Yakity Yak the Parkers Talk Back: My first 5K...in Kathmandu!

(us drinking out of the communal cups after the race was over. My friend took this picture so I have to get a good copy...sorry it is SO small!)

I never knew there was such a thing as marathons or 5K's in Nepal but a few weeks ago some of our friends here found out about a 5K that was happening around the city. We decided to give it a try. It was SO much fun. Full of crazy cultural things that were funny and insightful. Since this was my first 5K my main goal was to try and jog the entire thing without stopping or walking and I DID IT!!!! I finished at just under 40 minutes. The race began with the marathoners and half marathoners going first at 6:30 am and us (the 5K'ers) going at 6:45 am. The police tried to keep most of the streets blocked off but it never really worked 100%...cars and motorbikes were driving right past us as we ran. There was also no juice, food, games, or water along the way or at the end. My other friends who have run 5K's in America talked about how usually after a 5K they have some sort of"fair" or "festival" where people can hang out and eat and have fun. This was just simple...everyone gathered to run, the shot gun went off and we started running. At the finish line there was some water (served out of communal jugs...Nepali people just share the same cup/bottle/pitcher even with strangers they just don't put their mouths on whatever they are drinking from). Once we drank a little water, we just went into the stadium where the 1/2 marathoners and marathoners were set to finish their race. Anyway, along the route there were animals, beggars, street sweepers (people who sweep the dust off the street each morning), trash, tons of on-lookers, men selling fruit and balloons (not for the race...this is normal for everyday Kathmandu), dogs, cows, etc. It was quite the experience. It was so funny because I had made a play list the night before on my i-pod and it included stuff by Beyonce, Gwen Stephani, Bare Naked Ladies, etc. and it was kind of surreal that I was running through the streets of a very polluted Kathmandu and looking at people as I passed and listening to crazy American music with sometimes very crazy lyrics. I just smiled and waved and kept running. I hope I can find more 5K's to run here. I got to do the 5K with Carol, Summer and Jessica. Crystal took our pictures and Will (Carol's husband) ran the 1/2 marathon. We had a blast and are so thankful we did it! After the race we went to a restaurant here called Mike's Breakfast. Ryan and Keane and Gracie met us there along with some of my friend's families. It was a really fun way to spend a Saturday!

Carol, me, Jessica and Summer...thanks for running with me ladies!

The restaurant that we help run here (for our business visas) is called The Lazy Gringo. We decided to wear our shirts for the race and have free advertising!

After the race was over and we were getting ready to leave we realized that they had roped off the area where we had parked the motorbikes. They were telling us that we weren't going to be able to go through and would have to wait until the entire race was finished.

While we were trying to talk to the police and figure out how we could get out I decided to take a picture of my foot so you could see that I stepped in a big pile of nasty Kathmandu mud on the side of the road while running...yuck!

Finally, they let us through...here you can see ladies holding up the ropes for Jessica to go through.

Us at the FINISH!!!! We did it!

You can see a girl in blue running through the finish line in the bottom right hand part of the picture. She was the first woman to finish in the 1/2 marathon. She ran so fast! Everyone was making a big deal of her. They even halted the start of the marathon race because she was late. Once she got there they started the race. We think she is a "famous" runner in Nepal but everyone was giving us different answers.