Hong Kong chef swaps cooking for bearded dragons as he prepares to tackle city’s notorious 4 trails challenge
- Liu Fo-lok has taken to breeding and selling reptiles to fund his training for Hong Kong’s toughest ultra-marathon event
- The Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge links all four major trails in a non-stop, unsupported, race
Liu Fo-lok is not new to ultra-marathons, but before last year he had to squeeze his training between sleeping and shifts as a chef at a busy Hong Kong restaurant.
The 34-year-old said he got around four hours sleep and had little recovery time between working in the kitchen and tackling the city’s hills while preparing for events at home and overseas.
But that all changed a year ago when he decided to focus full time on getting ready for the city’s most notorious race, the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge.
“Even when I started trail running in 2017, I’d already heard of the four trails. So, it is something I’ve always wanted to do,” Liu said. “This year, I changed my job so that I could train for it and other races too.”
When he was training for a specific event, such as the 171km Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc in 2019, he trained whenever he could, before or after work, but he said that led to “many injuries”.
Aside from cooking, Liu loves reptiles, specifically bearded dragons, and during the pandemic he began to spend more time understanding how to breed them.
