my first half marathon!

i ran my first half on sunday! i've never even run 21km non-stop, so i was a little worried.

the only other friend i personally knew bailed due to food poisoning the previous night. oh well. so i hopped on the bus at 6am in tin hau. (which meant i had to get up at like 5. on a sunday morning. awful. )

here's the map of the race:

we got to tai mei tuk at tai po around 6:45am, and i wandered around in the early morning aimlessly. there were some nice boats.

i looked around for tommy who i had not met but had exchanged emails. found him, so it made me feel a little better, i asked him how the course was, etc. he told me it was really flat and really easy. oh good.

i snap a couple pictures of ppl warming up as the sun was coming out. this is actually the big straight dam that is part of the finishing section.

so 8am swings around, i had to store my phone so no more pix.

i'll write about my general thoughts on running at some other time, but i'll just log how i felt through the 21km. i had my little nike plus thing on so i have some idea of my speed.

0 - 2km: WTF!! tommy said it was really flat!! we started out right up a pretty steep incline, and it just kept going. back down a bit, and back up. man. this is bad. i was doing 6 minute kms. no way i can break 2 hours.

2-5km: ok. it's getting better. more flat stuff. i can do this. i think.

5-7km: somewhere around here i noticed people running crazy fast in the opposite direction. what the...? then a lot of people running after these crazy people. duh... these were the front runners and they had already looped back. looking back, they were probably about 3km ahead of us already at that point.

7-10km: this is where it gets a little demoralizing. i thought i was doing a reasonable speed, then i rounded a corner and noticed about a thousand people running ahead of me. at 8km, the time 48 minutes or so. at this point, i thought i'd be lucky to do 2:05.

10-14km: i picked up a bit of speed here. i've noticed i always run a little bit faster and get a little bit of energy boost after the half way mark. and, in retrospect, this was not smart.

14-16km: this is a really cool part of the race. we run along the dam - it's just straight all the way and flat. and the way the race is we loop around (see map), hence actually i got to see the winners just go at it in this final stretch, fighting for the finish. pretty amazing.

16-19km: i am really starting to struggle here. i can see where i'm supposed to run to, and there's a bunch of uphill. no more at this juncture, please, no...

19-21km: the final stretch. this is getting really painful. really, really painful. my thought processes are a bit like the following:

• this is only the half. and in about one month, this will be the half way mark only. so suck it up!!! (get a little boost of energy and run a little faster)

• man. i really am tired. i think i can break 2 hours. barely. but i can still break it. and my knees are starting to hurt a lot and i think the blister on my foot is going to pop any moment. (slow down, try to maintain a jog)

• some old dude/lady/girl races past me. nooo! (try desperately to catch up)

• 10 seconds later, realize it's totally futile and my energy tank is running on a big red E.

• who are all these people who are speeding ahead of me? what is wrong with them? we're supposed to be tired!

in the end, i did manage not to walk at all, and managed to sprint the last 100m. i think the clock showed 1:59 or so. and since it took me a minute to get to the starting line, i figure i have a 1:58. i think. semi-respectable i think.

anyway, so that was the end of my little adventure. here's me looking like a doofus.

i was so exhausted i couldn't make it to the AnD event at times square. now, the big question is, how the hell am i going to do the full version in a month's time? i better really start training hard...

any other runners out there?