C8 Tuesday, March 5, 2013
FITNESS & WELL-BEING
Hong Kong’s country parks are a magnet for a growing number of hikers, runners and ultra-marathoners, writes Jeanette Wang
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foodies haven, a finance hub, a party town – Hong Kong is all of these things. And the time is ripe to add “a hiker’s heaven” to the list, with record numbers of runners and hikers flocking to the city’s extensive network of nature trails. Some 1,200 people will take part in Saturday’s RaidLight Lantau trail race – double the number of last year’s inaugural event. The race was booked to capacity in two months – three months earlier than last year – with many more on the waiting list, says race director Clement Dumont. A quarter of the participants will fly in from 15 countries, including about 150 from Singapore and many from Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines and Taiwan. “We have had to limit the participation as it grew too fast,” says Dumont, who’s also one of Hong Kong’s top trail runners. Runners are also seeking longer distances. In response, organisers of the Lantau race added a 100-kilometre category to last year’s 50-kilometre and 15-kilometre races. It will be the fifth trail race of 100 kilometres or longer in Hong Kong this year, in addition to the Oxfam Trailwalker, the Vibram Hong Kong 100, and – both announced last month – the HK168 and The North Face 100. Participation in the 100-kilometre Trailwalker is rising: last year 4,715 people took part, 12 per cent more than in 2011 With a quota of about 500 four-person teams, the race is always oversubscribed – there were 2,913 team applications last year, 22 per cent more than in 2011. The Hong Kong 100 in January had 1,200 runners from 30 coun-
HOT
PURSUITS
Ultra-runners Claire Price (red shirt) and Kami Semick pound the Wilson Trail in Tai Tam. Photo: May Tse tries, says race organiser Steve Brammar. The first race in 2011 had 250 participants. But not everyone runs; leisure hiking is also on the rise. Local hiking tour company Walk Hong Kong conducted more than 550 tours for a total of nearly 1,800 people last year – 40 per cent more than in 2011. “Hong Kong has some of the best and most accessible trail running terrain in the world so it is no wonder that people want to get out and enjoy it,” says Keith Noyes, race director of King of the Hills, a series of off-road races held since 1984. Hiking and trail running offer a way to escape urban life, get some fresh air, reconnect with
nature and exercise. Noyes says the Sars epidemic played a part in making Hongkongers take up outdoor exercise. Trail running is a great way to increase fitness, strength, agility and balance due to the varied terrain, says Emma Drake, a trail runner and physiotherapist. It especially works the buttocks, calves and core, and is healthier for the joints than road running. It’s also a lot more fun. Even if you run the same trail day after day, no two steps are the same because the route is subject to weather and human traffic. In a way, the trail has a life of its own. “It’s exhilarating and uplifting – you feel so free when you’re out on the trails away from the traffic
Before, people with a midlife crisis used to buy a Porsche. Now, these people take up an endurance challenge PIERRE-ARNAUD LE MAGNAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, VIMTECH
and crowded, noisy streets,” says Claire Price, one of Hong Kong’s top trail runners. “It’s refreshing and a real mental boost for me.” Trail running attracts a certain kind of person, say race organisers. “They tend to be overachievers and quite successful,” says William Sargent, organiser of the Barclays MoonTrekker night race. “Ninety per cent work for multinational companies; overall, 70 per cent work in banking and finance. The average age is between 25 and 35. About 60 per cent are expats, but there is growth in the local segment.” Michael Maddess, who set up Action Asia Events in 1980, will organise at least 17 races this year, including a trio of three-day ul-
tra-marathons in Nepal, Mongolia and Lijiang. A survey of competitors over seven of his races showed that slightly more than half were between 25 and 39. One in five was a CEO, managing director or business owner, one in three was at manager level and 40 per cent earned more than US$100,000 a year. “Before, people with a midlife crisis used to buy a Porsche,” says Pierre-Arnaud Le Magnan, managing director of Vimtech, co-organisers of the Lantau race. “Now, these people take up an endurance challenge.” It’s no surprise that shops selling outdoor apparel and equipment have seen a boost in sales. “People are willing to pay
