Opinion | Hong Kong Streetathon marathon: U-turns, cruel winds to make you weep – then they sent us to McDonald’s to refuel
- Streetathon’s debut marathon on Sunday takes in route through Cross-Harbour Tunnel and Central-Wan Chai Bypass on its way to the finish near Kai Tak
- Not all of the race’s promised Christmases come at once, with later runners having to wait for traffic and chilly finishers sent to McDonald’s for hot coffee
The man covered head-to-toe in his Christmas tree costume on the start line of Hong Kong’s Streetathon marathon on Sunday must have felt as smug as he did snug.
A cruel wind whipped in from Victoria Harbour, leaving runners on the bridge at East Coast Park grateful for the heat created by the mass of bodies preparing to tackle a harsh 26.2-mile (42.1km) course.
Come the finish line, that gratitude would have multiplied tenfold had there been drinks and food available for rapid refuelling. But nothing, not even bread and water. One shivering runner, whose blue lips betrayed a plunging body temperature, was advised by a medical worker to walk to the nearest McDonald’s for hot coffee.
Organisers could hardly be blamed for the chill, though, and pre-race communication underlined the imperative of arriving armed with warm clothing. A race pack collected during the week from the hard-to-reach MegaBox shopping centre in Kowloon Bay contained warm cagoules and foil blankets – a godsend as sweaty tops met icy air following the run.
As for the course, this writer found it a grind, mentally and physically. A caveat is that personal views are heavily slanted by your own condition. If you merely play at training, then do not be surprised if a sharp incline out of Kai Tak Tunnel after 39.5km, and a closing kilometre into a brisk headwind, make you want to weep.
A personal opinion that the course featured too many U-turns and entered some pretty grey terrain was supported elsewhere, however.
