Our Cross-World Friends 5k Run

By Jessica ~
| Blessings | Friends Far Away | Learning | Random |

jessrunningpeace.JPGIn keeping with the theme of August around here, which seems to have been all things Olympic, six weeks ago I decided to take up my own “Olympic” challenge – to begin training for and run a 5k “race.” Seeing as there were no local 5k’s scheduled, I decided I’d just make my own…to be run on the treadmill at the gym. Yes, I know that the air outside was good enough for the Olympic athletes to breathe…but they were only here for a month. Since I live here and value the long-term health of my lungs, I decided to stick to the indoor running for now, but to try and tackle a longer distance than I had previously ever run. I had run more than 5k (3.1 miles) distance wise, but always with some (more than a few) walking breaks in the middle of it. So the goal was to run 5k without stopping…and, if possible, in under 25 minutes.

I’ve never been a runner…I took it up a few years back, just to see if I could “learn how” to run or at least learn how to not HATE running. I got up to distances of about 2 miles…though not loving it, I at least learned to tolerate it (and love the feeling AFTER the run). Then we graduated, moved away from the school’s gym that we always used, and then came to Asia…which meant that when we joined the gym in February, it had been at least 2.5 years since I had run at all. It was much easier to pick back up than I thought it would be…so I’d already been running several times a week when I decided to challenge myself to this treadmill 5k.

jess5kwave.jpgI was inspired by my friend Ruth…a mom of three kids who will hit 40 this year, and is in the middle of training for her first marathon (26 miles). She already ran a half marathon on July 4th this year. As I started to think about my running, it seemed like if she could run for that long, I surely could try to do a 5k!!! Then I decided to try a 5k, with the goal of doing a 10K eventually (now scheduled for November). So the training began. And as I trained, I told Ruth about it and she decided she would run it with me but in Texas.

nicoles-5k-010.jpg And then I told my friend Nicole about it…and she decided she would also run it with me, but in Washington. And thus, our Cross-World 5k Run was born!!! It was so encouraging to know that I had friends in other places training and planning to run with me. We planned to try and run it at the exact same time…but that’s kind of difficult to coordinate due to both time differences and to the general unpredictability of life, especially for Ruth and Nicole, who are both mothers. As proof of this unpredictability, one of Ruth’s kids came down with a stomach bug in the week of the “race”…and then passed it on to Ruth. In the end, we all ended up running it in the same 24-hour period, which counts as “at the same time” in my book.:D

jessrunningpose.JPGEven though we all participated in this “race” the goal was not to compete against each other, but to race against ourselves…to challenge ourselves to run harder, faster, better…and to enjoy it! Nicole and Ruth really got into the spirit of it and made “race numbers” for themselves. While running, we all had our challenges to face…Nicole raced while dodging middle-school kids who were playing football ON the track. Ruth, still in recovery from the stomach flu, had little energy with which to race. I, being a little nervous and excited about my first “race”, overestimated my beginning pace and went a little too fast…which meant that I hit a wall at about 2.5 miles and felt like I was going to throw up and pass out if I didn’t slow down a bit. But we all made it…and I can honestly say that I really enjoyed it for the first 2.5 miles. I’m not sure I’ve ever felt that way before about running…and definitely not for that long.

I reveled in the feeling of how natural it felt to run, and felt my heart resonate to the the lyrics of “Dare You to Move” by Switchfoot. “I dare you to move…like today never happened before.” And I felt bold and proud…that I had dared myself to move and to take on this challenge…and that today, on this new day that had never happened before, I was both living out that dare and enjoying the results of it.

Now…none of of us are in the league of the Olympic 5k ladies, but then again…almost nobody is in their league. Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia ran the 5k in 15:41.40 in Beijing this year, which is pretty darned impressive. That’s a 5 minute 3 second mile pace!!! But we all did really well….Nicole finished in 27:12, Ruth in 30:28, and I finished in 25 minutes even. I am so proud of us all, for taking up the challenge and for finishing it (even with the flu and football players on the running track!!!), and am especially thankful that I have the kind of friends who are willing to both encourage me in this kind of challenge and participate in it themselves!

nicoles-5k-012.jpgjess5kpassout.jpg

winnerpose.JPG

  • Share/Bookmark

“Beauty”

By Joel ~
| Beauty | Random | Soapboxes |

Issues
If you want people to read your blog, you have to have issues, preferably personal issues that masquerade as concerned citizenship. And you need to complain about how certain people are mean and/or stupid and are messing up the world. And say things that make people mad. And tell everyone how think. Sort of like what I’m passive-aggressively doing right now. This is especially effective if you’re young, white, and rich, and maybe a little paranoid.

