Hike in Hong Kong!

King of the Hills (Hong Kong) — 2013 Edition

To “pee” or not to “pee”
In the last King of the Hills, i.e. KOTH Lantau, Michael heroically demonstrated how the sport of trail running has the unique ability to eliminate the need for a dump. Yes, he showed us that having a heavy + full bowel at the start of the race can still be fun, if you run! However, today, he didn’t practice the same philosophy. As Giuseppe pointed out with a wide smile on his face, Michael arrived at the starting point in Repulse Bay 30 minutes earlier, specifically, to do his business! So, don’t get rid of the toilets just yet! However, I know what all of you are thinking. Does the same philosophy apply to peeing as well? Can one do a 30km race with a stomach full of liquid content from the start? The person (read: lab rat) who tested this theory at the start today was none other than the famous Jogger J. As Keith, the race organizer, did a T-10 minute race countdown akin to a NASA rocket blast countdown, there was only one question that kept echoing in Jogger J’s mind — to pee or not to pee. Shakespeare was obsessed with “to be or to be”, well, change “be” to “pee” and there you have it — a man’s greatest dilemma at the start of a race. I know I can relate to it because I have been there myself! I blame it all on those websites that advocate hydrating very well before the start of race. What they don’t tell you is that if you go overboard with the hydration, you end up facing the wrath of excess water in your stomach, much like the hardship that Jogger J faced today. In fact, he was still in two minds at T-1 minute but at “blast off”, he simply started running.

Will we discover something about our own bodies from Jogger J’s experience? Read on to find out.

To pee or not to pee? Read on to unlock one of life’s mysteries

King of the Hills – Lantau (2013)

To go or not to go
The usual KOTH runners assembled at about 9.15am in Nam Shaan. Michael showed up a little late and told us that he had forgotten to take a dump in the morning. That began an interesting conversation. I offered my “expert” advice and told him that trail running would automatically get rid of the “dump” in his body as he could easily fart it away. Jogger Joel, who stood there looking all engrossed in the conversation, just said one thing: “Can I be please in front?”

The full marathon was supposed to start at 10.10am and at 10.07 Michael wondered again if he had time for the loo. To go or not to go was the million dollar question. I told him that he was out of time and with that we decided to change the topic of conversation.

Nam Shaan to Tung Chung
At 10.10am, we got climbing to the top of Sunset Peak. I decided to take it a little easy at the start and wasn’t bothered by the runners who were overtaking me. Soon, I saw Martijn and Hannes taking photos in the corner. They were sweeping the trail. “Hurry up, Michael and Jonathan are in front of you!” Martijn yelled out as I was slowly climbing up Sunset Peak. In about 45 minutes, I reached the turning to Lin Fa Shan and turned on my gentle running mode. I began overtaking a few people on the technical bits, starting with Jogger Joel. Eventually, I overtook AJ and Alger. Then we climbed up Pok Toi Shaan and some other Shaan (I can never remember this Shaan’s name) and then came one heck of a bushwhack back down to Tung Chung.

That was one hardcore, steep and long downhill bushwhacking section. I was going at my optimal “no injury” speed while turning back every now and then to see who was behind me. Not because I didn’t want to be overtaken, but more because I didn’t want to be run over by someone on such a narrow trail! I badly missed by Anti Knee Protection (TM) invention. Should have worn them. My knees could have done without the scratches from those overgrown shrubs. Well, shoulda woulda coulda. Anyway, I was thinking up another clever invention while running down that narrow trail. Picture this: a headband with two rear-view mirrors attached to either side of it so you can actually see who is behind you without turning back. Perfect for observing “traffic” on such narrow trails. Don’t be surprised to see me wearing this marvelous invention on the next KOTH.

On the last downhill stretch, Aya ran past me like a rocket looking all fresh and energetic. “Well done Aya”, I shouted out as she passed me and, within a blink of an eye, she was gone.

