Super Power Piggy's Blog

When people get old......

2007-04-29T21:50:00.000+08:00

I haven't written my blog for a long time! No Excuse! I am just too lazy. Recently, I have more time to stay at home. I decide to write my blog again....

I went to pick up my Dad from day center yesterday. My sister and I seldom have my Dad to stay in day care center on Saturday. But my Dad didn't know it was Saturday and my sister managed to bring him to the center while I was still on the bed. That was good, I can go for a run in the morning and went to flower market in Mongkok to buy some flowers after lunch. It was nice!

I went to the day care center at around 3pm. My dad and other old people were about to go to the chinese restaurant in the center for dim sum. Not many people went to have dim sum. It was around 15 people and 2 filipino maids. Yeah..... there were 2 ladies.. I believe that their children are pretty rich. Even though they were many good nurses and helpers in the center to take care of them, they still have their own maids with them in the whole day.

Anyways.. there was a old lady. She is a graceful lady with white hair. I think she has been in the center for about a year. As far as I know, she seldom talks. While she was having her first bite of dim sum, her son came. I think this old lady stays in the center and his son picks her up on weekend only. She was so happy and wanted to grab a chair for his son and asked her to join them for dim sum. Of course, his son didn't join her for dim sum and so do I. It's because we didn't pay for the food. :) Dim sum was for those old people. He just told his mom that he has eaten and didn't want to eat anymore... hehe..I told my dad the same thing, too. She ate very quickly this time in order to leave with his son ASAP. I remember that she usually eats slow. She also kept talking to his son and asked him who was coming and blah blah.. I have never seen her so excited.

Then, I remember there was a old couple, Mr and Mrs Yeung. I am sure that they were well-educated. Both of them were very nice people. Their son has migrated for a long time. Last year, his son came to HK to visit them. One day, Mr. Yeung was so sad and didn't want to go to day care center. He told those helpers that his son was leaving on that day, he had no mood to do anything.

Well.. You might think that these are not very special. Why I put it on the blog?

I found that all old people are the same. All of them wanted to be with their children. However, some of them understand that their children could not be always with them. They might even tell their children that they dont't need to spend too much time on them as they actually have their own family and life. However, from their heart, they still want to spend more time with their children. I guess that this feeling is especially strong when he/she is very sick or when his/her another half has passed away.

A lot of people don't spend time with their parents. They thought that their parents were healthy and independent. Some of them were also well educated. Hence, they thought that their parents could take care of themselves and don't need too much attention from them.

Also, a lot of people in this generation thought that you could not depend on your kids anymore when you get old. That is true economically. However, you still need your kids psychologically.

Be good to your parents... don't make up too much excuse that you are too busy and have no time to be with them! I am sure if you have time to surf on web, you can have time to have tea or something with your parents....

Standard Chartered Half Marathon Run on Feb 12, 2006

2006-02-18T11:06:00.000+08:00

I've made it. I have done my 1st half marathon on Feb 12, 2006 in Standard Chartered Marathon. My friends and I had a pre-marathon dinner in the evening before the race. We called it as Carbo-Loading dinner! Good excuse for party, isn't it? heehehee... I have done a lot of training in the CNY week. As I know I could not do too much training in the last week of the race. This was my "strategy". I found that I recovered slower than many people. After all of the training in the week of CNY. I went to see my Chiropractor. He said my legs were so shakey.. yeah.. of course. I also did muscle relaxing theory there, too. Well.. in the other words, I had a massage. AH! so painful!! Please Please.. don't press so hard!!

The big day came! 2 of my sisters, 4 nieces and nephews and a brother-in-law were doing 10K, too. I took the earliest MTR from Kwun Tong station to TST with my niece and met my rest of my family runners there. hahaha.. good and healthy family activities, isn't it? They started 30 mins earlier than I did. I was there early so I had plenty of time to do stretching and warmup. I didn't know why I was a bit nervous in this morning.

I walked towards the starting point with few HKU alumni. The atmosphere was really great!! I joined the HKU marathon runners team. When we passed by the HKU support team, they cheered us. We waved our hands! Thanks for your support!

The half marathon started at 7:25am from Miramar Hotel. I kept running. I was running with Alex, Steve and Vincent. They are HKU alumni. I was thinking to have them to be target as I expected that they would be faster than I. As long as I ran with them, I should not be too slow. Also, I was wondering if I could keep following them in the whole race. We passed by Kowloon Station and then Olympic Station. Wow.. I didn't know 2 stations were so close. We then ran along West Kowloon Highway. There were so many runners. It was not easy to run over people. I spent 45 mins to finish my first 7km. It was still under my schedule. Steven was running besides me at the very beginning. But then, I could not see him anymore. He was behind me. I then had Alex be my target. I could see him 5 to 10m around me in the 1st 8km.

I started to see people came back from the other way. I saw the blind guy etc. Wow. they were so fast. I just finished my 8km. I took 1 hour 4 min to finish 10km. It was faster than I did my 10K run last year. I was happy. I ran faster than Alex. I couldnt see him anymore after 10km. Oh.. I finally saw Paul Cheung, the programme director of ecom/icom. Wah.. He ran so fast in 1st 10K. But then, I ran over him. I didn't see too many people to run over me. But it is getting hard to run faster than people after 12K. Vincent finally ran over me. He ran so fast. I couldn't see him anymore. He was much faster than I. I started to be tired. Even though I have taken the power gel around at my 9K. I was so thirsty. I need to drink water in every water stops. When I saw the Western Harbour Tunnel, I was happy. That means that I only had about 6km to go. But I was exhausted already. I can still manage to run fast when I ran down into the tunnel. Once it was flat or upslope, quite a few people run over me. People were so excited when they ran into the tunnel. They yelled and got echo etc! It was the funiest part. Osh.. I saw some sun light towards the end of the tunnel. Yeah.. less than 5K left. oh no.. upslope.. I was tired already.. I tried my very best to run the upslope. Many runners start to walk. I couldn't walk. I kept telling myself. Even though I ran slow in the upslope, I had to continue running. This part was the hardest part in the race.... a lot of up and down slopes in the last 5km.. all runners were tired. No one would like this bit. I finally reached Admiralty. Very last 1km.. I saw HKU cheering group.. They were hitting the drum, cheering us. Yes.. that helped. I ran faster in front of them..hahaha.. pretended I was not tired. I tried my best to run fast in the last part of the route. I watched my watch. It was almost 2 hours 18 min. I still have last 500m to go. I ran and ran and ran.. I hope that I could finish it within 2 hours 2o mins. I ran over few people. Yes!! I've done it! The offical time was 2 hours 21 mins.. my own chip time was 2 hours 19 mins 11 sec. YEAH!.. I met my target!

Gosh.. it was much harder than 10K. Luckily, I did enough training. I saw many people got cramped. They stopped to do stretching or asked for help along the route. I didn't see that much last year. After I came back home and saw the news, I then knew over 4000 people got cramped and 2 were in coma. That is scarey.. But then I knew that it was worth for me to spend so much time and $$ to prepare the race. I did the checkup at the Sports Performance Co few months ago. Then, I knew how unfit I was. They have tailor-made a training programme for me. Even though I didn't strictly follow the programme, I at least knew how I should do in training.

I really enjoyed the race. I thought that I was quite slow. However, when I saw my result in the website, I realised that I wasn't too bad. I was in position 4710 out of overall 9116 half marathon runners. Over 1789 female runners, I was in position 510. In my own category, I was in 266 out of 770. I guess it was just because of too many 1st time half marathon runners.

I really enjoy the half marathon race. It was harder but was much more fun than 10K. I will do it again next year. Will I do the full marathon race? um.. I still can't tell now. If I can finish the half marathon run within 2 hours, I might want to do the full. But it is still a long way to go. and hahahha. I am not young anymore!! hehehe..

