Sydney Marathon

I still get goosebumps thinking about the race. What an amazing experience and day! So grateful and appreciative of the family coming out for the support, as well as the support from all those random spectators. With any race, I had a series of targets. 1) Finish the race. 2) Do it  under 4 hours 3). Do it under 3h30mins. I ended up landing somewhere between 2 and 3.

What surprised me was that I didn't blow up and the amazing atmosphere of the crowds and the support. My carb load was on point, supplemented by some delicious rice crispies (thanks kids!). If I could change one thing it would be to fly in a day earlier, my sleep is so sensitive to any disturbance that I couldn't for the life of me string together a decent night's sleep. The day before I was trying to conserve energy, and the plan was to pop by the expo, grab my bib and even a running belt and then retire to my parents sofa. 

I woke up at 5 am on Sunday and headed down to consume the standard bagel and Maurten's drink mix, and one LMNT electrolytes packet, and I was off to Sydenham to catch the metro over to Crow's Nest/Victoria Cross station. The metro is packed, runners everywhere. The excitement builds. Of course I'm running late, the lines to the toilets are long and I make it to my chute only to miss all the pacers. In any case the conditions are perfect, the temperature at the start line is somewhere between 8-10 degrees. 

I started off a bit slower than expected, there were a few niggles and it took me a few ks to get into rhythm. By then I was a fair bit off my pace so decided that I would just enjoy the race. At the 25 km mark I was feeling good, pace was on point and was starting to settle into the race, high-fiving the spectators, and just soaking in the absolutely amazing atmosphere. At the 35 km mark I was expecting the dreaded bonk, but it never came. 10 gels, 2 crampfixes. Cruised over the line in 3hours and 38 minutes. All that painful training through the Hong Kong summer paid off. Super happy! 

Highlights include running over the Sydney Harbour Bridge just after sunset, running through King's Cross, seeing the girlfriend multiple times along the route. Seeing support from Ket and Heng out near Anzac parade, and then see the family at the finish line! The definition of a runner's high. I'm hooked! When's the next one?

The long run

Finally clicked over the 30 km mark. Prior to signing up for this event the furthest I'd ever run was 21 km. It's all relative where 20 km feels like a non-event. Roughly 2 hours (for me), but with this week's run of 34 kms, it took me just under 4 hours. That's a long time to be out running. Aside from actually running that long, the other challenge is finding long enough routes.

Have found some decent routes in excess of 30 kms in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The challenge with Singapore and Hong Kong is that during this time of the year, it gets hot, quick. So even starting at 6 am, but the time you've wrapped up it's almost 10 am and it's warm. 

Final block

The final block. Maxing out at 34 kms, although I cheekily jammed in a 35km. Annoyingly, headphones died 1 hour in, so was just running out with no entertainment.

Probably a bit too much travel, but managed to bang out 34 km in Singapore at McRitchie.

Found a nice sports ground in Siu Sai Wan.

It's a real test. There is an element of boredom that kicks in and excitement, but mostly boredom. The nice thing is that most of these runs are are gentle 'conversational' pace. The challenging thing is that it's the middle of summer in Hong Kong and chaffing and wet shoes are almost mandatory. The other challenging thing is finding a route that is long enough. So far I know from North Point to Shau Kei Wan, is approximately 3.8 kms to the Museum of the War of Resistance, just under 8 kms return. North Point promenade, through to Sun Yat Sen is around 8 kms, or 16 kms return. Continuing through to Kennedy Town, the end of the Praya is around 12 kms. There's a nice loop up Mount Davis down through Caine along through to Bowen down to Victoria Park which is around 30 km. or 34 km, around the South Side, to South Bay back to Ocean Park. There's times I wish there were other people I could run with.