I'm always so elated when I receive a surprise email with the subject line "Congratulations! Registration Confirmation for the 2014......................Race". It's happened a couple times now thanks to Amanda! Back on Feb. 1, we were in the China Coast Half Marathon located in Sai Kung, Hong Kong. The races are fairly early morning starts so we decided to head to HK the night before and stay at Vicki's place as she was out of town. As the evening progressed, especially on the ferry, our health deteriorated to a couple of fevers and aches. Getting sick is even better when you know you have 21.1 kms to run in the morning! As soon as we arrived in HK, we got to Vicki's and hit the hay fairly late around 11 or 12. Due to the location of the race way out in Sai Kung, the race had shuttles leaving from Central that departed at 6 AM. this meant that we would have to find a cab and get to the shuttle locations in time for the bus. So after 5 hours of sleep and a few panadols, we caught the shuttle and slept through the 45 minute drive to Sai Kung. FYI, Feb. is not the warmest month here! It was freezing!!!!!! Due to the weather and our feverish bodies, we wanted to keep all of our clothes on just to stay warm, but we also needed to check our bags with enough time to make the start. About 1 hour before the race, we had to hit the can, and Amanda managed to use it within 5 minutes. Me, on the other hand, had to stand in line for 45 minutes! It was totally ridiculous and immediately after, we had to RUN, change and get ready for the start with seconds to spare! After 21.1 kms, it was all over! This race was definitely the toughest race for me so far. So many elevation changes made the legs ache and I even had to walk uphill a couple of times. Brutal. Considering our health and the difficulty of the course, we were both happy with our times and were very happy to make our way back to Macao and climb into bed! Sorry we didn't get a pic this time due to our throbbing need to get the heck out of there and into bed!
Next up is another "surprise" duathlon in HK. This time a 30 km bike sandwiched between two 5 km runs! AND.......Amanda accidently put me in the Elite division...............I love her!
