The journey began the night before, meeting some friends in downtown Zhengzhou. Getting to our meeting place was an adventure in itself, which involved playing 'frogger' across 8 lanes of traffic twice, leaping a median each time. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Theresa, Erika, and I stayed with our friends in the city that night, which was such a huge blessing for the next day. We awoke around 5:00am to make our way to our respective races. I was doing to easy 5K, while Erika chose to run the 1/2, and the amazing Theresa set out for the full marathon.
The race was crazy. There is no other way that I know how to describe it. Imagine 40,000 people running in a 5K AT THE SAME TIME. I know in my head that my city has a population of nine million, but this day, I actually felt it. I think that at least half of those people took my picture. Seriously. :)
As a side note, Chinese people are amazing. I was by myself, but quickly adopted by a group of college girls from another University in Zhengzhou. They helped me get where I needed to go, and stuck with me to get to the starting line. (I was almost at the front of the 40,000!) As I was nearing the 3/4 mark of the race, I was tired. I didn't want to run anymore. At this moment of weakness, a Chinese guy ran up next to me, waving the Chinese flag, looked into my eyes, and said, "加油; pinyin: jiāyoú", while pumping his fist. This phrase literally means 'add oil', but is like saying 'keep going'. This gave me to umph I needed to keep running and finish the race. Thank you random Chinese man with crazy hair. :)
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| My view for much of my time at the 5K |
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| Some people wore costumes, and I thought these two guys were just charming. |
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| SO MANY PEOPLE |
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| Are you sensing a pattern? :) |
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| I took this one right after this guy snapped my photo as he ran by. He was super excited! |
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| Right before I left- more photos. :) |
I too, would not have made it without the 加油s. My fellow runners were also a huge encouragement!
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