8th Annual Suzhou New Years Eve 10km Race
of the race ahead. It was interesting to see several of the Chinese
runners picking up the trophies
and posing for pictures with them
before the race had even started. I
found that quite funny. Another
thing that I liked about the race
was that there was also a Master’s
category (for age 40 and over)
which gives us ‘old’ guys more of a
chance.
With my family staying in Shanghai for the Christmas holidays, we
decided it would be good to have a
little break over the New Year. I’d
read about Roni Kauri’s Suzhou
10km NYE race in the 1st edition
of the magazine. So we planned a
short family break in Suzhou where
I also got to fit a race in too, happy
days!
After initially contacting Roni
about the race details, we decided
to stay in the Howard Johnson hotel about 3 km from the race start,
and walking distance to Jinji Lake.
We were lucky to enjoy 3 days of
warm weather and sunshine. The
area around Jinji Lake is very
pleasant for walking and it was
surprising quiet for the holidays.
The day before the race we walked
along the Li Gong Di which is
really pleasant with the lake on
both sides. This also incorporates
a good part of the course so I was
able to get an idea of the route.
The race itself, I found to be very
well organised and had a really
nice relaxed, friendly atmosphere.
With a mixture of Chinese (70%)
and Lao Wai (30%) runners and
about 100 runners in total, it has
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a low key, intimate and welcoming feel to the event. The largest
contingent of lao wai runners came
from Finland which was no surprise really as the organiser Roni’s
club are the Suzhou Flying Finns
and Wannabes.
The race start is located in the
Golden Lough Garden residential
compound, on Jinjihu Avenue in
the Suzhou Industrial Park area.
Registration was at the compound
clubhouse. In the clubhouse the
trophies were lined up on a table
adorned by the Finnish flag, which
added to the sense of anticipation
We were soon all lining up for
the start of the race. My sense of
anticipation was soon replaced by
surprise at the speed of that start
which literally took my breath
away. Over the last year I’d raced
3 marathons but no short distance
events and it really felt like it too.
If ever there was a reason to do
some speed training this was it!
Within the first few minutes there
was already a sizeable gap opened
up at the front of the race with
around five or 6 runners breaking
away.
At this stage I was in about 7th
place and before heading to the Li
Gong Di there is a turn where you
see the leading runners heading
back the other way. The Masters
runners wore different race numbers to the seniors (under 40) but I
was focusing so much on trying to
keep up that I forgot to look how
many Master runners were ahead
of me. At this point I got overtaken by a Chinese runner from
the local iPaobu running club in
Suzhou. I was trying to focus on
the back of his running vest which
had a 1