Monday, March 05, 2007

I survived Hong Kong Marathon 07!

It took me 5 hours and 26 minutes, but I completed the 42 kilometres within the 5-1/2 hour limit, with only about 3 minutes to spare. My legs started cramping at about 30km. So for the rest of the time I was mainly limping and walking along, just like most of the people around me. I would stretch and then try to walk off the cramps. But as soon as I start to jog, one or both of the lower legs would cramp, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a few hundred meters. So, it was back to stretching and walking again. Numerous times I was tempted to quit and jump on the bus that would take me to the finishing line. But I really wanted to try to finish it.


Now I have to admit that the marathon may just be too much for my bag of old bones. My bruised toes, swollen ankles, and worse of all, creaky knees are trying to tell me something. Six years ago I told my wife I wished I could run just one marathon in my life. Now I have done that, kind off. So I can quit running really long distances. I think my family, and in particular, my wife, would be happy with that.

3 comments:

tabbycat said...

CONGRATS!!!!!!!!!!!

I can't even imagine running more than 10 km (and even the 10km is a challenge for me), so yours is a truly huge achievement. Especially given how hot it was yesterday!

Anonymous said...

恭喜~!
真的不容易呢...

StephenC said...

I checked my time. For the first 30KM my progress was relatively consistent, at a pace of about 70 minutes per 10KM. If I could maintain that pace I could've finished in under 5 hours. If only I didn't have the cramps :(

The running was very hard, but also very exciting. Come and enjoy it. :)