Race Review
Shanghai Running, We Run Shanghai
Hong Kong Raleigh Challenge 78k Ultra:
By Ray Heraty
I learned about running from that.
Although I'm a slow runner, my competitive
nature is always driving me to run faster
and set personal bests in each of the distances that I regularly run. While having a
fast day on the course is always satisfying,
sometimes the most valuable races are the
ones that don't go according to plan. On
these runs, although you may not set a new
best time, you can come away knowing
more about yourself and about running than
ever before. By this measure, my recent
adventure on the Hong Kong Raleigh Challenge Wilson Trail ultra marathon was a
real learning experience!
The Wilson Trail is a team race. Groups of
2-6 must all arrive at each checkpoint before the team can move on. My running
partner Claudia and I had signed up together as we felt well matched over long
distances and had run the first half of the
Hong Kong 100 with each other and enjoyed
the experience.
The first sign that things might not go to
plan occurred at the Pudong airport. Cancellations and delays turned my early afternoon arrival into a 9pm arrival. This immediately caused my planned day of relaxing,
resting and preparing our food for the race
to devolve into a worried recalculation of
arrival times, food buying plans and widening horror at the realization that my rest
time was shrinking rapidly. In any case, it
was about 1am before I turned in for the
night and pre-race jitters combined with an
early wake up call resulted in a poor nights
sleep.
Nevertheless, I awoke feeling reasonably
relaxed and in good spirits. After all, I had
run 100km races before and this one was a
mere 78km. A piece of cake for an experienced runner like myself. We caught the
Metro into the city and reviewed the days
plan. Claudia likes a good cup of coffee
before spending 20 hours on the trail and
once we stepped off the MTR we stopped
at Starbucks so that she could get her fix. I
don't drink coffee but I did spot a pretty
tasty looking tofu wrap, and deviating from
my long established food plan, ordered one
and for good measure also ordered a big slab
of marble cake to wash it down.
The race starts on Hong Kong island, the
first 12km or so are run there with some
great views of the ocean and Hong Kong
itself.
Copyright Shanghai Running 2013.
One of the interesting aspects of the race is
that you must take the metro again to go
back under Hong Kong Harbor to rejoin the
trail on the other side. .
This also offers the opportunity to do a little food shopping as you descend off the
trail and into the civilization of Hong Kong.
We made a quick pit stop at 7-11 for glorious cold water and on a rash impulse I
bought a bottle of Coke and a large candy
bar. I proceeded to slam these back and boy
did it feel good.
On the other side of Fragrant Harbor the
trail gets immediately down to business
with a short but steep climb of about 350m.
Claudia was powering up the hill but all of
a sudden I don't feel so good. I've suffered
from nausea before but this is only about
14km into the race and way too early to be
feeling any ill effects. I shove my negative
thoughts to the back of my mind but after
another kilometer or so I have to confess
how I'm feeling to Claudia and ask her to
slow the pace. We reach an aid station and
I grab a banana but with this things instantly get worse and I know I'm about to
throw up. I'm just hoping that this will be
one of those barf and done quickie illnesses
so I find a quiet spot to take care of business.
www.shanghai-running.com
And I do feel better, briefly. But by about
17km the first thought of not finishing enters my head. Out of 35 long distance races,
I've only failed to finish one and hated that
feeling so much that I had no intention of
repeating the experience. I push on, putting
on a brave face and we begin one of the first
serious climbs of the race. Now, the only
records I set when running are strictly personal, but I have found that at the average
race I will generally overtake people on the
hill climbs and then often lose ground on
the descents where I'm less willing to hurl
myself down the hill at breakneck speed.
But on this climb, I'm being overtaken repeatedly.
Claudia goes ahead and waits periodically
to make sure I'm OK. I think for the first
time the realization dawns on her that I'm
in serious trouble. I have to take several
pauses on the climb; something I rarely do –
I like to get to the top and then reward myself with a brief rest. At one point I slip and
have trouble getting up. I lie prone on the
trail, a sad sight indeed, only about 22km in
and now I finally accept that something has
gone seriously wrong.
Pictures:
Photo’s by Ray Heraty
Top: Claudia and Ray at the stat
Opposite: Wilson Trail
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