Mighty Marathon

The Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon has long been the one and only opportunity for Yours Truly to exercise for an extended period of time every year.

And being clumsy and chubby (and most tragically, being not much taller than Muggsy Bogues), Yours Truly dares not attempt the marathon or even the half-marathon. Yours Truly is more than happy to take part in the 10km race, which starts from Nathan Road in Tsim Sha Tsui, through the Western Harbour Tunnel and go all the way back to the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai.

You can travel along the same route by taxi. But unfortunately you won't go very far as you'll be ticketed for making an illegal left-turn from Nathan Road onto Austin Road, the very first turn of the race.

Last Sunday's race was Yours Truly's fourth ever. Yours Truly has been running the 10km race since 2003, except 2005 when Yours Truly somehow forgot to enroll. The race always takes place in an early Sunday morning sometime after the Chinese New Year. As this is the only race in Hong Kong in which the runners will run through some of the busiest districts in Kowloon and Hong Kong (and the New Territories as well for the marathon and half-marathon runners), the popularity of the race has been increasing over the years, with a total of over 43,000 runners taking part in this year's race.

A lot of participants, like Yours Truly, are "Sunday runners" who seldom exercise and almost never go jogging. Given the high humidity during spring time in Hong Kong, many wonder if the race would pose a serious threat to the runners' well-being. And indeed after a runner had died from dehydration and exhaustion in last year's race, all the kind-hearted buddies advised Yours Truly not to push himself to the limit.

And so Yours Truly always tells himself it's merely an occasion for him to wake up early (three in the morning, a time when Yours Truly is very often still awake), breathe in the fresh air and to work out in the urban area. As expected, many of the fellow runners treated it as a carnival and brought along their digital cameras and cell phones with them, hoping to capture some of the memorable moments and share it with their friends while on the road.

Now imagine Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen dicing for the race lead, only to have their progress seriously hampered by not one or two, but tens of thousands of Super Aguris and Spykers wandering aimlessly and slowly in front of them.

In last year's race, Yours Truly was also one of these "moving chicanes" and overtaken (and almost bowled over) by some of the half-marathon runners who started the race some 30 minutes behind. Given his seriously exhausted condition at that time, Yours Truly had no idea which way to go to avoid being hit.

But when Yours Truly found himself without getting in the way of other quick runners this time around, he thought that he had beaten his time last year. But sadly it turns out that a better race course management by the officials had saved Yours Truly from being bundled over and tumbling all the way to the finish line. Yours Truly's time is some seven minutes slower than last year's time, and way off his personal best by a staggering 14 minutes.

Looks like Yours Truly had better eat fewer chips and do more cardios.