Running Ks in K

This entry may be too detailed for the average person, but our running buddies will get several paragraphs of amusement. I dedicate this entry to my friend Jenny, who until today’s race had the most interesting race experience I ever heard.

This is what we participated in this morning!


We’d seen these signs around the city for some time and always kept thinking that “Run for your city” should be changed to “Run for your Life!” Jerry had thought about participating (even with no training) just for the experience, but it was really hard to find any information about it. There was no website or anything! Jerry called a number listed for info, but the guy who answered sounded like he was on or near a train, so nada there either. You know how the Houston Chronicle does all these articles leading up to the marathon with items like training strategies, course info, runner profiles, etc? Both newspapers here had nothing. On the day before the race a lady told me there was info in the Telegraph (one of the papers), but it was only a paid ad without much info.

So how did we end up running? Well, yesterday I was talking to a friend when another lady came up to her and asked if she was going to do the marathon… and she was kind enough to get Jerry and me registration coupons. The marathon consists of 3 races:
Men’s Marathon 42K, Women’s Marathon 10K, Fun Run 4.2K
Yes, you read that correctly – Women’s Marathon 10K. Even the fun run is referred to as the marathon. For instance,
“Are you going for the marathon tomorrow?”
“Yes, but I think I will walk the whole thing, it’ll take less than 45 minutes.”
(I am sure my running buddies are cringing – calling a 4K a marathon!)

Only about 25 men and 25 women participate in their respective long races with just a handful of finishers in each. However, last year, the men’s winner had a time of 2:23! After you finish reading this blog you’ll be even more amazed at this accomplishment given the running conditions.

ALL races are the same price: 75 cents. Yes, 75 CENTS! Students pay only 50 cents. And everyone gets a hat, shirt and refreshments (and a fun topic for your blog). But no race bib. Oh well…

We arrived at 7:10am for a 7am start, but no surprise, they were running late. We first went to redeem our shirt and hat coupons. There was a long row of numbered booths from 1-40. We had no idea what the numbers referred to and guessed it might be chest size? We decided to go to a booth with no line and turns out that everyone gets the same size shirt. The tags on the shirt literally say, “ONE SIZE.” It ended up being a size just a little bigger than a medium. It’s a good thing Jerry and I have lost weight since we got here! I felt sorry for those who were too big for their shirts.

At 7:30 the races began and then around 7:40 the gun went off for the fun run. There were thousands of people there to do the 4K and it was a young, fun crowd. This by far was the most positive experience I have had in K in a crowd. We really enjoyed the people-watching and the brief conversations initiated by fellow runners/walkers because of our being foreigners and taking lots of pictures.



The 4K ended up really being around 6K or so, which was kinda good because we were wondering why it was taking us so long to finish 2.5 miles. We discovered that the race organizers extended the fun run racecourse from last year, but did not want to spend the money to change the signs that said 4K. Golly.

Lots of people decided to take some short cuts…



I am proud to say that I ran most of the race. I surprised both Jerry and myself. Part of it (I’m sure) was that runner’s high you get when you are in a race. We have not run in a couple of years at least. Our bodies will be screaming in pain tomorrow. Ouch.

RACE CONDITIONS
K is experiencing unseasonably cold weather right now. When the race started, it was probably in the upper 50s. Not bad. Although the locals thought it was too cold.

We were surprised to see 2-3 water stations along the route. And bottled water to boot! However, the bottled water was put in plastic pitchers and everyone had to share and take turns. That’s one way of preventing paper cup litter!


The craziest part was that no roads were blocked. In K, this means that you have to dodge traffic from all sides and put up with breathing in exhaust. After the race I blew my nose and all my snot was grey with streaks of black. Gross. So, can you imagine 26 miles of this and finishing in 2:23?!



There was no finish line or time clock and as we neared the start, we just went back to the long row of booths and traded our refreshment coupons for bottled water and multi-grain cookies (or biscuits as they are called here).


We walked around for a few minutes while a rock band played and then went to eat breakfast. Afterwards, we went straight to church where several people greeted us with, “Oh, so you did the marathon today! I was there, too. I think it was longer than 4K.” Oh well. This is only the 4th year of the K Marathon, so people here are not used to the terminology. I am not going to correct anyone. Everyone does it for fun and has a good time. You have to admit that 75 cents definitely allows the masses to participate.