Rebook 15K run on Jan 22, 2006

2006-01-22T20:21:00.000+08:00

I have done Rebook 15K run this morning in Sai Kung. This is a big challenge for me. I have never done such a "long" distance before. This is sort of a trial for my Standard Chartered Half Marathon run on 2/12. Even before the race, I was still worried that I could not run for the whole route. I may need to walk a bit. The starting point was at Pak Tam Chung. The route can be found from http://www.hkaaa.com/hkaaa/event/event/Reebok04/reebok_index.htm
. 2 Adrians were there. Adrian Cheung (my colleague and my trailwalker and running buddy), Adrian Ho (my coursemate in HKU) and Vins (my senior HKU fellow). The weather was cold today. It was 13C. But I got a feeling that it was below that in Sai Kung. It was definitely colder than what I experienced in Lantau 2 weeks ago or StandChart Run last year.

When I registered for this run, we need to fill in how long we expect we could finish the race. As different timing would have different starting section. Of course, the fastest group starts towards the front. I actually picked the slowest section :P 1 hour 46 mins or above! Even though it was not a cross-country route, there was quite a bit of up and downslope on concrete road. When it started, oh my god!.... it was upslope for about 2.5km . Damn! What am I doing here? That's what I was asking myself when I just started. Adrian Cheung ran pass me even though he started later than I do. He went to toilet when the race started. I saw few people walking already.. Shall I follow them? I have been struggling even it just started. How can I finish it?! My little Angel won. I continued to run even though I ran very slow on upslope. I found myself run faster on flat road and downslope. So I tried my best to run pass people. But if it's upslope, people passed me again. I saw Adrian Ho running back. But I still didn't know where the turning point was. I then saw Vins running back. Oh.. a group of people stopped in front of me. A young guy fell down. Oh no! His face turned black and his tongue came out. Eyes were half open. He really looked very serious. People asked us to continue to run. Some helpers came and took care of him. I then saw Adrian Cheung. I knew that the turning point was not too far away. Then, I saw a small ambulance drive to that runner. Gosh! he was not breathing.. no heart rate. Those guys said, "Call the big ambulance immediately!!" Um..

I didn't stop. I continued to run. oh no! Upslope again.. People cheered us, "Keep it going! not much upslope from here now!" Yes! no more please! It was really freezing!! Even though I was running, I still felt cold on my arms. I was wearing short and short sleeves top. I had problem to move my arms and carry a cup of water at the water stop!!

Oh yes! I saw the finishing point not far away from me!! I speed myself up. I ran like I was running a 100m race!! VERY FAST! I passed at least 4 men at the last 50m. A guy must think that how could have a girl pass him by! He ran and raced with me in the last 5m. I guess we arrived at the same time!!

I finished at around 1 hour 40 to 41mins. I am quite satisfied about my result. Even though I was still very slow comparing with my friends. But I was faster than I expected and I could run for the whole route. But I got muscle pain on my hamstring. Hope I wasn't hurt again!

K.O.T.H. as of Jan 8, 2006

2006-01-08T21:08:00.000+08:00

I did King of the Hills (K.O.T.H.) in Lantau Island today. The detail can be found from http://www.seyonasia.com/koth/lt.html. I was doing the half marathon.. 14KM long. It was so cold today! 11C... Why I joined this race? Adrian asked me to do so. He is another guy who is addicted to this kind of race after trailwalker.

I arrived at pier at 8:15am for ferry to Mui Wo. Wow.. so many people joined this race. Most of them were strong Gwei Lo and Gwei Paul. It took us 30 mins to Mui Wo. Then, we took bus to the starting point. We saw many Bloomberg people there. Amanda, Phil and Sandy .. together with Adrian and I. We are healthy folks!! hahhaa..

Full marathon runners started at 10am. We, half marathon runners started at 10:15am. Once it started, we need to walk up to the hills. People were much faster than those in trailwalker. I am the slowest batch. I can't see Amanda, Phil and Sandy once it started. Adrian was always good in uphills. I can't see him in 15 mins. It took me about an hour to the top of the hills. Few people did very slow in downhills. I know they had knee problem.

Between CP1 and CP2, I was following a Chinese girl. She asked me to run over her. I said.. " that's all I can do!". It is better I am behind you!.. :) Then, we started to talk. She is from ADM Capital. Company sponsored them to do it. After CP2, it will be pretty flat. I can start to run faster now. I have done running training in the past few weeks. It does help! Even though I am quite tired, I can still run. I started to catch up some people. I almost fell down couple of times but luckily I didn't. Some guys carrying big backpacks walked from our finishing point. I guess they just finished camping. They cheered us and said, "Keep it going.. not many people were in front of you!" hahaa.. I said, "Yeah.. not that much! 300 people only! " :) Then, he said, "Nah.. I didnt see that many!"... hahaha. Liar! but thanks for that.

I finally finished it in 2 hours 41 mins. It is what I expected. Adrian finished it in 2 hours 21 mins. He is very satisfied what he did. I am ok with mine. If I didnt run that fast at the last stage of trail. I couldn't finish it less than 2 horus 45 mins. I actually picked a pink color T-shirt girl as my target to catch at the last stage of the trail. I finally ran over her. I definitely need more more training on uphills and downhills.

You know what I didnt have a chance to see view this time. People were really fast. No time to enjoy the view and I forgot to bring my camera again!

What's my next race? Reebok 15K on Jan 22. more training is needed. I have never done 15K run before.

After Trailwalker

2005-12-11T20:28:00.000+08:00

It is about a month after trailwalker. We don't need to do training on weekends anymore. I found I was bit of lonely! :) But I still do a lot of things in this month.

I did Nike 10K run a week after trailwalker. Well... it is expected that I didn't fully recovered. I couldn't run fast at all. But at least I finished it!

Today I did another hiking race.... careaction! It started at 9am. It was 30KM long. The route is from Pak Tam Chung to Sharp Hill, Cheung Tsui, Ham Tin, Sai Wan, then back to Pak Tam Chung. Even though it was only 30km long, it was a very tough route. We went there once during trailwalker training. We didn't do the whole route but we went to the toughest part last time. I expected that we finished it within 8 hours today. Adrian and I joined it. Adrian thought that we could finish it within 5 to 6 hours! .. NO WAY!! It is a very tough route. Section 3 of Maclehose trail is tough which has level 3 difficulties. This trail is level 5! We need to CLIMB and SLIDE. Adrian brought me working gloves! Thanks Adrian. They really helped a lot. I can climb and didn't need to worry.

You can find the most beautiful scene in Sai Kung at this route. The weather was very good today. We regreted that we didn't bring our camera.

I didn't bring my hiking stick this time. As this route required us to climb, it was not convenient if I had the stick. But it is the steepest hill in Sai Kung. I always had problem to walk down. I was scared. It was really steep. Adrian hold my hand to walk down. Thanks again Adrian. You are the strongest hiking stick in the world! Adrian told me how I can walk down the steep hill. I was starting to know how now. I could walk and run faster down the hill now. I almost overcame my scare of steep downhills.

Actually, I spent a lot of energy in the 1st 10K to 15K as we ran a bit and hills are really steep. I almost got cramped when I climbed up the hills.

Adrian and I started to feel hungry after CP2 at Cheung Tsui even though both of us have taken 2 powergels already. We almost reached CP3 Ham Tin. Aiya.. I stepped on a wrong step. I fell down. I got cramped on my left calf. Luckily, it wasn't serious. Adrian helped me to do a bit stretching. I could start again.

