Asia Male Athlete of the Year in 2022.

He and Team Avaya have just kicked off the GodZone Chapter 11 and you can dot watch here..

We cover:

• His back ground, how he first got into orienteering

• How he first got into expedition adventure racing and worked towards first world champs victory in 2007,

• How the team deals with major challenges when they arise, eg, when they lost their timing card at the last world champs in Paraguay.

• What non conventional navigating techniques he has found useful that you wouldn’t read in a manual. 

• How he and his wife both balance adventure racing competitively

• His typical training block leading up to a big race. Whether they train as a team. How he maintains elite fitness while working full time

• Dealing with sleep deprivation and whether it has taken any toll on him w so many expedition races. How he recovers.

• What this season looks like. GZ this week and then world champs in South Africa?

You can listen to the previous episode with Team Avaya Captain Nathan F’avae