We make a conscious effort not to do that on here too much, and we’ve sworn off politics – our blog is doomed! But by golly if this one didn’t just burn my biscuits…

Beauty
In parts of Africa fat women are sexy. In Japan, it’s slender men. But in the West? We like ‘em fake. We might think this is normal and no big deal. Call me paranoid, but I think living with stuff like this really messes us up. From CampaignforRealBeauty.ca:

And, of course, we can always ask questions about emotional manipulation, reverse psychology, and why a company that makes beauty products would care to fund something called “Campaign for Real Beauty”:

I’m convinced that the media to which we expose ourselves affects us deeply. But bigger questions remain, like “Where does a person’s worth and value really come from?” And, “How do we decide what is ultimately, truly beautiful?”

  • Share/Bookmark

Chinese cell-phone parrot

By Joel ~
| Random |

On the way to work we heard these strange sounds – one was like a really loud cell phone. Then we walked past a parked scooter with a parrot chained to the seat. It said hello to us in Chinese – “你好!” – and then made the cell phone noise again.

Crazy.

  • Share/Bookmark



You are browsing:

Random

About

A North American couple with a background in Intercultural Studies tries to make a life in China. This is our coping mechanismblog.

Subscribe

We both write, but Jessica only writes when I bribe her. See all of her posts here.

Enter your email address:

Translate

Choose a Topic

  • Baijiu (白酒) (5)
  • Beauty (9)
  • Being Chinese about it (106)
  • Blessings (64)
  • China books (41)
  • China plans & prep (10)
  • China web debris (316)
  • China: life & times (155)
  • ChinaHopeLive.net (10)
  • Chinese festivals (25)
  • Chinese medicine (10)
  • Chinese movies (4)
  • Chinese songs (7)
  • Chinese take-out (174)
  • Chinglish (17)
  • Cultural perspectives (120)
  • Cultural re-adjustment (5)
  • Culture fun (131)
  • Culture stress (45)
  • Cute (32)
  • Face (10)
  • Family (42)
  • Friends Far Away (4)
  • Goodbyes (6)
  • How to… (13)
  • Karaoke (5)
  • Learning (53)
  • Learning Mandarin (74)
  • Lost in translation (22)
  • Love (15)
  • M.A. studies (23)
  • Marriage (25)
  • Meta-narratives (34)
  • oh. Canada (4)
  • Olympics (32)
  • People (83)
  • Photo posts (102)
  • Places (195)
  • Pollution (12)
  • Propaganda (37)
  • Random (3)
  • Running wild in the streets (104)
  • Soapboxes (28)
  • Teaching English (44)
  • Things we've eaten (45)
  • Traffic (7)
  • Travelling (27)
  • Underappreciated genius (13)
  • RSS


    Translate

    English flagItalian flagKorean flagChinese (Simplified) flagChinese (Traditional) flagPortuguese flagGerman flagFrench flagSpanish flag
    Japanese flagArabic flagRussian flagGreek flagDutch flagBulgarian flagCzech flagCroatian flagDanish flag
    Finnish flagHindi flagPolish flagRomanian flagSwedish flagNorwegian flagCatalan flagFilipino flagHebrew flag
    Indonesian flagLatvian flagLithuanian flagSerbian flagSlovak flagSlovenian flagUkrainian flagVietnamese flagAlbanian flag
    Estonian flagGalician flagMaltese flagThai flagTurkish flagHungarian flag   
    By N2H

    Share on Facebook

    Add to Google


    Share

    Share/Bookmark

    Photos

    smallsquare3fireworks1.JPG smallsquare2bug1.JPG smallsquare1pagoda1.JPG smallsquare5lu1.JPG

    2010 Galleries:
    ~ Beijing & Henan
    2008 Galleries:
    ~ Tianjin & Beijing
    2007 Galleries:
    ~ Tianjin, Beijing, Chiangmai & Taipei
    2006 Galleries:
    ~ Taipei, Hong Kong & Vancouver

    Click the "[+/-]" to show/hide the gallery list for each year.

