Getting dropped off

I've lost track of how many times I've been back to Sydney in recent years. If I were to guess, probably around 8-10 times last year? Somebody fact check me. The trips admittedly have become a little bit easier with cost, as I've been fortunate enough to have more deposable income with work and career, however it has become more difficult from a physical perspective. I'm not sure if it's age, but the tailbone does not like sleeping on those upright seats, and my sleep quality has definitely deteriorated. It's a small price to pay given how much I enjoy going back home to Sydney.

One thing that I have been thinking about lately is the pick ups and drops off to and from the airport. It's quite a small thing, but there's always been somebody waiting for me, or willing to drop me off for my flight out. Pick up from the International Airport Express passenger pick-up area. Drop off at Gate G for the late night flight out.

Most often that not dad gets stuck with this chore, duty, obligation. It's a small passage of time where we catch up, on what's been happening. The pick-up is pretty scripted. It's always a conversation about the flight, and whether it was busy and how long I'm in town for. I think it's always usually a pretty full flight, and usually for a couple a days. Sometimes, there's a question about work. 

The drop offs are a little less scripted. Talking about whatever is on our mind. Cars. Relatives. Health. Travel. Life. The drop offs remind me of being dropped off when I was a kid, whether it be being dropped off at school (where at times I would ask to be dropped off down the road in primary school). Or, being dropped off at a friend's place in high school. Or at the station for work. Or now, being dropped off at the airport to go back home.

I appreciate these little moments. 

Race day

Ok, so managed to cobble together 4 hours of sleep last night. Thankfully, the body does pretty well with physical exertion on minimal sleep.

Today was a much different race.

Less about the celebration of a marathon and more about gritting it out. It was a hard race, with sub optimal conditions. A warm Sunday, with temperatures at 6:25 at around 18 degrees, climbing quickly once the sun was up to 22-23 degrees. Much warmer than Sydney. Also, the wind up on Ting Kau Bridge, very challenging.

I had run the Half Marathon twice before, and each time the crowds have always bothered me. Not because I hate people, but more because the conditions of roughly 74,000 on an already difficult course means you have to jostle for position and really go after your pace. This is especially true in the first few kilometres, there's a lot of crowd navigation and trying to get into a steady rhythm. That being said the race does pass some iconic Hong Kong areas. Starting on Nathan Road on TST, before moving over stone cutters bridge towards Tsing Yi halfway crossing Ting Kau bridge before moving East towards Lai King Hill and Lai Chi Kok before joining back with the half marathon crowd to move through the Western tunnel. From there the race goes along the western harbour front before moving down Lockhart road, past the exhibition centre and finishing in Victoria Park.

This was a hard run. I was desperate for a sub 3:30 so had to fight for pacing targeting sub 5 min/km splits. Once again, frustration and energy were the common themes of the first couple of kilometres doing Nathan Road, my splits were 5:29 mins, 5:32 mins and 5:18 for the first three kilometres, already 80 seconds off my target. Thankfully the crowd started to thin and was for the most part able to get into a good rhythm between the 4-32 km mark.

Stone cutters bridge, difficult but not as steep as I had anticipated, managed to keep good pace on that. Most difficult was Ting Kau Bridge, very windy, a lot of work just to keep pace. Very uncomfortable, holding bib down, wind in face and a bit of a climb. As always difficult with the western tunnels, just so warm and humid and people stopping for photos, the climb out of the tunnel is a real challenge. Finally there's always that last hill onto Lockhart that really sucks the energy out of both full and half marathons. You can almost feel a collective sigh as you come around and see the on ramp. That coupled with the fact that people stop and walk this section, very easy to lose speed even if you want the endurance to attack.

Legs started to feel tired at 20 kilometre mark with the back of hammy started to tighten up a bit, possibly from all those slow, steady inclines that chip away at the muscles. Thankfully never developed into full blown cramp. The route coming around through Causeway Bay is always deceptive, you think you've finished, but there's still 600 meters remaining. Was a real dig deep run. Crampfix at 2:30 and 3:00 hour mark. Dumped caffeine at the 2:40hour mark. Helped a bit. 10 gels in total, quite a lot.

Very shaky finish, felt less strong that Sydney. But watch time still under the 3:30. Waiting for chip time. Very happy with time, especially given conditions. Much different to Sydney where i was just happy to sit back and finish, this race had to really fight for each kilometre.

Different race, a lot of the run you're on highways, pounding pavement, there's a lot less atmosphere, people marching towards the finish line. There's a bit of energy on the over passes and the occasional passerby in a car, but Hong Kong is a real mental test. Support comes out when back on the island, which is probably when you need it. Happy people came out for support. Happy with the result.

Aggressive Carb Load = Insomnia

It feels as if my body does not deal with drastic changes very well. Where these changes result in insomnia. More recently, aggressive carb loads. I actually thought my preparation for the Sydney Marathon was spot on. Until, looking back I do remember not being able to sleep very well on the Friday and Saturday evenings ahead of the Sunday race day. I had put it down to nerves, the flight and disruption to regular programming. 

So when a colleague who was preparing for HYROX mentioned that he finds that his Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is negatively impacted I paid little attention. But coming into my second marathon preparation, where the prescription is 10-12 grams of carbohydrates per kilo of body weight for three days out of race day. I once again find myself consuming 700-840 grams of carbohydrates per day and once again, my body does not deal with the additional insulin required to process the carbs. Given that on average I eat 100-200 grams of carbs a day, jacking this up 4x means the body is constantly producing insulin. Which based on a quick search on the internet, could result in temporary hyperinsulinemia which translates to poor sleep quality, insomnia and frequent waking. 

