This Saturday we did a fun run at the University. It was just an easy 5k run, but the differences between this type of event in the US and in SA are…well, they are interesting. As Matt, Molly, Ashley and I are walking to the start of the race from Annie’s, I’m expecting to see at least a few other people walking to the starting area, but we see no one. Once we get there, about 20 minutes before the start, there are maybe a total of 30 other people mingling around the registration area, only ¼ of them look like they’re dressed to participate in some form of athletic activity.
Everyone bunches up behind the starting line and we take inventory of the spectacle around us. There are roughly 60-70 runners, half of which are in jeans or flats. One girl even has this massive silver purse bag. Maybe ten people in the entire crowd look like they are there to run. No one is stretching, everyone is just chatting and waiting for the gun to go off.
When the gun does go off it looks more like the crowds on Black Friday when the doors are first opened than the beginning of a fun run. It is just a mad sprint by everyone. There is no pacing yourself or starting out slow. The whole scene is more comedic than serious and Molly, who had had high hopes of this being a serious race, couldn’t keep a smile off her face. We were definitely not in America.
As the race goes on, the guy in front of me finds a rock and kicks it, as if he were playing soccer, almost the entire duration of the race. The water stations along the way turned out to be small baggies that had been filled with water and tied at the top, similar to which you would find if you bought a goldfish. The volunteers just sort of tossed them at us and we bit off the corner of the bag to get to the lukewarm water.
After the race was over, we got breakfast bags with Red Bull, an orange, a bran muffin and a chocolate caramel. Not exactly what you want to eat after a race, but we weren’t complaining. The winner of the event was dressed in a blue and pink striped polo and shoes that look like he’d owned them since 1997. There was no formal timing system set up at the end, so finishing times were unknown. Molly won second place for girls and received a present bag with a vegetable peeler and 2 drinking glasses. The prizes for finishers were pretty big and elaborate compared to the raffle prizes which comprised of a pack of colored pencils, notebooks and children’s books.
Truly a different experience - not at all what I was expecting. Then it was a quick shower and pack and off to Port Alfred…
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