Results

The following e-mail was sent to SportPlus athletes following the SC and Tokyo races on 28 February 2010:

It's important that we should be as objective as possible.  If we run well and everything is in our favour, we must acknowledge the fact.  Likewise, when conditions are not in our favour, we have to acknowledge the fact and be fair to ourselves.
 
In the SC FM today, we saw a deterioration in the performance of nearly everyone who competed in the race - not just our athletes, everyone.  The better runners ran a few minutes slower than their PBs while those without adequate conditioning ran much slower.  So everyone ran slower - and the major culprits were the heat (24 degrees), humidity (90%) and, to a lesser extent, the inclines on the new course.  Apparently, Tokyo was the other extreme - very cold.
 
Of the nine SportPlus runners going for PBs in SC and Tokyo, Daniel Yeung improved his PB of 3:21 by three minutes while Elsa Cheung ran an excellent 4:23 (compared with a PB of 4:20).  Yan (PB 3:20) ran a good 29k goal pace run at 3:25 pace as part of her preparation for Rotterdam.  The training times for Daniel, Elsa and Yan all predicted faster times.   Another indicator: Wong Ka Wai ran 2:50 for the SC, compared with his PB of 2:41 in Xiamen.  He ran his first 21k in 1:18 in both races.  
 
So, given the weather conditions, anyone who ran close to their PB deserves a lot of credit.  Since the race essentially became a 42k long run, I suggest that those of you who ran the FM should consider selecting another FM in the next couple of months so that you can benefit from your just-completed programme and race in more favourable conditions.
 
Another major positive: those who were running a distance for the first time all successfully completed their races.  Congratulations to Ada Lam (55 sec 10k), Tiffany Kwan (2:28 HM), Julius Wang (4:28 Tokyo FM) and Ricci Yason (4:37 SCM).

(Posted 29 February 2010)