He Runs She Runs

At 4:30 this morning, we rose to the rooster in a bizarre boutique hotel room in Siem Reap, Cambodia, surrounded by Barbie dolls in display cases on the walls and random bits of neon plastic glued, literally everywhere, all over the room.

Siem Reap is just a few kilometres from the ancient city of Angkor, the ancient seat of the god kings built over one thousand years ago.

It was over beers in a Brooklyn bar that a friend of a friend told us of Angkor's annual half-marathon event, held in aid of land mine victims. "We have to do that!" we said. Owing to my relatively flexible caldendar these days, I was able to find the huge amount of time required to train for such an event - having only started running in February of this year - and  Rosie entered the 10k run...highly respectable given the busy first term she's just had in a new school in a new country.

So with the sun not yet up, we were donning our running kit and heading out across town in a tuk-tuk to get to the start line opposite the mighty Angkor Wat temple. A new sensation was felt...I believe many across the world call it "cold". At maybe 15 degrees, Rosie's arms prickled with what many across the world call "the goose's pimples".

Long story short, it was amazing. I made a good start and quickly found myself at the 5k mark...the scenery is stunning and with people from all over the world competing, there was a great atmosphere. As we headed up the park's east boundary, families and children from the nearby villages had come out to cheer us on, standing in long rows along the road, holding out their hands to high five as we filed past. I have a GPS watch and noticed how much faster I got when passing them...it really helped!

The 10.5k half way mark was a long time coming but as I pushed on, time seemed to speed up and before I knew it we were at 16k with only 5 more to go. Drummers and dancers met us along the way, pounding to the beat of the thousands of feet running past, and as the incredible temples appeared and disappeared behind us, I was soon staring down my last 3k. It was around 8am, and the tourists had started to appear in the park, roaring and cheering us on...and my pace rocketed, leaping from an initial 6:28 per kilometre to 5:30. Sprinting the last 500m was amazing, speeding along the narrow tunnel formed by the crowds. The dance music from the PA system was pumping, I could see the finish line through the trees and I shot past everyone and anyone ahead of me to finish in 2h 11m with an average pace of 6:11...not bad considering the temperature was hitting 30+ degrees by the end.

From a frosty morning in February, when I was only just able to jog 1km around my parents' village, to an international half marathon, I'm really rather proud of myself...and exhausted! Could I have turned around and done it all again, do I have a marathon in me? Not today, no thanks....but never say never...

Rosie hit a new PB for her 10k, leaving the "fun runners" chewing her dust and finishing in an amazing 1 hour 8 minutes. Quite a change from her Santa Run on a bitter London morning exactly one year ago to the day. After leaving her waiting for me for over an hour, we were reunited on the banks of the Angkor Wat moat for a big sweaty hug with the towers of the largest religious building in the world looming over the jungle beyond the water.

After massages and a huge lunch, we're now just chilling in the cafés (me) and manicure bars (Rosie) of Siem Reap before making the 45 minute flight back to Saigon this evening.

Here are the before and after shots:

Some time later...