M.P. Memorial Race report

If you have only 1 minute to read, you shall know that I arrived 1st at the finish line, kicking hard with 1km to go.

It felt extremely hard, but probably others were suffering more...

Once the results were graded using the WADA tables, I was given the 3rd "compensated" time (well... I am still too young...).

NOW THE LONG VERSION

Felt a bit odd to wait for the afternoon race, but the morning went by quickly with some D-I-Y duty.

Since the weather was really dull in our area, once I told my wife that on HK Island there have been no rain, she expressed her interest in coming at least to take some air outside (otherwise she is totally against any physical activity and sport in general...).

So we embarked the full team on the car, included my daughter's bike, stroller for the boy, etc...

It was actually true that on HK Island side the weather was actually better, not raining, but simply awfully hot: 29C with 85%Rh... the air was so thick that I could barely breath while running the warm-up...

Most of all, I felt super good to see again after such a long time most of my "running friends" and get back into the spirit of competition. Many asked me about my tendons and wished me all the best for the race... the runners are always so supportive among each others.

I noticed that the field did not really have any "tier 1" runner, but many solid runners who recently completed marathons in the 2h40' area. So it was a solid field to test my level.

Once the gun went off, I found myself in the leading group and breathing quite hard, but the pace was still "confortably" hard.

After a while, I was left only with C.B. who last month completed a marathon in 2h41' and a former varsity runner with 1500m PB of 3'45".... So I just tailed him and I hoped to hang on as long as possible.

Honestly I did not give myself a change and I was feeling more and more miserable; I was already cooked up at the turn-around point at 2.5k

The course is an out and back in a small pedestrian road, which is not actually closed to the traffic for the race, so you must take into account the need to go around dog-walkers, joggers, whatever.... also this time I felt lucky to have avoided a collision but I got very very near to a crash with another runner coming in the opposite direction...

Then... all of a sudden I realized that we were actually slowing down (well, better, he was slowing down and I was following...), so I tought it was maybe the moment to try a kick and see if he could respond.

With 1200m to go, I increased the pace (and my suffering). I realized that he was not reacting so I kept on going harder.

I felt awful and in total pain, the legs were heavy and for the last 400m I really had to focus on keeping the pace because I just wanted to stop.

Somehow I managed to reach the line first even if I was totally blank...

It is an understatement to say that I am very pleased with my race...

Once the final results were out, I was awarded the 3rd prize because this race is a bit special, using the WADA conversion tables to recalculate the finishing time based on the age.

All together, a really good feeling to "cut the ribbon" and being able to hang out there very hard with runners coming out from a full season of races/training.

Lastly, usual praise for the organization from AVOHK. Not because it is my club, but they are really good in setting up races: everything simple and smooth and very runner friendly.

Photos to follow once I find something