Eventually, I reached the flat concrete bit, relieved to be out of that steep downhill stretch, and started running at a consistent pace. I saw Michael there who said he was having trouble on the downhill bits and contemplated quitting. I advised him against it and told him the worst was already over. Then we overtook the fast Pig Chan who was wearing a tee shirt that read “I am very, very slow”. Hmm.. Imagine a Ferrari with a number plate that reads “slow”. Just not possible. I overtook Pig but knew that he’d overtake me again at some point. Then I saw the superfast Denvy who seemed to be pacing herself quite well. She said “Go Vince” as I overtook her.

Tung Chung to Pak Kung Au
The climb to Ngong Ping from Tung Chung was very steep! The bushwhacking was getting to me. Each time I tried to whack the shrubs back by increasing pace and stomping on them, the shrubs would get back at me by coiling around my leg, attempting to trip me and delivering more scratches. I was right behind Michael who shoelaces were undone. As he stopped to tie them, I overtook him. I also overtook Aya during the climb — she was beginning to look tired. Denvy somehow gathered an immense amount of energy and stormed her way up and overtook me with ease. I didn’t even bother trying to keep up with her.

I finally reached Ngong Ping where Dabera was the checkpoint volunteer giving out water. I asked her to refill my water bottle as I was gulping down some Pokari.

Then came the touristy jog to Wisdom Sticks — it’s amazing how these tourists take pictures of anything and everything. Many of them took photos of me running — not exactly what you would want in your family vacation album! I saw this one Chinese guy running ahead of me and overtook him on this stretch.

I started climbing up to Lantau Peak, one steep stair at a time. As expected, the “slow” Pig Chan overtook me on the climb. I tried to keep focus and didn’t even bother to look up to see how many stairs were remaining! I overtook someone on the climb who asked me if we were at the top. “Not yet”, I told him as we were at the first “false” top. About 10 minutes and several stairs later, we were at the real summit of Lantau Peak.

I ran pretty fast from the peak down to Pak Kung Au but was overtaken by two even faster runners on the downhill bit.

Eventually, I reached Pak Kung Au where Hannes and Martijn were waiting and providing me with some intelligence. “You got chicked”, Hannes said and encouraged me to go catch Denvy. “No can do”, was my response. She was just way too fast for me. After refilling my water, I set off for the last bit back to Nam Shan.

Pak Kung Au to Nam Shan
A long and mostly boring 8km run is what we had to go through to get back to the finish. I found my rhythm and was running this trail at about 8-10kmh. There were many small creeks to cross and one such creek almost had me falling into a mini gully. The trail turned left all of a sudden while I was still running straight. I saw the death trap and applied my emergency brakes just in time as curious half marathoners were watching. Then I picked up my rhythm again and saw one full marathoner in front of me. He was getting his second wind and accelerating really fast. I wanted to try to keep up with him but decided against attempting that. Finally, my Garmin read close to 30km and I could smell the finish but not before hitting the last round of stairs which I tried running up but eventually ended up walking up.

And finally, there it was — the finish! I finished in 4 hours and 14 minutes. 13th overall and 8th in my category. Last year, I finished in 4 hours 29 minutes and came 19th overall.

Michael came in about 5 minutes after me and Denvy finished 6 minutes ahead of me — in 4 hours 8 minutes. Very impressive. The winner (some new Chinese guy) beat trail running legend Jeremy Ritcey by just 11 seconds. The competition in these races is reaching new levels!

Oh, I forgot to ask Michael about his “not going” experience. I suppose one can after all run and fart his way out of a full bowel!

Garmin.

King of the Hills – Sham Tseng (2013)

Rewind time to two years back: I completed the KOTH Sham Tseng marathon in 4 hours 57 minutes and came 16th overall. I also got lost in two different places.

