Amazingly enough there are a number of X-Country races held in Hong Kong every year from mountain biking, running and adventure racing. Although Hong Kong is fairly small with a large population, we are lucky to have plenty of beautiful hills and country parks, which offer some great off-road opportunities.

On 04 November, I took part in the Watson's X-Country Championships as part of the Hong Kong Ladies Road Runners team (HKLRR) with Christine Double and Sheila Purves. This was the final race in a series of three held throughout the autumn and doubled as the championships so I was anticipating a strong field. The team were hoping to secure a Series win but we knew we had the TCAA team close on our heals and that we would all need to run well.

I had heard the course at Hok Tau Reservoir was a fairly tough 9.4km with lots of hills and steps to negotiate. The steps or hills didn't worry me too much as most of my training through the summer had been on the hills but I hoped the trail sections weren't too rough. I haven't done much X-Country running or training as this was a warm-up race for me before the Phuket Triathlon the following weekend so I didn't want to pick up any injuries.

Luckily Gillian (team captain) had provided us with some good directions otherwise we would have struggled to find the country park which is about 10 minutes from Fanling. When we arrived at about 7:30am the place was already buzzing with activity, Watson's staff frantically unloading trucks of water and runners limbering up. I found my teammates and after registration we all headed off for a warm-up on the first part of the course which headed up the valley on the park road to the reservoir before turning onto a trail. There were less people competing than I expected probably due to the fact the Reebok Half Marathon was taking place the same morning.

As we all lined up under the start banner there must have been about 80 runners all jostling for position anxiously waiting for the starters gun. Sheila and I opted for a start towards the back of the pack knowing most people would start really fast but we would be able to pick them off up the first hill after about 500m. BANG - we were off and as predicted the pace was rapid and the field spread out quickly, this was the last I saw of our teammate Christine! Sure enough as we started to head up to the reservoir, I was able to pass a large number of runners and was feeling really strong, this was definitely a good sign. I had felt tired earlier in the week as I was still recovering from racing the HK and Singapore triathlons on consecutive weekend's the week before but by Friday had started to feel ready to race again. Although I had planned this as a warm-up race for Phuket, I had decided not to cycle on Saturday and just did a light jog to loosen up and try to make sure I was as fresh as possible for the run.

As we ran across the small dam, Lewis Lam (fellow HK Triathlon teammate) passed me and I decided to try and stay on his feet. He had also competed in the Singapore triathlon two weeks ago and I had spent the whole 10km run about 2m behind him except for the last 500m when he pulled away so figured he was a good target. We soon turned off the road and were following the shore of reservoir through the forest. I started wondering where the steps were as I had been told by some of the AVOHK runners (Athletic Veterans) that after the first steps it is hard to overtake runners so you want to try and get a good position by the top. A Marshall suddenly interrupted my thoughts and directed me to the left and there they were. As I looked up into the trees I could already see some of the runners ahead of me reduced to a walk. As I headed up, the legs were still feeling good and I could see this was my opportunity to gain some headway on some of the women I had just passed on the hill and possibly pass some ahead of me. As I turned the next corner, I spotted some runners with TCAA on their shirt struggling up the steps ahead of me. I put on a surge and tried to look like it was a walk in the park as I sprang past them, little did they know I was secretly suffering underneath but the top couldn't be too far away? As I looked up, Bill Purves was there shouting encouragement and telling me only another 10 steps to go which was music to my ears.

As we headed down into the valley below, I was still on Lewis' feet although he was pushing the pace now but I was determined to stay with him. The trail was rocky in sections but not too bad and I seemed to be bounding over the stones as well as anyone else. I had soon lost all sense of direction as we sped through the countryside and had no idea who was ahead or behind me so I needed to keep the pace up. We soon came to another section of steps and again there were a number of people up ahead who were walking. As I managed to pass them, none were women so I still didn't know my position or equally whether there was anyone breathing down my back as I didn't dare try to look behind for fear of falling over!

Soon we headed back into the wooded section so I felt the reservoir must be getting near. Lewis must have had the same feeling as he started to pick up the pace and I had to work hard to stay in touch. As we came round the next corner there was the welcome sight of Bill again, surely he can't have walked too far from his original position and the end must be near? I managed to gasp "How far?" to which he replied "Nearly there" if only I knew whether his nearly there and mine were the same!

As we came down the steps, I recognized the dam and knew we had about 2km to go but most of that was downhill. I was trying to think of bounding and being light on my feet as I came down the hill on the concrete as I always seem to hurt my legs more on the downhill sections. As we reached the bottom, Clive Saffrey (AVOHK) came past and managed to say "the next girl is 100yards back." This put me into a quandary, firstly I work in metric so what was 100yards? Did he mean 100yards and gaining fast? Looks like I was going to have to push really hard to the line as we had about 800m to go and a steep hill up to the finish and I was determined not to be piped at the post!

That last 100m hill was really tough and my legs and lungs were objecting big time but I made it to the line and slouched over the fence gasping for breath next to Clive and a few others. As I looked round, one of the TCAA girls came over the line and collapsed in a heap, well it was good to see we had made them chase hard and I hoped we had done enough to get the win as I knew Christine had already finished. After I had gathered my breath, I headed back down the road to where Cookie (boyfriend) and Ingrid (my coach) had been watching the race and to see the others coming in. I saw another girl come through from TCAA and then Sheila came round the corner still looking in control to bring the team home. I checked my watch and realized I had done 39:45, which was much faster than I expected. It wasn't until I reached Christine, Ingrid and Cookie when then told me I had managed second overall, certainly something I couldn't have imagined achieving at the beginning of this year. The team managed to win the title for the second year running which was great news.

The race was really well organized and I would definitely recommend the series to anyone who enjoys running based on my first experience. There was a real mixture of abilities and ages competing and it is a great way to see some new parts of the Hong Kong countryside.