第30屆香港畢拿山十五公里越野賽

19/3/2006, 7:30 am start

I've visited the trail in July 2005, but most of the up and down trail are paved now. It now tends to be a road race rather than a cross-country race.

I arrived at 6:45 am, so early that I can see a sea of cloud / fog around the Wong Nai Chung Gap and Wong Chuk Hang.
I've done 2 training weeks before the race, and the fastest run was 1:38'09 .

Start

The road was not closed until the last few minutes, and there was no banner above the start line.
I can find a place at the front as I warm up at the parks ahead of the start line,
while most of the people wait inside the car park.
The announcement was done with a loudspeaker with battery empty.
I just heard the count down of the crowd, and everyone started before the official start sound!

I started very slowly uphill, and many people passed me.
It's my strategy to run relaxly on uphill, and run down fast with the help of the gravity.

After the 5 minutes uphill, I roll down to the Tai Tam Reservoir and passed quite a lot of people.

After passing the bridge, it's time to slow down to prepare for the uphill. Many people passed me again.
I run up slowly at first, but found that some people walk faster than me.
I then walked for more than half of the up-hill prat to Quarry Gap,
and it's 2 minutes faster than that in my training.

It's time to take a cup of water and roll down in a relax way.
Though relaxing, I passed many people again, as they were recovering from the steep up-hill!
at the entrance of Sir Cecil's Ride, it's already 3 minutes ahead of my fastest training time.

On the level trail of Sir Cecil's Ride, although some people passed me,
I can pass more people at the very mild down slope.
after a few minutes' run, I was finding the left turn to the steeps as in my training.
(I confirmed the route map withe the country map) But when I reached the turn,
It was closed, and the right route should be round about a spur for longer distance.
My target was just faster than my training time. At that moment, I was quite frustrated,
as the extra distance may cost me more than the few minutes I gained before,
and it's difficult to run faster at the later stage.
I found that the extra distance took me 6 minutes, and assuming it take 2 minutes for the steps,
it costed me 4 minutes for the difference.
When I reached the pavillion, it's 1.5 minute slower than my fastest training time.

For the next part to the Mount Butler Road, some people passed me on the level trail,
but then blocked me at the mild down slope. They tried to run faster by their own effort on level ground and up-hill,
but didn't have the skill to run down with the assitance of gravity. I wasted some time on two of these occasions.
I compansed it by passing some people on the very margin of the mild down slope trail, nearly fall down the slope!
There were more up-hill, I could just keep running slowly, as my right hamstrings started to feel tight.
When I reached the Mount Butler Road, it's still slower than my training time by less then 1 minute.
I stretched the back and hamstrings for 10 seconds, and continued to run.

Everytime I drink water at the water station, it slow me down very much.
This time, it's up-hill after the water station, no one passed me when I was drinking water.
It's the last chance to run faster on this down hill section. Yet, I have to reserve the muscles for the last 2 km.
It's the first time that I didn't walk on the short part of up-hill near the quarry.
When I reached the second entrance of Sir Cecil's Ride, I saw a runner with " blown engine ",
and someone were trying to send him to the hospital by a privte car or taxi (I didn't see it clearly).
It's now 1 minute faster than my training time. The hope regained.

Before challenging for the final 2 km of level pavement, there were some steps up and down.
It's my slight advantage over the other "pure runners", I passed some of them after the up stairs. (They were recovering)
I tried hard to run faster with the tight muscles,
and passed some people by running on the side of the pavemnet or cutting into the apex of the corners.
For the very last section under the bridge, there was a down slope, I accelarated well before the slope, and passed at least 3 people.
For the final incline, I ran up with full throttle, so that I can run down to the finish at maximum speed.
I saw a runner laid aside of the finish line, and it's the 2nd accident I saw in this race.
I clocked 1:36'24 when I hited the level ground (official time was 1:36'25), as I didn't find any banner above the finish line.
When I was slowing down, I found a big clock on the left, and the volunteers were entering the data there.
Luckily, I was not overtook by others in this short distance.

Compared with my time of Reebok 15km 2003 Hong Kong Challenge,
it take 8 more minutes to finish the same distance with more up and down, it's a good result.

When I catch the bus back to central,
I heard some runners complaining lack of distance sign and dangerous trails (narrow and without handrail).
I thought they are the " pure runners " that they didn't visit the route before.
Also, the trail I ran in King of the Hills are much more dangerous (much more narrow and overgrown).
It's the difference between "pure runners" and "trail runners".

Position in Men's Open: 172th / 235 finishers

Overall position: 746th / 1147 finishers

The followings are the albums of the race, but you can see me in non of the them.

Jimmy Cheng: Album
Oldster: Album 1, Album 2
Henry: Album
Official Homepage of Hong Kong Distance Runners Club .