Hong Kong chef swaps cooking for bearded dragons as he prepares to tackle city’s notorious 4 trails challenge
- Liu Fo-lok has taken to breeding and selling reptiles to fund his training for Hong Kong’s toughest ultra-marathon event
- The Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge links all four major trails in a non-stop, unsupported, race
Liu Fo-lok is not new to ultra-marathons, but before last year he had to squeeze his training between sleeping and shifts as a chef at a busy Hong Kong restaurant.
The 34-year-old said he got around four hours sleep and had little recovery time between working in the kitchen and tackling the city’s hills while preparing for events at home and overseas.
But that all changed a year ago when he decided to focus full time on getting ready for the city’s most notorious race, the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge.
“Even when I started trail running in 2017, I’d already heard of the four trails. So, it is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Liu said. “This year, I changed my job so that I could train for it and other races too.”
When he was training for a specific event, such as the 171km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in 2019, he trained whenever he could, before or after work, but he said that led to “many injuries”.
Aside from cooking, Liu loves reptiles, specifically bearded dragons, and during the pandemic he began to spend more time understanding how to breed them.
In January last year he decided to become a full-time runner and utilise his new knowledge about the animals to breed and sell them online to fund his running career.
The 298km route that he is preparing to conquer links all of the territory’s major trails – the 100km MacLehose, 78km Wilson Trail, 50km Hong Kong Trail and the 70km Lantau Trail.
There are no checkpoints, and aside from being able to take transport between the end of one trail and the start of another, no support is allowed. Also banned are any pain killers, running poles, and any type of music device.
Starting in Sai Kung and finishing in Mui Wo on Lantau, runners that complete the challenge in 60 hours are deemed a finisher, those that beat the 72 hour cut-off are known as survivors.
“I worry about injuries in the Four Trails, that’s my biggest worry as I’ve been injured in other races. But with this time now to recover between training, I hopefully won’t get injured,” Liu said.
It seems to be working. In the past 12 months Liu has finished in the top 10 in the 139km TransLantau, the Coros Spark 50 and the Coros 50 II. He was in the top 10 men in the 53km Hong Kong Trail Championships and 53km aminoVITAL CAM2.
“I know there will be a lot of suffering on the Four Trails,” Liu said. “When I started trail running in 2017, I thought it would be more like road running. I didn’t expect the uphills and in my first race, I suffered a lot.
“But I wanted to come back and do better, so I entered another race a few months later. In my first year, I ran 100km in Malaysia.
“Now, I like being alone. When I am on the trail alone and the only sound is my footsteps and my thoughts, I love that.”
Liu hopes to finish the Four Trails in 55 hours. In his application essay, he wrote: “Four Trails is a very difficult activity, some issues such as self-replenishment, hallucinations due to long-term strenuous exercise without rest, foot pain, stomachache, or other problems will appear during this activity. However, I believe I have enough willpower and physical strength to try.”
