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Mark Green’s first Action Asia Event

Would the real Mark Green please stand up?
My name is Green, Mark Green.

Two weeks back my name was Martijn Doekes and last week it was Romain Riche. No, I don’t suffer from any multiple personality disorder. I was simply racing on behalf of injured or unwell friends. And, today, “Mark Green” made his debut in an Action Asia Race — the MSIG Lantau 50.

Although, Mark Green is an “early to bed, early to rise” kinda guy, getting up at friggin’ 4.30 in the morning certainly ain’t one of his passions. But, unfortunately, the race organizer had a strict 7am start time for the race — that too from Discovery Bay! That meant that Mark Green had to get on his motorbike at 5.15am and reach Tung Chung by 5.50am to catch the 6am Disco Bay bus.

The cold, dark and raining starting point
At 6.15am on Saturday morning, North Plaza in Discovery Bay looked more like a refugee camp. There were three kinds of camps. The “toilet” camp featuring a bunch of racers getting ready to relieve themselves at a moment’s notice, the “let’s-go-kick-ass” camp featuring racers with excessive testosterone, and finally, the “yeah-whatever” camp featuring racers who wore a puzzled “what am I doing here?” kinda look on their faces. I belonged to that camp. Hey, don’t blame us. It was still dark, cold and drizzling outside!

Some Action Asia kid with a microphone “interviewed” Shane and I at the start. He asked me to say something for the camera. With great enthusiasm I said, “My name is Mark Green. There’s only one reason I am here and that is to KICK ASS!” I was expecting an equally gung-ho response from the kid but all I got was a nonchalant “Ok, thank you” in return. Hey kid, if you are reading this, my clip better be there on that video!

Read about the MSIG Lantau 50 experience up ahead…