John “Stingray” Ray Onifa marked his 30th birthday on Friday by running the 44km Hong Kong Trail in three hours and 46 minutes, the “fastest known time” (FKT) by an unsupported runner. “Doing it on my birthday makes me even more excited and motivated,” Onifa said. “It’s my first time to run an FKT.” The Hong Kong Trail starts at The Peak, and snakes around Hong Kong, over Mount Butler, past the Tai Tam Reservoirs, over Dragon’s Back and finishes at Big Wave Bay. FKT attempts have exploded in popularity in the last year, as there are no races to run due to Covid-19 restrictions. Last month, Veronika Vadovicova set the reverse Hong Kong Trail women’s FKT in 4:41. Onifa is a member of The North Face Adventure Team. Two other members of the team have set recent records: Stone Tsang Siu-keung set the Wilson Trail FKT and Wong Ho-chung set the MacLehose FKT . Running unsupported means Onifa did not have any outside help, instead he carried or bought his own water and food along the way. William Davies still holds the supported FKT, set in 2009, during the Green Power race. Before his run, Onifa declared he was going to try and beat Davies’ time, despite the difference in support. Davies sportingly headed to The Peak in the morning to shake his hand and wish him luck before Onifa took off. “It’s so great of him to come. I did not expect this and very nice of him,” said Onifa. Once the pleasantries were over, Onifa took off at break neck speed; “I felt so good in the first half even though it was quite fast. In 1:39 I reached Wong Nai Chung Gap road, under the record I think.” He began to suffer for his efforts in the second half but kept on. “I expected I can also break the [Davies’] record but when I reached the 7km flat catchwater [about 15km from the end] I got so dizzy,” Onifa said. “My legs were OK but my head was dizzy and I slowed down so much. I even thought maybe I need to stop, but I kept fighting.” Davies echoed Onifa, and said that the catchwater can be the hardest part. “Most runners would categorise the second half as getting through the monotony of the catchwater. You kind of know then whether you have enough liquids and whether the mind is saying ‘let’s rip it up’ or ‘I just want this to end’,” Davies said. Onifa said he was somewhere between the two: “I thought maybe I still have chance at a good time so I just kept fighting and pushing, but it was really hard as I was not feeling well. Even my eyes begin to close, it’s so strange.” It has been a tough year, with no races to motivate runners. “It’s not easy,” said Onifa. “There’s no race in a long time to stay motivated but this FKT helped me a lot to keep my training. When I reached the finish I felt like dying. I never felt like that before. My head was exploding.”