Mark's Writings - Running with the Bikers in China

I run outside only twice per week, and run the stairways and treadmill other days.   There are 510 stairs leading to our apartment.  That's 33 floors, minus all floors containing the number 4 which leaves 30 floors total.   The number 4 scares the crap out of the Chinese, so they eliminated floors 4, 14, and 24.    Outdoors, I either run numerous laps around ZhongShan Park, weaving around crowds of people, or preferably, I run straight west on Chang'Ning road.  On Chang'Ning, the sidewalks are too cluttered to get a good pace going, so I run in the mo-ped lane with the bikers.  I pass several of them.  I'm a bit of a spectacle I'm sure.  On more than one occasion, curious natives have run alongside me... they only last a few blocks.  I know enough Chinese to say hello: "ni hao, zao shong hao, wo shi mei guo ren"...that’s all I got.  I don’t understand any of their responses.  In the bike lane, it’s mostly bikers and they don’t talk at all.  Biking is not a sport here.  These are real bikers... they bike because they don't have a car or mo-ped.  Their bikes are old and rusty.  Some have little electric motors on them.  Some have three wheels, carrying welding machines, pipes, recycled trash, children, and spouses.  Live chickens go to market by bike.   I respect the lane as their space, and stay out of their way.   I'm training for the Great Wall Marathon near Beijing, in May2012.  It's going to be a bit of a challenging marathon, with over 5000 stair steps; about half of the course is actually on the Great Wall.