Sunday was officially supposed to be rest day. But during the “resting” moments, glimpses of Plover Cove kept flashing in my mind. Like a responsible owner who matches words with not only action, but also with a lot of love and dedication, I instinctively decided to go on a spin around my reservoir. For the record, this is the 5th time I have run Plover Cove this year. That’s a full 18km of love and care! And, I have done at least a part of the course a total of 9 times this year. Now, you tell me, if this isn’t true love, what is?

Oh, and as for my speed, who cares? When you talk about love and care, speed is of least importance.

Summary:
Distance: 17.88 km
Time: 2:25:00
Elevation Gain: 564 m

Garmin.

Distance	Time	Altitude	Avg Speed	Maxspeed	Up	Down
0.000 km	0s	104 m	-	-	-	-
5.000 km	51m 57s	277 m	5.77 km/h	12.92 km/h	335 m	162 m
5.001 km	42m 13s	74 m	6.37 km/h	14.10 km/h	452 m	482 m
5.007 km	37m 31s	28 m	6.84 km/h	14.68 km/h	565 m	641 m
2.658 km	13m 14s	21 m	7.31 km/h	14.68 km/h	571 m	654 m

Total: 17.665 km in 2h 24m 55s at an average of 7.31 km/h

GPX.

Tags: Plover Cove

Cloudy Hill, Pat Sin Leng AND Plover Cove

We were supposed to have heavy thunderstorms yesterday. So, I conveniently used Hong Kong Observatory’s weather forecast as an excuse to sleep in, instead of getting up early in the morning to do a trail run. When I finally awoke from my slumber, I was full of guilt. Trust me, an athlete succumbing to the vice called “extended sleep” is like a politician succumbing to bribe! What didn’t help one bit was the view from outside my window. The sun was shining nice and bright! I wanted to sue the Hong Kong Observatory for causing needless mental anguish. A couple of hours later, I heard heavy thunder. Soon, black clouds blanketed the skies. Within a span of a couple of hours, the skies went from being illuminated by the sun to being illuminated by frequent lightening. The guys at the observatory probably felt vindicated! I even suggested that they change their motto to: “HK Observatory, we always have the last laugh!”

The prediction for today, yet again, was heavy rain. However, there was no way we were going to fall victim to the trap of extended sleep. Besides, what was in store for the day was way too exciting. We were going to do a run covering three of Hong Kong’s most beautiful trails: Cloudy Hill, Pat Sin leng and my very own home, Plover Cove. That’s like getting a high dosage of endorphins from nature for free! The first time I attempted this run, I ran out of water in the middle of Plover Cove and was suffering from all sorts of cramps until my friend Dominic brought me water at the end of the Plover Cove dam. The second time I attempted it, I almost had a heatstroke on Plover Cove and had to walk at a snail’s pace to complete the course. It took us roughly 4.5 hours just on this leg that day.

Today, the weather seemed perfect for this run. Contrary to the Observatory’s forecast, there was hardly any rain. And, no, they didn’t have the last laugh either! In fact, it was sunny in the afternoon! I guess even the observatory boys get it wrong at times. Steven and I maintained a steady and fast pace on both Cloudy Hill and Pat Sin Leng. I attempted what I call the “tank maneuver” during a lot of the uphill stretches. What is that? Well, basically, it involves pretending that you’re a tank (I mean a US army kind of tank not a water tank!) and “rolling” up the hill effortlessly just like a tank would! (Yes, weird. Well, to each his own!) So, the idea behind this is that, when the going gets tough, the tough gets “rolling”. Unless, of course, the inclination is so high that the “tank” needs reinforcement. And, no, the tank doesn’t have a turret to fire a canon at the hill.

It took as about 3.5 hours to do Cloudy Hill, Pat Sin Leng and run to Wu Kau Tang via Bride’s pool. After refueling at a rather empty shop in Wu Kau Tang, we entered my territory, Plover Cove. Like a responsible owner, I removed random items of garbage I found strewn around on my trail. We kept a fairly comfortable pace and completed this leg of the run in 2 hours 52 minutes, feeling relatively good at the end of it. For the first time in all my attempts, I felt fresh and energized at the end of completing this course.

37 kilometers, almost 2000m in elevation, plenty of greenery and a great adrenalin rush. I couldn’t recommend this course more.

Garmin.

