Look at the laowai run!

It's only a week and a half to go until the big run in Beijing and I'm feeling pretty good about it. After a busy first day of Term 4 yesterday, I hit the streets of Wuxi last night for a run and test out my new gadget. I bought a running belt type thing that you can put a bottle of water in and hook your camera to etc. and I wanted to try it out to see how comfy it is because I'm very keen to run with my camera but not to carry it the whole way. But, it looks super nerdy, so as you can imagine, I had a lot more people staring at me than normal. One guy in particular was hilarious, this is what happened. One minute, I was running along in my own little world and then there were several flashes. Fireworks, more neon lights coming on, I thought. Then I realised that it was a man taking photos of me. Thinking nothing of it, I smiled, waved, and ran on. A few minutes later, he appeared again, this time on a scooter riding along next to me, giving me the thumbs up and a big grin. I gave another smile and a wave. He motioned for me to stop, so, feeling a little miffed, I stopped quickly to see what he wanted - a close up photo of my red, sweaty face. Hmmmmm. Another smile and a wave and on I went. The man then continued to ride along next to me and started telling me to get onto the back of his scooter and he would give me a lift. Politely, I declined and he continued to persist, gesturing that I didn't need to pay him. I continued to decline and tried to explain that I was actually running because I wanted to, not because I had to! He seemed to get the idea and just continued to ride along next to me, grinning madly, until he got sick of it and scooted away. A funny little experience for a Monday night run!