Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2012 - My race report

SCHKM 2012 Finisher Medal.

I came in this race with a time target in mind. Well, I didn't achieve that. The way I finished the race was not really what I had imagined it to be.

I had been training for this event for some time and I thought I would stand a chance to have a crack at 3:30. I thought of wearing VFF because I thought it would be cold if I go barefoot. After some considerations, I finally decided on going barefoot. Mainly it was due to how I trained for the past few weeks and I had not fully "broken" my new pair of Bikila yet.

Happy that I got my wife accompanied me on this trip. She was running in only her third Half Marathon. Not easy for us to travel, we were missing our children back home.

I met many runner friends on the plane to HK. Surprised to see so many of them. It was always good to see familiar faces, especially in races oversea.

On race day, it rained briefly in the morning. I missed the pre-race Malaysian runners group photo session as I thought it might not happen due to the rain.

I started quite in front of the pack and got off on a good start. The road condition was wet early and I had to be extra careful. The temperature at start was relatively warm I thought at this time of the year, at around 18 degrees Celsius.

First 10km was quite manageable at 49:08. After I came out of the tunnel, when I reached Tsing Ma bridge, the road condition was getting rough. At this stretch, I had to rely on the white line at side of road.

At this stretch I heard a bell-ringing sound approaching. For a moment I thought Santa Claus came early this year. Then a barefoot runner with a vest reading "厦门赤脚 吴善宽“ (Xiamen Barefooter Wu ShanKuan). He was wearing a headgear with a barefoot and a V-sign hand signal. On his ankle was a bell attached to it. When he overtook me, he shouted "赤脚好！“（Barefooted, good!). I replied, "同志！“(Comrade!). Well, what I meant was, we are comrade of barefooters (not in the context of political ideology). He acknowledged me with a thumb-up sign.

Xaimen Barefooter, Wu ShanKuan. Photo by CheungWH.

Then after the first turning point at about 15.3km, there was no white line for me anymore and the wind was blowing strongly from the front, making it quite difficult to pick up speed.

Then I saw Ben Swee, he took a photo of me after my first turn.

On Tsing Ma bridge coming back. Photo by Ben Swee.

You can see that the road condition was not smooth and the safety cone was separating the runners from the white line at the road shoulder. Photo by 高志明.

Then Ben overtook me on the way to Ting Kau bridge. I made it to the half-way check point at 1:43:37.

After the second tunnel, the road condition slowly became worse. It was the one of the worse roads I had even experienced, if not the worst. I was suffering then. I ran this course last year with shoes, and I had no recollection the road was that bad. (When you were in shoes, the road condition wasn't really our concern, right?).

Split time at 30km mark was 2:30:17. Pace starting to drop by that time. I couldn't really maintain that pace with that kind of road condition.

I think this was taken near where I got my injury. You can see the road condition and this was not the worst condition. Worst was before this. Photo by Danny Lun.

I had to slow down at the rough stretches (estimated to be around 6km of it). Near 32km mark, I lost my focus for a split second and didn't lift my left foot high enough on the rough patches. The result, I brushed my left big toe on the rough surface, half of the skin on the toe torn open and I bled.

I stopped for a brief moment, and I thought my race was over, needless to say my target. Then I started to run again. I didn't want my race to end that way. I was just hoping the injury would not be serious and I could still finish the race on my own terms (and not on an ambulance). Of course, if the injury would became worse, I would stop. However, as it turned out, the pain was bearable, and the bleeding was not getting worse.

At the last few kms after the Western Harbour tunnel, the road condition was not smooth all the way. There were still some bad stretches that I had to run with my bleeding toe.

When I reached Causeway Bay, I just enjoyed myself and pumped up the cheering crowd.

Pumping up the crowd. Photo by Nelson Li.

Also "pia" a bit "lah". Photo by Tey Eng Tiong (Special thanks for the support!)

Near finishing at Causeway Bay (still "pia"-ing). Photo by Cheung WH.

Finally I completed the race with the time of 3:39:44. I didn't meet my target of sub-3:30 and I didn't improve on my time from last year. I was a bit disappointed, but at the same time I was glad I finished it despite of the bleeding toe.

At finishing straight. Photo by Andrew Ang.

I asked for medical treatment right after the finish line. The medical staff treated my wound well and I was able to walk slowly to the baggage collection area to get my bag.

I waited for my wife, and she finished her HM in 2:25:30 (net time) for her PB. I was very happy for her.

With my wife at the finishing area.

Although I didn't meet my target, I still find a lot of positives from this race and trip. I can always try again in future events. One important thing was I got to spend some good quality time with my wife.

Until the next race, I just need to focus on recovery and get healthy first. The train hard part, later.