This is what I wrote about that race two years back:

”
So, for the first 2 hours, I was trying to find the right dude to follow and eventually, I target locked some thin Chinese dude who was more or less cruising at the same speed as me. I just followed him blindly and even copied the few mistakes he made (better than using my brains).

Towards the last 10Km, that dude and I got separated. I stopped for water and lost him! That’s when I made my first big mistake for the day. Went uphill at some point instead of downhill. Lost about 7-9 minutes and had to retrace steps.
”

And, two years later, i.e. today, I followed the SAME Chinese dude (Alger Chan!) and, towards the end, both of us wrongly went up the same hill! Moral of the story: this is deep, so take note: “History repeats itself for those who don’t learn the lessons the first time around!” And, that’s a genuine quote btw! (picture me gloating and pulling up my own collar).

My result two years later was this: got lost two times (no change from two years back), came 28th overall. The time was 4 hours and 35 minutes (22 minutes better compared to 2010). But, despite being 22 minutes quicker, I came 10 places behind compared to two years back! And, here’s another genuine quote to summarize that: “Competition is like inflation. For the same amount of power, you get less and less as each year goes by”. Ok, this one is not as great as the previous quote, but anyway…

I reached the start in Tsing Lung Tao at about 8am in the morning. (Btw, ladies and gents, Tsing Lung Tao, is not Tsing Tao — the beer! I thought it was the first time I heard the name but the “Lung” in between kind of changes the meaning altogether!) All the trail running celebs were there at the start on this cold morning. Rachel, Jinhwa, Rom, Martijn, Rupert, etc, etc.

Continue reading about Sham Tseng 2013

3rd consecutive weekend, 3rd consecutive race. Today was the last of the King of the Hills (KOTH) races. This one took place on Hong Kong island, Repulse Bay to be precise.

The assembly point reminded me of Mong Kok on a Sunday. Except, you’ll have to replace eager handbag shoppers with eager racers. Also, these racers walk a little faster than the 0.00000000005kmh speed of a Mong Kok shopper. I met fellow Plover Cove contester Hannes at the start who took our battle for Plover Cove to a whole new level. He warned me that he would toss my motorbike into a ditch near Wu Kau Tang if I violated his Plover Cove ownership rights. I could have said the same thing to him but his BMW motorbike weighs a hell of a lot more than my Kawasaki Ninja. I’ll have to hit the gym and develop stronger biceps before I can make a bold threat like that.

Then I saw my arch rival Claus, a 60-year-old man who beat me on this very same KOTH Hong Kong course last year. His words to me at the end of the race last year echoed in my brain as I saw him today: “Tell your mom you got beaten by a 60-year-old”. So, today, my mission was simple: under no circumstance was I going to let Claus finish before me! That mission seemed like a sure success when I learnt at the start of the race that Claus was recovering from Dengue fever. No real man would compete with a recuperating racer, so I decided to modify my mission to “just have fun”. (You might argue, no real man should compete with someone twice his age but let’s just say that Claus’ fitness hasn’t quite caught up with his age).

The costume boys were there. Nick “007″ showed up in his usual “Branson, Nick Branson” style and another group came dressed up as pirates. They had daggers that looked pretty real. After I did some pirate talking with them, they told me that the daggers were being carried “to chop up fast runners”. My mind made an immediate note: avoid this bunch at all cost!

The half marathon started slightly after 9am and the full marathon started at 9.20am. I ran as per the 2012 edition of my Rules of Running but found a major flaw in it. The rules state that I am supposed to start slow and easy. However, in this particular race where hundreds of people had started before me, I found that I was stuck in a massive running jam. It was a narrow trail and several hundred people were trying to find some sort of footing to climb this trail. I felt a bit of frustration and half decided to just bare the frustration and go with the flow. But then, suddenly, it hit me. Life often presents these kind of scenarios and most of us simply sulk and blame something else or someone else. BUT, the real doers take some sort of action and turn these frustrating moments into something they really enjoy doing. (Don’t ask me how I came up with that. I got no idea!) So, I decided to take action. I was going to breathe down everyone’s necks. Literally. I turned on my heavy breathing mode and made my voice sound remarkably husky in order to scare the person in front of me. (Ok, maybe the husky thing didn’t work but the heavy breathing sure did). I then aptly yelled “dude, PASSING LEFT” or “lady, PASSING RIGHT!” as the situation warranted. (“Chick, passing right” didn’t quite sound right).

