The coaches of the soccer and basketball teams signed everyone up for the New Year's Day Race in town. Sophia has been running every morning before school with the team.
We LOVED that our friends were here for this.
The event's opening show had some interesting break dancing moves as well as some fitness instructors doing a dance.
Our friends had asked us earlier if living in a small town, did we know people as we went out and about? Yes, pretty much, though we still hear the word 'foreigner' said almost every day. And sure enough every where we took them we ran into people we knew. A lot of this has to do with being a part of the local school system, but we also ran into others from villages too.
Pre-race we ran into one of David's best local friends whose son was running in the race.
one of Sophia's best friends.
There were about 200 girl competitors. And they changed the course from previous years. It used to be flat and windy. This year it was a gradual incline to steep uphill for the first 1.5 km (pick up a card to prevent cheating) and then turn around and speed down the hill.
Here she is kicking it in toward the finish. She came in 34th and did awesome!
Coming in at the finish. At some parts of the finish their was a bottleneck and they had to tell people to slow down. What? No way! Finish strong!
We loved this event on the first day of the year with some of our favorite people. We were so proud of Sophia!
Her school gave her water, chocolate and 10 yuan for participating ($1.50)
