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?

So, it was not my day for a PB here in beautiful Xiamen, but it wasn't due to my running or of that hitting the wall thing. Many things conspired to me ending up with a good 30 minutes added on to my first half of the race, which was apparently too hard to come back from to get a better time. I know, I know, it sounds like excuses hey, but let me talk you through them, as I ended up really surprised with my time being 3 minutes slower than my first marathon time, when I ran for the whole thing this time, didn't encounter 'the wall' (albeit a wall of people, but we'll get to that), and even finished feeling fairly strong and sped up for the last kilometre, and sort-of-sprinted across the finish line. So, when I crossed the line and then got my certificate printed out showing the accurate chip time of, wait for it, 4 hours 38 minutes, I was a little confused. Oh yes, then I remembered the start of the race.

Here's how it went down: about 80,000 people give or take (ok, not all in the full marathon event, but all squished in together regardless) trying to surge forward and commence a running race. There's music, there's excitement, there are the ever present cheers of 'jar yo!', and then: boom - everyone slows and stops completely and then proceeds to shuffle/walk VERY slowly for the next 1-2 kilometres. Major human traffic jam.

As soon as we were able to feel awesome and actually start jogging / prancersizing, I had my eyes out for a loo. A public one was located in the next 100 metres or so and I unfortunately had to leave the race so early on and join a big queue. Picture ten fun minutes of waiting. (Unavoidable, as apparently still suffering with a bug - almost didn't get up to even start the race this morning, but so glad I did, despite this story.)

So, it's kind of like I started running or the proper 'racing' about 20-25 minutes late. But anyhoo. On with the race. My fuelling strategy was going excellently and I was fairly confident that I was getting enough carbohydrate and water at regular intervals, but hey, you never know, especially with a stomach bug. But today, snickers were my main source of fuel, along with sports drinks at aid stations, and later, some coffee boiled sweets. I felt good running, felt like my pace was good - not too slow and not too fast (now that I could actually run).

So, no 'hitting the wall' as I was worried about, BUT at about 12 kilometres in, when the route takes everyone along an elevated underpass (one way in, no escape off the sides, sort of like a tunnel), disaster struck. Not joking here, was seriously worried for my safety. For some reason the front of the giant crowd had decided they had taken a wrong turn and were trying to force everyone back the other way, amidst more and more runners piling on in. You hear about people getting crushed to death and trampled on in concerts sometimes, and I have a fair inkling of how easily this could occur. Scary shit, I won't lie. But then, one lone soldier proferring a pointing finger gesturing us back into the melee of which we'd just escaped, signalled that we were going the right way in the first place and after some minutes (felt like 10, was prob nearer to five for the whole time, but who knows) we were free again and running along an amazing stretch of road that takes the runners over the sea and around to the Southern tip of the island. Seeing Xiamen from this beautiful angle soon got me over my near-suffocating experience, and it was on with the race.

Until disaster struck AGAIN. Luckily not too bad this time, but was probably worse for the ladies involved: Two women became entangled due to us having run on top of each other because of the numbers and they both went face first on the tarmac. Only ONE other runner stopped and together we helped them up. They said they were ok. Phew.

And then it was on with the race. The rest of the race had no hiccups, albeit my excellent new Garmin ran out of charge at about 30 kilometres. Damn. Must get used to charging it the night before a long run or race. Up until then, it was working like a dream, and it was fun (if a little distracting) to keep checking my pace and finally find what my comfortable pace really is. It ranges between 5 and 6 kilometres an hour, in case you were dying to know.

So, as I said before, I finished strong and felt great about the race, which is why I was surprised at the time, as in my previous marathon I spent the last 9 kilometres in pain and definitely the last 5 in agony and walked/limped to the finish line. So that versus non walking (except in and out of drink stations, oh yeah, and about 25 minutes plus at the start, lol), with a speedy finish? This is why this race is a running PB for me - not in terms of time, but in how I felt strong and good, and DID NOT HIT THE WALL! Yay! It is possible! So, very glad I did get out of bed this morning. Even better, I had this beautiful, amazing man waiting for me at the finish line: my beloved husband, coach and support team, what would I do without you H?! If you're reading this: thank you for all your support and love: I love you so much. (This is entirely appropriate too - all the banners along the route today said 'Run for Love'.)

Seriously, he went above and beyond to help me carb-load before the race last night. Check it out - was considering calling this post 'Fuelled By Jiaozi' (not sure if the photo's clear, but there were something like 64 dumplings that arrived at our hotel door - Champion H!):

The rest of the day pre-race yesterday was spent soaking up the beautiful beach scenes of Xiamen, riding around on a comedy tandem bicycle, and eating lots of rice, tofu and veggies and drinking a couple of carb-loading Tsingtaos of course:

Oh, and I better put a couple of race shots from today on here too, so here you go, enjoy!

