2010 Taipei International Half Marathon: The Report **UPDATED**

**UPDATE** December 26, 2010: Official finish time was 2:01:48 - a bit off my race goal.  Better luck next time!  See http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/score_101219_21.php and search for finisher #2712 (they list 1000 finishers per page, if you select the "all finishers" under the half marathon results choice).  There you will see me.  Or you can try to search for my bib number (18253) or my name (c'mon, you already know that one).  Merry Christmas!


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Editor’s note: the below race report was drafted on the day of the race, as the competitor rode the High Speed Rail train back to Kaohsiung.  At the time he wrote this, the running human did not have a chance to access media or news reports about the race, nor to examine his own results.  An addendum will appear at the end of the post that adds some clarifying information in these regards.  Read on…

The "writing salon" aboard the HSR train where this post was drafted

Without yet having had a chance to see any news reports about the 2010 Taipei International Marathon, I would have to say that I think there very well may have been 100,000 or more participants.  There were so many people, it took me over 10 minutes to move from where I was at in a mass of people (thousands and thousands) at the race start over the timing mats to actually start the race (it was about 7:15 AM local time when I started the race, which actually began at 7AM as advertised).  I actually saw one fellow crowd-surfing towards the start line, as if it was a giant rock concert.

My aims for the race were quite modest.  I no longer establish “finishing” a race like this on as a goal – I’m sorry, but barring some type of catastrophic injury or natural disaster, I am going to complete a half marathon, it’s no longer such a long distance to run for me.  I wanted to finish in less than 2 hours, a decent but not too difficult pace that under normal circumstances should be attainable quite easily for me.  I wanted to run easy for the first hour (~the first half of the race), and then step it up in the last hour for a nice “negative split.”  I reality, because of the crowds of runners, my pace during the first hour was far slowed than I figured it would be, so I changed strategy, trying to “keep the horses in the barn” until about the 9 mile mark.  Then I ran harder during the last 3-4 miles to produce the negative split I was looking for. (I have yet to have had a chance to review my race data, but I’m quite sure that it was a pretty decent negative split run).

2010 TAIPEI Marathon

EveryTrail - Find hiking trails in California and beyond

(Note: this map is not my personal results/pace, etc., but of another competitor that I found online)

The race was on a very flat course that made a loop of Taipei City.  The only elevation changes of note during the entire ½ marathon course were a few on- and off-ramps traversed when moving from regular streets to elevated highways or underground tunnels.  Coupled with the fantastic weather for the race today (about 60 degrees F and clear at race start), conditions were ripe for a fast race – that is, if you started with the elites at 6:57 AM.

 

Why?  Well, go back to the first sentence in this post.  I have never, in all the races I have done in the past 10 years, seen anything close to the number of people turn out for a race that I saw today.  In my mind, I consider marathons like those held in Chicago or New York City to be very large (I have not yet run either one, but have heard that they boast something like 40,000 participants).  I do not know as of yet how many people were out there with me today, except to say that it was A LOT.  So many that at no point on the 13.1 mile half marathon route did the congestion ever go away.  There were tons of people from the start to the finish.  Usually in these races once you make it several miles in, the crowds of runners start to thin.  Not so today.  I was trying to duck and weave in and out to find running room from beginning to end.  It’s not a set of conditions that are conducive to fast finish times (again, unless you are out in front of the pack, like the elites runners).

Gear staged the night prior to the race

Because there were so many runners, it seemed to me that the aid stations were lacking in adequate personnel to keep up with demand.  I actually missed the first two aid stations because the throngs of people blocked my view of them and I was pretty much past them by the time I realized they were there.  But when I finally saw one in time to stop, I was hardly able to get any refreshment.  Unlike at any race I have done previously, it was essentially self-serve – that is, there were bottles and containers of water or sports drink on the tables at the side of the run path, and there were cups, and it was sort of a free-for-all to pour your own drink.  This created “madhouse” conditions – every runner for himself.  I had to elbow my way to the table to try and pour a beverage.  Generally, in other races I have done there are either volunteers holding the drinks out to the runners – pre-poured – and you can grab one as you pass, no need to stop and try to pour the drink yourself; or there are pre-poured drinks set on the tables that you can grab and go – again, no need to self-serve the drink.  I believe these methods to be superior in terms of quality and speed of refreshment.  But it seemed to me that the rest stops did not have enough personnel to support these methods.  I only saw one or two volunteers at each table, far too few to keep up with the thousands of runners coming past.  This is certainly an area for improvement.

