Hong Kong Marathon - Feb 8, 2009

It has been a while since the last update to my blog as the last couple of weeks have been extremely busy. The last week of hard training was completed just as my mom arrived to Hong Kong and since then we have spent quite a lot of time together which leaves little time for everything else… I just noticed that the last few entries have all been running related, not a good thing but those tend to be the most meaningful happenings these days. So, here is a brief summary / report on my experience at the Hong Kong Marathon this past weekend. It is rather long so no hurt feelings if some of you guys have no patience to read it… I just won’t be friends with you anymore… (It’d probably be my loss and not any of yours)  J

 

Hong Kong Marathon 2009

Well, the day finally arrived. February 8^th, 2009, the Standard Chartered Hong Kong International Marathon. The race that was meant to be the greatest so far turned out to be a humbling but very rewarding experience. More on this later…

After spending most of the day on Saturday at home watching TV and reading Harry Potter I loaded up on pasta for lunch as well as dinner. I had my veggies too and drank plenty of water to be ready for the big race. It was an odd yet peaceful day since this was the first time that I actually spent in my own home before any marathon I have ever run…  After a good night of rest the alarm went off at 4:45. I grabbed a few toasts with strawberry jam for breakfast, followed by a banana and a bottle of Gatorade. The Hong Kong Marathon and its half-marathon along with a 10km race is so large (all sold out – around 30,000 10km runners, 15,000 for the half-marathon and 8000 for the full marathon) that public transportation started two hours earlier to provide transport for all the runners to the start line. Travelling on the subway at 5:30 am on a Sunday I was surrounded by nobody but runners, it was a strange but a rather neat experience.

I arrived at the start area at 6 am, about two hours before the race started. My mind was already going 100 miles / hour listening to ‘Don’t Stop Me Now’ by Queen, ‘On My Own’ by Hedley, ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ by Bon Jovi and ‘Till I Collapse’ by Eminem… I managed to snap a few pictures before the half-marathoners went off in style in multiple waves at 7am after which I slowly made my way to the baggage trucks. The weather was way too pleasant and never had to deal with any throw-away shirts, gloves or hats. It was around 20C and a bit on the humid side. Before depositing my bag, I had to listen one more time to ‘Eye of the Tiger’ for some added ‘psyching-up’ and off I went. After a quick warm-up, some minor stretching, and a visit to the quite Asian ‘let’s-squat-and-hope-not-to-miss’ porta-potties I was off towards the starting line with 25 minutes to spare. The front of the line was crowded like ummmm, like…… like…..   like Hong Kong on any given day but I managed to find my way over a barrier and ended up in about the 3^rd row. It irritated me that a lady in front of me (standing in the second row at a major city marathon) had a shirt that said “Catch me if you can! Target time: 5:15” Need I say more? A young girl, quite cute, next to me had a pace band that prompted her to cross the 20km point in 2 hours and 35 minutes… Needless to say, I knew it wouldn’t be a smooth start and it did not turn out as such. I managed to stay clear and found some space to run within the first two minutes… The following day at work a co-workers who followed the race on TV mentioned that there was someone at the start who tripped and fell and hundreds of people stepped on her before she could somehow try to get back on her feet…

So off we are!

We leave the Golden Mile in Tsim Sha Tsui (a glamorous, well-lit area of Souther Kowloon that is notorious for its designer shops) behind and head north towards the New Territories and the nightmare-of-all-marathon-runners, the bridges. It took me a while to get into a rhythm where I could nail each km in the pace that I wanted to run. The first 6-7kms were hard but after that the next few kms seemed to fly by. At 10 km we entered the first tunnel where it seemed as if the temperature was about a good 4-5C warmer. My split time was exactly where it had to be (37:57) No big deal, at least there is no strong winds in this 4 lane tunnel. The first climb from 12km to 16km was waiting for us at the end of this, the Cheung Tsing tunnel. We climb to the top of the Lantau Link Bridge where after a short descent we had to pull a 180 to turn back and climb the bridge again. Just before this turnaround I noticed the runner wearing bib #1 running about 30 seconds ahead of me. He appeared to be struggling a little bit but it was unreal to even think about passing him… How often can one get a chance to do something like that? Wearing bib #1 is the unofficial sign of “catch me if you can, I am better than you anyways...” OK, maybe I am exaggerating but in my mind this was true. Another 2 km and I passed him. YES!