Frosty this morning, but still no snow. Booo... Weather report lied to us. BUT, no rain, and there was blue skies and sunshine late yesterday arvo.

This morning's run was an easy usual riverside route, shorter route than on Tuesday, but bliss just the same. Yesterday was a cross-training day and I did some strength training. Nothing much to report other than STILL haven't started that ab work I was on about last week, and this week is now shaping up to be busier than previously thought, what with a still-ill husband layed up in bed, a visiting mother to introduce to the students and centre the lessons around her visit, coaching some students for the finals in an English contest, preparing our performance or program for next week, trying to show Mum around town in between teaching and planning weekend trips while she's here, AND a call late last night for some last minute translations/proof reading of about 8 essays for today's coaching of said students. In the words of this awesome little parrot dude, WTF?!: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbfzahtZsN8

Maybe we'll see this view tomorrow morning, c'mon the snow!:

So, predictably did NOT do any ab / core work yesterday. BUT, I have received some excellent suggestions for doing so, and will be putting these into practise soon, I hope. I did plan on doing some abs at some point in the evening, but then somehow a long puppy-walk, shopping for toasty warm pyjamas to lounge about in (never to sleep in! You crazy pj-wearing-to-bed-folk you), eating too much dabao (takeaway), and lounging in said toasty pyjamas, all took a precedence. Plus, once those padded/quilted/feels like wearing a doona/duvet/quilt (take your pick depending on your cultural preference) babies were on, there was no way they were coming off to do a few minutes of abs. I would post a picture of these amazing pjs, BUT, I am hoping that Husband is going to get a similar, yet a bit more manly, pair today, fingers crossed that the Chinese's large size fits him (we have trouble getting normal 'larger' size clothes here - we don't know where they buy their clothes?! As there are loads of tall men here!). They are quite comedy, and the most unsexy, unattractive things you could imagine (stay tuned for that pic), but are so warm and so comfy. Sadface that I can't wear them to teach in. Although I do see people out in the early morning walking their dogs whilst wearing them, so maybe this would be ok?

Ok, that's enough pyjama talk yes? On with the post. Not much to report running wise today, as it is a cross-training day for me. I did these workouts: http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/advanced-high-intensity/advanced-workout/ (a 30 minute 'Warrior' workout - a mixture of strength, cardio, plyometric, ABS, and mixed martial arts), and http://hasfit.com/workouts/home/cardio-aerobic/cardio-kickboxing/ (30 minute fun kickboxing workout).

So, got some ab work in, BUT will attempt to get some more in this evening, in between some more cleaning (it is a daily battle here - you clean, the next day it's dusty again, grrrrr), organising some things, practising for that postponed speech, and coaching/teaching some students. Poor Husband has come down with a bad ganmao (cold/flu) so plenty of rest, TLC, and hot toddies for him today. Plus PJS! The healing power of toasty warm pjs hey.

My legs are a lot less achey and stiff today, so I think I'm well on the mend. Have been taking full advantage of these post-race resting days and have been nice and lazy since Sunday (with the exception of our mandatory stair climbing of course - we live in the 5th floor of an elevator-less apartment building).

My recovery tactic seems to have focused mainly on eating (refuelling, right?), and my new obsession (see you later porridge!) is the awesomeness of PEANUT BUTTER. Yum. Peanut butter on bread; on toast; with jam; with honey, or even just plain old PB on a spoon. I didn't even try peanut butter until I was an adult, as the smell used to put me off and I couldn't see the point. But oh my, peanut butter and honey on toast, is one of life's ultimate pleasures and I'm so glad to have found it (have to heartily thank Husband and coach for introducing me to this particular combination!).

Other awesomeness post-race has been getting this lovely big bouquet of flowers from the school, giving our apartment that beautiful, fresh floral scent:

Well, am back from Shanghai now, tired and stiff, but extremely happy. It's been a weekend of firsts hey: first time I have run a half at the time I got (which I think was 1 hour and 32 minutes but the official results are not out yet, and you know me, watchless and running fancy-free), first taste of pumpkin pie at an American restaurant yesterday, and first well deserved chilled sav blanc after 32 days of booze-free tee-totalism (in preparation for the race).

