Marathon medicine

I have just recovered from completing the Hong Kong marathon (26 miles; slightly more than 42 km), which I ran for the first time. Our former dean of medicine is an all time enthusiast of the event and promotes it in our faculty, who give all medical students a rebate on the fee.

The weather was not too bad on the day, cool but with a moderate amount of rain and wind (especially on the bridges). The biggest obstacle to completing the race, however, was the terrible hunger (especially after the halfway stage) and the fatigue, which usually appears at …