Saigon South, 06-09-09
I just passed a 20-something kid running barefoot. Barefoot running and ‘simulated barefoot running’ have been in the news recently. At least the news that catches my attention these days. There is some speculation that the modern running shoe is perhaps the cause and not the solution to many running related injuries. Some of these arguments make sense. Based on his experience with the pygmies, I am sure Dr. Wade the chiropractor will agree.
“Simulated barefoot’. How ridiculous does that sound? You wear the shoes or you don’t. One is barefoot and the other is not. But technology isn’t satisfied with such simplicity. There are now special $110 foot sleeves for those that want to run barefoot but can’t invest the time or pain to develop proper calluses. When worn, they look like something that came from the costume department of Planet of the Apes. If a Gorilla invented a running shoe it would look like this.
This kid doesn’t wear $110 monkey feet. All he has done is to bind a couple of toes together with bits of white medical tape. In fact, his equipment consists of nothing more than a pair of bright yellow running shorts. No iPod or GPS device, no shoes, no dri-wick shirt, no Gu, no sunglasses, no water bottle. Not even a hat. I can see at a glance that he is running distance and has already covered quite a few kilometers. His stride is graceful. And he is flying! He must be running under 6 minutes per mile.
I swear I have never felt to so old in my life. I’ve been running very poorly lately. All the gear and technology is useless or, it seems, pointless. Today is particularly bad and slow. Right now I am running about 10 minute miles. Slow. Even for me. These are the days when I wonder if all this early morning training is worth it. It’s not his fault, but the kid in the yellow shorts doesn’t help improve my frame of mind. I am just grateful that he is running in the opposite direction. It would be even more depressing if he had passed me. I would then have to watch him steadily expand the distance between us on this long flat, well-paved and unobstructed road in Saigon South, Ho Chi Minh City’s ‘Pleasantville’ according to Odile.
It’s been a while since I’ve run down here in Saigon South. This is where I did most of the outdoor training for my first half-marathon in Angkor Wat last December. Back then, ‘Long Runs’ started at about 10K and never exceeded 16. Today I am only planning to run 20k.
Pleasantville is a new city development put together by three enterprising and entrepreneurial family companies from Taiwan. When the project started, the patriarchs of all three families were still firmly in control of their empires. They were also closely linked to Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintan (KMT) political party who ruled Taiwan uninterrupted from 1949 to 2000. For most of that time the KMT claimed to be ruling all of China. This always struck me as being rather out of touch with reality. I do admire dreamers. But rarely those that dream of the past. When I lived there in the late 80s they still had parliamentary representatives from all the provinces of Mainland China. Maybe they still do today? The people of the province of Taiwan only had a few representatives. Surreal.
I was still running quite a bit when I lived in Taipei. Taipei is geographically similar to Los Angeles. It’s a big city surrounded on three sides by mountains. These inconveniently keep the smog and pollution within city limits so we used to run up the foothills on the outskirts of the city to get a bit of clear air. I used to run most often with my friend Tom Gailey who was waiting in Taiwan for ‘his ship to come in’ as he put it.
The trails were fun to run and the hills were a challenge. As we reached the top of the hill we were running one day we saw a genuine UFO. The sun had just gone down and we could clearly see this glowing object moving in the northern sky from west to east. Too fast and bright for a plane; too slow and steady for a meteor. Hundred of people across Taiwan and more in China and South Korea reported it. So that makes it a genuine Unidentified Flying Object as far as I am concerned.
I can see a lot of Taipei in Saigon South. It was designed to bring a bit of order to a pretty disorganized city. Unlike the original expat enclave of An Phu on the other side of the river, Saigon South is designed for and marketed to upper middle class Vietnamese as well as expatriates. The three Taiwanese families and their architects have succeeded in creating an orderly space. The streets are wide and I don’t see the kind of traffic congestion I do elsewhere. But somehow the whole package never quite lives up to its promise. The wide, well-paved roads still buckle and roll in places that they shouldn’t. The apartments are slightly too close to each other. Most of the construction looks like it won’t age very well. Indeed, some of the older sites are showing age already. If it were my project I would be vaguely dissatisfied with the results. Yes, it resembles the little cardboard model in the boardroom but I would be unhappy knowing that it could have been done better.
