Hong Kong Day 4

After some confusion at the very start of the race I had a decent run. It was mostly around an older style chinese village made up of 2 story buildings and very very very narrow pathways and walled alleyways in between them. I found myself having to duck under washing strung from one side of the alley to the other, and we had to avoid buckets, bikes, and other household items stored outside.  A few times I was sure I was actually turning into someone's house (as the ground was occasionally tiled and raised a bit like an entrance way) but thankfully I didn't end up in anyone's living room. I suspect someone might have made that mistake as just as I was starting a very irate local turned up to give the organisers an earful of feedback about their event. It started out heated and escalated but I didn't get to see the outcome as I had to start right at that moment.  These photos aren't of the exact place, but are really similar to what we were running through.

Anyway - I was 2nd overall, a japanese lady beat me by just over a minute. It was one of those events where you just can't run fast, as the navigation is so tricky - it was very similar to the World Master's qualification race in 2017 which had different challenges which also left you feeling like you didn't run flat out for very much of it.  Actually that's lucky as Hong Kong has removed the shower facilities from the airport, so my pre-flight shower plan has been foiled and until I few minutes ago I was still in my running gear.