Day 3 (55km)

So big drop in temperature today. As I started out from Tai Mei Tuk it was about 12 degrees, a tad frosty, but once you’re warmed up it’s pretty ideal for running. The first section took me out and around Plover Cove Reservoir (18km) – it’s a challenging route with quite a bit of up and down (roughly 800m elevation gain) and not a lot of options once you’ve started. You either finish the loop or go back to the start. There’s no road access or other trails to connect with. Nonetheless, it’s a pretty trail with picturesque views of the reservoir.

After finishing the loop around the dam, it was 15km along the straight, boring and dusty road that leads into Fanling. Glad that’s done!    

After lunch, we had to jump forward one section and run through the landfill south of Yuen Long (Ping Ha Road to Butterfly Beach). According to the original plan, I was supposed to run this section tomorrow, but apparently the gate to the landfill is closed on Sunday! Therefore I ran this section today (Saturday); and tomorrow I’ll go back and run the Fanling to Yuen Long segment.

Turns out the gate is closed EVERY day to the public. I had to plea with the security guard for 10 minutes before he decided to let us ‘slide’ through. I knew it was going to be tricky getting through the gate (I'd heard different stories), so I asked Syd to accompany me with the car. I promised the security guard we would drive through the landfill without stopping for anything. Little white lie. Little did he know, I jumped out of the car 200m down the road and ran the rest of the way. But all is well that ends well! I gave the security guard a nice tip for his good will. Meanwhile I finished another ‘ugly’ section of the run. What a stink! Just imagine running through the middle of a garbage dump….. 

​Sorry, no pictures of that.