Joannie ‘Jcy’ Ho Chung-yee was terrified of running downhill until last Saturday. She would become overwhelmed by a fear of falling to her death and have to sit down and crawl on her bottom. At best, she would creep down the slopes, nearly paralysed by her phobia. But, after just one session of hypnotherapy Ho appears to be cured, just in time to run the 298km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC) over Lunar New Year. “I’m really surprised, I only did one sessions so far and I’m already improved so much. On Saturday, I did the half the Hong Kong trail in reverse. I was only one minute behind Veronika Vadovicova when she did the fastest known time,” the 41-year-old said. “I was smiling. If it was before, I’d be constantly thinking ‘when will this section of trail finish, when can I get back to the road’. But on Saturday, I just wanted to get back to the trails. I don’t know how to explain it. It was just joyful. I was so happy. All day, I was just looking at my Strava, asking, what did I just do?” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Ben Young (@djyoungone93) The HK4TUC connects all four major trails – the 100km MacLehose, 78 Wilson, 50km Hong Kong and 70km Lantau Trail – with more than 14,500m of accumulative elevation. Runners complete the trails in reverse. There are no checkpoints or support allowed on the trails, but participants can have help travelling between the trails. In the past, that included help travelling from The Peak, where the Hong Kong Trail ends, to the ferry pier to get to Lantau Island. However, some people pointed out that the trail is not actually 50km, so runners this year have to make their own way from The Peak to the pier with no support. So, now was a good time for Ho to cure her phobia. If runners complete the HK4TUC in less than 60 hours they are a “finisher”, if they complete it in under 72 a “survivor”. The end is the green postbox at Mui Wo ferry pier. Ho’s fear is not connected to heights, it stems from the possibility of falling, breaking her arm, hitting her head and even dying on the descent. That phobia meant that in her first ultra, the Sai Kung 50 in 2016, she finished last because she was so slow on the descent. Since then, she has become one of Hong Kong’s best runners, including finishing second at the notoriously difficult 9 Dragons, and runner-up at the Sai Kung race three years after her last place finish. It is almost unbelievable to think how much she has achieved with her phobia of downhill running. “I had to really push myself to run faster on the flat and on the uphill to compensate,” Ho said. “On the downs, I’d curse myself, and I’d have to say to myself, ‘calm down, I won’t die’. It was really tiring every time I did a downhill. When I did the Hk100, I finished in 15 hours something. But halfway, when there was a downhill, everyone passed me asking if I was injured but it was just because I was scared of the downhills.” During the hypnotherapy, Ho was asked to picture times when she had become scared. The therapist gave her headphones, and played soothing music as Ho lay on a sofa. The therapist then talked her through her experiences, getting Ho to rewind or fast forward specific moments. Ho said it was like the therapist was a voice in her dream. The aim was to connect her fear and her subconscious, to give her control over the feeling. “Immediately the next day, I went to run down stairs. I’ve never ever managed to skip stairs,” Ho said. “Never in a million years would I skip stairs. But I was taking them two at a time. I wasn’t scared. It was just so weird, it was surreal.” Despite the therapist believing that Ho was cured, she plans to do one more session just “to make sure”. To enter the HK4TUC, runners usually have to submit an essay detailing their motivation. There is no entry fee or prizes. The organiser is keen to point out it is not a race, but a personal challenge. Ho had the honour of being invited to join. “I replied ‘Are you sure?’,” she said. “For me, it was a shock. In terms of experience, I’m not that experienced. Looking back on the previous runners and they are crazy experienced. I have never done longer that 100 miles. I said I’d definitely make the commitment and train. I’m so thrilled and happy.” Ho was not a natural athlete as a child and begrudgingly played hockey at school in England. When she returned to Hong Kong in 2012, she took up sports again as a way to avoid drinking and partying. She has been on Strava since 2009, and found herself top of many segments. When the popularity of the running app began to explode around 2015, Ho found a new determination as other women began to challenge her times. “I didn’t know I was that competitive until I saw myself in the top 10,” Ho said. “Then I slowly started to be taken off the ‘crown’ [first place on a segment] and you have to get back on top there.” Around that time was when she started running seriously. Even as she got quicker, she experienced a great deal of pain running longer distances. In the past two years, she has upped her training and added weights to her programme to remedy the pain. ‘Sooner or later you pay’: looking back on suffering the HK4TUC Her goal for the HK4TUC is to ‘survive’, and not feel an unmanageable amount of pain. Above all, she wants to regain her joy of trail running that was overshadowed by the downhills. “I love uphill, I love flat. But knowing that when there’s up, there’s down, I was always thinking about the next down. I was so jealous, envious, when people go fast downhill and say they feel free flying downhill. I never had that, but now I can rediscover the love of trail running,” Ho added. “I’m looking forward to Four Trails to redo all the trails where I was afraid before.”