more for better and lighter gear such as headlamps, windbreakers, trail running shoes, compression tights and hiking poles,” says Ryan Cheng, director of RC Outfitters. The store started as a 300 sq ft outlet in 2001 and now has 7,500 sq ft across its Mong Kok and Causeway Bay outlets. RacingThePlanet, the local organiser of desert foot races, started selling outdoor gear in 2009 and has doubled its revenue each year, says Eric LaHaie, former vice-president of global sales. “Asia-Pacific sales are growing much faster than Europe. Hong Kong is by far the fastest growing market, and recently China and Taiwan have taken off,” he says. Last month, LaHaie launched Stack Active, a joint venture with US-based sports media website Stack.com for the Asian market. Even businesses not directly related to the sport are wanting in. Last year Barclays signed a three-year sponsorship deal with MoonTrekker, and Action Asia Events launched a trail run series sponsored by MSIG Insurance. “These sponsors realise that trail runners have disposable income – lots of it – and want to do events in Hong Kong and abroad,” Maddess says. But with the increasingly packed race calendar, organisers say it’s getting harder to find sponsors and race dates. Also, support from authorities is lacking. Dumont says that, unlike Europe and North America, trail events here don’t get any support from the government, despite their huge tourism potential. Major hiking events, including MoonTrekker and Trailwalker, have been promoted to tourists through visitor centres and online, says a Tourism Board spokesman. Promoting Hong Kong’s nature is part of the board’s long-term strategy for marketing the city. Since 2009, its “Great Outdoors Hong Kong” campaign has offered a guidebook and free trail tours, which were taken up by about 500 visitors last year. jeanette.wang@scmp.com
FIT & FAB Olaf Kasten says the greatest achievements come only with difficulty. Photo: Warton Li
Iron will for an ironman ................................................ Rachel Jacqueline life@scmp.com He lost his job. He dehydrated himself to the point of needing hospital treatment, and his delirious state caused him to cut the course short, which got him disqualified from a triathlon in Taiwan in the summer of 2011. Yet, Olaf Kasten didn’t give up the sport. Instead, the combination of those episodes actually motivated him to become a world-class triathlete. Kasten, 40, always had his eye on the World Ironman Championship in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, but his dream seemed impossible. A triathlon consists of 3.86-kilometre swim, 180kilometre bike ride and a 42kilometre run, and three years earlier, the German native could barely swim 50 metres without losing his breath. Although he was a talented young athlete, he let his fitness slide in his 20s as his climbed the corporate ladder by leading trading teams in Asia. Then suddenly, he lost his job. With time on his hands, he planned to set up a new executive coaching business. Kasten also decided it was time to turn his dream – to compete in the 2012 Ironman – into reality. His coach, Andrew Wright, was sceptical. “But I’m a very disciplined guy, so when I have a programme, I do exactly what is on there,” Kasten says. It began to work. He trained intensively and intelligently, gradually increasing his training
load to 25 hours a week. By finishing 55th in a field of more than 1,400 in the Melbourne Ironman in nine hours, 10 minutes, 46 seconds in Australia, he qualified for Kona in October. There he emerged a true Ironman, completing the course in nine hours, 31 minutes, eight seconds. He placed 118th overall and eighth among men in the 40-44 age division. While Kasten believes an iron will was a key to his success, he says could not have achieved his results without the coaching. “A lot of people say that it is 70 per cent mental,” he says. “I don’t know if it’s really that high, because if you haven’t done the work, you can’t invent it. You can’t go half an hour faster just because you want to.” What made you want to go to the Ironman championship in Kona? I had read a book called Iron War about the Kona World Championship race in 1989 where Mark Allen and Dave Scott went head to head until six kilometres to go, finally finishing 58 seconds apart. They were the two legends of Ironman. In the book, the author says you can’t call yourself a true triathlete until you’ve done Kona. That really annoyed me, so I decided I had to do it. But to go to that level, you need a very good support system around you in terms of physiotherapy, your coach and your family. You have to make it your No 1 priority for a given period. It’s really about
determination and making the time to train. What do you love about Ironman? There’s no place to hide there. People can talk all they want, but you can’t tiptoe around the result. I also really like the fact that the hard work pays off. I’m a strong believer that if you do your work, if you are well prepared and if you have thought of all the options, there’s not that much that can go wrong. And even when something goes wrong, there’s always a good way to deal with it. To some extent, I think we live such comfortable lives that it feels good to suffer when you do triathlon. If it’s not hard, it’s not a great achievement. What does your triathlon training bring to your coaching business? Coaching in my triathlon made a huge difference, and I feel coaching has the same effect in business. It’s very difficult to have the discipline to impose things on yourself; it’s very difficult to change if you don’t have a process or somebody holding a mirror in front of you. What keeps you going during the tough moments? Anything is possible – that’s my motto. A year ago, I didn’t think I could even qualify for Kona. All the triathletes I knew were way better than I, and this year out of all the athletes I think I’m the best athlete in my age group based in Asia, excluding Australia.