Standard Chartered Hong Kong (Half) Marathon - Run

Very hot and humid. Was sweating before race start. My friend Derek was shooting for a sub 2 hr 1/2 M. guncollector was pacing me.
Note: 1 km ~ 0.62 mile

The first part of the run (1-12 km) was relatively flat.
1-2 km was very crowded. We clocked 17 something min (my average pace ~6 min/km).
3-7 km = tried to maintain a 6:30/km pace. Had to stop at every water stations and take at least 3 cups of water. They have wet sponge for us to keep cool. At some point I dropped my sun glasses. guncollector was so nice to run back to get them. But someone stepped on and broke them. :(
7 km: guncollector stopped at a porta potty. I continued the run and he caught up with me by 9 km. Took pictures at times.
14 km: ate a gel. Unlike my first 1/2 M, I brought my own this time.
15 km = entered tunnel. The 1/2 M crowd merged with the 10 K crowd. Too many people were having too much fun. Some of them stopped in the middle of the road and took pictures. Kept bumping into them. At least I kept running when taking pictures. :p
16-21 = out of tunnel. This was where it got difficult. Up and down a few overpasses and an underpass. Had to walk at few steps at times. Knees were feeling the impact and I felt very hot. guncollector was very nice to keep my pace when he can run much faster. Good that they had drink station every 2 miles or so. It was so hot that many people got cramps/heat strokes etc. There were 6000+ needing first aid and 35 were sent to the hospital.

walked to baggage claim. Took us 30 mins. There were a total of 43608 runners for the 10K, 1/2M and Full M.
Missed those 10K friends. I got stucked at baggage claim. One of those 10k'ers pulled his muscles. I knew he didn't train and he was supposed to walk. Must have been talked into running, or trying to run.


Too crowded, too warm, too humid.


It's awesome to run on the highways/tunnels around my home town. Great to participate in such an event with my old friends. My friend Derek met his goal finishing in 1:5x. Fun to see a BTer there, too.