Run 3, Walk 2 – Smile at the locals!

My morning workout routine continues. I’m going back to basic running training and focusing on using a run/walk combo. I’ve been out enough in the morning that some of the faces on my route are starting to become familiar – the taxi riders outside my building, the group doing Tai Chi, the old woman with extreme Osteoparosis, etc.

I still pass numerous strangers during my workout though. It is amazing the looks that these strangers give me as I run/walk by them. At times I feel like I am the main event at a Circus Side Show. In my own neighborhood I’ve become accustomed to the looks. They don’t seem as blatant. I think because every day the locals likely see a handful of Caucasian expats; perhaps not out running – but they are around.

As you move further away from the center of Shanghai the number of expats decreases dramatically. That made one of my runs this week very interesting. I was out in a distant suburb of Shanghai for one night. In the morning I went on a run. The amount of extremely obvious and direct looks I got was amazing. Heck at times they even turned around once they passed me to look at me again and again. (double and triple takes).

My response was simply to smile bigger and hold my head up higher. I proclaimed silently in my head “Yes, you are witnessing something unique for this area – you are watching a tall, white, female American run down the street while wearing an I-pod, an SI Band and a waterbelt!”