Training for the Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon – pound those pavements!

If you don’t know already, the annual Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon is coming up this Sunday. That’s 42.195km of road that will be closed off for those that don’t know that either (that’s a lot of mileage!). It’s quite a big deal.

I’ll admit it. I love the attention, the admiration, and the ego massage when people tell me how impressive running a marathon is – with an exclamation mark! But I’ll tell you the truth, I hate road running (I’ve only done it for ten months). It’s dull, monotonous and frankly, it’s quite a useless skill to have, as opposed to say, beach volleyball (hot half naked people to check out), tennis (it’s classy) or even squash (apparently, all managers play).

In all seriousness, what really motivated me to sign up for this was the thought of being able to roam free on the roads and appreciate the city from a whole new perspective – see how amazing the video below is, and tell me you don’t want to do a 100 mile race. And nothing beats the feeling of being cheered on by random strangers on the road (not too sure this will happen at 7am in the morning on a HK weekend…) or the adrenalin rush you get from crossing the finish line, even if it’s coming last.

Training for the marathon hasn’t been easy. I have:

–       Been verbally abused by a personal trainer. He said I had chunky legs!

–       Given up (binge) drinking for 25 days (I advise against this – worst three Saturdays of my life)

–       Spent 40+ hours running aimlessly, chased by stray dogs (surprisingly fun…)

–       Spent another 20 hours on a treadmill

–       Consumed more calories and caffeine than my family put together in the last three months

–       Endured blisters on my pinky toe (v. painful)

And the list goes on…!

However trust me, if I can do it, you can too – really, I didn’t sacrifice too much of my life to prepare for this. No, really!

If you’re not running this Sunday, then look out for me. I’ll have my name plastered across my shirt, black shorts, and a black CamelBak (to non sporting types, huge vat of water attached to my back). Please shout at me if you can – cheers… obscenities… anything! There’s nothing more motivating for me than being noticed, I’m an attention whore. And hopefully I’ll be looking nothing like a dog about to keel over into a storm drain.

If you’re running this Sunday, I wish you good luck. Run from your heart and really enjoy it. And don’t think about those blisters until the end!