This past week was high lighted with our marathon! All week we rested by swimming and laying in the hot tube at our pool. We ate a lot of pasta and fruit, and went to bed early. We didn't have to work on Friday or Saturday, so on Halloween day we took the train to Toroko Gorge which is on the other side of Taiwan. We met up at the hotel with our friends and training budies Dave and Jen. After a quick swim and eating a huge dinner buffet, we were off to bed early to w
ake up for the marathon. The marathon started at 7 am. The first part was a 3 K ou
t of the gorge just to turn around and start the climb up through the gorge. The weather was perfect, light rain to start and cool climate the whole time. The gorge was extremely beautiful with waterfalls and mountain top temples. A few times I almost ran off the road because of the views. Allie and I ran together for about 15 miles till I had to take a bathroom break. From then on we were alone to run our own race. The turn around point was right out by our hotel, there was a small part of me that just wanted to run into the hotel, 
put my bathing suit on, grab a beer and sit in the pool and call it a day. But we both had a great time and I was feeling really strong, so I kept pushing on. I was waiting for me to hit the wall around mile 20 like my last marathon, but it never happened, don't get me wrong I was drainned and barley could keep running but with everyone yelling Giyo-Giyo and giving me the thumbs up and even one guy that I talked to before the race pyshically pushing from behind to keep running and not to walk , so I kept running. Giyo (not spelled even close) means in chinese to go, go, go even when you got to the gas station to tell the guy to fill up your tank you say Giyo, which means fill my go tank (not gas tan
k). It is a cool wor
d that we just don't have in our English language. From the last 5 K point Allie and I felt that is was the worst, becuase they had a countdown for you to know excatly how much further you had to run. I swear I saw the 3 K mark twice (but that was the start of my delirium). Allie of course ran a great run, not her personal best time but running up a mountain to turn around and run down besides a flat course it was a great time 3:48 minutes. To let you know how hard the course was Allie finished 10th overall for t
he women (this race was big over 6,500 people ran it). She was beat by a profestional runner from Japan and a profestional Ke
nyan runner. She finish about 40 minutes behind the leader which is awesome! She won 5,000 NT which after taxes 4,000NT comes to about 125 US dollars. I finished 3:58 minutes (with a bathroom break I want to add) which was I think in the top 200 of the men, not as impressive as Allie but I broke my goal of 4 hours goal and beat my best time which I will not mention because it was pretty slow for me. When I finish I have to say I was really mad and quite delirious. All I wanted was water and maybe a sports drink, which you had to walk about 50 feet which at that point seemed very far. There you get a free lunch box (package lunch of rice, chicken, and some vegetables), bottle of water, and a box of sports drink. I wanted nothing to do with the lunch but they insisted to give me one, so I through it down on the ground and started stabbing my juice box with one chop stick thinking it was the straw. Finally I figured that out and used my straw which went too far and fell in the box, so I went cave man and squeezed it all over my face and in my mouth. I did get a few wierd looks after that but I felt a lot better. After Dave and Jen got back back we rested and went back to the hotel, where we bought a few beers and laid out by the pool. We had free entrance to the spa that night which we thoroughly enjoyed laying in the hot tubs and suana and then of course eating our faces off at the buffet again. We called it an early night since we could all barely move. The next morning we were up early to catch the 8 am train back to Taichung. I think this will probably be the most beautiful run we will ever run in our entire lives, it was breathtaking.
ake up for the marathon. The marathon started at 7 am. The first part was a 3 K ou
t of the gorge just to turn around and start the climb up through the gorge. The weather was perfect, light rain to start and cool climate the whole time. The gorge was extremely beautiful with waterfalls and mountain top temples. A few times I almost ran off the road because of the views. Allie and I ran together for about 15 miles till I had to take a bathroom break. From then on we were alone to run our own race. The turn around point was right out by our hotel, there was a small part of me that just wanted to run into the hotel, 
put my bathing suit on, grab a beer and sit in the pool and call it a day. But we both had a great time and I was feeling really strong, so I kept pushing on. I was waiting for me to hit the wall around mile 20 like my last marathon, but it never happened, don't get me wrong I was drainned and barley could keep running but with everyone yelling Giyo-Giyo and giving me the thumbs up and even one guy that I talked to before the race pyshically pushing from behind to keep running and not to walk , so I kept running. Giyo (not spelled even close) means in chinese to go, go, go even when you got to the gas station to tell the guy to fill up your tank you say Giyo, which means fill my go tank (not gas tan
k). It is a cool wor
d that we just don't have in our English language. From the last 5 K point Allie and I felt that is was the worst, becuase they had a countdown for you to know excatly how much further you had to run. I swear I saw the 3 K mark twice (but that was the start of my delirium). Allie of course ran a great run, not her personal best time but running up a mountain to turn around and run down besides a flat course it was a great time 3:48 minutes. To let you know how hard the course was Allie finished 10th overall for t
he women (this race was big over 6,500 people ran it). She was beat by a profestional runner from Japan and a profestional Ke
nyan runner. She finish about 40 minutes behind the leader which is awesome! She won 5,000 NT which after taxes 4,000NT comes to about 125 US dollars. I finished 3:58 minutes (with a bathroom break I want to add) which was I think in the top 200 of the men, not as impressive as Allie but I broke my goal of 4 hours goal and beat my best time which I will not mention because it was pretty slow for me. When I finish I have to say I was really mad and quite delirious. All I wanted was water and maybe a sports drink, which you had to walk about 50 feet which at that point seemed very far. There you get a free lunch box (package lunch of rice, chicken, and some vegetables), bottle of water, and a box of sports drink. I wanted nothing to do with the lunch but they insisted to give me one, so I through it down on the ground and started stabbing my juice box with one chop stick thinking it was the straw. Finally I figured that out and used my straw which went too far and fell in the box, so I went cave man and squeezed it all over my face and in my mouth. I did get a few wierd looks after that but I felt a lot better. After Dave and Jen got back back we rested and went back to the hotel, where we bought a few beers and laid out by the pool. We had free entrance to the spa that night which we thoroughly enjoyed laying in the hot tubs and suana and then of course eating our faces off at the buffet again. We called it an early night since we could all barely move. The next morning we were up early to catch the 8 am train back to Taichung. I think this will probably be the most beautiful run we will ever run in our entire lives, it was breathtaking. 
1 comment:
Feel good......
Post a Comment