Warrior in Sumbawa Ultra Run
The man from Binjai, William Binjai, stole the spotlight in the Sumbawa ultra marathon 320K from April 4 to 7. He not only won in the ultra category and beat the winner of the previous events in 2016 and 2017.
The man from Binjai, North Sumatra, William Binjai, stole the spotlight in the Sumbawa ultra marathon 320K from April 4 to 7. He not only won in the ultra category and beat the winner of the previous events in 2016 and 2017, Matheos Berhitu.
William also reached finish line a whole two minutes faster, breaking the four-year record by Alan Maulan, who won the race in 2015 at 62 hours 26 minutes and 7 seconds.
William’s key to success was his patience from the start to finish. From the start, he ran at a consistent pace of 11 kilometers on average, without allowing other runners affect him.
He did not care that his rivals sprinted at the start of the race. William chose to focus on himself and enjoyed the surrounding nature. “I am a slow runner. I cannot run fast. I cannot run like the others, who sprinted,” said the youngest of three siblings after winning the race on Saturday (7/4/2018) in Doro Ncanga, Dompu, West Nusa Tenggara.
They key was to focus on one\'s self. The runners who sprinted at the start of the race eventually collapsed after passing Kilometer 160, or the halfway point of the race. From the start, two veteran runners, Oktavianus Quaasalmy and Matheos Berhitu, for example, were in tighter competition than William. However, after kilometer 160, Oktavianus suffered a severe injury. At kilometer 170, the Palembang-born runner injured his left foot. After kilometer 170, he could only walk. Only his high spirits drove him to reach the finish line sooner than the cut-off time (COT) of 72 hours.
Matheos gave up at kilometer 308 and quit, even though he still had five hours to reach the finish line. He ignored the shouts of support from some marshals to continue to the finish line considering many other runners had kept running despite exhaustion.
Overall, William improved his performance. When he joined the Sumbawa 320K for the first time in 2017, he reached the finish line. But he clocked in three hours 30 minutes past the COT. “This time, my target was reaching the finish line. Becoming a winner and breaking the record is a bonus,” William said.
William finished the race having sacrificed much. He reached the finish line with some injuries, blisters on all toes and muscle injuries to his hip, thigh, calf and ankle. “These are normal injuries considering the difficulty of the race. In fact, I only slept for 50 minutes during the race — 20 minutes at kilometer 180, 15 minutes at kilometer 250 and 15 minutes at kilometer 280,” he said.
Never give up
William has had patience since he was a child, which is reflected one of his names, Binjai. The son of Lo Fo and Riana was originally known by just his given name, William. But when he was in high school SMA Methodis 2 Medan (2001 to 2004), there were many students named William. To differentiate him from the pack, his friends nicknamed him Binjai, the North Sumatra regency from which he is originally from. Since then, he has been commonly known as William Binjai.
William was born in a family of traders. His father and mother ran a snack business, producing and selling crackers in Binjai. None of his family members liked sports or aspired to be professional athletes. However, since he was in junior high school SMP Methodis Binjai, the 170-centimeter tall man gravitated to sports. He was into basketball, badminton, swimming and running.
Initially, he only ran around the housing complex with no set routine. However, after graduating university and relocating to Jakarta in 2014, his career in running changed. At that time in Jakarta, he lived at his sister’s house. His brother-in-law, Hendra Siswanto, also participated in the Sumbawa 320K this year.
One day in June 2014, Hendra asked William to go for a run on a trail at Mount Gede Pangrango, West Java. His first encounter with the trail on Mount Gede Pangrango made William in love with the sport. Since then, he has practiced trail and ultra runs regularly.
His mother disapproved of his frequent participation in races as it made him neglect his responsibilities in taking care of the family’s cracker business. For his mother, participating in races was a waste of money, and furthermore, he never accomplished anything she deemed significant.
“Participating in races needs a lot of money. To take part in a domestic race, for example, one needs to spend at least Rp 5 million, just like when I enrolled for BTS in East Java. Meanwhile, for marathons abroad, you need at least Rp 40 million, just like at the UTMB in Europe,” he said.
Nevertheless, William never gave up. He kept trying to show his parents that running was positive for his health and career. His hard work and never-give-up character bore fruit when he took part in Titi Ultra on March 16. After three trials, he finally got second place in Titi Ultra 150K.
After winning a podium place in Titi Ultra, both of William’s parents began to give their full support. His mother, for example, always cooks chicken soup when he returns home from a championship race.
William said based on Chinese tradition, aside from the symbolism of wings, chicken soup is good to help the body recover after hard work. “Actually, chicken soup is cooked as soon as I return home from a race. But after I achieve something [in a race], my mother’s face gets brighter when welcoming me with her soup,” William added.
(Adrian Fajriansyah, Khaerul Anwar, Abdullah Fikri Ashri, Dimas W Nugraha)
William Binjai
Birth: Binjai, North Sumatra, 25 April 1986
Education: Industrial engineering, Institute of Science and Technology TD Pardede, Medan (2004-2009); SMA Methodis 2 Medan (2001-2004); SMP Methodis Binjai (1998-2001)
; SD Methodis Binjai (1992-1998)
Race experience:
Bromo Tengger Semeru (BTS) 100 Trail Ultramarathon (two times);
Mount Gede Pangrango 100 Trail Ultramarathon (two times); Rinjani 100 Trail Ultramarathon, West Nusa Tenggara; Titi Ultra in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (three times)
; Penang Eco 100K (Malaysia); Penang Eco 160K (Malaysia); Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB), Europe