I’ve been working toward this day for almost five months. Way back in September I started reading and thinking about running a half marathon. Could I really run thirteen miles? Could I do it without getting injured? How hard was it going to be really? I’d run in several 10K races, but I’m pretty slow. I usually have a respectable time for my age but nothing special. How long would it take me to run a half marathon?
Once I had decided I wanted to work toward this goal, I started telling people about it. I was kind of scared and I figured if I SAID I was going to do it, then I couldn’t back down! As soon as registration opened for the Hong Kong Half Marathon, I went ahead and registered. Now I was committed.
I needed a training plan and I decided to continue to use Jeff Galloway’s run/walk method, but get serious about it. I’ve used run/walk now for several years. It makes distance running much easier and allows me to go farther and faster than I would be able to go otherwise. I figured run/walk will keep me running much longer and older in life than just running.
One of the components of the Galloway method is something he calls the “Magic Mile”. Periodically during your training you run a mile as fast as you currently can without completely dying. Then you take that mile pace and multiply it by 1.2. This is your predicted mpm (miles per minute) pace for the half marathon. I used this and came up with a predicted time, but I was skeptical. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to run it that fast!
Day by day, week by week, month by month, I stuck to the Galloway program. My long run distances lengthened and a half marathon started to seem within my reach. Several weeks ago I ran my last long run – fourteen miles – and felt pretty good afterwards. I guess I was ready!
The Hong Kong Marathon is HUGE. It consists of several different races, run all over Kowloon, the New Territories and Hong Kong Island. There are three different categories of 10K, two categories of Half Marathon and the Marathon itself. They had 55,000 people signed up for the various races. 33,000 of these were signed up for the 10K races, but there were 13,000 signed up for the half marathons. I’d never run in a race with more than a couple of thousand people. This was really going to be a trip!
My half marathon started at 7:10 AM this morning, in Kowloon on the other side of the harbor. They wanted you to get there around two hours before the race started but that seemed crazy to me. I compromised at an hour and a half early, which turned out to be perfect. I got up at 4 AM, but I’ve been waking up early for several weeks now so that wasn’t that hard. I had my plan; what to eat, how much to drink. A critical issue for me was making sure I was hydrated but not drinking so much water that I would have to pee during the race! I had to experiment a lot in my training to figure out where that threshold was!
After I was warmed up I headed toward the starting line. I was pretty far back in the crowd, but that was fine with me. I was surrounded by Asians. I saw a few western men, but hardly ANY western women. I saw some older-looking men, but almost NO older-looking woman! I felt very unique…I heard no English, which normally I’m totally used to in Hong Kong, but in a race I like to talk to strangers as I’m jogging along and that just wasn’t possible.
As the race started I shuffled forward until I could start running. There were places, especially at the beginning where it was difficult to run because there were so many people. I felt really, really good and my watch said I was running a very good pace. I knew my pace was probably too fast but I’ve always had trouble controlling my pace at the beginning of a race. I’m not trying to set any world records so I didn’t worry about it too much. The harder thing to do is take the walk breaks at the beginning. I always feel like I don’t really need them and I hate it when all these people start passing me when I’m walking, but I KNEW that walk breaks at the beginning of a race translate into better times at the end so I stuck with my run/walk ratio. I knew that if I felt okay I would eliminate the walks at the very end of the race.
We headed out on the road toward the airport. We followed the same path as the marathon but turned around earlier. The complaints about the Hong Kong Marathon are that the route is boring because it goes along highways for much of the time and that portions of it are hilly, making it a tough course. But I was having fun watching the other runners so I didn’t mind the lack of an audience. And I knew the worst hills were on the portion of the marathon course that the half marathon didn’t follow, so I wasn’t too worried about that either. I knew I had trained for hills just by living in Hong Kong!
