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| Before the race |
The course began following the hotel driveway out to the main road, a fair distance that allowed me to admire the resort's villas, sold as homes, to the right, and to the left a huge Moorish-style castle that was being built on the 168-hectare Sea Links City site. This distance was downhill, until we reached the end where we turned right onto an incline up the main road that we had travelled down on motorbike yesterday. By this time the racers had already dispersed and naturally I had slipped towards the back. At about this moment I began to feel the baking heat. Despite this, and the fact that I promised not to be competitive, I didn't want to fall too far behind so I kept a steady pace, looking forward to reaching the crest of the hill and beginning a downhill stretch. But to my disappointment, when I reached the top I found it was instead a long flat stretch to the horizon, and was confronted with the daunting sight of a hundred runners ahead of me disappearing into the distance in a long line.
I kept my head down to the ground to avoid looking at the endless road ahead. I felt as though I was in a sauna. Soon I remembered to start looking out for my turning point. The route followed one long road for about 10km, with two marked turning points for the 5km and 10km races, whilst those doing 21km continued to the end and then back again. At the first water station I saw a woman ahead of me turning around and jogging back in the direction we had come from. Surely I couldn't have reached my turning point already? But indeed, the road was marked with a U-turn arrow marked with '5km'. Laughably in hindsight, I remember feeling slightly disappointed that I had to turn back already and wondered if I could have managed to go further. Not knowing the route in advance, I must have done the first 2.5km a little too confidently and hadn't realised quite how far I'd already come, and would have to cover again on the return stretch. The way back was very hard.
I started back uphill alone, as very few people were doing the 5km event, and by now the woman I'd seen turn back before me was some way ahead. Somehow the heat felt more intense now I was running alone, as though the other runners were no longer there to share my pain. I saw that the castle on the hotel grounds was well in the distance. Another woman caught up with me but I was in no mood to compete so gladly let her overtake me. I crossed over the road to run on the pavement on the opposite side, where there was some intermittent shade from palm trees. Nonetheless, I eventually slowed to walking pace for a time, and when I tried to start running again my legs felt like they were made of lead. The rest of the way was spent between jogging and walking, and I let my tongue hang out like an overheated dog because there was no-one else around. The hill up the hotel driveway was hideous, but towards the top I was spurred on by hotel staff and security guards, and sprinted up the short marble slope to the finish line at the hotel entrance, to the cheers of the organisers and spectators. At this point I feel the need to acknowledge that my 5km was a mere pimple on the half marathon that many of my group completed in the same conditions as I did, and I won't pretend otherwise. But the 5km 'fun run' (ha!) was challenge enough for me, being not yet used to the climate, only an occasional jogger and by no means at my physical peak. I hope that by sharing my impression of the suffering I can give some indication towards what the 10 and 21km racers probably had to go through.
Throughout my run I was convinced I was doing very badly, but when I reached the finish I was surprised to be congratulated on my speed by those who were waiting in the lobby. I finished in 33.16 minutes, a time I was chuffed with as it is only a few minutes more than it would normally take me to run 5km back home in Leeds. Considering the heat and my current lack of fitness, I had expected to finish in 35-40 minutes. I had finished third out of around ten doing the 5km, which I was very happy with. But at this point all I could really think about was throwing myself into the swimming pool. The air conditioning in the lobby was not as cold as I'd hoped, so it took me a long time to cool down and fully recover. I then had a lot of time waiting around for the 10km and 21km runners to finish, during which time I drank lots of water, ate bananas, wandered endlessly around the lobby, had a sports massage and chatted with other runners. Then a really remarkable thing happened. A member of the hotel staff named Martin started talking to me and asked if I had been to Ho Chi Minh City when I was younger. As it transpired, he recognised me from the last time I was in the city, twelve years ago at the age of seven, a little girl with fair skin, a ginger bob and a matching younger sister. I had been staying in a hotel with my family that he then worked at.
"You were really lovely," he told me, "and you are still lovely now!"
I was totally astounded and felt very touched. I told everyone in my group and they were all equally blown away that this man had remembered my face from all those years ago.
