1224

Nej, this is not a fanciful play of numbers like Wong Kar-wai's 2046 movie. This is the name of a threadmill running competition that is going on at the gym chain that we frequent.

Without a doubt, it is a marketing gimmick of a sport brand that is introducing its NEW running shoes, whose model number runs by the name of the competition, and is purported to give better BALANCE to you when you run. *I hope you have already guessed the name of the brand*.

So, the gist of the competition is to stretch your cardio limit on the threadmill, by measuring how far you can run within 12 minute 24 seconds. There will be ONE winner each from the male and female categories, who then get sponsorships to fly off to Seoul to participate in a real marathon.

Yes, you might have guessed it already. Olof and I took part in the competition. I ran 2230meters, and he ran 2980meters. *We pray for bad weather, so that little people will venture to the gym. If anybody should go to the gym, we pray for more Chinese-illiterate foreigners, because the competition promoter speaks no English. Ha!* Only THEN, we probably stand any chances of winning.

BUT, for two packs of nearly 30-year-old bones, I think we did not bad. Events as such really adds fun to training in the gym, especially in a city like Beijing, where outdoors sports are not very possible.

AND, kudos to us for not getting any muscle aches the next day.

Wedding Wonderful!

One of my best friends got married in November, and I was extremely honored to be able to participate in her wedding as one of the wedding sisters. Her wedding jerked back alot of memories of my own. The anxiety, sleepness nights, countless visits to the beauty salons, and of course the sudden, "excruciating" attentiveness to details like pens on every dinner table, all seemed so familiar. Ha! But as all who had been-there-done-that know, all will turn out fine in the end. And it did indeed!