I am an amateur runner. I used to train and race hard in my teens. I was never a champion kind but my personal records were sub 3 mins on 1km, sun 5 mins on 1500m, sub 10 mins on 3 km on track. I can’t remember the exact times, it was more than 25 years ago. I could also run 10km on the road at about 40 minutes, but I am not really sure if I ever made it under 40 minutes. Those days we had no GPS watches and online tracking of all the runs.

Then I stopped for no reason before entering university. I haven’t done any running for over 20 years. From time to time I had few months long spells of trying to keep fit in the gym but it never lasted.

Then one day in 2011 I was walking up the steps in the city and I realized I am in really bad shape. I told myself enough is enough and decided to get fit again. Back in November 2011 I started jogging easy in the park, struggling to last for more than 5km. It took me 7 months before in May 2012 I forced myself to last for full 10km. I needed a challenge though to keep myself motivated. Somewhere online I spotted information about Victoria to Peak Race to be held in September 2012 – 10km mostly uphill run from Star Ferry or thereabouts up to the Peak Tram station on the Victoria Peak. That sounded like good enough challenge to keep me going.

While trying to find out more about this race I stumbled upon regular Thursday Night Peak Runs on the Hong Kong Trail Runners page on Meet Up. I joined up with the trail runners and from then on my running took off. One and half year later I finished my first 100km ultra. Another half a year on I went on to complete UTMB CCC – 101km trail race through the Italian, Swiss and French Alps.