Distance	Time	Altitude	Avg Speed	Maxspeed	Up	Down
0.000 km	0s	-14 m	-	-	-	-
5.000 km	50m 39s	394 m	5.92 km/h	60.34 km/h	628 m	220 m
5.011 km	53m 55s	495 m	5.74 km/h	60.34 km/h	1006 m	497 m
4.990 km	57m 43s	348 m	5.55 km/h	60.34 km/h	1232 m	870 m
5.004 km	1h 03m 00s	253 m	5.33 km/h	60.34 km/h	1456 m	1189 m
4.998 km	52m 54s	215 m	5.39 km/h	60.34 km/h	1645 m	1416 m
4.997 km	50m 36s	67 m	5.47 km/h	60.34 km/h	1794 m	1713 m
5.013 km	45m 00s	15 m	5.62 km/h	60.34 km/h	1912 m	1883 m
1.897 km	12m 06s	9 m	5.74 km/h	60.34 km/h	1918 m	1895 m

Total: 36.910 km in 6h 25m 53s at an average of 5.74 km/h

GPX.

Tags: Pat Sin Leng, Plover Cove, Wu Kau Tang

The d-day
Call it the d-day or the moment of reckoning or the ultimate test of time. It was THE BIG DAY and it finally arrived. It was going to be the day I would be settling the Plover Cove dispute once and for all. It was going to be the day I was hoping to tell the whole world that I and only I alone had complete and undisputed ownership of Plover Cove.

So, what is all the fuss about?
A quick recap: Martijn Doekes organized an event, aptly titled “HKTR Plover Cove Championship” to determine who the fastest Plover Cover runner would be for the day. Here’s how he described it:

”
Plover Cove, the most hotly disputed trail within Hong Kong borders. Many claim possession, many claim best times, but it was all under different circumstances and with different rules. As discussed on the recent HKTR Christmas drinks, to make once and for always, or at least for that day, clear who is the fastest on Plover Cove, we intend to organize the unofficial Plover Cover HKTR Championship.

Plover Cove – the disputed territory

A King and Queen of Plover Cove would be nothing without a crowd, so everyone is invited to join this Fun Trail run on one of the best trail running trails in Hong Kong. We will not use a strict time trial mode, but people can start when they wish to start and therefore make it either a very competitive run or a social run. There will be no official time taking, but we will instead rely on your own timing using any means available but preferably GPS based.
”
Of course, I wasted no time in reminding everyone that a fast time around my reservoir had nothing to do with ownership. Let me give you an example. Picture this: you own a Ferrari. A punk comes along and asks you if he can take your Ferrari out for a spin. You agree. It then turns out that this punk is able to drive like a Michael Schumacher. Does this mean that he now owns YOUR Ferrari? NO! Same with Plover Cove. Just because someone runs around the reservoir in a record time, doesn’t mean that he/she owns it. And, this is exactly why I said in my comments. Here’s an excerpt.

Me (on the event website): Btw, just to make things clear, even if someone else is faster than me on this day (I am sure a lot of people could be), that DOES NOT mean that I do not own this place. This belongs to me. Ownership is different from simply doing a fast time.

Hannes Niggli (fellow Plover Cove contestant): i am the majority owner while the turtle/fraudster is banned from the area…..but yes , he is right , this event is about podium positions for the course and this is separate from the fact that i am the majority owner due to my 22 years of taking care for my reservoir….btw…vince , if you park your bike in my territory it will be dumped in my reservoir….

And so, the arguments kept flying back and forth! It was even more bitter than an exchange between USA and Iran over Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons programme.

The events unfold…
I arrived at 8.15am on my motorbike at Tai Mei Tuk bus station. Fellow Plover Cove contestant Hannes Niggli was already there and he looked all set and pumped up to begin the turf war. I had a secret weapon of my own as well. Just the same way Clark Kent removes all his clothing and becomes Super Man, I removed my clothing to reveal my superhuman Plover Cove outfit as well. (Don’t worry, I removed only my motorbike jacket -besides, I’m not a big fan of wearing underwear on top of trouser-) My Super Plover Cove outfit featured my very own PLOVER COVE OWNER bib. Here, take a look.

Is he a bird? A plane? No, he’s THE Plover Cove owner!

Some pretty fast racers showed up. Jinhwa Kim (my teammate who kicked everyone’s ass in the Kinabalu marathon) was there. Scott Fitscher (a lean and mean triathlete from Australia) showed up. And there were many more. We took taxis to Wu Kau Tang and I was in the same cab as Hannes. We had Rachel Jacqueline with us, a property lawyer. (It is good to be in the company of a lawyer ONLY when you are sure whose side he/she is on in the event of disputes). Naturally, the topic of the Plover Cove dispute came up and Rachel suggested that the transfer of property from Hannes to me must have been in written format and that “it could be a revocable license”. Meaning, Hannes could revoke my ownership license at will! I countered that rather effectively with the message that the property was transferred unconditionally to me and that it was a complete transfer of ownership, not just a mere license to use it. Luckily, we reached Wu Kau Tang before she could come up with more legalese in his favor which I may not have been able to counter.

