What does it take to win the Asia Trail Masters ?

Last weekend saw the running of Asia Trail Masters Championship Final – an 84km race in Borneo. The race produced a thrilling finish as Jeff Campbell held on to take the win from a fast-finishing Hisashi Kiamura by just over 2 minutes  after almost 10 hours of racing.  I have the privilege of coaching both of these athletes so let’s take a dive into the race data and see where the race was won and lost.

Lets first look at  their averaging running speed and break it down into flat (  -2% decline to 4% incline is considered flat in this data) , uphill ( > 4% inclines ) hiking and downhill running ( <-2% decline ).

Speed   kmh                  Campbell                Kitamura

Flat                                   11.3                          11.1
Uphill                               8.7                            7.9
Hiking                              5                               4.6
Downhill                         12                             11.75

Clearly Campbell was the faster runner so how did Kitamura almost close the gap at the finish to be just over 2 minutes  behind?

To gain more insight we have to consider the balance between hiking and running.

Campbell ran 69km and hiked 15.8km whereas Kitamura ran 75.4km and hiked only 8.8km

So even though Campbell was the faster runner the fact Kitamura ran more of the race and  was running uphill at almost twice the speed Campbell was hiking up it meant he ended up with almost the same time.

The last climb is particularly interesting as Campbell took 79mins to cover the final 8km and only ran 2.8km of that whereas Kitamura ran every step and covered it in 64 minutes  taking 15 minutes  back off Campbell. Unfortunately for Kitamura he ran out of hill so Campbell took the win. Campbell was likely also a little lucky in that Arnie Macaneras was just behind him at the base of the climb and gave Campbell a little extra motivation to hike hard and hold him off as long as possible. Had Arnie not been there maybe Campbell wouldnt have had the motivation to push as hard and not held Kitamura off but as they say sometimes fortune favours the brave !

Lets look at the pacing the two athletes used. This is possible as I have power data for both of them ( Kitamura uses Stryd and Campbell COROS power )

These charts show power throughout the race , the spikes usually occur when running through very wet conditions or through thick tree canopy  when either  the GPS has a hard time getting a signal or the foot pod is splashing through water.

The different colours represent the following
Blue – flat running ( -2 to +4% gradients )
Purple – uphill running
Light blue – downhill
Green – hiking

Campbells is the top chart , Kitamura the bottom.

You can easily see in the last climb the difference between the two athletes. Also of note for those into the data the Stryd data coped a lot better than the COROS power data  with the challenging trail conditions – ie fewer data spikes

These charts below  show the average power per quarter split into flat running , uphill running , downhill running and hiking and also the change in power between 1st and last quarter ( note that similarities in power are coincidental and no conclusions can be made comparing the two – we can however draw conclusions as to how the two athletes paced it )

Campbell

Kitamura

.

You can see both athletes power dropped 10% or more from 1st to last quarter  

In a race lasting around 10 hours a 10% drop off or less is considered a well paced race. In a race held in the hot humid conditions that this race was held in a drop of of 15% or less is very good pacing.

Kitamura dropped off a little more than Campbell on the uphill ( no doubt due to the fact that he was able to keep running up the hills at the end whereas Campbell switched to hiking ). Campbell dropped off more on the flat – no doubt due to pushing harder on the  more runnable sections  earlier in the  course to gain the time on Kitamura.

So where did Campbell open up the gap that gave him the race win  and how did he do it?

They were within a minute at the top of the first climb  ( red dot )  but then Campbell gained 4 minutes  on the descent ( blue dot ) and in the next gradual ascent ( to the green dot)   gained another 10 minutes  effectively setting up a race winning gap.

In that section from blue dot to green dot Kitamura ran 12.3km hiked 1.4km , Campbell ran a touch more 12.9km and hiked 0.9 and whilst their running speeds in this section were pretty much the same , Campbells hiking speed was faster , he ran more of it and had no stationary time whereas Kitamura had over 2 minutes  of stationary time in that section ( maybe an aid station ? ). It all added up to a race winning break.

From that point on they both covered the next 54km  ( from green dot to purple dot ) in 6:09 taking them to the base of the last climb where Kitamura was left with too much work to do.

Whose strategy was best ?

Its hard to argue against the person who won the race but Campbell himself will he hoping he doesnt have too many races like this in the future , hiking most of the last 8km of a race and waiting for people to pass you isnt ideal.  He was fortunate he had done enough early on !

Hisashi ran the better paced race and is how I would recommend most athletes to run their race. At the front end of the pack its a little different though. Had Campbell not put in the move and got a gap on Hisashi early on it is likely they would have been together at the bottom of the last climb and who knows how that would have turned out ! Racing at the front is not just about optimal pacing , risks have to be taken , Campbell took a big one, played to his strengths  and it paid off !

Why didnt Kitamua  go with Cambell early in the race ?

We had a target for Kitamura of 200-210W for flat running and 210-220W for uphill running based on a number of previous trail races. In the first 3 hours or so he ran 209W flat and 225W upill . This is at the top end of his target range and he felt it was too much of a risk to go any faster and the runners in front were pushing too hard. That decision almost paid off!

Congratulations to both  Jeff and Hisashi , two of the hardest working athletes I coach . If you are looking to improve your performance ( and I cant guarantee I can get you on the podium of the Asia Trail Masters Final  but can definitely improve your performance ) reach out to me and we can discuss how myself or one of the other Mile 27 coaches can help.