Opinion | Hong Kong can put its best foot forward with a revamped marathon
- If every resident was encouraged to attempt a full marathon at least once in their life, the health benefits would be tremendous. To facilitate this, marathon planners must revisit two aspects – the time limit and route
The excitement generated by the sight of such large crowds of participants, many in colourful costumes, and throngs of cheering supporters, gives us a chance to make the event even more successful. Our health authorities should join forces with sporting circles to seize the opportunity. Every resident should be encouraged to run a full marathon at least once in their life.
That was the pattern of my own participation: after being appointed to establish InvestHK in 2000, I decided as part of departmental team-building to form a squad to take part, and encouraged others to enter by signing myself up for the 10km run.
Several colleagues joined me, a few even jumped straight to the half-marathon and one brave soul signed up for the full marathon. Because of all the air travel the new job entailed, I started to run 10km every weekend in an effort to hold deep vein thrombosis at bay.