The dense purple grasses had a silvery-green trail running in their midst, the flattened blades marking where other travelers had traversed. Several ant-sized runners, the ones who’d left this silver streak, were making their way over the landscape spread out before us like the telling of an epic story. A cool breeze blowing across the steppe from distant, snowy peaks pulled the sweat from my skin, and I breathed deeply of its fresh, herbal scent. Thick grasses gave way to little green clusters, and I felt free to blaze my own trail over the nearly untouched plains. In these moments I felt not only great, but inspired. There was literally nowhere else on Earth I’d rather be; nothing else I’d rather be doing – and I felt like I’d be happy to run on like this forever.
This is important, because this was really the best race of my life, during perhaps the best trip of my life. This was the 2018 Tengri Ultra 70k in Kazakhstan!
Getting lucky
Some of the races Kent and I have run are part of an organization called Asia Trail Masters (ATM). This organization connects races all across Asia, sends journalists to report on the different events, and has a points system to rank athletes across competitions. I spend a lot of time on this website, reading about the achievements of other runners and researching amazing runs all over the place (if you’d like to get seriously inspired, I highly recommend you check out this site too – the link is above!).
There was one exotic and beautiful race that stood out to me above all the others: the Tengri Ultra. I pointed it out to Kent, and we studied it wistfully. But it was far away in Kazakhstan, so we thought getting there would be expensive. We would have to (both) get time off work (again), so it seemed like just a dream. We had, after all, just taken a vacation to complete our first international race in March! But I simply could not get this one race out of my mind. I thought about it all the time, dreaming about what it would be like to run in such a beautiful place.
One day, I saw that ATM was holding a contest! They hold frequent online contests offering free race entries. To enter, you just have to answer a simple quiz question. So, of course, I did so immediately. I didn’t think much about it, because I always enter these contests. A few days later, they publicly announced the names of the four winners. Some lucky people were about to get the opportunity of lifetime! Alas, I was not among them. So, I put Tengri Ultra on my (very long) list of things I would love to do one day.
But! A few days afterwards, I received a personal message from ATM! Before I even opened it, I just knew what it would be! Sure enough, they told me that one of the original contest winners had canceled and they would now like to send me to my dream race! I was absolutely thrilled and couldn’t quite believe it! I read this news at work: silently shrieking at my computer and flapping around my cubicle; spinning in my chair.
But could we really go to Tengri Ultra? I told Kent, knowing that he’d be concerned about the cost and about our social capital at work if we asked for still more time off. But I think my enthusiasm got to him, and he started to get excited too. He said that we could go, if I could only convince our boss to let us go.
Here is where luck enters the picture again! This particular race was on a Monday – very unique in the racing world – that happened to be a holiday in both the destination country and ours! We were already having a 3-day weekend, thanks to Children’s Day on our end and Defender of the Fatherland Day in Kazakhstan.
Plus, the week prior to the race contained Korean Labor Day. It fell on a Tuesday, so our boss had already decided to move the holiday to the Friday. So, actually, we had a 4-day weekend lined up, without having asked for a thing!
Of course, I’d already looked up the flights, so I knew exactly what we’d need. Once again, we were lucky – direct, overnight flights linked us to our destination! We’d just need one extra day off on the Tuesday to make it to Tengri Ultra and back.
So I approached my boss. I told her that I’d been chosen as the world’s luckiest winner, passionately concluding that that I just had to go. She was actually very supportive and enthusiastic – so once again I was lucky! It was a little tough because of the language barrier – I was actually never quite sure that she understood exactly when we’d be back, or even that both Kent and I were going to go. But anyways, she’d agreed, so I had my second yes!
Maybe it was a race of lucky numbers – a 70k on May 7th! Whatever it was, we were going to Tengri Ultra!
I came straight back to my desk and booked our flights and a motel and registered Kent for the race before anyone could change their minds! We were really going to go! We just had to make it through a few very impatient work days!
Then, late last Friday night, we flew to Kazakhstan! Land of my dreams!
All’s great in Almaty!
