The Contract (As a Play)

After a long time of study break for the Actuarial exams, I am back to work on stories, books and other artistic activities.

Today, I went to meet a few actors by Jennifer's invitation. She is one of the actors&directors of Saigon Players (www.saigonplayers.com) and she actively directs plays. I thought we would be making "chamber theater" but instead, Jennifer (group moderator) brought a few pages from "The Bicycle" for a rehearsal. I was happy to see that the characters in one of my stories will be alive before my eyes. After doing the chatting scene between "Blueberrygirl_VN" and "Trai_Xa_Xu", I offered another story to be acted. This was the last story in the book, "The Contract". She made copies and we quickly added "who speaks which line" signs before each paragraph. Then the play (The Contract) was ready:

A futuristic approach to the marriage institution which became a contract-based agreement in 2020s. A couple (husband and wife) sits at a kitchen table and discusses the break up contract they are about to sign. While waiting for the lawyer to arrive, they start to unfold all the dirty laundries about each other in order to find the most hurting flaw so that they can get the custody of their two children.

In my story, the lawyer is a male but unfortunately there was only one male actor in the group so Ayeshah acted as the male lawyer. I have recorded the entire conversations except for the first few lines. All can be viewed below. Remember that this is the very first rehearsal of the play (story) and the actors never read the story before.

I also added the story below the video. You can also read the lines by yourself. Note that the play is for 18+ age group and there is sexually explicit language in several lines. Watching the actors playing the lines gives much better effect than reading dry lines.It is a comedy so watch it when you are in good mood or when you want to be in good mood.

Enjoy the show,

Actors: Robert as husband, Reni as wife and Ayeshah as lawyer

Husband: Ok, it seems it does not work! Why don’t we start from the beginning?

Wife: Beginning? What beginning? There will be no more beginning.

From now on, we can only talk about the end. I will not sign a new contract.

Husband: Alright! No worries. I won’t sign it either. So tell me who the pianist

is? Why did you bring him to our house?

Wife: I told you millions of times, he came to teach piano to our kids.

Husband: In our bedroom? When the kids were at nursery? And we don’t

even have a piano at home! Be honest for God’s sake!

Wife: So?

Husband: So what? How can he teach piano to our kids when they are not at

home and we do not have a piano?

Wife: I told you that we should buy a piano but you never liked the idea.

Of course, there is no time for anything after you have spent all your energy

in that stupid Gentlemen’s Masturbation Club.

Husband: It is Self-Relief, not masturbation. If every man masturbates once a

day, there will be less war in this world. It is a contribution to the world

peace! And remember, we asked our lawyer if it violates the contract and

he said no. It is a recreational club for men who work hard for their families

and need some time to relax.

Wife: Of course he will say no. He is a premium member of the club.

Husband: Let’s get back to this pianist! Did you sleep with him?

Wife: None of your business!

Husband: It is my business! If I can prove it, the break-up contract will come

up very easily and I won’t have any liability for the past five years and I

can have my son with me because you are not a trustworthy mother.

Wife: What about the damage you have caused?

Husband: What damage? Are you kidding?

Wife: Mental and physical damage! Look in five years; I gave birth to two

children. I endured your sexual fantasies while taking care of the kids.

Look at my breasts! They look like small cabbages.

Husband: They were consensual and according to the contract we signed 5

years ago, nothing is wrong with that. And I did not damage your breasts.

I don’t even remember when I saw them last. Ask your pianist for compensation.

As for the children, I will take one and you will take one. That

is fair.

Wife: No way! Both are mine! You will pay for their schooling and will

come to see them once a month, though it would be nicer if you come

once a year or never come at all. That is it! I cannot let my children learn

all your bad habits. You are always getting drunk and sleeping on the

floor like a sack of wet potatoes, watching sports for 48 hours non-stop,

sleeping without taking a shower, whistling in the backyard to attract the

birds and then when the cats appear, killing the cats, peeing into the

neighbor’s garden while they were sleeping in a tent. Do you want your

children behave like you?

Husband: No I don’t. But I don’t want them to bring a pianist into our bedroom

either. Especially when there is no piano at home! So what did he

play here? Swan Lake or Eternal Climax?

