Coronavirus: enforced break from trail running changes Stone Tsang’s motivation from competing to friendship and the outdoors

Stone Tsang, one of Asia’s top runners, has used the Covid-enforced break from racing to re-evaluate what motivates him
He now values the gathering of friends and is not fussed about the outcome of the competition

Extreme fitness

Mark Agnew

Published: 12:30pm, 20 May 2022

Why you can trust SCMP

This article is part of the SCMP’s series on the long-awaited resumption of sport in Hong Kong. After months of cancelled competitions and facility closures as the city battled a Covid-19 outbreak, elite athletes as well as the public are returning to pitches, pools and tracks.

Stone Tsang Siu-keung, one of Hong Kong’s best, and best loved, trail runners, no longer cares about racing. Over the past few years, particularly during Covid-19, he has come to value intrinsic motivations over competition, and has written a book on the subject.

Trail races have been on hold during the recent wave of Covid-19 in Hong Kong. The Sai Kung 50 last weekend was the first race since the wave. Another event is happening this weekend – The Goodman Healthy Hike & Run, by Action Asia Events – around Tai Lam Country Park, which Tsang is running.

Stone Tsang Siu-keung sets the Wilson Trail FKT as he prepares for the Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge. Photo: Asia-Pacific Adventure

For Tsang, a paramedic, the enforced Covid-19 break came at the right time. He was already stepping back from trail racing, taking a long recovery from the notorious 298km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC) 2017.

He then trained and ran it again in 2021, aiming to break the record. He ran no official races in between or since, but he did set the Wilson Trial fastest known time as training for the HK4TUC.

“The fire [for running] is always in my heart,” he said. “I can’t just do non-stop racing. I like running, and I don’t want to do it having pressure.

“Actually [the Covid-19 break] did not really bother me much, because I always like doing running in the mountains and doing it by myself. But the heavy ambulance workload really made me so tired every day, physically and mentally.

“I just want to enjoy the race [this weekend]. I am not in a good shape, but the race is in my backyard, so convenient, also I want to support Action Asia.

“I don’t have much desire for joining a competition now, and the result is not important for me, but the race journey is. For me, joining a race looks like joining a gathering with friends and meeting runners. I enjoy trail running even more than before now.”

Tsang still managed to get out for short runs despite his heavy workload during the pandemic. When his whole family got Covid-19 it added to the stress.

Stone Tsang finishing the 2017 Hong Kong For Trail Ultra Challenge – the long recovery from the 298km event and Covid-19 were a welcome break from racing. Photo: Agnes Cheng

As stressful as the past two years and recent wave have been, he used his break wisely.

“Life is always learning, I never lost passion for trail running,” he said. “When I slowed down [from racing], it was a chance for me to do something that I also desire to do – write a book about trail running training, stories and passion.

“I have been spending time and effort for reviewing the knowledge and my experience about trail running training and programming during the past year.”

The book is set to be released in July.

“It’s looks like a big life project for me,” Tsang added. “However, I am so happy I have it done.”

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