This Monday at 4 am, more than 900 runners from all over Asia will commence their ATM 500 Virtual Team Run. A challenge in teams of four runners with the objective of completing the distance of 500 km within a timeframe of 14 days. Created by Karen Geh and KC Tan from Sportlicious Malaysia in Penang, the concept was further fine-tuned by Asia Trail Master, which has attached its brand name to assist in the promotion and the covering of the unique event that has taken the Asian trail running community by storm over the last week. Asia Trail Master is an annual points-based championship series in trail running with 30 races a year in 14 to 15 Asian countries.

For the upcoming Virtual Team Run, teams of four must include at least one woman and each team member is required to run minimum 75 km over the two-week-period. Each day by 10:30 pm, the team captains are required to send in their team's performance for validation. Due to nighttime curfews in several Asian cities or countries, the regulation says that valid runs must be done between 4 am and 10 pm. The organisers emphasize strongly that they do not want any runner to break local covid-19 regulations. Upon registration, teams could choose their own team name, posters with an event overlay were produced and went viral on social media. The snowball effect it triggered left even the organisers astonished.

“We had no idea this initiative would lead to such a continent-wide enthusiasm and it has caused an enormous amount of overtime work,” laughs Kris Van de Velde, founder and general manager of the Asia Trail Master Championship series. “It proves how much runners miss the events that have all been postponed or cancelled due to the covid 19 pandemic. The core idea of ATM 500 is to stimulate people to keep exercising and remain conscious of their physical and mental health, after we heard of several runners-in-lockdown letting themselves go and engaging in tv binge watching with all its tricky side-habits of consuming too many unhealthy snacks and beers. That is also the reason why the focus of our team challenge is on distance rather than on speed. People will motivate each other every day to move and increase the total mileage of the team. Of course, elite-level runners need to nurture their competitive spirit as well in these months without racing, and for sure some ‘elite teams’ will aim to win by completing the 500k as a team in just a couple of days."

Plenty of Asia’s finest have indeed signed up for the special occasion, including reigning Asia Trail Master champions John Ellis and Veronika Vadovicova, as well as former champions Alessandro Sherpa, Manolito Divina and Arief Wismoyono. Other household names we find in team rosters, are a.o. Jeff Campbell, Yuri Norimatsu, Fredelyn Alberto, Estzer Csillag, Quang Tran, Kristian Joergensen, Rie Sugaya, Milton Amat, Tomohiro Mizukoshi and Mohamed Affindi.

Not all elites will be gunning for victory, though. Milton Amat, winner of Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 and Mantra Summits Challenge and the best Sabahan runner in the ATM Championship for the last two years, loves the general concept and will take up the 500k challenge together with his young son Rheo, his sister Egnes and uncle Lukas as a ‘family team’.

On Sunday night, 230 teams had officially entered already. Registered teams come from all over Asia and even Spain. Kalimantan (Indonesia) and Cambodia have three teams each - despite having no history in the Asia Trail Master series.

Updates on the event’s proceedings will be released on the websites and social media channels of Asia Trail Master and Sportlicious Malaysia.

As the 1st edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual, is approaching, Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master would first of all like to thank all of you for your enthusiasm and large number of registrations so far. It is going to be an exciting two weeks starting next Monday!

While the core objective is for all teams to complete the 500km milestone in fourteen days, of course some teams and its runners also wish to compete and be the first to complete the distance. This has compelled some people to raise a red alert: in several Asian countries there is still a nighttime curfew in place. As such, some of the participants in ATM 500 are unable to put in any significant mileage during nighttime hours. Curfews vary from place to place and may even be different between various cities or regions in one and the same country.

It goes without saying that both Sportlicious Malaysia and Asia Trail Master do not want anyone to break any official covid-19 regulations of the location you are in. Our virtual competition is not worth that. Please also consider the potential (social) media backlash against endurance runners should someone not stick to these regulations.

In order to keep the competition aspect of ATM 500 as fair as possible, we will therefore also introduce and enforce a daily ‘rest time’ from 10 pm until 4 am (6 hours). Logically, this means every team can only collect kilometres from 4 am to 10 pm (18 hours) each day starting on Monday, 8 June. During the ‘rest time’ kilometers cannot be collected and we hope that teams will respect this measure in the spirit of solidarity with those who cannot run at all during the night.