The awards ceremony was held at 10am with prizes given to the winners of each age and gender category for the 10km and 21km races. There were a lot of champions amongst the girls of our group. All three prizes from the women's 20-39 category for the 10km were awarded to members of our trip. Miriam, who had organised much of the weekend and is a very keen runner, took first place; Shoko was surprised to find that she had come second and Jessie, a really friendly Taiwanese girl who works for Puma, came in third. In the women's senior category for the same race, Yvonne took second place, and also finished third of all the women in the race. Finally, Jasmine the trooper hobbled on stage with crippled feet to collect a third place trophy for the women's 20-39 category of the half marathon. I was so impressed by everyone who completed 10km or 21km in that killing heat- I know I couldn't have stayed out a minute longer. Those who I talked to who finished the half marathon invariably described it as 'total pain', 'pure suffering' or 'torture for the mind'. Despite this, the heroic performances I saw today and the high spirits after the awards ceremony inspired me get back into running again while I'm here. Funnily enough, all the medals given to the racers at the finish line were the same, so I am now the proud owner of a medal declaring me to be a Mui Ne Half Marathon Finisher! Photos from the race can be viewed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sportingrepublic/
At midday, after we had all had the chance to shower and change (I had been wearing my running clothes for three hours after finishing my race), we headed out for a champions' lunch at Lam Tong, a restaurant on the sea front supposedly famous for its great seafood and terrible service. I realised that this was my first Vietnamese meal since I arrived, as Thuy cooks Taiwanese food for Jessica and I had only yet eaten at Western-style restaurants. My shrimp with noodles was simple but fresh, and I relished the chance to have a large plate of food and a beautiful sea view while I relaxed and enjoyed the company. Back at Nathalie's after lunch it was time for champagne and orange juice (Buck's Fizz to British people but 'Mimosa' to the rest of the world, it seems), in the final few hours before we took the coach back to Saigon.
I've had a wonderful first weekend in Vietnam, I really couldn't ask for anything better to perk me up at a time that I'm feeling a bit homesick, and to make me excited about my new life here. I'm also proud of myself for completing the 5km run in good time in conditions that are totally unnatural for me. I feel very grateful to Yvonne for arranging for me to join the trip last-minute. I hope I will get the chance to go back to Mui Ne, or to see more of the Vietnamese coast, as a relaxing retreat from the craziness of Saigon. Jessica returns on Wednesday, and my plans for the next few days are a bit sketchy. I think I should spend some time doing some research to feed my inquiring mind that has soaked up a lot of sights in the past few days.
And finally...
I had to include this photo at some point. This is the resident dog of Nathalie resort, who has her dinner served on top of an old-fashioned snooker table. Uploaded for Chris x
I kept my head down to the ground to avoid looking at the endless road ahead. I felt as though I was in a sauna. Soon I remembered to start looking out for my turning point. The route followed one long road for about 10km, with two marked turning points for the 5km and 10km races, whilst those doing 21km continued to the end and then back again. At the first water station I saw a woman ahead of me turning around and jogging back in the direction we had come from. Surely I couldn't have reached my turning point already? But indeed, the road was marked with a U-turn arrow marked with '5km'. Laughably in hindsight, I remember feeling slightly disappointed that I had to turn back already and wondered if I could have managed to go further. Not knowing the route in advance, I must have done the first 2.5km a little too confidently and hadn't realised quite how far I'd already come, and would have to cover again on the return stretch. The way back was very hard.
I started back uphill alone, as very few people were doing the 5km event, and by now the woman I'd seen turn back before me was some way ahead. Somehow the heat felt more intense now I was running alone, as though the other runners were no longer there to share my pain. I saw that the castle on the hotel grounds was well in the distance. Another woman caught up with me but I was in no mood to compete so gladly let her overtake me. I crossed over the road to run on the pavement on the opposite side, where there was some intermittent shade from palm trees. Nonetheless, I eventually slowed to walking pace for a time, and when I tried to start running again my legs felt like they were made of lead. The rest of the way was spent between jogging and walking, and I let my tongue hang out like an overheated dog because there was no-one else around. The hill up the hotel driveway was hideous, but towards the top I was spurred on by hotel staff and security guards, and sprinted up the short marble slope to the finish line at the hotel entrance, to the cheers of the organisers and spectators. At this point I feel the need to acknowledge that my 5km was a mere pimple on the half marathon that many of my group completed in the same conditions as I did, and I won't pretend otherwise. But the 5km 'fun run' (ha!) was challenge enough for me, being not yet used to the climate, only an occasional jogger and by no means at my physical peak. I hope that by sharing my impression of the suffering I can give some indication towards what the 10 and 21km racers probably had to go through.
