
We first posted about the newest documentary about the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC), Four Trails, back in November, before I had the chance to come to Hong Kong to see it for the first time just a few weeks ago. Four Trails has been so popular here, that many people, including myself, have gone to see it multiple times. If you are in Hong Kong, and it is still showing, please go see it--at least once. It's worth it. It is beautiful to watch, and the stories are both epic and emotional.
Chris and I had already seen Breaking 60, of course, the first film by Robin Lee, and Atlas Productions, about the seventh HK4TUC, many times. At the time Breaking 60 was filmed, no one had ever broken the 60-hour barrier required for a "finisher," although there had been some who had "survived," or completed all four ultra-marathon distance (the MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong, and Lantau) trails in under the maximum 72-hour cutoff. By the tenth-anniversary event, in 2021, more than one of the runners had announced their desire to be the first to finish in under 50 hours.
If you are a regular follower of this site, then you already know that I came to Hong Kong for the first time in November, 2019. It was then that began to get to know my around Hong Kong a little and spent my first time on the trails, beginning with small portions of the Wilson, and Hong Kong trails, on my own. Chris, who had lived in Hong Kong before, came shortly after. He showed me around Hong Kong some more and we spent some quality time on the MacLehose trail together in addition to hiking up to Victoria Peak on a day "off."
Then I came back by myself the following January to spend more time on the trails (especially the Mac, the longest) and volunteered for the 2020 HK4TUC, which gave me the opportunity to meet the runners at that event, along with others from previous years, including ones who were featured in Breaking 60. I also got out on the two remaining trails as much as possible.
Unfortunately, I was unable to come back for the 2021 event, the subject of the new film Four Trails. As the tenth-anniversary event, it was limited to previous participants, and I also could not come to volunteer because of work obligations. Seeing the new movie almost makes up for not being able to be here. It's that good. I am grateful for the filmmakers, Robin and Ben Lee, for doing such a fantastic job of documenting the event. And I believe that they captured the heart of the HK4TUC even better with Four Trails than the first time with their previous film, Breaking 60--both are great, but each captures a different aspect of what has got to be one of the world's greatest challenges.
Since then, I have been lucky enough to come back to Hong Kong for subsequent HK4TUC events, again as a volunteer, and meet most of the runners in the first movie. I've also since completed all the sections now of all four trails, including the Hong Kong trail (the shortest) in one go. I was here last year and did 400+ kilometers in three weeks--and it was absolutely glorious--completing every section of all four trails, in the reverse direction, of course. No poles. No headphones. I was also lucky to stay on Lamma Island for the first time, which I plan to write about soon.
So I've been getting to know Hong Kong and its people, including some of those brave enough to do Four Trails. It is, as two-time finisher Nikki Han once told me, "proper hard." Tomokazu Ihara, another finisher, has compared it to the Barkley Marathons. Tomo has done three "fun runs," or three of the five loops there, and is on a mission to run 100 miles, 100 times (77, so far, as I write this). Tomo also finished Four Trails on his first attempt and recently said that finishing Four Trails in under 50 hours would be harder than finishing all five loops at the Barkley in under 60. He will be "sweeping" Four Trails this year (yep, you read that right), which should certainly count for 78 times doing 100 miles or more at one time. Who does that?!
Elliot Froidevoux, who has participated twice, and survived his first attempt, told me that Four Trails (the HK4TUC, itself, that is), more than anything else before in his life, made him "his own man." Elliot told me recently (and others) that he was going to see Four Trails (the film) for the fourth time with his family, and, if he cried, he would sign up again for the HK4TUC. I'll let you guess what happened.
I don't want to give away too much about what is in the new movie Four Trails. You can easily look up the results of the 2021 HK4TUC, but if you don't already know the results, I recommend that you wait to see the film. There are some surprises--and there are also great stories about heroic efforts that will truly inspire you like possibly nothing else could do.
If Breaking 60 is inspiring, and also fun, Four Trails is even more inspiring--and more emotional. A former US Navy SEAL once told me that if you want to be inspired, just go and watch the finishers at any ultramarathon event--and he's right. But there are ultramarathons--and then there are Ultramarathons. Four Trails is four of them, consecutively. Hard ones.
100 kilometers on the MacLehose trail, in my opinion, is not the same as 100K elsewhere. There is, of course, the substantial elevation, and then there are also the very technical sections (from hell). There are the stairs, lots of them, and not ordinary evenly-spaced stairs--some of which are not much more than bare, exposed railroad-ties and jagged rocks. Some of those stairs must be ran fast, on steep downhills, and very possibly in the poring rain. Or similar sections might go straight up, and you may just as easily be completely exposed to direct, tropical sun. There are also wild monkeys, village dogs and other potential obstacles along the way. And that's just the MacLehose trail. When you finish the Mac you still have three more trails, and another 200 kilometers to go.
298 kilometers and as many as three days of sleep deprivation (72 hours for "survivors") is just insane. There is really no other word to describe it. The first film, Breaking 60, gives you a taste of it. Four Trails demonstrates even better just how hard it can be, as if there was any doubt from the first film.
And Andre, the founder of Four Trails, keeps making it harder. Poles and headphones were prohibited; the distance has been increased (you now have to run down from Victoria Peak, rather than taking a car, to the ferry to Lantau island); and the start time is now uncertain until just ahead of the event. As if it wasn't already hard enough, or as Nikki said, "proper hard."
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