It appears that some of the family members involved are not entirely satisfied with the results either. Their dissatisfaction centers not necessarily on the quality of life in Pleasantville but on how the pie of proceeds should be split. A huge argument and the inevitable series of lawsuits have ensued.
At least two of the three patriarchs are dead now. I had met both of them. Lawrence Ting I knew best. He always came across to me as a serious and committed person. He was a soldier, a patriot, an athlete and a public figure. He even led Taiwan’s first independent delegation to the Olympics. He exuded an air of leadership in the meetings where I was present. But there seemed to me always something contrived or forced about this leadership quality. Not that he was faking it but that perhaps he was not entirely comfortable with the role he had created for himself. I sympathize with this.
Something went terribly wrong for Lawrence. Besieged by lawsuits but at the height of his achievements -at a time when Saigon South was finally becoming a viable community, however imperfect, for thousands of people - Lawrence left a meeting at his lawyer’s office in Taipei via a 15th story window. His wife was quoted as saying that his suicide was a protest to prove his innocence. A note left on lawyer’s letterhead said something to that effect. Strange logic. Such is business in Asia. Top of the world one day - on the pavement the next.
I run past the Lawrence Ting memorial school next to my son’s high school. I am still running slowly. I am blaming my slow pace and poor form on Pigs.
After the triathlon I had to go to Singapore for a few days. My son Tadhg was coughing a bit before I left and much more by the time I returned with my own cough. I took us both to the clinic and he tested positive for Influenza A. H1N1, the now famous Pig or Swine Flu, is a variation of Influenza A. The test doesn’t tell if he has ‘normal’ Influenza A or the H1N1. Further tests are needed to determine that but the doctor explains that only a government lab can test a specimen for H1N1. If the tests are positive, a meat wagon comes to find the patient at home and transport him for quarantine at a local hospital. I had a friend who was forced to go there when he arrived at the airport with a fever. He came out of the quarantine hospital a few days later testing negative for H1N1 but with a case hepatitis.
Since the treatment for H1N1 and Influenza A are the same, we decided not to test any further. My test results were negative but I still had flu symptoms and now a lingering bronchial infection. The strange thing is that once I start running, my lungs clear out and my respiratory system seems to be in better shape. But I still can’t maintain a very good pace.
It’s a pity I am running so poorly. This was supposed to be a more interesting day for running. This big loop I am running around Pleasantville is a 12K warm up for a 5K race across a nearby bridge that has just been completed.
I arrive at the bridge and am impressed with the turn out. Over 3,500 people are here. I had no idea this many people run recreationally in Saigon. I see quite a few familiar faces and friends. I also note how steep the grade is on the bridge. From here I can only see the uphill portion. This will be great practice for the 5 bridges I will be crossing in New York. It will also be good practice for running in a crowd. Running is a strange sport at a social level. I spend so much time running alone it feels unnatural to be running in a crowd at first.
This bridge is just about 2 kilometers long so the race takes place almost entirely on the Bridge. I catch some grief from my friend Brad as I slurp down a packet of Gu before the race starts. “I can’t believe you need that stuff for a 5K, race”, he says. But this is kilometer 13 for me. I’ll run another 2K in Pleasantville on the way home so I can get the entire 20K in today.
Running with a crowd is a lot more fun than plodding along on my own or watching shoeless youngsters go whipping by me. I forget about the Pigs for now and run the 5K in about 24 minutes. I am surprised and pleased with the time. Then Brad, who carries a GPS watch and a mobile phone when he runs, says that the course is actually about half a kilometer short. Another bubble bursts. Still, I’m looking forward to the 5 bridges of New York.