Wife: You keep changing the topic. I am talking about your carelessness,

your self-indulgence in sports and animal sacrifices, your stupid toy collections.

You did not even come to the hospital when our first child was

born.

Husband: I promised my friends at the club, I couldn’t break my promise!

Plus, there is nothing in the contract mentioning I have to be physically

present at my child’s birth. I did my job nine months before you give

birth. If nature is unfair to you, I cannot help. Go and complain to God.

Wife: You are an idiot! This is your child! Have you ever considered that?

Husband: So does he play piano well? Better than me?

Wife: You don’t play piano!

Husband: Ha ha! You know what I mean! Huh, the lawyer came. Exactly on

time! We were just talking about the piano. Do you play piano?

Lawyer: What piano? I thought you called me for the break up contract. I

have brought it. It is a 3 years contract with no liability for both sides as

long as another unification contract is signed at the end of three years.

Husband: No more unification! I cannot unify with someone who unified

with another person in our bedroom.

Wife: Shut up! Nothing happened!

Husband: As you say so!

Lawyer: Listen please! I know this is hard for both of you and especially for

the kids. But get over it. It is just a contract. Life goes on. Have some time

off, away from each other. Maybe you will feel each other’s absence after

a while and will want to come back.

Husband: Ohh! In my absence, she has someone to fill the space! Then I will

never be able to beat him because he plays better piano than I do.

Lawyer: Please, Mr.! It is done! What ever happened in the past just happened.

Maybe because you could not play the piano well so she brought

a better pianist!

Wife: Can we just not talk about the fucking piano or the pianist?

Lawyer: So, we do not need any reason for breaking up because it seems you

have completed your contract obligations successfully. Then I will just

note it as “termination by performance”.

Wife: What? Are you crazy? He knows nothing about being a good husband.

And what about the kids? Who will take care of them?

Lawyer: Well, according to your contract you are allowed to have only one

kid. But you have two. In this case, law calls the situation an “Act of God”

and considers it as an accident.

Wife: It wasn’t an accident. He did it deliberately so I will be out of action

for a year. It is his act, not God’s.

Husband: It was an accident. It happens to everyone, right Mr. Lawyer? Sometimes

you cannot pull out in time. Especially if your woman’s finger nails

stick into your buttock like the teeth of a dog crashes one’s thigh. Plus, it

is her fault because she stopped taking contraceptives without telling me.

So she wanted to have a second kid just to shut up the first one’s neverending

demands.

Lawyer: Can we stay away from the details? Some people may not be interested

in your private lives.

Wife: Private lives? You are our lawyer and you are supposed to know the

details so you can make a right decision.

Lawyer: Yes, yes! She is right. I should tell you also how she enters the

kitchen with a helmet on her head because she is afraid of the pressure

cooker. Or how she asked me to make a hole in the bed to put her large

belly inside so that she can sleep easily!

Wife: What about you Mr. Smart? You are the one who farts in the nursery

in front of the Japanese kids and their mothers. When the teacher

warned you, you are the one that said “They are Japanese. They don’t understand”.

Lawyer: Heyyyy! Let’s get back to the main topic. Who will take care of the

kids? Since the second one is an accident, we can give him to a state-owned

orphanage. The first one stays with the mother.

Wife: No way!!! I will not let my child to grow in an orphanage while both

parents are alive. I am their mother and I can take care of them. Just make

him to pay for their expenses.

Husband: I will take my son, she will take our daughter. That is it.

Wife: Mr. Lawyer! You see him! He is not even capable of taking care of

himself. He cannot even pee into the toilet hole without messing up the

entire bathroom.

Husband: Only in the mornings Mr. Lawyer. And again, this is because she

does not like having sex in the mornings. You understand what I mean,

right?

Lawyer: No I don’t. I don’t even want to understand.

Husband: But Mr. Law...

Lawyer: Shut up!

Wife: Yes, shut up!

Lawyer: I just terminated my 6-month contract with my 31st wife. In fact, I

could not even wait till the expiry of the contract because she pukes on

me whenever I sit in front of TV to watch “Antarctica Got Talent” show.

So I gave up all the deposit.

