Back in the hunt - Thursday the 24th of Februaru, 2011

After a couple of days of antibiotics, I was feeling well enough to start to run again. I was also becoming increasingly more anxious about the upcoming KOTH race.

A minute and a half into the run, and I spot a familiar old friend:


Back in the Lizard Hunting game.

I made sure the run was nice and easy, but got tired pretty quick anyway. Obviously not fully recovered.


Playing it safe


Textural

During the run I was a lot more tired than I normally would be on such an easy jaunt, and afterwards it took me ages to cool off, but overall the run had no lasting negative impacts and I was very happy to be able to start preparations in proper for the upcoming KOTH race.

See you on the trails!
~ Joe

Perfect Conditions, Imperfect Condition - Tuesday the 15th of February, 2011

After a rest on Monday after the KOTH race, I decided Tuesday was a good day to get back into it with a relaxed run up the hill towards Tseng Lang Shue. My body was still decidedly suffering and it was a slow slow run, but I couldn't ask for better conditions, with the ground mostly dry-ish, but plenty of low cloud.


Out across the bridge and up the hill


Lost belongings


Naturally Pink


A tangle of branches against the cloudy sky

In retrospect, the cold/flu that was setting-in almost certainly contributed to this run feeling harder than it normally would. At the time I dismissed it still being tired from the weekend. Despite that, after this run, I felt so relaxed and calm... Very positive and looking forward to the next run. Unfortunately, the very next day my symptoms appeared and I didn't get another run in for 9 days!

See you at the doctor's office!
~ Joe

King of the Hill HK Island Mountain Marathon - Sunday the 13th of February, 2011

Once again, apologies for my recent lack of updates! I've been sick for the past week and a half... 9 days without a run! A significant length of time for me! I went back and looked through my training log and found that since August 2008, I've only had two "0km" weeks (Sun to Sat without a single run). One of those was a cold/flu while the other was when I got married! Quite a good record really and one I'll be able to slyly preserve thanks to a run last Tuesday (the 15th) and a run today (the 24th).

Anyway, back to the King of the Hill (KOTH) competition! As I left home early on the Sunday morning, the light rain was unexpected (I didn't have quite enough waterproof bags for everything in my run pack, but close enough). The rain coupled with the cold weather and low cloud made for some super atmospheric conditions (even if they probably did play a part in me coming down with a cold/flu/sinusitis).



The start area was rather crowded, but most of these people turned out to be running the Half Marathon version of the race, and moved out 15mins before us full-on crazys. There were fewer people running the full version than I expected (about 90 finishers) and it didn't take too long before everyone was spread out.



I spent most of the run hanging with a friendly Canadian I'd met, and traded contact into with, the weekend before (on my long hard trail run). Having a trail partner does have many advantages, one of them being a seldom seen picture of myself on the trail:



About here I should apologise for the terrible quality of photos from the run. *Everything* was soaked and I didn't have a dry square inch to wipe water off the camera lens before shooting. Thus, all my photos look like the blurry mess above.

The first 15km or so of the run were as expected. Occasional patches of pavement, but largely awesome (albeit very muddy!) dirt trails. As I mentioned above, the mist and low cloud only added to the atmostphere, more than making up for the lack of sprawling vistas. Suddenly, running along a dirt track, we were directed up a goat trail towards the peak. This goat trail degraded into a scrub bash, then to a rock scramble, at times using ancient (maybe not that old - I know how fast ropes age here, but pretty old) weathered ropes to climb slippery rocky sections (even including a rusty old ladder tied into the rock face and surrounding trees). This all culminated in a scramble up a mud slide using trees and branches to pull ourselves up.


Don't be fooled by the apparent angle in this photo... trees and branches were a necessity on this trail!

This scramble / climb / slide section was completely unexpected! But don't get me wrong, it wasn't unwelcome! The trail run finally crossed the mountain top, heading down a road on the otherside before veering onto a dirt trail that crossed a mountain stream... oh, we weren't continuing on the trail... No... Our path led down the stream bed! Part scrambling along the muddy banks and part rock hopping (or in my case, ending in the stream and getting my shoes filled with water!) and despite the previous rock scrambling section, I totally wasn't expecting the route to take a turn such as this! And on a side note, while hopping down the stream bed, I couldn't help but think of the many "beware of flash flooding" signs posted on every minor watercourse in Hong Kong, and how the current conditions might be not be an expected time for a flash flood.


Using a rope up a steep section underneath a power pylon

The last 6km included The Twins, a 900+stair unrelenting stair-master challenge. Thankfully when crossing onto the second of the twins, you only dip into a saddle and the climb isn't nearly as bad. The last 3km was also thankfully rather flat and I did my best to power to the end. I was very thankful to cross the finish line and very depleted. I changed and headed home for a well earned rest.




All-in-all, an awesome event, over totally unexpected and exciting terrain. Now I'm starting to get a little anxious about the upcoming 40km Sai Kung version of the event. Hopefully the course will be equally interesting without quite as much vertical challenge!

See you out on the trails!
~ Joe

Easy K's - Friday the 11th of February, 2011

As is my favoured preparation, I went out on a light, flat, easy run on the Friday before my Sunday race. The upcoming KOTH meant that Friday's run was spent pulling back on the reigns and taking in the surroundings.


