Vientiane Half Marathon

One of MCC's projects here in Laos helps to support the Lao Disabled Women's Development Center. And to support them and their publicity the other SALTers and I decided to run the 5K portion of the Vientiane Half Marathon. However, they told us that we had to run the 10K as only people over 35 are allowed to run the 5K. Which is funny by itself, but the story continues. We woke up super early in the morning to get down to the National Stadium by 6am. The race didn't start for a good hour and even then we weren't exactly sure if it was our turn to go until someone pushed us across the starting line. Then we ran for awhile on streets that weren't officiated in any way, so everyone was turning when they felt like it or getting tuk tuk's (motorcycle taxis) when they got tired. When we completed the course (known just by following the crowd) it was in a record breaking time, and although I'd love to tell myself I'm just that fast, we're pretty much positive that it was only a 7-8 kilometer run. The best part was getting cheered across the finish line by a group of women, some in wheelchairs some with canes, all wearing our same shirts. Unfortunately the people running the half marathon had the opposite problem. Someone had knocked down the sign that was the turn around point, so they just kept running deeper into the rice fields. I think by the time they made it all the way back to the stadium it was around 28 kilometers instead of the 20 expected!