Janet was right behind me and leveraged my new found bravery to her advantage. When I did one of my “dude, passing left” yells, she simply added “me too!” and overtook the guy after me! And, when we occasionally encountered one of those rather stationary runners who looked like John Rambo, I let Janet to do the “passing left” scream out of concern for my own safety. (Hey, they say you should only pick battles you think you can win!)

After climbing Violet Hill and her cousins and doing some flat running for quite a bit, we met THE GENERAL. This General was like a US Navy Seal kind of General. I am, of course, referring to General Rock and the super steep and slippery climb up to the top. It was, well, super steep and slippery! On some parts, it felt like a vertical climb and on others it felt almost like a vertical climb! I took a leaf out of Charles Darwin’s evolution book and brought out the ape inside me (it wasn’t difficult. Maybe I am more ape than human). I told my brain that I had four legs instead of two hands and two legs. Then, I started climbing up General Rock ape-style. I met Romain on the way up, he was still making human movements. Once I reached the top, I went back to human mode (this change was tough) and ran straight down to some place where we had to cross a little stream. I was slowed down at this junction by a Chinese hiking group who were taken aback by my heavy breathing and simply froze instead of moving to one corner of the trail. I had to roar to un-stun them and got moving once they got out of my way. Then there was a long, undulating stretch all the way to the junction where the full marathoners had to climb The Twins and the smarter half marathoners could skip that and proceed to the finish.

I saw super fast runner Pig Chan climbing the Twins, not like a pig, but more like a wild boar. Zoooooooooom. I decided to let him be (remember what I said about picking battles that you think you can win?) By the way, The Twins might sound like that slim, gentle and feminine Cantopop band but that definitely ain’t The Twins I am talking about. These Twins are two sister mountains that require any potential suitor to climb roughly 400 steep steps to flirt with them. (Talk about playing hard-to-get).

Anyway, after flirting with The Twins, I had to run along a concrete pavement for eternity before I took a downhill stretch that took me back to Repulse Bay. Some mini running along the beach took me to the finish where I saw Rowena. My first question to her was “Has Claus finished?” I know, mission changed, but just making sure nonetheless. Having learnt that he hadn’t, I high-fived her (talk about having a little fun at the expense of someone twice my age who is recovering from Dengue fever).

The score? 3 hours 46 minutes and 19th position overall. Now to go and repaint my motorbike just in case Hannes delivers on his threat…

Garmin.

GPX.

It was the first race of the 4-part series today. Last year, we did the Sham Tseng course in New Territories, so this year we had to do the Tai Po course (it alternates every year) which actually is my most favorite King of the hills course.

A self check revealed a couple of problems (a) the Achilles tendon on my right leg was a little painful each time I put my shoes on (thanks to wearing an old pair of shoes when I did the Overland Track in Tasmania) (b) right knee was complaining of something (possibly a “high” jump on a rock in Tasmania didn’t go too well with the knee (c) an irritating cold that loves me to death (literally).

So, the mission was to fix all three problems by doing this race at a comfortable pace. (I strongly believe that hiking is the best way to fix hiking-related injuries. I know, sounds stupid, but ain’t snake venom the best way to fix snake poisoning?)

