Monday, February 09, 2009
Hong Kong Marathon
So who says you can't run 3 marathons in 15 weeks? (actually, I think some doctors say that)
Honestly, I think I look a little rougher after this race than after the Marine Corps Marathon or the Singapore Marathon. Must have been the hills.
I didn't advertise it too much in advance, because of course you never know what might happen, but yeah, I ran the Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday. Last fall, as I was preparing to come to Singapore and learned the Singapore Marathon would happen while I was here, I decided to see what other races were happening in the area. Hong Kong counts as "in the area" I guess...it's less than a 4-hour flight to get there. So since I was so excited about getting ready for the Marine Corps Marathon and had already decided to run the Singapore Marathon in December, I figured I might as well sign up for the Hong Kong race. After all, when will I ever have a chance to run a marathon there again?
I even managed to get a free business class ticket on Cathay Pacific, courtesy of some frequent flier miles sitting dormant in my American Airlines account. The business class piece was important because I knew I'd want some leg room on the way home, seeing as I was returning to Singapore just a few hours after the race (as it turned out, I ended the race just after 12:30pm and my plane left at 7:50pm).
The HK Marathon is part of Standard Chartered Bank's "Greatest Race on Earth," which also includes Nairobi, Singapore, and Mumbai. The GROE website describes the HK Marathon (known as "The Harbour Race") thusly:
Well, yay.
The hills were a challenge but the temperature was so much lower than in Singapore...about 65 degrees at the most, with some clouds. Kinda like the Marine Corps Marathon weather.
Much of the race was on highways so, as with Singapore, there were no spectators. Even when we ran the last couple kilometers through the streets toward Victoria Park, the people along there were pretty quiet (“What’s going on? Why are they running?”) until the last few hundred meters.
I was running a 10 km/hr pace for about 30km, exactly what I wanted. I was thinking I might beat my MCM time, and maybe even beat 4:30, a barrier I would like to get past. But a couple bathroom stops and some walking (though not as much as Singapore) slowed me down. I also had a couple minor issues with my body, nothing serious, but they slowed me down too. Coming up from Western Harbour Tunnel was particularly a bitch...obviously, if the tunnel goes down underwater in the beginning, it's got to come back up at the end, and by then I was feeling it...oh yeah. As I hit the 39km mark I saw what time it was (but just the time of day, not elapsed time) and thought I only had about 16 minutes left to run 3.195km and beat 4:30, and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t running too fast at this point so I figured I’d beat my Singapore time but not MCM or 4:30. A bummer, but considering I really wasn’t trained up for this like I was trained for the October race, not totally unexpected.
As we got into the crowds, especially the final km, I picked up my pace quite a bit. Being in front of people helps, which is one reason I don't know that I'll run Asian marathons again...it's simply not as much fun as having tens of thousands of people cheering you on, bands playing, and everyone being festive. I realize Singapore and Hong Kong aren't exactly sporting nations, but it seems it could be a matter of national pride, not to mention supporting your family member who's running. Of course, the fact the MCM is run through the streets of DC, which are shut down for the event, makes it a lot easier to have crowds there. But honestly, if Washington DC's streets can be shut down for most of a Sunday, I'd bet Singapore and Hong Kong could afford to do that too.
Finally, as we made the final turn into Victoria Park I could see the clock at the Finish Line and it was turning from 4:36:59 to 4:37:00 and, knowing I had crossed the Starting Line a couple minutes after the gun, I realized “I can set my new Personal Record!” (my MCM time was 4:36:53) I really kicked it up at this point and crossed with a gun time of 4:37:30, and my actual should be around 4:35:30 or so. So I didn’t beat it by much, but it does appear I beat it in the end.
The race results still aren’t posted. They are supposed to be posted at noon HK time on Tuesday, February 10th. I can’t help but think that if HK was still British-ruled things would be a bit more organized. :P
My friends Tony and Max got there as I picked up my bag. We had spent time together Saturday and they'd gone out for a pasta dinner with me the night before. They had bought gourmet cupcakes so we went back to the hotel and ate those. Then we went out for lunch and ended up at a “breakfast all day” place called The Flying Pan. We hung out at the hotel afterwards and then they took me to the Airport Express Station. The race offered me a good excuse to visit with those boys. Actually, even without the race I still would have made my way to HK to see them, but it's tough going there for just a weekend. They are wonderful individuals and a wonderful couple and it's always so much fun to see them. They were also upset with me for not bringing Stan there during his visit here.
Team Gwai Loh -- Max, me, and Tony
I wore my race t-shirt as I traveled to see what kind of reaction I'd get from HK people (did they even know the race was going on?). The guys at Immigration and Security thought it was way cool, and the cabin crew started talking about it as soon as I came down the jetway. They all came and asked me about it at some point. I was up in the galley talking to them later and the pilot came out and was surprised and we chatted about the race and one of the attendants (not the really cute guy, dammit, but one of the older ladies) said she was proud of me for running the race and still being able to walk. :P I will say that one of my smartest moves in all this was getting that business class ticket, and hooray again for frequent flier miles and free tickets!
So, yeah, I've gone from not running at all as of January 2008 to running three marathons as of February 2009. Many thanks to ET and Vu for encouraging me to run and to all those wonderful people who had to put up with my training over the last year. I'm done with marathons until the Marine Corps Marathon in October, and this time I am gunning for that 4:30 barrier. In the meantime there's still the St Paddy's Day 8K five days after I get home in March (and that will be Stan's first race YAY!), the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in April, and the Army 10-Miler in October. No doubt there will be some more over the summer. Anybody want to run the Fetus 5K?