Oh yes! We finally arrived at Ham Tin. We can eat finally! I ordered On Kee Fried Rice. Adrian ordered Singaporean fried rice noodle. Wow.. it was all packed. It usually took us 30 mins there to have a lunch.. But it took 50 mins over there today.

After lunch, we continued again. The rest of the route were very easy. Adrian asked if we can finished it by 4pm. I said.. no way.. unless we ran very fast! I guess 4:30pm should be ok.

We walked and ran. I got tired knees. Even though I could keep my breathing good, I couldn't run too much.

Finally, we finished it at 4:10pm. We took 7hours 10mins to finish it. The registration process wasn't as good as the trailwalker one. They just marked it by hand. I saw that I should be at position 231 for female. Well.. it wasn't too bad. I am not sure how many female participants. But there are about 2000 particpants this year.

I actually saw some of the HKU alumni in this race. Thomas, Steve and Pauline.. Pauline is the superwoman! She got position 20. She finished the race within 4 hours plus.

Adrian and I were quite happy about our result. I know Adrian can actually walk faster but he is very nice to be my company.

Then, we said.. um... if we wanted to finish trailwalker next year with 24 hours, we really need to walk faster than what we did today.. haha.. yeah. both of us still wanted to do the trailwalker next year. And we said that this careaction hiking race was a good one. WE WILL BE BACK!! hhahaa.. we are addicted to this kind of race!

Well.. our next race will be on Jan 8. (even though I haven't applied yet).. it is king of the hill in Lantau. This is another tough route. We have to do more training..

Hippo, I am not sure if you would read this blog again. But thanks for your comment! You are right. I was telling myself I would not do the trailwalker again when I was doing section 8.. but now.. you can see that I am really enjoy it. Hope that I can do it again next year.

I will change my blog name here from Piggy's Trailwalker Blog to Piggy's Blog. I will continue to write all my feeling and experience of my training in hiking and running. Even though I am not a very good hiker or runner, I still enjoy the process and try my best to break my own record!

WE MADE IT!

2005-11-13T21:37:00.000+08:00

WE MADE IT! We finished the 100KM in 33hours 0 min. I am SO HAPPY! Even though we were 3-hour behind our schedule, I am satisfied already. We (4 of us) finished it together.

We took a cab to the starting point. Actually, we were quite rush. We arrived at the starting point after 8:30am. The race starts at 9am. We need to get our number cloth, do the registration, fill up our water bags and bottles and do stretching.

In fact, we didn't really start at 9am. We walked slowly to the starting point. I was telling my team members to hurry up. But Adrian was walking really slow! I was trying to control my temper. I dont want to affect myself and others when it just started. Then, I asked Adrian, "What's going on? Wake up!" He then said that he was worried about his knee as he got a bit of knee pain and got to walk slowly to warm up. oh I see! (Adrian, I know you would read this blog! :D I am not blaming you here. I just wanted to tell the truth! hehehe)

Ben was walking really fast in section 1. Yvonne, Adrian and I walked slower. I actually had a bit of knee pain on my right as I hurt a bit of ligament. So I just wanted to walk a bit slower to warm myself up, too. While we were doing section 1, Yvonne just realised that she forgot to bring her headlight. AH! We should carry headlight or torch with us as we expeccted it would get dark befor we met our support team in CP3. Luckily, Adrian has a small backup torch. Thanks to Mrs Cheung (Adrian's wife) who always pack for Adrian! Yvonne called our support team and checked if they can find a torch for her and passed it to her in CP3. Supporter suggested to buy her one right away but Yvonne thought that it would be a waste and didn't want to do so.

The weather was so hot! Section 2 was not too difficult. But the sun was really killing us. I sweated a lot! I kept drinking water to avoid heat stroke. Some people actually stopped and hide under trees. We had lunch in Ham Tin as planned. We saw Lam Mo Tak (the composer). Adrian thought he was his friend's friend. Then he said, "No. I am Lam Mo Tak." He was also doing trailwalker, too. Oh yes! We saw Adam and Franscio (Team 120, other team from my company) on the way to Ham Tim. They just had lunch in Sai Wan.

I kept seeing Alex in 1st and 2nd section. Alex is my HKU alumni. His team target is about the same as mine, 30 hours. We also met our colleague, Amanda in CP2. She was with her dad and other friends. Their target was around 20 hours. I am sure they could make it at that time. Because they started 2 hours later! But they have chased us up in CP2 already. You can imagine how fast they were.

We had some hot soup and fruit in CP2 and then started to do section 3, the toughest! I didnt know why I was very slow there. It was so hard for me to move myself forward. I have done this part for many times but I wasn't sure why I didn't have energy to do it. I wasn't hungry but my energy just dropped. I kept kicking rocks. That meant I was tired. I saw Pauline (another HKU alumni) in the middle of section 3. Her target was 20 hours. Again, she started 2 hours later than us.

Our support team waited us at CP3. It was about 6:30am. It is on our schedule. Team 120 (other team from my company) just left the checkpoint when we were arrived. Yeah! We could have dinner there! They have prepared tomato beef rice, lemon tea, coffee etc. yummy.. I was so hungry! Stanley didn't come along but he has found a headlight for Yvonne. Thanks Stanley! We took about 30 mins break and then we walked to the check-in counter of CP3. Once they scanned my bar code. Those people said,"Congratuations! you are the 1000th person to register here. You got a prize.. APPLE! " haahahha.. I was holding this apple and said, " Yeah.. I am full of energy now!" hahhaha. I am actually holding this "Lucky Apple" in my hand til the middle of section 4. :)

After the meal or after I got the lucky apple, I really felt my energy was back. But my left knee felt a bit pain. I knew why.. same problem. My muscle were so tight which made my patella lean outward. I stopped at some places to do more stretching. Ben said that he didnt feel well, he needed to take a longer break. We took a 10 to 15 min break in one of the pavilion in section 4. He had a very bad headache and felt that he was having a fever. Some trailwalker worker was there, too. He was suggesting him to drop and said that someone can pick him up there. But we didn't say anything and Ben said that he was ok after 10 mins rest. He took a panadol, too. We started again and finally reached CP4. We ate some bread and hot drinks there. I got encouraging SMS from my friends... so sweet! Ben went to medical center to take some rest and put on some pain relieving cream on his legs. While I was waiting, I think it was no harm to ask them to tape my knees too as I was suggested by my physcio to do so. But once those physcio saw my knee, they told me that it actually swelled. oh no.. I just felt a bit pain only. So they did a bit of massage on my left leg as my muscle was so tight and then put on a pack of ice on my knee and then wrap my knee. I really felt better after it.

We started section 5. I wasn't too familiar with this part as it was closed due to landslide. It reopened again 2 weeks ago. I just went there once before the race. Ben and I walked to a wrong route. Once we heard some dog barking, we released that we were on the wrong route so we turned back. But then we found some other people came, too. The guy told us to follow him. It was in fact a short cut. wow.. really! I didnt believe it at the beginning. But when he told me that this was his 11th time to do trailwalker, I have to believe him. Oh yes! it was really a short cut! Yeah. I was really lucky after I got my lucky apple! hahhaa..

We didn't prepare to see our support team in Lion Rock Pavilion. But we saw them sitting in the little grocery shop. What a surprise! They told us that they just met Team 120 there. We just talked a bit and they gave us 2 bananas and we continued again.

After Lion Rock Pavilion, this was the part I hate as there were so many down big steps. That's really hurt my knees. Oh yes, the guy that we met earlier who brought us to a shortcut, told us there was another shortcut in this part. hehehe. we found it and walked that, too. shhhhh.. dont tell anyone... We reached CP5 and took some rest.