After a few hours of sleep in a motel, we set out to explore Almaty, home of the apple and one of the world’s most scenic cities! I’ll describe our adventures as tourists elsewhere, but I’ll just say now that I was completely captivated by this city. Maps are oriented towards the dramatic Tian Shan (Tengri Tagh) mountains in the south. There’s a classic, pristine, Soviet-style metro that costs a few pennies and runs for eight stations. There are lush, leafy trees lining large boulevards. Cars of every conceivable make and model cruise the streets, especially older ones! There are cafes everywhere, and the signage remains in Cyrillic, at least for now.
After one day of exploration and a second night of sleep – this one a little longer – we got picked up by a big tour bus that would drive us to the race site north of Almaty. Tengri Ultra takes place in Tamgaly Tas, a canyon on the Ili River famous for bronze-age petroglyphs. On the bus we met some of the other runners: a fascinating mix of locals, fellow expatriate teachers and international folk working in oil & gas!
I’ll never forget stepping out of the bus at the race site. A huge tent city spread out on the banks of the river, and the music playing made it feel like a festival. But what was most striking was the smell. It was like fresh dill mixed with sweet herbal tea. Every time we stepped on the wild local grasses, this scent wafted up. Amazing!
Next, we were assigned sleeping mats and a tent number. After getting set up in our little home for the night, we checked into the race and watched a shaman perform the fireside opening ceremony after sunset. We spent some time exploring the vendors area: tents selling homemade wares and people making coffees from the backs of cars. And, despite our excitement, we got a great sleep in our tent!
The 2018 Tengri Ultra – Marathon of the Great Steppe
And finally, it was time for the race! This race is officially called the Tengri Ultra – the Marathon of the Great Steppe. The first edition of this race was in 2015, and it has several different divisions. We were running the 70k – our first race of this unique distance!
We scrambled a bit to get ready in the morning, forgoing the organized breakfast offerings in favor of sticking to our usual fare. I put together a last-minute drop-bag containing a few of my favorite snacks and a couple of back-up pairs of socks. With all of the hustle and bustle, I honestly never even had a chance to get nervous or second-guess our start corral spot. In fact, I didn’t even know the time when we lined up! To my surprise, I saw on someone’s GPS watch that it was 5:59! Time to go!
At precisely 6 am, the assembly of runners counted down under a glowing orange sky. Then, we set off across the steppe for what was about to be the best race of my life.
The 35k and 70k racers started together, so in the beginning there were dozens of colorful runners breathing heavily all around us! But it was only tightly packed for a few minutes, and then there was more than enough space to run! Spotting some of our new friends, we exchanged waves and smiles. We ran on the gravel road past the all the tents, and where we’d been sleeping! I remember the sound of hundreds of feet crunching on gravel. What a glorious thing that this race had absolutely zero pavement! Instead, the trails followed rutted dirt tracks or dry creek-beds or even allowed runners to choose their own ways across grassy plains.
I led the charge, with Kent close on my heels. My attention was mainly on my footing, but I couldn’t stop looking up at the gorgeous scenery all around me. I recall noticing other runners, too. There one one woman wearing a blue t-shirt with a big hitch in her gait who refused to be passed by anyone. I really admired her tenacity, and she was an inspiring reminder that running is for everyone. One runner tripped and fell early on, but was instantly surrounded by a crowd of others offering assistance. Another reminder: this time of the powerful community of this supposedly individual sport.
But mostly, I raced! I was running hard, and the first checkpoint materialized before I even thought to look for it! The next section featured a mainly dry creek-bed, with a few jump-able water crossings. We bobbed and weaved under and through some short, prickly bushes. There was one steep climb during which I held the hand of a stranger for balance with one hand and hauled myself up a rock with the other hand. Shortly after that, I stepped directly on a fresh cow poop. It made a squishy sound as it enveloped my whole right foot. After that, I was eager for more stream crossings!
