Some of you may know that I was training this fall for my first distance run and Sunday I completed my first half-marathon, which is really the first race of any kind I can remember competing in. This fall Bri suggested I try training for something and I'm still not really sure why unless she just thought it would get me out of the apartment. A few teachers who are runners encouraged me to run the half-marathon and a relatively weak moment I agreed to it. I really enjoyed the training process. Most of my long training runs were along a busy road in Shanghai, except I'd start around 5:30am on Sundays and there is something really surreal about running through a busy metropolis when it is just coming to life. By the time I'd return from my run and walk through the local market it would be full of business and life.
Although Sunday started out rainy and windy around 5:30 am, the wind and rain stopped around the start of the race. Once I got a little space of my own running through some of the largest streets in Shanghai and past some of the great landmarks with over 18,000 people was quite fun. One of the highlights was about two-thirds through the race when I saw some white faces cheering on the sidewalk. The man was wearing a KC Royals hat. When he saw me running in my Chiefs sweatshirt he and the people with him starting cheering loudly for KC. It's always fun to be so far from home and then experience something like that.
I finished faster than I had trained for although I'm quite sure the organizers were mistaken when measured the distance of the race. My GPS said the 13.1 mile half-marathon course was actually closer to 14.4 miles and another friends GPS also thought it was around 14 miles. What might be a better measure of the distance were my legs which were all to happy to cross the finish line. Despite the distance discrepancy the race was great fun and I'm already looking forward to training for something else in the spring... maybe the Great Wall half-marathon in Beijing.
Thanks to Bri, Joce, Anita and Cody for encouraging me to take the leap and train for something I had never really considered doing. It was a fun accomplishment.