Desperate for a good night's sleep ahead of Sunday's race.

It's a bag!

There may be a point in time when people look back at the "blind box" culture and try to pin point its origin story. I'm not somebody unfamiliar with this concept, having been deep in collectibles. Basketball cards, football cards, Magic cards. However as of writing, the blind box has become ever-present in society. 

Up until opening this tin, the information was asymmetric. Now it's not. It's a blue!

Family in town!

Very exciting to have visitors in town! It's been more than ten years since my mom and auntie visited the shores of Hong Kong. I think dad has been here a little more recently, but even then, that would have been when I was still living in Soho, which would have been at least eight years ago. The lead up to the visit was a little stressful as this was the first time taking advantage of my sister's family perks at work which meant, stand by tickets and continuously hawking the load of seats on each of the flight. That combined with the fact that this airline only has one flight per day meant that they did not know if they were going to fly up until the last moment. Weeks out, this flight had looked the most likely with availability, however as the day drew closer seat allocations slowly filled up. On the day of the flight, all seats had been sold, yet they decided to head to the airport and try their luck. Call it luck, but there were two no-shows. Success. Hong Kong here they come!

Unfortunately, we were short at work so couldn't take time off, but did manage to see them after work and on the weekend. This, in my opinion is the best time of the year to visit Hong Kong. Although upon arrival they were greeted with fairly chilly conditions, however the city warmed up after the six days. Lots of activities showing them all my favourite spots. Picked them up from the airport, and checked into the hotel, they weren't so hungry and watched me eat some Vietnamese food in Pacific Place. They had arrived with lots of goodies, lentils, faba beans, fruit and snacks. Day two, exploring TST, although admittedly, Hong Kong isn't terribly exciting if you're just walking around. You kind of need to know where to go. I met them after work in Jordan and we strolled Temple Street and the ladies market and ended up at Hing Kee for clay hotpot rice. One thing they would soon learn is that, all popular places in Hong Kong will have a queue.

Friday they went up to the Peak and met them after work at Kam's for goose dinner. "Too tough!" haha, followed by dessert. Saturday we met in Causeway Bay after my (half) hair cut, grabbed an egg tart from Bakehouse and walked through Victoria Park to Sister Wah for beef brisket noodles, followed by a post meal walk to the Eastern Corridor promenade for some harbour views before catching a tram to North Point. Walked down to Sau Kei Wan, caught sunset and took a boat to Lei Yue Mun for seafood dinner. Sunday, dim sum in Central, walk through Hong Kong park, afternoon tea at the Conrad and then dinner at Above and Beyond, walk along the Avenue of the Stars and Star Ferry back to Hong Kong island. Monday they explored Causeway Bay before heading off back to Sydney. Please visit more!

Forty Three

Gosh, I really feel old. It really feels like an eternity when I turned 40. Middle of covid, feeling like I had officially reached middle age status. Now, three years later, I feel middle aged both mentally, and physically. October growing up was always a fun month. There were always so many birthday celebrations. Aunties, uncles, cousins, mine included.

This year it's been a bit of an odd birthday. Minimal fanfare, no issues with that. Received some nice birthday messages, which I love. Although the idea of having "Happy Birthday" blasted in a group chat still feels awkward. This year, our corporate Bloomberg Square Mile, happened to fall on the 9th. We fielded a strong team which finished a competitive 11th. Annoyingly, I fell short of the sub-6 minute mark, again. 6:04, slowly getting there. 

Although, admittedly my mind was elsewhere. I have had a sore toorth a couple of days since returning from Singapore and today decided to see the dentist for further investigation. The consult resulted in me getting a temporary crown while we wait for further news. Nothing screams old age like the gentle deterioration of the body. Things, parts, bits that have been part of me for almost my whole life are now slowly starting to break down and require attention. It's an indirect way of age showing, time really is passing us by. 

Happy Birthday!

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. 

Hong Kong Q2 Dump

Not a whole lot to report here. In between the travel between Singapore and Sydney it's really just been sparse amounts of socialising and a huge amount of running. Four times a week, Saturday easy run, Sunday long run with intervals and threshold between. Some highlights include, MTG, Farewells, Dragon Boat Festival Zhongzi, Coldplay, long runs with visitors to Hong Kong, Hikes, Blood donation, Jimmy O Yang, and Udatsu Sushi, Lei Yue Mun fish markets with cousin.

Standard Chartered Half 2025

The original plan was to set a new PB in January and enjoy the Standard Chartered run. However, things don't always go to plan. Given the fact that I had missed that PB, I decided to give this course a proper crack. More gels, decent prep. Final time 1:44:20 - new PB! 

The day was perfect. Cool in the morning. Still crowded, but being in the challenge pack meant things cleared up around the 3 km mark, and got busy again around the 18 km mark. Great course, could have gone faster and felt good at the finish line. Sneak peak of pre and post eating.

Macao Bridge Half Marathon

First run of the year. Really enjoyable race, along the 55 km Macao-Zhuhai Bridge, this Half Marathon takes you 11 km across the border and then brings you back. Fun course, not oversubscribed, long declines, challenging climbs. Sunrise, and airplanes. Only issue, it's an early start. Get to Asia World Expo by 6 to get a bus out to the start line. What more could you want?

Mis-timed my fuelling, was on PB time until I bonked around the 18 km mark, 4 gels not enough. Official time 1:45:25. Happy with that all things considered.