And What A Fun Run it Was

We decided to run in the city's 4K fun run as a family. In year's past, it's always been a 5K, so we don't know why the distance was changed this year.  

We did some training at a local park, which is the only place you are supposed to run in this country...running trails, in parks, in designated areas/

Then three days before the race, we went to another park across the city to pick up our registration forms.

When we pulled up, there was a collection site in the parking lot for Syrian refugees being kicked out their homes.

Inside, we picked up our packets, and they took our picture.  The next day, one of my friends found this picture posted on a facebook page for the race.

We got up early and walked to the starting line, according to the map we were given. The 10K and marathon runners were at a starting line half a mile in front of us, and the marathoners had taken off earlier.

We saw that the back of our shirts said, "Run for a Clean Environment," however, the numbers in our packet had a peel off back, and there were no trash cans around.

This was the scene everywhere at the beginning of the race.

The irony is not lost on me.

I took my family's pieces of paper and walked to a water station to ask some ladies sitting there where a trash can was.  They stared at me blankly, and said, "There isn't one."

They kindly took my trash, set it on the table with the water and looked at me strangely.

Littering is such a common thing in this country. They are not taught about caring for the environment or picking up trash. Funny enough though, they like to keep their house, sidewalks, AND the STREET in front of their house clean.

This is the starting line.  You would think it is big enough that people wouldn't miss it, but...

Some 4Kers started at the 10K line and ran less than a 4K; some runners started at the 4K for the 10K and ended up running over a 10K; and some people started at the 10K, intending to run a 4K, but missed the awful-placed signs for the finish line turn off, and ended up running a lap of the city with the marathon runners.

 It was VERY well organized.  NOT!  And that's not the end of the "amazing" organization.  There was more at the finish line.

Here is my running partner.  She did great, but the heat did get to her a little over half-way through.  She finished, but I had to do a LOT of encouraging to get her to keep moving.

Guns and guards watched the running route.

The other four finished relatively quickly, and they waited to cheer Keira and I on when we crossed after them. Some news station put a camera in my face for an interview right after I crossed the finish line, and I have NO idea what I said.

We were told to walk through a partitioned-off walkway to a "celebration party" and awards ceremony. As we walked through, we were handed medals.  Kylie was handed two!  One by a guy on the right side and one by a guy on the left.

The funny thing was, one guy was handing out this medal that I'm showing below.

It's a medal for MARATHON runners!

The 4Kers received a different medal (or if you are Kylie, you received one of each).

All we could do was laugh.

We did not want to stay for the awards ceremony, so our family and some girls we ran with went out for a big Middle Eastern breakfast.

It was nice to sit and talk about the race.  And funny enough, as we sat we kept getting texts from some parents still looking for two of their sons.  They had apparently started at the wrong starting line, got ahead of their parents, and missed the turn off for the finish line.  They ended up running almost a half-marathon!

Their parents grabbed them when they finally saw them coming over a bridge to tell them what had happened, and they took them home.  They didn't even get a medal for all of their trouble :)

The next day, a picture of Keira and me showed up a bunch of places.  I just figured we must have been the only ones running slow enough for them to catch on film. :)

 But what a "fun" run it was ;)