We were tired and sleepy. it was 3:30am at the end of section 5. We were 1 hour slower than last time we did training on section 1 to 5. We were also hungry, too. We started section 6. Gosh. there were so many dogs barking.. so scary! Oh yes. we finally saw our support team. Oh yeah.. we can eat again. They got us rice congee!! nice. I also asked them to bring me some ice so I can put them on my knees. wow. it really helped. thanks for the physcio's suggestion in CP4. I dont know why... I think my energy was really back.. I felt pretty good. We quickly checked in at CP6 and continued.

Section 6 was an easy trail. It was around 5am. People were doing morning exercise there. When they saw us, they would keep saying "Add Oil!".. I felt so warm! I walked pretty fast in this section. And I was pretty good in section 7 (needle hills), too. We finally met Team 120 in CP7. They were about to go. I also saw Johnny Mak (HKU classmates) there. We had some instant noodle and hot drink and started again to walk to the Tai Mo Shan, section 8.

Section 8 was another tough trail. But I like this very much. I always did good in this section while training. I was doing ok on this morning, too. You know what I was thinking if I would see snake there. But then I thought I shouldn't. There were just too many people passed by in these 2 days. Can you believe this? I saw a snake again! It was a bright green and orange one. It was just 3 to 4 m apart from me. I was shocked. My team members were a bit far behind me and no people around me neither. Again, I was alone.. so scary! We took some rest in the Tai Mo Shan Pavilion and then started to walk concrete roads. I was so sleepy. I tried my best to open my eyes. Again, we found some ribbon along this trail.. hehehe.. shortcut again. :P

Yeah.. Finally.. we met our support team in CP8.. yeah.. just saw team 120 about to leave. they were always 1 meal time ahead of us. Yvonne and Ben went to medical center again for wrapping their knees or feet or taking care of their blisters. They got some blisters. Luckily, I didn't since I put a lot of vaseline and I kept changing socks. Suport team brought us hot drink, noodles, sandwiches. Some ex-trailwalker told me that we won't feel like eating in CP8 as we would be very tired.. well.. guess we were exceptional. We were so hungry! I also had a can of red bull.. Hope it can help me to wake me up! Oh yes! Jhun was so nice. He massaged Yvonne and my back.. wow.. so comfortable. And Jhun even helped me to take off my socks when I was sitting down and put ices on my knees. He was SO NICE!! All of us changed our shoes as most of section 9 and 10 were concrete. We could wear something more comfortable than our hiking shoes.

This was the final part. Adrian and I were trying to run a bit. We were so tired. legs and feet were sore. After we checked in at CP9, we still had 9.8km to go. Ok. I cant really wait. I walked very fast in this last section. During training, we took about 6 mins in every 500m in this section. I was trying to keep this pace. I walked and ran. I kept counting the post.. Post 180, 181, 182, .... 190.. starting to have some sign and told me that I got 3.5km to go.. 3km, 2.5km.. I got calls from my friends and family, too. My family was actually checking my progrss from the website. They have been turning on the live broadcast since 3pm. You know when I got their calls, I almost cried. It was so warm to get calls from family and friends.

I got a call from Ben. He asked me where I was. I was a bit faster than they were as I really couldnt wait anymore. I really wanted to finish it ASAP. I told him that I was in post 191. They were at Post 186. I told him that I would wait them at Post 193 or 194. I called our support team to bring us our company T-shirt before the finishing point so that we could change it and take pics. I got call from Yvonne. She was asking me where the exact finishing point is. As it wasn't Post 200. It was actualy around Post 194 and turn to Perowne Barracks. I thought I was about 20 mins ahead from them. They were trying to catch up and finish it before 6pm. I thought that they couldn't as they were just at post 186 when I was at Post 191. But it was amazing, they made it. I was waiting them at the bottom of the last stairs before finishing point. They were arrived there at 5:57pm.. we still have 500km to go. We ran and ran and ran.

Yeah.. We made it.. We arrived at 6pm! I am so happy! It took us 33hour 0 min. :D

Oh yes.. a little secret!.. Adrian, don't let your wife and son to read this blog. :P Whenever Adrian met a checkpoint and saw Jhun (our supporter), he would ask him for cigarette. Can you believe this?! He still smoked during the race!!!

My colleage drove me back home. I was carrying all my bags and still wearing my Bloomberg T-shirt with number cloth on. I was so dirty and smelt stink. A women was with her son and we were waiting for the lift. They were looking at me and whispering. Guess.. they must be discussing why I smelt so bad!! hahaa..

I took a shower right away and jumped into my bed with my wet hair!! I was exhausted!!

Nov 10, 2005 - Before the Big Day

2005-11-10T21:20:00.000+08:00

I am nervous! Tomorrow is the big day! We have packed all our stuff and passed them to our support team today. We have 2 big support teams to support 2 teams of walkers. more than 10 people in different shift..

I didnt sleep well in the past few days. I am always awaken around 4am every morning. At the beginning of the week, I thought that I had a bit of jet lag from my Sydney and Wellington trip. But then I found that I was nervous.

You know what.. This is harder than I expected. It is not about fitness.. It is also about our mind. I have been checking weather forcast everyday, have been thinking what I should pack.... How many power gel / bar I need? How much water I should drink etc?

OK. Tomorrow is the day! I would try my best! Wish me luck! I am in Team 110!

A week before the Big Day!

2005-11-05T21:01:00.000+08:00

I was in Sydney and Wellington in the week of Oct 31 for business trip. I haven't gone back to Sydney for 10 years ago! It was nice to be there so I could visit my old friends. It was amazing that there were not much change in Sydney. The only difference is that there are more Starbucks Coffee.

I was staying along Circular Quay which is near Opera House and Harbour Bridge. Many people jogged along the quay. Um.. what a good idea! Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to do so. I was a bit guilty as I didnt do any workout in those 3 days while I was in Sydney. It was too rush!

Then, I went to Wellington... another beautiful city. I arrived at Wellington after midnight. I was quite tired. But the taxi driver was very nice. He knew this was my first time to be there. He kept talking to me and introduced all the good place in the city. He told me there were 1200 cable cars etc.. Well.. It was too dark to see anything...

Our office was near the waterfront. The weather was nice. Even though people there told me that it was cloudy, comparing with Hong Kong, it was very nice already. No pollution! Fresh Air!

I am really guilty not to do any exercise. I finally had a jog along waterfront in the early morning on Friday before I headed back to Hong Kong. Wow.. so relaxed! I felt like I was in paradise!

I was very tired in this week! and I got a cold and cough, too. Um.. I have only 1 more week to go to the big day!!! I am worried!

11th Trailwalker Training on Oct 29

2005-10-29T14:41:00.000+08:00

We started to get bored to do Maclehose Trail. So we decided to do Wilson Trail section 3 and 4 this time. It would be our last training before the big day. We need to take a rest in the following week with moderate training like gym and running. We actually did the training with team 120 (another team from the company). Michelle, Joel and his friend joined us too. We met at Yau Tong MTR station at 8am. We walked to the starting point of section 3. It was a nice day!

According to the website, Section 3 of Wilson Trail was in 2-star of difficulties. But we found that it was just too easy for us. :P Yes, Section 4 was a bit harder but it still shouldn't be scaled as 3-star difficulties. Comparing with Maclehose Trail, they are nothing. Francois was still the quickest. The second was Mike Morris. oh. yes.. Joel is going to climb the mountain in Bali (AGUNG) in Nov. He wanted to do a bit of training so he carried a 11kg backpack with him!!! I really dont know how he can walk up and down hills with this heavy bag.. The sign in Wilson Trail was not as clear as those in Maclehose. We always confused which way we should go. We passed through many villages.

