I awoke this morning before the alarm went off to the sound of Brittany shuffling around in the dark, then pushing through the heavy wooden doors of our room. I curled up tighter beneath the cover. A few minutes later she returned, and decided 5:30am was late enough.
By 6am, we were all suited up in multiple layers: a tank top, two t-shirts, a long-sleeve shirt, a scarf, a sweatshirt and a raincoat for me, plus jeans and two layers of socks, all beside my requisite knit gloves and Taiwanese face mask. The necessary blue plastic 7-11 poncho and a helmet completed the outfit, and we set out through the rain and the wind towards the race.
After dropping Brittany off at the entrance, getting gas, dropping Karina off with Brittany's stuff, finding a parking spot, walking to the university, finding Karina again, and walking up to the entrance to the school, on a hill overlooking the starting line, we discovered something: there was absolutely no way we could see Brittany in the mix of professional African racers (many of whom got an artificial head start, thanks to a misunderstanding), the pro Chinese and Taiwanese racers, the amateurs of every race who still cared, and the hundreds upon hundreds of racers sporting umbrellas. Oh, Taiwan.
When we were assured that everyone (and, therefore, Brittany) had passed the finish line, we went inside the university--out of the rain and wind, though not the cold, thanks to the joys of outdoor-indoor architecture here--to wait for Brittany to finish, snack on Doritos and nuts, and play "would you rather."
About an hour later, we wandered back into the conditions and to the finish line, where we stood beside a group of clearly co-opted high school cheerleaders performing half-hearted dance routines to classics like "We're All in This Together" as nobody watched, and we cheered for everyone crossing the finish line.
"加油!"
When Brittany finished, we strolled back to our scooters, cheering everyone along the way, to the bemusement of the Taiwanese walking alongside us and, as our home-stay lay back along the race route, took a roundabout way back which still managed to loop alongside the runners, whom we continued to cheer on until we got back.
Without any discussion, we then locked ourselves in our room and beneath our covers, and proceeded to take an hours-long siesta-and-James Bond-movie-marathon session. We were finally roused from our cold-induced stupor by a call from Nick inviting us to join him in visiting the small island offshore. We didn't join him, but we did re-suit up--added a layer of pants to my ensemble--and head back out on our scooters, this time checking out the scenic drive, the Triangle Fort, and then looping back to the shopping area we visited yesterday to buy a few last-minute souvenirs.
While there, we ran into Evan, Miles, John and Jason, and hung out with them as they had some 豆花 (douhua) and squid balls before they headed back to 厦门(Xiamen). We said goodbye and crossed the street to Jessica's, where we ate yesterday, for dinner.
We made a final stop at 馬山(Mashan), where we had just enough daylight left to find the old escape tunnel and walk down to the end, where Karina and I got a glimpse of patrolling Taiwanese boats and the near shore of China.
Still cold but finally coping, we scootered back to our lovely home-stay, where we now sit again, huddled under the covers and watching TV. It's been a good day, and I'm glad we got to be here to cheer on Brittany--and the rest of the un-cheered racers. But you can take me back to warm Kaohsiung now, please!
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