We joined the 2025 edition of TransLantau by UTMB, a stalwart race in the Hong Kong trail running calendar that was included in the UTMB series from 2023. Following a few logistically challenges in 2024 edition we were keen to experience the race and see what adjustments they had made and take on the 120k distance, one of the toughest ultra courses in Hong Kong.

We are joined by:

• Salomon Wettstein pre race to discuss his preparation and plans 2:15

• Steven Carr, social media manager for TransLantau by UTMB and Race Director of 9Dragons, host of the 10t edition of Asia Trail Master in February 2026 10:50

• Salomon Wettstein rejoins to discuss how his race went 18:30

• Host Scott Pugh comes back to talk about how his race went and his overall experience of TransLantau by UTMB 36:45

To listen to Salomon’s first time on Endurance Asia after Four Trails 2021 you can listen here..

This week we cover one of the longest standing races in Asia, TMBT and interview the eventual winner Hisashi Kitamura prior to the race as well as Race Director Claus Pedersen at the 50k finish line. Chris Timms and Scott Pugh catch up to discuss the results of the race and Scott’s experience as well as what Happened at UTMB:

Hisashi Kitamura - 01:55

• Where Hisashi is from and lack of athletics growing up

• His time in Malaysia getting into Ultra Running?

• His start with Asia Trail Master Races and 9 Dragons

• Being the first ATM Golden Grandmaster to get to 20 ultra >70k.

• Vice champion year in 2019. In that year the format was just most points from 4 races and happened to end with a final race of the season where you and John Ellis battled it out. He talks about that season and what happened in the final race?

• Training on treadmill. How he does 95% of his training on Treadmill

• How he has competed in TMBT 4 times coming 2nd every time what this race mean to him

• Last year you came 2nd to Jeff in the ATm final talk to me about that race..

• His plan for ATM final in Oct.

• Race strategy for tomorrow? Pacing, nutrition, how to beat Milton Amat and Daved Simpat

• His preparation day before

Claus Peteresen TMBT Race Director - 49:30

• History of Borneo Ultra and their races

• The community and villagers getting involved

• How the race 2025 race is progressing

• Future races and plan

Scott Pugh and Chris Timms - 1:00

• Hisashi’s training on the treadmill

• Recap if TMBT 100k

• Recap of TMBT 50k

• Recap of UTMB

Chris Timms and Scott Pugh catch up to discuss what’s been happening in the South East Asia Trail Season and some of the races they’ve been running around the region

Races we cover:

• Silabur cave trail

• Penang 50k ATM and 30k Skyrace

• Bali Trail running Ultra

• Rinjani 

Checkout https://www.asiatrailmaster.com/ for upcoming races in SEA..

Other discussions

• David Roche 140g per hou

• Quicksilver Endurance Run

• Goal setting for races

• Natalie Dau Project1000, Russ Cook, William Goodge 

This week Chris Timms joins off the back of Seoul marathon to discuss how to set a personal best in a road marathon.

We discuss:

• Marathon block and training fundamentals

• How to get the most out of a taper

• What to do the week and night before a race

• How to get ready in the morning

• Pacing strategy

• Shoes choices

For training plans and to join track sessions with Singapore Falcons, check out https://www.singaporefalcons.com/ or on socials Instagram Facebook

Endurance Asia Awards Male athlete of the year for 2024, Jeff Campbell joins the latest episode.

Jeff talks about:

• His background and how he managed to fall in to ultra running in Asia after a chance dinner with John Ellis.

• How he came to realise his talent? Being part of the Join Dynamics team and realising he had a V02 max of high 70s.

• The impact of being part of the Gone Running, Joint Dynamics team and T8 team and how being part of a squad improved his running.

• We talk about Oxfam Trailwalker, his 4 consecutive wins and what the race mean to means to him.

• We discuss the 2023 edition where he ran with Fuzhou the female winner of the 2024 Endurance Asia awards and Eszter Csillag and recent GPT 100 mile winner Ryan Whelan.

• We talk about his preferred distances and training for a marathon Blok.

• What his plans for the rest of 2025..

Chris and Scott catch up at 01:03:00 to discuss marathon training for Seoul and up and coming Asia trail master races..

We are joined by Wen Fei Xie and her support crew Jo Lodder to discuss Wen Fei becoming the first women to survive the 2025 edition of Four Trails in 65 hours 20mins.

You can rerun the live tracker of the event here..

We cover:

• Wen Fei’s ultra running back ground.. Just check out her amazing Itra profile

• How long she planned for

• Her warm doing the Grand Sam at HroupK100 3 weeks before

• How Wen Fei and Jo planned the challenge strategy and reacted to change in rules

• How she executed on the plan around MTR timings

• Her eating and sleeping strategy

• Jo discusses his HK5in5 fundraising event that won the Endurance Asia award in 2023

• What’s next for Wen Fei and Jo inc World Trail Majors for Wen Fei and a charity run from Beijing to Hong Kong for Jo!

We are then joined by challenge director Andre Blumberg at 1:03m..