Wife: What was the deposit?

Lawyer: Some expensive jewelry from 18th century I got from the 29th after

she broke with me.

Husband: So your 29th broke with you in the cost of jewelry. You are such a

sweet man! Why would a woman want to divorce you?

Lawyer: Ohhh! It is a long story but I can make it short for both of you. She

had high cholesterol and consequently had some heart problems. Doctor

banned her to smoke. Then she asked doctor if she can smoke after having

orgasm. Not knowing what kind of hidden plan is lying behind her

request, the doctor gave the permission as one cigarette for each orgasm.

Then our wild rhythm started. We started to have sex five times a day.

Two in the morning, one during the lunch time -usually at a cheap motel

near my office- and two before sleeping.

Husband: Lucky bastard!

Lawyer: Well, I thought so at the beginning but it was not the sex she

wanted. It was the cigarette. As soon as she falls from her climax, she was

having her cigarette, leaving me on the bed, with more hills to climb.

And at that time I was 43 years old. As you can imagine, I was not a walking

vibrator. After a few days of hard-work, one evening I told her that I

cannot keep going like this. Next day she broke the contract and signed

a new one with a nineteen-years-old boy.

Wife: Wowww! That is how you got the jewelry from her.

Lawyer: Yeah. It was the same jewelry I retrieved in my 30th contract successfully.

Anyway, the important thing is now I am available.

Wife: You are what?

Lawyer: I am available.

Husband: What is it supposed to mean? Are you proposing to my wife?

Wife: Now, I became your wife! This must be the last trace of the evolution

in your male pride!

Husband: Shut up!

Lawyer: Why not! I am sterile since birth! I cannot have children and I always

wanted to have. Now, once you sign the break up contract with

“Termination by Frustration” due to the child problem, you and I can

sign a new marriage contract for next one year without waiting six more

months as law requires for “Termination by Performance”. We can live

in my house with your two kids. I have a nice garden and I also have a

piano at home. But I don’t want a pianist at my home until the expiry of

our contract. And you sir! You can stay in this house and can come to

visit the kids once a week. I can add all these items into the new marriage

contract.

Husband: Wait, wait, wait! I cannot believe this! You came here to end our

marriage contract but now you are signing another contract, taking my

wife and my kids from me and leaving me with nothing in this ghost

house.

Lawyer: Not really sir! The law says that in a marriage everything we own,

we own during the time of the contract. Nothing is permanent! Once it

expires, we lose everything. When you sign the break up contract, you

only own this house and your second child. But since it is your fault as

confirmed by your wife, you cannot keep the child with you. Then you

have two choices: Orphanage or mother. I guess you will choose the

mother.

Wife: Hey hey hey! No one asked me if I wanted to marry you! Are you

guys dealing with the law with your little brains but what about me?

What about love? I don’t love you Mr. Lawyer! I cannot marry you!

Lawyer: Madame! I wish I could offer you a better option. I believe in the

last five years, you also understood that love is not an instantaneous feeling;

it is an ability to last in good and bad days. We will learn to love each

other.

Wife: Wowww, Mr. Lawyer! You must know that love cannot be rationalized

by your fancy words.

Lawyer: It does not matter Madame! My question is, do you or don’t you

accept my offer?

Husband: Give her some time! I like the idea actually. It will give me some

freedom and my kids will be safe. That is all I care about.

Wife: Yes, I accept!

Wife: You see, 5 seconds is enough for a woman to make life-changing

decisions. Even shorter than the time they need to get ready to go out.

Lawyer: Ok, then. I will prepare the marriage contract this evening. The

break up contract will be ready in a minute.

Wife: Ohh, good! Anything else you want to ask me before signing the

marriage contract, Mr. Lawyer?

Lawyer: Yes, do you still want a hole in the bed for your belly?

