Listening to the wind - Wednesday the 22nd of December, 2010

A fairly non-eventful run with the only thing being the battery on my shuffle dying after the first 5 minutes!


A little lean-to built alongside the trail


Strange debris considering a complete lack of overhead powerlines in the area!


The view out towards the High Junk Peak Trail. The range just right of the centre is what that awesome trail follows


A sign forbidding excavation of construction. Doesn't seem to have stopped anyone up here!


Baking on the exposed uphill sections!

The downhill was super enjoyable and at quite a good pace, while the flat was smooth, comfortable and I fell into a good rhythm. The uphill is always the hardest section, but it felt fast and rewarding.

Even though this is a course I've ran many many times, this was a smooth, fast and very enjoyable run.

See you out in the sun!

~ Joe

Head in the clouds - Monday the 13th cof December, 2010

Feeling a bit low after Sunday's run I packed my Brooks Cascadia 5's, the trail monsters, planning on a trip up Razor Hill to bolster my motivation.

Upon arriving at work it became obvious that I wouldn't be heading up Razor Hill as the mist and light rain would have turned the route's normally treacherous descent into a long, muddy, slippery-dip death dive... Even in the Brooks.

So instead I hatched a plan to head south and run the first half of the High Junk Peak Trail. A rough mark-up on Google Earth told me the distance would be around 14-15km... really stretching the boundaries for a lunchtime run, but my mind was already made up.

Heading out along the roads, I'd forgotten how much uphill you face on the roads before the trail starts, but altitude is altitude and I wasn't complaining about gaining it on the roads instead of stairs on the trail.


After the initial steep climb, the trail flattens out and normally shows you the next major hill. Not today (there should be a large hill in the middle of this panorama!), as the low clouds that encased the entire region made the trail feel isolated, remote and fantastical.


Only on cresting each hill was the next gradually revealed


Beautiful sweeping panoramas of Clearwater Bay dotted with lush islands to the left here... Normally


The white-out allowed me to focus on the delightful, winding, and at times, rocky trail.


Despite this amount of fog, the ground was mostly dry, a good thing on rocky sections!

Unfortunately my head wasn't only physically in the clouds and I almost almost rolled my ankle through a rocky section and 5 minutes later dropped my camera! Good thing the Pentax is built tough. It suffered a small scratch on the back LCD but still functions perfectly!



Heading down the hill and over a small stream


Bamboo forests


Hitting the road, I began making my way back to UST. A village style house along Clearwater Bay Rd.




All in all, about 55mins of running along the roads to earn 25mins on the trail, but that's not such a bad equation. If I could get a third of all my running done on trails, I'd be very very happy. Unfortunately, it appears that the more time I spend running along beautiful dirt tracks, the less I'm content with pounding pavement. I'll just have to enjoy it while I have the privilege.

Dreaming of those winding trails
~ Joe

P.S. I'm still looking for other contributors to this blog. Articles about runs, gear, training or anything related are all welcome, even if it's just a once off contribution!

The Big Easy - Saturday the 6th of November, 2010

In a week that started with Lessons in Pain, it seems about right that the week ended with a long, sublime "trail" run. I put the trail in inverted commas here because the section of Wilson Trail we ran was 90% paved!

My running weeks have always started on Sundays and finished on Saturdays. I think I originally went with this because I like to have my long run at the start of the week and be able to relax a little towards the end. But this set-up meant that I ran a long run at both the start and end of this week. In fact I *almost* cracked the 100km/week, falling short by 4km!!

Anyway, on to Saturday's run. Two weeks out from the Oxfam I knew this was probably my last longish run. I settled on stages 3-5 of the Wilson Trail, running them backwards (5 -> 4 -> 3, not actually running backwards) and leaving stage 3 early to run over to Hang Hau. Once again it was Wai and I, new brother-in-laws, chalking up some nice distance.

Going to see a movie the night before and getting to bed around 1am didn't deter me from getting up at 6.15am for an early start. Conditions were cold and wet. The only time it stopped raining was when we got enough altitude to enter the clouds and even then it didn't get any drier!


Wai, setting out at the start of the trail. Apologies for the photos, it was *very* wet for the whole morning. Good thing my Pentax W90 is fully water proof (I've taken underwater photos with it no problems)! Doesn't stop water collecting on the lens however :(


Halfway up the climb with the twisty, contour following path on the left


Into the clouds, things only getting wetter!


Running atop Fei Ngo Shan. Awesome dense clouds make it feel like we're the only people for miles and miles (in the middle of HK no less)!


Buildings peering into the clouds as we descend Fei Ngo Shan


All hail the Hypno-toad


A close up of this awesome toad who was enjoying the rain


The exposed section of the Lam Tin Morning Trail, nearing 21km here.


My favourite piece of architecture in Hong Kong. Things still wet here on the short road run back to Hang Hau.



With around 400m gained in one go up Fei Ngo Shan, this is a moderate run and paved most of the way.

Despite getting a little off trail this was a fantastic run. None of the niggley knee problems that were plaguing me during the week and no running out of steam towards the end. In fact, we ran the last ~4km a bit faster than any other section! Next time I'll keep my eyes open for that trail but on the day it was probably too wet for us to take it at any speed anyway.

See you out on the trails!

