Running at the Stadium

Much has happened since I had a chance to update you all so here goes. 
First off we started Lao lessons with Chanta who is the head librarian and one of CLI's right hand people.  Along with being our Lao teacher she is our landlord of sorts.  She lives next door and we are staying in her sisters house.  Chanta has a very good handle on English so she has been helpful answer questions and translating for us.  We have been moving at a pace where at even just one hour a day I will be fluent in Lao, if I remember everything we go over. Lao is such a difficult language that we are learning everything tonally which is to say we cant read squat.  Not surprising when the words look like this ໂດຍໃຊ້.  Yeah not an easy thing to learn.  We go over sentences and then write down how we hear her say things so I have a notebook full of a language that only I understand. 

After Lao lessons each morning we get a chance to rest and do homework.  Around 4pm Sumlat, another CLI big man, has been  taking us the national stadium in LP (also known as the site for the national games).  The first day we showed up, in our matching jackets that Royal College of Hong Kong gave to CLI, we walked over to see the LP team sitting stretch.  Of course we caught them off guard being that we were the only foreigners there.  Sumlat ran for the national team and was a 2 time national champion in the past so some of the guys there knew him.  We said hello then stretched trying to be as intimidating as possible.  Since you all know me that is probably something you just laughed at....and rightly so.  Off we went after stretching the goal Sumlat said was 10 laps which is 2.5 miles and something that Tom and I scoffed at.  Sumlat has put on some weight since his super star days and has also like many ex athletes found the enjoyment a beer can bring, not unlike Tom or myself.  The first few laps were filled with us discussing our glory days.  He was a national champion but my times were better.  The best part being that Tom is in the best shape of all of us.  After a few laps Sumlat thought it better to slow off the torrid pace we were setting and dropped back.  Tom and I kept the hammer down at 8 minute miles (haha) as the runners and soccer players (also training) stared on very impressed.  When the ten laps was over I was relieved.  I had survived the first run at the stadium without looking like a complete idiot and felt pretty good.  Tom felt better so he continued on showing off of course.  Sumlat decided that after stretching we should show some drills.  Tom and I did drills and without telling them the team quickly followed suit.  It was funny to see them mimic what we were doing.  One must take into account that this was a group of high school kids who have probably never had a coach.  In the corner of the stadium is their weight equipment which consists of some logs with a bar in the middle and tires.  While we were doing drills some of the guys put a rope around a tire tied it to themselves then sprinted with it.  It was actually a pretty interesting training technique.  Drills finished up and then a older man came over talking to Sumlat.  Sumlat had known him from his national team days and we got to talking.  He was a nice guy who spoke english fluently.  He had come up from Vientiane to see how the training for the games was going.  We got to talking about our running past and he asked us to help coach the team.  We appreciated the offer but said we must decline.  We are not able to coach anyone until the right steps are taken through the correct channels.  He left and Sumlat then told us that he was the first person in Laos 35 years ago to start up the national athletics program.  We had met some Lao athletics royalty and didnt even know it. 

The daily schedule has been the same each day with learning Lao in the morning and then running at the stadium in the evening.  We have slowly gained the respect of the people there and if it were up to them we would officially be their coaches. 

That first day Groundhog Day was also my birthday and my second spent on the Mekong in the last 4 years. 

Thank you all and hopefully this can satiate your thirst for the knowledge of the program until my next post.

Remember comments are always appreciated and sorry for any grammatical errors.