Rudy Bottin sets supported Lantau Trail ‘fastest known time’ as Covid-19 trend for records in lieu of races continues
- The Hong Kong-based Frenchman runs the 66km Lantau Trail in eight hours, 18 minutes and 23 seconds and looks forward to seeing who will beat his record
- ‘FKT’ attempts are all the craze as races have been cancelled or postponed for nearly a year during the pandemic
Rudy Bottin has set the ‘fastest known time’ (FKT) for a supported runner on the 66km Lantau Trail, covering the route in eight hours, 18 minutes and 23 seconds.
The Lantau Trail starts and ends in Mui Wo, firstly going over Sunset and Lantau Peaks, down to Tai O, along the coast and catchwater, past Pui O and back to Mui Wo.
A supported FKT, as opposed to unsupported, means Bottin had friends give him food and drinks along the way, and paced him for parts of the run. It was all going smoothly until Lantau Peak, just an hour and a half into the record attempt on Saturday. It was where he first planned to eat.
“It just messed up my stomach. I could not eat after that,” the Hong Kong-based Frenchman said. “All I could have was water and coke. When you put super high levels of sugar in your body, you go super high but then you go super low.”
After hours of only Coca-Cola for fuel, he began to feel dizzy and his vision was blurry. He had to stop and rest.