After we finished section 4 of Wilson Trail, it was still very early. Hence, we decided to walk back to section 5 of Maclehose Trail. Due to landside, part of section 5 was closed for a while. We always walked the detour for training. But now it is reopened. It is nice to walk the original route before the race. It was good. It is shorter than the detour. Yeah. we dont need to walk to the GREAT WALL! Then, we had lunch in the little grocery shop in Lion Rock Pavilion. Michelle and Adrian got something to do in the afternoon so they headed back home. The rest of us continued to finish section 5. I couldn't remember how many time we have done section 5 now. I guess it is because Francois was leading us, we walked pretty fast. We finished it less than 2 hours. We broke our record in this section.

I didnt know why. My knee got a bit pain. It was not serious. But it was again the outer side of my knees. Guess I didnt do enough stretching. I learnt a lesson!

In the next day, I would fly to Sydney and Wellington for biz trip. I am worried if I could maintain my fitness after so much travelling.

10th Trailwalker Training on Oct 22

2005-10-21T14:33:00.000+08:00

We had company picnic in Pui O on Oct 22. We didnt want to skip a week for training so we decided to do a short one in Lantau Island. Since Ben needed to bring his wife and daughter to the picnic site, he didn't join us this time. We did section 2 and section 12 of Lantau Island trail.

Adrian brought his camera with him. A big one.. with all kind of gear. The camera bag was so heavy! He thought that it was an easy trail so he brought his gear. Well.. He regreted it as it was just too heavy.

As I said, the trail was not difficult.. yeah.. we are quite professional now! :P The view was nice! It was a short one. just took us 5 hours to finish.. then, we had a nice picnic in Pui O with our colleagues. It was a nice day!

9th Trailwalker Training on Oct 15

2005-10-15T13:45:00.000+08:00

This was our second evening training and this was an IMPORTANT training for us. Why? 'Coz we did section 1 to 5 all together. This was sort of a mock race for all of us. We started at 9:08am on Saturday (Oct 15) and finished at 2:52am on Sunday (Oct 16).

We did a lot of stretching at the starting point. We really did it seriousely as we knew that it was very very important to us. Okay.. we started our journey! Section 1 was a simple flat trail. We found that many other trailwalkers were doing the training, too. And I could see that some of them were from super team.... as they are running.. We started pretty relaxed.

There were a bit of uphills in section 2. Maybe I haven't warmed up enough and Ben were not in a good condition. The heat was killing me. Both of them found that it was not easy. I sweated a lot! I had to walk slowly. After a while, I started to feel well. We had 30 mins lunch in Ham Tin. We finished section 1 and 2 at 3:20pm. It was post 49. Oh.. I saw a snake at post 47. a long and brown one.. about 1.5m. so scary. I was with no one at that time! We took about 20 mins break at the end of section 2. You know what.. I really felt good. not tired at all.

Then, we started our journey again. Also, we called our supporters. Jhun and Sam were very nice to be our supporters on that day. We asked them to meet us (with food) at the end of section 3. Adrian was a bit of tired in section 3. He walked slowly. Ben and I were ahead. Towards the end of Section 3, it was getting dark. We were thinking whether we should take out our headlights and torches. oh.. Adrian fell down. He stepped on a wrong step! He hurt his knees. It was bleeding seriously.. Oh no! Ok.. so we all took out our lights and Adrian took out his first aid kit and put on the bandage, we continued to walk and meet our supporters at the end of section 3. It was 6:48pm. Ok! I was very very hungry!! Sam, Jhun and his wife were waiting for us with food and drinks. We had tomato beef rice, corn minced rice, lemon tea, coffee etc. Adrian! When he saw Jhun and Sam.. He just said.. ..give me the cigarette... yeah.. this is Adrian! He said that cigarette can release his pain!! OKAY!.. :) I finished the whole tomato beef rice!! hehheh.. yes, I know I eat a lot.

Okie dokie.. we had 2 more sections to go.. You can't believe that there were so many people on this evening in Maclehose trail. All of them were trailwalkers. We even talked on the trails and exchanged experience. Very funny! Even though I had done section 1 to 3, I still felt that I had a lof energy! I was really in a good shape! We started section 4 at 7:25pm an finished at 11:23pm. After the end of section 4, we need to walk the detour.. yes.. the original trail was still not opened yet because of the landslide. We all hate the detour. It was so long! We called this part as Great Wall! Oh.. there were many many cars in Fei Ngo Shan Road, too. yeah... many couples.. We had torches... shall we? ....hehehhehhe..

Alright! Last section for us in this evening.. section 5... we started at 101 at 12:40am. Adrian and I didn't like this section as there were many downstairs. These hurt our knees. Surprisingly, I was still not too tired. I could still walk pretty fast! We were in 2 pairs. Ben and I.. Yvonne and Adrian. Ben and I were ahead. Ben actually asked me to walk slower.. okay.. but I could help. I guess I really wanted to finish it ASAP :P We finally finished at 2:52am. Yvonne took a taxi back home by herself. 3 of us took another taxi but Adrian and I went to Sham Shui Po to eat and Ben went home straight. I was very surprised that my knees were not too pain. I am pretty confident to finish 100K. And our team members are in good shape, too!

Oh yes, I could only sleep for few hours as I had a 4pm flight to catch. I was flying to Tokyo for biz trip.

8th Trailwalker Training on Oct 8

2005-10-08T13:21:00.000+08:00

We have done section 7 to 10 on Oct 8. It is totally 37.8km. We started at 7:59am and ended at 7pm. Samual did section 7 and 8 with us. The weather was pretty good. I would say it was too sunny.

I was in a pretty good condition. We have done section 7 and 8 before. But it was our 1st time to do section 9 and 10. We did pretty good in section 7 and 8. We spent 2.5 hours in section 7 and 3 hours in section 8. But the sun was killing us. I felt like I was walking in the desert. I could only hear my breathe and nothing. The last part of section 8 was all concrete road and downhills. It was quite boring. But we found 2 or 3 shortcuts. It shortened the time a bit. yeah.. we are cheating.. hehehe.. but I am sure a lot of people do. :)

Oh we saw a large group of people lining up into 2 rows and yelling in the hill. We thought that they were insurance agents and doing some kind of moral activities.. Then we realised that they were students and having camping.

We had lunch at the end of section 8. It would be a big checkpoint on that day. We were so hungry. We ate instant noodles, fish balls, siu mai.. YUMMY!!

Ok.. Samuel needed to go home and 4 of us continued our journey to do section 9 and 10. Everybody told us that section 9 and 10 were boring. At the very beginning, we found that it wasn't that bad. There were many nice trees and plants and some lotus leave, too. Pretty nice view... but then.. gosh... concrete road is bad! Our legs and feet started to feel tired and tight.. so all of us just stopped to do some more stretching.. okay.. then, we were saying that we must bring our IPod, radio etc in these sections! The beauty in these 2 sections are that there are many many beautiful butterflies. I didnt know that you can find so many beautiful butterflies in Hong Kong. Besides butterflies, we saw many many cows. I think we saw more cows than human being in this training!

Actually, we didn't know exactly where the end of section 9 was. We just kept walking. Yvonne even bought her slippers and wore them to walk section 9 and 10. We also thought that we should wear our running shoes or something more comfortable than hiking shoes to walk these sections. Oh.. you know what.. part of section 9 or 10 are not concrete road. So, we could walk a bit faster.. we walked 6 mins in every 500M ... not bad at all. It was just too boring. We really wanted to finish it quick!

It began dark around 6:30pm but we haven't finished.. and we didnt bring our lights or torches. I supposed to write down the timing every 1km but it was just too dark to do it. We walked and walked and walked. We couldn't find the "exit". Finally, we find a little road around post 198. Actually, we found out later that we should go to the finishing point via another small lane after post 194 but we missed it. It was 8pm already! Gosh! We were so HUNGERY.. so what did we eat!? Of course lah! Roasted Goose in Shum Cheng! ehheheheehhh.. NICE!! And we had dessert there, too!! We deserved to have a nice dinner after a long walk!