Woke up at 0615 to a cold morning (14 degrees) and got on my motorbike at 0710. Romain and I had planned to ride up to Bridespool (the end of the race) so that we would have comfy transportation back after a hard race. After we parked at Bridespool, we went to the bus stop only to read that the first bus to Tai Po (near the start of the hike) wasn’t until 0845. There were no taxis either. So, I came up with an ingenious idea (yes, I am full of them). We took one bike to Tai Mei Tuk and left one bike at Bridespool. From Tai Mei Tuk, we took bus 75K to Tai Po and Romain somehow navigated to the start of the hike from a nearby bus stop. We were at the starting point by 0830.

The “kings” of the hills were all there: Jan, Vivien, Steve, Jinhwa (actually “queen”), etc, etc. Steven and I were looking in awe at all the big names who were present.

“Stone is here, Darren is here, William too. Michael Maddess is also present. Look at him, that’s Raymond and he’s super fast too”, and so the conversation went until Roger Graham (let’s just say he is not exactly known for speed) interrupted with “I am here too!”

At 0900, the race began and the weather got hotter. All was cool but there is never a race where I don’t end up going the wrong way. Today was no exception but today, I did one better. I lead 3 people the wrong way too as we are trying to get up Pat Sin Leng. The guy behind me was saying that he hadn’t seen any markers.

“Do you know the way?” I asked. “No, I thought you knew” came the scary response from this guy who obviously doesn’t know me. I was considering returning to the previous marker but continuing to jog seemed to be my body’s preferred choice. And suddenly, all the racers appeared in front of me from the opposite direction and were taking a sharp left. I took a sharp right and got reunited with the racers. I had to re-overtake a bunch of guys but it looked like I didn’t lose that much time in the grand scheme of things.

From there, I made sure that I was following my rules of running. 10-11.5 kmh on flats, comfortable pace, nice rock n roll music and enjoying the run. I saw a bunch of tourists on the trail and wanted to impress them with my dazzling technical jumps as I was navigating a section with a few circular stones that were laid on the ground to help cross a small stream. Unfortunately, my macho attempt didn’t have the desire effect as I slipped and fell, instantly causing some bleeding scratches on my right leg. I got up immediately and tried to “save face” by recovering and running immediately. I responded with “completely fine” to all their “are you okay?”s and ran quickly. As soon as I was out of their sight, I stopped to inspect my bleeding leg and confirmed that it was okay. I then continued with the run and BANG. It was deja-vu as I kissed the ground yet again as I misstepped and fell. Status: some more minor bleeding on the right knee but all systems were go. In fact, it helped take my mind off the original problem with the knee. (Roger later suggested after the race that he would gladly slap me in the face to help take my mind off any future problems).

The run from there to the finish was very well managed. Only trouble was that I ran out of water at one point and asked a photographer for water and he helped me. (Thank you). But, overall the entire run was well managed and I didn’t feel like quitting or cussing at any point. Actually, maybe cussing though – especially at the end when there was a lot more uphill to reach Wu Kau Tang than I anticipated. And also near the end when I lost about 1-2 mins trying to find the right track to get to Bridespool from Wu Kau Tang.

From our racing club, Steven came first (4h22m) and we had many others after him. I finished in 4h40m and came 29th overall. I realized that there are MANY, MANY super fit guys and girls in Hong Kong. The winner (goes without saying) was a super human called Stone Tsang. He wins pretty much every time. All mere mortals finished much later. I think I finished a whole 1hr3m after him!

Overall, very happy with the way the run was managed despite issues with the leg. In fact, apart from the last 10 mins or so, I don’t think I even felt any real pain in the right knee.

Garmin.

GPX.

What a day! I used to think that KOTH Lantau was the toughest but now I think KOTH Sai Kung is the toughest in the series! The half marathon course is not that hard. Lots of running on the flats. But the full marathon course (the 2nd half) is tough as hell. You keep climbing and climbing and it seems like there is no respite.

Anyway, this is what happened today.

I was trying to play my A game today. I wanted to see what I was capable of and more importantly, I wanted to beat Claus (the near 60-year-old superman who beat me in the last race). Weather was perfect. Cloudy and about 18 degrees.

