This is another marathon blog penned by Geoffrey. Please contact me if you are interested in knowing more about anything related to this Marathon event.
Hong Kong is not one that is automatically on a marathoner’s bucket list. Muggy, warm weather and poor air quality spring to mind, but the reality was quite the opposite. A coolish, crisp, dry and clear day greeted the 18,000 marathon runners at the 6am start line of the 2025 Hong Kong Marathon.
The race starts in Nathan Rd, Kowloon side and mainly runs along major arterial highways across the spectacular Stonecutters & Ting Kau Bridges. So there are long steady inclines to the top of the bridges where the views of Hong Kong are spectacular. There are few supporters but frequent fully supported aid stations. The event must have the highest ratio of volunteers to runners in any marathon I’ve run which really makes it a stress-free experience. The route then doubles back and the marathoners then join up with the 24,000 half marathon runners at the 18km mark. The race then becomes quite congested at this point – very much like many other big-city marathons. I wasn’t running for a time however so I wasn’t bothered. But if you were a mid-pack runner gunning for a PB then Hong Kong is not one to target.
One of the highlights (or low lights) was the 2km Western Harbour Tunnel crossing under Victoria Harbour back over to Hong Kong Island. You’re at 32km at this point so you’re starting to feel fatigued, but it seemed that the runners all had the energy to shout as loud as possible in the tunnel. The echoing reverberating noise was absolutely deafening!
After the tunnel the course becomes much like many other big city marathons with lots of crowd support all the way to the finish at Victoria Park which is well set up.
I really enjoyed the event as I’d set out to complete the event at 30 seconds per km slower than my normal race pace. It was nice. You could appreciate the surroundings a lot more, no cramping, no hitting the wall at 35km, time for loo stops and to take photos, and a rare negative split. It felt like a luxury… My time 4hrs 29 min with a 4 minute negative split. It won’t be like that in Paris in 9 weeks time …
