Today I ran a race in Hong Kong, at the Pak Tam Chung Country Park.
Carolyn and I both made the journey from Guangzhou for this race, and we arrived in Hong Kong on Saturday night. We took a new train, and it was fast! Our top speed was a cool 200KM/H!
(Remember, click on a picture to make it bigger. It will open in a new window.)
I'm happy Carol came along, even though she wasn't racing. It's the worst when you finish the race and there's nobody there to welcome you back! We got a nice hostel room with two single beds and a washroom attached. This trip we opted for the smaller bed size, as it saved quite a bit of money. My feet hung off the mattress, but it wasn't bad at all. I think in the future it will be worth the money saved to sleep in a bed that is just a tad short.
The race was scheduled to start at 9am, with registration beginning at 8. This meant it would be an early morning for us, because we needed to navigate all aspects of Hong Kong's public transportation to get there. I knew what buses we could take to get to the Country Park, but didn't know how often they ran, where to get them, or any of that. So I printed off the rough directions provided on the race website, and planned to keep them close for the entire journey. We would need to wake up at 6:30, and leave by 7.
First, we took the MTR (subway) for about half an hour from our hostel to a stop on a different line, so we had to transfer. Hong Kong has 9 subway lines, so it's a good bet you can get near to where you're going using the MTR. From there, we took a Green MiniBus (number A1) for about 20 minutes to a marketplace with a transit terminal. Before we got on the MiniBus, we saw some other people with helmets and no bikes, so we figured they were going where we were, and began to follow them. Turned out they didn't know where they were going, so Carol and I led the way to the Green MiniBus (still number A1). When we got off, we began to chat with them, and decided to share a cab to the race start. All in all it took about an hour to travel from the hostel to the Country Park race site.
I registered for the race, got my bib and pins, and looked around at all the runners. I would say there were about 150 people there, and Asians were slightly in the minority. I heard a lot of accents from both the UK and Australia, and one from America. There were lots of foreigners there, and it was nice to chat with them. The race organizer/director/convener was a foreigner without an accent that I could place, so maybe he was from Canada or the United States. He summoned us and we gathered at the start.
We all donned our helmets and prepared to race. The race organizer gave us a briefing of the course, beginning by questioning us as to who had not run this course before. Without looking around too much, I'd estimate half the runners, including me, had their hands raised. The organizer chuckled into his bullhorn and said "Well, you're in for a treat then!" He then told us what the treat was...the race was about 13KM in length, with the first chunk being all uphill. First, we'd run up a two lane paved road for about one kilometre, and then start climbing to the top of the hill. He mentioned that last year, the fast guys completed this climb in about 20 minutes, with everyone else coming in around 30 to 45 minutes. Yikes! I realized that this sounded like more of a mountain to me, and figured it would be more of a grind than I had expected! The race was almost an out and back, but with a loop at the top. If you mapped the course, I figure it would look like a needle. The start and finish would be the sharp end, and the eye would be the loop through the gorge. The director expected the top runners to finish the entire race in 1hr 20minutes, based on previous years.
So, we lined up and waited for the start command. I didn't really want to push my way to the front of the starting scrum, since there were a lot of serious looking runners with big calves there. I figured I'd begin in the middle of the pack.
We were counted down from 10, and set out. My start was poor...I should have jostled a bit more on the line. I made up for it though, by passing quite a few people in the first kilometre of open road, which had a tough but not insane uphill grade. I knew I wasn't in the best position to start, because there were lots of people in front of me with lumbering strides, awkward gaits, and other types of poor form. I felt I had more experience than they, and wanted to get in front of them. I turned it up a notch and was able to keep that pace going until we were funneled off the road on to a flight of really steep concrete stairs.
By the time we got to the stairs, I had reached a single file line of runners, so I was happy with my strategy. It could have been quite a bottleneck there, but I was in a good position and wasn't held up by anyone in front of me.
We began the uphill slog. It was all very steep, too steep to run really. Everyone I could see was walking up the trail, and would jog a bit when the terrain levelled out for a few meters. The trail was about a metre wide, and wound its way up to the top of the hill/mountain. I could see the leaders in the distance working their way up the hill, way ahead of me.
The pack spread out a bit here, and I tired to keep contact with a group of 4 runners a head of me. It was another good bit of strategy, because I opened up gap behind me. Running fast is easier when you have people to focus on, so I was really wanting to stay with them. We had left the tree-line behind, and were running through grasslands with no shade. It got pretty hot up there, but I don't remember thinking it was unbearable.
After a solid half-hour of climbing we came to the crest of the hill, and began running down. A lot of the trail was really steep with loose rocks, but in the steepest spots stairs has been made out of concrete. Running downhill is really tough, and I kept stubbing my toes on big boulders, and stumbled a few times. I never went down though, which was good as I'd be picking gravel out of my wounds for weeks if I had. The stairs were really tough to negotiate because they were short and steep, so I had to take really small steps while trying to keep speed but also keep control. I thought it best to hit every stair, rather than go every other, so that I wouldn't get going too fast and lose my footing. Out of nowhere an Asian guy passed me going mach-noodle down these stairs, his feet pumping like pistons. I don't know how he kept it together, but he did somehow. He conquered those stairs like he runs them every day! He kept his speed and disappeared down the trail into the woods and I never saw him again.
