China Coast 2020

China Coast Hong Kong 19.1.2020

What?

Gammon China Coast was a well organized marathon. It was just the right size, and with a scenery route at coast of High Island Reservoir in Hong Kong. The course was a bit hilly but the weather perfect (18-22 C). I can warmly welcome it to others who have a chance to visit Hong Kong.

Why China Coast?

I have been on sabbatical already 3 months in Shenzhen, China, located just next to Hong Kong. Originally, I did not plan to run in Hong Kong but some local race in Shenzhen or nearby. However, since the information flows here slowly so that every time I get to know a race, it is too late to register. I missed already Shenzhen (by few weeks), Shenzhen Nanshan (2 weeks) and Ocean marathon or something (1 day).

So, I had already run Singapore, and planned to run Hong Kong standard Chartered marathon in early February. However, due to decreased motivation I managed to miss its deadline also. So took the next best option, Gammon China coast, also in Hong Kong, organized by athletic veterans. It turned out to be an excellent choice.

Preparations and travel

Hong Kong is relatively easy to reach from Shenzhen once learned the logistic: 9 metro stops from our station to Futian checkpoint, cross the border, and another 9 metro stops in Hong Kong side. I booked a small hotel in Kowloon Tong for the night before. To my surprise, it had mini-sauna, which was a small glass box shower room with small chair and device to make it a steam room. Wow!

My two previous runs were rather poor: Nanshan half marathon was my worst ever (1:40) including 4 minutes in portable toilet. Then Singapore marathon where I ran out of energy soon after the half-way and was crawling to the end. It was my third slowest full marathon ever beaten only by two mountain marathons (Jungfau 4:57, Koli 5:35).

With the lessons learned, I suddenly realized Thursday, three days before the Marathon, that I have to pay now more attention to my carbo loading. Chinese cuisine is usually healthy, but it is more like a diet rather than A good for marathon preparation. I concluded that eating normally might not suffice.

Optimal carbo loading probably goes something like this.

Carbo diet 5-6 days before
Carbo loading 2-3 days before
Normal eating 1 day before

My every day eating would probably fit for the carbo diet, all I needed is to actually start eating carbo. So, my T-3 day’s menu was like this:

Noodle soup for breakfast
Rice for lunch (spiced by little meat)
Banana
Rice for dinner (spiced by little veggies)
Noodle soup for supper

For the night, I went to buy some sweat bread and cookies in case I would not be able to sleep or become hungry at night. I ended up eating them all and my stomach seems to digested it all.

The travel day, Saturday, I ate more normally but still emphasis on past and rice. Just in case. I found Hong Kong cuisine much more fitting to my taste so I ate well but healthy. The last night one should not eat too much but being hungry during the race is also not good.

The other important factor to me is to avoid stress. This time I had no goals others than just to finish the race. And enjoy – if just possible. So mentally I took it relaxed and it seemed to work.

Race day

There was organized bus transfer to the venue. One of the pick-up points was 6:15 morning near Kowloon Tong metro, just two blocks from my hotel. The location was well documented by picture and on map. There were plenty of other runners waiting so impossible to miss.

The venue was at Po Leung Kuk, which is some kind of camp resort. I had one hour to collect the Bib and prepare. I had eaten one sandwich after wake-up (5:30). Based on my feelings, I decided to consume my last remaining food – a banana. Bags check-in 15 minutes before the start, which was just a short walking distance from the venue. Everything was easy.

Race report

This time I decided to carry my travel iPhone with me and took some pictures instead of maximizing the running performance. I was still a bit skeptical about my energy levels and potential stomach problems so I had decided to take it easy.

The course was a bit hilly. After the first kilometer there seemed to be uphill and more uphill so that I even worried a bit if my energy would last to the end. Besides the Chinese diet and sometimes troublesome stomach, my training was reasonably good but lacking serious long distance runs. My typical running in China has been 12-14 km, and only once or twice a month over 20 km. I simply haven't had time and motivation for those >30 km runs anymore.


I wasn't the only one recording. This guy used Sony 4K that looked even older than any of my Nokia phones.	There wasn't much spectators around except the cows. Those participating the race wore also numbers in their ears while runners wore it on their shirts.

The race went on and the course became scenery. Several times good views over the lakes and crossing two dams. The route had 10 km loop to the south end and back, and then a shorter uphill detour at the north end including the steepest uphill. These loops were then repeated twice.

At the 10 km, I estimated my position being 43rd based on counting runners returning from the south end turn point. During the first loop there were both full and half marathoners. The leader of the full marathon was competitive long distance runner, and this was his first marathon race. He indeed seemed to have good speed and was clearly outperforming others. Nothing like an average marathoner.

After returning to the North crossroad where the route now took into the north end detour consisting of lengthy uphill part reaching to the highest point of the race. I planned to take pictures when coming here second time but the uphill part was excluded from the second round. I therefore might have missed some good scenery picture.

The total elevation was 650 m but it did not seem too challenging. To me the first 10 km was probably harder than the following 10-30 km. The last stretch from 35 km forward was still the hardest as usually.

The route was marked at every 5 km but no half-marathon mark. I roughly estimate my timing being around 1:45, predicting 3:30 finish time if able to keep the speed. This never happens. I think I have been only 2-3 times faster at the second half (negative split) while the remaining 45 times the second half being either slower. Too many times much slower.

I had set two modest goals: sub-4 hours as the must-do and 3:30 would-be-good. The estimated half time was promising in this view.

The 20-30 km was probably my best. Now I knew the route and what to expect, and my running felt good. At 30 km when reaching the south turning point second time, I felt especially cheerful as now it was going home from this point forward, and there were no signs of any problems or feelings of running out of energy. Ok, maybe slight tightness in the hip area but so far nothing serious.

At some point I felt a bit hungry and should have probably ate even more. I also had forgot my energy gels home but consumed bananas provided by the organizers. It seemed to serve me well.

Because of the two turning points at the south and north, it was possible to count one’s position. Especially the second half when most half marathoners had disappeared from the course. I counted being 40th position at the 30 km turning point. Two speed-up guys later passed me and slightly annoyed me so that I jokingly considered banning people to pass others during the second half in order not to destroy others’ motivation. :)

With the yellow shirt -guy we later swapped positions few times as we had different speeds at the uphills, downhills and at the drink stations. Eventually he cruised away and finished about 30 s before me. I also passed few runners, but overall, all those in front of me looked in a good shape and I did not expect many dropouts.

First time I started to feel tiredness was sometime after the 35 km marker. I then got inspiration, who knows where, but started to talk to myself outloud - and occasional by-passers going to the opposite direction - JUST GO! It helped for a while to keep up the spirit, and I then pushed to the finish line using whatever sisu I might have had.

The north end detour was shortened during the second loop lacking the steep uphill part completely, which made the last two kilometers much easier than I was predicting. From the 40 km mark, I was basically just cruising to the end. I looked the timer only twice during the race: half-way and 1 km before the finish line (there was sign 1 km to go). Timer said 3:27, so I knew I had almost managed to keep the pace and finished in 3:32:23 (net time 3:32:19). Did not reach the 3:30 goal but was still very content and happy about the run.

Race summary:

Excellent event, excellent race. Despite the hilly course, my result was better than any of the last year (Prague 3:34, Singapore 3:57). I also gained 3rd place trophy in my age group even if spending time for picture taking. I think it was worth it. How often do you have a change to go abroad to join such an excellent event in a completely new environment – just by travelling 2 hours from your home? One happy marathoner took the next metro with smile on his face and reached home same day afternoon.

Summary

Time: 3:32:23
Rank: 38 / 376
Weather: +18-22 C
Results