As promised, here is Husband and I hard at ‘work’ being the voices of the English oral exams yesterday. Loads of fun. Hmm, I wonder if we could do this professionally and get paid for it? Oh yes, that’s right, we kind of do at the moment. But I would love to do this on a more regular basis, not just every couple of months. Anyone out there looking for a voice-actor? Who specializes in having a half English/half Aussie accent?? I am available.

Today I’ve got some yoga and a stair session on my schedule, as it’s really NOT. LONG. NOW. Eek… Got another slightly confusing email from the race organizers again, complete with directional signs, course map, and an elevation chart. Shit’s about to get real hey.

Here’s a snippet of the detailed email (translated using Google translate again, so maybe not the best):

“Prior to the beginning and end of the game are located in the Five Sacred Mountains Scenic Village Hotel in clear water, the track length of 50 km, the track surface types include: cement roads, dirt roads, gravel, board the oil, gravel, grass mountain Austin, deciduous jungle road, boardwalk, stone staircase, wild dirt roads and so on. The race track located mainly between the mountains, the highest elevation of 2281 m, the lowest elevation of 553 meters, with an average altitude of 1233 meters, the cumulative climb 2605 m."

 
The ‘grass mountain Austin’ and ‘deciduous jungle road’ sections sound fun, don’t they? Hmm, there is a fair bit of elevation too.

Nerves are setting in now. For two main reasons: nerves about the course (I am aiming just to finish and not get lost); but also, nerves about going and meeting other seasoned trail runners and ultra running superstars. I will be going sans-Husband (my usually excellent companion/coach/support team/photographer), so will be sharing a room at the hotel there with another runner. Let’s hope there’s no see-through glass bathroom wall that many of the Chinese hotels favour over here. Nothing says ‘hi, nice to meet you!’ like waving at your new room-mate from the toilet.

 

Do you get nervous before an event? What do you do to calm or get rid of your nerves?

Yup, THIRTEEN days til the race! Feels pretty close / exciting / scary now. :) Can't wait for 1st December!

Another very cold, early morning training session today. The moon was still very much out, and so half of my run was lit by the powerful, magical bright yellow shine of the (full) moon. Was a bit mesmerising and distracting though as I kept staring at the moon as I completed my loops on the track, and had to remind myself to look where I was running (i.e. not trip and fall in the dark).

Today's training was as follows: 2km warm up, 1600m tempo (half marathon race pace), 400m jog in between, 1600m tempo again, then 2km cool down. Followed by: getting under every blanket/doona/duvet that we own in an attempt to warm back up, breakfast, shower, and a back-into-bed-power-nap. Monday mornings are GREAT, don't you think? :) 

Yesterday was, you guessed it, my REST day, and it was great. Although, turned out to be an actively resting day where we cycled around to do some errands (and drink coffee) for a lot of it, plus the usual dog walking and house work. But no running anyhow.

Did spend a lot of time researching jobs and places we'd like to live in next year - going to be such a hard decision: so many amazing and beautiful places we could go to! Got to choose between: beaches and the coast (really miss the ocean and fresh air), mountains and amazing scenery, and beautiful vast grasslands and completely new cultures. Ahh, decisions decisions, at least we've got a full 7 months or so to make our minds up!

In other exciting news: my mother is coming all the way to China (from UK) for a visit! She's going to be here for Christmas and New Year's - we're very excited! We have to work on Christmas day as it's not a holiday here, but that's ok.

Ok, better go and get ready for teaching and another beautiful day in China. Have a great Monday everyone!