Chapter 249: The Marathon
Chapter 249
Lu Mountain City is not developed, just a remote small city. Usually the whole city is hard to see so many foreigners.
Now Jiajia classmate is sitting among them, and still feels a little disoriented.
Especially listening to Teacher Xiao Qi chatting with them, she was also completely confused, she couldn\'t even understand them.
Their speaking speed is so fast.
Originally this semester her English had improved greatly. In the previous two unit tests, she scored fifth and third respectively, and was very smug and proud, feeling that her English was very good and she was very talented, making up for it in one summer vacation. Her English was originally the third and fifth worst in the class.
But now watching Teacher Xiao Qi chatting with foreigners, chatting so naturally and fluently, without needing gestures, just speaking directly, as if speaking Chinese, Liang Jiajia was completely shocked. She felt she still had a lot to learn. She remembered her dad had gone abroad for a year of exchange and learning, and then had an affair with a female teacher who went to study together, but her dad\'s and that woman\'s English combined was still not as good as Xiao Qi\'s.
They seemed to need gestures and miming, unable to express a lot clearly.
Not only Liang Jiajia student was shocked.
Lu Chao, the student council president of the long distance running club, was also very shocked. He and Xiao Qi were from the same school. He knew there were foreign teachers at the school. He had been at school for three years and had foreign teacher classes too, but he never felt there was much of a connection. He didn\'t expect his club member to have such good English and have such a strong connection with foreign teachers. He felt like he and Su Xiaoqi might not have attended the same university.
How could people from the same school be so different? Foreign teachers seemed invisible to him. At most they were just part of the scenery of Enhua. Occasionally seeing foreign teachers, he remained unperturbed. Foreigners were no big deal to him, but he had never thought about being able to chat with them in daily life.
Sitting on a bus full of foreigners, Lu Chao felt dizzy. Watching Xiao Qi chatting away with the foreign teachers, he wondered just what kind of fairy his club had recruited.
Xiao Qi chatted for a while, then closed her eyes to rest. After all, she was here to compete.
Although she also got up early usually, sitting on the bus rocking back and forth this early in the morning made her want to conserve her energy. Although she never told anyone what ranking she wanted, most people assumed she was just participating without aiming for any particular result. But that wasn\'t the case.
Compared to swimming, Xiao Qi was more dedicated to running.
Every run was a release, an improvement.
She felt like she was running out from that little village of Gu Mu.
Continuously taking steps, continuously running, there was persistence in her heart.
No one would have thought that this long-lashed girl resting with eyes closed was hiding such a huge ball of energy inside, like a little volcano, seeming tranquil on the surface but actually burning for a very long time already.
On the other side, Xiao Bao\'er had uncharacteristically gotten up early today.
Dressed in a miniature tracksuit, she had originally wanted family to carry her to see the competition, but that was too difficult. Don\'t be fooled by her small size, she was actually very heavy. Carrying her for a bit was fine, but for a long time was completely impossible.
When Xiao Bao\'er was born, it had already been freakish. A smooth delivery, but weighing over 9 jin at birth.
It completely exceeded imagination.
Guo Ying also did not expect that at her age, she could still deliver such a huge baby smoothly.
For most families, the baby wouldn\'t necessarily reach 9 jin even at the 100th day celebration.
Because they had to bring the little ancestor, Xiao Shengzhou also came along. Xiao Yu, who rarely participated in such boring family activities, had also exceptionally gotten up early to go out together.
Xiao\'s Grandpa was too old to bother with such things. Xiao\'s Dad was busy with work. That left Xiao Bao\'er, Xiao\'s Mama, Xiao\'s Grandma, Xiao Shengzhou, Xiao Yu, one family. They took a minibus driven by their chauffeur and came out. The weather today was good, making it seem even more like a family outing. Xiao Bao\'er had also specially prepared a bunch of small red flags early, saying she wanted to cheer and encourage Xiao Qi.
The family didn\'t dissuade her and found a good water point for her. The regulations mandated that marathon runners could only drink water or drinks provided by the event, not their own or from others. But it would be quite impressive for a young girl to finish even a half marathon.
On the other side, Li Weijin, whose foot injury still wasn\'t healed, had his foot wrapped in LV branded cloth over the gauze by his mother... Uncle Rong brought him to go watch the marathon.
Uncle Rong knew that the beautiful girl from that day seemed to be participating in the marathon. His young master should be going to see the girl compete, so he had originally planned to pick a spot near the starting line. He didn\'t expect the young master to insist on waiting at the finish line. Uncle Rong didn\'t vocalize his doubts but was very worried the young master would be waiting in vain.
The class leader wanted to organize people to watch the competition, but due to it being vacation time and the competition starting at 8am, in the end she only organized the vice class leader. The two of them, affectionately eating and drinking their fill early, also weren\'t clear if they had come to watch the competition or date. They first went to eat a sweet breakfast together.
A group of foreign teachers got off the bus and arrived at the starting point, very eye-catching.
Especially Enhua\'s black foreign teacher, Bruce, with his head of messy braids. Sturdy and muscular, he looked quite formidable. His number was also very front - 00109. Looking at the numbers, you could tell their expected finishing order. Black people had always been pillars of the long distance running world.
Old man Garen was also wearing a vest, completely unbothered by the cold. His hairy, golden fur and the number he was asking others to help pin on. The older the ginger, the spicier it gets. Though already old in years, his arms and calves were full of muscles. The shorts and vest he wore weren\'t bothered at all by the cold. His number was 01599.
Xiao Qi was 00697. She wore tight, black athletic pants that showed off her slim legs very well. She felt this offered less wind resistance and had the benefit of retaining warmth. After all, it was heading into autumn already and the winds by the seaside were still quite strong. On top she simply wore a red dri-fit T-shirt. She normally wore red quite rarely. This was specially prepared for running. In her heart, she felt red was festive and auspicious. She hadn\'t worn the official clothing provided, which was a bit wide and created more friction. But she did wear the bright outer vest.
On her feet were the shoes she had bought with Jiajia last time. She had broken them in these past few days and felt they were quite good, not abrasive, very soft, breathable, and fit her feet very well.
The sunshine was bright.
There were extremely, extremely many participants in the run. You could say it was seas of people.
There was no telling how many would actually make it to the finish line.
Under the sunshine, Xiao Qi felt oddly excited for some reason.
Because she was in the foreign teacher crowd, there were even more foreign athletes clustered around.
The Ethiopian black male and female participants were especially eye-catching.
All very slender and fit, just looking at their exterior made you feel they had an advantage. Their muscles looked tighter and their calves even longer. They seemed inherently suited for running.
Xiao Qi felt a little pressure, but was still generally fine.
Her current condition was much better than when she had participated in the swimming competition. She was much more confident now. She also would not hunch her shoulders or cave in her chest. Her gaze was steadier. She respected everyone\'s efforts, and also respected her own efforts. For running, she would not lose!