Run. Eat. Sleep.

China Coast Half Marathon 2012

Posted on January 16, 2012. Filed under: Races |

After I arrived in Hong Kong Thursday night, Ezra picked me up and we checked into Cosmo Hotel for the weekend.  I was exhausted from all the flying, so I crashed and didn’t wake up until about 8:30am the next morning.  Even that was a little early for Ez, so I didn’t wake him until 9am, so we could go to The Flying Pan for breakfast!

Ezra got a bagel with lox

and I got the eggs benedict with smoked salmon!

Then we did some shopping.  Zara was having a sweet sale, so we took a look around.  I got a few new tops

I wanted to get this one, but it was just too short and didn’t cover my stomach enough

We had a late and light lunch at Dan Ryan’s.  I had the onion soup and salad  and Ez had the spaghetti

We bummed around for a bit until 4, when we saw Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.  That movie was totally AWESOME!  It had a great plot, there was tons of action, suspense, and the main character Lisbeth Salander kicked butt.  Everything I need for a great movie!

After that kind of film, Ezra and I were dying for a good meal, so we headed to Cafe Deco for some dinner…

We started with drinks

and a tomato salad

before going to town on some oysters

we had the above picture (of 2 dozen oysters) X 2.  That would 48 oysters shared between the 2 of us.  We definitely didn’t go hungry

For dessert, we stopped by Häagen Daaz for some scoops of delicious ice cream…

and enjoyed it while riding the tram back down the peak

Saturday morning we had a 10am meeting at the Hong Kong Country Club to discuss using them as our ceremony and reception site for the wedding!  It’s true what my friend Hannah said about me, “You’re going to have this wedding planned my March.”

Here’s hoping!

We also met with our friend Tarifa for a late breakfast and to talk more about the wedding.  Tarifa just went through the same thing with her daughter’s wedding, so she had a ton of helpful ideas.

The rest of the afternoon was spent bumming around, until our 7pm dinner at Grappa’s to carbo-load.

We started with some bread

my date

yours truly

we shared a pizza

and I had the penne putanesca

and Ez had the lasanga

We made it an early night, so we could have a good night’s sleep for our half marathon in the morning.  Little did I know, that was going to be the least of my worries…

Sunday morning I was up at 3:45, to be ready to leave the hotel by 5am.  I got up, made some coffee, ate my bagel with peanut butter and read blogs while I digested breakfast.  Everything went smoothly and we were out the door by 5.

Elevator photos

We took a cab to the bus pick up, which we found out was only 10 minutes away, so when we arrived it was 5:15 and the buses didn’t leave until 5:45.  We hung out under the bus stop to stay dry (there was a drizzle), and I took photos of Ezra’s leg stuffed inside his compression sleeves like sausages

The ride to the start was about 45 minutes so we arrived at the start around 6:45/7.  With an hour or so to kill we walked around the area, picked up our registration packets, checked our extra clothes and made our way to the start.  This is when my stomach started to feel funny (as in something not-so-great was about to happen in the bathroom), and I didn’t feel right.

Pre-race photos

And then it began.  The treacherous climb straight uphill for the first 2km or so.  Ezra had told me he wanted to run it in under 2 hours so I was trying to pace us pretty fast, which was not a good idea.  We were both toast by mile 5.

Pictures before mile 5…

Then my attitude started to go downhill from there.  I was pissed that I couldn’t run the race in under 2-hours and I was pissed that my body, after only 5 miles, felt more exhausted than a normal 13.1 mile race.  My knees also started to ache, and my stomach was doing some weird things…

I finally had to walk around mile 9.  I told Ez he could keep running, but he insisted on staying (another reason he’s a keeper!).  From that point on, we alternated between running and walking.  I finally told myself to just try and enjoy the experience and just finish.  So that’s what we did.

I also took a photo of these super annoying cows that were everywhere along the road we were running.  They also left wonderful (HUGE) presents along the road…  We finished with a Garmin time of 2:15:45 more than a minute faster than last year, so yay for that.  As soon as we crossed the finish line, my stomach started to turn and I felt like I was going to faint.  We managed to walk me to the food line to get something in my stomach before I got sick.

Trying to looked excited…

After eating a chocolate muffin I felt a little better, but the cold kicked in and I started to freeze.  Ez said my lips were turning blue (good thing he didn’t tell me that at the time), so we hurried to get on a bus to take us back to the hotel.

I took a super hot shower, which helped a little, but I was still freezing, so I bundled up with a heavy coat and we headed out to the Hong Kong Country Club to meet Tarifa and her husband Haider for lunch.

I was still feeling really sick and faint, so after a little bit of eating so Tarifa walked me to the Main Lounge, where I promptly passed out until it was time to leave for the border.

Long story short, I barely made it through the all the immigration, but I arrived home in one piece and passed out for 12 hours straight.

Feeling a little better today, although I’m definitely going to need another day or so to get back to normal…quite the trip this weekend, but I think a lot of it had to do with just being tired, so I’m off to take a nap!

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