Hong Kong trail running veteran dodges AK-47s, landmines to stage 300 races
SCMP · 1 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Michael Maddess, widely regarded as one of Asia's most established trail race directors, has built a career organizing extreme endurance events across the continent while repeatedly facing life-threatening situations. After 36 years in Hong Kong, the owner of Action Asia Events is now preparing a remote 100km ultra-marathon near the Xinjiang-Kyrgyzstan border inside Kazakhstan, where participants will endure conditions completely off the grid .
Key Points
- Maddess has organized more than 300 races since joining Action Asia Events in 2000 and eventually acquiring majority control of the company .
- He has survived an AK-47 being pointed at his forehead by the Laos military, sliced his hand open during a deadly typhoon in Vietnam, and sprinted across a beach lined with landmines off mainland China .
- The upcoming September race in Kazakhstan is described as a "raw adventure in the middle of nowhere," with no power, no furniture, and runners sleeping on mats on the ground inside yurts .
- Organizers must haul in water trucks, bring a full catering kitchen, and station more than 30 marshals every 500 metres to one kilometre along the 100km course, which takes six full days to mark .
- Maddess contrasted the Kazakhstan event with races in Mongolia, where participants stay in traditional gers with beds and electricity, noting the silence after restoring mobile reception was overwhelming as "all the talking stopped, and everybody started staring at their phone" .
Why It Matters
For Hong Kong's growing community of trail runners and outdoor enthusiasts, Maddess's events offer an increasingly rare escape from the city's hyper-connected urban environment. His ability to stage races in politically sensitive and logistically challenging locations across Asia also demonstrates how Hong Kong-based sports entrepreneurs continue to operate across borders despite regional tensions.
For Hong Kong's growing community of trail runners and outdoor enthusiasts, Maddess's events offer an increasingly rare escape from the city's hyper-connected urban environment. His ability to stage races in politically sensitive and logistically challenging locations across Asia also demonstrates how Hong Kong-based sports entrepreneurs continue to operate across borders despite regional tensions.