4+4+4 Üzerine

İLGİLİ MAKAMLAR VE KAMUOYUNA

Konu: 5.1.1961 tarih ve 222 sayılı İlköğretim ve Eğitim Kanunu ile Bazı Kanunlarda Değişiklik Yapılmasına Dair Kanun Teklifi

Bir ülkedeki eğitim sistemi ve bunun uygulanmasını içeren model değişiklikleri, ancak daha önceki sistem ve uygulamalar bilimsel değerlendirmelerle ele alınıp gelişim ve değişimin zorunlu olduğu saptanırsa, gerekli olabilir. Böyle bir bilimsel değerlendirmeye dayanmayan değişiklikler, insan gücü açısından olduğu kadar ekonomik açıdan da savurganlığa neden olur. Bu çerçeve içinde, Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Eğitim Fakültesi aşağıdaki gerekçelerle ilgili Kanun Teklifi’nin geri çekilmesini önermektedir.

1. İlköğretim öncesi verilen okulöncesi eğitim, insan gücü açısından etkin olan ülkelerde zorunlu olup çağ nüfusunun % 100’ünü kapsamaktadır. Milli Eğitim Bakanlığı 2010-2011 istatistiklerine göre Türkiye’de bu oran % 43.10’dur. Hedefimizin bu oranı % 100’e ulaştırmak olması gerekir. Okulöncesi eğitimin amacı,

a. Tüm çağ nüfusuna, ilköğretime ön koşul oluşturan bilgi ve becerileri kazandırmak

b. Uluslararası ve ulusal araştırmaların 50 yıldır gösterdiği üzere eşitlik ilkesi çerçevesinde, sosyo-ekonomik düzey farklarını ortadan kaldırarak okullaşmaya ön koşul oluşturan becerilerde çocukları eşit hale getirmektir.

Okulöncesi eğitimin tüm çağ nüfusuna zorunlu olarak iletilmemesi, okullaşma süreçlerine hazırlık açısından alt sosyo-ekonomik düzeyden gelen çocuklar aleyhine, onarılması güç eşitsizlikler oluşturacaktır.

2. Önerilen 4+4+4 modelinin ilk kademesi olan 4 yıllık eğitim kavramı hiçbir bilimsel temele dayanmamaktadır. Bilimsel araştırmalara göre çağ nüfusu bilişsel gelişim açısından ayrıştırıldığında, 7-11 yaş somut işlemler, 12 yaş üstü ise soyut işlemler dönemleri olarak belirlenmiştir. Dördüncü sınıftaki bir çocuğun, somut işlemler döneminin tam ortasındayken ilköğretimin ikinci kademesine geçmesi, bilimsel veriler ve bulgulara ters düşmektedir. Ayrıca, çocukların soyut işlemler dönemine girmeden bir öğretim kademesini tamamladığı hiçbir gelişmiş ülke bulunmamaktadır.

3. İlköğretim birinci kademeden sonra, öğrencilerin açık öğretim ve evde eğitim gibi olanaklarla da öğretim görebilme önerisi, özellikle alt sosyo-ekonomik düzeyden gelen kız ve erkek çocuklarını okullaşma süreci dışına çıkaracak ve şu anda çağ nüfusunun % 98’inin yer aldığı ilköğretim eğitimi içinde bulunma oranını, bu gruplar aleyhine düşürecektir. Bir ülkenin insan hakları açısından görevi, ilköğretimde çağ nüfusunun tümünü kapsaması iken önerilen modelde bu ilke büyük tehlike altına girmektedir. Böyle bir eşitsizlik, insan hakları açısından olduğu kadar insan gücü niteliğinin düşmesi açısından da eleştiriye açıktır.

4. Ayrıca, okullaşma yalnız bilişsel gelişimin ‘olmazsa olmazı’ değil, aynı zamanda sosyalleşme süreçlerinin gerçekleştiği, çocuğun birey olarak toplum içinde etkin iletişim ve etkileşimi öğrendiği süreçleri kapsar. Sosyal ve duygusal gelişim, okullaşma süreci içinde önemli yer tutar. Bu nedenle, erken dönemde bu sosyal ortamın dışındaki seçenekler yalnız bilişsel gelişime değil, aynı zamanda da sosyal ve duygusal gelişime de ket vuracaktır.

5. Farklı özellikleri olan çocukların kaynaştırma kavramı içinde eşit ortam ve eğitim olanakları ve içeriğine sahip olmaları amaçlanırken, önerilen modelde bu çocukların da büyük çoğunluğu ilk 4 yıl sonunda okullaşma sürecinden mahrum olabilir. Bu durumun, yukarıda sözü edilen insan hakları ve eşitlik ilkelerinde sorunlar oluşturması beklenir.

