Columbia Trail Masters – Review

Last week I did my first ever trail race at the Columbia Trail Masters in Khao Mai Keo close to Pattaya. I had heard in advance about the challenging course, but looked forward to run the 25 km race nevertheless.

The 50 km category started at 6.30 AM, which is relatively late for being such a long distance race in Thailand. The organizer was of course aware that starting when it is still dark would be way too dangerous for the runners. The heat was obviously a downside of the “late” start, particularly for the 50 km runners. On the other hand, it was nice to start when the sun was up.

I overtook the lead a kilometer or so into the race. I didn’t really want to go up front, but I felt the pace was too slow, even with the narrow and tricky course in mind. Soon it became awfully hilly though. I was struggling to climb up and was more or less out of control downhill. In one of the steeper parts, 6-7 km into the race, a Russian runner named Yuriy flew past me. I’ve never seen anyone run that fast up such a steep slope (of course I haven’t, I’ve never run this kind of race before, but still…). The Russian was gracefully running up the hill with long powerful strides, as if it was totally flat.

He continue to run strong in Khao Mai Keo’s elevated trails. I did catch up on him a bit on the flat parts of the course, but unfortunately there were not many nor long stretches like that. After Yuriy disappeared into the jungle hills again with 4-5 km left, I didn’t see him until after the finish line. All results.

AMA Events provided a well organized and exciting race with a great atmosphere. The distance (25 km) was quite accurate, water stations every 5 km as announced beforehand, the orange ribbons clearly showed the route, food/drinks (even beer!) served after the race and everything went rather smooth. They did however mess up my finish time, announcing me as the winner with a 20 minutes(!) too fast finish. We sorted it out on the podium though and Yuriy got the righteous number one spot. All and all, I enjoyed the whole event. This was my first, but not my last trail run.