Summary: Praise God for giving me strength to finish my first 100k ultra marathon. It's a miracle for me to even finish the race. I rolled both my ankles within … MORE
Summary: Praise God for giving me strength to finish my first 100k ultra marathon. It’s a miracle for me to even finish the race. I rolled both my ankles within a month period before my race. I have been combating the flu the week prior to the race. I had a major headache and lost my appetite the night before my race. I thought I was going to forfeit the race. Despite being under trained and under the weather, I had a great race. I finished under 16 hours at a course with over 4500m (14,500+ft) ascent. The temperature was perfect. The course is a mixture of paved road, rocky technical trail, and long steep stone stairs with sufficient amounts of checkpoints to resupply my fuel. Though my ankles and bottom of my feets were screaming at me from all the descent and pounding, I am thankful for no blisters and sprained ankles. Yippee! I am finally qualified to register Western State Endurance Race.
Difficulty: The course is difficult indeed. The only feedback I would say is that I didn’t really get eaten me alive. However, it has a significant amount of ascent that rivals some 100 mile races. What make the ascent more difficult is stat they are steep incline with no switchback, which was not fun at all either to climb or to descent upon. With part of the course paves or covered with stone slabs. my feet weren’t happy about it at all. This can be a major concern for most amateur runners from the US who are used to softer surface trail races.
Scenery: It was gorgeous. It’s hard for me to compliment Hong Kong when I was born there and hated the city pop cultures and air pollutions. This was my very first time visiting HK since I moved away when I was 14. What’s different about the scenery than other races is the diversity of vegetation and landscape throughout the course. We started running through a water reservoir, from beaches to mangroves, from mountainous terrain with small village to cityscapes afar, and even found monkeys harassing your from the abyss. It was a heck of an adventure.
Production: This is an internationally-rated ultra races, with multiple countries represented amist. They have translation for multiple languages during the pre-race briefing. The course is fairly well marked. Gotta love the aid stations with varieties of food including rice balls and cup noodles. Even more impressive, it’s actually a qualifying race for both Western States and UTMB! That’s a plus for all the ultrarunners out there.
Swag: This race is by no means skimpy on its swag. You get a buff, a pair of socks and a tech t-shirt for just participating the race. However, when you finish the race, you get a really good qualify finisher jacket along with a trophy. Yes, a trophy, not a medal! In fact, depending on your finishing time, you may qualified to receive either a gold/silver/bronze finisher trophy. That was a surely special souvenir for me to remember as my very first ultra race ever!
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My First Ultramarathon Ever
Summary: Praise God for giving me strength to finish my first 100k ultra marathon. It's a miracle for me to even finish the race. I rolled both my ankles within … MORE
Summary: Praise God for giving me strength to finish my first 100k ultra marathon. It’s a miracle for me to even finish the race. I rolled both my ankles within a month period before my race. I have been combating the flu the week prior to the race. I had a major headache and lost my appetite the night before my race. I thought I was going to forfeit the race. Despite being under trained and under the weather, I had a great race. I finished under 16 hours at a course with over 4500m (14,500+ft) ascent. The temperature was perfect. The course is a mixture of paved road, rocky technical trail, and long steep stone stairs with sufficient amounts of checkpoints to resupply my fuel. Though my ankles and bottom of my feets were screaming at me from all the descent and pounding, I am thankful for no blisters and sprained ankles. Yippee! I am finally qualified to register Western State Endurance Race.
Difficulty: The course is difficult indeed. The only feedback I would say is that I didn’t really get eaten me alive. However, it has a significant amount of ascent that rivals some 100 mile races. What make the ascent more difficult is stat they are steep incline with no switchback, which was not fun at all either to climb or to descent upon. With part of the course paves or covered with stone slabs. my feet weren’t happy about it at all. This can be a major concern for most amateur runners from the US who are used to softer surface trail races.
Scenery: It was gorgeous. It’s hard for me to compliment Hong Kong when I was born there and hated the city pop cultures and air pollutions. This was my very first time visiting HK since I moved away when I was 14. What’s different about the scenery than other races is the diversity of vegetation and landscape throughout the course. We started running through a water reservoir, from beaches to mangroves, from mountainous terrain with small village to cityscapes afar, and even found monkeys harassing your from the abyss. It was a heck of an adventure.
Production: This is an internationally-rated ultra races, with multiple countries represented amist. They have translation for multiple languages during the pre-race briefing. The course is fairly well marked. Gotta love the aid stations with varieties of food including rice balls and cup noodles. Even more impressive, it’s actually a qualifying race for both Western States and UTMB! That’s a plus for all the ultrarunners out there.
Swag: This race is by no means skimpy on its swag. You get a buff, a pair of socks and a tech t-shirt for just participating the race. However, when you finish the race, you get a really good qualify finisher jacket along with a trophy. Yes, a trophy, not a medal! In fact, depending on your finishing time, you may qualified to receive either a gold/silver/bronze finisher trophy. That was a surely special souvenir for me to remember as my very first ultra race ever!