Then we came upon CP2! Again, it felt like we had found it remarkably quickly! I formed a more distinct memory of this checkpoint for some reason. There were two orange traffic pylons set out in front of a plastic table loaded with snacks. At every checkpoint, we had to press our timing chip bracelets against a sensor on top of the pylons until they made a sound – I called this ‘beeping in’. Once again, we grabbed a couple of bananas and some water. I’d also decided I would shed my long-sleeves here and don sunglasses. This accomplished, we sped away again!
Kent and I ran side-by-side for the next section of the Tengri Ultra; first on the narrow tracks of a seldom used dirt road, then through rippling grasses and even through a herd of cows! We ran together, sometimes chatting, across rolling hills and open, flat expanses where yellow and purple flowers bloomed. We even encountered a little, sandy desert on the top of a rise! The weather was perfect: sunny and warm, with a cool breeze blowing across the steppe from the towering Tien Shen range at our backs.
Tengri Ultra’s CP3 was manned by some young scouts wearing camouflage uniforms! They were friendly with and curious about us, practicing their English. After another delightful snack attack, we continued on together. The terrain turned gravelly again as we descended to the banks of the Ili River, where we were in for the longest flat section of the race. We maintained a steady but relaxed pace as several speedsters passed us. I admired circling hawks and caught a glimpse of a horse standing majestically on a cliff above.
At CP4, I watched with great curiosity as another runner dipped a banana into a little tray of salt. Catching my gaze, he laughed and asked, ‘where else in real life can you try something like this?’ I decided to follow suit and immediately decided that it was a smart and tasty play.
Running off down the road again, we cheered for the 35k runners. Some were flagging a little in the rising heat, and others were starting their sprints in to the finish line. Suddenly, we could see a stream of other runners approaching from the hills to our left. These were the leaders of the 15k! We whooped and hollered as they sped by. A photographer on a bicycle was chasing them. He passed us, exclaimed loudly, then hopped off his bike to photograph us. This was the first moment that I thought that we might be making very good time in Tengri Ultra!
Dozens of people lined the sides of the road as we approached our camp, cheering and offering high-fives. Just before the finish, we diverged from the other runners. As they crossed the line to the right, we entered the shade of the CP5 tent to the left. Inside, a volunteer spoon-fed me the apple sauce I’d put in my drop-bag. I’ve never before had such an experience, and loved that it left my hands free to stuff a chia squeeze into my pocket and palm a fistful of nut mix. What kind people, I thought! I felt really special and cared for. Kent watched this whole spectacle, laughing and enjoying a buffet of treats himself.
After the halfway mark of Tengri Ultra, we were suddenly alone as we set off into the second part of the course. During the latter half of the race, we saw very few others. The field of runners for the 70k was just less than 100, so this was to be expected. This section also featured some of the biggest climbs and most remote areas of the race, so we were particularly eager for this second section! We eventually caught up with a couple of new friends and formed sort of a cohort. We didn’t really run together, but on the steppe, you can see a couple of kilometers in every direction, so we looked for each other and chatted a bit at the aid stations.
The aid station volunteers at CP6 had news for me: I was in 2nd place for the women’s race! While inside I was overjoyed, I simply thanked them and tried not to think about it! Races are long, runners are fast and anything can happen! But other volunteers kept saying the same thing as we made our way around the course and back to the beginning. When I thought about it, I only remembered seeing a couple of other women – and they had all been in the 35k race. But I hadn’t really thought about it! I suppose maybe I imagined that others could well be ahead of me. So this news was very exciting!
More exciting still to me was how our day was unfolding at Tengri Ultra. The perfect weather and stunning scenery just could not be beat. I felt very happy in this land that was somehow both familiar and exotic to me. This was exactly where I wanted to be, and I was doing exactly what I wanted to do. With no physical complaints – I felt like I’d been born to do this and could do it all day! So I ran in front, but almost always within conversational reach of with Kent. We pointed out beautiful things that we saw in the landscape to each other: like another horse striking a pose on a hilltop, a bloom of blue flowers and a pool of tiny, wiggling, black tadpoles. But most of all, we ran! We ran under the huge blue sky, tiny and insignificant under the domain of the sky god. We ran on dirt and rocks and countless different grasses. Each moment was pure joy, and I wanted it to last forever.