The times are the same for every time zone, so just look at your own watch.

The key regulations of our competition are summarised in the image below. Team Captains are advised to doublecheck the more detailed list mentioned in the original announcement from last week. Of the essence is that captains send in their team’s daily results by 10:30 pm every day. Sportlicious will be verifying everything and produce the daily team ranking by the early mornings. A daily report will later during the day also be published on the Asia Trail Master pages.

Photo and video material by the runners and teams are always welcome!

Let’s have some fun!

Nhon Trong leads one of the Vietnam teams.

Here’s Tomohiro Mizukoshi with his team of Tokyo Nomads!

Quang Tran is heading the Vietnam Monsters!

The iconic Izu Trail Journey event traversing the peninsula south of Tokyo is on the 2020 programme for Sunday, 13 December. The Japan SuperTrail in the Asia Trail Master Championship returns to the original 72km course after the typhoon-induced reroutes of last year. Fans of Izu Trail Journey will have wondered already why the registrations for the usually sold-out event have not yet been opened. Something that normally is done now in the first week of June.

Mr Tatsuo Chiba, co-event director of ITJ, confirmed to us that the registrations are postponed to 1 September, obviously also as a consequence of the corona pandemic. The situation in Japan and particularly the Tokyo and Izu area has improved a lot and restrictions are gradually being lifted. However, it is considered wiser to wait another three months, so both the event organisers and the runners can get a clearer picture of what to expect for this year’s edition. Even when still more than half a year from us now, it is likely that some special conditions or restrictions will be introduced for participation in the Izu Trail Journey 2020.

On a more positive note, in an attempt to revive the Japanese tourism industry there has been official talk of reduced pricing for transport and accommodation for travellers coming to the country later in the year.

More news on Izu Trail Journey in any case at the end of August.

Some of the ATM protagonists are always invited to come on stage during the press conference of ITJ

Veronika Vadovicova pulled off quite a stunt last year by winning the women’s race outright, despite not being 100% fit

Hisashi Kitamura was first of the ATM Championship contenders and was delighted with his result

A very familiar Japanese elite runner for many years: Shunsuke Okunomiya

Registrations for the upcoming first edition of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual by Sportlcious Malaysia are coming in on a regular basis now as teams are being formed all over Asia. The virtual endurance challenge begins next week on Monday, 8 June and ends no later than 21 June. While the core objective of the initiative is not necessarily the competition, it is great to see so many of our annual championship contenders already on the start list. We even have a team containing the ATM champions of the past two years: Alessandro Sherpa and John Ellis. They are flanked by David Longo and Chong Mei Tze under the team name “Sherpa’s Angels”. The “Smiling Assasin” team has an equally international composition with captain Michael McLean having persuaded 2020 ATM Championship co-leader Fredelyn Alberto, MMTF 2019 dominator Kristian Joergensen and 2020 Tahura Trail winner Jeff Campbell to join his squad.

Teams consist of maximum four people of which minimum one has to be female. Each runner in a team is required to run at least 75 km. Participants can choose between running on a treadmill, outdoors or indoors, road or trail. Daily results will be submitted by each team’s captain no later than 10 pm every night, and verified via Strava and the Sportlicious Malaysia Club. The first three teams that complete 500 km will be awarded, but all teams’ efforts will be acknowledged no matter they complete the virtual running challenge in five days or need the full two weeks of allocated time.

The ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual is primarily a fun challenge to keep spirits high and condition top in times when the next race is still months away - except if you live in Vietnam. Both organiser Sportlicious Malaysia and ourselves at Asia Trail Master will be reporting on a daily basis on the achievements of each team and each runner.

Online registration is very easy, just click on the button below that leads to a Google Form. Please do read the virtual race regulations first, though, to avoid any kind of misunderstanding afterwards.

A random selection of registered teams so far (all participants will be announced in the next days)

HOKA launches the brand new Torrent 2 today, upgraded from the original Torrent. This new trail running shoe has a great mix of cushioning and agility. The lightweight performance is made with a PROFLY midsole which gives a forgiving landing and responsive toe off. The Torrent 2 upper uses recycled Unifi REPREVE® yarn from post-consumer waste plastic making it a cleaner greener shoe and has a heel to toe drop of 5mm.

