Keeping Up With the Joneses: Half Marathon and Lantern Festival

Joseph had been training all winter for the Hong Kong Standard Chartered Marathon (although he just did the half), which is the biggest race event here in Hong Kong. About a week and a half before the race, he turned his ankle when we were climbing on some rocks, and it was taking quite a while to heal. The day before the race he went for a short jog and decided that he would go for it. His ankle didn't hurt as long as he was going straight, so he decided to take it very slow on the curves and hope for the best.

The marathon and half marathon started at 6am downtown. One of our neighbors was also running the same race, so he and Joseph went down together with some other guys before the crack of dawn. Then Evangeline and I followed along later with the rest of our neighbor's family so we could see them finish, which was a lot of fun. I really wish I had taken more pictures, but it was so crowded and we were pretty preoccupied trying to keep track of our kids. I actually lost Evangeline in the crowd for about a minute, which was terrifying!

Joseph at the finish line, in the teal shirt and dark shorts

There he goes!

We were so excited that he finished. It was slower than he would have liked, about 1 hour and 50 minutes. He had been aiming for 1 hour and 42 minutes, but I think he did all right. :) The ankle held up fine. Joseph said that the biggest challenge was just how crowded the start was. It was a good 25 minutes into the race before things started to thin out enough to be comfortable, which is crazy. The route took them through the Western Tunnel under Victoria Harbor, so Joseph can now officially say that he ran under water! :) It is a big event here in Hong Kong, so it was fun to be a part of it.

Joseph feeling good!

The kids waiting for the dads after the race

Also that same weekend, Evangeline's school had a Lantern Festival to mark the end of Chinese New Year. The classes performed, with the younger kids singing traditional songs and the older kids reading poetry that they had written. We didn't understand any of it, of course, but it was still fun to watch all of the kids shine. We were proud that Evangeline was one of the few in her class to not have stage fright. She and one of her best friends, Man Ching, really put on a show for the audience. It was easy to see why they get along so well.