On your mark, get set and GO!
Upon reaching the car park in Wu Kau Tang, egos were stoked and Garmins were activated.

Hannes and I descended from the car park and climbed up a path to the left of the usual Plover Cove trail. Everyone then started crying foul (although there isn’t really any difference between the two paths). So, we had to come back down and go up the regular path. We lost about 10 minutes in the process. (Ok, I am exaggerating to make us sound cooler than we are). We lost more like one minute. Hannes was right behind me in the beginning but we exchanged places frequently over the next 15 minutes. He ran like he was running away from a dangerous, hungry lion. After the first small hill, I could no longer keep up with him. I told myself that one need not run faster than the lion, one needs to run faster than the slowest guy running away from the lion. By the time I could make sense of what I had just told myself, I lost Hannes (and realized that, in fact, what I had just told myself didn’t make any sense and was irrelevant to the situation!)

I then kept my pace fairly consistent and broke a few of my sacrosanct running rules to gain more speed. I thought I had gained at least 2 minutes on the other racers until I heard some footsteps right behind me. I turned back and saw Scott Fischer. He seemed to be chugging away like an express train. I signaled to him to overtake me but he chose to stay behind me. Then I saw one of my favorite downhill stretches and I hit the gas big time. That was the last I saw of Scott. But, up ahead in the distance, I saw a moving target. I knew that that must have been Hannes as I recognized glimpses of his blue HKTR tee shirt.

I reached the half way point in 57 minutes and was still confident I could catch up with Hannes. Unfortunately for me, hope began to fade away once I reached a concrete dam which is about 10 minutes away from the finish line. I could see him running about 2-3 minutes ahead of me. I knew I had to increase my flat running pace to about 15-16kmh to catch up with him but could not do so.

Soon enough, I saw him at the finish line, looking all victorious and wearing the winning grin on his face. His time was 2h01m while I finished in 2h02m. Scott finished soon after me (also 2h02m). Hannes was faster than me but the REAL KING, the real Michael Schumacher, the real lean, mean, running machine was Jan Littlewood. Being the nocturnal super human being that he is, he ran this course in the morning WITHOUT having slept the previous night. He finished in an incredible 1 hour 43 minutes. Yes, I did say 1 hour 43 minutes!! He waited for us at the finish line looking all fresh, as though he hadn’t done anything of significance. For this amazing feat, he was anointed as KING OF PLOVER COVE! Given his new and well deserved title, he was asked whether he wished to own the property someday to which he altruistically replied, “I don’t want to own anything. I will just give it to the people”. I am sure I speak for Hannes as well when I say that it was good to hear him say that! We won’t be transferring ownership anyway! Again, not everyone who drives like a Michael Schumacher OWNS a Ferrari or WANTS to own a Ferrari.

The Queen of Plover Cove was none other than my teammate Jinhwa Kim who never fails to dazzle. She finished in an incredible 2 hours 10 minutes, only one minute slower than my other teammate Steven Sparky who has a personal best of 2 hours 9 minutes. Organizer Martijn Doekes (yes, Martijn, I finally spelt your name right), finished in 2 hours 7 minutes, something I could only hope to achieve an year back!

So, here’s a summary of the riches.

The Plover Cove Hall of Fame for dudes
Jan Littlewood: 1 hour 43 minutes (is he human or what?)
Hannes Niggli: 2 hours 01 minutes (you may have won the battle Hannes, but not the war)
Vince Natteri (yours truly): 2 hours 02 minutes (pondering over the cost of one minute in life)
Scott Fischer: 2 hours 02 minutes (never mess with a triathlete)
Marcel: 2 hours 05 minutes (Jan’s fit looking training buddy who is also in awe of Jan’s achievement)
Martijn Doekes: 2 hours 07 minutes (our express organizer)

The Plover Cove Hall of Fame for chicks
Jinhwa Kim: 2 hours 10 minutes (men, not easy to chase after her)
Olivia Luk: (she doesn’t believe in recording times. She just wants to be in nature. For this inspiring philosophy, she also gets to be in the Plover Cove Hall of Fame)

Wheeling and Dealing
They say that the biggest deals in the business world are made not in the boardroom but on the golf course. Well, the biggest hiking property deals are made not on the trails but in a Thai restaurant. I am, of course, referring to the long standing Plover Cove dispute between Hannes and me. While savoring some spicy eggplant and sipping on Tsing Taos, we came to a mutual agreement.

