Marathon Training: The Dream Lives On

Yep, still taking the crazy pills and training for a marathon in China. Since we're entering September with a little over 2 months to go until the big day we're bumping up the long training runs each week. This coming week we should be at 11 miles (or 18k as I've come to measure my distances. It's a metric system world out here and it amazes me how America is the only country on the planet to use miles/yards/feet/pounds/etc. I'm not going to lie, I'm into the metric system ....weighing 58kilos sounds a whole lot better than 130pounds. And now I can actually comprehend what a big coup it is when authorities confiscate such and such kilos of heroin/cocaine/weed from drug smugglers. It was all at a loss on me before....off topic, I know.)

Back to marathon training. I mentioned in my other post about training that we'd have to be creative with our runs here. Well creative I was and creative I will not be again. Maybe creative wasn't the right word...more like adventurous. I so desperately miss the San Francisco convenience of outside-your-front-door-runs that I tried to make it happen here in Shanghai. A friend of mine had mapped out a run on google maps that goes along Suzhou creek; a small river near my apt that runs through Shanghai and eventually meets the Huangpu River which eventually meets the um....???? South China Sea??? It looked pretty decent on Google but I'm kicking myself now for not using the satellite function that shows the REAL picture. WELL...I don't know about you but when I think of a creek I think of little Timmy in a quaint New England town running down to the water with his fishing pole made of a stick and string to catch tadpoles. Thank you Suzhou Creek for obliterating that image. I don't think you'd want little Timmy w/in 200ft of this creek for fear of him growing a third arm out of his forehead. Nonetheless the gov't in Shanghai is trying to beautify it by putting in creekside areas for strolling, sitting and running; complete with a rubber running track. What they've built thus far is actually really nice but like most everything here they've ALMOST got it but not quite. The track is laid only in sections so we can run for about 400 meters then have to switch to running in the streets for about 2 miles then get excited to see the track is back only to discover another 400 meters later it is unfinished again. Running in the street is where it gets adventurous. Dodging cars, bikes, dogs and their poo, people, trash, makes you really feel like you earned your run here. However, I draw the line at enjoying "adventurous" when a four legged and long tailed critter scurries across my path. Yeah. It happened. And I had a major freakout in the middle of Shanghai locals. I can just imagine the chit chat about the crazy white girl flailing and screaming about at the creek. I'm sure it's stuff legends are made of.

So Special Friend and I suffered through about 9 miles of interesting smells wafting in and out of our noses and dashing in and out of traffic just to make it back to his apt in one piece and fulfilled of our training for the day. In the end though I got to see sights of Shanghai I know I never would have come across and got a better sense of the community that makes this crazy place function.We will probably stick to our runs out in the Shanghai 'burbs from now on though even if it is a taxi+metro+15minwalk away. The novelty of "stepping outside my door" for a run is by now lost for me. Add it to my ability to adapt skill. By the time this is all said and done this will be the most rewarding marathon purely b/c the road to the finish line has never been so hard fought.