The Adventures of the Morning Joggers

Although it took a long time, Tara has finally convinced me to start jogging in the mornings. Two years ago, I wouldn't have considered joining her early morning jogs but I came around to it once we came to Xiamen. So, Tara, myself and one of our neighbours started to jog in the mornings. I have come to realize that the mornings are the best time to exercise although trust me...I don't sound this enthusiastic when the alarm goes off. Quite the contrary actually, most of the time I try to make up excuses to get out of the jogs...I'll say, "I'm sick", "it's raining" or "didn't we run yesterday?" in an effort to thwart the impending doom. All in all, the morning jogs have become an integrated part of our life here and something interesting always seems to happen on the foggy streets of Xiamen just before dawn. Let me fill you in on The Adventures of the Morning Joggers.

1/2 marathon

One of the most significant moments we have achieved since we started running was the completion of a 1/2 marathon (around 21km). The initial motivation was to participate in the Xiamen International Marathon but we eventually realized that the dates conflicted with our Christmas trip to Cambodia. So, my running partners being the enthusiasts that they are, suggested we should map out and run our own 1/2 marathon. At first my impulse was to say, "you're on your own guys" but I finally came around to the idea. So, after about 3-4 months of running 3-4 times a week we successfully ran our 1/2 marathon in about 2 hours 20 minutes.

The Dead man

The most scary adventure as of yet was our encounter with the dead man on the side of the road. We we're running our favourite route along the south-western coast of Xiamen where depending on the fog, one may not be able to see Gulang Yu Island just off the shore. Eventually, when we reached a construction area behind the club district, we found an older man who was lying down just outside of a gate to a construction site. It was one of the coldest mornings that Xiamen ever experiences. The dampness and humidity present settles within your bones and you struggle to stay warm. As we slowed our run to a walk, we noticed that this man wasn't moving and although his eyes were open, the pupils didn't seem to be responding to our approach. We flagged down the only other person on the road, a Chinese man, to see if he could help more than we could, seeing as our Mandarin was pretty minimal. When he came over, he immediately and without hesitation moved in very close to the man on the ground and tried to wake him up. The man didn't move. Our hearts were already thumping fast due to the jog but at that moment they all sank. The man didn't respond. We all looked at each other not knowing what to do. A taxi approached and we flagged him down. At this point the Chinese man went in even closer to the man on the ground and shook him in effort to try to wake him one last time. Just then, we saw his head move slightly, his eyes glanced upwards at the crowd surrounding him and he struggled to move his feet. He was noticeably cold and although we don't really understand the language, we could tell that by the sound of his voice, he was considerably weak. Why was this man here? Did he collapse drunk sometime before we found him? Did he have a home? We had many questions but never got any answers. All I know is my heart stayed in that sunken position for the next couple of hours. I tried to move on with my day but I couldn't forget that blank stare that seemed so distant it wasn't even part of this earth anymore.
Star gazing on the road
Like always, we were on our favourite jogging route in the early morning and we were approaching an area called Zhong Shan Lu. As we got closer we saw a SUV parked diagonally in the 3rd lane of of 4 lane road. The little traffic that was awake that early, could only pass by in the 4th lane because the 1st and the 2nd lanes were occupied by two people. One was kneeling next to the other who was lying down on her back, ankles crossed and hands under her head. She was in the typical star gazing pose but in the atypical environment seeing as she was on the road. What was she doing? At first I thought someone was hit but as we got closer, I realized that wasn't so considering her comfortable posture. Finally, as we passed them, I heard her say, "Hey look. There's the big dipper!"
Zombie Man
One of my favourite experiences during our jogs is the daily encounter with another jogger we call Zombie Man. Since I am still somewhat of a beginner I am probably not the one to talk but Zombie Man's form is terrible and scary to watch. His elbows are raised up and outwards while his wrists and his hands seem to flap uncontrollably meanwhile his breathing pattern consists of a rhythmic huff - pant - wheez. To top it all off, he is always wearing a three piece suit. Honestly, he'll be out there jogging every morning in dress shoes, suit pants, collared shirt and a vest. So, I guess a combination of the foggy mornings, the splaying arms and the Frankenstein inspired outfit has earned him the Zombie Man nickname.
Botanical gardens, a Buddhist temple and a free lunch
We set out once again for a morning run. It was a beautiful and clear Saturday. Our plan was to explore the mountain region behind the university and then we stumbled upon a back entrance to the Botanical Gardens. Cacti, trees, bushes, flowers and more all co-existed in well maintained gardens upon this mountaintop on the southern part of Xiamen. We could see Gulang Yu island just off the coast and mainland China a little further west. Due to the late start of our run and the energy exerted running and hiking these trails we all started to get hungry. Coincidentally, at the base of the mountain is the Buddhist NanPuTou temple that offers a wonderful vegetarian lunch, for free. If we were going to make it to this delectible feast, we realized there were two problems...we didn't have much time to desecend the mountain since the lunches start at 11am and we were low on cash. Yes, the lunch is theoretically free but first you have to pay entrance into the temple and then you should also make a donation after your meal. So, after quick deliberation we decided we would sneak into the Temple (what's the buddhist word for blasphemy?) and then use the little money we had for the donation. We set out quickly down the stairs and within 15 minutes we had made it to the bottom of the mountain, had snuck into the temple through a back entrance and found seats with the hundreds of resident monks while they chanted they're "let's eat" mantra. The food was a wonderful blend of vegetables, seaweeds, tofu and rice that we devoured after the long morning adventure up and around the mountain...