Another needed improvement is related to the lack of on-course restrooms.  Just as I remarked on in my write-up of the 2010 Ironman 70.3 Taiwan triathlon a couple months back, the race today had far too few restroom facilities on the course.  In fact, I didn’t see a single race-provided venue for this type of need until after 6 miles into the race.  I saw some people, prior to that point, running off the course to businesses and fire stations along the course to use their facilities, but if the race was doing what it should in terms of providing adequate ON COURSE facilities, this behavior shouldn’t be necessary.  Finally, about 5.5 miles into the race, near the river, was a toilet provided for use by people who use the riverside recreation path.  Because the race did not have any on-course toilets to that point, there were some people waiting to use the facilities (women, and presumably men who needed to “sit”), but far more men who chose to use the nearby bushes and treeline for their “facilities.”  This would not have been the case if portajohns had been placed on the course in sufficient numbers and often enough to relieve the (literally!) pent-up demand.  On later portions of the course, near the aid stations, there were generally a couple portajohns, but even so these were insufficient in number to prevent long lines (and the concomitant choice of convenience for many men, trees or bushes nearby).  The race would be better for everyone if this issue was successfully redressed in future iterations.

I was able to see some of the elite runners at the end of the race – the marathoners, that is.  The top men were finishing the full marathon as I was coming in to my finish.  It’s a bit depressing to be “lapped,” so to speak, by these runners, but quite amazing at the same time to see up close how fast they are moving in comparison to a “regular” runner like me.  I heard (but have yet to confirm) that a new course record was set today.

Post-race "snacky-treats"

In all, it was a nice experience.  I am glad I did not try to run the full marathon because it would have been pretty tiring to keep on going.  I was glad to be done after 13.1 miles.

GJS

Editor here again: check out this page on Flickr (note: it is not the running human’s Flickr page – he did not take a camera with him during the race; http://www.flickr.com/photos/future77/sets/72157625503659903/) for some photos from the marathon.  See also this report (http://focustaiwan.tw/ShowNews/WebNews_Detail.aspx?Type=aSPT&ID=201012190019) from Taiwan’s official news agency that puts the competitor estimate at 110,000 (with 31,000 in the marathon itself).  A course record was NOT set yesterday; the top male finisher crossed the line at 2:14:04 (course best is 2:11:05) and the top woman finished in 2:30:37 (course record was set last year by the same woman, at 2:30:05).  Finally, while final results for all runners were not available at press time (they will eventually be posted here: http://www.sportsnet.org.tw/en/,  some unofficial times for the running human are 1:51:14 (from the Taipei Marathon Information and Results Finder here: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US; screenshot below) and 1:55:45 (from his wrist-mounted GPS unit).  As posited above, the runner did indeed increase his pace throughout the race, averaging 9:40/mile over the first ~5.5 miles, then 9:23/mile for the next ~4 miles, and a swift 7:23/mile over the balance of the race (about 4 miles).  Both of these times seem to be a bit low, as in, faster than the actual finish time.  This post will be updated when the official finish time is available.

Running, Taipei edition

Heading to Taipei this weekend to run a half marathon there.  I think I saw somewhere that there will be 100,000 participants for the event, which if true is completely mind-boggling!  I've never heard of such a large race, and was not aware that the Taipei International Marathon was a race of that magnitude when I signed up for it.  I still plan to run it, but I'm just saying...  It may because there are like 5 different race lengths offered: full marathon, half marathon, 9km, 3km "fun run" ("free entry to the first 20,000 persons!"), and 2km kid's run.  I think showing up early to the race start for this one will be a must.

You can follow me online.  Here's the link: http://marathon.taipei.gov.tw/change.action?request_locale=en_US  Just type in my bib number, 18253.  Race starts Sunday, December 19 at 7AM, Taipei time.  I am to finish roundabout 2 hours, but with all those runners to dodge and weave between, I may be way off!

I'll write a little bit about how the race went next week, if I can find time.

GJS

Crunch Time

Don't think I've forgotten about you, faithful reader - I have lots for you! But now the end of my first semester of study draws near, and that means, of course, finals. I have no exams, but instead a pair of presentations (this week) and four (4) papers due next week, one for each class I am taking. What this means to you, dear reader, is that you will have to be patient and wait to see the nearly 1000* new photos that will be uploaded to Flikr at sometime in the not-too-distant future. Meanwhile, I shall be hard astudy.

GJS

*With a few days left in 2009, I remarked to Patrick that I though I could make it to 1000 photos on the month (December 2009 - hey, it was the holidays! -a period of increased photo-ness, right?). At the time I was at about 750. Patrick, Maxine and I went to Taipei for the New Year, and I was on track for 1000, with visits to the Taipei 101 observatory, the Sun Yat-sen Memorial, and the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, but my camera's battery gave out before my "shutter eye" did. I managed a few anemic pics of the fireworks from Taipei 101 before it gave way completely just moments after midnight, and sure enough, once I got home to see where I ended up, the verdict was...999!!! Alas, I this number was before I "culled the flock" a bit and got rid of the blatantly blurry or just plain no good shots (there are always at least a few - thank goodness for digital photography, I'll just take more pictures!) So I ended the month at about 950 pics. Again, these will be uploaded to Flikr sometime soon - don't worry, I'll give you the heads-up when this is happening to you can check for new photos. When that happens, it will essentially *double* the number of photos I have on Flikr, all for you, dear reader.