The course turns north to head towards – what else? – another bridge. Tsing Long Bridge is not as steep but going through the 5^th major climb before the halfway point is not too appealing. This is the time when marathoners say:  “at halfway point you are a third of the way through.” On the bridge I said a quick ‘Hi’ to a training partner who was running his first marathon (finished in 2:28... crazy) when I took a quick glimpse at my watch to see that I reached the 21km mark in 1:19:11. Perfect, I could not have asked for better. I was labouring harder than usual and was sweating more than usual. I felt my body working in a gear that one should only use past the 28-30 km mark.

Knowing this, I realized that meeting my goal based on how I felt at this point in the race would be a tough chore so I had a decision to make. Ease the pace to rest a little. If so, I might waste away precious seconds that I could use for the biggest climb of the course at 36km when the course picks up almost 50 meters in elevation in the matter of 1.2 KM. Or, I can choose to keep with the pace and have faith and confidence in my training that despite the heat (almost 22C by this time) the humidity (over 60%), and the climb waiting ahead I will be able to finish strong. I chose the latter. After all, ‘only those willing to go too far can find out how far they can really go.’

After another quick dip in the tunnel on the way back south towards Hong Kong Island, I finally see a glimpse of IFC (International Financial Centre, the tallest building in Hong Kong.) Needless to say that seeing it from 9 kms away it looked more like a LEGO building I used to assemble at the age of 5 (same effect as seeing the Citgo Sign from Cleveland Circle in Boston.) The field thinned out quite a lot and I found myself running all alone into a headwind with no other runners to work with. At 25 km the effort had to be doubled to not lose precious seconds as a result of the massive headwind but knowing that we will be protected by tall buildings on the Island for the last 5 kms gave me enough hope to keep pushing the pace. Not to mention, I had to look good for the camera crew on the motorbike next to me which at some point followed me for almost half a km. It made me feel like the winner of the Boston Marathon striding down Boylston Street.  I hit 30km in 1:53:12, still about 25 seconds ahead of my goal-pace.

Entering into the Western Harbour tunnel that connects Kowloon (mainland) with Hong Kong Island at 34km was a bigger shock than I had thought. The downhill portion was similar to mile 22 of the Boston Marathon. The descent was pounding away at my legs and this is where I started feeling the effects of the hilly course and the high temperatures. The tunnel was hot, with no other runners to feed off of. As the climb started in the middle of the tunnel under Victoria Harbour I thought “This is it. If I make it through the next 1.2km, I will make it through to the finish”. I was hoping that the banana, the sports drink and a GU packet I had taken a mile or so before would somehow give me a much needed boost. I dug deep. Left-right-left-right, started to climb. Stronger arm motion propels your momentum forward, left-right-left-right, left-right when all of a sudden I glanced up and saw (literally) the light at the end of the tunnel. I saw a volunteer course marshal all alone standing in a white marathon jacket. I pointed at him because I thought he was holding a tray of wet sponges for the runners. It was a huge disappointment as I got closer to see that I was imagining this whole thing as he held nothing in his hands.

Now that the tunnel was behind me I still had an onramp to deal with. Wow, what a humbling experience. Breathing got deeper, legs were getting heavier, and sweat was pouring down my face but I kept repeating my mantra “tough times don’t last, tough people do” when finally the end of the onramp was in sight. As the road curved eastbound towards Causeway Bay (finish area), a huge wind gust hits me in the face multiple times and this was the straw that broke Adrian’s back. J The following kilometer was covered 20 seconds slower than the slowest of the previous 36, followed by another km in 4:15 when I noticed that my goal time just slipped out of reach. Working so hard for 36 consecutive kilometers and all it takes is two slower ones and the target is out of reach.

