Last year was pretty hard to compete with. 2018 was the year of the mountain: we climbed 76 new summits in Korea alone! It was also the year we began racing abroad. In 2018, we sampled the running scene outside Korea. However, in 2019, we absolutely feasted on international races!
Yes, I’d say 2019 was the year of the race. We ran 12 races, and traveled far and wide to do so. Every race we did this year was an ultra, including three 100 kilometer races!
In 2019, we experienced both continuity and change. We built on a lifestyle we love, exploring the world on foot. This year we were very fortunate in getting to do a lot of that! We tackled new challenges in many areas of life and made a major international move.
We ran, we traveled, we grew…making this year really something special, maybe even our best year yet. So here it is, 2019 in review, complete with my annual list of highlights and best of the year awards!
Top 3 overall highlights of 2019
Running wild
I can’t believe we took on 12 ultras in 2019! Spanning 11 months and 10 countries, this was by far our biggest adventure of the year! The diversity of the amazing we participated in was part of what made this year awesome.
In addition to a wide variety of destinations, we also completed a range of distances and explored all kinds of ecosystems in our 12 races last year. We got to play in so many dream-worthy destinations: from untouched jungle in Laos to high desert in western China to the top of an island in the Philippines to the green grasslands of the steppe (…again!). This is what I love about trails. There’s just so much cool stuff out there to discover on foot, and I feel incredibly lucky that I get to do that.
I’m also pretty proud that we successfully ran three 100ks this year, after struggling with that distance in 2018. At one of those races, we set an unbeatable 100k personal best! We also smashed our previous 50k best at this race. I won this one crazy race, and placed in 4 others. It was a year of exploration and success.
Which is not to say perfect. We had a misfire at this race – and a mishap at this one. Striving for a top finish in the Asia Trail Master competition was…a complicated experience, but the series was undeniably a big part of what took us so far and wide this year.
Epic exploration
Races helped us venture vastly – abroad and at home! Amazing trails took us far and wide, especially in Asia. I was delighted to return to and explore new parts of Vietnam, Mongolia, Laos, Malaysia and Vietnam. Our most visited destinations were China and Philippines, with two ultras in each country.
And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the very best adventures of the year were non-sanctioned events. Back in Korea, we finally ran the Seoul Trail while, in China, we began exploring the mountains of our province. Beyond running, we dropped off the grid for two blissful weeks of hiking in New Zealand, and had cool kayak adventures around Hawai’i and Japan.
In sum, this was truly a year of adventures abroad. We were incredibly fortunate to visit four brand new places. After years of dreaming, we finally visited both New Zealand and Australia! Family celebrations also took us to Hawai’i for the first time, and we ventured all the way to Italy, too.
A change is as good as a rest
After nearly eight years based in South Korea, it was time to pull up our roots and tumble on. In mid-2019, we found ourselves in China (again, in my case) adapting to a completely new job and running new peaks. There were new challenges to overcome, new friends to meet, and new surprising vegan treats to discover!
Best month
In 2019, it was April.
Our 312 kilometers on the month included less running than you might imagine: just 126k! The majority was made up of hiking at 171k – with a surprising amount of kayaking thrown in with 15k!
April had all the right ingredients to win the year. For starters, it was our month off between Korea and China. So we traveled – a lot – in April!
The month began in Laos, where we lazed after UTLP: coconuts in hand, eyes on the Mekong. We quit work early for this race, and both the event and the relaxing afterwards were so worth it.
Next up, a crazy itinerary involving four flights on three airlines that landed us in Hawai’i to meet the Stander-France family. There was lots to celebrate, and all kinds of fun ways to do so!
From there, we headed to the Philippines – again! After our early 2019 adventures on Luzon during the Akyathlon, it was time for a new island: Mindanao. We were there for a very special race: Mt. Apo was a brand new adventure – and a big achievement. It was a huge victory to finish our second race of this distance in early 2019!
So we celebrated with a continuation of our huge trip. Without telling a soul, we took off to New Zealand. We packed a bunch of snacks into a rental car and zipped all the way down from Auckland to Queensland, knocking off three (very) great walks along the way. It was one of our most fun, most successful and best adventures ever.