I did a bit of warm up at the start, so no real issues in the beginning unlike the last race. The only trouble was overtaking. Reminded me of Care Action. Too many people and it was hard to overtake without risking injury to self or the “overtakee”. The course goes through some sort of outdoors prison (or so it seemed) and the thumping noise of 100s of runners sent all the dogs on a barking spree.

My strategy was to play my own game. Meaning, keep running speed below 13.5kmh, ignore the overtakers and conserve some energy for the tough 2nd half. It seemed to work. I was running with the legendary KK Chan on parts of the half marathon and even overtook him (much to my surprise) just before the half marathon check point.

Half was easy. I still felt relatively fresh and completed the half in either 1 hr 59 mins or 2 hrs on the dot. Then came the tough bits! KK Chan showed me who was boss and overtook me with admirable ease on the next climb up.

It seemed like I was climbing forever and the course goes up and down with a lot of flats in between. Energy levels dipped about 30 minutes into the 2nd half. I started consuming a lot of gel (1 gel + 2 Blocks). Ran out of water at one point and felt quit thirsty but quenched the thirst by consuming more gel. (Bad idea, I later realized). Anyway, managed to overtake a few people. The trail eventually connects to Mac 2 and then deviates again. After that there is one hell of a climb to two mountains. At that point, I started experiencing leg cramps/stomach cramps (lasted only about 3-5 seconds but quite intense). I had to kill speed and persist. I was visualizing the finish line at one point in the hopes that it would make time run fast! Garmin showed about 28km, still had 10kms to go. Some superman came out of nowhere from behind and overtook me. One such super duper man was William Davies himself (the guy who wins with ease). “Aren’t you supposed to be way up ahead?” I asked him. “I got lost” he replied and disappeared into the horizon.

By the time, I got down to the road from the mountains, I was dead tired. Running down on all the boulders and pebbles wasn’t pleasant on the legs and I lost concentration for a second. Then came a big fall. Possibly the 5th or 6th one for the day. This fall though, triggered all the cramps on both legs and the stomach. I had to sit for 30 seconds, relax and then continued jogging.

On the final part of the course, there is an irritating and needless (that’s what I was telling myself then) 3km family trail before the finish. I was exhausted and couldn’t increase pace beyond 9kmh. I looked back intermittently to ensure Claus wasn’t around. Luckily, he wasn’t but my gut feeling insisted that he was only 1-2 minutes behind. So, I maintained 9kmh and finished at 1336! Sure enough, Claus came in at about 1339, walked up to me and exclaimed “Do you not have any respect for elders?” Hilarious. Had the course been 5km longer, he’d have kicked my butt.

I have said this before and I will say it again – I am completely amazed by the number of fit people in HK! My effort above seemed less than impressive as it put me only at 19th place overall! I finished 7th in my category though. Meaning, there were 12 other people who were older than me or were females and finished ahead of me. Hmmm…

Anyway, the gels seemed to have screwed up the stomach. It took about 4 hours of rest to regain full control of the body!

Stats: 38km, 7th in category, 19th overall. Time: 4 hrs 36 minutes (2011)

Contrast this to 2010, where I was 50th overall and completed 5 hours 35 minutes. About 1 hour difference.

GPX.

Garmin.

The idea was to do a KOTH recci (full course) in Sai Kung.

Started at 0940 and was at the half way point in 2 hours 20 mins or so but then a big, big blister on my leg caused us to quit at Pak Tam Au (at about the 26km mark). Huge blister! Not sure where it came from.

Blister

Blister closeup

Chris helping me with the blisters with a Compede (thanks!)

Garmin.

GPX.

