Monday, February 21, 2011

Standard Charter Hong Kong FULL Marathon

So, I have a video of half marathon start. Figure out where you are, if it took longer than the song I recorded, sorry. Try next year to get there at the start on time.



Pre Start
I woke up actually pretty early. It was around 3:30AM in the morning. After consuming oatmeal and water, I headed toward the starting line. It's actually pretty cool to be 1km from the starting line. The police were doing their last preparation and I headed toward Nathan Road realizing that the half marathon would start in about 10 minutes. I climbed up on the divider and recorded the start start of the Half Marathon Challenge starting at 5:45AM. I appologize if you can't find yourself. It's pretty dark where I was standing. It is actually pretty cool to have 6,000 runners come dashing at you.


Start
This is my first time running with Vibram Five Fingers on full marathon smooth road surface distance at a very high energy output, so I wasn't sure what to expect. This year I was much closer to the start which helped shave a few seconds off the initial kilometer of bottleneck. But, man - was it packed. I felt like a sardine.

If you find yourself, send me a facebook message and i'll grab the picture for you. You must state which video and exact time. Thanks





Highlights
Okay, I personally don't want to hash out every kilometer because seriously, it's a road, highway, bridges and tunnels, quite mundane. So here are the highlights:
 
Last Year
(Cushioned Shoes) 
This Year
(VFF)
KM
00:23:0200:22:0005
00:46:2100:44:4910
01:39:4601:39:3021.1
02:28:0502:28:1130
03:41:5303:41:1942.2

Last year in cushioned shoes -
Avg Run Cadence: 87 spm
Max Run Cadence: 94 spm
...
Avg HR: 166 bpm

This year in VFF -
Avg Run Cadence: 98 spm
Max Run Cadence: 107 spm

Avg HR: 167 bpm

 
Last Year
(Cushioned Shoes) 
This Year
(VFF)
Best/Worst
00:04:20- 1km00:04:12 - 1kmBest KM
00:04:30- 2km00:04:13 - 6km2nd Best KM
00:05:03 - 12km00:05:02 - 8kmOver 5:00/km
00:06:18 - 36km00:06:08 - 35kmOver 6:00/km
00:07:03 - 39kmNoneOver 7:00/km

Start: very very crowded
5km: need to pee, see others run for the bush
27km: spent 2:38 minutes at toilet :(. Next year definately sub 3:30.
32km: muscle spasm, consumed salt tablet
35km: hitting over 6:00/km :(
42.2km: hold hands crossing finishing line with Hyun Chang Chung.

Lastly, Out of 10s of thousand runners, I made the media again! Now that's twice in a row.

look at 1:21 in the video...
hk.applevideo.nextmedia.com