At 42 kilometers, CP6 marked the completion of a steppe marathon! We descended from the high point where the lonely little aid station tent was located, all the way back down to the riverside. We passed the curious and slightly eerie ‘valley of forgotten things’, as Kent called it. It was sort of a graveyard for old vehicles, including a propeller plane, some train cars, several helicopters and an armored vehicle. After spending so much time gazing at the natural features of the landscape, this was an intriguing sight!
Then, the climb: the biggest one of the day! Kent led us upward and onward on single-track leading up onto a high ridge, plunging valleys to either side. A photographer and CP7 awaited us at the crest! We ducked into the welcoming shade of the little tent for our usual cokes and bananas party, and cheered for a couple of other runners following close behind us. We had an ultra on the books now, at 47k!
The next section was the longest, with 10 kilometers between aid stations. We’d also climbed out of the canyon back up onto the steppe. Ahead of us, one of the runners we’d come to recognize was striding across the landscape, shrinking into its vastness. This man could speed across the steppe in a power walk the likes of which I’ve never seen before – one that outpaced my running! What a great skill! We chased him as he became a miniature figure under the big sky. We all made our way towards a chain of power towers stretching anachronistically across an otherwise timeless landscape. I sang silly songs to Kent and came to fully appreciate the diversity of plants in the steppe. There were thick dark grasses that would give way to paler clumps, and at other points prickly brown bushes rose from salty, hard-packed earth.
By the time we reached CP8, we’d completed the same distance we had at the Korea 50k two weeks earlier: 58 kilometers! Here, friendly volunteers refilled my hydration pack as I took a 30 second sit in a camp chair. Again, the volunteers confirmed my place in the 2018 Tengri Ultra. I smiled, although what I really wanted to do was hug them and jump for joy! We were joined by several other racers, and ran off into the next section as a group.
This was the most technical section of the course! It was a descent down a steep and narrow gully. It required hopping from rock to rock and leaping over puddles, sometimes sliding down thick sections of foliage. The lead swapped several times as different members of our group found the best ways down. We also saw wildlife here! There were tortoises, shy in their shells, and tadpoles and even a little lizard doing push-ups!
At the bottom was CP9, the final aid station! After enjoying our usual favorite snacks and thanking the volunteers, we raced onward. We climbed up again, and there was this one absolutely amazing section that made me feel like I was flying: a dramatic descent and quick ascent, from a dry and yellow zone, to a lush, green zone dotted with plants. I could feel some sort of magnetic energy pulling me towards the finish and hurrying my steps. But, at the same time, I knew this experience would come to an end all too quickly, and I wanted to savor every moment. I rejoiced in the wild, great and rolling plains, my heart offering up little prayers of gratitude with each step.
But suddenly, after running downhill towards the river, we came around a bend and spotted the race base. There were the tents, the stage and the finish line! I sprinted towards the completion of the Tengri Ultra 70k, my legs pumping faster and faster under me. People cheered from the sidelines and my heart felt full to bursting. I paused to join hands with Kent at the very end, as we always do. We crossed the finish line of our first 70k race in 9 hours and 28 minutes! The kind volunteers handed us drink after drink, draped the gorgeous, heavy medals around our necks and congratulated us. We were alone in the finishers corral for a while, doing interviews and chatting with the organizers. All the while, I was over the moon!
After exiting the finish area, we didn’t wander far. There were our friends who had finished the 35k and together we watched others run in the last few meters of the 70k! We cheered for the new friends we’d met in the universal language of high-fives and thumbs-up. And there were post-race massages, a first for us, which were being offered free of charge at the end.
Then the organizer climbed onto the stage and began to call runners to the stage. I had, in fact, placed second in the women’s race! Awesome! I climbed onto the stage alongside two beautiful speedsters, one from Russia and the other a local – and made two more new friends! We all got trophies and prizes and hugs. Oh, it was great. This part of the day is such a blur for me, but I’m pretty sure I did a lot of jumping up and down and grinned so hard my face hurt. The winners of the men’s race joined us on stage and it was a wonderful little party, the cherry on top of the best cake of my life.
