Sunday, February 5, 2012

Another half marathon

The Lunar New Year holiday ended over a week ago and I haven't had a chance to write anything since then. This is because taking time away from work just means things get piled up. The past week has been very intense with me trying to save our submission and answering all of the comments. There are so many that the even though the guys let me work on the in peace (not working on any other projects at all), I still needed help with some parts of it. Anyway, we managed to get everything done for this round. Next week, we're taking the submission to another government department to get more comments. Hopefully, there will be less comments. Or at least, less comments for me to answer.

I feel like I can work a lot more independently now. But I'm still lacking in a lot of stuff, especially those that deal with what actually happens on site. I guess this whole checking process really brings out potential questions. It's the job of these government engineers to make sure that we (the designers) have written enough provisions on the drawings so that the contractors will do what we want done and that there are no misunderstandings when things actually happen on site. I feel like I'm learning a lot even though I haven't gone on site yet. I think the more I know about how the entire design and construction process works, the more I'll be able to predict the types of problems that might come up and solve them earlier on.

This past weekend was the Standard Charter Hong Kong Marathon, unarguably, the biggest road race in Hong Kong and probably ranks as one of the biggest in the world. Over 30,000 people participated in the 10K races alone. There are also half marathon and full marathon events. I did the half marathon, which has proved how out of shape I am. It took me longer to do this one than my very first half marathon. During my first one, my left leg started hurting and I was forced to walk parts of it. This time, I was just tired. I was short of breath at some parts of it. I can blame parts of it on the crowds and the heat (I got a bit sunburned) but it was mostly that I was out of shape. The route wasn't too bad, no crazy hills.

The road races here are pretty organized. They always give you a nice big plastic bag to put your stuff in and are pretty organized about the bag checks. They have scouts running them. But I feel like the sponsors don't provide very much in terms of food after the race though. Maybe there just aren't as many sports drink/snack companies all vying for a sponsorship spot. I have to say that Watsons provided a very generous amount of bottled water and sports drinks though. They trucked in water in those big bottles to pour into cups. The sports drinks were in pouches, which were way more than what we needed at each stop. Gatorade sponsors a lot of the races in the US and they just give out the powder stuff. I've seen one race where the water just comes out of the hose. But I guess people are not going to go for that here.

I had chocolate milk, some pineapple, and dumplings before napping. I woke up with a huge headache and after reading in bed for a while, I went for a sauna at my gym. Got a plate of salmon sashimi and a big chicken leg for dinner and am lying in bed again. I hope I can walk tomorrow. It doesn't seem too bad though. I've already told my coworkers that I will not be able to walk tomorrow and they're even expecting me to call in sick.

Nothing exciting planned for the upcoming weeks. I'm glad though because I need to spend some time cleaning and doing some other chores.

1 comment:

yalu said...

Guess you were too tired to take pics of the race!! I am out of shape too =)