Eva Air Taipei marathon

Race report from Taipei marathon

42 195 meter. Now it was time again to enter the start line and do the best of it. This was a race I have had on my radar for quite some time. So now finally. It kind of messed up my Asia vacation to have this in the middle so I had to make plans around it but so far so good. Yesterday I picked up my number at the race fair. It was a pretty boring one and they had nothing to sell. I had forgot to bring gels and not even that they were selling. I had to re-think and run without.

Pre race

The start of this race was at 05:10 am. Crazy early. I had booked a hotel ten minutes walk from the start but I wasn’t ready to run a marathon when I woke up at 04:10 to drink the strongest coffee I could find at 7eleven and have a banana. There was 3K, 5K, 10K, 21K and 42K distances to choose from so plenty of runners where at the start this early Sunday morning infront of the President palace. Organization was efficient in true Asian manner. If you handed in your bag you were supposed to use a re-usable runners bag. There was no warm up and it was enough to be in the corral five minutes prior start. Nike Runclub had pacers, remember the good times with NRC in Stockholm when it existed, so I placed myself a bit before the 4 hour ballon. And then moments later we took off at the dark streets.

First half marathon

I have a new strategy for marathon running. Start with a 10Ker around 50 minutes and then relax the rest. Have worked good the last 8-9 marathons and I rarely miss the sub 4 with that strategy. So I aimed for the same today. It also gets a good feeling of how the race will be. My legs felt surprisingly alert. They have done that the whole time since I got back from Amman ten days ago but I didn’t wanted to hope for too much.

I had my iPhone with me so snapped some pictures and videos during the run. It was a good sightseeing course so I am not the one wasting that opportunity. I really enjoyed the route. It was flat and fast and biggest hills were when you crossed the water a few times. Some would have said the weather was terrible for marathon but the 22+ degrees and 75% humidity is a favorite of mine although I am Scandinavian. I had a good flow the first ten and kept my plan. At 18K I got a bit bored and it felt it was a long way to go but I motivated myself that in a few kilometers there would be more bananas. Bananas and water was the eating theme for me at this run due to lack of gel. 21K done and half way through. I had a good feeling but you never know when that will be over. I was very unsure if it would last since I have been walking and walking the last week. 30K steps a day. At least.

Second half

The darkness was now early morning and a few early birds came out for their morning routines in the river park that we just entered. I love these typical Asian river parks that are filled with activities and good people watching of the local life. When I lived in Seoul the one at Han river was my go-to area for runs, walks and just to breath. My next focus at this run was 30K. Kilometer after kilometer passed by and people around me started to walk. I stopped at 25K to stretch my legs and ties. Well invested seconds to break the monotone movements. It was now around 8 am and the park filled up quickly with golfers practicing their close up play and basketball and baseball players of all ages. The interest to cheer for us marathon runners was close to zero and entertainment along the course didn’t existed. Similar to the marathon races I have been doing in Hong Kong and Singapore. But that is fine if you don’t expect the craziness like in Stockholm, Los Angeles, New York or Chicago which in my opinion have the best crowds.

Five kilometers from the finish line I knew I was going to make sub 4. That is always a nice feeling and boost to speed up a bit to see how much on the right side it will be. I didn’t suffered to much today. Maybe all hills in Amman have helped out with leg training since the times I have been doing weight exercises with my legs since April can be counted at one hand. 40K passed and I just wanted to be finished. Why does the last two kilometers always feel like 20? Slowly, slowly the meters increased at my watch and in what felt forever I finally saw the finish line. One more medal to cash in to the collection. A nice one. An aircraft engine which make sense since the airline Eva Air was the title sponsor. And a generous goodie bag waited after the finish line. I really enjoyed this race and it is different than running in Europe or US. Less entertainment and more focus on running. No sharp elbows and no runners laying on the side wining or that have pushed themselves over their limits. Bonus of the day was a new PB. 03:51:46. My Chinese is to bad to find the official website results so I don’t know what official time I got yet. It was a nice race. I enjoyed it!