    Conversations

    Diary of a Worm — in Chinese! (an English / 汉字 / pīnyīn online read-along) (3)
     Joel: "Thanks! I’ll fix that tonight."
     Max: "wŏ bèi mìfēng zhé le -> wǒ bèi mìfēng zhē le"
     Max: "Thanks a lot for that! You’ve got at least one typo..."

    A “foreigner” in my own country, “yellow” people, and other funny Chinese racial talk (33)
     Hei Gui (BLACK Devil!) Shuai Rang: "What is racism? I am still..."

    Foreign baby in China essentials: FACEBOOK SUBSTITUTE (or VPN) & SKYPE (8)
     Joel: "hey people here, don’t forget you give your e-mail..."
     hans stam: "hey people here, i have a free vpn set up by a..."

    A Foreign Baby in Tianjin Pt. 1 – is this our future? (6)
     Joel: "Glenn – ha, now that we’ve had an infant..."

    Beijing’s Ditan Park Temple Fair 地坛庙会 – 2010 Feb. 20 (4)
     Joel: "It’s a fun place to take pictures."
     Eastwood: "Great photos! I enjoyed every single one. This is..."

    In today’s urban China, “yuppie”/”petty bourgeoisie” is not necessarily a bad thing (2)
     Joel: "This is about how Mainlanders themselves define and use..."

    Videos

    chlvideo.png

    See the videos page!

    Chinese take-out

    Have Chinese word you learn!

    丑闻

    Pronounced: chǒu wén
    Literally: shameful/ugly/disgraceful news
    Means: scandal

    - 2010/03/03

    View all

    InterWǎng Debris

    Recent China internet debris.

    China's zombie growth

    If you stop to take a second look, it's quite obvious that much of Tianjin's glittering new (and expensive) apartment and office complexes are empty. Yet the building continues. This is happening all over China:
    "China continues to build despite an excess of empty commercial real estate.

    "Last year, approximately one out of every four square feet of commercial office space in Beijing were empty – about 100 million square feet of zombie space. All over town are dark buildings…

    "It looks like growth. But it is zombie growth. People build bridges to nowhere rather than working for profit-making enterprises. Concrete is used to put up cities where no one lives."

    - 2010/03/11

    The contents of the greatest tomb in archeological history

    From What's Inside Qin Shi Huang's Tomb?

    "Qin Shi Huang ... ruled the largest unified kingdom the Far East had ever witnessed to that date – the very basis of Imperial China. In military power, economic strength and technical innovation, the Qin ... were all powerful.
    [...]
    "Possessing a grossly swollen ego to match his achievements and status, Shi Huang ordered the construction of a staggeringly large and ornate tomb for himself outside the Qin capital of Xi’an, one that is said to have required hundreds of thousands of labourers to build.

    "The tomb ... has not yet been explored – and perhaps may never be. If legend about what’s inside is true – and, incredibly, all evidence to date suggests it is – then the First Emperor’s mausoleum contains a wealth of treasures and adornments perhaps greater than any other in ancient history."

    - 2010/03/09

    “They hate you. But you are useful to them.”

    In What Do They Really Think of Us Laowai?, a delegation member from a foreign NGO that has a longstanding good relationship with the Chinese gov. gets a staight answer.

    - 2010/03/05

    View all

    Links

    Studying Chinese
    China
    Friends
    Other Stuff

    What's this?


    Vancouver 2010 Olympics:



      RSS
    100% apolitical.
      ~
      LEGAL:
    All text, images, and photographs are the sole property of the authors unless otherwise indicated.
    All rights reserved. Contact Joel and Jessica for copyright details.
    Page copy protected against web site content infringement by Copyscape
      ~
      Best viewed in Firefox 1.5+ at a screen resolution of 1024x768.
     
      ~

    China Blog Network
    back home random join forward
    Best Blogs Asia Directory Featured in Alltop living in China News blogs & blog posts