Yesterday was the RMIT fun run. Its an annual 5k run organized by my University. I've been sort of getting back into my running lately which is tough as its so hot all the time but nevertheless Ive been persisting and this is my first run since leaving England nearly four years ago.
Since I've been in Vietnam I have noticed an increase of running events, its gone form none to about 10 per year across Vietnam. These range from 5km runs to marathons. This event was scheduled to start at 7:30am in the RMIT University field and go around a riverside place just over the road from the University.
When in Vietnam and someone gives you a time it's always a good idea to check if they mean 'real time' or 'Vietnamese time'. An event starting at 7:30am in real time is 7:30am, in Vietnamese time this is anything between 7:40am and 8:30am. As it happens this event was in Vietnamese time and it started at about 7:45am. A delayed start is never an issue in England, when your in the tropics however its a little different. At this time of day you can feel the temperature rising by the minute. By the time it started I think it was already in the early to mid 30s.
Anyway, my goal was to get around without stopping and I achieved this. It took me 32m:00s which is a lot slower than the last one I did in England which took me 22m:30s. Its not a bad first event in Vietnam. I did find out after that it was in fact 6k not the 5k advertised, one of my friends used his running sat nav on the route so this make my time even more agreeable. On a further note about the heat, I really can't think of another time in my life when I was hotter that on this run. It was crazy hot and much of the route had no shade.
Anyway it was a great start to the day and something I'll be doing again next year.
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