I’m back from Australia. The last week has literally flown. I had an awesome, wonderful time and now it seems like a vivid dream of sorts, so quickly it felt like it went by.

I will talk about the race a little bit (as that’s maybe why most of you are here?) and then will possibly bombard you with photos of my best friend Annie and I, thoroughly enjoying our long overdue catch-up.

So, firstly – the race. This was the BEST and most well organised race I have ever taken part in. Everything was seamless and smooth, from the race bib pick-up to the shuttle bus transport to the race, to the different corrals and starting zones. As it’s their 36th event (I think) it seems they have definitely got it down pat. Unusually (or so I thought), the timing chip was actually part of the race bib and not a separate one worn on your shoe. Also, this was the first race I’ve ever run where you don’t get your t-shirt until the end of the race, just after you’ve crossed the finish line, so it means you know you’ve earnt it, lol…

The race started at 6am, but they instructed us to get there at 5am. Yep, that’s a very early start, and a fair bit of waiting around. However, this time also flew by, and after some wandering around to find my starting zone (different zones assigned by your last race time or your intended time for this one; there was zone A, B, C, and maybe D? Not sure… I was luckily in Zone A, which was perfect as I was surrounded by other runners aiming for the same pace and time as me, and so, far from the other runners being a hurdle and aiming not to trip over feet and around people in the first few kilometres, they were all on the same mission to get out there and into their race pace it seemed, and everyone flowed nicely), drinking coffee, and using the portaloos a few times, before we knew it the race had begun.

The first 10-11kms went perfectly – exactly how I’d wanted to run, although maybe even a little bit faster than I’d planned for my first 3 kms, however, this was again due to the other runners in my zone as I naturally joined pace with them – not uncomfortably fast though, just a little bit quicker than in practice (so, was 4:30 rather than the 4:45 I thought I’d go at). It is a very beautiful course, and I got to run past my new apartment after the first 3 kilometres (and again on the return at about 17 ish kms).

At about 13 kilometres in though, things were suddenly not so good. It’s hard to describe but I couldn’t keep my pace up, things felt a definite struggle, and I had gone freezing cold/cold sweats/shivery type feel, where I was thinking, ‘wouldn’t it be nice to curl up under a blanket on the side of the road right about now’. Noooooooo! What was happening?? I kept going, but couldn’t keep my pace up for the last tempo interval. So, instead of running at 4:10 ish, I was running at 4:35-4:40. The mantras were helping (particularly ‘you’ve done it before, you can do it again!’), as was the image of seeing Annie at the finish line, but I just couldn’t get my speed back up and felt very strange (I think maybe I was dehydrated, despite trying to be well hydrated, or the recent long traveling was in hindsight not the best approach pre-race?). I just wanted to finish and thought I’d not care about my time or a PR anymore – just finish. I didn’t even look at how long it was taking me and thought for sure I’d be something like 10 minutes slower or more than last time. Before I knew it, the finish line was in sight and I tried to run faster and stronger over the line, as they called out my name and commented on all the race gear I was wearing (I did take my camelback after all, with the intention of not having to slow down at the drink stations – an idea that was working fantastically until I started feeling weird and slowed down to grab extra water anyway). That was it, I’d done it. As I focused on not vomiting and collapsing (managed not to! Success), I checked my time. Wow, I HAD done it after all! A new ‘official’ pb (as in, a race pb, even though I’ve got another pb in training). It wasn’t the 1:30 I was aiming for, but was a whopping EIGHT seconds faster than my Shanghai half in December. Haha, but a pb is a pb right?? So, my official time for this one was 1:34:23. Yes, every second counts, I suppose. Hmmm, months of training and achieving a ‘training pb’ of 1:31 all added up to me getting pretty much the same time as my previous, not-so-trained-for half marathon where I wasn’t focused on my pace or looking at a watch? I think the next race I’ll run I will run ‘naked’ and not focus on a time. I know I can do it theoretically and in training, and maybe I will try and beat my time again in the future, but for a while I may just get back to having fun while running. This race was a struggle, but I tried my best and did the best I could do on the day.