Throughout my run I was convinced I was doing very badly, but when I reached the finish I was surprised to be congratulated on my speed by those who were waiting in the lobby. I finished in 33.16 minutes, a time I was chuffed with as it is only a few minutes more than it would normally take me to run 5km back home in Leeds. Considering the heat and my current lack of fitness, I had expected to finish in 35-40 minutes. I had finished third out of around ten doing the 5km, which I was very happy with. But at this point all I could really think about was throwing myself into the swimming pool. The air conditioning in the lobby was not as cold as I'd hoped, so it took me a long time to cool down and fully recover. I then had a lot of time waiting around for the 10km and 21km runners to finish, during which time I drank lots of water, ate bananas, wandered endlessly around the lobby, had a sports massage and chatted with other runners. Then a really remarkable thing happened. A member of the hotel staff named Martin started talking to me and asked if I had been to Ho Chi Minh City when I was younger. As it transpired, he recognised me from the last time I was in the city, twelve years ago at the age of seven, a little girl with fair skin, a ginger bob and a matching younger sister. I had been staying in a hotel with my family that he then worked at.
"You were really lovely," he told me, "and you are still lovely now!"
I was totally astounded and felt very touched. I told everyone in my group and they were all equally blown away that this man had remembered my face from all those years ago.
The awards ceremony was held at 10am with prizes given to the winners of each age and gender category for the 10km and 21km races. There were a lot of champions amongst the girls of our group. All three prizes from the women's 20-39 category for the 10km were awarded to members of our trip. Miriam, who had organised much of the weekend and is a very keen runner, took first place; Shoko was surprised to find that she had come second and Jessie, a really friendly Taiwanese girl who works for Puma, came in third. In the women's senior category for the same race, Yvonne took second place, and also finished third of all the women in the race. Finally, Jasmine the trooper hobbled on stage with crippled feet to collect a third place trophy for the women's 20-39 category of the half marathon. I was so impressed by everyone who completed 10km or 21km in that killing heat- I know I couldn't have stayed out a minute longer. Those who I talked to who finished the half marathon invariably described it as 'total pain', 'pure suffering' or 'torture for the mind'. Despite this, the heroic performances I saw today and the high spirits after the awards ceremony inspired me get back into running again while I'm here. Funnily enough, all the medals given to the racers at the finish line were the same, so I am now the proud owner of a medal declaring me to be a Mui Ne Half Marathon Finisher! Photos from the race can be viewed at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sportingrepublic/
At midday, after we had all had the chance to shower and change (I had been wearing my running clothes for three hours after finishing my race), we headed out for a champions' lunch at Lam Tong, a restaurant on the sea front supposedly famous for its great seafood and terrible service. I realised that this was my first Vietnamese meal since I arrived, as Thuy cooks Taiwanese food for Jessica and I had only yet eaten at Western-style restaurants. My shrimp with noodles was simple but fresh, and I relished the chance to have a large plate of food and a beautiful sea view while I relaxed and enjoyed the company. Back at Nathalie's after lunch it was time for champagne and orange juice (Buck's Fizz to British people but 'Mimosa' to the rest of the world, it seems), in the final few hours before we took the coach back to Saigon.
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| Lam Tong restaurant, Mui Ne |
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| My first Vietnamese meal! |
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| Yo! -the Vietnamese word for 'cheers' |
And finally...
Well done Amy. You did well to survive the heat never mind run in it!! Perhaps you should take up swimming instead. Will dig out some armbands for you.
ReplyDeleteTina x