I kept thinking of Roger’s words to me the day before the race, tried to dig deep which I continuously was trying to do. Unfortunately there was nothing there. Nothing whatsoever. Within a KM after this point I am passed by the only runner that got the better of me on this day, a local runner who was nice enough to think that I might give him a challenge. I wished him good luck and told him “I can’t go but you stay strong, see you at the finish” Off he went and within another KM he was almost 60-70 meters ahead of me.

At 40km I was greeted by a couple of training partners who ran the half-marathon earlier in the day but even their enthusiastic words meant nothing to me. Passing a few construction sights in the 41^st kilometer and having to breathe in all the dust on top of the high Air Pollution Index was almost as bad as climbing Heartbreak Hill and smelling the BBQs as spectators are having a leisurely picnic to celebrate Marathon Monday.

A quick climb and we were in Causeway Bay where we hit the ‘1km-to-go’ sign.  Here the crowds were a bit more boisterous and a quick wave to them raised the decibel level of their cheers about 10-folds. It is always a heart-warming feeling no matter what shape anyone is in. A few more turns and the finish line was in sight. I was looking for my mom in the area that she said she would be but I could not find her. At this time I realized that I had a handful of seconds to finish the last 50 meters to come in under 2:43. So I ran towards the finish line and finished in 2:42:58.

To my biggest surprise, there were no medical personnel around, no volunteers to help the runners and absolutely nobody to hand out water at all. It was as if I just ended a long training run… I felt really abandoned standing there, which I think will be my only reason why I will never run this race again. I managed to gather a few bottles of distilled water (!!!!) and a few Chinese pears and headed towards the bag check area. I was in a bad mood but the school kids that were working at the baggage truck welcomed me with the biggest smile and cheer. “You are the first one to claim!” they said and gave me a round of applause. It made me smile and was the appropriate way to end the day.

I left the area as quickly as possible to find my mom, took some pictures, and relaxed a little. There was no need to even change or put on a sweater, temps were around 24C by this time. We made our way out of the park and headed to the Windsor House for – what else? – Dim Sum to celebrate the day. We met up with all the runners that I had trained together with over the past few months and ate excessively. We shared stories, we all complained about the same thing (runners tend to do that) but all-in-all everyone had a good day.

The course was an ugly ‘mo-fo’ and there was virtually no fan support anywhere before the 39km mark. Forget the distilled water that they were providing on the course as the minerals could be easily obtained from neatly packaged sports drinks and bananas that seemed to be in abundance all throughout the course. The hilly course and the weather combined made this race as challenging as any other marathon I have ever run. For the first time I can safely say that unless this is your first marathon this is unquestionably not a PB course. My efforts were definitely worthy of a PB time but the result simply does not show it…

You may ask why I called this race a rewarding experience in the beginning of this race report… Well, I appreciate the fact now even more that running for a PB should never be the goal for a race. I realized that running to your potential on the given day with the given circumstances is the only realistic aim that one can hope to achieve. Whereas I am as confident as never before that my fitness, speed, and endurance were without a doubt good enough for a sub 2:40 result on this date, I need to draw the conclusion that it simply was not meant to be. I could be disappointed that all the hard work was for nothing or I wasn’t able to dig deep when I really had to. Coming through the finish line my immediate gut instinct was that I had to be satisfied with the race because I left nothing out there and I ran as well as I could on the given date. I right away realized that (after 21 marathons) I can cover this distance even faster and even stronger than what I had just done… This is exactly the reason why I am already in search for the next race where the magical 2:40 will be broken…

I guaran-damn-tee it!

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For pictures, click here...  Also feel free to view the starting area an hour before the race in Tsim Sha Tsui and the finishing turn at Victoria Park.