Hong Kong Four Trails: how 1 runner quit rat race, made a spreadsheet for ultra race
Glen Yick, 25, hopes to become youngest ever to complete the 298km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge – and his document details how
A brutal slog, day after day and sleep-deprived, surrounded by majestic peaks, an abundance of nature and spectacular cityscapes.
That description of the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge also applied to residing in the city generally for Glen Yick Kin-ho, until he was inspired to reject the daily grind in search of a better life balance – a backstory that helped earn him a place in this year’s race, set to start on Wednesday.
His immediate aim is to become, at 25, the youngest to complete the 298km (185-mile) route – comprising the MacLehose, Wilson, Hong Kong and Lantau trails – inside the 72-hour time limit. And after that? He is considering becoming a firefighter.
It was that willingness to leave his comfort zone that stood out when Yick applied to enter Four Trails, under a process that requested not only serious running experience but compelling reasons for attempting the challenge.
For Yick, that centred on finding a new purpose in life after he resolved to “break the status quo” by saying goodbye to his job in investing and an expectation to “work all day and night, and even at the weekend”.
Besides dedicating his efforts to those closest to him, Yick is racing against the clock to finish on time while still younger than Sarah Pemberton, who was 26 when she did it in 70 hours, 45 minutes in 2020.
