This is a late post of the Nike Women's 10K. Since the day I signed up I was super excited to be running my first Nike Women's race. I was so amazed at the amount of people running the 10K and the half marathon. The shear excitement of running a race where my parents was born helped me run this race. My training before the race was on and off. It wasn't the best, but going to run clubs helped me keep my running consistent. I was also able to make to Nike Run Club Taipei and was able to do some speed training. There was quite a few people at Nike Run Club, but not same as run club back in the states. I feel like run club in the states can rake in a ton of people some nights. Few days before the race my mom was trying to arrange a cab to come and pick us up at 4am, but I guess taxis don't really run around that time, unless your going to the airport which is far basically more money. Thank god for my dad's best friend from college. He volunteered to bring my mom and I to the starting line. I arrived at the starting line area around 5am since I didn't need to check anything in. The 10K didn't start until 6am. They had warm-up activities for each race. Stretching & a bit of Zumba. The race started at 6am and we started running. A few minutes into running I started to feel a bit of cramping in my stomach. Since it was the beginning I didn't want to stop, plus it wasn't that bad. After a few more minutes of running it went away. It was fun running the streets & freeways of Taiwan. Since there was over 9,000 people running the 10K running was sort of packed, but it was easy to weave around the slow runners if necessary. When we were crossing this bridge/freeway there was an local high school orchestra playing classical music. That I've never seen at a race so it was different and unique. When I was nearing the end of the race I had one of those "when is this going to end" moments, because every corner I turned I thought it was the end. When ran through the finish line I got a bit emotional because so happy that I was able to run in the country where my ancestors was from. After finishing I was greeted with a single rose and the finishers necklace. It obviously wasn't Tiffany's, but I still loved it. Seeing how many people ran the half marathon it is something I may consider doing one day. I never knew Taiwanese people were that into running. I've always had this misconception that Taiwanese people in general didn't like to workout. Especially the women since they were always super skinny and pale. Well now I know that they probably run to stay skinny. I can't wait to get back home to run club. Going to run club here is literally a trek with the metro system.
