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Mark Agnew

Sri Lanka holds a special place in Hyun Chang Chung’s heart, for two contrasting reasons.
Firstly, his daughter was conceived there, and secondly, he was caught in the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, when he and his wife returned there to mark their child’s first birthday.
It was with this emotional connection in mind that he decided to run the newly minted 300-kilometre Pekoe Trail.
The trail is split into 22 stages, each designed to take one day. But Hong Kong-based Chung, 49, finished it in just 58 hours.


Chung recalling the horrific events of the Tsunami, when he was staying with his family in a Bungalow by the shore.
“In a matter of less than two, three seconds, the water just came, so I had to pick up at my daughter,” he said. “The problem is when it’s coming in, you don’t know when it will end. That is a quick moment, when you don’t know what’s happening.
“It’s terrifying. It’s terrifying.”
‘Why am I doing this?’ Chung asks ahead of 298km Four Trails
The family ran outside and climbed up some construction steps to the roof of another bungalow in the resort, along with other guests. They waited for a couple of hours and the water subsided.
That night, they all slept on the roof, among the mosquitos. The next day they wandered the streets.
“All the dead bodies on the road, all over the place, that was the most shocking,” he said. “The moment you see the first body, you get really shocked.”

There were so many bodies, they almost became desensitised. It was a traumatic episode. But it was a powerful one that, along with the conception of their daughter, made Chung and his family feel connected to Sri Lanka.
So, when he heard an old acquaintance had designed a multi-day trail route to help promote tourism in Sri Lanka, Chung’s ears pricked up.
Tourism in the country had been suffering since the 2019 East Bombings and Covid-19 travel restrictions. Chung thought of a unique way to promote the new trail and help the nation’s tourism.

The Pekoe Trail is a 300km hiking route that connects tea plantations across the country. Chung’s friend Miguel Cunat took 10 years to design and create it. The Sri Lanka-based Spaniard modelled the idea on the multi-day Camino de Santiago route in Spain.
Each stage starts and finishes in a village, so hikers can stop for the night and enjoy the local culture.
Cunat and Chung knew each other from Singapore before Cunat moved to Sri Lanka in 2003. It was Cunat that Chung was visiting when the Tsunami hit.
Chung reached out to Cunat and asked if he could run the whole thing non-stop, in one go, to help promote it. As Cunat was there on the fateful day the Tsunami hit, it felt fitting to do all he could to help his old friend.
Sri Lanka blasts: top defence official quits over security failures
“He said, ‘Really?!’. It’s mind blowing for someone who has nothing to do with the trail community,” Chung said. “If somebody comes and you hear them saying they’ll do 300km, you will think they are crazy. If you are a trail runner, you’ll still think it’s crazy, but also it’s nothing new.”
And it is certainly nothing new to Chung. He is one of the few people to have finished the 298km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge, and one of even fewer to have finished it twice.
“Miguel initially thought I was joking. I sent him my Four Trails stuff so he knew it was possible,” he said.
Chung did the run on Lunar New Year, which is when the Four Trails also runs, as a homage to Hong Kong.
The first 100km flew by, and Chung hoped to finish in under 48 hours. But the effort soon caught up with him. Unlike other runs, there was nothing to gain from being competitive, so Chung just enjoyed himself.
“The views, the whole landscape, is amazing. Even more amazing than I expected. I initially thought it was going to be just some small mountains, some tea plantations, which is kind of nice. But when you are there, the pictures do not do it justice,” he said.

“You need to be in the middle of the tea plantations. The green, all the green, it’s just amazing. And looking at the tea planters, the women, they do it all by hand.”
The culture was equally interesting, with different religious shrines sharing the same space.
At one point, the route follows a working train track and Chung had to step off to let the train go by.
“This is the beauty of these kind of countries, right? You can do it,” he said
“You don’t have the Department of Forests or of Country Parks coming and saying you can’t do this kind of thing.”
Finally, after 58 hours of running, Chang pulled up to the end.
“Any activity like this, it is always just overwhelming, very emotional, to finish,” he said. “It’s just … I don’t have words.”


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Extreme fitness

Hong Kong runner completes Sri Lanka’s 22-day Pekoe Trail in just 58 hours

Hyun Chang Chung runs the 300km Pekoe Trail in Sri Lanka. Photo: Ainhoa Mombiela

The colours amazed Hyun Chang Chung on his run. Photo: Miguel Cuñat

Support crews met Chung in each village. He could not do the run unsupported because of leopards. Photo: Miguel Cuñat

The beauty of the trail exceeded Hyun Chang Chung’s expectations. Photo: Miguel Cuñat

Hong Kong 298km Four Trails ‘finisher’ Chung returns despite pain, lamenting ‘what did I expect?’

Hyun Chang Chung returns for Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge, despite the suffering of 2020. Photo: Stanley Wong – 9Dragons Race

Hyun Chang Chung running the Action Asia Events multi-day race in Kazakhstan. He is gearing up for the 2020 Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC). Photo: Vincent Ypersiel/Lantau Buffaloes

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Sri Lankan soldiers stand guard at the St Anthony’s Shrine in Colombo on April 25. Photo: AFP

A general view of the Kingsbury Hotel targeted earlier in the day by a blast in Colombo on April 21, 2019. - A series of eight devastating bomb blasts ripped through high-end hotels and churches holding Easter services in Sri Lanka on April 21, killing at least 207 people, including dozens of foreigners. (Photo by ISHARA S. KODIKARA / AFP)

Pakistani Christians hold candles during a memorial service for those who were killed in the Easter Sunday suicide bomb attacks in Sri Lanka, at Fatima Church in Islamabad, on April 25, 2019. - Sri Lanka's Catholic churches suspended all public services over security fears on April 25, as thousands of troops joined the hunt for suspects in deadly Easter bombings that killed nearly 360 people. (Photo by AAMIR QURESHI / AFP)

(190425) -- COLOMBO, April 25, 2019 (Xinhua) -- Relatives and friends mourn for a blast victim at the Madampitiya Cemetery in Colombo, Sri Lanka, on April 24, 2019. Days after the deadly blasts that hit churches, hotels in Sri Lanka Sunday, families, friends of the over 300 victims have held funerals for their beloved ones. (Xinhua/Wang Shen)

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The Oxfam Trailwalker’s name might be closer to reality than the Oxfam Trailrunner, but then again, the sport is a mixture of walking and running. Photo: Dickson Lee

Sport

Outdoor

Trail Running

Hyun Chang Chung shocks trail route’s designer by suggesting he does it in one none-stop run
The 49-year-old returns to the country 19 years after he was caught in the Boxing Day Tsunami


Hyun Chang Chung returns to country 19 years after he was caught in the Boxing Day Tsunami, and shocks the trail route’s designer by doing it in one none-stop run.


Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka bombings

Hong Kong runner completes Sri Lanka’s 22-day Pekoe Trail in just 58 hours

Hyun Chang Chung shocks trail route’s designer by suggesting he does it in one none-stop run The 49-year-old returns to the country 19 years after he was caught in the Boxing Day Tsunami

Hyun Chang Chung shocks trail route’s designer by suggesting he does it in one none-stop run

The 49-year-old returns to the country 19 years after he was caught in the Boxing Day Tsunami