390 runners get our blood pressure and temp taken to make sure that we won't have a heart attack during the run.
1st day: 42 km.
Run through the mountain city of Kaili. i sprint out front to take photos, then drop to the back, shooting all the Miao minority group people in costume, out to cheer us on. Then about 500 kids are released after us, a lot of them passing me by.
i could care less. i'm quite happy to jog along slowly. And eventually start passing by people after 20ks. Then i bump into this German girl again, and she says, "i want to finish the race within 5 hrs." "Sure, that should be no problem," i say, despite the hills and wind. i try to keep up w/ her for quite a while, and even after i give up on that, her 5 hr idea has somehow stuck in my head.
And yeah, normally a marathon in under 5 hrs should be fine. But i'm totally undertrained, and i SHOULD be saving myself for tomorrow. i finish in 5:15, way more tired than i'd prefer to be.
ESPECIALLY because people who would've finished in under 6 hrs, had been caught by the pick-up bus, DISQUALIFIED for being too slow.
So now i'm a bit freaked out about tomorrow. IF i get got caught by the pick up bus, turns out that they WON'T reimburse me my flight $ after all, those Machiavellian organizers.
Wish me luck, folks. Thanks!
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