Day 22

Jiangiyun to Somewhere East of Beigang.

PHOTOS FOR DAY 22: 3097 3098 3103 3105 3106 3111 3115 3120 3123 3124

Oh, how different was the daylight Jiali. Last night, we could have been in a ghost town, with only that crazed, tortured grump of a proprietor for company. Today, Jiali is a buzzing mini-metropolis with markets, food stands and stalls everywhere you can see. Drinking coffee in the hotel, Dave is debating running with Neil today. However, on finding, possibly for the first time since I’ve been in Taiwan, a star sign section in the newspaper he’s forced to reconsider:

Neil’s Cancer star sign reads thus: You’re full of energy and enthusiam today. You want to go places and you want to make things happen. It won’t be easy for others to keep up with your pace.

And, Dave’s Taurean prediction: You’re so enthused, energetic and eager to do things today, be careful you don’t trip over your own two feet. Slow down!

In the sunshine, boosted by our enormous appetites that only rose ten-fold on finding a restaurant that served Western food (hallelujah!), we took tables outside, armed ourselves with newspapers and sat down to enjoy the early afternoon and gorge ourselves stupid. We placed an order that included (but by no means encompassed) two tuna cheese melts, an enormous salad, fried tofu, a ham sandwich, a pork hot-pot with rice and vegetables, a chicken baguette and several side dishes that would have rivaled the easy coast mountains in size. The sense of achievement that Domesticated Dave and I shared from sewing flags to bamboo sticks and curtain rails that morning was evident in our good humour; so much so that we all failed to recognise the quite obvious danger that was staring up from our table. At 4.30pm, we had been eating for an hour without once considering that the cumulation of Neil’s ravenous appetite of late and the delicious food on hand could be very grave indeed.

Setting off for a very late start, we managed to dis recall the route back to the start line and put the start time even further back driving more than once through a busy vegetable and fruit market that was unmistakably not the road we wanted. Asking locals for directions has oftentimes been more trouble than it was worth, and today was little different. I don’t know why every single person we request a simple left or right from would rather tell you the history of the Portuguese invaders or where to buy the best beef noodles before furnishing us with the simple response but, as usual, this was the case again and, despite the undoubtedly good intentions, didn’t help us at all. Finally, we find our spot and wish Neil on his merry way.

Six kilometres down the line, all is not well. Neil is, basically, too full to run and is jogging along with what he refers to as “an anchor” in his stomach. Running on again, Dave and I amuse ourselves by befriending a discarded, lonesome doll. And then drowning it. We catch Neil up and he’s debating vomiting. He must run fast today to finish before midnight and the two kinds of meat and tuna are not helping his pace. Discussing how it’s possible to speed up the digestive process, I suggest we buy a bag of enzymes from somewhere. Apparently this is not a possibility. Neil’s pretty annoyed with himself at this point. Eating so much before the mammoth 42.2km run, no matter if it be your first or twenty-second, is never a good idea. “Never show disrespect to the beast that is the marathon,” says Neil. Dave and I can see what he means.

Luckily, by the twelve kilometre mark the crisis has begun to subside and Neil’s ready to speed on to make up for the lost time. At 8.10, he’s run 17km, and has a “beast” of a tsk ahead of him…. again. But, he does the job as admirably as ever, enjoying the challenge and laughing about the unpredictable nature of this adventure. Unfortunately, the nearest hotel is miles away and we burn off to Beigang. Or Bacon as Dave has called it. A fittingly foody end to a foody day.