How were my knees. It was not as bad as before.....

Between Trainings on Oct 1 and Oct 2

2005-10-02T17:44:00.000+08:00

We didn't have training this week as I haven't fully recovered from knee pain, Adrian went camping with his son and Yvonne hasn't recovered from flu. We took a break this week.

I went to see physio last Tuesday. She told me that my patella leans outwards. That's the reason why I have knee pain. My right knee pain is more serious than my left. My calf muscle is very tight, too. She recommended me to visit her in regular basis and do many stretching as it can get worst if I still continue to do exercise. Also, she said that my core muscle is weak which leads to give a lot of pressure on my knees when I do hiking. She also recommended me to do Pilates for enhancing joint flexibility.

So, what I do now.. I do stretching everynight. And I have joined Pilates class. Trying to do some exercise to strengthen my thigh muscle and do sit up everyday.

I actually went for a walk/run this morning. I walked and ran in the park next to my home....the one with a long stair. At the beginning, I was running. But I found that I should walk instead and get used to keep my body straight (as I found that I like to lean forward when I walk uphills and stairs which is not good) and learn how to use my thigh muscle to walk and how to knee down a bit when I walk downhills and stairs which would give less pressure to my knees. I walked for an hour plus today. Even though I was just doing walking, I still sweated a lot. I guess it is because of the heat. and...You know what.. it is quite tired to keep reminding myself to use which part of muscle to walk properly.

I felt a bit guilty not to do trailwalker training this week. But I have to take a rest. I am really worried about my knee pain. I dont have enough time to enhance my core and thigh muscle now. But I would try my best to do whatever I can.

7th Trailwalker Training on Sept 23

2005-09-24T08:39:00.000+08:00

We had our 1st evening training. We did section 4, 5 & 6 this time. Participants are Adrian, Ben, Yvonne, Francois and I. We started at 8:55pm and finished at 5:22am next morning. The weather was okay. But Typhoon Signal no. 1 was hoisted and it was a bit windy. In the daytime, I was a bit of worried about the weather. As it was said that Typhoon signal no. 3 will be hoisted at night and it would be very windy. Also, it might rain. Anyway, we decided to go ahead our training.

I started to fill in water into the water bag around 6pm in the office. :) Michelle started to practice being a supporter. She helped me to fill in water. I got a pretty strange feeling. On the one hand, I was worried about it as I didn't know how it could be hiking at night. On the other hand, I was looking forward to have our evening training.

We took MTR to Hang Hau and then had a dinner there first. Then, we took a cab to our starting point. Once we started, we found that the trail was very slippery. Luckily, I got my hiking stick with me.

Walking at night was really challenging. Section 4 was not easy even we walked in daytime. Even though we had torch or headlight, it was still dark to walk at night. The half moon bright our route a bit. still.....I didn't know what I had stepped. Aiya.. suddenly, I "heard" that I stepped on a pool of water.. ok.. Yvonne and Adrian walked behind me. They knew that they should not walk towards there! Oh... we saw many frogs along the trails. We took about 4 hours to finish section 4.

It was very windy when we walked on Fei Ngo Shan Road from Gilwell Campsite. Ben suddenly asked us if we saw a "person" lying aside the road. ah... I didn't see anything. Yvonne and Adrian also said that they didn't see him/her. aiya.. Ben, don't scare us please! Did he see "GHOST"!? Well.. no one would go into this road unless they are hiker... and the road was blocked. No one can drive in. aiya.. what is "that"?

Francois walked really fast. He waited us at the intersection of Fei Ngo Shan Road for an hour!!! I felt pain on my left knee... not a good sign... I asked Francois to start first and didn't need to wait for us. But he said that he saw snake in section 5 last time so it was better to walk together.... he still walked much faster than us. I walked slowly especially when I walked downhills. I didn't want to hurt my knee further. We finished section 5 for 2 hours and 20 mins.

Okay, we started section 6. Well.. Francois really walked with us this time. As he knew that there were many monkeys and dogs in this section. Yeah.. there were many. A group of dogs stared at us..... Monkeys were waking up.. can hear that they were jumping among trees to do morning exercise. We were starting to see people coming out to have morning exercises. They really woke up early. I can't imagine that there were so many people at 4am + there.

We were quite lucky that it didn't rain until almost the end of our journey. Typhoon Signal no. 3 wasn't hoisted until we went home. Actually, many of us were not in a good condition in this evening. Francois and Adrian both drank a lot in the Office Award dinner a day before. Yvonne didn't sleep enough. and I got bad knee pain. But we still can finish it within 9 hours. It was quite okay.

We took cab and went back home right away. Yes, we were hungry.. but we also need to go to bed. I almost fell asleep on cab. It was a good experience. We will do our 2nd evening training in the mid of Oct. I am still worried about my knees. um.. what can I do? I am going to see a physiotherapist on Tuesday for a sports performance test. I will see what kind of advice he/she can give me. Also, Adrian suggested me to take Glucosamine and Chondroitin pills from now. Even though I bought them, I always forgot to take. Yeah.... I really should take them.

6th Trailwalker Training on Sept 18

2005-09-18T21:14:00.000+08:00

Nam She Sharp

Beautiful View from Nam She Sharp

Adrian, Ben, Yvonne and I didn't go to MacLehose Trail today. We went to the sharpest hill in Sai Kung, Nam She Sharp (Nam Shea Jim). It is really difficult route. Section 3 & 4 have only 3-star difficulty but this has 4-star. We basically need to climb up and down the hill. We started at Pak Tam Au at 9:22am. We finished at Sai Wan "Ting" at 4:08pm.

It was so windy today. We couldn't even stand properly. To be honest, it is quite dangerous as the hill is really steep. But the view is BEAUTIFUL! We have stopped few times to look at the view. The hill was really steep. We actually need to slide down to the the hill in some part. Along the trail, we saw a lot of police plastic tape 'cos a police was missing there a week ago. Those should be some marks for other police to look for him. In fact, 2 guys passed by us and said that they were volunteers to look for the police.

Up in the hill, we saw a helicopter. We were wondering if they found him.. um.. We walked and walked and walked. There was a big campsite somewhere in Tai Long East Bay. I am quite surprise that many families actually go there for camping. I never have such experience. I have never gone camping with my family. Actually, I've only done wild camp once when I did Outward Bound many years ago. What a life! This is really a good and healthy activities for family.

We continued to walk and hahhaa.. Adrian holds our (Yvonne and I) hands. As it was really steep, I felt very secured when I hold Adrian's hand. hehhe.. But I still fell down twice.. got a big bruise on my right thigh.

We walked down from this hill

We finally arrived "Ham Tian" Bay and went into the grocery shop for lunch. There were many firemen at the shop. We thought that they came to find the missing police. Then, we found out that a guy was missing when he swan yesterday. Firemen was looking for him. We also found some reporters there, too. No wonder we saw helicopter.....

After lunch, we started our journey to Sai Wan. I walked faster than the rest but I didnt know I walked that fast. I arrived at Sai Wan first. I finally saw them after I crossed the stream through a longer way. Adrian, Ben and Yvonne wanted to catch up and tried to walk a short cut to the beach. I was sitting on the other side of the beach at the stairs and waiting for them. I was looking at them and was wondering why they didn't come towards me. Then, I saw Adrian was looking for rock or something and looked like that they were trying to jump over the stream. I saw Ben was about to walk to the long way that I walked just now to cross the stream. Then, I saw Adrian found something in red or orange and asked Ben ran back. I cant really see what it was. (After that Yvonne told me that it was a little basin). They finally jumped over. :) They actually told me details afterwards and asked me to write it here! AHAAHAAHHA.. here u go....