~ Joe

Lessons in Pain - Sunday the 31st of October, 2010

Sunday was supposed to be the last long hiking session before the Oxfam Trailwalker, now just under 3 weeks away! So I got up at 5.30am, breakfast and changed, headed to the MTR station, sitting on the train and received a message: "Afraid I won't be able to join you today. Sorry!"... hmmm... Well, no point letting this preparation go to waste, I might as well try to run the 55km instead!

So, I headed out to Pak Tam Chung and set sail on the MacLehose Trail.

Last weekend, I ran sections 1 and 2 so I had a pretty good idea what to expect there. Section 1 starts out with a climb up a serious but not that steep hill, before winding it's way along the High Island Reservoir.


Morning sunlight reflected off the water in this crooked photo


The water in the reservoir looked so clean and inviting

Moving onto Section 2, my speed drastically decreased and I started walking up hills. After Long Ke, there's a serious climb up to Sai Wan Shan which is preceded by this sign:



Close up:

Awesome!

After climbing the hill, the trail winds down to Sai Wan where, at about the 15km mark, I stopped for a bowl of Cold Sweet Tofu (Dong Doe-Fu Faa)


Delicious! But let's hit the trail!


Meandering around the cliffs

Around this time, I got a call from my friend telling me that he was indeed going to come along and that he was going to meet me a little further along on the trail, at the change-over between Sections 3 & 4!

Well, that would be the end of my running, and I was looking forward to seeing if I was up to the challenge, but the company would be nice.


If there's one thing I hate more than walking on sandy sections... it's running on sandy sections!

Section 3 starts with a killer hill (see the profile below), has some rolling hills in the middle and finishes with another steep steep killer.


Running the rolling hills in the middle of Section 3


Looking back down towards the hills I'd just climbed


After cresting the final hill, there's a downward spiral through bamboo grooves that depleted almost all the elevation I just banked, not to mention my knees' stamina!

I was beat down after the Section 3 descent, and very glad to meet my friend on the way down the hill, signalling the end of the run.

Section 4 again starts with a loooooong, steeeeeeep ascent to reach the Ma On Shan Plateau. After reaching our highest point however, I was thinking that it would have been nice to put in a couple of kms on the run, through the winding hills, even just to break up the monotony of walking (not to mention to speed things up)!


Cruising through the hills towards Kowloon Peak (Fei Ngo Shan).

Eventually, we reached the change-over to Section 5, by which stage I was really feeling the distance.


Looking happy sitting next to the 50km marker.

We decided to pack it in after we reached Shatin Pass Rd. It was getting dark, my friend didn't have his headlamp, and I was completely stuffed. I remembered the next section as quite hilly and strenuous, and, looking for excuses, I pointed at the darkening sky and signalled our retreat down towards Wong Tai Sin.


A retaining wall as we descended towards Wong Tai Sin.



Keep in mind that these are all serious mountains!

In the end I guess I covered about ~53km, with the first roughly 34km taking around 4hrs as a trail-run (walking up steep slopes, but running where possible). I'm pretty happy with the effort overall and would have liked to see if I could have kept running the flats, etc in the second section. I suppose that'll have to wait till another day!

See you on the roads, trails, tracks and slopes!
~ Joe

Razor Hill - Wednesday the 27th of October, 2010

With such a positive run on Tuesday, persisting sore legs from the weekend and night hiking on Thursday, I wanted to head out on a run that wasn't necessarily that hard but would keep me moving. I decided to take on Razor Hill. I figured it was so steep, I'd probably be walking half of the predicted 5km anyway!

It was a bit sunnier than I would have liked, but the air temperature was still quite cool... This is going to be a photo heavy post since it was so damn beautiful up there, so sit back and relax:


Heading across the bridge out of UST, looking up at the target: Razor "Hill"


Been here before, but this time choosing the steep uphill path to the right!


Looking along the ridgeline towards the high-point of Razor "Hill". I swear it looked closer before!


Looking back down the hill at the steep, steep stairs. My normal trail run contours the spur on the left of the picture down to the buildings in the centre.


Getting up there now. That's still the same spur in the middle of the photo!


A panorama from just about the top. From right to left: Po Lam residential towers, the path I followed up, HKUST in about the middle of the photo and almost Sai Kung on the left edge.


Looking down at the highway overpasses that I took the photo at the end near.


Hebe Haven and Sai Kung. The mountain in the background is on Stage 3 of the MacLehose Trail (I think).


A (rare) self-portrait. I wanted to get one of me standing on the datum post, but couldn't find anywhere else flat, so ended up taking it from the datum post. On another note: Wow... talk about thunder thighs!


It wouldn't be a proper Hong-Kong-Joe-Gray Trail Run with a bit of bashing through the jungle! The descent was heavily vegetated.


Almost back at HKUST looking up towards the "hill"




You've probably noticed that I've taken to putting the "hill" part in inverted commas... not sure exactly if a 438m peak still counts as a hill!

With over 400m elevation gain, just about all within ~1.5km, this run is hardly a push over. On the uphill slopes, however, the gradient was just too steep for me to run, so I ended walking up about 30% of the slope I guess, so, on the downhill sections I was still feeling fine. Also, I underestimated the 8.5km length a little (by about 30%!), so it took me longer than expected.

A great dirt trail, an isolated location and fantastic vistas. Another awesome box ticked!

See you on the slopes!
~ Joe