A round of applause?

Yesterday, as I was finishing my run at the reservoir in town, I passed a group of older men that were streching after their run, and one of them stopped stretching to clap for me. He literally gave me a round of applause and clapped loudly enough for me to hear him over my iPod. It wasn't even in a creepy way - just totally well-meaning and congratulatory. I think it might have been because I'm a woman and Thai women don't ever go running, but I'm not quite sure. I've gotten used to being stared at everywhere I go, but if the Thai people go and up the game and clap at me wherever I go, I'm not really sure what I'm going to do. Not a bad way to end a workout, though.