THE NORTH FACE 100 HK- DNF

Running 100k over this type of terrain is, of course, as much about the mind as it is about the body and on this occasion my head gave in first.

Since the summer I have been pondering the concept of racing 100km rather than running it. A subtle distinction over such a long distance perhaps but I've done a few 100k races now but I've never had the feeling of racing them. I don't quite know to describe this and suspect it is completely illogical. I am not talking about racing against people as such. It's more the feeling of pushing yourself, of keeping the effort sustained but managable, of seeing the best you can do rather than just surviving and getting around the course. Many ultra runners may frown at this sentiment, but last weekend my priorities put meeting my own expectations above finishing. I hadn't planned it before hand but after the first 20 minutes or so my legs felt solid so I decided it was all or nothing, and in the end chasing one meant I didn't manage either.

I did not have a fixed time or placing goal in mind (though I hoped to do better than last year), more I wanted to stay on the edge of what was manageable and try to keep the needle there the whole way round the course, while hopefully not pushing too far over this self imposed edge and going into meltdown.

As it was, it was my head which let me down and my legs which could have gone on. Sure, I had plenty of other issues along the way, including bouts cramp at various stages, and unhappy stomach and worst,  a flare up of my old foot injury from the summer which had me walking down part the road from Tai Mo Shan (not the foot injury I was concerned about before hand ironically). These things are however pretty normal when running mountain ultras and which you have to deal with to varying degrees in most races of this length. By far the biggest issue I had was with my head.

I started out feeling very comfortable,which rather suprisingly had me floating along in between 2nd or 4th place until after half way. I would have much rather not known my position or been running near to others to be honest, as thinking too much about the people around me ultimately made me drop the ball. A couple of times I dropped back at check points as the Champion System/North Face guys with a crew just swapped out their packs and kept going while I had to fumble with refilling bottles and restocking from my drop bag. We are only talking a couple of minutes each time but is was enough to lure me into a feeling of 'I must catch up'. This was really stupid of me in the first half of a 100k, especially as it framed my race in the context of other peoples effort. I should have been running my own race and concentrating on managing my own situation but instead my ego lured me into thinking more about where I was in relation to other runners. Most importantly, this distracted me from what I really should have been focusing on at this stage in the race, namely eating and drinking enough. Inevitably this caught up with me and unsprisingly the wheels started to come off soon after 50km. Not in a catastrophic way but enough for the lights to gradually dim and the fingers of cramp to start creeping in.

I probably could, and should,  have soldiered on but unfortunately this wasn't my focus at the time. I lost the heid, got annoyed that I'd 'dropped behind' (incredibly I was actually only 15mins or so behind second at the point I mentally gave up) and as soon as I started to fall into the mindset of battling my body to finish rather than racing I just lost all motivation to keep at it. I didn't want to 'just' finish on Saturday, though writing it now it sounds a bit pathetic and misguided. The irony is that if I had kept fighting I likely would have 'just' finished in the top 5.

After initially intending to quit at CP7,  I kept a painfully slow plod going and eventually threw in the towel one stage later at 80km after walking in the last few km to CP 8. I surrendered 5th place just before I moped my way into the CP.

Lessons to be learned for sure.

Photo Credits: Wilson Chong, Maggie Tsang, Edwin Yung, Derek Leung, Rupert Chamberlain, Daniel, HK Run, KK Run

KOTH- HONG KONG ISLAND

King of the Hills (KOTH) is a now legendary race series which has been running in Hong Kong for the last 15 years or so. The series comprises of 4 races per year, characterised by rough terrain, steep technical climbs and descents and a low key approach which belies the very tough courses and traditionally strong fields. The races are split into 2 distances, full and half 'marathons' which in reality means 30-38km for the full and 18-24km for the half. These are by some of my favourite races in Hong Kong. There is a no down to earth vibe about them akin to Scottish fell races, which is more than can be said about the increasing hype surrounding a lot of other local events lately.So last Sunday nearly 900 runners over two categories gathered at Repluse Bay for the first race in the series. This race traditionally attracts the largest field of the season because of its easily accessible start and finish point location on HK Island, something which has pros and cons associated with it. The half marathon started at 9am with the full kicking off 30 minutes later in and attempt to avoid to many bottle necks. It wasn't to be an overly successful strategy.

After the signing in we gathered at the start line just up the road from the beach ready for the off. The first few minutes climb up the road before hitting the trail proper. This at least strings things out a little because once you hit the trail its pretty tight for the first 800m or so until you reach the main trail. I quickly settled into 3rd spot with Vlad Ixel and Santosh Tamang, a HK based Nepalese runner just ahead of me. It was the last I was to see of Vlad all day. At the top of the technical access trail the course climbs up the first few part of the main trail up Violet Hill before turning off onto the contour trail high above Repulse Bay itself skirting around the hillside. The first few km of this trail is awesome, quite rocky and technical but fast. Super enjoyable, especially on fresh legs for once as I normally only find myself here at the end of the MSIG 50 when my legs are in pieces. Unfortunately, the trail gives way to a concrete catchwater path which is much less fun, not helped by the fact that only 10 minutes or so into the race we were already overtaking the back markers from the half marathon. I trundled around here just behind Santosh shouting 'left' or 'right' every few hundred meters. We were passed on this section by Michael Skobierski, a guy whom I had seen around but had never spoken too before, and he soon took off ahead. I overtook Samir just before the climb up the steps to Violet Hill. Unfortunately this section was packed with people and it was impossible to get in any sort of decent rhythm when fighting past the conga line of slower runners. This was to be the theme of the day. Despite my legs feeling pretty decent, by half way up I had already lost my racing mojo. I kept at it the best I could, easing past the hordes as politely as I muster. To be fair, most people were very good about letting us past but it still put the breaks on things a little and took a lot of the fun out of it. There were however the usual few morons who refused to take a half step aside and a number of people listening to music so loud they couldn't hear calls from behind which didn't help my humour much.

