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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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