Denouement

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. 

80 minutes elliptical split in two sessions.  PT appt.  Legs just a little sore.

13.3k @ 4:41 ave pace.  Don't really feel the half marathon in me.

16.21k at 4:37 pace.

Run to Kowloon Tsai Park.  There was some track event there so I was grateful for the 500m rubber jogging trail around the track.  Did 6 x 100m sprints (17,17,17,16,16,16) with drills in between. 12 k plus strides. 

Core workout. 

Realized that I have two races next week, so would have no opportunity to do a 5k tune up race. My last track race was in 1998, in my BYU undergrad days.  Next week I am doing a 10K on tuesday night (25 times around the track--yikes!) and then a 5k Saturday afternoon.  Yiu Kit Cheng, who beat me on Sunday is signed up for both races, but is likely to just race the 5k.  So I have been focusing mentally on the 5k. Competition=better race.  If she doesn't show up to the 10K, a 38:00 should win it.  If she does, then the winning time might be sub 37.  Anyway.  Roberto wanted to do a speed workout, and doing it today meant I am free tomorrow for a long run so we met this morning.  

Plan was 5 x 1000m @ 5k goal pace (3:30), 2 min rest between.  No track was open that early, so we used the markers by the Fotan racetrack.  There are 100m rowing marks along the river.  Very accurate.  There was some wind.  Nothing terrible, but you can see how it affected my pace.  First one started too fast, with the wind, 3:23, back the other way, 3:30, then 3:25, then 3:29, then 3:21 (some crying and groaning to eek this one out, but Roberto was calling for me to sprint).  Roberto is a 3:38ish marathoner who has been injured, but has been cycling and then did a couple of weeks of jogging then WHAM jumps into my workout and can keep pace while harrassing me about going out too fast, or about how I should sprint at the end.  A couple of weeks ago it was Tom telling me to push the last 1k of a tempo.  I am so impressed by these men who can do my workouts at a conversational pace.  

Very nice workout, a confidence builder.  I am as ready as a 12 year track-race rust bucket can be :D 

Ran just over 30k, most of it with Curtis.  4:35 ave pace.  Felt a little tired from yesterday but ok overall. Definitely felt like a long run. 

Met Kevin from the blog, who lives in HK after the run.  Then long cold ride home.