Standard Chartered Hong Kong Marathon 2026 Race Report

I am so behind! I have just finished Seoul Marathon (yay!), but still have not published my race report from the Hong Kong Marathon. And that race was, at the time of me writing this, 9 weeks ago. Time to catch up!

I have a funny, though perhaps not uncommon, relationship with long-distance running. My first marathon was a bucket-list item. I need to finish a marathon before I turn 30. No matter how, no matter with what finish time. You know what they say — run the first marathon to finish it, the second one to run without stopping or slowing down to a walk, and from the third one you can start setting time goals.

From that first race I remember cramping, walking breaks in the second half, and even stopping a couple of times to stretch. It was a huge effort and not sure if my body was ready for it (even though I trained for it — but admittedly without any structured plan). Eventually, I reached the finish line and got my finisher medal — that’s all that mattered. I finished XIX Maraton Solidarności in Gdansk, Poland in 2013 with 4:46:34.

I could enter my 30s with a sense of accomplishment.

Fast forward to 2025–2026. I have switched from suffering from end-of-20s crisis to a full-fledged mid-life crisis. The cure — obvious: therapy finishing a marathon with a better time than 12–13 years prior. Beating my 29 year old self at 41. Proving to myself it's not all downhill from here. That I can still get better.

This time, I've been smarter about my training (sorry, Jake). I've been following a structured training plan since August 2025, with a few races sprinkled here and there. And I was lucky enough to get into Hong Kong Marathon 2026, so it became my target.

I had my work cut out for me. Hong Kong race is not very personal-best-friendly. It’s warm and, even more importantly, hilly. There are multiple bridges you have to climb and that’s not even the worst part! – that would be climbing out of the cross-harbor tunnel and immediately after reaching the sea level having to continue climbing onto the Connaught Road Central Flyover. A brutal 3 kilometers uphill, perfectly placed around 33 km mark, just where you’re scheduled to hit the wall (or hit it already). Yikes.

Suffice it to say, I had to manage my expectations. I haven’t attempted a marathon distance in more than a decade. My last race was a half-marathon and it did not go well. I’m older and more stressed. The course is more challenging (Poland’s autumn weather and Gdansk’s flat streets were perfect conditions for endurance running). So I set three realistic goals for myself:

1. Finish the race, uninjured.
2. Run all the way without stopping or slowing down to a walk (except for crowded water stations).
3. Beat my last marathon time from 2013.

Hitting one would be good. Two — great. Three — a stretch, but an amazing accomplishment.

So how did it go?

Throughout the race, I managed my effort as planned: take hills slowly and pick up the pace slightly on the downhills. The first 15 km went pretty okay, but then with every kilometer passed, I felt the run calling for more and more effort. And hills even more so.

The tunnel-to-flyover elevation gain destroyed me, as expected. Even though I wanted to push in the final kilometers, I had nothing more to give. The best I could do was to keep on grinding.

And in that final stretch — when you’re exhausted, cramping, hit the wall — that’s where you meet the supporters and onlookers in meaningful numbers for the first time. Until that point (before entering Central district), the race was mostly through highways, flyovers, bridges, and tunnels. Central to Causeway Bay — now we were finally hitting the city streets. At last, some extra energy from the crowd. It was much needed!

I started counting down the kilometers. 6 more to go, 5, 4, 3… Self-talk replaying in my head:

Just run to the next distance marker and then reassess how you feel. Try to stick with the person right in front of you. Don’t slow down now, you’ve ran so far already. Don’t walk in front of the supporters, come on! Add oil!

Then just before the 40 km mark I stared cramping. Nooo! My right calf gave up just as we were climbing the Marshal Road Flyover, the final uphill section of the race. Not sure how, but I powered through it. Not just that, but in the final kilometer I picked up the pace a little. Just to make sure I hit an important milestone.

And then — finish line — crossed.

Official time: 4:29:31. Beat my previous result by more than 15 minutes — with 12 years in between. Awesome!

I hit all my goals for this race: finished, ran all the way, and walked away with a new personal record. All that without injury or anything major going wrong. That’s worth celebrating.

Next stop: Seoul.