Day 5 (47.8km)

When it comes to friends, for me quality always trumps quantity. I’ve never had a massive circle of friends, but the friends I do have are all precious gems. Take my good buddy Syd, for example. We’ve been friends for 30 years now. We go way back. We walked around Taiwan together (1,000 km), back in 1999, raising funds for the orphanages we were volunteering at on Saturdays. That event ultimately raised HKD$950,000.

Fast forward 20 years and Syd is still my ‘’point man” helping me out with every event, giving his time and energy selflessly, with little or no recognition. This time he brought his whole family (wife + 2 boys) over from Taiwan and they were my support crew for 5 days. It was absolutely magical and magnificent sharing this mini (but epic) event with them all. Today they were involved from start to finish. And Syd’s wife (Milan) even ran the afternoon section with me. What a joy!

I started the day at the Sunny Bay MTR station. That’s where Syd dropped me off before returning home to pick up his family. This was probably the most dangerous section of all, since the access road which parallels the main freeway (heading towards the airport) has no shoulders or pathways for pedestrians. So yep, that means you’re running on the road – with trucks and double-decker buses flying past within 1-2 feet of your head. At times like this, the only sane thing I can think to say is, “fuck it, have faith” ….. otherwise you get frozen in fear, and then where are you??

So the morning run took me from Sunny Bay to Tung Chung (13.8km), and then onwards to Tai O (12km). Interesting side note as I passed through Tung Chung. I tried doing a shortcut to avoid running through the downtown core. Big mistake! I got trapped on some mini service road with a barbed wire fence around it. With no option, I had to climb the fence (see photos – the ladder and ‘look at this dumbass’).

The afternoon run was absolutely phenomenal. Milan and I were running on this gorgeous, isolated trail that meanders along the southern tip of Lantau Island with stunning scenery of the ocean, pristine bays and pretty little beaches. At the end of it, Milan said her impression of Hong Kong had changed forever!      
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