Jinning, Kinmen Island, Taiwan
Sunday, January 25, 2026
When Jana and I were planning a January trip to Taiwan last October, of course I started looking for a destination race to run! The Standard Chartered Taipei Marathon (with a half option) seemed like the best option for me, but it was sold out. I e-mailed the Taipei Marathon group to see if any exception could be made for an age-group competitor coming from across the world, but to no avail. Continuing my research, it seems like most marathons and half sell out months before actual race date in Taiwan, and many actually close registration several months in advance even if they don't have a cap or if the cap isn't reached.
I came across the Kinmen Marathon (and Half and 10K) in late January, and it was not sold out yet, all three distances were certified, and they had a registration close date in early November. The challenges were 1) it was on a remote island requiring a flight, 2) there were very few accommodations remaining near the start/finish, and 3) flights were completely sold out from Taipei the two days before the race. That probably explained why the race hadn't sold out yet.
I signed up for the race after researching and resolving the obstacles above: 1) we got a bed & breakfast room with 4 beds; we didn't need that many and it cost double, but that's was available just a few blocks from the race, and 2) instead of flying out of Taipei, we booked the last two seats on a flight out of Taichung, where we were staying anyway. Compared to US prices, the half-marathon entry of NT$900 (US$29) seemed absurdly low, especially given all the swag we'd receive. More on that later.
Fast forward to race morning :
Race start was 6:50am for the marathon, 7:00am for the half, and 7:10am for the 10K, all with the same start and finish line. I got up my standard two hours prior to race start, and ate my standard breakfast of oatmeal (I had brought pre-packaged Quaker cups from the US).
It was dark as Jana and I walked to the start, with sunrise just a few minutes before race start. The roads were open to traffic at that point, but there were a lot of runners also walking to the start, and there were police with bright lights stopping traffic for runners to cross roads. By the time we walked the few blocks to the race start, the area surrounding the start/finish was really busy and crowded. With 1,000 runners in the full marathon, 2,200 in the half, and 2,600 in the 10K, and just ten minutes separating each event, that is about 6,000 runners packed into the start area. Which gave me three immediate concerns:
- How am I going to do a warm-up?
- How am I going to be able to use the bathrooms with the insane lines?
- How am I going to be able to line up and get a decent starting position?
Jana solved the first one as she found a vacant side road leading perpendicularly away from the start/finish line and I joined a few other fast looking runners warming up there. The second issue was solved when I spied a cluster of trees during my warm-up, and I was able to duck behind them. For the start issue, I knew that no half marathon runners would be able to take their start until the full marathon started, so I resolved to be back to the start line at least five minutes before the full marathon started.
I skipped the bag check, as fortunately I had Jana that I was able to hand my extra clothes to, and she'd have them for me at race finish. I so appreciated this, as well as just in general she being there to support me! Literally as soon as the full marathon started, I jumped in behind the last starters. Or so I thought. Some were still filing in for the next few minutes, so I got close to the start line with many other runners, but stayed off to the side to allow the back-of-the-packers in the full to go through the middle.
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| Just starting to lighten up as we arrived, but the area was floodlit as well. --- All photos by Jana unless otherwise noted. |
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| About 30 minutes before start |
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| Here's the route I'll be running (purple) |
I ended up in the second row and within a minute or two, we were jammed in like sardines. Whew, my strategy worked, but just in the nick of time!
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| Moments before the start of the half. You can see me in there, right? |
There was loud unison countdown from ten, multiple sirens to start, and we were off. I thought the race having the pace leaders on the start line was just for a photo op, but they were still there as the gun went off and made it a bit challenging to work around them.
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| At the start. I'm the only Caucasian in view, just behind the guy in the disposable blue plastic thing. |
A couple hundred meters after starting, we make a left and go through the main streets of the village. These roads are completely closed as are most in the first half of the race; the back half always has at least a full lane closed for runners only and really there is just so little traffic coming the other way.
We started off at about sea level and then climb about 100' over the first 3K. At 2.7 miles (sorry to mix milers and KM), we turned off onto a 5-mile OAB (2.5M each way). There is a 75' hill that we ascend/descend in both directions. This is a very rural area of the route, as is much of the rest of the race from hereon in. I am making note of the water stops on the way back to best consumption of my singlet gel that I've brought with me from the US. It's fun to watch the lead runners coming at me in the opposite lane. Two Africans in tight formation, then a while before the next guy. Pretty soon I can see the turnaround. I dread these things, but this might have been necessary to have both the starting and finish line exactly the same, and not only for this race, but also for the marathon and 10K.
Return to finish: Fortunately the turnaround was early enough at about 8KM / 5M, that it didn't seem to significantly impact me. We have about two miles on the same road back before we turn off and head to the north. I'm pretty confident no one in my age group or older are ahead of me, and so immediately after the cone turnaround, I am looking for other old runners that might give me chase for my age group. I don't see any, but after a minute or so the pack heading towards me is getting much denser making this task no longer feasible.
The course is marked at every 5K point. At a water stop about 10K, I take my only GU gel and wash it down, actually getting both the cup and gel wrapper inside a trash can. I often try but seldom succeed in that regard. By now, the very dense onslaught of runners is taking up more than half the road, but they are always giving me plenty of room so no issue. So many are supportive, and hear over and over again, "Jia you" (加油), a ubiquitous phrase in Mandarin at road races, literally "add gas" but figuratively "go! go!" or just an encouragement to runners.
After we turn off the OAB, the course gets a little lonely for me. At least I can still see runners ahead of me, even if not constantly. I have neither passed anyone nor been passed by anyone in the last few kilometers, but now I can hear someone coming up on me. He goes past pretty quickly, and as he does, I noticed his hair is completely white. Oh no! Where did he come from? He went past pretty easily, and we still have 8K to go so chasing after him doesn't sound like a smart move, but I try to keep him in close sights.
