Dear Friendly Survivors,
“I gonna kill you!” “What happened in your mind to design such a tough route!” “Did you want me to die!” were the nice comments I received while shaking hands at the finish…
In fact, I was rather prepared for this. When I took the decision to organize this event, I certainly underestimated the endurance training that was required to organize such event (I lost my voice while marking the route in the middle of the windy night on Friday), like many participants did not realized that they signed up for one, if not the toughest trail race in Hong Kong! Yes, I wanted to design a tough and scenic trail race, and on this side, I think we succeed!
Every finisher deserves a big congrats and you can all be proud to have completed the Lantau50, especially those who took over 11h, which means they had to do the last technical section in the dark!
Congratulations to the amazing performance of Jeremy Ritcey (Salomon Bonaqua Team) who took the lead straight from the beach and never slowed down until the finish. Just wondering whether Jeremy had to sprint at the end to make sure he could finish in 5h30, as that was the predicted time I set up. What I did not anticipate was that the second, William Davis (Salomon Bonaqua Team), would arrive 30 min later. This clearly confirms that Jeremy had a strong ambition for the Lantau50, and he is currently the trail runner to beat in Hong Kong. Will got lost with Eric Lahaie (Raidlight Asia) as someone had moved the arrows on purpose, what a shame! But they were kind enough to phone me and then took the time to replace the arrows on the right direction for the followers (nice move from them, big thanks). Benoit Laval (Raidlight France) who came especially from France, took the third place in 6h03 but was surprised by the number of stairs he had to climb and the heat on the Chi Ma Wan section. The first woman Claire Price finished 5th overall, which is again a fantastic performance, while Kami Semick (The North Face) also finished in the top 10 overall, and third woman was Lucy Marriott who showed me her bleeding arms at the finish while saying, that one is though! All top 3 finishers of each category received nice Raidlight prizes (backpack, shoes), but also GPS Garmin, accommodation nights at Novotel, Thyo socks, Sunscreen Zinke, Power cookies.
We won’t forget the Explorer15, which was actually 17+km…I should have mentioned it earlier... It was nice to see groups coming from overseas to run the Exp15 and participating to the tattoo contest. Great performance from the Macau resident Pedro Ribeiro (New Balance) who won the race in 1h41min, while the first woman Zein Williams finished in just 2h00. Thanks to the no time limit, you could also take your time and enjoy the trail. Great prizes were also given to the top 3 of each category, including Raidlight equipment, Newton shoes, Novotel vouchers, Thyo socks, Power cookies, Sunscreen Zinke.
One thing I am very disappointed is the mention of many participants throwing away their garbage on the trails. This is because of this behavior that we have real difficulty afterwards to obtain the permits from the government.
Thanks all for supporting this first edition, do not hesitate to contact us to give comments (both positive and suggestions for next year). We are already aware of several issues that will need to be improved and hopefully with this first edition success, we will gain the confidence of sponsors to obtain cash to better offer you an even better event.
We want to thanks all the 41 volunteers, which made possible this event! Raidlight was not only a great sponsor, but also was a fantastic support for the event with Pierre-Arnaud helping with all the logistic (he was the one you saw at the check points!).
Clement Dumont
Race director
“I gonna kill you!” “What happened in your mind to design such a tough route!” “Did you want me to die!” were the nice comments I received while shaking hands at the finish…
In fact, I was rather prepared for this. When I took the decision to organize this event, I certainly underestimated the endurance training that was required to organize such event (I lost my voice while marking the route in the middle of the windy night on Friday), like many participants did not realized that they signed up for one, if not the toughest trail race in Hong Kong! Yes, I wanted to design a tough and scenic trail race, and on this side, I think we succeed!
Every finisher deserves a big congrats and you can all be proud to have completed the Lantau50, especially those who took over 11h, which means they had to do the last technical section in the dark!
Congratulations to the amazing performance of Jeremy Ritcey (Salomon Bonaqua Team) who took the lead straight from the beach and never slowed down until the finish. Just wondering whether Jeremy had to sprint at the end to make sure he could finish in 5h30, as that was the predicted time I set up. What I did not anticipate was that the second, William Davis (Salomon Bonaqua Team), would arrive 30 min later. This clearly confirms that Jeremy had a strong ambition for the Lantau50, and he is currently the trail runner to beat in Hong Kong. Will got lost with Eric Lahaie (Raidlight Asia) as someone had moved the arrows on purpose, what a shame! But they were kind enough to phone me and then took the time to replace the arrows on the right direction for the followers (nice move from them, big thanks). Benoit Laval (Raidlight France) who came especially from France, took the third place in 6h03 but was surprised by the number of stairs he had to climb and the heat on the Chi Ma Wan section. The first woman Claire Price finished 5th overall, which is again a fantastic performance, while Kami Semick (The North Face) also finished in the top 10 overall, and third woman was Lucy Marriott who showed me her bleeding arms at the finish while saying, that one is though! All top 3 finishers of each category received nice Raidlight prizes (backpack, shoes), but also GPS Garmin, accommodation nights at Novotel, Thyo socks, Sunscreen Zinke, Power cookies.
We won’t forget the Explorer15, which was actually 17+km…I should have mentioned it earlier... It was nice to see groups coming from overseas to run the Exp15 and participating to the tattoo contest. Great performance from the Macau resident Pedro Ribeiro (New Balance) who won the race in 1h41min, while the first woman Zein Williams finished in just 2h00. Thanks to the no time limit, you could also take your time and enjoy the trail. Great prizes were also given to the top 3 of each category, including Raidlight equipment, Newton shoes, Novotel vouchers, Thyo socks, Power cookies, Sunscreen Zinke.
One thing I am very disappointed is the mention of many participants throwing away their garbage on the trails. This is because of this behavior that we have real difficulty afterwards to obtain the permits from the government.
Thanks all for supporting this first edition, do not hesitate to contact us to give comments (both positive and suggestions for next year). We are already aware of several issues that will need to be improved and hopefully with this first edition success, we will gain the confidence of sponsors to obtain cash to better offer you an even better event.
We want to thanks all the 41 volunteers, which made possible this event! Raidlight was not only a great sponsor, but also was a fantastic support for the event with Pierre-Arnaud helping with all the logistic (he was the one you saw at the check points!).
Clement Dumont
Race director
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