PYONGYANG, North Korea — By 8:30 a.m. Sunday, the 50,000 seats in Kim Il-sung Stadium were nearly filled with men in Mao suits and coats and ties, women in dresses and heels, and police officers in olive-drab hats with crowns as wide as a discus.
Students carried paper megaphones and silver wooden clappers that flashed like flag semaphores and magnified the rhythmic applause, a sound of both welcoming and required exuberance.
In the hazy chill, I stood on the track with about 650 runners from about 30 countries who had come to challenge their preconceptions as well as their endurance.