This weekend was half-marathon number two for the year. The previous one was in the geologically splendid Taroko Gorge, this one was meandering through the coastal city of Taitung. Prepared, packed and with multiple alarms (one alarm clock, my cell phone with four alarms set minutes apart, Crystal with her cell phone set, my watch set to three alarms, crystals watch set also....how could we sleep through this one!!). We made it on time, had amazing races (see the pic below to see how well Crystal did!) and left with yet another marathon t-shirt and a whack of good memories .... and sore legs.
Us the night before the race, modelling our new race t-shirts.
Second place, safely. I should add the disclaimer that these times are incorrect, somehow. Crystals time was actually around 1:55:00. We both independently timed ourselves, and I know I came in at 1:50:00 and Crystal not long after. So, there is no real way that 1:39:49 is correct. Unless we get into time dilation because we were running so fast, but then our times should be longer, not shorter than we timed them.
The race was on Sunday, so we had a slow Saturday in Hualien to walk around, grab some ocean time and just generally chill. Catching an afternoon train south to Taitung, we made it for a nice hot-pot dinner, a stroll through the city, stumbled upon a music festival (small, quaint but fun) and craft market and ... a huge house fire. Scary....but the people that needed to be there got there in timely fashion and did their firefighting thing. I don't think we as a society respect firefighters (or any traumatic response professional) with enough respect. They do a damn hard job and they do it damn well, too.
Saturday morning tromp along the coast by our house on the left, on the right a still of the house fire in Taitung that night. Candles, incense, smoking...probably smoking....
After eating, listening to music, downing some water, sports water and some charcoal peanuts (glorious charcoal peanuts....the sinful delight of the legume world!) we hit the sack. Waking (on time....) we did the normal things, got a cab and made it to the race. Stretch, prepare...GO!
It was a fine race, a beautiful sunny day (so cool to run as the sun rises above the ocean, breaking above the tree line and then beaming down heat, heat, heat) and we both made great time. Both blasting our times from the previous Taroko race, we left satisfied. I chose to make the last sprint at the 5 km mark...which left me with jello legs and lungs of burning fire when I crossed the finish line...but it was worth the pain. We both felt super strong, super confident and it was an excellent way to end the marathon season.
Both of us after we return to the race starting point to look for Crystals MP3 player and get some pictures. The race started in the Taitung Forest Park and weaved its way up through the valley, through the mountains into a little village and then doubled back down. Quite nice.
Post-race necessities - showing off the bling, and eating something...anything. Anything! Here Crystal and I down one of the possibly only "vegetarian lunch boxes" in Taiwan. So hard to find, so happy when we do!
The train station as we wait for our ride home, and us, still waiting, killing time outside said train station.
Only in Taiwan. A big election was being held that saturday in Taipei and emotions got the best of some (or, probably more likely, a planned assasination attempt gone bad). The man on stage who ot shot survived, but the shooter also let a round or two go off into the massive crowd watching, and this killed a man. Innocent lives cut short for the stupidity of politics.
After the race we returned to try to find Crystals MP3 player (it broke before the race, she gave it and her bin number to the race official...but it was not to be seen again. We wait for a phone call, email or it to arrive in the mail....wait and see!) and take some pics as we could not bring our camera to the race itself. On the way back I got hit by a man driving a car who was not even close to paying attention to us walking along the side, so I chose to take a nice oppottunity like that to chase him down the street and yell at him and, hopefully, make him think. Im ok, totally more of a scare than a collision. But, making a scene as a foreigner stands face to face with you in the middle of the street and screams at you hopefully makes you think about something...anything at least. At the very least, I got to practice yelling in Chinese....think of it as an impromptu language test.
Once we were ready to go home, with the sunny, hot and wonderful vibes in the air, we then sat down for some juice and coffee and waited for our train home.
And once home, what better way to end a perfect weekend than with the A-Team, wine and some raisins and chestnuts.
