Hong Kong TrailWalker
13 - 14 November 1998
Background
The Trailwalker is a race along the Maclehose Trail in Hong Kong. The trail is 100K long and travels over some of the toughest trails in Hong Kong. The race is a team event with four members per team. There are ten checkpoints and each team must be together to get through each checkpoint. I have been told that the total ups (and downs) for the trail are in the region of 22-26,000 feet. I have no idea what the total hills are but can confirm that they are grueling and after twelve hours really start to shred your quadriceps.
Previous Attempts
I had tried to do the TrailWalker four years ago with some friends. It was a last minute decision to join them and I paid a big price for my lack of preparation. Things were pretty good for the first sixty kilometers but I collapsed and started to chunder violently at the top of a hill at the 65K mark. It was clear that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the guys. Dehydrated, my spirit broken, I dropped out at the 70K mark. My first "failure" at any physical challenge. I didn’t know it at the time but failing at the race was a very positive experience. I learned that the world doesn’t end if you back off from an event.
Motivation
Fast forward to November 97 and I am training for an attempt on Denali. I started doing long runs (20-25K cross-country) to supplement my weightlifting and build endurance. I found that the long runs were lots of fun and joined a Wednesday night group of runners. As my endurance improved, I found that I was able to move from the middle of the pack up to the front. After I returned from Denali, I found that my speed had really improved (no doubt due to losing 15 pounds). I kept up with the running and joined a team of guys for the race.
Training
My training was fairly "text book" in nature. A regular week consisted of:
- One long run of three to five hours on the weekend;
- One hill session of ninety minutes to two hours (these were hilly runs rather than hill repeats);
- One run home of about sixty minutes; and
- One speed session (this session was only done three out of four weeks).
Strategy
We went out with splits designed to enable us to win the race in about fifteen hours. In actual fact, the splits were probably closer to a fourteen hour time because they were quite aggressive at the front end. The race starts at 11AM and there are two very hilly stages, which you hit at about 12-4PM. These stages tend to take out a lot of teams and many people drop out after stage three, about 35K into the race.
Race Day
I had never met the fourth member of our team until the morning of the race. He prefers to train on his own. When we met him on Friday the first thing he said to us was that he was sick and wasn’t sure if he could make it the first 10K. That was very disappointing to all of us. I had spent the last five months training for this race. We told him that we would run slowly and if he felt bad then all he needed to do was let us know and we would slow down. As it turned out, Peter would be the strongest member of our team and the only one to avoid having a bad section in the race.
The Start
My resting heart rate moves between 42-54 bpm depending on how much training I have been doing. I was pretty shocked to see that my heart was chugging along at 120 bpm at the start of the race and before I had even taken one step. As soon as I started running my heart rate shot up to 150 bpm probably due to all the adrenaline flowing through my veins. After about 30 minutes, I had run the excess adrenaline out of my system and my heart rate was back to normal running pace.
We managed to stick right to our timing strategy and were ahead of our hydration plans. Unfortunately, the hot weather meant that the two of the guys were having trouble getting the water to leave their stomachs. I had filled my Ultimate pack with Clip the night before and frozen it overnight. At our first support stop (10K and one hour into the race), I slipped on the pack and drank the 80oz of icy cold Clip in about 40 minutes. That made a huge difference for me and meant that I never suffered dehydration. The other guys were drinking mainly warm water and this was having trouble leaving their stomachs. I also think that the huge amount of cold beverage cooled my core and prevented me from overheating and sweating too much. Keith and Eliot were really sweating. I may have been sweating heavily as well but it didn’t seem that way to me.
25K
We were in second place at the end of section two but the heat was already starting to take a toll on us. Some of the guys’ hearts were racing on the first hill on Section Three. We interpreted this to be dehydration and started drinking more water. Unfortunately, this didn’t really help much because the most dehydrated guys were the ones sweating the most. Still, we stuck with our fifteen hour race strategy. In hindsight, this was a mistake and the thirty minutes that we "saved" were more than given back later. Notwithstanding the ticking time bomb of dehydration, the race was a lot of fun. It was a beautiful sunny day and we had a number of friends who came out to run with us.