We got to a plateau and began running toward the river gorge. This section was relatively flat, with short uphills and downhills. The trail cut around trees and over boulders, and it was a fun section. By this time, there were three of us running together, and I passed the two guys and took the lead of our small group with a burst of speed. After a few minutes we arrived at the halfway point that signaled the start of the river gorge leg of the race. There was a water checkpoint here too, and about four volunteers were running it. We weren't allowed to take bottles from the checkpoint with us, so I stopped and drank a whole one since I wasn't wearing a camelback like some other runners were. The bottles were all floating in the ice-cold river water, and we were to go and pick a bottle out of the water on our own. I did that, and chugged as fast as I could. When I was drinking, the two guys from before passed me again, so I took off in pursuit. We picked up another runner at the checkpoint, so now there were four of us running in a line. My time at the halfway checkpoint was in the 45 minute range.
Before we got to the checkpoint, the running was fairly straight forward. You could get a pace going, and keep it fairly easily since it was just rough trail we needed to negotiate. In the river gorge though, there was no trail. We were running through a creek-bed of sharp slabs of rocks, and it was pretty well impossible to run. There were often times no flat spots to place your foot. This was my weakest section. The guys in front of me gained time, and I fell back.
Soon, the creek bed started getting really hairy, and we needed the aid of ropes to keep going forward. It was very intense...now, we were scrambling up sharp pointy rocks! The ropes weren't necessary, but I made liberal use of them. At one point, the rope was strapped to the side of the cliff, and the "trail" was about one foot wide with a rock wall to my right, and a 50-foot drop to my left. I got pretty nervous! I had to keep going though, since I was feeling pressure from a guy behind me, and was still trying to catch the two guys in front. At one point, the two guys in front of me took a higher route with the rope, and I took a lower one without it. My route was faster and I passed them easily, and was soon in the lead of our foursome again.
The rock climbing got worse. The ropes used to be there to help us while we scrambled along, but they soon became necessary for forward travel. The trail, marked by red flagging tape, went straight up, and up, and up, and we needed to climb up by pulling ourselves up with our arms while finding footholds. The rope had some friendly knots tied in it to help, and that made it possible to keep going. I got nervous here, and one guy passed me. We got to a small pool, where there was no way around. We had been told about this pool, and I was ready to wade across the waist-deep water. It was about five metres long, and we all just waded in. The bottom fell away suddenly though, so I needed to swim about three breast strokes to get to the other side.
When I awkwardly climbed out, the rock climbing wasn't finished. The trail continued its ascent straight out of the pool, and to make things more interesting, I was now soaking wet, with wet shoes that squished and squeaked every step. The sharp jagged rocks were also wet from previous runners shedding water all over them, so it got downright dangerous! I was pretty nervous a few times, I mean the whole time, but didn't think about it too much because I kept my mind on the guys behind me. The last bit of rock climbing was really steep, and was a couple of ropes long. To finish, we had to surmount a nearly vertical slap of rock by getting a good grip over the top, and hauling ourselves over.
This river section was definitely my weakest part of the race. I didn't feel confident in my speed or agility over the rough and jagged terrain, and wasn't fully confident in my rope-climbing skills either. A slip or a fall would have been disastrous! So, I was very happy when I emerged from the gorge into the trail network again. A friendly marshal encouraged us telling us it was all familiar territory from here to the finish, meaning we were back on trail that we had already run in the opposite direction.
I was happy to feel safe again, and pushed my pace now that I could run. I dropped the three guys from the gorge, and set my sights on a guy ahead of me. The rest of the race was running down the huge uphill we had run up at the beginning of the race. It was very steep, and it was a chore to keep my speed at a manageable level. I caught up to the guy in front of me by grinding up some shortish, steep sections, and we were soon running pretty much together. I was happy at this point that I had been doing a lot of hill reps in my training, because I knew how hard I could push and for how long.
I led him down the stairs that led to the road and the last kilometre of the race. As soon as we hit the road, he took off and I figured he was gone. I kept my pace up though and didn't quit. I soon found I was gaining on him, and was able to take him with about 300m left in the race. I really had to dig to pass him though, and kept going fast all the way to the finish line because I didn't want to be passed at the end! It was so painful...I find when I need extra strength, yelling encouragement to myself helps a lot, so I was doing that down the final stretch. Carol saw me coming, and said that she heard me coming from far away too! I kicked it home, and almost fell over after I crossed the line.
I was so happy to be finished! The timekeepers took my number and name, and I struggled to stand up straight and had to catch hold of their table to keep myself upright. I finished the second half of the race in about 50 minutes, bringing me in at about 1hour, 35 minutes. During the race a marshal told me I was in 23rd place. I figure I got passed twice after that, but couldn't keep track. We'll wait for the final results, but I believe I came in around 25th. So I'm very happy with that!
It was an amazing race, and I had so much fun. As intense as I found the gorge section to be, nobody seemed as surprised as I was. This race would definitely not be run in Canada, because it's too dangerous. But in Asia it's a different story I guess! This race, and the mountain trek in October, have showed me the different standards that Asia has...what is considered dangerous, and what is considered acceptably risky. Asians are hardcore, and ready to take on anything. I'm pretty happy that I've had to challenge what terrain I thought to be race-able. Now, when I come up on a tough section in a race, I'll know I can handle it!
Thanks to Carol for taking all the pictures!
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