Following in footsteps of Hong Kong’s first ultra runners, Carr discovers why they called race across city ‘madness’
- Steve Carr takes part of the route from Stanley to Sha Tau Kok and learns why the event was called ‘mid-May madness’
- The first race was in 1976 and only one runner, Bob Bailey, reached the finish line
In 1976, a small group attempted to run from Hong Kong’s most southerly police station in Stanley, to its most northerly in Sha Tau Kok. Only one, Roy Bailey, finished. The event became an annual challenge called mid-May madness because of the extreme heat.
Carr, 43, heard about the route and was immediately inspired to tackle it himself.
“I think it’s cool to do this kind of thing. I like narratives and the story behind it,” Carr said. “Running a normal 50km, it’s great, it’s good fun, but it’s not necessarily cool. It’s not replicating anything.
“Whether it’s a story because it’s been done in the past and it’s kind of disappeared in the narrative, or whether it’s just someone doing something that is on the cusp of failure, that kind of stuff is cool to me.”
Having said that, Carr did not do the whole route. He started from Tsim Sha Tsui and ran to the border, a distance of about 45km compared to the original route that was around 55km.
“Doing the whole thing at the end of May is just stupidity because it’s too hot. I’d be dead by lunchtime,” Carr said.