Firstly, they were thinking whether they should go for a shortcut to catch me up. And then, a family passed by them and told them that I had walked very fast and if they wanted to catch me up, they got to go for the shortcut. See! this is peer pressure. Then, Adrian found a big rock. He tried to throw it in the middle of the stream and was thinking to step it on and cross the stream. But the rock SUNK!. After that, Adrian found a little basin. He tried to throw it to the stream but it was so light. It floated. Yvonne suggested to put some sand inside the basin and throw it. It worked. They finally crossed the stream. YEAH!!! By the way, during this 5 to 10 mins, 3 other guys actually just walked through the stream with their "Pak Fan Yu". But Adrian, Ben and Yvonne spent so much time to figure out how to cross the stream without getting wet. :)

We were quite lucky. After we finished, it rained heavily. It was not a long route but we were quite tired especially ourknee joints. Nam She Sharp is really steep. I am not sure if I would go there again as it is quite dangerous especially in the windy day. However, we really enjoyed this trip.... really nice view.

Fungus on Ox's shit. Fresh!

5th Trailwalker Training on Sept 10

2005-09-11T09:33:00.000+08:00

We did section 3 & 4 and part of section 5 til post 101 this time. They are most difficult sections in MacLehose trail. Participants were our whole team members. The temperature was 27C to 31C and the weather was sunny. The weather report said that there was islolated raining in some area. We started at 8:58am and ended at 7:17pm. What can I say in this training? TOUGH!!!!

I went home very early on Friday. No party... as I know I need to go for a difficult training in the next day. In fact, Robert came with us at the beginning but he dropped off in the very early stage at section 3. He was too tired to continue.. of course lah, so many parties during the week. hehehe.. Naughty Robert! Our team continued our journey.

We started quite relaxed at the very beginning. We were still saying that the trail wasn't too difficult, blah blah blah. well... then, we found out that there were 3 up and down hills in the section.. the last uphill in this trail was tough.. looking at the hill.. Man! it really scared us! Now, we all believe that section 3 is the toughest route in this trail. There were few other trailwalkers doing training there, too. One of the team bought their dog with them.... short leg dog. It is so cute. Obviously, it feels very hot. Along the trail, there was a little river. It jumped to the water and took a bath. wah.. so nice! How about us? We can't jump into the water. The dog finished section 3 by itself!! We sweated very badly. I found I was very "salty" as I found many salt on my arms, neck and face. I have never been sweating like that. We finished section 3 at 12:18pm. It took us 3 hours 20 mins to finish it.

We took a cab to Sai Sa for lunch after section 3. Yeah! We had Thai food. Nice!!.. We filled up our water bag and bottles and took a cab bact to section 4. We started the section 4 at 1:52pm. Gosh! it was so hot! We sweated even more badly. We have done section 4 before. It wasn't that bad last time as it was ranining. But it was really killing us this time. The heat was really bad. We kept drinking water with Pocari powder. We walked slower than we did last time. We still found some trailwalkers running in this route. Yvonne was very smart. She brought her UV protection umberella with her. We really preferred to be raining instead of hot and sunshine.

I wore knee braces this time to protect my knees. Well.. My right knee was fine. I always worried about it as I hurt it at the beginning of the year. However, I got pain on my left knee. oh no. It was pain when I walked down hills and stairs. I walked slowly. I cant' hurt my knees otherwise I cannot finish my 100K. But Adrian said I still walked too fast if my knee was painful already. um... but I really wanted to finish it ASAP. very tired...

Even though we filled up water in the restaurant in Sai Sa. Yvonne still got not enough water. Ben gave her some. Well.. Each of us drank almost 4L water in this training!

We finished section 4 at 6:16pm. Because of landslide, part of section 5 was blocked. So we walked via Wilson Trail to post 98 of MacLehose trail. Actually, we tried to call a cab to pick us up in Gilwell campsite but no taxi was willing to drive there. Hence, we continued to walk to post 101. We finailly reached post 101 at 7:17pm.

Gosh! no wonder Adrian said that many people dropped off at secion4 on trailwalker day. It was really tough. We just did section 3 and 4 this time. We could feel it already. My left knee was still a bit pain. Hope that I would be ok in my next training.

oh yes! Rowley(our colleague) told Adrian and Yvonne that a team of people who had average age of 60 finished the 100k within 20 hours. My god!! how could they do it so quick? These senior people didn't take rest and didn't have support team. So where were their food supply? They hided their food along the trail before the big day!! and they digged them out when they needed to eat!! Can you believe it?

4th Trailwalker Training on Sept 4

2005-09-04T21:08:00.000+08:00

We did section 6, 7 & 8 today. We started at 8:35am and finished at 2:50pm. We waited at the end of section 6 til it rained not too heavy for 20 mins. We took 20 mins lunch break. It wasn't bad at all. Participatants are our team, Adam, Sam and Robert.

The weather was so bad today. When I woke up this morning, it was raining already. But there was no thunderstorm, we decided to stick to our plan. We took a taxi to Tai Po Road from Sham Shui Po MTR station. When we arrived the starting point, it was raining heavily. I checked from Smartone IN. Thunderstorm warning was just hoisted. We discussed whether we should still start our journey. We thought that the thunderstorm warning would be off within an hour so we still went ahead. And we put our raincoat on.

Amazing! We finished section 6 less than an hour. We took only 55 mins to finish it. But it was raining really heavily. We waited at the end of section 6 and hoped that it would rain less later. There was another large group waiting with us there, too. I am sure some of them were also doing trailwalker training.

It still rained quite heavy and then we discussed again whether we should continue. We voted and most of us thought we should continue. Hence, we continued our journey under heavy raining. In Needle Hill at section 7, we saw an old man. He turned on the radio and took a rest at the top of hill. He was listening some very old songs and the song of Titantic. What a life! He looked so satisfied.

Our shoes were all wet. I felt that we were climbing up to waterfall. When we walked section 8, the weather condition was really bad!!! It kept raining heavily and the trail was muddy, watery and slippy. It was so windy, too. I fell down once there but I stood up very quickly. Even though the weather was so bad, we still walked VERY fast. I wasn't care what I have stepped on. My feet were so wet. I was afraid that I got blisters again. We took a very quick rest at an arbor. Yvonne and I changed our socks. Sam changed to wear her sandal. It was so windy and cold and we saw a teenager who were resting there too with his friends who was so pale. I think he must be very cold. We couldn't stop there too long. We started our journey again.

After our long journey, we went to Tsui Wah for lunch. Yeah! Of course, food was yummy!! All of us are pretty fit now. Our intial target was to finish the 100km within 30 hours. I think we could adjust it to 27 hours. will see how it goes.

Between Trainings

2005-08-28T23:26:00.000+08:00

After Aug 27 training, in fact, I had a dinner to go in Causeway Bay. When I went back home after training, it was 6pm already. My dinner started at 8pm. So I quickly had shower and took a bus to Causeway Bay. I took bus home after dinner. I was so sleepy and fell asleep in the bus. You know what. I overslept. I missed the bus stop that I supposed to get off. I got off at one more bus stop after and walked back to home!

Next day (Aug 28), I had family gathering. I ate a lot. My sis made a blueberry cheese cake, Mango cheese cake and a strawberry mousse cake. Also, my nephew bought us a icecream cake as well. Together with some regular food such as salad, ribs, sushi, crabs, shrimps, steak.

I felt guilty to eat so much and thought that I should do more exercise. So I went to have a walk at night. There is a very nice park next to my home. In this park, there is a long stair up to Hong Ling Road. After chatting with Yvonne, she found out that many trailwalkers actually walked a lot of stairs for training. So I decided to do it also. I counted there are 155 steps in this stair. I ran and walked for 5 rounds (up and down). I think this should help.

