Top two overcome dead-end detour in Victoria to Peak race, while others preach the barefoot cause

All Ryan Yip Tung-hoi and David Woo could do was laugh when they hit a dead-end and realised they had gone the wrong way in the Victoria to Peak Challenge. But the two encouraged each other and went on to finish first and second respectively.

Very little separated Yip and Woo, who finished only 23 seconds apart with a time of 46.17 minutes and 46.40 minutes respectively.

The 10km race starts next to the Central piers then weaves its way up 400 metres to The Peak.

“He made me go faster, he was very close behind me. We talked. We support each other throughout,” Yip said of Woo, adding they saw the funny side when they hit a dead end and had to turn back.

“Ryan was very encouraging,” Woo said. “He was like a coach. It was a pleasure running with him. We were pretty chilled when we realised we went the wrong way. We had a lot of room behind us.”

Samuel Guinness was about three minutes behind the leading pair, despite having completed the Berlin Marathon only a week ago.