HK is Asia's toughest marathon- Analysis of Men Race

Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2011 -Asia's toughest.

A COMPARISON
List of invited runners - INTERNATIONAL MEN


2009/2010                     20/02/2011
(PERSONAL BEST)  (CHIP TIME)
2hr 14min 46sec .........2hr 20min 53sec KEN Cyprian Mwobi
2hr 10min 13sec......... 2hr 16min 00sec KEN Nelson Kirwa Rotich
2hr 10min 17sec .........2hr 16min 24sec ETH Tesfaye Girma B
2hr 10min 58sec .........2hr 20min 30sec KEN Philemon Kemboi
2hr 28min 50sec  ........2hr 31min 33sec MON Batbayar D
2hr 15min 00sec .........2hr 17min 29sec KEN John Tubei
2hr 20min 17sec .........2hr 21min 14sec CHN Yuxue Gao
2hr 21min 49sec .........2hr 16min 55sec MOR Hammou Moudouji
2hr 30min 00sec .........2hr 34min 37sec CHT Wang Chui Chun
2hr 46min 23sec .........2hr 47min 11sec CHT Lok Wai Kin
2hr 47min 00sec .........2hr 37min 40sec MAL Shaharuddin H
2hr 47min 16sec .........2hr 49min 17sec MAC Chan Chong Ip
2hr 51min 22sec .........2hr 45min 34sec SIN  Ashley Liew
                            .........2hr 28min 12sec PHI  Elmer Sabal  
                            .........2hr 50min 00sec INDO Albinus Sila
2hr 24min 50sec .........2hr 30min 31sec NEP  Arjun  Prasad
2hr 13min 00sec .........2hr 17min 55sec ETH  Towfik Ailshikur

Hong Kong Marathon is the toughest marathon in Asia and the news is out. In the year 2008, I found that all the people whom I had spoken to telling me that Hong Kong Marathon has one or two hills.

To my amazement, the route was filled with highways of up slopes and down slopes.

For the sake of Ashley, I had to ask the officials on bus to bring us around to support our runners. The officials told us that as soon as the race starts, we will go to the finish point to wait for our runners to come in. Lim Thow Wee was also running in this but we were not able to meet as we got tired from the route orientation and we were told to submit the drinks to the officials before a certain time. Hence, Lim Thow Wee, Ashley and I were not able to meet on that day.

Very important for one to do in this marathon is to prepare properly for the marathon. Ashley Liew, the Malaysian Shaharuddin Hashim, Morocco male and female athletes were some of those who did personal best time. The rest of them plus even Lim Thow Wee had to go through the agonising terrain and came with 3hr 09min. Let us look at the summary of the report on why it is Asia's toughest marathon.

Picture 1 - The newspaper claims it.




 Picture 2 - This is how the whole route looks like throughout the race.





Picture 3- The officials told us that the last 2km is for us to find out. It is supposed to be flat but it turned out to have a hill even at that point.



Picture 4 - Casuality of the HK marathon 2011 race was Indonesian runner Albinus Sila who did a 2h 50min.


 

Picture 5 - Samira Raif (left) ( 2hr 33min 50sec)and Hammou Moudouji (right) (2hr 16min) are those who told me immediately that they are intending not to improve the time but go for their same existing personal best time.They ended up do a very good personal best time.

 


 Picture 6 - Arjun Prasad, predicted a 2hr 30min after seeing the route. His personal best time was 2hr 24min.



 Picture 7- Ashley and Shaharuddin, from Singapore and Malaysia respectively were sharing ideas on marathon running . Both posted good personal best time.


 Picture 8- A number of runners could not do their personal best time because of the hills.


Picture 9 - Towards the last 5km, there are two hills similar to this hill.


 Picture 10 - The arrangement made it hard for us to see each other there in Hong Kong.