Quickest woman in gruelling 298km ultra trail race in Hong Kong on her planning, training and advice for other runners
- Only two women crossed the finish line of this year’s Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge, and lawyer Alice McLeod was the first
- She advises others looking to take on the challenge to invest time in strength training, run on the race trails and get a solid support crew together
Alice McLeod, the quickest woman in the 2024 Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge (HK4TUC), which was held in February, wrote her training plan for the 298-kilometre (185-mile) race on the back of an airline menu on the way home from her honeymoon in July.
The rules mean she is classified as a “survivor” rather than a “finisher”; finishers must complete the race in under 60 hours, and survivors in under 72. Despite this, McLeod is now ranked fifth fastest female ever on the course.
The corporate lawyer is still basking in the glory of surviving the race on her first attempt. Just four women were on the start line this year, and only McLeod and Rouisa Tse Wing-yan completed the route.
“It felt like a pretty seminal moment getting to that postbox. I struggle to see how there could be any ultra endurance challenge that could beat Four Trails. It was amazing,” says McLeod.
There are no checkpoints and runners can only have help when travelling between the trails by car or ferry. This year, Hong Kong’s Liu Fo-lok won the challenge in 52 hours, two minutes and 24 seconds.
Liu Fo-lok posts fourth fastest time in Hong Kong Four Trails history
The gruelling event has been something of a love affair for newlywed McLeod, whose romance with her husband, airline pilot Lee Moore from New Zealand, has been intertwined with her passion for running.
For the then trail-running newbie, it was a “huge challenge”. She and Moore were definitely egging each other on and trying to impress one another, she recalls.
The Scottish native had taken up running on her arrival in Hong Kong as she was keen to stay active after dabbling in triathlons and cycling in the UK. She quickly became enamoured with the city and its trails.
“I did a 9km trail race and I loved it. I had no idea these trails existed in Hong Kong. It was the first race I ever won – and it put a rocket in me.”
“That was an incredibly inspirational moment for female trail runners in Hong Kong,” she says.
“I thought it was impossible, but at the same time I sat down and drew up a list of all the milestones I’d have to hit to be able to do it. And so I picked them all off over five years.”
In May 2023, McLeod applied for a place in HK4TUC 2024.
She was in great shape: she had completed an ultra marathon every month for the whole of 2022, and took second place running 188km in 28 hours along a 6.7km loop of Bowen Road in a “backyard ultra” in April 2023.
Suhra says running for 29 hours to win Hong Kong’s toughest race was ‘fun’
“I didn’t know whether I had a place in the race or not, but I decided I was going to train anyway [for the next six months],” she says.
Fitting in training was tricky; McLeod worked long days in the city. She managed to run 100km a week – before work, at lunchtime and in the evenings – and did long back-to-back trail runs on weekends.
For mental preparation, she ran and hiked on all four of the race trails and practised carrying her gear and running without headphones or poles, in line with the race rules.
Come race day, she was ready to make the seemingly impossible possible.
“I had a mantra to keep me going during the race: ‘One more step. Then another.’ I was determined not to quit until I physically couldn’t take another step,” she says.
“I had everything planned in advance, including contingencies if something went wrong, to minimise any decisions to be made along the way. Luckily, I am a planner.”
What is the 298km Hong Kong Four Trails Ultra Challenge?
She lost some time on the Wilson Trail because of its extreme elevation. She also had to make a downhill dash for the ferry to Mui Wo to run the final trail – boarding with one minute to spare.
Grabbing pockets of sleep as she moved between the routes by car and ferry, she clocked up 50 minutes of shut-eye in total.
What she describes as her lowest moment came as she reached the exposed ridge line on mist-shrouded Lantau Peak – Hong Kong’s highest reachable point – alone in the dark, buffeted by strong winds.
Sleep deprived and high on caffeine, she says she could not really see anything.
“At one point, I was crawling my way up the final staircase with four points of contact to make sure I didn’t accidentally fall off.”
McLeod reached the green postbox at the finish in fine form, with no injuries or stomach issues, just some tongue ulcers from eating sugary snacks. Six bags of Percy Pig gummy sweets, plus crisps, energy bars and cheese-and-pickle sandwiches, had helped fuel her run.
Reflecting on the event, her advice to others set on running the HK4TUC is to “definitely apply”, but to invest time in strength training, running on the race trails and getting a solid support crew together.
Will she take part again to grab a finisher place?
“I’ve only been running for six years, so I do feel I have a sub-60 [hours] in me. But I do feel incredibly content with getting to the end. I won’t be rushing back for the 2025 edition, but in the future there might definitely be another attempt.”