Visit your local countries HOKA Facebook site to find out where to buy the new Torrent 2.  https://www.facebook.com/HOKAONEONE/

You can rewatch Episode 3 of the Tale of the Trail now here on the website, on our YouTube Channel (recommended for easy streaming to your TV screen) and our facebook page. The show focused on the amended 2020 regulations for the Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest, as well as on the new postponement of Korea 50K to late September.

Main takeaways of Episode 3:

• The regulations for the continuation of the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship have been amended following the many cancellations and postponements to date. Most significantly, the five-best-count system is replaced by a three-best-count system as it was back in 2015 and 2016. The ATM Final - Borneo TMBT Ultra 100K - is basically a must-run for anyone with Championship ambitions. An overview can be read on our separate news announcement as well.

• The time-freeze for the Grandmaster Quest has been extented from two to six months

• Veronika Vadovicova launches ‘Asia Trail Girls’ and does not exclude a late-season campaign to defend her ATM Championship title

• John Ellis is in excellent form despite the lack of races this year, is not opposed to a few ATM runs late in the season and has quite some new T8 products coming out soon

• Korea 50K did not get the required approvals to hold the event at the end of June due to a new infection wave two weeks ago, and is postponed by a further three months to late September

• Ultra Trail Chiang Rai remains on the programme for end October, but still a lot of uncertainty around sports and entertainment events in Thailand.

• Pongtorn Thavorn shares some of his insights as a finisher of the Ultimate 230 at UTCR

• Amy Khor talks to hardened ultra runner Alex Ang in ‘The Singapore Connection’

• Jess Boubie keeps busy creating ethnic bracelets in between running sessions in her home village in Sabah, and is looking forward to seeing all of you at TMBT in December

• Job Tanapong is injury-free and is waiting for a clearer running event plan while developing and managing his own coffee brand stores in Chiang Mai

The next episode of the Tale of the Trail will air on Friday, 12 June.

In follow-up to our earlier announcement on 16 March, the Asia Trail Master team has now decided to update and amend the regulations for both the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest. Even though Dalat Ultra Trail in Vietnam is giving us a glimmer of hope for a return to some kind of normalcy, the fact is that in most Asian countries the corona pandemic is still ongoing with country borders closed and mass sports and entertainment events prohibited. With the exception of Ijen Trail in East Java, Indonesia, which will announce its decision mid-June, all events scheduled for June, July and August have either been cancelled or postponed to later in the year. After Dalat Ultra Trail, which will be held on 20 June exclusively with runners based in Vietnam, we are again looking at an event hiatus of at least three months until the Vietnam Mountain Marathon on 19 September.

It is not all gloom and doom, though. Counting the events on the calendar starting with VMM, we are still looking at 15/16 points races - depending on what happens with Ijen Trail. Of course, there is no guarantee all those events will take place, but now we are talking four months out. Looking back four months, Wuhan had only just gone into lockdown. Since then, the corona curve reached its global peak and also already started its decline in most countries - most importantly for us including in Asia. Let’s hope that in four months from today, the pandemic is over, the infection rate is under control to the extent borders can re-open and sports events can again take place. Under which conditions events will take place is another matter that may vary from country to country, but of the essence is first that they can take place again.

In the current circumstances it is no longer opportune, however, to demand from elite runners that they perform at their best in minimum five races and the ATM Final in order to have a chance to become Asia Trail Master champion. While a few contenders - with hindsight - have been wise to run one or two of the three points races that took place before the lockdowns, others simply didn’t have the chance to fulfil their ambitions as major early season events such as The 9 Dragons, Cordillera Mountain Ultra and (at first) Dalat Ultra Trail very quickly ran into trouble or got cancelled.

As such, the following decisions have been made for the continuation of the 2020 ATM Championship:

• Five-best-count system becomes a three-best-count system, plus one (3+1)

• The ‘one’ in ‘3+1’ stands for the ATM Final: Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 on 19 December 2020. While TMBT can be a runner’s third race, it will be important to run it for anyone who wants to become 2020 Champion because…

• … In order to boost mainstream media and sponsor appeal, ATM Championship contenders are expected to turn up for the final direct shoot-out of the season in and around Kota Kinabalu - Borneo TMBT Ultra 100 - or face a points penalty of 300 points.