These were Asians running in an Asian race, so Asian behaviors abounded. I had been warned that this was the case so I took it in stride, and actually found it pretty amusing. Yes of course people stood too far forward to start. Of course Hong Kongers can’t stand to be in a line without trying to get ahead. The nice thing about this for me was that I got to pass some people right away. That usually doesn’t happen when I race in 10Ks in the US. The other thing was people took pictures as they raced, of themselves, of their friends. It was pretty cute to see someone running along holding their camera in front of them, smiling and taking their own picture. But the thing that REALLY cracked me up was people running along talking on their cell phones! That was hilarious. People also ran with their ipods, which you’re not supposed to do in a race. It can be a little dangerous since you can’t hear what’s going on around you as well.
The half marathoners reached their turning point and headed back toward Hong Kong Island. We could see the elite half marathon runners going the other way before my group got to the turning point. How far back was I? My watch still said my time was really good, but would it last? I finally reached the turning point too. It was fun to turn around and start seeing Hong Kong Island grow closer and closer.
As we ran toward Hong Kong Island we were able to see the elite marathoners heading out toward the airport. All the half marathoners yelled and applauded as they went by. They looked very different from my plodding group of runners. They were going FAST and they didn’t look tired. They looked serious. They looked Nigerian! I got very excited when they flew past us. It’s a good thing that they started an hour after the half marathoners since some of them run a full marathon in the time it would take me to run a half. It was possible that they would pass me! Ha.
The most unique part of the Hong Kong Marathon approached – the Western Tunnel. We got to run under Victoria Harbor, which I thought was pretty darn cool! As we approached the tunnel I could hear the runners up ahead hooting and yelling and making a bunch of noise. That cracked me up.
As soon as I entered the tunnel, my watch lost the satellite signal. Darn! I hadn’t thought about that. It took us a good twenty minutes to get through the tunnel so I knew my watch would not record an accurate time after that. Oh well!
Leaving the tunnel was the first big hill the half marathoners encountered, and it was a long one. I was okay though and it was fun to reach the top and have the race officials announce (in Cantonese, but I knew what they were saying) Welcome to Hong Kong Island! Everyone cheered as they left the tunnel. It suddenly felt like the end of the race was within our reach!
It felt different running on Hong Kong Island. Gradually there were more spectators. People stood along the road with encouraging signs and gave us high fives as we passed. And something else started to happen. I was still following my run/walk plan but really didn’t have a good idea any longer how fast I was running. But I started to pass people, lots of people. Many people were walking and I couldn’t tell if they were following a plan or not. I just kept going and putting people behind me. There were hoards of people in front of me still of course, but for the first time in the race I glanced behind me. There were hoards of people behind me too. COOL! When we got to the 2K remaining sign I ditched the walks and started running as fast as I was still capable of running. This was it!
Things really changed as we approached Causeway Bay and Victoria Park and the finish line. Suddenly there were crowds of people on the sidewalks yelling excitedly. I kind of got a chill. This is what it would be like the whole time if you ran in something like the New York Marathon. It really was very thrilling.
I crossed the finish line and felt good. Of course my legs were stiff but that’s what happens to old people when they act a little crazy. I collected my stuff and called Lee. He had said he would meet me at the end of the race. “Where are you?” he demanded when I called. He had been standing in front of Fashion Walk, trying to get a picture of me racing by but he missed me. Since I was pretty unique looking in that crowd we don’t know how he missed me unless I passed by earlier than either of us expected, which is what we think happened.
All in all I think I ran a very successful race. My time was a couple of minutes better than my Galloway method predicted time. I was really impressed that his predictor worked so well. I feel VERY satisfied!
I’m pretty sure I will do this again, but probably not until this fall. I know my body needs to recover first. I’ve got some aches and pains that need to heal before I start training again. As far as running a marathon goes…well I’m not ready to say that I’m definitely going to do that, but it’s a possibility.
Afterward Lee and I went out for a Dim Sum lunch at Maxims. Now I love Dim Sum, but it can be very filling. When it’s just Lee and I we often over-order and can’t finish everything. I didn’t feel THAT hungry when we sat down, but I just ate, and ate, and ate! It just seemed like I couldn’t get full. I think I used up a lot of calories this morning. That’s one of the great things about running. Runners get to eat, almost as much as they want!
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