Somewhere around 14K we go through a rotary (or roundabout as my sons remind me is the modern word) that is really clean and has some kind of monument with two fish and fountains that catches my eye. I do not know which way to go from the rotary but there is military personnel directing the way and pointing out which "exit" to take.
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| Really cool monument in the middle of the rotary that you run through! Only after the race did I learn that this was a peace memorial paying tribute to the Battle of Guningtou, a victory for Taiwanese forces over invading forces from the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China in 1949. (photo from Google Street Maps) |
Shortly after the rotary monument, we come upon and run under a massive arch with a Taiwanese flag on top, also a tribute to the Battle of Guningtou:
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| Battle of Guningtou Memorial Arch The Chinese characters on the arch read (right-to-left) as Guningtou (from Google Street Maps) |
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| And here's me running through the same archway! Official race photo, purchased for all of about US$7! Love this photo! |
I'm feeling pretty good after the gate. My pace has been averaging in the 6:20s, fluctuating between 6:0x on the downhills and 6:3x on the uphills. As we approach Ci Lake at about 16KM, I'm happy to see the older guy is back in my sights ahead. Will I be able to catch him?
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| Rounding Ci Lake. This is a low-res screen grab; it was more vibrant in "real life", but captures most of the essence. |
Less than 5KM to go! And it goes by quickly. We pass by a military tank and view of the water, and then a nice view of the iconic bridge over to a nearby Taiwanese island. In the final mile I am able to pick it up to 6:13 pace, and dip under 5:30 pace for the final quarter mile.
Final result: 1:23:31 gun, 1:23:27 net, 34th overall out of 2,299, 1st in age group out of 189. Full results here.
I went up to congratulate the older guy at the finish, and the first question each of us had for the other was, "How old are you?!". A big sigh of relief to learn he's a young 53-year old! We had a good, but short, conversation in Mandarin. He told me he thought the wind was tough out there in places. I didn't think so personally, but then later saw on my Strava post that the wind was indicated as 11mph out of NNE, and we did travel in that direction for over 4M, so maybe he was right.
We went to the awards area to confirm I had gotten 1st (in my age group, of course), but they said the times hadn't been certified yet, so we needed to come back in a couple hours. No problem. We went to get food and learned you could turn in your bib "Food" tear-off to get one dish from any vendor. They were all local food, which I'm usually fine with, but just having finished the half marathon, I was looking for more of my usual race fare like fruit, bagel, etc, and so I gave the coupon to Jana and then we went to look for more food.
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| Opted for an egg salad sandwich and an iced latte at a coffee shop around the corner. Both were pretty good! |
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| After checking out of the hotel, and putting our luggage in the rental car, we walked back to the finish area and awards tent to find the results had now been certified. As you can see, at least in my age group, it really wasn't competitive at all, but I didn't know that at the time and also didn't know how old the 53-year old was that beat me, so I'm glad I pushed and finished in a 1:23:31 on a course that wasn't flat. |
1st in my age group (top 2% overall) earned me cold hard cash plus so many awards! Liquor, cash, sports towel, singlet, a cool glass age group award, beef jerky, and a few boxes of miscellaneous items. They are not shy with swag here. My first race in two months, and in a foreign land - I'm happy with it! And thrilled to have run 60 miles this week here in Taiwan!
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| The local hard liquor made it home. US Customs examined it, but let it pass. Will try this at some special occasion; maybe a get-together with my cousins. |
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| And here is your very happy M60+ winner with some of his loot, including cash! |
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| A close up of the cash! Originally it was 2,000 Taiwan dollars, but the Taiwan government took 20% as tax. |
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| Lower two packages of dried beef jerky were seized by US Customs. I just felt bad because I had told Mark I was bringing them home for him. - Lower right is a cool glass and wood custom award for my winning 1st place in age group! |
And here it is up closer:
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| 1st place M60+ award. Love it! |
What went well:
- Overall, a very well organized event. Course well marked and policed as well.
- So fun to run destination races!
- Low entry fee: $29 for a large, certified, well organized half marathon!
- Lots of information on race website!
- Certified course.
- Results were immediate, even if not certified for a couple hours.
- Very scenic course, especially running through the arch and along the water.
- Roads were closed. As a runner, you always had at least one coned full lane of traffic to run in, but the full road was closed for a lot of the race.
- Cheap photos! I have no issue with paying $7 for a high quality digital photo, optionally overlayed with the name of the race and your finishing time and place. I balk at paying $30 or more for a singlet download in the US.
- The swag and awards! Perhaps the most I've even gotten.
- I was very happy with my own time result. When Jana asked me, given the hills and not having raced in two months, I estimated 1:25-1:27.
- Having Jana support me at bib pickup, start, finish, etc. Huge positive factor in my race and experience!
What could've gone better:
- I never got an e-mail confirmation for registration, nor any race e-mails at all. Fortunately, there was a way online to retrieve your registration confirmation, and it did shows I entered my e-mail address correctly, so that would've been nice to have. Post-race, I did get e-mail results notifications, photo availability notifications, and even text messages, but all those came from other providers and nothing at all from the race organizers leading up to the race.
- The race giveaway singlet (below) isn't my favorite color and seemingly not the greatest quality. (Not that I need another singlet, mind you.)
- While I do wish there were fruit or something I'm used to post-race, I also realize this is just a personal preference. And far be it for me to be the "ugly American" demanding something American style. So could it have gone better for me in this regard? Yes, but certainly not a complaint.
- The line up for the race start. I'm so glad I pushed in there just behind the marathon start, as otherwise my experience and result would likely have been different. In an event this size, it would have been nice to have a seeded start of some type, even if self-seeded.
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