  • E.g. if runner A completes three or more races but doesn’t attend the ATM Final race, his total points tally will be reduced by 300 points. if runner B does two races and goes to the ATM Final, he scores points as usual as TMBT is his 3rd race and it’s the Final

• In order to score more championship points in the ATM Final, you must have completed at least two prior ATM points races during the season (same rule as in 2019, to avoid tactical manoeuvring between contenders, e.g. by bringing to the race international stars such as Pau Capell or Killian Jornet to take points away from a championship rival)

• The “one-must-be-SuperTrail rule” is waived for 2020 —> no penalty points if you do not run a SuperTrail race this year

• The 50-bonus points rule for a 100 miles+ finish, SuperTrail race finish and Abroad Bonus is kept as always

Regarding the Grandmaster Quest, we are extending the ‘time freeze’ by four months until September as well. That means every runner who has already started his personal Grandmaster challenge now has six months more time to achieve the first star ( = 2,5 years since the first completed race).

As we wait for some proper trail running action in Dalat next month, we continue to support initiatives such as the ATM 500 - Run Asia Virtual Race by Sportlicious Malaysia, which will begin on 8 June. You can register as teams of four and stay motivated to keep the training up.

Please also remember you can subscribe to our website news articles easily (see ‘subscribe via email’ below) and stay tuned to our ‘Tale of the Trail’ video talk shows every two weeks.

Episode 3 of our bimonthly video talk show The Tale of the Trail will be broadcast tonight, Friday, 29 May, at 19:00 Hong Kong time (20:00 Korea; 18:00 Thailand). The episode is titled “Ending the Waiting Game’, referring to the long-awaited amendments to the regulations for the 2020 Asia Trail Master Championship and the Grandmaster Quest. Our reigning champions John Ellis and Veronika Vadovicova will be on the show, as well as Jey Jang from South Korea to give us an update on Korea 50K. We will find out what is going on in Thailand during these difficult months and Amy Khor will be interviewing Alex Ang. In cooperation with Mark TWT there will be a feature on Sabah’s trail queen Jassica Lintanga, aka Jess Boubie, and finally there will be a chat with out Mystery Guest of this episode Job Tanapong.

The Tale of the Trail will be shown on the Asia Trail Master pages of both facebook and YouTube as well as here on the website.

Sportlicious Malaysia is today launching its new project “ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual” in cooperation with Asia Trail Master. A ‘virtual’ running competition in team format that will last two weeks from 8 to 21 June 2020 with the goal of reaching the 500 km milestone as quickly as possible. Registration opens immediately and is easy via a Google Form and a small nominal fee.

Teams consist of maximum four people of which minimum one has to be female. Each runner is required to run at least 75 km as part of the team. Participants can choose between running on a treadmill, outdoors or indoors, road or trail. Daily results will be submitted by each team’s captain and verified via Strava and the Sportlicious Malaysia Club. The first three teams that complete 500 km will be awarded.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a huge impact on the whole world. Even when in most countries’ lockdowns are gradually being lifted, it is likely to still take several months before everything will return to some kind of normalcy and we can all take part in outdoor sports events like we used to. In the absence of actual outdoor races, Sportlicious Malaysia has developed ATM 500 – “RUN ASIA, RUN VIRTUAL”. A “virtual” team race of 500 km in distance over a duration of two weeks for all participants in across Asia.

The core objective of ATM 500 – “RUN ASIA, RUN VIRTUAL” is to keep everyone in a good physical and mental shape, and adds an element of competition into the mix. It is a team format on purpose, because in times of social distancing it is important to keep fostering team spirit and interpersonal connections. The team that has reached the 500km milestone first will be declared as winner of the first ATM 500 – “RUN ASIA, RUN VIRTUAL” series.

The virtual run is open to all. Create your own cool team name and motivate each other to reach 500! Regular reports on the competition's progress will be posted on our facebook page and covered during the Tale of the Trail video show.

Rules & Regulations of the ATM 500 - Run Asia, Run Virtual

• Maximum of 4 members in a team, with a minimum of (1) Female member.

• Team members will have 14 days to complete 500 KM.

• Each member is required to clock a minimum mileage of 75 km.

• Team captains will be responsible to input all members data into an online spreadsheet.