King of the Hills – Lantau is supposed to be the toughest full marathon in the series. The half is supposed to be the easiest. The full starts off in Nam Shan and then goes near the top of Sunset peak before deviating to the right to Lin Fa Shaan. After a couple of hills more, there’s a pretty steep (I mean STEEP! Like the graph of a stock market crash) trail to Tung Chung. As if that’s not hard enough, the course then calls for going back up to 650m (Ngong Ping) from Tung Chung and then to Lantau Peak from there (950m). Then all the way down to Pak Kung Au and then a flat 7.5km trail back to Nam Shan. The site says 29.8km but it’s more like 30.5km according to a consensus of Garmins post race today.

We started the race at 10am in the morning. I can’t believe how many fit people there are in Hong Kong. I am amazed! Well, my coordination seemed to be off from the beginning! Fell a record 5 times! Usually, my falls are few and they are elegant falls meaning I get up quickly, without inflicting any self damage and it seems more like a ballet step. Today, they were ugly falls and 2 of them left bruises on the knees!

Problems today:
- coordination was off – synchronization wasn’t right. Fell 5 times at least and all falls were inelegant
- Sprain near the left toe – constant nagging feeling but didn’t impair running
- Bottom of right foot sent pain signals every time it hit the ground (but tolerable pain)
- Should have worn tracks. The overgrowth left several scratches on my sexy legs

Good moves for the day:
- Didn’t get lost anywhere! Course was well marked
- Nutrition was properly managed – no stomach pain or pangs of hunger
- Made sure motors will running all the time. Didn’t walk any part of the flats. Kept jogging at 8-9km at the very least

Stats:
Last year stats were as below:

Finished in 5 hrs 30 minutes 07 seconds (app 30 Km)
Came 18 in category (not sure how many people)
Came 53 overall (well over 130+ people)

This year:
Finished in 4 hrs 39 minutes 08 seconds (30.5Km)
Came 7th in category (not sure how many people)
Came 16th overall

(big improvement over last year)

Garmin.

GPX.

What a start to the KOTH series! First of all, I had to meet Jogger Joel at Tsuen Wan West station at 0800. For whatever reason, I thought it was Tsuen Wan (they are different stations) and I reached at 0750. Joel was running a little late… but he was under the impression that I would be seeing him in Tsuen Wan West. So, at 0815, we realized that we were in different stations and I had to take a cab to Tsuen Wan West! The cabbie didn’t know where to go and largely by luck, we met at around 0835!

Next, we had to reach Tsing Lung Tao (near Sham Tseng reservoir) by 0850 (that’s when registration closes) and neither I nor Joel knew how to get there! Two other guys who were supposed to join, didn’t! Again, largely by a stroke of luck, we met someone who knew and offered him a ride to the starting point. Time was 0857!! Rushed to the registration, registered by 0859 and that was it! Race started at 0900. I was half convinced that we wouldn’t make it to this one but somehow, we did!

So, lesson learned – Tsuen Wan West ain’t Tsuen Wan. And it’s good to have a printout of where to go before the start of the race!

Now.. the actual race. I hadn’t done this before and had no idea where to go! I noticed that a lot of other guys were on the same boat but their sense of spotting those yellow KOTH ribbons and signs were better! So, for the first 2 hours, I was trying to find the right dude to follow and eventually, I target locked some thin Chinese dude who was more or less cruising at the same speed as me. I just followed him blindly and even copied the few mistakes he made (better than using my brains).

Towards the last 10Km, that dude and I got separated. I stopped for water and lost him! That’s when I made my first big mistake for the day. Went uphill at some point instead of downhill. Lost about 7-9 minutes and had to retrace steps.

Well, overall, it was alright considering this was supposed to be more of a practice trail running test that I was unprepared for.

Stats:
37.16Km + about 2-3km (Garmin wasn’t started on time as I barely had enough time to put the phone and wallet away). Race is suppose to be 37km long, I probably did a little more than that as I made mistakes like a lot of other people.

7th in my category (MO) and 16th place overall.

Time: 4 hours 57 minutes.

Garmin.

GPX.