When I signed up for the Sydney Marathon (Sept 23, 2007), it was simply meant to be my "run" for the year. But during the months leading up to it, motivation was an issue. Committing to 26.2 miles was no easy physical or mental feat. Not finishing wasn't an option. One day, I realized I needed to make that commitment and be deliberate about it (often, I find myself mentally "coasting" through daily routines). To keep me on track and add positive momentum, I came up with the idea to seek donations tied to the marathon from family and friends to help charities in Vietnam.
Training for Sydney was a little bit tougher than usual. Jack and I didn't mind the daily 5:30am runs, the humid and still air or the gradual build up of weekly running/sprint miles. The tough part for me was figuring how to stay on schedule while in a typical week, I was routinely traveling for work to 2 to 3 countries. To date, my record was being 5 countries in 4 days (e.g., breakfast meeting in Bangkok, dinner in Taipei followed by breakfast in Beijing, lunch in Shanghai, dinner in Hanoi....)
Living and training in Vietnam, you get used to running in 90+ degrees and 80%+ humidity but in Sydney (opposite hemisphere), the temperature was only around 45 degrees. Though this proved to be ideal later on in the day, we all scurried around looking for warmth and protection from winds before the start.
The staging area was under the Harbour Bridge with a view of the famous Opera House.
Everyone closed in on the starting line as 7am approached.
Here we were getting ready to charge the hill that winds right onto the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
With helicopters filming the event, we were all pumped to get to run under the complex web of steel girders and scaffolds that held up this famous landmark.
The course took us first through the city (running while taking pictures wasn't ideal)....
Through parks....
Early in the run (~8 miles), I was REALLY enjoying the run, cool temperature and treelined course.A couple of hours later, it was a different picture. We ran through Darling Harbour and an industrial part of the city and we headed back to the city. I took this picture because this was when I had hit my "wall" (at around mile 21, my knees were aching but not as bad as my calves; note to self: "more concentrated leg workouts").
With only a few miles to go, I had hunkered down and was simply trying to focus on completing each and every stride. The sight of these guys with the Opera House on the background gave me my second wind. 
The finish line was at the base of the Opera House. Not a great performance here in Sydney (4:41:44) but it was a new personal best and served as motivation for the next one.
This wouldn't have been fun without my training partner and buddy Jack Woodring!
The medal and finish t-shirt.
And the much needed recovery ice bath.......more to come. 
