The Standard Chartered Hong Kong 1/2 Marathon

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Last Sunday was the Standard Chartered Hong Kong 1/2 Marathon.  There were just over 72,000 people that participated in the full marathon, half marathon and 10K races that went on.  It was quite a memorable experience.  Both Tim and I participated in the 1/2 Marathon.  He ran the whole time and I mostly walked (but sort of ran the downhills - I'll explain more later).  Tim's race started at 6am and mine was at 9:30am. 

Tim met up with four other staff member from our school at a certain train station.  It was the 5-5-5.  5 people meeting on platform 5 in Tai Wai at 5am.  They all arrived with enough time to check bags and use the porta-pottie (there were two different options - a squatter one and a "western" style which is the one with an actual toilet in it) and be ready for the race to start.  People were swarming everywhere and the scent of wintergreen hung in the air.  He was happy with his time and said that he was ready to run the race again now that he knows the course.  He felt like he was still doing well at the end.

Getting ready in the MTR

You could smell the scent of the icy hot as soon as you got off the train

I got up and got to the train station by 7:15 (Tim was almost finished at this point...).  There were runners getting on at every stop along the way.  One of the things that we have noticed when it comes to athletic things in Hong Kong is that people have the gear.  There was a LOT of compression tights and shorts and most of the people in my race wore either their official race shirt, the shirt of their running team or a shirt from another running race.  The other accessory that about 3 out of 4 people had in their hands was their cell phone!  I had decided to check my phone in my bag so that my hands would be relatively free during the race.  I wish I had pictures of all of the people stopping to take pictures of EVERY kilometer marker.  There were usually 4-5 people waiting to take a picture with each sign.  The line for the toilets along the route only had 1-2 people waiting. 

Waking up and getting ready in the station

Last pic before packing the phone.  Sorry about the lack of photos of people taking photos.

Ok back to the beginning.  I arrived at the Tsim Sha Tsui station and it was FILLED with people warming up, stretching and applying a cream that is similar to icy hot.  The air smelled of wintergreen.  I followed suit of everyone in the station and stretched and got my stuff ready to go there.  I took a few pics pre-race and then turned in my bag.  I walked around slowly to stay warm and then eventually went to the start area.  There were a few people in costumes!  There was a spiderman, a ninja, and several people dressed up as sharks to protest against shark fin soup.  I had heard about the sharks before, it was fun seeing them in person :)  After seeing spiderman pose with several people, it was time to line up.  All of the race information was given in Cantonese so I'm not sure what was being said.  When people at the front of the waiting area started cheering, people at the back continued.  I don't know if they understood what was being yelled either from the huge time delay in yelling :)

Once we passed the starting line, the race was really quiet.  There was hardly anyone cheering until the last kilometer of the race!  It didn't really help that the first big chunk was an out and back on a big bridge and I don't know that spectators were allowed there.  There were a few bridges with some people, but it wasn't very many.  I mostly walked but I was able to run very small pieces (mostly the downhill sections).  I was in kind of a time crunch.  The fastest 1/2 that I have done was 3 hours and 17 minutes.  The time limit for this one was 3 hours.  They had the big double decker busses to pick up people who weren't going to make it.  I was hoping that was the case up until the turn around (where the half met up with the full marathon).  Thankfully that ended up being the case and they let me finish!  I didn't get picked up!  The only big bummer is that I have NO idea what my time was.  There wasn't a clock at the start to tell me when I started...  It is sometime between 3 hours and 3 hours and 25 minutes.  I'm hoping its closer to 3 hours. :)

One of the really interesting things that happened along the way were the huge teams of medics with icy hot.  You would go by them and if you held out your hand, they squirted some in it.  So many people were stopping to put some on!  I had never heard of that before. 

Yay I finished!!!

The last kilometer of the race was LINED with people!  It was really cool!  Strange that the whole rest of the race was so quiet, but an awesome way to finish :)  I got my tote bag of food and drinks and then headed to pick up my stuff and meet Tim.  We had pizza at one of our favorite places and then asked ourselves, "We just completed a 1/2 Marathon, what should we do next?"  After growing up watching the players answer the question after each superbowl, we concluded that the ONLY place to go next would be to go to DISNEYLAND!!!

:)

One of the perks about having a season pass is that we don't have to always run around like crazy when we are there.  We leisurely walked around, rode our favorite ride twice (the Grizzly Gulch runaway mine cars), watched some entertainers (in Grizzly Gulch and then the marching band), ate a nice dinner (super tasty ramen), and then headed home.  It was a great way to spend the rest of the day. :)

It was still decorated for Chinese New Year :)