Ho Chi Minh City marathon
People's whatever
12.1.2025



Summary in Finnish / Tiivistelmä suomeksi

Kun aikaa on vähän kulunut niin kiva katsoa noita juoksukuvia. Kisa oli sopivan kokoinen (n. 2000) eikä tarvinnut ruuhkassa mennä (paitsi vähän alussa), eikä toisaalta tarvinnut yksinkään taivaltaa. Yön pimeydessä juostiin, mutta lähtö oli ajallaan ja reitti oikein mitattu.

Tulosta verotti polvivaivat, jotka veivät parhaan terän vauhdista ja jumitti lihaksia keskivaiheilla. Positiivinen havaintona oli, että energiat riittäneet hyvin eikä mitään simahtamisia ole tapahtunut enää muutamaan vuoteen. Vatsa oli koetuksella, mutta puhtia löytyi myös kisan loppupuolelle.

Kisaseura oli inspiroivaa. Ei niinkään hauskoissa tamineissa juoksevia tai ”kun kaverit yllyttivät” tyyppejä. Enempi lenkillä käynyttä porukkaa, jotka eivät jätä kisaa kesken. Sen tarkemmin en osaa kuvailla, mutta positiivinen fiilis jäi. Tarkempi kisaraportti on alla englanniksi.

Travel

My three previous marathons Shenzhen (Dec-2023), Manila (Feb-2024), and Taiwan (April-2024) had the common factor that I used Shenzhen as the base. Ho Chi Minh continued this trend.

Previous three marathons I travelled from Hong Kong but this time I flew directly from Shenzhen. It is the 26th busiest airport in the world (Hong Kong is 8th) but most travel is domestic within China. The international terminal was spacious but with much fewer gates. This provided more relaxed travel compared to the busier domestic side. The flight took 2,5h and Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC) was easy to reach by taxi; the only annoyance being the snail slow immigration at airport.

Ho Chi Minh City felt a bit old fashion city with busy roads filled by scooters. The difference was that the scooters in China run by electricity and occupy pedestrian walkaways while in Vietnam, they use gasoline but stay on road where they belong to.



The downtown has many restaurants, shops, bars and cafes. After arrival (Friday), I took taxi to the marathon expo which gave an impression of relatively small but a well-organized marathon. I walked back to hotel dropping by some cafes and restaurants on the way. Simple life.




Next day I made a similar walk to a nearby mall for lunch and cafés on the way back. I met the race director near the mall who greeted remembered me from the expo and stop by for a selfie.



Race preparation

My hotel was in a seemingly busy street opposite to two nightclubs, but I did not suffer any nightlife noise. The hotel looked good in picture but was quite a crappy one. Good enough to sleep, and presumably well sanitized as I found only dead cockroaches on the floor. I suppose the cleaning chemicals were strong enough for their task. Anyway, I would recommend to pick a slightly more expensive hotel in the area.

The area itself was relaxed, a mix of touristic and locals eating in the many street restaurants and bars. It was also within a walking distance from the marathon start place.

The marathon was a night run - started 3:00 am. I took dinner in the nearby Mexican restaurant at 19:00 and managed to get 2-3h sleep before my wake-up all at 2:00. There were 2000 runners registered for the full marathon. I had place in the first starting corral and could have easily get into the front line if wanted. Half-marathoners and 10k runners started somewhat later and merged with 42k runners only at the latter stages.



Race

After minimal ceremonies we went off. The course had a few U-turns allowing to count position. At 8 km, I estimated my position being 107. My race can be divided into three distinct sections: the smooth first half (0-22 km), struggling middle (23-37 km), and strong final (37-42 km).

First 10k was smooth 4:40 min/km followed by a slightly slower 4:50 for the next 10k. In the middle section, a problem with the knee started to create tightness in the muscles and slowed down the pace to 5:10. I took two energy gels at 24k and 31k. The third one I eventually dumped into garbage concluding that I wont need it. I wanted to save my stomach. At 34k, I had regained my confidence and started to push harder towards the end. The last 6k my pace was again 4:40.

My finish time 3:29 was not as good as my previous ones. I did not check the time at all during the race and got to know it only after the finish line. I was content with the result even if I had been quicker in Taiwan 2024 (3:27) in an overlength (43k) hilly course. HCMC was completely flat city course.

The years 2023-2024 I had enjoyed problem-free marathons with some good results. This lucky streak broke down due to a knee problem that had started a few weeks before the marathon, seemingly from nowhere. I had taken a break from football and floorball for several weeks already but even walking felt sometimes troublesome. I could still run shorter distances and was doing more cross-training like gym bike. From this perspective the result was good.



Feelings

The marathon was well organized, and the route clearly separated from traffic using mostly quiet streets at nighttime. The only surprise was the need to cross a busy street about 200m before the finish line. The organizers stopped the runners just in front of me letting cars by, but I stormed through the traffic anyway as being annoyed of this last minute surprise during my final sprint.

The race was led by a Kenyan Henry Kipkirui Chumba already by 4 minutes at 35km but at the end he lost the race by 23s to a Polish Runner (Adriann Bednarek). Not sure what happened, would have been interesting to see the last few kilometers of the fight for the win.

After the race, I could hardly eat anything but managed to get 1-2 h sleep before checking-out and heading back to airport. Returning home was smooth and eventless. It took two days to recover. Both legs and stomach have had hard time. Overall, a good trip.



Race statistics

Ranking: 134/1812
Time: 3:29:14
Pace: 4:57 min/km
Weather: +22 C
Full results

Splits: