Never liked Hong Kong, it is crowded, expensive and somehow a degenerating place to me. But seems like a lot of Singaporeans love the place and it is a pilgrimage place for many. This year Standard Chartered Marathon HONG KONG celebrates its 20th Anniversary. The IAAF Gold class marathon is indeed challenging to conduct especially in Hong Kong where everything is so crowded and in close proximity to each other. This year, the subscription is so challenging that they even announced early on the Facebook page on the opening timing for the registration of the race. Of course, the marathon got snapped up within a few minutes. So I was not able to join in for the full and managed to get into the half marathon instead.
RACE PACK COLLECTION
The collection is at the Causeway Bay area, Victoria Park. This is also the finishing line for the race. the collection for the overseas participants happened 2 days before the race itself. All the participants were urged to collect their race pack before the race day, as on the race day itself, there are no collection for the race pack.
People all queueing for the race pack
The queue is still very long even though the race is just the next day
The collection point
The race pack collection venue is conveniently located
The race pack collection letter, you need to bring this to the race pack collection.
The organiser will send to all the entry participants a letter of collection for the race back. By right you were supposed to be collecting the race pack at the stipulated date. However, exception are made for those who cannot make it in time.
In general, an outdoor race pack collection during winter may not be that conducive and it was raining most of the time during the racing period this year. Therefore many of the collectors were drenched. So do remember to check the weather report and also bring along some waterproof Poncho or umbrella when going for outdoor collection.
The race pack consist of the Bag drop bag, your running tee ( short sleeved), commemorative batteries and a special medal to celebrate this 20th Anniversary.
The bag drop bag
Nice and functional Tee with Bib and also the commemorative medal and booklet
Commemorative Medal
THE ROUTE
The Half Marathon Route for SCM HK 2016
In general, it was cold during winter, about 12- 14 degrees celcius. It doesn’t help that the weather was rainy and in between there were a few major pours. Many people were drenched but that didn’t stop them for continuing the race. Being a road race, the route brought the runners up bridges and down tunnels, I must say it is rather full of ups and downs and there were a lot of windings and turnings. But it brings you to all the street scenes in Hong Kong, from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
The water points and isotonic drink points were also very sufficient and the volunteers were very helpful. Besides MarathonPhotos taking the photographs for you. There were also many volunteer photographers taking your photo for the race. I must say being an IAAF Gold marathon, the route may be challenging, but it is well planned and there were ample space for all to run. There was not squeezing and pushing. And the organiser dished out small bags for us to keep all the entitlement items. This was a good move as usually our hands were tight with many drinks, bananas medals etc at hand.
The idea of giving a towel for the finisher participants is also very heart warming as we were all drenched in the rain and all very cold. The towel came in really handy for us.
There were ample hydration and bananas for the completed participants. I will say this was a very well organised race and I totally enjoyed myself.