6. Önerideki ikinci 4 yılın mesleki ve teknik yönlendirmeyi içermesi, bilimsel açıdan kabul edilir bir seçenek değildir. On yaşındaki bir çocuğun ilgi, yeti, bilgi ve becerileri, kalıcı bir hale gelmemiştir. Bilimsel veriler, bu alanlardaki değişmezliğin ergenlik dönemi sonunda bile oluşmadığını açıkça göstermiştir. On yaşındaki çocukları ömür boyu çalışacakları alanlara yöneltmek, bilimsel açıdan olası değildir. Bilimsel veriler ilgi, bilgi, yeti ve becerilerin 15 yaşlarında bile kararlılık göstermediğini ve kaygan bir zeminde olduğunu saptamıştır. Bu nedenle 9-10 yaş gibi bir gelişim döneminde, çocukları bu tür seçimleri yapmaya zorlamak, hiç bir bilimsel veri ve sonuçla bağdaşmamaktadır.

7. On iki yıllık zorunlu eğitim bu taslağın bilimsel temellere dayanan ve insan gücü niteliği açısından önem arz eden bir önerisidir. Ancak, bu eğitimin zorunlu olması yanında genel ve çağın gerektirdiği temel eğitim yaklaşımını içermesi, önemle üzerinde durulması gereken bir konudur. Unutulmamalıdır ki en iyi mesleki eğitim etkin bir genel eğitim üzerine kurulabilir. Toplumun çeşitli kesitlerinin farklı tercihleri, zorunlu ve genel eğitim içinde zengin bir seçmeli dersler havuzu çerçevesinde karşılanmalı ve bir insan hakkı olan eğitim, tüm çağ nüfusunu içine alacak bir bütünsellik göstermelidir.

Eğitim sistemimizde yapılacak değişikliklerin bilimsel veriler ışığında gerçekleşmesi, farklılıklar açısından büyük kaynak, enerji ve birikimi içinde barındıran toplumumuzun insan gücünü donanımlı hale getirmemizde etkin olacaktır. Eğitim Fakültesi’nde çalışan bilim insanları olarak bu konudaki duyarlılığımızı, dayandığı bilimsel temeller ışığında iletiyor, bu olguyu gerçekleştirme gücüne toplum olarak sahip olduğumuzu düşünüyoruz.

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi

Eğitim Fakültesi

28.02.2012

Kaynak: http://www.fed.boun.edu.tr/default.asp?MainId=18

What if I burn your friends?

Your friends,

Your sister, your brother

What would you feel if I burn them,

Mr honorable arsonist?

Then if I say “Let it be for the best!”*

“I know the one who lit the fire, he is a good boy”

What if I turn their lawyers

into deputies one by one?

What would you say Mr “justice!” distributor?

And then if I say “We burned them but ask once why”

And then if I say “We will all go to heaven.|

And then if I say “We burned the infidels,

All the nymphs of the paradise remained to us”

Did they really?

Then if I jail those

Whose ideas are opposite to mines

If I erect a new country

A country in which being in prison is the proof of being intellectual

What would you say, Mr chief guard?

And then if I call the writers as “terrorists”

Rectors, professors and chief commander too...

Then call those who are put in jail without proper questionings

“the rapists, the thieves, the robbers”

Whom shall we call “head of terrorists” in this case?

Then if I say “I burned but there is no oganization behind it”

Then if I say “molotov cocktail should be considered as bomb too”

Then If I say “writing book is a crime”

But it is not a crime to burn neither books nor humans

What would you say Mr Head Arsonist

Then if I become proud of myself with

“One day I had recited a poem

I was imprisoned because of that”

Then if I sue those animal-loving cartoonists

Sometimes one by one, sometimes all together

How great are you, dear “progressive democracy”!

You know how to kill

You know how to say “One minute” too

You know how to bomb

While apologizing for Dersim** at the same time.