Descending down from Violet Hill to Park View, there the first check point is located, was much the same story. Here the hordes queuing for water slowed me down some more and meant I didn't drink as much as I should have, especially considering I'm still racing with just a tiny 385ml Simple Hydration bottle stuffed in my waistband (which necessitates a bit more drinking at CPs to keep the show on the road). Eventually refilled, I took off up the climb towards Jardines Lookout but I my motivation was was already waning and I was getting lazy. As if to confirm it, I  soon heard Steve Cale behind me. Steve is very strong on the hills so I let him trot past me and then just sat comfortably in a few metres behind him, happy to have him break trail past the back markers. We ran the climb, which passed in no time and with minimal effort but all I was thinking about was the course split ahead near the top of Mt Butler which takes the full marathon runners off on an extended and back marker free loop.

Reaching the turn off was a bit of a relief as soon we were on the nice rolling section of ridge line on the Wilson trail down off of Mt Bulter and to Sir Cecils Ride (you have to love the names of some of the hills and trails....in Hong Kong reminders of the British Empire are never far away). We were soon onto the much less impressively named Hong Pak country trail. This rolling gave me the opportunity to strech the legs out a little but by now I was feeling positively mediocre. Towards the end of this the course marking was starting to get a little ropey, presumanbly due to hikers taking them down. Fortunately I'd scoped out this section the previous weekend as it was a bit fuzzy, having only done it once before. Just as well as there were a few spots where it was less than clear but Steve and I made it to General Rock without getting lost. Here where the course turns up an absurdly steep and technical trail heading straight up the side of Mt Parker. This trail involves hands on knees hiking,  a bit of scrambling over boulders, with a few sections needing the help of ropes and one a fixed metal ladder. It had rained the night before so sections of the trail pretty slippery and there were quite a few bits requiring grabbing onto trees, rocks and whatever was around to haul yourself up. We stayed together all the way up the climb, dipping into the mist and cloud towards the top. We eventually trotted out onto  a gloomy Mt Parker road near the summit radar station and flat footedly slapped our way down the paved road to Quarry Gap and the CP.

Refilling quickly here I took off after Steve and we bombed down the Boa Vista trail, but soon we were once more back to dodging half marathon runners. It would have been nice to kick on here down the fantastic technical but runnable trail but it was practically impossible with all the back markers. Eventually we popped out onto a wider section of trail reading onto the paved section back down towards the HK trail. Here I was again able to stretch the legs a bit, opening a small gap to Steve and I soon I caught sight of Michael ahead. I was a bit surprised that he had stayed out ahead of us for so long, though admittedly we hadn't exactly been pushing the pace. We climbed the steps up to the next technical section and were confronted by a hands and feet climb up a sections which is usually roped. The next section is an enjoyable reasonably technical sandy descent winding its way down to the river but again it was clogged with other runners and it was by now becoming a bit of a chore. A short section of rock hopping down the river bed and we rejoined a wider trail. By now I had unwittingly distanced Steve and soon Michael had also dropped back so I knew up a reasonable place and eventually popped out onto another short paved section. Back on the trail around Tai Tam resevoir i was feeling quite good but again there were backmarkers to be passed, though people made every attempt to let you through by this point it was still slow going at times. The full marathon turns off at the foot of The Twins to add a extra climb over the two hills and a long contour ride back round to the start. A quick refill at a very confused CP and it was the hands on knees grunt up the 900 or so steps of the first twin. I managed to muster a reasonable effort up here and then onto the final hill. I took it pretty easy on the steps down the other side as they are at a little awkward when striding down them and I was not longer in any mood to push on, assuming that Vlad would be way ahead by now. I decided to have my 4th gel of the day coming down here which probably describes something about my progress at this point.  The remaining contour trail was completed at what can be described a medium effort at best before turning off down the last section of tricky technical downhill back to the road. Changing my cadence here caused me to start cramping a little, probably due to the minimal fluids I'd been taking on board so I stopped for a minute to stretch out and massage my quads while clinging onto a tree. I hobbled on and by the time I reached the road it had passed. I trotted my way down the road and onto the beach to finish in 3.19, in second place, around 10 minutes behind Vlad.

All in all it was a decent result, but it it was a shame not to have felt like I had raced it as such but I guess that can be seen as a positive aspect of the performance too.

As a side note, it was the first time I have raced in UVU gear. I was pretty pleased with how it all felt. The shirt is excellent, though I still need to get my hands on a singlet too. The shorts were good too and the front mounted gel pockets worked really well despite my misgivings. I'm still not 100% convinced about the fit of the liner and might look to replace the drawstring but considering how picky I am about these things that's already a result!

Next up is The North Face 100 HK (if I manage to shake of this dodgy foot that I seem to have picked up over the last week.....)

Photo Credits: Wong Ho Fai