Tag Archives: race

2013 UNICEF Half Marathon – New PB

Races Hong Kong, , , ,

I was not too keen on joining this race this year. I did 4 half marathons last season, 3 of them (UNICEF, Standard Chartered and Sydney) in almost identical 1h38mins time. The 4th one was the heavily jet lagged slightly hilly China Coast half marathon in Sai Kung at 1h45mins. I was so jet lagged that day I have no idea how I finished that one …

Anyway at the end I decided to sign up for this UNICEF Half Marathon again. I like the route and as I am planning to finally do a full marathon this season and a half marathon early on into the season could be a good test.

I haven’t had any special preparation for the road race. All my training is aimed at trail running this season so I simply decided to show up and enjoy the ride, or run.
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LT70 2013 – 70km Lantau Race

Races Hong Kong, , ,

My original goals for the 2013-14 racing season was to finally do a full road marathon race and to complete my first 50km+ ultra on trails. But during the summer I signed up for the HK100 – the original solo Hong Kong 100km and when the LT70 race (70km and about 4000m of accumulated elevation gain) was announced it sounded like a good training and endurance test for my main event of the season. After considering all pros and cons I decided to go for it. I signed up. This was to be 30km longer than my previous longest race and about 26km more than the longest trail run I ever did.

LT70 route sketch

LT70 route sketch

I worked on my pace during 40km test runs on Hong Kong Island and being familiar with the first 25km of Lantau Trail I felt pretty confident that I should be OK for at least the first 2 stages. Beyond that I had no prior knowledge of the route and no idea how my body is going to handle the distance.
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MSIG HK 2013 – 24km Race

Races Hong Kong, , ,

The MSIG HK 50 was scheduled for 27 October, 2013 – the Sunday of the Moontrekker weekend. Once I switched my Moontrekker registration from 27km to 40km I knew I would not be ready to follow it up with 50km race only 27 hours or so later, especially being aware of tough nature of the second half of the 50km route. I still decided to sign up for the 24km race though. It followed my regular Sunday morning route (HK Trail stages 1 to 4 from The Peak to Wing Nai Chung Gap) with only difference being the extra 2km long Mt. Bennet loop – so very familiar and not exactly tough route. I though this could be a nice recovery run made easier by lighter backpack thanks to all the checkpoints with water.
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Moontrekker – My trail racing season begins

Races Hong Kong, , , ,

I originally signed up for the shorter 27km version of Moontrekker. Then I joined overnight summer recce run covering the full 40km Sunrise route and really enjoyed the “extra” Chi Ma Wan loop. Then later in the summer I decided to sign up for HK100. Running the full length Moontrekker became part of my training plan for HK100. And so I made the switch.

Before this race I had almost no previous night running experience except that one all night Moontrekker practice during summer. Moreover I never finished a race this long. I had two full HK Trail practice runs from previous winter under my belt (44.5km). However the only 40km+ race that I previously entered (2013 Green Power) I had to abandon after half distance due to foot injury.

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