Things Get Tough
Race veterans all say that if you can get up Ma On Shan (second largest hill on the course at about 36K) without anyone blowing up then you are probably going to have a good day. Well, we almost made it up the hill without incident. One of the guys was really feeling slow and showing signs of serious dehydration (heart racing, zero urine output for three hours, muscle cramps). We were 75% of the way up the hill, slowly plodding higher and higher when his calf cramped so bad he fell over. The sudden jerking upset his stomach and he sat down and started vomiting. What came up was pure, clear water, probably about three liters worth. His stomach had stopped functioning properly. After six or seven heaves, his eyes glazed over and he lay back on the trail. After about 30 seconds, he asked me to start timing three minutes because he didn’t want to stop too long! I had figured that our chances of a team finish had just evaporated but he refused to quit and was about to stage the most remarkable comeback I have ever seen.
Pain & Suffering
The next 10K were pretty unpleasant and very slow for the dehydrated guys. On Ma On Shan we went from first place back to fifth. A friend of ours started the stage thirty minutes behind us and managed to finish about 20 minutes before us. Still, we were moving towards the finish and had everyone in the race. We didn’t know it but our competition was blowing up behind us. The clear, sunny day had been just as merciless on them. I was feeling very strong and my heart rate was in the 110-120 bpm range. We typically run around 140-150 bpm so this pace was very slow.
Nurse Jenny
A lot of the credit for revitalising our team goes to Jenny. She ran with us in the most grueling sections and force fed water and squeezies to the guys. By now the sun had gone down and we were able to gain ground on the dehydration. Unfortunately, my right knee was starting to give me trouble and we were heading into a series of steep climbs and long descents. The climbs were no problem. I had plenty of power left in my legs. However, the descents were pure hell (particularly the long stair descents) and I found myself wishing that it was all uphill to the finish line.
I took comfort in the fact that no one was passing us and that it was clear that we were likely to get a team finish. This, along with the desire not to have to do the race again, kept me going. Reports of other teams’ problems let us know that we were not alone in our suffering.
By the 65K mark my knees were pretty shot, to the point that I could only walk downhill. To balance my problems downhill, I started pushing on the uphills. My reasoning was that I would pull ahead on the uphill sections and then let the guys reel me in on the downhills. This worked pretty well up to 75K where there is a 5K descent that really finished me off. I knew that I was toast when I was running down the hill and looked across to my pacer, Paul. I felt like I was really moving but saw that Paul was only walking. With 10K of rolling hills and 9K of flat trails to go, I knew that it was going to be an unpleasant finish.
At checkpoint eight, I picked up two new pacers (Chris and Chris) who were all fired up to run along to the finish. Unfortunately, I was in no condition to run. I probably could have run a bit physically but my mental drive had been completely worn down by the race. I remember feeling pure exhaustion. I would describe it as deep bone exhaustion because it went through my whole core. All I could think about was how nice it would feel to be able to lie down on the trail and go to sleep. However, I wanted to finish very badly and just kept plodding along. Chris tried a few times to get me to run but I just couldn’t manage it. Strangely, I am totally content with my performance because I know that I gave it my all.
I arrived at checkpoint nine to find that the guys had gone ahead of me. At that stage they were twenty minutes ahead of me. By the time I arrived at the end, they were 30 to 60 minutes ahead of me. Still, we finished fourth overall and had made it through some seriously tough patches. We were all happy with our performances and had learned a lot about the best way to tackle the race. We clearly went too fast in the early sections and didn’t have enough left for the evening.
My overall time was 18:15. If you had asked me before the race what I would have thought about an eighteen hour time then I would have probably said "very disappointed". However, seeing how hard each of us tried and having experienced the entire race, I am very happy with what we were able to achieve. I know that there is no way that I could have run a faster race. I certainly could have run a smarter race but that experience is for future events. I now understand why the older guys are so much better at the ultra-distances. They have the maturity to let everyone pass them in the early stages.
It is about 36 hours after the race and I am still tired (despite having slept close to 20 hours since the race). Hopefully, I will start to feel more peppy as the week progresses. I would say that I am highly unlikely for the race in 1999 but a strong team might be able to tempt me in 2000.
Six weeks to enjoy my off-season and 287 days to Ironman Canada.
Keep on cranking,
gordo - 14 November 1998
PS: None of this would have been possible without an excellent support team. Many thanks to Ian, Jenny, Rob, Rachel, Angela, Chris * 2, Yuli, Paul, Marianne, Tim and Peter. If I forgot anyone then please forgive me. My brain still hasn’t fully recovered.