The month ended in Korea: our once and forever home. It was meant to be a stopover on our way to China, but wound up lasting over a week. But those adventures spill over into May…
Fierce competition from March, September, October and December should be lauded before moving on from this category. March had us running two races in two familiar, favorite places. Same story for September – just in brand new favorite places! Early October was all about Australia: a race, the Great Barrier Reef, Daintree Rainforest and our second spectacular road trip of the year. In late October, we ran our third 100k of 2019 and welcomed our gorgeous niece Kellie into the world. Then in December, we finally returned to Japan to complete an epic, year-end race and celebrate seven spectacular years of marriage.
Best race(s)
Even better than the amazing quantity of races we ran in 2019, was the quality of the races. It’s almost impossible to choose a favorite: I loved them all.
I loved running fast through the pine forests of central Vietnam at Dalat just as much as I loved stumbling over the karst pinnacles and getting swallowed up in the jungles of Laos during Ultra Trail Luang Prabang. Even the less-successful races were wonderful: I love the format of 9 Dragons in Hong Kong, and the Dolomites of Italy are surely the most beautiful place in all the world to spend a day suffering.
So instead of choosing just one favorite, I’m going to cheat my own system and give all of this year’s races awards 🙂
Best nature: Bogdkhan Mountain Trail
Best new race: Seoul100k (also wins for best loot & best homecoming)
Best views: It’s a tie featuring Mt. Apo (bonus points for bravery improvements) and Izu Trail Journey (also best cold race)
Best off-the-beaten-track adventure: Ultra Trail Luang Prabang and it’s wild, wild jungle
Best performance (& pine trees): Dalat Ultra Trail
Best excuse-for-a-trip race: obviously Ultra Trail Gold Coast!
Best new race in a familiar place: Akyathlon (plus most friendly people and selfies taken on the course!)
Best challenges: 9 Dragons and Lavaredo – we’ll be back…healthy!
Best adventure (and highest peak…and fastest finish): Devil’s Ridge
Best accomplishment: best 100k time (by nearly 9 hours) + birthday race + sprinting through an elemental downpour + protecting wildlife = massive success at The Magnificent Merapoh Trail 100k
Okay, okay – if I must pick, I pick TMMT. It was truly magnificent.
Best mountain
Once again, this is a category for which there is steep competition. I just fell in love with Mt. Fuji all over again at Izu. At Mt. Apo, I conquered my fears and was rewarded by the best cloud inversion I’ve ever seen. I love every single mountain in Seoul and Hong Kong, and I was amazed by the desert summits of northwestern China.
But I’m giving top honors to a very deserving candidate in the form of a small but mighty mountain. It’s Fushan: our playground/training ground in Qingdao and the most magnificent non-national park mountain you ever did see.
It was a picture of Fushan that convinced us to move to China, after all! Kent and I did our first run on the mountain on our second day in China. Then we picked an apartment right at its base, and with windows looking out at it. We enjoyed Fushan nearly every single day we lived in Qingdao!
Fushan is a mini mountain (just over 300 meters) with the heart of a huge one: it’s all rocky cliffs and technical, ridgeline trails. It looks like it ought to be a national park, and I love we got to run all over it in 2019!
Best adventure abroad
Again, I’d like to choose every single one. We had such an amazing, lucky year of travels in 2019, and each destination was delightful in its own unique way. I was thrilled to return to and explore new parts of countries that I already love in Asia. Our first family vacation with Kent’s family was so fun – and Hawai’i is gorgeous. But in the end, it comes down to Australia and New Zealand: two destinations I have dreamed of for many years of my life.
New Zealand was the perfect escape from reality and foray into fantasy-land. We saw sunrise on a smoking volcano, we camped on the beach and we ran through the first snowfall of the antipodal year in stunning Fiordland National Park. Our epic road trip over both islands was a highlight reel of happiness.
