a running we did go

Sunday Morning
28 October

We woke up at 4:15 am to discover that the rest of the country actually gets up this early every day! Ridiculous! We were up before the sun and were able to witness the Asian sunrise (actually here on the equator is more like "sun-just-pops-up-real fast"). After a quick power breakfast of oatmeal and Nescafe we picked up Boyter and headed to the race.
When we got there we were the center of attention (I would expect nothing less!) as we registered got our numbers and our t-shirts. Bad news: We all had to wear the provided "t-shirt" so not only did we match, we were wearing collared polyester shirts that proclaimed the "22th Anniversary" of the Sports Club. After fitting into our one-size-fits-all-Asians-and-Roger shirts we lined up for some group stretching.
Then the race began. We were caught in the middle of a pack of slow walking Asian women (Oops! Turns out this wasn't actually a 5k race, but a fitness walk for charity). But we spotted some other brave souls running so our small group of ridiculously good looking white people made a break for the outside and after some quick maneuvering we were into the pack of runners.
After this point in the race I mostly just remember sights, sounds and smells. The first sight/smell really put a damper on the healthiness of the competition. It was pollution. There is constantly smog in our city, but during this run I came face-to-face with it for about a kilometer and a half. What at first appeared to be the lifting morning fog soon revealed itself to be a thick layer of car exhaust mixed with smoke from various fires and the general Asian smog we have around here.

So, we didn't have gas masks, but I wish we had. It might have made breathing a little bit easier.
As I enjoyed (thought I was going to die) my leisurely jog (running so hard I couldn't feel my legs) through the quaint neighborhoods (places where poor people live) of my lovely city (the armpit of the world) I was able to observe people just going about their daily lives. I saw a large group of people doing aerobics in the mall parking lot.


About halfway through the race Courtney made a new friend named Menny or maybe it was Nemmy or Manny....anyway, her new friend decided his goal for the race was to push Courtney to run harder and faster that she thought she could. So for the last half of the race Courtney ran in a pack of very sweaty men, while Menny yelled at her to go faster and stop trying to slow down.
Fortunately it all worked out for her. Due to an intense pride issue Courtney would have been forced to fake an injury in order to drop out of the race had Roger or Jessica been able to pass her. Thanks to Mr. Menny she was able to pridefully finish before both of them (not that she would ever gloat or brag about such a thing).
Of course this is all incomplete with a picture of us in our matching collared "t-shirts" but unfortunately no cameras were available for post race photography. Ibu Ning is working on getting the shirts washed and ironed and then we promise there will be pictures.