Taipei trip

I'm going to try something new this post. I'm going to try to make extensive use of my Flikr page for the photos I want to include because it is easier to upload pictures to it than it is to this blog. There will still be images here, don't worry! But just not 20 of them, hopefully. Here goes.

Tuesday I made a solo trip to Taipei to meet with two other Olmsted Scholars, one a veteran of the program from about 10 years back, and one who is a currently in the program, a year ahead of me. It was an informal meeting over lunch, just informational, but very useful to me. Anyhow, since I was making the trip all the way up the island, I decided to make a day of it and take in some of the sights along with visiting with my colleagues.

I arrived in Taipei about 9 AM. Here is a video clip I made just after my arrival laying out my goals.

When I finally decided where I was going to go before lunch and went there, I made this video.

I was blown away by the scale of this monument. Simply huge!

Many more photos and video from the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial are available here.

After that, I met with my colleagues for lunch at Din Tai Fung, a restaurant on Yongkang Jie. It was delicious. We had a variety of Shanghai-style dumplings, vegetables, and soup. While we ate, we discussed various issues surrounding the Olmsted Scholar Program and the more seasoned Scholars offered me advice, were that they in my shoes (just arrived in-country).

After lunch, it was off to Taipei 101, one of the tallest buildings in the world. For whatever reason, I like to visit very tall buildings. They fascinate me. I had been wanting to visit this building since I learned that it was in Taiwan and that I would be coming here to study. Here is the video segment I recorded upon arrival at the building.

There is a 5-level shopping mall in the building, jam-packed with high-end designer boutique shops and expensive restaurants. There seemed to be quite a few Japanese restaurants, in particular. None of these were my objectives, though - bookstore, anyone? The mall has a large bookstore called Page One. It did not disappoint. It featured a section of books that you wouldn't find in a bookstore in China:

After browsing the shelves for a while and not finding anything I couldn't live without (plus, I am trying to make the transition from traditional books to Kindle-based books and periodicals, so I didn't want to purchase more old-style books to derail that effort), it was time to head to the top of the building.

The tickets to go to the top are a tad expensive (NT$400, or about US$12), so I was glad that I was by myself. After a short wait, I was on the way to the top inside the fastest elevator in the world.

Once at the observatory on the 89th floor, I shot quite a lot of photos of the view (quite spectacular), most of which look about like this one:

Many more photos and my narrative video from inside the observatory can be found here.

There were a bunch of art displays inside the observatory. Here is one piece that jumped out at me. What do you think of it?

Then I found out I could go up 2 floors higher, to 91, and go outside. Money! More video followed. This video is entails me walking the entire circumference of the observation deck (I think it was truncated somewhat, as that its length exceeded the maximum upload parameter of 1 min 30 sec). WARNING: if your speakers are turned up, I recommend you turn them down before opening this video. The wind noise and the harmonic wind-driven vibration of the personnel safety bars (to keep nutcases from jumping off) is quite loud and is at an annoying pitch.

After my time on the 89th and 91st floors, it was time to try to get back to ground level. Not so fast! First I had to see the 730 ton (!) tuned mass damper. My photos and video don't really do it credit, so if you are interested, read more about it and see more photos here. Basically, this thing keeps the building stable in high winds and during seismic activity.

Well, back on terra firma, my objective was to find another bookstore nearby, Eslite Books (sorry, they don't have an English language website). I had heard this bookstore was very big, but I was not prepared for what I found: a 6-floor behemoth that is not a pure bookstore along the lines of Borders or my favorite, Barnes and Noble, but a hybrid between a conventional bookstore and Ikea. Seriously, they have tons of other goods for sale besides books, things that will complement your reading lifestyle, apparently. I hate to admit it, but I met my match at this store - I did not have the stamina to browse the entire store. I completely lost track of time in the building, but my aching feet and growling stomach told me it was time to move on.

A (not so) quick ride on the Taipei Metro had me back where I had started at in the city, and I recorded this video as a summary of my day.

After 2 more hours of riding the high speed rail back to Kaohsiung, my day was not over. I decided to check out the Liuhe Night Market not far from where we live. Even though it is nearby, we had not yet had a chance to check it out. I had heard it was quite the spectacle, with many choice of foods and myriad goods for purchase. I wasn't hungry nor did I want to buy anything, just take a few photos. Here is the best of them:

More can be found here.

As always, all photos mentioned here and even those that aren't can be found on my Flikr page.

The Taipei trip was a long day, but a good one. I hope to go back to take in more of the city soon.

GJS

(Ha! Only 7 pictures here!)