Jared Hazen’s 5th Place Finish at the Hong Kong 100k and the Ascendency of Chinese Ultra Running

by Chase Parnell — January 20, 2020 — 📷: iRunFar

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I’ll admit that I was a little bummed to hear Jared Hazen finished 5th at the Vibram Hong Kong 100k (HK100) but I was prepared to just let it go until the following tweet hit my feed:

“@dylanbo & @jasonkoop – Podcast mashup idea: a conversation together and released to both your feeds, discussing the potential & ascendancy of Chinese runners. After #HK100, I’m surprised at how far back @jaredhazen finished. How many Golden Tickets/CR’s could they take?” — @garyaronhalt

“Ascendency.”

“How far back…”

“…could they take.”

With that, Gary succeeded in inflaming the long-dormant patriot within me, and I was tempted to reply something to the effect of, woah woah woah, pump the breaks a little, let’s not forget we’re talking about a sub 14:30 Western States guy — talk about ascendent! But I figured I better do a little research before spouting off my rebuttal. Before I knew it, I was deep into the weeds and what I found was interesting enough to decide to write an article about it instead of a snippy reply tweet. So here we go. 

Brief Synopsis of the Men’s Race.

I think a lot of us thought that Jared was going to win despite the fact that no American male has won the HK100 in its nine year history. Let’s call it the Coconino Effect — with Walmsley destroying everything he enters and Cody Reed’s recent win at Ultra Trail Cape Town, you just sort of assumed a similar result from Hazen. But instead, You Peiquan of China, absolutely smoked it with a winning time of 10:00:17 on the 103k course with 17,000 feet of climbing. Hazen hit the first checkpoint in 8th and reached a place as high as 3rd at checkpoint 6, but subsequently lost a few spots, falling to 5th and finishing with a time of 11:04:33. Full results here. [And for your viewing pleasure, here’s a pretty dang good video by Gone Running of the whole shebang with stunning drone clips of the terrain and Hazen cameos at 1:45, 6:08 and 14:51]

Okay, So Who The Hell Are These Guys?!

#1 – You Peiquan (CHN). 

In an article with SCMP, we learn Peiquan has only been competing for two years, he doesn’t have a coach, and he trains alone, mostly by running on a track on an empty stomach. Whaaaaaat?! As far as prior results go, Peiquan won three ultras in 2019, all in Asia, and honestly, I’m not familiar with any of the races so it’s hard to know if they were indicative of him going on to win the prestigious HK100. I also found an entry at the Chicago Marathon from 2014 where he ran 2:30:55 so he’s no slouch on the roads either. Someone please send this guy to UTMB this year.

#2 – Jing Liang (CHN).

Liang is who I would have predicted to win. He’s an established professional who was 2nd at last year’s HK100 and was also 2nd at Ultra Trail Mount Fuji behind the one and only Xavier Thevenard. I will note, however, that Liang took quite a media beating in 2018 when he was disqualified from the HK100, “for taking water from hikers and then throwing empty bottles on the trail.” WTF. But apparently he has changed his ways and is in good enough graces with the HK100 race organization to race in this year’s edition.

#3 – Guomin Deng (CHN).

Guomin is also not just some random Chinese dude that showed up and crushed. He has a resume that includes a 6th place finish at Lavaredo Ultra Trail in 2019 as well as a 4th place finish at the 2019 HK100. Solid. 

#4 – Ho Chung Wong (HK).

Wong is a Hong Konger and an absolute badass in his own right. He finished 6th place at the 2019 UTMB and won the 2019 North Face 100k in Hong Kong as well. Unfortunately, Ho Chung’s reputation and career are in jeopardy due to the political environment between China and Hong Kong. Apparently, his nomination for the acclaimed Outdoor Golden Rhino Award was recently taken away for “publishing online speech harmful to the motherland’s unification”. I don’t know enough about the region to comment on this, but I’m going to go ahead and give this another WTF.

Because there’s so little information out there on some of these guys, I emailed the one person I know in Hong Kong, David Longo, a manager for a Hong Kong based running apparel company, T8 Running, who when I asked about the results, he said it was, “not a complete surprise, there is a lot of untapped talent coming out of China.” When I broached Jared’s finish, he said, “Jared did well to get fifth, I knew it was going to be a tall order for him to podium, let alone win.”

Yeah But…Mitigating Factors.

I’ll start by saying that it’s never easy to go in to someone’s else’s turf and win. The home field advantage is real, especially in mountainous ultra running when the course is unique and requires a very particular set of skills.

The Hong Kong course has lots and lots of stairs. When was the last time you ran up more than a couple stairs? For me, it was probably a bleacher workout in high school. In Meghan Law’s 2019 HK100 race report, she wrote, “People will say ‘I hope you like stairs’ but they don’t elaborate beyond ‘there are a lot of stairs’. Well, I would wager that 60-70% of the course is stairs or rocky steps or some variation on that. The good part of that is that it is very stable, but unless you are used to running down and landing on flat surfaces over and over again, it is a shock to the system, or at least it was to mine.”

Gone Running, a major media player in the region, wrote in an article before the 2019 HK100, “Runners who have not been working on their stair technique, both up and down, start at a big disadvantage.”

I’m putting this race in the same category as UTMB in that the runners who train in the area, or at least have raced there extensively in the past, have a significant advantage, and with the caliber of athletes being so high, that nuance alone could be the difference between a 1st and a 5th place finish. 

What Does Jared Have To Say About It?

I had the chance to connect with Jared after the race and when I probed him about the stairs, he said his preparation, “mostly came from training in the Grand Canyon which is not quite the same as the steps in Hong Kong, but I think they prepared me well for the climbing. I struggled more with some of the technical descents which were a bit different than I’m used to.”

He went on to say that he would classify his race as pretty mediocre. “I was having a strong race up until about mile 40,” he said. “Around there I had a little cramping and some stomach problems. I was able to manage things from there, but definitely wasn’t charging any more.”  

When I asked him about his general sentiments on his finish amongst the other elites, he said, “Fifth wasn’t everything I had hoped for when I went to Hong Kong, but the race was really difficult and presented a couple challenges that maybe I underestimated before the race. So I was proud to have worked through some low moments and kept going the best I could to the finish,” he said. “I think it’ll be a good experience to take with me into the rest of the year.” 

A Sign of Good Things to Come.

Hazen is rightfully walking away with a lot of positives and I’m certain he’ll continue to develop as an international elite. Remember, thus far in his career, he’s mostly raced domestically. There’s a learning curve at the international level that takes time. This was a good step.

Now, hypothetically speaking, I think if these same Chinese and Hong Kong runners came to the Grand Canyon and tried to hang with Hazen rim to rim, they’d have a difficult time. What would be more interesting would be if they met on a neutral course, perhaps at one of the next two UTWT courses, Tarawera (NZL) or TransGranCanaria (SPN), then I think we’d see where they stacked up apples to apples. But hey, Jared went to Hong Kong knowing all this and still wanted to test himself against the best China had to offer.

So what’s next?! According to SCMP, Jared is planning on running Transvulcania in May, Western States in June, and CCC in August. No cherry-picking there! He’s going to have to earn it at all three of those races and — HOT TAKE — I’m predicting 5th place will be his lowest finish of the year. 

Thanks to @garyaronhalt for stirring the pot enough to make me interested, congrats to Jared on an inspiring effort, and I agree that it sure will be exciting to see how the Chinese develop on the international ultra running scene. Rest assured, I’ll be monitoring it closely.

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