Hong Kong protests forced the Oxfam Trailwalker cancellation, but runners ‘won’t stop at anything’ to complete the 100km course
- Hundreds of runners turn out in show of community spirit to take on the famous ultramarathon
“It’s pretty special. I think it’s unique that everyone is still coming together and stands to run,” said Kodie Hultgren, of Gone Running-Joint Dyanmaics team.
The race starts in Sai Kung and heads 100km towards Tuen Mun. It started as a Gurkha training exercise, but has turned into the biggest trail running event of the year, open to all the enter.
“Shattered”, “devastated” and “unsurprised” were Hultgren’s team’s reaction to the cancellation. Ongoing anti-government protests have turned increasingly violent, and with mass travel disruptions throughout the week, it was deemed unsafe to have 5,000 runners and uncountable amounts of support runners head to the trails for the race.
“We all understood that, but we’ve spent six months training for this,” said Hultgren’s teammate, Charlotte Cutler, adding there was never any doubt they would run anyway.
Johnson Ko, team Reorient, is 70 years old and is running his third Traiwalker.