I didn't advertise it too much in advance, because of course you never know what might happen, but yeah, I ran the Hong Kong Marathon on Sunday. Last fall, as I was preparing to come to Singapore and learned the Singapore Marathon would happen while I was here, I decided to see what other races were happening in the area. Hong Kong counts as "in the area" I guess...it's less than a 4-hour flight to get there. So since I was so excited about getting ready for the Marine Corps Marathon and had already decided to run the Singapore Marathon in December, I figured I might as well sign up for the Hong Kong race. After all, when will I ever have a chance to run a marathon there again?
I even managed to get a free business class ticket on Cathay Pacific, courtesy of some frequent flier miles sitting dormant in my American Airlines account. The business class piece was important because I knew I'd want some leg room on the way home, seeing as I was returning to Singapore just a few hours after the race (as it turned out, I ended the race just after 12:30pm and my plane left at 7:50pm).
The HK Marathon is part of Standard Chartered Bank's "Greatest Race on Earth," which also includes Nairobi, Singapore, and Mumbai. The GROE website describes the HK Marathon (known as "The Harbour Race") thusly:
The Harbour Race is one of the world's toughest marathons. It's uphill all the way. The course takes you across the city, between skyscrapers, through bustling streets, over bridges, through a tunnel, and onto a punishing five kilometere climb to the finishing line.
Well, yay.
The hills were a challenge but the temperature was so much lower than in Singapore...about 65 degrees at the most, with some clouds. Kinda like the Marine Corps Marathon weather.
Much of the race was on highways so, as with Singapore, there were no spectators. Even when we ran the last couple kilometers through the streets toward Victoria Park, the people along there were pretty quiet (“What’s going on? Why are they running?”) until the last few hundred meters.
I was running a 10 km/hr pace for about 30km, exactly what I wanted. I was thinking I might beat my MCM time, and maybe even beat 4:30, a barrier I would like to get past. But a couple bathroom stops and some walking (though not as much as Singapore) slowed me down. I also had a couple minor issues with my body, nothing serious, but they slowed me down too. Coming up from Western Harbour Tunnel was particularly a bitch...obviously, if the tunnel goes down underwater in the beginning, it's got to come back up at the end, and by then I was feeling it...oh yeah. As I hit the 39km mark I saw what time it was (but just the time of day, not elapsed time) and thought I only had about 16 minutes left to run 3.195km and beat 4:30, and I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I wasn’t running too fast at this point so I figured I’d beat my Singapore time but not MCM or 4:30. A bummer, but considering I really wasn’t trained up for this like I was trained for the October race, not totally unexpected.
As we got into the crowds, especially the final km, I picked up my pace quite a bit. Being in front of people helps, which is one reason I don't know that I'll run Asian marathons again...it's simply not as much fun as having tens of thousands of people cheering you on, bands playing, and everyone being festive. I realize Singapore and Hong Kong aren't exactly sporting nations, but it seems it could be a matter of national pride, not to mention supporting your family member who's running. Of course, the fact the MCM is run through the streets of DC, which are shut down for the event, makes it a lot easier to have crowds there. But honestly, if Washington DC's streets can be shut down for most of a Sunday, I'd bet Singapore and Hong Kong could afford to do that too.
Finally, as we made the final turn into Victoria Park I could see the clock at the Finish Line and it was turning from 4:36:59 to 4:37:00 and, knowing I had crossed the Starting Line a couple minutes after the gun, I realized “I can set my new Personal Record!” (my MCM time was 4:36:53) I really kicked it up at this point and crossed with a gun time of 4:37:30, and my actual should be around 4:35:30 or so. So I didn’t beat it by much, but it does appear I beat it in the end.
The race results still aren’t posted. They are supposed to be posted at noon HK time on Tuesday, February 10th. I can’t help but think that if HK was still British-ruled things would be a bit more organized. :P
My friends Tony and Max got there as I picked up my bag. We had spent time together Saturday and they'd gone out for a pasta dinner with me the night before. They had bought gourmet cupcakes so we went back to the hotel and ate those. Then we went out for lunch and ended up at a “breakfast all day” place called The Flying Pan. We hung out at the hotel afterwards and then they took me to the Airport Express Station. The race offered me a good excuse to visit with those boys. Actually, even without the race I still would have made my way to HK to see them, but it's tough going there for just a weekend. They are wonderful individuals and a wonderful couple and it's always so much fun to see them. They were also upset with me for not bringing Stan there during his visit here.
I wore my race t-shirt as I traveled to see what kind of reaction I'd get from HK people (did they even know the race was going on?). The guys at Immigration and Security thought it was way cool, and the cabin crew started talking about it as soon as I came down the jetway. They all came and asked me about it at some point. I was up in the galley talking to them later and the pilot came out and was surprised and we chatted about the race and one of the attendants (not the really cute guy, dammit, but one of the older ladies) said she was proud of me for running the race and still being able to walk. :P I will say that one of my smartest moves in all this was getting that business class ticket, and hooray again for frequent flier miles and free tickets!
So, yeah, I've gone from not running at all as of January 2008 to running three marathons as of February 2009. Many thanks to ET and Vu for encouraging me to run and to all those wonderful people who had to put up with my training over the last year. I'm done with marathons until the Marine Corps Marathon in October, and this time I am gunning for that 4:30 barrier. In the meantime there's still the St Paddy's Day 8K five days after I get home in March (and that will be Stan's first race YAY!), the Cherry Blossom 10-Miler in April, and the Army 10-Miler in October. No doubt there will be some more over the summer. Anybody want to run the Fetus 5K?
Labels: Friends, Running, Travel
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Hi, great job. I also managed to do that a few years back as a not so experienced runner. It can be done rather easily, provided that you don't get injured.
PS. I am a doctor myself.
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PS. I am a doctor myself.
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