standard chartered marathon!

thx for everyone for the well wishes!!!! i actually managed to do it!! 42.2km in 4:22. weird coincidence. not a fast time but just glad to complete my first one!

here's a map of our route:

pretty much all my wishes/targets were fulfilled - unbelievable luck.

1. weather was awesome. started out at 13C and became 17C. perfect for running, mostly cloudy and no rain. the sun near the end actually warmed things up, which is great for runners as after 2 hours so much energy is expended that actually the body cools down (at least that's what i read).

2. most of the weird pain came and went. ok, well, not really. places i didn't know existed started to be hurt. it was weird.

3. hit my target if 4:15-4:30 pretty much smack in the middle. my net time might even be a couple mins faster. well, the winner did 2:16 so at least i didn't double his time.

here's a graph of what i did according to my little nikeplus gadget. it's a little off, since i forgot to turn it off after the end of the race, but you get the idea:

(sorry this is a little long!! but hopefully some of you out there can join me next time!)

0-5km : more of a warm up jog, there were so many people (about 6000 runners i think), so it was more like a big party, everyone was fresh. like a 6:30/km pace. i realized by overhydrating, i needed to relieve myself. fortunately i saw some dry looking trees and decided to help them out. (a lot of others also took pity on these trees. everyone's gotta do their part.)

6-9km : here i think i realized the pace was really a bit slow and if i wanted any chance of making 4 hours (which was a bit unrealistic in the first place), i needed to pick it up. a 5:45/km pace. we saw a bunch of half marathon runners on their way back. we passed by some bridges outside kowloon station and we waved and hollered cheerily to whoever was standing up there. we also inadvertently woke random people up who later phoned in various radio stations to complain. stupid noisy runners!

10-11km : i think i passed this at 1:01 or so. we were in the middle of a long dark tunnel. i saw alex fong (the singer/actor) somewhere right before going on the bridge. i thought he was about half an hour ahead of me (turns out his time was 3:52 - so was quite right). mucho respect mr. fong. i know he was an athlete but doing such a time is still no piece of cake. AnD, get him on the site!

12-17km : ah, the highlight of the full marathon. we get to see tsing ma bridge up close and personal. awesome scenery of tsing yi and the sea... those sexy steel columns, reaching into the sky... and strong winds that seemed to blow right in my face no matter what direction i was running in. a 5:40/km pace.

18-23km : the second highlight. we get to see ting kau bridge too. but now the novelty is wearing off. enough already. only half way through? crap, going to be all downhill from now... (as in it's going to suck kind of downhill, not decline kind of downhill)

24-27km : my last few km of maintaining a sub 6:00/km pace. i was barely half way through and now really weird places started to hurt. a place in the inner right part of my left knee. my right thigh somewhere. oh, yes, and my nips. i was definitely worried about two more hours of abuse on my nips. boon, no, it really is not that funny. i guess there is some merit to the conspiracy theories with katie holmes.

28-33km : as you can tell from the graph, i continue on this neverending downward trend. really suffering now. grand-dads and grand-moms with wispy white hair fly by me. pretty depressing. i manage to stuff a couple of really raw bananas to keep my energy levels up. and i can't help thinking of edison. this is bad. see, the thing is, after about 3 hours of pounding on cement, a human being has little control of what goes in and out of his mind. as a general rule, you don't want to think about edison any time you have a banana, and especially not in the middle of a marathon. 6:05/km

33-37km : going in and out of the western harbor tunnel. man. the uphills and downhills destroyed me. also, due to traffic arrangements for us, gloucester road is filled with angry honking drivers who no doubt were doing their best to expel toxic fumes in revenge. 6:20/km

38-40km : we reached wan chai and finally we saw more spectators. i took off my headphones as i was told the atmosphere would be great. uhh... actually... people just stared silently from bridges, thinking "what is wrong with these people?". others were waiting by minibus stops and looked at us with that glazed look, which said "dude, where's my minibus?" 6:32/km

41km : rounding into causeway bay, i was feeling a little better. now, there the streets were actually completely packed, and we would hear the occasional "add oil!" "you can do it!". it was indeed pretty encouraging and provided me a bit of energy (hence the slight uptick in speed). BUT, upon watching the news later yesterday, i discovered the mobs were there mainly because they were stuck and had couldn't figure out how to get around. by closing off some of the main streets, most were really angry at us for upsetting their sunday routine. the ever supportive hong kong spirit! yay! 6:25/km

42km : man the finish line was a truly welcome sight. sprinted the last 200m or so and made it just under 4:22 on the official clock!

ok, to end this, here's a pic of me with another stupid "V" at the finish in victoria park...