Sue this poem too

Even though yours is dead

Mine is still alive

The conscience for humanity

Surely they will find you

The souls of those whom you burned, you let burn

And if you think you will go to heaven

You are wrong

What do all religions, what do all gods

Say to us?

“No one can take the life that I gave but me.”

Indispensable part of the hell

The comrades of apollyons

Those who burned the men or did nothing to stop it

will be burned too, indefinitely in the hell

Because God is fair when treating all men.

Written by Ulaş Başar Gezgin / 14 Mart 2012

Translated to English by Ali Riza Arican / 14 March 2012

His poems with his own voice: http://soundcloud.com/ulas-basar-gezgin

Original Version of the Poem (Turkish): http://gezginulas.blogspot.com/2012/03/senin-arkadaslarn-yaksam.html

Sivas Katliamına dair Can Dündar'ın yaptığı kısa bir belgesel.

The Philosophy of Running

There is no such a thing! There is no philosophy behind running because it is not different from smoking or writing. It is an addiction and like all addictions, if you don't take your daily/weekly dosage, you start feeling uneasy, uncomfortable and perhaps apprehensive. I should also add that not all addictions fit to everyone so running may not be for everyone either. Obsessions cannot be shared so do addictions! People run for different reasons. Some run for health, some run for challenge, some run for the feeling of satisfaction they get at the end of the exhausting process. It is the endorphin (the runner's high) which gives a happy end to the story. The body exhausts itself, sacrifices a lot of sweat, salt and energy in order to reach a point which is probably wired in our roots for millions of years. Some scientists claim this is the "survival instinct" as we run to safety or run to catch food in the past. Once we reach our target, we feel satisfied or exhilarated.

One day before the run, resting my legs and having coffee.

As I said above, people run for variety of reasons. I am not different from others. I too run to be happy at the end, to reach the feeling of an accomplishment after a long and tiring experience, to forget the reminiscent of the daily stress and of course to sleep well once I close my eyes in the bed. So far, it achieves its targets and when one day running does not any more give me these advantages, I will stop.

At Meze Turkish Restaurant with Turkish guys.

Today's run was nice but it wasn't as nice as my first half-marathon in Cambodia. I am not sure what caused the frustration but somehow I felt a bit disappointed with the things or with the chain of unfortunate events. Let me start with the beginning.

Last night was fun. I met with Turkish guys at the Meze Turkish Restaurant in Nha Trang. We had some nice Turkish food and I had a glass of red wine. This is nothing compared to what I ate and drank in Cambodia (2-3 bottles of beer) one night before the run. I didn't eat heavy things as I didn't want to have trouble with my stomach during the next morning. The ambiance was nice, the conversations were full of thoughts, politics, literature and unique life experiences. In order to make sure I will have enough rest, I left the restaurant at 10 pm and went to bed as soon as I arrived at my room. However, my sleep was disturbed with two worrisome dreams.

In the first dream, I woke up at 6 am. Knowing that the race starts at 6:10, I was scared of being late. I hurried wearing my shoes, shorts, race number etc and went out to find only no one is at the start point. One guy with a red T-shirt told me that they are all gone and now I can only run the 10 k because they will start at 6:30. In the second dream, I woke up at 5 am, everything went fine but when I arrived to the start point, I notice that I don't have my shoes. I see some young guys warming up behind the start point with no shoes. They laugh at me and at the same time they welcome me in their group. Although I tell them "I cannot run without shoes, it will hurt my knees terribly", they say "khong co chi" (never mind).

Despite the dreams, I wake up at 5 am as I planned and went to the start point with my shoes. When I got up the bed, I felt a bit sleepy but this feeling disappeared as soon as I left the room and walked in the dark streets of Nha Trang. The streets were full of people, running, walking, stretching. The interesting thing was these people are not going to run any marathon. This is the normal picture of this city early in the mornings. People wake up at 5 am and go to the beach to have exercises till the sunrise. How amazing! How beautiful!

