A Nike Christmas

Merry Christmas from Taipei (otherwise known as Another Working Day). Went to church, Santa came, wrapping paper flying, my son unwrapped all the gifts in a delicate way at first before he turned into the human whirlwind. So, all in all our little family had a cute and fun Christmas. Must say my wife is a great on incorporating American culture in our house.

Thanks to our friend Mandy we were able to get a very handsome discount from the local Nike store. Our family is a poster board for Nike now. Everything from shoes to hats (head to toe) filled our wrapped presents.

Kate, a friend of ours, painted a wonderful picture depicting her view of Mr. Wing (by Jimi).

Of course Christmas would not be complete without talking to the family. Did miss my sisters and their families, but chit-chat'ed with mom and dad.

Taipei ING Marathon - my unofficial time

I did not run the marathon or half marathon. I ran the 9K. My un-official time was 44:17. It turns out I was supposed to pick up my number and time chip the day before. I paid for the event 2 months before, but since I do not read Chinese I missed the point of picking up my event package. My wife (being Taiwanese) also read the information, but missed the point as well. So my time is based on my start and stopping of my stop watch.

It was a crowded race and the first 3k was more of a walk/jog than a run. They say some 111,000 people were registered for the race. I just know the line of people extended some 8K. I was finishing the race and people were still starting.

Update (Jan 1, 2007) My unofficial time put me in around the 576 runner over the finish line out of 8,622 official participants (my class rank about 56 of 736).

QUICK FACT: The ING Taipei marathon is the only city marathon in the world that attracts more than 100,000 runners.