The hotel may not be the Ritz, and I may be a bit ashamed of bringing Mom here given its weirdly chaotic and not-surprisingly tiny accommodations, but it sure was convenient for getting to the start line. Wong Kar-wai shot some of Chungking Express (1994) here, a movie I finally got around to seeing courtesy […]
Our walking tour guide recommended Yum Cha, this trendy place in Tsim Sha Tsui, not too far from our Chungking Mansion (more on that later). She said the four or so locations around town were seen as a trendy, cool place to go these days as their irreverent takes on classic dim sums made it […]
It’s a very pleasant 72 degrees today in Hong Kong. Light breeze. Kinda perfect lounging around weather. So today is a take it slow and prep to run day. The packet pickup was a queuing conundrum. The line was always moving but you just finished the queue for your race bib… And you […]
I’ve been here before. In 2014, I ran the Hong Kong Marathon as part of my Road To… series. I wanted to come back this year and bring my mom. One of the chief tourist draws was to get her to Hong Kong Disneyland. When I was last here, I fell in love with […]
A few pics from the walking food tour: [N.B. Images that are just black rectangles mean Chinese censorship is alive and well].
February 12 to 13, 2019 The ticket says it’s a 16 hour flight, but the navicomputer in my seatback screen says it’s really only a 15 and a half hour flight to Hong Kong. Fortunately, we pre-flighted with a fleet if mimosas in the club lounge. Every so often it pays to have logged all […]
Perhaps it was a perfectly befitting and befittingly perfect race for me and my mindset. I should have done better. I should have tried harder. I should have *been* better. What occurred instead was a personal disappointment. My mind, my body, even my heart gave out… or gave up. So after crossing the finish line, […]
It’s the mileage. And it’s the years. There’s a long tradition of funny, supportive signs along race courses, spectators shouting encouragement and showing their creativity on posterboard. Call them running memes. “Worst Parade Ever!” is popular. So too is a photo of Christopher Walken emblazoned with either “More Cowbell!” or “No time for Walken!” “You’re […]
February 1, 2019 A Friday. A 2 1/2 hour drive down to Huntington Beach thanks to good ol’ SoCal traffic. On Sunday morning it would take me 55 minutes… admittedly, at 4 AM. But that’s proof positive that if we just had half the number of cars on the road we might actually be able […]
Or rather it only seems like Groundhog Day on this, the Day After Groundhog Day. I’ve just finished my FOURTH Surf City Marathon. Meh. So that happened. As a soliloquy aside, I had paid for an app to do that animated GIF above on my iPhone but after switching to a Samsung, I’d have to […]