3rd Trailwalker Training on Aug 27, 2005

2005-08-27T11:31:00.000+08:00

We did section 4 and 5 this time. Participants are our team (Yvonne, Ben, Adrian and I), Adam, Sam, Samuel, Michelle and Robert Tse (Adrian's friend). We started at 8:52am and ended at 5:19pm. Temperature was around 27C to 30C. It had a isolated shower. Yvonne called me at 6:15am and told me that there were thunderstorm warning.. gosh! we couldn't have training last weekend because of bad weather. I dont want to miss another chance for training! But thanks god! It got off 15 mins later. Hence, we sticked to our plan.

I was a bit worried myself as I didn't sleep well in the past few days. I felt very tired at the very beginning. I was hoping that I didn't need to take the helicopter for help. :) Oh... what did I have for breakfast? I had a banana, rice porridge, rice noodle (cheung fun). BIG BREAKFAST!! This is suggested by Alan Chow. He said I should take more carbohydrate if I get hungry so easy. so I did it. We started our journey and was talking about my blog, too. :) We were guessing who would step on shit and fell down this time. I was watching my watch and was thinking whether I could maintain my energy but then I didnt want to take risk.. so.. I ate a choc bar after 45 mins walk. hehehe.. yeah I know I eat a lot!!! But it did work. A big breakfast and a piece of choc are the right combination for me.

It has been raining for the last few days. The trail was sooo slippy and muddy. Michelle fell down twice. Samuel almost fell down. I had a hiking stick with me. It really helped.

I didn't have cramps this time but Robert did. We were so lucky to have Michelle with us. Michelle had the relieve cramps cream with her. Adrian helped Robert to put it on. Besides such cream, Michelle also brought different kinds of drinks and brought MANY bread!! She really got everything in her bag!

Part of section 4 was blocked (around post 96) due to landslide in the past few days. so we got to walk to Wilson Trail to go to the beginning of section 5. Our plan was to had a quick lunch at the little grocery shop at the end of section 4 and then continued our journey in section 5. When we arrived the grocery shop, it was after 2pm already. It was a bit late then we expected. But anyway, we were so hungry and ordered food right away.

Michelle, Robert and Samuel were in the hurry and had to go. Adam, Sam, Yvonne, Adrian, Ben and I continued to do the section 5 after the quick lunch. We walked very very fast in section 5. It took only 2 hours for us to finish it.

After that we took taxi together... dropped Yvonne off in Prince Edward MTR station and Ben, Adrian and I took the same taxi home. Can you believe this? Yvonne still went to shopping after such a long walk!! She is really a superwoman!!

I can see that all of us have improved physically. This is a good sign! I didn't have blister on my feet. But I had blister around my knee! 'cos I wore the knee brace for the whole journey. um.. I think I should put on some vaseline first....

What a pity! No one step on shit this time!!! HHAHAHHAHA

Between trainings on Aug 20, 21

2005-08-21T23:19:00.000+08:00

We didnt go for training on Aug 20 because of very bad weather. There was amber rain warning, landslip warning and thunderstorm warning. I was so bored at home. I slept and read. On Sunday (Aug 21), the weather was still bad but didn't rain so heavy. So I went out for a 30 min run. still got nothing to do after it.... um.. ah! suddenly, I realised that I haven't gone to beauty shop for facial.. ahhaha... I called and did the reservation.. When I was doing facial, Joel sent me SMS and asked if we went for training. I said.. No. doing facial now! He replied.. HAHAHHAAH.. :)

2nd Trailwalker Training on Aug 14

2005-08-14T20:33:00.000+08:00

We have done the 2nd trailwalker training today (Aug 14). We did section 5, 6 & 7. We started at 8:30am and finished at 14:52pm. It wasn't too bad.

I had a McDonald's whole meal breakfast this morning. Since I didnt eat enough last training, I felt so hungry and couldn't continue to walk. I also bought many bread with me this time, too. HOWEVER, I still felt hungry when I walked til 9:30am, (Can you believe this?) I had to stop and ate half of power bar. Adrian was so nice and helped me to carry my backpack.

Luckily, it didn't rain today. Thunderstorm and typhoon signal no. 1 were hoisted yesterday. But I did drink more water than last time. I bought 2L water but it wasn't enough neither. Um.. I got cramps again. Well.. this time was the inner side of my knees. I could feel that my knees are not strong enough. I do need more training and exercise. Again, I was so lucky. 2 gentlemen, Ben and Adrian massaged me!!

Oh.. I also wore knee braces to protect my knees, too.. You know what.... I bought a very expensive brace.....HKD120 in Admiralty.. however, when I walked 20 steps more from the shop I bought the expensive brace, I found that I could get HKD54.9 from Waston!!!! AH!!!!! I keep telling myself that my brace is better!!! It is worth to buy it so expensive!!!! :) Well.. I proved it.. hehehe.. in the half of our walk today, I borrowed a brace (the one that I could get in Watson) from Adrian. I could feel that HKD120 is better!! HHAHAHHAAA!!!

Route was so slippy this time. Adrian, Ben and I fell down couple of times. Even though we finished at 14:52, we still need to walk for an hour to get transportation to town. We were so tired but walked very fast as we knew that we could have good meal afterwards. Within this hour, we were thinking what kind of dishes we should order.. hahaha.. we ordered tomoto beef rice, fook kian fried rice, beef rice noodle, singaporean rice noodle.. Wow.. so yummy!! We ate VERY fast!!!

This time.. who stepped on shit!! Yvonne!! She stepped on monkey's shit.. It was in green color. Surely, the monkey ate a lot of fibre!!! HAHAHAHHAA :D

1st Trailwalker Training on July 30

2005-07-30T20:25:00.000+08:00

I have started my 1st trailwalker training on July 30. It was tough! It was raining.. the route was muddy! I didn't know I was stepping on the mud or the shit! Participants are Yvonne, Adrian, Ben, Adam, Sam (Shook) and I. Adam and Sam are not trailwalker this time. They just came being our company. We walked Section 1 and 2 of Maclehose Trail. We started at 8:07am and finished at 3:55pm. We took about 1 hour lunch break.

I woke up really early in that morning. Strange! I don't want to wake up during weekdays for work. But I woke up so early on Saturday for training. This is what we called... Motivation!

We took a cab from Diamond Hill MTR station to Pak Tam Chung and started walking under shower. It was quite relaxed at the begining but it didn't last. Even though I had a big breakfast, I started to feel hungry at around 11am. I quickly ate a piece of choc but still felt no energy. And I got cramp on my legs. Adrain and Ben were very nice to help me out and stretching my legs. They even carried the bag for me for a while. Yvonne lent her hiking stick to me. This is what a team is for!

We finally reached the little grocery shop/restaurant and we could have real food! Gosh! All of us were really hungry!! We took about 1 hour break and started our journey again! I felt I had energy back! But my feet.... I got 6 blisters out of my 10 toes!! We also got a bit of sun burn, too! What a good experiece!

We were so tired after the walk. Adrian and I took mini bus to Kwun Tong together from Sai Kung. We both felt asleep in the mini bus! I got a bit of muscle pain on my legs.. not too bad.. but the blisters.... huh.. But I won't give up! (even though my dad said I am crazy! ) This really motiviate me! Now, I know I need more training! I need a pair of good hiking shoes! nice backpack etc.. And I bought Vaseline as well. We are going to buy hiking shoes together tonight! I will continue to write down our training experience til the big day, Nov 11 to 13.

Wish us luck! :)

P.S. I saw Adrian stepping on the ox shit! heheheeh