• Daily result will be required to be submitted by 10PM Malaysia Time by the Team Captain.

• Run activity after 10 pm can be submitted on the next day.

• Each run must show the following information:

  • Date

  • Time

  • Distance

  • Duration

  • Average Pace

  • Running Mode: Road, Trail, Treadmill

• No submission of a run is necessary if zero (0) mileage for that day.

• No minimum mileage needs to be done every day.

• Team members can help each other to cover mileage to achieve the target 500 KM in 14 days or less, however each member MUST clock a minimum mileage of 75 KM per person.

• Team members are required to ensure their running activity is reflected under STRAVA.

• Team members are required to FOLLOW “SPORTLICIOUS MALAYSIA” Club on STRAVA under http://strava.com/clubs.sportliciousmalaysia

• Total result of each team will be updated daily and will be reflected after 3 PM on Asia Trail Master and Sportlicious Malaysia Facebook page.

• Top 3 Teams to complete 500 KM in the shortest time/days will be awarded accordingly.

It has been quiet on the event front for a couple of months now for obvious reasons, but today we are happy to announce a new forthcoming Candidate Race in India. Malnad Ultra has earned itself a reputation since 2016 as one of the large country’s most popular trail running events, and is now keen to join the Asia Trail Master community. The 2020 event is on the schedule for 7/8 November, but currently ‘on hold’ given the pandemic.

The origin of the name Malnad is attributed to Male meaning Hill and Nadu meaning Land. So, Malnad is the land of the hill. All the race categories are beyond 42 kms on hilly terrain and the longest distance last year was 110km. The event organisation is exploring the the possibility of adding a 100 miles category to the programme in the near future. The race course takes runners through coffee estates and provides magnificent views of the Bhadra Reservoir and Bhadra Wildlife Reserve in the Western Ghats of South India. These estates have a history of over 150 years and are home to over 100 plant species and 50 animal species. .

Stay tuned for more updates on Malnad Ultra to come out soon, and in the mean time watch the YouTube video clip below for your background info.

The Tale of the Trail, Episode 3 is scheduled for Friday, 29 May and has been titled “Ending the Waiting Game”.

With only two-three points races still scheduled to take place before September, the Asia Trail Master Championship regulations and those of the Grandmaster Quest now require logical amendments as the corona pandemic keeps the world on edge. The updated requirements will be revealed on the show next Friday, and we will let the reigning champions John Ellis and Veronika Vadovicova share their views on them and on their 2020 season in general. Jey Jang will return with the ultimate update on Korea 50K, after some doubt was cast yet again two weeks ago given following a new increase in Covid 19 infections in capital city Seoul. Nop, business development director at Teelakow will join us from Bangkok to talk about Ultra Trail Chiang Rai in October, and Amy Khor will be talking to fellow-SIngaporean Alex Ang. We will have a special feature on Jassica Lintanga, aka Jess Boubie, who is a cultural ambassador of Sabah, as well as of Borneo TMBT Ultra. Last-but-not-least, we will of course have our Mystery Guest!

The Tale of the Trail will air on Friday evening, 29 May 2020.

Dalat Ultra Trail is a symbol of hope for the Asian trail running community as the event is scheduled to be the first post-corona event on 20 and 21 June. However, it will still be an event without international participation.

Event Director Samie Vu has announced the news this morning following a meeting with local Dalat government officials. The Vietnamese country border is set to remain closed for the time being in the aftermath of covid-19. International passport holders currently residing in Vietnam can of course take part in the races of Dalat Ultra Trail as any other Vietnamese runner provided they sign a health declaration form. The event management of DLUT apologises to the many international runners who had planned to travel to Dalat this year, and will contact each registrant in the coming week regarding the options moving forward.

Because the event will take place - touch wood - Asia Trail Master points will still be earned by the 100K (A race) and 70K (B race) runners for the Championship and the Grandmaster Quest. Regarding the latter, this will not affect the current freeze on the two-year time requirement to achieve GM status. More details on the relaunch of the 2020 ATM Championship and Grandmaster Quest will be revealed in next week’s Tale of the Trail show.

Last year’s men’s podium: John Ellis, Hisashi Kitamura and Mohamed Affindi

Last year’s women’s podium: Kim Matthews, Tahira Najmunisaa and Christine Loh