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A
standard marathon of 42km is
more than enough for most
runners, but there are those
who prefer more of a challenge
- significantly more in the case of those
who take on the 70km option at the
Vietnam Mountain Marathon. The 70km
run is the most extreme of four routes
on offer over the weekend of September
20 – 21 in the stunning hills surround-
ing Sapa. More manageable 21km and
42km trails can also be tackled, while a
10km run is available for those looking
to get their first taste of trail running.
The Vietnam Mountain Marathon is
the brainchild of Asger Koppen, man-
aging director of Topas Travel. Koppen
spent his first year in Vietnam managing
Topas Ecolodge on a hilltop 20km from
Sapa town.
“While working there I fell in love
with the mountains, the local minority
culture and the rice terrace scenery,” he
says. “I loved running there and wanted
to show other trail runners this unique
part of Vietnam.”
Before living in Vietnam, Koppen
worked as a mountain guide and it was
that experience which equipped him
with the skills to personally set the race
routes in Hoang Lien National Park.
The area the race covers is superla-
tively beautiful and pristine national park
territory, which is normally off-limits to
non-locals. Gaining permission and es-
tablishing the route was a challenge in it-
self, but preparing for last year’s inaugu-
ral event, Koppen learned that the bigger
task is marking it for the runners. Having
marked all the routes, he conducted the
final checks as night fell. “It is a very good
job I did so,” Koppen says. “I discovered
that much of the colourful plastic tape I
used had proven popular with the local
kids who were having great fun taking it
down and playing with it!”
As a result, local people had to be
gathered quickly to re-mark the route
and still more had to be hired as guards
to keep the kids at bay. The scale of the
task was huge - in total 1.5km of plastic
marking tape was used.
Unsurprisingly, due to the amount
of work involved, such events often
do not often turn a profit in the first
few years. It isn’t just the route set-
ting which demands many man-hours,
the administration required is also im-
mense. “Creating an event with hun-
dreds of runners from all over the world
results in a crazy volume of emails,”
explains Koppen. “When it comes to
complex events like this, it is always dif-
ficult to predict the upcoming costs. In
the first year we learned a lot,” he adds.
However, Topas Travel and co-or-
ganiser, the Danish Embassy, saw the
2013 event as an investment. “In the
first year the focus was very much on
creating a great race to build upon for
the future; it was not about turning an
instant profit,” Koppen says.
Many athletes who travel for events
do so with their family, extending the
trip into a holiday, meaning sports trav-
el is good news for the wider tourism
economy. “This year we are welcoming
runners from 35 nations. Many of them
will travel with others to other parts of
Vietnam,” says Koppen.
While Vietnam may have come to
the sports events scene late, there is
considerable potential in the country
to develop it. “This country has great
culture and nature making a race here
even more of a great prospect for ath-
letes,” says Koppen, who hopes that
in five years the Vietnam Mountain
Marathon will be firmly established
as one of the most important races in
the region.
RUN
in the clouds
This year’s Vietnam
Mountain Marathon is set
to be the country’s big-
gest ever ultra race, with
runners from 35 nations
hitting the trails.
Ngoc Ha
speaks to race
director and founder,
Asger Koppen