We discuss:

• How this years event went

• The smaller group of 15 athletes instead of usual 30

• The impact the Four Trails movie has had on the event

• What are the plans for 2026

Follow Wen Fei and Jo on Insta

Follow HK4TUC on Insta

We kick off the New Year with a look back at the most inspiring performances and challenges of the year just gone. In this special awards episode, we discuss the stories that moved us and the people who mattered. Here are the categories and nominees:

Male Athlete of the Year

• John Stingray Onifa, with a win at the Asia Pacific Trail Running Championship

• Tomokazu Ihara with his Barkey Marathons Fun Run and first Japan race win

• Sange Shepa, another year of prolific racing across the world with multiple podiums

Female Athlete of the Year

• Natalie Dau, with her epic Project1000

• Priya Rai, burst on to the scene with overall winner of the Asia Trail Masters final 2024

• Sunmaya Budha, who won multiple races across Asia

• Hau Ha, another amazing 4th place at CCC plus wins across Asia

• Fuzhao Xiang, with wins at the Asia Pacific Trail Running Championship and 2nd place at Western States

• Aurore Dacier, with exceptional wins at TransLantau and Should SKY50

Race / Challenge of the Year

• Hong Kong 100

• Vietnam Mountain Marathon

• Tsaigu Trail

• Izu Trail Journey Japan

Endurance Feat of the Year

• Fynn Mitchell, becoming only the 5th person ever to finish The Revenant

• Natalie Dau for her Project1000 run from Thailand to Singapore 

• Nedd Brockman, with his fundraising for homeless charities as part of his 1000 mile record attempt

Fundraising of the Year

• Natalie Dau, with her fundraising for female charities across Asia as part of Project000

• Nedd Brockman, with his fundraising for homeless charities as part of his 1000 mile record attempt

• Wong Ho Chung. For his community efforts with Hong Kong youth as part of Peak Hunters Foundation

Listen to the episode to find out who the winners are..

We loved watching these people reset the limits of what’s possible in 2024 and would love to hear from you about who we missed. Here’s to even more amazing achievements in 2025!

We catch up with Tomo for the first time since his US Grandslam effort in 2023. He’s been busy, knocking off another 6 milers.

We discuss

• What he’s been up to since Grand Slam inc taking on the Revenant Ultra Adventure Run in New Zealand, another fun run at Barclays and 6 milers on top of that!

• Backyard ultra World Championships and his role as Race Director 

• Goal setting for endurance athletes. 

• How he thinks about goal setting personally? 

• The positives and pitfalls of setting ambitious goals?

• How to manage when you don’t achieve your goals. 

• How to manage when you do??

  
  

We then catch up with Chris Timms to discuss

• Recent races with Malaysia UTMB and Chiang Mai Thailand UTMB

• Singapore Falcons RC Time Trial format

• X-Trailblazers Challenge

  
  

You can follow Tomo at Insta

Aurore Dacier is a native of France and has been based out of Singapore for the past 2 years and has fast become one of the best ultra runners in the region.

We catch up with her following her emphatic win at TransLantau and 4th position overall.

We cover:

• Her background and journey into trail running, how she grew up in the outdoors but with no specific sport.

• Her day job as a lawyer and how do you plan training around work, how she works with her coach and plans her training.

• Her races since being based in Asia and impression of the trail running scene.

• Her fascination with Hong Kong and specifically Lantau having raced there 3 times. 

• How she prepared for TransLantau100 this year, her first 100km. How she prepared for the distance. How did the race go?

• Future plans with Asia Trail Master races and CCC in Chamonix next year.

• We discuss the female competition here in Asia and how she thinks about inspiring other female runners to give it a go.

We also catch up with Chris Timms to discuss the Lam Dong Trail in Vietnam and Malaysia Ultra Trail this weekend.

Aurore is sponsored by Red Dot Running, T8.run and Salomon. You can follow her on Instagram

This week we catch up with Ned Phillips to discuss the Singapore edition of the Backyard Ultra Team World Championships. Thiis event saw another world record go down with the Belgium team putting in 110 yards, over 730km of running and the top 3 of Geerts, Steyaert and Gielen finishing together with none of them DNFing. An endurance feet of the ages!

Whilsts Ned’s effort was not at the same scale, it was done in far more challenging conditions with the Singapore humidity and if given the chance with the right assist, Ned could have been out there double the time and will get the opportunity to truly test himself against the world best in Tennessee at the World Champs next year..

We cover:

•⁠  ⁠Ned’s background with Backyard Ultra, this being his 4th attempt.

•⁠  ⁠What attracts him to Backyard Ultra

•⁠  ⁠The 2024 SG team and his expectations going on

•⁠  ⁠Plan on pacing, nutrition, support crew

•⁠  ⁠BIGS in Tennessee next year? 

We also discuss the other Nedd, Brockmann who just put in as fantastic effort on a Guinness World Record attempt of 1000 miles, completing it in 12 day and missing out on the record but finishing with debilitating ailments.