Once I arrived to the start point, time was only 5:40 am. I did warming up, ran up and down to the beach and stretched my legs as much as possible to prevent possible cramps which can bring ultimate pain to my sleeps later on. However, time was 6:10 already when a Japanese guy came to the stage to give his speech. After he read his speech from a paper, a Vietnamese guy came to the stage and he also read his speech from a paper. By the time both finished their talks, it was 6:30 am. Making us late for their nonsense speech -no one listens to them anyway- can be explained by only their invincible ego. I haven't heard an English word although half of the runners seem to me non-Vietnamese and non-Japanese. The only English word came at the end was "marathon" which is probably borrowed from Greek in every language.

Then they told us to get in a queue! I thought they are gonna train us for a military exercise. After we got in queues, they told us to walk back to the start point so we can go backward. Surely we did what we were told. After a few minutes more waiting, the a loud bang suddenly erupted and we started running. It sounds normal to start late if this was a ceremony or some sort of book reading meeting. But starting a marathon 30 minutes late is disastrous! When I come to the point of 3 k, the sun was already rising on my right side and the weather was already hot. If we had started 30 minutes earlier as the schedule suggested, I would be having this heat at 8th k. So this was the first disappointment. We started 1-0 behind.

Second problem was that the organizers did not really try to make sure the runners will be running on a safe road. During the whole run, people with motorbikes came behind me and passed me. They were not the police, they were normal citizens. But the road is supposed to be closed to the traffic for a few hours so that we can run without worrying about what is coming behind us. One can be sure that runners after 10 k become very feeble creatures, it is impossible to respond to the sudden change of direction or speed of a motorbike coming behind us once our legs become full of ants, biting our flesh, once our bodies become full of sweat, pouring down like a waterfall. Besides, the guys on racing motorbikes were supposed to control the roads and make sure that no one enters the road except for occasional ambulance and camera crew car. But they were speeding on the same road! I can swear that some of them were speeding with 100-150 km/h just to enjoy the relative freedom of closed traffic! So no matter how you run, there is a motorbike with a roaring engine right behind you and scares you to death as it might hit you or any other runner on the road if you wanna take over the guy in front of you or if you just want to change your lane! If I wanted to be bothered by the speeding motorbikes, why would I come to Nha Trang to run a marathon. I have them in Phu My Hung too. In fact, I can say that the path I run around my building is safer than the path I ran today.

Third problem -although nobody can do anything about it- was heat. I am not used to run in the mornings. I usually run after 5-6 pm so I can continue running even after the sunset. Running is the morning seems like wasting all day for me. Once you run, you want to have rest. But I cannot have rest in weekdays so I will feel tired all day. This is why I run in the evenings, after coming back from work to empty my mind, to get tired physically for a sound sleep. However, there is no marathon in the world which starts in the afternoon. As far as I know all marathons start early mornings. When I did the half-marathon in Cambodia, I enjoyed it as it was through a nice park and the ruins of Angkor Wat. There was a lot of shade to get comfort. On Nha Trang beach, there was nowhere to hide. The sun was baking my head and sucking all the energy from my calves. I felt almost like a sponge squeezed to nothing in order to produce water! Especially after the 15 k, I almost walked but didn't stop. Thanks to the time I saved in the first half by running fast, my slow run in the second half was not so bad and I finished the race at my targeted time.

There was nothing the organizer can do to cool down the running path but surely they had a lot of things to do at the end point of the race. Unfortunately, there was no any parasols or any large shade either. The runners needed to lay down on the grass in the sun or on the asphalt in order to cool down. There was only one thin shade line which was under the red arch of the race start/end point and it was occupied by the security forces. So the runners are left with the sun and grass!!!

I am finishing the race, behind the guy with white shirt.

Realizing that it is impossible, most left the scene for their hotels or homes as soon as they finish the race. Unfortunately, there was no ambiance of celebration or social networking among the runners. It would have been nicer if runners from different parts of the world talk to each other and exchange a few words about their experience. However, doing this in the sun is impossible, especially after a 21 km running process.

No shade around so I used the start point arch as my royal tent.

Finally, Nha Trang half-marathon is left behind now. Time to prepare for the next one. It will be in Phuket in June so there is a lot of time to prepare. Let's wait and see if I can hit 1:55 h in Phuket. This time I will be ready for the heat. I am sure pain will never go away but I can manage to keep the suffering at certain boundaries by practice and determination.