Mr. James的首次西安城墙马拉松

 

On November 5, 2016, I had the privilege of participating is Xi’an’s annual city wall run. This year’s race organizer did an excellent job. To borrow a phrase from the heart of classic Americana, they hit it out of the park. In other words, the race was a huge success… a homerun.

2016年11月5日我有幸参加了西安一年一度的城墙马拉松。赛事会务组的组织工作做的非常好。整个赛事，非常成功，用美国人爱说的话就是，完胜。The race included 3 different distances. There is the 5k, 13k (one full lap around the wall) and the half marathon. I participated in the half marathon, 13.1 miles or 21.1k.  Since it was my first time running a half marathon, my only goal was just to finish the race preferably without stopping. Runners gathered at the South gate and ran west around the wall first passing the West gate, then the North Gate (Train Station) and finally turning around near the East gate where we headed back to the starting/finish line at the South gate.

比赛分为3个项目，5公里，13公里（绕西安城墙1周）和半程马拉松。我参加了半程马拉松，21.1公里（13.1英里）。由于是第1次参加半程马拉松，所以我的目标是不间断的跑完全程。参赛队员以南门为起点向西经过西门，北门，西安火车站，最终在东门折返，回南门跑完全程。Along the race route there were plenty of medical stations and water stations. Event volunteers could be seen at different points along the course as well. At about 16km, I was very tired. I thought I would have to stop. But I just kept running… eventually I saw the finish line in the distance. Though it took over 2 hours, I accomplished the goal of finishing the distance without stopping.

跑道上有很多医疗点，供水站，以及很多赛事志愿者，为参赛队员提供帮助。跑到差不多16公里的时候，我已经累到不行，很想停下来休息，但我坚持了下来，到达了终点。尽管用了2个小时，但我实现我的目标，不间断的跑完全程。After crossing the finish line I was immediately met by event volunteers who put a small ribbon/medal around my neck. Then something a little unexpected happened. A reporter from CCTV came up to me with her microphone and camera man in toe. She started asking me questions. But I was very tired and needed to simply “catch my breath.” I was not ready to answer questions in Chinese. Nonetheless, I did answer her questions but not in the way I should have. What ensued is a basic illustration of intercultural communication.

刚到达终点线，志愿者就把奖牌、彩带挂在了我的身上。始料未及，就在那一刻，CCTV的一位记者带着她的麦克风和摄像师，出现在我面前，要采访我。由于我非常非常累，上气还不接下气，我的中国式思维当时完全没有到位，虽然我也回答了采访的问题，但如果换做现在，我会有不同的表达。She first asked me where I was from. I, however, thought she was asking where I worked. So I started answering without thinking of what she asked. She then patiently asked me again where I was from. I answered correctly this time. She proceeded to ask me how this race compared to races in America. I rambled on about this being my first time and my only goal was to finish the race without stopping. She wanted different answers. So she asked another question about the city wall. I directly answered her question about how the city wall was very nice and rambled on again about how I loved history … or something like that.

记者首先问我从哪里来，我以为她问我从哪个公司来，我告诉她我的公司名字是星辉文化，紧接着她又问我了一次从哪来，我明白了，原来她是想问我从哪个国家来，这次的答案是记者想要的，美国。记者又问本次的比赛跟美国的有什么不同，我“稀里糊涂”的回答说这是我第1次参加，我的目标是不间断的跑完全程……现在想想，这其实并不是记者想要的答案，所以她又追加了一个城墙的问题，我再一次非常直接的“稀里糊涂”的回答记者说，城墙非常漂亮，城墙的历史多棒等等……OK. Here is the intercultural communication mishap. Looking back, I now understand that she was probably not interested in my fondness for history and the city wall. She was more interested knowing how Xi’an’s race compared to America’s. Since I did have previous experience in running shorter races in America like 5ks and 10ks, I should have answered that the race was a “slam dunk.”  The race was very well organized and very much felt like races in America. This after all was the answer she really was after.  And, in fact, the 2016 Xi’an City Wall International Marathon was organized amazingly well. Hats off to the organizing committee. They did an awesome job. I am looking forward to participating again next year.

这是个跨文化交流的小插曲，再次回想采访的经过，我想记者的重点不是想知道我有多喜欢城墙以及它的历史，而是更想知道西安的这次马拉松比赛跟美国的马拉松比赛有什么不同。我在美国的确参加过5公里跟10公里的短程马拉松，我应该告诉记者今年的西安城墙上举办的马拉松比赛就跟我在美国参加的一样好。我想我的这个感受应该才是记者所想要了解的。事实上2016年的西安城墙马拉松安排的确实很棒，我本人向本次赛事的组委会表示崇高的敬意，非常期待明年的比赛，我会继续报名参加。