Blister Sisters relishing the team challenge of Trailwalker
Hong Kong-based women's team are confident about setting a course record, especially with a former world champion on their side
Elite ultra-marathon runner Kami Semick was ready to call time on her career when she suffered a severe asthma attack during the Western States Endurance Run in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains in June. But the chance to compete in the Oxfam Trailwalker as part of a strong, four-woman team was simply too tempting for the 46-year-old American, who moved to Hong Kong in August last year.
"It totally wiped away the joy of running for me," she says of the asthma attack. "It just isn't fun when you're being carried away in an ambulance when you think you've got a shot at running a good race."
Five months on, though, the enthusiasm has returned. "I love the idea of getting four key people together and having a journey together," she says. "We don't have anything like it in the States."
Semick will join top Hong Kong ultra-distance runners and Trailwalker veterans Jeanette Holmes-Thomson, Janet Ng Shiaw-hwa and team leader Claire Price for Friday's 100-kilometre Trailwalker. And the "Blister Sisters" are determined to smash the women's record of 16 hours and six minutes, no matter how much pain they have to endure along the way. "I'm hoping to be pretty trashed after the Trailwalker," Semick, twice named USA Track & Field ultra runner of the year, says. "I'm hoping to be pretty sore."
Price, 43, and Holmes-Thomson, 40, were part of a mixed men's and women's team last year and completed the race in 13 hours and 14 minutes - a record for a mixed team. Ng, 42, was in another mixed team who finished just behind them. Together with Semick, the 2009 world champion over 100 kilometres, the foursome should prove hard to beat.
"She [Semick] is an absolute legend in the world of ultra running and is an awesome, lovely teammate," says Price, a regular first-place finisher in local races, including the recent 40-kilometre Moontrekker.