Half marathon

Last year Ant ran the Yangon 10km, this year he upgraded to the half marathon (21km). The race started in the dark at 5.30am. It was almost cold outside. Lots of Myanmar people were lining the streets to see what was going on and clap the runners through. Whilst waiting for Ant to run past I had an entertaining conversation about how how amazing the British colonisers were and how terrible Barak Obama and the Americans are and how the British need to return and repair the sewerage system they installed hundreds of years ago. As an aside it is surprising how many Myanmar people will proudly tell you the sewage system in Yangon is still the same as when the British built it in Victorian times. I am not actually sure this is a good thing… given population increases etc.

It was great to see the runners go by… there were a lot of Myanmar kids under 15 who skipped around barefoot without seeming to sweat… there was the odd Myanmar in a longyi (clearly a bad running outfit)… there were a lot of foreigners with all the gear… (the women in skimpy lycra definitely got some looks as Myanmar is still fairly conservative dress wise – you don’t see too many women wearing short shorts… although they weren’t as popular as the foreigners with blond babies in buggies who got HUGE cheers)… and there were a handful of elite runners who were possibly frustrated by the traffic which wasn’t always kept out of the running path…

Ant wore white (with black shin guards) so I could spot him from the crowds of runners in orange race t-shirts. He is in both of these photos, although it is a bit hard to spot him. They had an amazing run up the hill towards the Shwedagon.

 

Storming to the finish line… toot toot

 

At the end with his medal!