So, let's start with the race, as that was the reason behind our trip to groovy Shanghai, and yes, two of my three readers (hello you two!) have said that you are looking forward to the race recap! So I hope you haven't forgotten me - we had very poor internet connection where we were staying, hence my disappearance from here for a few days. Well, it started off pretty much how I'd thought and remembered from last year's race. However with the awesome added bonus of NO rain! Result. Thousands of other runners packed in and queue-jumping to get as close as possible to the starting line actually made it not quite so freezing cold, and they had a warm-up/aerobic session too, which was fun to watch, although I didn't participate with the aim of conserving my energy for the race:

The first 10 or so kilometres were spent dodging thrown away plastic ponchos that were strewn around and trying pass as many people while not tripping up. I was at the 10km mark at 45 minutes. Something went a little wrong around 14km, when for some reason I thought I was at 18km (must have zoned out completely) and I started to pick up the pace a lot (i.e. ran too fast too early). Not sure if this affected my overall result as the end couple of kms were amazingly hard and painful, and the phrase 'running my guts out' kept circulating hey. Kept telling myself the following: "C'mon, what have you been training for?!", "just 2 little kilometres more then you can stop, keep going", and "we can do these hard things!". I saw Husband at the finish line and attempted a wave, which is why I look a little bit strange here:

 Almost vomited when I stopped, but luckily managed not to. And, D'OH! Didn't even look at the clock when I passed the finish line, so confident was I that it'd be just like last year where as soon as you hand your timing chip back in they print off your certificate there and then, showing your chip time and overall race time (last year's was two minutes difference, I guess from where you're stumbling/half running/half walking just to get started and over the line). But, I THINK (and Husband thinks too) it was one hour and 32 minutes! Woohoo! PB for me - a whole 12 minutes faster than last year! Initially was actually a bit disheartened and had this thought: "How the f*&k do people run faster/get faster - ran my guts out and still didn't get under an hour and a half". Pretty stupid yeah? Seeing as I've ran the fastest that I've ever ran, so beat myself hey. Last year I got a prize for coming in at 42nd place, however this year, have no idea of my position yet (I keep checking the website in hope the results are up yet), and no prize, boo, haha... We think they may have spent the money this year on extra security instead, as that was pretty full on pre-race, with these fellas blocking the way and stopping you from getting to certain parts of the Bund (by the river in Shanghai):

So, once I'd warmed back up (and perked back up realising that I've achieved my goal of running faster than last year, and of getting a brand spanking new PB), we got ready and headed out to have some fun (i.e. food and drink) in Shanghai. We ended up eating in an American restaurant where we ate the biggest quesadilla/wrap ever (HUGE - ordered one and shared it and it was still a sh*&tload of food!), called 'the fat bitch' - what an awesome idea: it looked like it was a pizza base, covered in chips, chicken, beans, cheese and salad and then rolled up to be a huge wrap/roll/quesadilla thing. We shared a bottle of chilled sauvignon blanc, which was beautiful, and then ordered our first ever taste of pumpkin pie too. This was also soooo tasty. Not usually one for food/drink pictures, but here you go (minus a pic of the 'fat bitch', we were too busy stuffing it into our faces):

All in all, a GREAT weekend! The air was a bit of a downer, as it was pretty polluted (lungs and chest felt very strange immediately afterward the race), but that's what you get when you run in China I guess. Here is me, mercilessly flaunting my medal and race bib, just coz I can:

Last pic for today, and it serves no purpose other to show you the groovy PINK SPARKLY walls in our stylin hotel; enjoy!:

This morning's run was an 8km endurance pace run, that took about 35-36 minutes. So, all this training to get a faster result at the race on 1st December, and it seems I am not getting faster, or not by much anyhow. This was about  4.5km/min pace, so that means if I run at this pace for the whole race it will take me about 1 hour 34 minutes. Ok, ok, that IS still about 10 minutes faster than my previous (and best) time from last year, so actually I would be very happy with this result. BUT, what if I could go even faster? And get closer to 1:30, or dare I even put it out there, 1:25?? Stoked would be an understatement. So, I am thinking about running the first 11 ish kilometres at this morning's pace, and then stepping it up to about 4km/min for the remaining ten kms. Really hope I can do this on the day!

Maybe I should just forget about the timing aspect of it altogether and just focus on the fun and amazing atmosphere of the race through the streets of Shanghai. After all, I am doing it for my love of running (ok yes, AND for the medal, certificate and race t-shirt). So, it shouldn't matter what my time is (although a voice in my head says it does!).

I will try not to think about my expectations on the day. That way if I smash them, I will be THRILLED, and if I don't, then I will still be happy. As my excellent coach/husband reminded me yesterday: I didn't ever expect to win the Great Wall half marathon, I only wanted to finish the course within the time limit, but then an amazing thing happened and I somehow did (still don't know how). So, I will see what happens on the day, and leave it up to the running gods (or training gods?) to decide.

(Disclaimer: these are more than likely NOT running/training gods, and are used here for imaginative purposes only:)

(These were taken at a nearby temple just at the edge of our city, at the foot of some mountains.)