The new Philippine Mountain Trail Festival kicks off the long Labour Day weekend on Thursday with the start of the prestigious Hardcore 100 Miles, perhaps better known as H1. A classic in the Philippines, renowned for its difficulty level and high DNF rate. Now organised by Intrepid Spirit, it is the first time H1 - and also Saturday’a medium distance classic Mt Ugo Marathon - are part of the Asia Trail Master Championship series.

Filipino ultra trail runners feel obliged to at least try H1 once. The majority knows in advance it will be hard to finish, but if you succeed you forever have a big feather in your cap. And so we again see over 100 participants for the 100 miles or 161 km long ultra race, including a fair share of female runners. The event takes place in Nueva Vizcaya and Benguet, east of Baguio City. A remote area in the Cordilleras.

Lots of ATM Championship protagonists and Grandmasters on the start list. Among the expected victory contenders we have great competitors such as Kik Suello, Jevie Cagatin, Poy Brillantes, Yoyong Sacayle, Rhys Pawid and so on. Also a few experienced Malaysians could finish close. In the women’s race, we find ATM Finalists such as Shally Yuson and Mary Joy Sumanda on the list. Sumanda already traveled to the area from Bukidnon last February to do the Mount Pulag Ultra 130km, with success. Long ultra specialist Ann Jilian Pulanco will be a serious contender for the win, and perhaps Michella Aradanas and Shekinah Velasquez can pull off something big this weekend.

Saturday’s Mt Ugo Marathon centres around the meanwhile famous Mount Ugo and is 47km in length. Interestingly but tellingly, the list of participants is shorter than H1. However, it features some big names as well. Kristian Joergensen will be looking for his first ATM race victory of the season against the likes of Maynard Encormal and Sean Aying. In the women’s we are looking forward to an interesting race between Angelie Cabalo and Hee Joo Jang. Cabalo is very much into the ATM season this year, having banked already 900 points in two races, including a race win at Mount Kalatungan Ultra two months ago. She goes into Mt Ugo as the obvious favourite, but let’s not forget that Hee Joo Jang was fifth in last season’s ATM Championship Final at Borneo TMBT.

PMTF featuring H1 and Mt Ugo Marathon