On Sunday, we had to get up super, super early to go to Joel's gym, where we then were transported to Nankan, this little town up in the mountains. The reason for going to this little place? Joel was running in their 10km run that he had been roped into by his gym.So we got there very early, and had a little walk around the village. I was really surprised by how many people were there. Hundreds and hundreds. And a lot of kids! There was a 3km, a 5km and a 10km race. Lots of people who were doing the 3km race were older, generally doing it just to walk, and get some excierse, and a whole bunch of kids.
I was pretty impressed, as I dont think that many American kids would have signed up for a 3km run! There were actually a lot of kids running the 5km race too, a lot of them were part of the local Junior High School running team. I thought it was a great oppourtunity for them! And they looked like they were having such fun! I went up about 5 minutes up the race, where the tracks looped around, and cheered for some of Joel's gym mates, who were all lovely, and then I went back to the finish line. The first person to come around the bend for the 10km did it in just under 22 minutes!
Everyone was so impressed, and I origionally had only thought of capturing Joel's finishing face, but I couldn't help myself, and I ended up taking photos of people's faces as they crossed the finish line. From kids proud of their accomplisments, to older people helping each other over the finish line, to the competitive ones checking their watches, they were all great. The oldest competitor was 86 years old, and yes, you could tell, but the feat alone was so impressive. Joel came in a few minutes shy of his expected time at 50 minutes! I was so so impressed, and very, very proud!
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