Forgotten Speed - Tuesday the 30th of November, 2010

I was feeling a little unmotivated on Tuesday morning but decided to head out on an easy-ish lunchtime run anyway.

Setting out, up the hill towards Fei Ngo Shan I felt light and fast. I pushed hard up the hill and found myself keeping quite a good pace, this run wasn't going so bad after all!


Working my way up the hill


The overpass at the prison. Low sun for a 1pm run!


Old, rusting, picturesque... Village homes near Tseng Lan Shue


I shot this one to compare the amount of haze to two days ago when I ran past the same spot! The haze was much much worse on Tuesday!

On racing down the hill I found I was on a PB time and worked hard all the way to the finish. In the end I was able to just push the time under 40mins, making for a very successful run!

On a side note, I was also reminded that I have an upcoming race this weekend! I'd signed up for it months ago and completely forgotten that it was so soon. Luckily, the organiser sent out a reminder email! It's a 15km mixed-terrain trail run around the very scenic Tai Lam Chung reservoir. Since I'm not really in top form, I'm aiming to just go out and have fun!

See you at the finish line!
~ Joe

Long Shadows and Steep Hills - Sunday the 28th of November, 2010

Being back in Hang Hau on the weekend allowed me to head out and tackle another of my old favourite routes. I remember when I first set out on this challenge I didn't know for sure if I could make it, or even if I could get all the way through! The route basically climbs straight out of the valley Tseung Kwan O / Hang Hau is in on the eastern edge and weaves it's way through the surrounding hills to arrive back at the waterfront on western side of Tseung Kwan O, before heading back home again.


Someone selling doors beside the bicycle path. Rather strange I thought!


As I head north the sun is blocked by Razor Hill


Beautiful (mostly) clear skies after reaching the top of the major uphill section


Finally reaching the trail section, I head down the initial paved section (right trail)


Long shadows being cast on hills carpeted with lush wonderful greenery as I wind my way southbound. I was feeling great on this section of the trail and entranced by the mosaic of greens on the surrounding hills all bathed in the golden dying light.


Village life, halfway along the Wilson Trail section of the route


Running along a paved section of the trail, floating over wonderful shadows


An exposed section of trail, looking towards Lam Tin


More views of this wonderful, all-to-short section


Normally I hate running on cobblestones, but the cooling air and golden sunlight had me cruising these sections high on endorphins!



Most of the hard work done at the start and a nice, fast, flat to cruise home along. All-round, an awesome course.

A great run and not a bad time overall either. I just missed out on 1.5hrs, coming in at ~4mins over. I love being able to switch on cruise mode and enjoy a long scenic run like this. Awesome.

See you in the hills!
~ Joe

Back on the Trails - Friday the 26th of November, 2010

So, a week after the 100km event and things are back to normal. It's certainly been a low km week for me, but I guess that's to be expected. This'll be another short post as I'm still a little behind, playing catch-up.

On a fairly sunny Friday I decided to head out and run one of my favourite courses: down to Po Lam via the trails and back again.


Familiar terrain, as I dodge the pointy rocks and try to slow down to enjoy the scenery.


Dry! But luckily a cool breeze kept me cool enough


Going down, but to where?


Keep pasting! Graffiti on an abandoned house at the Silverstrand Beach Round-about


Nice natural patterns

The run went fairly well. Pretty quick and the hills weren't too hard. Great to be back on the run again and my quick recovery from the Oxfam has me seriously considering the "HK100" 100km run event in January 2011!

See you in the hills!
~ Joe

Sketchy Details - Tuesday 23rd of November, 2010

Sorry guys, quite a few runs behind at the moment I haven't completely stopped running after the Oxfam, it's just taken me longer to update!

Well, for the first time ever, I forgot to bring my camera along on a run day. So, you'll have to make do with a couple of quick sketches I roughed out the day after the run.


Down the main-road as the bright overhead sunlight lay dappled on the bitumen (use imagination!)