I am to have 40% ownership of Plover Cove while Hannes will have the remaining 60% ownership until December 2012*

*Ownership will be revaluated fairly at the end of the year and shares will be reallocated depending on who takes proper care of Plover Cove during the year. Meaning, visiting Plover Cove and producing necessary Garmins, removing rubbish from Plover Cove and so on. A 3rd party (Hannes suggested Rachel but I want a lawyer who will be on my side) will be entrusted with the task of coming up with a fair formula for the revaluation of shares.

Dominic, if you are reading this, sorry, it looks like you aren’t getting any ownership shares! You should have joined forces with me when you had the opportunity! It was a strategic mistake, akin to the one America made during World War I. But, don’t worry, as co-owner of Plover Cove, I give you permission to visit my property as many times as you want during this year.

The verdict
Excellent run. Excellent company. Excellent food. And a result I can live with. 40% ownership of Plover Cove is better than being embroiled in a long, legal battle. Besides, Hannes has been associated with Plover Cove for several decades. And, at the end of the day, I am a generous guy with a kind heart.

So, dispute resolved and everyone gets to go home a winner. Long live Plover Cove.

Garmin.

Distance	Time	Altitude	Avg Speed	Maxspeed	Up	Down
0.000 km	0s	115 m	-	-	-	-
5.012 km	43m 25s	278 m	6.93 km/h	14.68 km/h	323 m	160 m
5.004 km	35m 51s	75 m	7.58 km/h	17.91 km/h	431 m	471 m
4.989 km	31m 16s	24 m	8.15 km/h	18.14 km/h	540 m	631 m
2.791 km	11m 51s	26 m	8.72 km/h	18.14 km/h	552 m	641 m

Total: 17.796 km in 2h 02m 23s at an average of 8.72 km/h

GPX.

Tags: Ownership, Plover Cove

There are some who simply talk the talk. And, there are others who talk the talk and walk the walk. I don’t belong to either category. Instead, I belong to a special category that I like to call “Talk the talk and run the run”. This category is exclusive to trail runners who have successfully established themselves as undisputed owners of the turfs they govern. As most readers already know, I already have this status with Sharp Peak in Sai Kung but my other property in the New Territories area (Plover Cove) has come under repeated attack from fellow trail runners who covet what I already own. (They should read the 10th commandment: “Thou shalt not covet thy fellow trail runner’s girlfriend”). In fact, fellow trail runners still question my love, care and commitment to Plover Cove, even when I have unequivocally declared my eternal love for her numerous times. I don’t just declare my love, i.e. talk the talk. I follow through with 17.88km of pure action, i.e. run the run. Much the same way poets write poems after they profess their love and Bollywood movie stars sing romantic songs after they fall in love, I do a trail runner’s equivalent of all that. I have always matched my declaration of love for Plover Cove with 17.888km of quality running around my reservoir. As a matter of fact, to show my true love and care for her, I run around Plover Cove about 12 times a year or once a month. I chose today to do so. Call it a coincidence but I woke up to more unsubstantiated doubts and rumors stirred up by fellow trail runners who are trying to grab every opportunity to separate me and my Plover Cove.

Here, take a look:

Instead of just “talking the talk” and replying to this unfounded allegation, I decided to “run the run”. So, I was on my motorbike as early as 8.45am on a Saturday morning and headed in the direction of true love: straight to my Plover Cove in Wu Kau Tang.

Incidentally, I made a very clever observation today. I observed that the Hong Kong HKSAR Government has had to have hired an expensive hip-hop artist to advise them on traffic etiquette. Maybe the Black Eyed Peas? (Our Government has hired various expensive consultants before. Remember that Crocodile dude from Australia who had the impossible job of having to trap a mischievous crocodile in Hong Kong waters? He failed several times before succeeding -kinda like Einstein and the light bulb-). Or, maybe it wasn’t a hip-hop artist. Maybe, our incumbent Chief Executive Henry Tang is getting a head start and applying some of the useful knowledge he has attained from Hong Kong’s party scene and is now applying them to Hong Kong’s traffic scene! (Henry Tang has admittedly “strayed” several times during his wedlock. Looks like there ain’t no “lock” that can hold down Henry boy. He has made our Chief Executive race racier!) Anyway, before I digress too much, let me get to the point and tell you what the deal is with the hip-hop influence on Hong Kong’s traffic etiquette.