Similarly, our road trip in Australia was about as close to perfection as you can get. We kicked things off right with a race, then drove slowly up the Queensland Coast. There were humpback whale sightings, swims with rays and turtles, and a very memorable cassowary encounter! In fact, this trip makes up all of the entries for best animal encounter below! It also deserves to win for the best jungle immersion experience. I could not get enough of the gorgeous Daintree Rainforest.
Best domestic adventure
Without a doubt, our best domestic adventure in 2019 was Devil’s Ridge. This race was definitely one of the best of the year. The race course was incredible, the staff were outstanding and the challenge intense. I’d go back in a heartbeat.
It was also the first time that we ventured out of Qingdao since arriving in May. We explored several regions of China when we visited in 2017. But between bouts of working long hours and several international trips, this was our only big domestic adventure of the year.
So we really made it count! On the way to the race, we stopped in neighboring Ningxia province to check out some beehive-like ruins and experience life in a new city. We lingered in Yumen, Gansu province to soak up the desert scene too.
Best animal encounter(s)
Birds win the day! The majority of our best animal encounters of 2019 were with birds, starting with the unique species of New Zealand. Naughty wild keas screamed in laughter as they stole hiking boots from residents at our lodge. Although we didn’t see them in the wild, we went to two kiwi sanctuaries and spent hours observing the behaviors of these cute, curious birds.
Our best individual animal encounter of the year award, however, must go to the cassowary of Tropical North Australia.
One of these big, beautiful birds was rearing two chicks in the area around a campground where we stayed. Twice we had incredible early morning encounters with Thornton and his adorably stripe-y babies! We met another cassowary while out on a hike. ‘Met’ may be an inappropriate word: we were run down and stared down by this avian dinosaur. We had to hide behind a tree and hold our breath, but we were treated to a vocalization and some close-up views of cassowary behavior. It was one of our craziest animal encounters yet!
And that’s just on land! Of course, the reason we wanted to go to Australia was the Great Barrier Reef. It was everything I’d spent my life hoping it would be, and so much more. There’s nothing on Earth like snorkeling with such a colorful community of creatures great and small. All the fish, sharks, shells, turtles and rays deserve to share this award.
So do the incredible humpback whales that treated us to stunning displays of fin and tail slaps, breaches and blows – and showed us their young calves! The aquatic animal encounters are the reason to visit the East Coast of Australia.
Best person
This guy never stops making me laugh. His hugs are the best, his strides swallow hills, and he still makes my heart skip a beat, seven years on.
Best start
There’s perhaps no better place to ring in the new year than Sri Lanka. We began 2019 in a tree-house in the middle of a rice field. We were peaceful after having had successful whale watching and leopard spotting (!) experiences in the days before. This little getaway was bookend-ed by race recce running in Hong Kong. I give this custom trip credit for starting off our 2019 in such a great way.
2019 by the numbers
Kilometers: 2914
2645 running, 251 hiking + 19 kayaking
Ultras: 12!
All official – because this was the year we raced:
9 Dragons, Akyathlon, Apo, Bogdkhan, Dalat, Devil’s Ridge, Gold Coast, Izu, Lavaredo, Luang Prabang, Seoul100 & TMMT
New peaks: 18
And they were all over the place –
1 in Australia: Mount Larcom
3 in China: Fushan, Laoshan & Zhongshan – as well as 3 in Hong Kong: Beacon Hill, Grassy Hill & Needle Hill
3 in Japan: Mount Daruma, Mount Kintoki, Mount Myojotake & Mount Omoto
1 in Mongolia: Tsetsee Gun
2 in New Zealand: Mount Luxmore & Mount Tongariro (almost – the summit is sacred)
And 2 in the Philippines: Mount Apo & Mount Ugo
New places: 3+
Australia, Italy & New Zealand!
And bonus new state: Hawai’i
Happy New Year to you! I hope you’re reflecting on the gifts that 2019 brought and the challenges you surmounted. This is a time of resolutions, yes, but before we can look to the future, we should look to the past. I hope 2019 brought you joy and growth, and I hope your 2020 is looking even brighter. May you be happy and healthy in the new year. Hugs! Thanks for being here.
You guys, I miss 2019.