Along the tree-lined trail before heading back to HKUST

Being only 2 days after I completed the Oxfam 100km, this was a nice easy run on fairly flat terrain. My legs were a little more tired than usual, but no sharp pains and no signs of serious damage. Awesome!

See you out on the sketchy trails!
~ Joe

A Walk in the (Country) Park(s) - Friday & Saturday 19-20th of November, 2010

Just a quick post about the Oxfam Trailwalker. I certainly wouldn't call it a run, so I'll keep this brief, but since I've been building up to it so much, I thought I'd better talk about it a little and since I'm a little behind, I'll be relying heavily on photos for this post!


The team, all smiles, ready to set out


In the hills on Section 2 with the Sun beating down


Approaching Ham Tin Wan, luckily we don't have to go over that large mountain looming on the horizon (Snake Mountain?)


The sun sinking into the haze over Section 2


Still moving along Section 2


Resting my feet at our first support: dinner!


All the gang still smiling before the toughest climb of the route: Section 4


The next morning at the start of Section 7. Wai's ready to go!


Cup noodles at the Start of Section 8


Starting up towards Hong Kong's highest mountain


Wavy hills as we wind up way slowly upwards


Not gum-nuts but some kind of berries!


Grinding up the final road that leads to the peak of Hong Kong's highest mountain: Tai Mo Shan. I can't tell if I'm trying to smile or squinting in the bright-ish light!


What goes up, must come down... Unfortunately on these winding dull roads


Talk about a "Green Roof". Section 9


The sun sets for a second time as we approach the end of Section 9


All smiles.. Pssshh 100km? Not that bad


The elevation profile. Every upward spike you see here is a serious mountain and you can probably match the first half of this profile to my long run a couple of weeks ago. Despite appearances the second half of the course is significantly easier than the first. The distance displayed is ~105km. That's probably about 1-2km out but I think the course is definitely longer than the vanilla 100.


Basically a map of Hong Kong (in fact, more of Hong Kong than most maps show!) with a squiggly red line on it!

Well... apologies for not writing more on this topic, I might come back to visit it again later, but will try to update the latest runs first before tackling this (mostly) walk.

See you on the long road!
~ Joe

Easy Peasy - Tuesday 16th of November, 2010

With just a couple of days till the big event I wanted an easy, flat run to stretch out my legs. The weather was quite sunny, but not really a problem as I set out on the same flat 7km I ran for recovery a couple of weeks ago.


Out along the trails


Great camouflage! I only got one good snap of this guy before he darted away


The weathered sign of a nearby house


Terracotta colours at a little block of flats

The run went as expected. Nice and Easy. Easy Peasy.

See you on the long trail!
~ Joe

Go with the Flow - Sunday 14th of November, 2010

Awesome, Awesome Run.

On the final weekend before the Oxfam, I decided on a nice, easy 10km run. Since we were planning to eat at Hang Hau for dinner, it gave me a chance to tour my old stomping grounds.

As it turns out, the difference between running around Kowloon and around Tseung Kwan O is like night and day.

Somehow, every time I go out running around Hung Hom / TST it feels like a battle: so many lights to cross, so many people to dodge, everything about it feels busy and rushed. Sometimes it's nice to go out and do battle, to conquer challenges. But not all the time!

In Tseung Kwan O, I set sail on one of my most ran routes, a 10km that basically tours the entire region. And I just settled into a flow. My speed was high (relatively compared to lately), my stride was smooth and I flowed from one place to another. It was calm, controlled and peaceful. An awesome run by all accounts.


What's left of Junk Bay. The rest has been "reclaimed".


Another view of the Design School in Tiu Keng Leng.


It was fairly dark by the time I enter the last couple of kms towards home. Apologies for the poor white balance / colour in this photo. I should have fixed it in-camera, and now there's not too much I can do!

In fact, I was enjoying my run so much that I didn't really want to stop to take photos, and only did so grudgingly when I thought I saw a cool shot.




I'm very much looking forward to the cool of winter but wonder how I'm going to deal with running around TST.

See you on the trails.
~ Joe