There is a gigantic traffic notice board perched high above a traffic signal near the Lionrock tunnel. It typically displays boring traffic messages, the usual culprit being:

“MAINTAIN YOUR DISTANCE”

Today, it had a different spin to it. It read or rather urged:
“MAINTAIN YO STANCE”.

Yo Stance! Unfortunately, I wasn’t wearing my black shades and tux. And there wasn’t a microphone around either. Otherwise, I would have stopped and entertained fellow divers with an Eminem rap or, even better, I would have sung my love song for Plover Cove.

Arriving in “Yo Stance” style!

I arrived in style (actually, not exactly. I was a little drenched because of the rain). I started the run at 9.33am. The two truths of Plover Cove were once again proven: (a) She is a beauty and she’s always been one (b) I was the only real owner there.

My fellow trail runners claim that ownership is somehow the result of running around my reservoir in less than two hours. I don’t agree. Imagine you are in Hong Kong and your girlfriend lives in China. When you visit her in China, would you not want to spend as much quality time with her as possible? What’s the point of a fleeting visit? Too much time and you could bore her! So, one needs to spend the optimum amount of QUALITY time with her! And, that is exactly what I did today. I finished my run in 2 hours 9 minutes.

And, this is the second time I have visited her this year which happens to be two times more than the other so-called owners.

Garmin.

Distance	Time	Altitude	Avg Speed	Maxspeed	Up	Down
0.000 km	0s	114 m	-	-	-	-
5.014 km	45m 25s	284 m	6.62 km/h	16.53 km/h	314 m	144 m
4.998 km	38m 26s	77 m	7.16 km/h	16.53 km/h	427 m	464 m
4.989 km	33m 40s	30 m	7.66 km/h	16.53 km/h	536 m	620 m
2.739 km	12m 13s	21 m	8.20 km/h	16.53 km/h	540 m	633 m

Total: 17.740 km in 2h 09m 44s at an average of 8.20 km/h

GPX.

Tags: Plover Cove

It looks like my Plover Cove has unintentionally become the target of acquisition for many unqualified Hong Kong trail runners. If you do not know what I am talking about, you’ve probably been living under a rock on Mars for the longest time. But, as a refresher, let me tell you what makes my Plover Cove in Wu Kau Tang so special.

Hong Kong is blessed with so much abundant natural scenery that it becomes quite hard to pick “the best spot” from so many “best spots”. But, if I had only one last trail run left in Hong Kong, I know exactly where that would be. In fact, I could talk about Plover Cove the same way the North Korean media talks about their new leader: “the leader of all leaders, the genius of all geniuses, the general of all generals, the dude of all dudes, etc”. Except, unlike the North Korean media, I truly mean what I say about Plover Cove! She is THE BABE of all the babes. And so, I made it a point to “own” this babe, i.e. not just limiting myself to hand-holding or flirting but forging a proper relationship with her. This made me the target of envy of all other Hong Kong trail runners. I don’t blame them – imagine your friend lands the most perfect super babe, would you not be jealous of him? To my credit, I also devoted a lot of time to Plover Cove. I made sure I visited her as often as I could. Take today for example. I ran a full 51km yesterday, it was raining quite heavily at times today but that didn’t deter me from visiting my Plover Cove.

My fellow trail running friends are trying in vain to break this intimate relationship I have with her. They just visit her once in a blue moon and claim to have run around her in record time. This, they falsely claim, grants them that exclusive relationship with her. Sounds more like a one-night stand to me. She’ll be insulted.

So, with two such fake owners tucked away in Korea and New Zealand respectively (you know who you are), I decided to further solidify my already strong bond with the Cove today. And, as always, she was an absolute beauty. The physical exhaustion from my 51km run yesterday and the slippery terrain today did little to diminish her beauty.

Did I finish in record time? It took me 2 hours 22 minutes, so, no, not really.
But, am I the only one and true owner of Plover Cove? As time has proven over and over again, YES!

Garmin.

Distance	Time	Altitude	Avg Speed	Maxspeed	Up	Down
0.000 km	0s	57 m	-	-	-	-
5.004 km	49m 32s	262 m	6.06 km/h	15.63 km/h	362 m	157 m
5.001 km	41m 41s	71 m	6.58 km/h	15.63 km/h	497 m	483 m
4.997 km	37m 00s	33 m	7.02 km/h	17.50 km/h	606 m	630 m
2.782 km	13m 59s	25 m	7.50 km/h	17.50 km/h	615 m	647 m

Total: 17.785 km in 2h 22m 12s at an average of 7.50 km/h

GPX.

Tags: Plover Cove