Then we had to scramble and go! The buses were impatient to leave, so we tossed on sweaters, hurriedly repacked our things and jumped aboard for the drive back to the city! We returned to the same hotel, where (after a few hours of excitedly reliving our race) we were able to get clean and have a few hours of luxuriously soft and horizontal sleep.
Another day in paradise
We didn’t have much time to process our Tengri Ultra experience, though, because the next morning at 5am, we had to check out and depart on our tour! I’ll describe these adventures in more detail later and elsewhere. But, since we had one more full day before our return trip, we’d hired a local guide. Together, we’d go to Charyn Canyon and Kaindy Lake, two destinations east of Almaty that I really wanted to see! The majority of our post-race day was spent in the car, as there was a lot of driving involved to get to these remote places. But that was fine for us! Kent nodded off while I gazed out the window at my new favorite landscapes on Earth. Both destinations absolutely delighted us, and we, once again, felt so incredibly lucky and delighted to be there.
After a full day of driving and exploring, our new local friends dropped us off at the airport for our night flight back home. Back in Korea, we raced across the peninsula back to our little town, and immediately back to work. My favorite adventure ever had come to an end.
Lessons Learned
Lesson number one: This race is amazing! From the dozens of kind, helpful volunteers to the well-stocked aid stations to the easy-to-follow course markings to the general ambiance of the race, the 2018 Tengri Ultra was just about perfect. Highly recommendable to any runner looking for an adventure and a great run. Lesson number two: Kazakhstan is even more amazing than I’d imagined it would be. I could hardly believe how much I loved the country and its diverse landscapes. I knew from the moment we arrived that I would have to come back. Kent and I had 4 days of nonstop fun, and it only whet our appetites for exploring this region of the world.
In all seriousness, we were really lucky during our 2nd international race. The weather was wonderful and the scenery was beautiful, with forgiving terrain. We chose appropriate gear and ate all the right snacks. We stayed well-hydrated didn’t struggle with any injuries or illnesses before or during the race. I know we can’t always have such good fortune, so I’m incredibly grateful for it! Being so happy and healthy set us up for success, I think.
If there were true lessons to be learned, they were these. Use the aid stations! In Korean races, I rarely eat or drink anything at check points. I rely more on my own snacks, which I’ve used in training. But every checkpoint at this race had coke, salt and bananas: a heavenly trio that really worked for me. The next lesson might be: linger at the finish line, but remember to take care of your own needs! We were so excited to chat with friends and the race organizers and cheer for finishers that we didn’t eat or drink for a couple of hours after the race. Luckily, that didn’t affect either of us badly, but is not a recommendable practice. Finally, if you think you might be one of the winners, hang out and ask questions! Although volunteers had told me throughout the race that I was in 2nd place, in the end, I wasn’t sure what to do with that information. What must I do? Where must I go? We were in a little bit of a limbo for a while, not wanting to stray too far from the stage – but lurking around paid off big time because I got to stand on my very first podium during the awards ceremonies (after missing out at the 2016 Ultra Trail Mount Jiri).
Personally, I also learned about myself. I learned that I can race hard: I maintained a pace far higher and for far longer than what’s normal for me, even during tough training runs, and still somehow felt great. I learned about what drives and inspires me, both physically and mentally. What I love. Who I am.
Overall, Kent and I both had a fantastic experience at the 2018 Tengri Ultra, one that easily ranks as one of the best days of our lives.
Interested in this race? I would really like to recommend it to you! Check out the official English website of the Tengri Ultra here.
Excellent article 🙂 it made me live the run with you! Congratulation for the success!
Thank you so much JP! 😀 Thanks for your kind words and for giving me my very first comment!
Сомневался, бежать или нет! Прочитав ваш классный рассказ, решил бежать:) Так как это будет мой первый треил, зарегался на 35км. Спасибо:)
Hey friend! Tengri is a fantastic race! I hope you have lots of fun on the steppe (: Thanks for stopping by, and have a great race!