I would not really have typed this but I was reading about the death of another blog and I felt really bad for neglecting my own. After all, it has been almost 4.5 years.

Somehow the week after the karaoke night passed really fast and before I knew it, I was looking at the weekend again. Somehow, got myself invited for a hotpot with MrAl, GAGo and 2 more friends who I became quite close to during the night. You see, you CAN meet new friends in a new country ! In fact, that is quite redundant cause I am pretty sure I have made QUITE a number of new friends here ! We started with the hot pot close to nine due to everyone working late, and it was a new thing for me too, since we had quite different food. For example, one thing that we ordered was chicken pieces ??? and also we had this HUGE fish head....things I would not usually order. And of course we polished off about 20 bottles of beer.

Somehow we staggered around, looking for a place to buy dice and cards and finally made it to Olympic to GAGo's house with another 20 bottles of beer. Playing poker betting on how many drinks was a KILLER game, and it was not too long before we had to stop to take some rest. MrSte fell asleep during that time and the the rest of us got into huge arguments and discussions about the economy, interest rates and currency movements. Now this felt really good as it was really manly man talk, and for a moment, it was nostalgic remembering conversations from my youth but yet I was also surprised that there we were, talking our thoughts out loud, asking for opinions and so on. It was fun in its own way. Boy, am I growing old..

Left around 4 am, and made it home for a quick shower and some shut eye as I had to wake up for my Chinese class the next morning at 8. After class on the way home, I bought quite a few buns from the bakery. Went back to sleep straight away. Woke up sometime in the evening, groggy and slowly polished off some of the buns. Watched 300 and Hairspray on HBO, and went back to sleep at 8pm. Woke up at 4 am and made up some bacon and eggs for breakfast. THIS WAS MARATHON DAY !

Well, half marathon day at least for me. I had signed up for the half marathon in Hong Kong about 3 months earlier and did not get to do much training at all. I reached the venue at TST at about 6 in the morning and walked around for an hour. My race started at 7.10. It was quite exciting and there was a lot of energy for such an early hour ! Many people were warming up and letting themselves go in the short stretch. All too soon, it was my turn to flag off, and somehow I found myself standing in the frontline of the pack. The countdown started, the gun went off, and we were running. There were thousands running around me, and it was good that I was in front, because many people stuck in the middle and at the back had no place to run. By the time everyone was running, I was alreayd at the 2 km mark and the crowd was more sparse.

I thought I was about to die when I reached 3 km. I seriously did. But the thought of giving up and stopping was hardly an option, and I laboured on till I reached the turning point at around 7 km. It was quite a blur how I managed to reach 10 km later in 49 minutes. Then it was time to run in the Western Tunnel across the Hong Kong harbour. It was quite interesting to run first on the highway then under the tunnel. It was great, as there was a strong wind, and there was a strange darkness in that tunnel, and echoed the excited shouts that many were doing. Lots of people stopped to take photos as well, as it is not every day that you can take a photo standing in the tunnel.

I walked much of the last 5 km. I could hardly move my legs and it was quite a torture. Though I did run the last few hundred metres as we were in WanChai by then, and there was quite a crowd watching. I do believe one can run more and dig into reserves more when there is a crowd watching ! It must be a natural high. A funny thought was how GREAT it would have been to perform in a concert ! With thousands in a frenzy watching you on stage !? I finally finished the half marathon in 2 hours and 50 minutes. I grabbed a banana and ate it early. I was starving. I did not stick around long as I knew I needed some sleep.

Somehow I got lucky and got onto the right bus. I fell asleep anyway and my legs were killing me. I limped quickly back home and had a shower and slept till the afternoon. I decided to have a massage that evening as well. Then not just my legs hurt, but my whole body did too.

But it was a great experience. Now that I have done it, there is no reason for me to say that I cannot do it the next time. Life is about challenges. This was one that I conquered.

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