For some reason, we love to challenge ourselves from time to time. And usually this comes in the form of inhumanely distances (at least for ordinary beings like myself) of 10km runs.
This year, we fell madly in love with Nike I would say. We woke up at unearthly hours to reach the Jiang Wan Stadium in farflung Yang Pu District at equally unearthly 630am! Despite all the warnings about the typhoon reaching Shanghai shores, the sky and grounds were decidedly dry.
Dragging our sleepy bodies from cosy lala-land to the bright and sunny Jiang Wan Stadium, we were greeted by a massive sea of orange flashes - hundreds and hundreds of enthusiastic ones decked in the same bright orange Nike tees were already assembled there! However, due to lousy planning, we had to wait for 1-2 hours before the race was officially started. I almost dozed off just waiting to get started.
That said, it was a joy running through the tranquil campus grounds of Fudan University even though it resembled more of the typical American college grounds than a renowned Chinese university to me. Without the usual pollution and traffic, I could afford to slowly take in the sights around me. That was, until the challenging of crossing the 7km came. That was the mental challenge for the unaccustomed runner in me (3km is my comfort zone for my usual runs). The last 3km felt like an impossibly long distance to me as i paced myself and diverted my thoughts to an oasis of the finishing line and the highs from completing a 10km run. The fugitive sun running through its sunny and shady moments helped in creating an ambient cover for an outdoor race!
As proof of our hard work in waking up in darkness and enduring through 10km, we had to take lasting evidence of our mission impossible day - photos with the huge poster board!
