Race

If you want to soak up the summer MacLehose Trail scenery on foot, but are not quite up to the ultra endurance trail race, the Midsummer Race 1 is perfect, or so I was told.

Undulating but never steep, the 14km route near Shing Mun Reservoir takes in all sorts of terrain. It takes a bit of nerve, considering the season of this event when temperatures are hitting 34 degrees Celsius. It doesn't matter if you are elite or beginner - you're supposed to bring at least 1.5 litres of water.  

To begin with, I didn't read the instruction on racing gear carefully and brought next to nothing. A mobile phone, and that's all. I didn't bring water at all. Sniff. Sniff. To say that it's an oversight was an understatement. Seriously, one can simply lose marbles with dehydration, causing a rise in temperature until one’s brain is cooking on the inside.

Before long, I realized the trail race was more difficult than I'd imagined. That's a mix of concrete and trail. Muddy too. Racing against the clock is no easy feat. Being distracted could turn me into a Humpty Dumpty off the cliff in the blink of an eye. Instead of aiming for a personal best record, I told myself, I should aim for completing the race in one piece.

And I did. Indeed, so addled was I that I forgot to press the stopwatch the instant I crossed the finish line.

All in all this was a magical experience, of a kind I had never known before.