Flat


Multicoloured phyllodes litter the ground


Wonderful overcast conditions: wet ground but not raining


A strange mail box (still in use!), sort of built into a post... Cool!


Another strange sighting: looking sort of like a barn, a residential (I think) U-shaped building with a covered centre area (completely unsure of the purpose!)

A very relaxing run, and mentally very good preparation for a long, difficult and slow paced race like the upcoming Sunday trail run.

See you at the starting line!
~ Joe

The Second Shooter - Tuesday the 8th of February, 2011

After the very very hard run on the previous Sunday, my legs were still sore, but I needed to get moving again and start preparing for the upcoming KOTH Mountain Marathon.

So, I decided on a easy-ish, fully paved route, albeit with quite steep climbs.




A dis-used gate on my little back-road detour down towards Hang Hau


The view towards the High Junk Peak Trail, that I've now ran quite a few times at lunchtime.


Originally I thought I was taking a photo of an abandoned road, that I'd never ran before, until I spotted something in my shot:


Another shooter!
(although of the less creative bend)

I went a little further up the hill, waded through a some foliage and climbed a wall to get a better look at the little sniper:


Gone! (At least the gun is still there)

To me, he looked like a quite young kid, maybe mid to late high school, and judging by the sound and the distance to his target (an empty drink bottle) the gun (despite size) must be a quite weak BB / pellet gun.


The direction he was shooting... into this abandoned house. Looks like a great place for a couple of photos at a later date tho!


As I headed back to the road and up the hill, I spotted this likewise spiky fellow!

I wouldn't say it was a great run, given the sore legs, but an interesting one!

Happy to be on the "firing" end of my shooter.
~ Joe

Scientifically Designed to Break your Soul - Sunday the 6th of February, 2011

So, a week out from the King of the Hill (KOTH) Hong Kong race, I decided to run a reverse version of the route I ran a few weeks earlier. I mean, sure, that hill seemed pretty long on the descent, but I've hiked it numerous times... how hard can it be on a trail run?


Heading out of Sai Kung and looking towards the Ma On Shan... That's what I'm climbing!

Bright sun is beating down, my back's wet... already? oh, I see, my water bladder is leaking. I quickly re-seal it: I don't think I lost that much water at all: no problemo... ah... so foolish.


Looking away from Ma On Shan, out towards the eastern islands as I begin the climb


The climb starts up a road that gains 250m (vertical) over 2km before turning onto a trail, dipping a little and then getting really serious.


This shows the route quite well, with the trail basically climbing up onto the ridgeline on the right of the photo, and winding it's way (up and down) towards the mountains obscured by haze on the left.

Incidentally, I love long runs / hikes where you can point at a distant landmark and say that you're going over (or come from) that thing. It really adds a sense of scale (by some magnitudes) to the adventure.


Sun really beating down by this stage, the subsequent hard pushes followed by slacking off, is a formula that's designed to inflict maximum damage in minimum time.

Reaching the top in about an hour, that's 15mins of flat running and bladder fixing followed by a 45min non-stop-thigh-burning hill climb. Just over a 550m gain in about 5km!!

If you were to design a 45min workout, hard effort for 12mins followed by 3mins at a slower pace with 3 repetitions might be a good way to compress a lot of work into the time frame. You'd probably be pretty tired afterwards (I sure was)... not really ready for a 20km very hilly trail run! Bring it on... as Courage Wolf says: "You remember that last guy who gave up? Neither does anyone else"


A para-glider standing around, trying to draw a large enough audience for take off


At least someone's enjoying the sun beating down as my water supplies start to dwindle


Cruising through the mountains towards Tate's Cairn


Lots of water here, but none that I'm going to drink!


Vistas open up as I just about reach the cross-over between MacLehose and Wilson Trails


Looking a little to the left of the above image


An abandoned building at the bottom of the steep Wilson Trail downhill section

By this stage I was almost totally out of water and planned to buy some at Tseng Lang Shue... but... oh... closed for Chinese Nwe Year? That's... unfortunate. So on I run down towards HKUST.


I see the light.

Getting to the end of the 26.5km I'm totally parched and worn down. I couldn't stomach more than 1L of water and jumped straight in the shower to cool off. I came away with quite a bad headache, fever that night and a lesson about being self-reliant with water!

See you out on the parched trails!
~ Joe

PS.

Route map and elevation plot:

Taking it easy - Wednesday the 2nd of February, 2011

My final run in the year of the tiger. Times are changing... onto the year of the rabbit!

Since I only had a half-day on eve of Chinese New Year, I decided on a long easy ramble on the roads and trails in the mountains that surround Tseung Kwan O. As this post is quite late, I'm just going to go with a quick photo post!


Buildings in Tseung Kwan O as I head towards the trail


The small harbour outside "Oscar by the Sea"


Heading up the hill towards the trail head


Lam Tin Morning Trail!


Awesome vistas out towards Lam Tin / Yau Tong


What's up little buddy?


The small village about halfway along Wilson Trail Stage 3


This car was previously only overgrown, but has now become a permanent part of this carpark!


Looking towards Razor Hill... I'll be heading over it (again) sometime soon!

I light cruise down the very well travelled hill north of HKUST didn't warrant any further photos, but I'm behind schedule anyway. Prepare for a tonne of trail photos!

Cheers,
Joe