5:30 race start means 4am wake up and a truncated warm up. Got out the door by 4:25, and got to the race start at about 5am (infrequent MTR service). Managed 2.6k warm up, some stretching. Yiu Kit Cheng is at the start, as far as I know she is my competition, but you never know who will show up. Weather was about 61F with 85% humidity, sprinkling at times. Plan was to go out 4:00k pace til the turn around, pick it up a bit, then pick it up more in the second half of the race, let Yiu Kit lead and take the lead after the first half of the race. Yiu started out fast, so she definitely started with the lead. I started out a bit faster than I wanted, but wanted to keep contact, stayed behind a friend Peter for 3k, then passed him. Lots of guys. I would shield wind for a bit then pass. Typical of HK, I felt like there was a head wind no matter which direction I was going. First 5k was 19:33, or 3:55/k pace. Kept going straight to a turn around at about 6.5k, after turn around there was some definite downhill. Second 5k was 19:23. Yiu Kit was not gaining on me. I kept passing men, but so did she, because she was always several men ahead. At 12.7 or so we go downhill into the tunnel, I lap at 13 to get splits, 11:14 for 3k, so that's 3:45/k pace, pretty fast, in keeping with downhill, but not gaining on Yiu Kit. 14k was 3:45, then 15-16 was 8:15, an uphill stretch out of the tunnel and onto an overpass. She is 3.5 cones ahead of me, I made up some ground coming out. 17-18 were 7:52. Somewhere in here I get to three cones behind her, but then I start to slip. I think I was about 25 seconds behind by 18k. I measured 3.26 to finish: 12 minutes, 3:41 ave pace if 3.26, 3:52 ave pace if it was 3.1. I don't remember and swerving along the course :D These splits all add up to 1:22:02, so there were some odd half seconds in there. Looking back at these splits. I am pleased. I wish in a way that I had gone out with Yiu Kit because racing her the whole way could have pushed me to a faster time. However, my splits were incredibly consistent, when the elevation changes are taken into account, so for a 1:22:05, I couldn't have paced much better. I always seem to leave a bit undone, though, and I can't wait to race Yiu Kit again and am grateful she is here to push me. This is my sixth Hong Kong race and my first time getting beat :D It's a good thing in a way.
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