When the race was over, there was a smiling Annie waiting for me, amazingly she’d managed to spot me and we met up as planned, and I then followed the lead of some other runners and went for a 15 minute ‘ice bath’ in the beautiful early morning, winter ocean water. This was a first for me, but I am quite sure it helped – my legs recovered pretty fast and well, albeit with a touch of quad soreness the next day when walking around shopping and looking for restaurants. It took us almost two hours to make it the 5km back to our apartment!  And almost another 2 hours (once showered etc) to order, wait for and enjoy our breakfast after that. I suppose thousands of people in town for the races adds up to a lot of queuing for taxis and food and everything. After that, we relaxed and rested for a while (courtesy of copious cups of tea on the sofa together), and eventually ended up going out for celebratory drinks and, of course, more food, a fair bit later than planned. The next day was spent doing yet more eating in wonderful restaurants (there will be a fair few food-on-a-plate pictures, sorry if you’re not into that, but I was very excited to eat some awesome Australian fare that I’d been missing, so loads of fish/seafood and avocado, yumm…), shopping and walking around, and drinking. Oh and taking lots of pictures of ourselves to remind us of our trip, haha. And all too quickly somehow it was Tuesday early early morning and I was getting my taxi back to the airport to commence the looooonnnnng journey back to Husband and Puppy in China. It went something like this: taxi, plane no.1, walk through airport, plane no.2, taxi, train, bus, walk…. (over 1.5 days).

Here is my holiday in pictures, to give you a better idea of this race weekend and holiday with my bestie:

Tick, tick, on both counts. Legs feel fine and shoes went well. Oh yeah – absolutely NO pain or problems with my legs during the race in the end, phew… And I don’t think I even thought about them during, I was just focused on my struggling pace and labouring breathing instead, lol…

So, to sum up: I had an AMAZING weekend in Australia with the Beautiful Anne-Marie, I ran the Gold Coast half marathon (a beautiful, flat course, that I would love to run again), I achieved an official pb, AND upon checking my results a couple of days later, I found out that I came 110th woman (out of approx. 5000 – I will check again), and 26th in my age category too! Not too shabby.

Now it’s back into the packing and cleaning before we head off early Saturday morning on our amazing caravan tour through China! Now, if only there was a dimmer/slow switch for this time business. It really is going too fast. (I also need to catch up on all the things I’ve missed on various other running blogs since I’ve been gone, however this access to the internet will be short-lived, and during our caravan tour I don’t think we’ll have any internet access. So, it will be a whole month’s break from blogging and emails etc soon.)

I am back from my trip to the Wuyuezhai National Park, Hebei Province, via Beijing, and I have  lots to tell. So, grab a coffee, a tea, a wine, whatever’s your figurative ‘cup of tea’, and get comfy: this is going to be quite a long one.

Firstly: hell yeah! I DID it!! I completed this extremely beautiful, extremely hard (at certain times) 50km ultra running trail race and completed it in a faster time than I ever would have expected (7 and a half hours). I also came in the top twenty females (either 18th or 19th, according to different people) so got a prize and had to go up on stage during the big prize giving ceremony – more on that later. Not bad for a previously virginal ultra runner, and for a first attempt at a trail race?! Here’s a sneak preview of many many more photos to come of where this race took place: so beautiful don’t you think?

First things first, let’s start with the lead up to the event: the travelling, the race gear pick-up, the pre-race meeting and greeting etc. I flew up to Bejing from our little city of Yiwu, which took just over 2 hours by plane. The plane was delayed and there was shitloads of turbulence, but other than these two minor issues, I was reminded of how much I really LOVE to fly and travel. I love it. All of it. The getting to the airport way too early. The mooching about while it’s too early to board. The pre-flight beer and snacks (carb –loading hey). The miniature meal on board. It’s all good.

After having arrived at Beijing’s airport, some way out of town, I then spent the next two hours ish getting across town to my hotel next to Bejing West railway station. This was a bit of mission, and the day was so very hot. Initially I got the airport ‘express’ which is a dubiously named train, and by no means express (not after Shanghai’s airport express Maglev train which reaches speeds of 430kmph!) and maybe should be called the airport plodder or airport normal speed train or something. I took this photo of the ticket as it amused me. Hmm, Beijing is not really famous for its blue sky, and even the picture next to this little fibbing phrase showed no blue sky nor any green land. It’s got a nice ring to it though, sounding more like some kind of vertical, space-train perhaps?

After settling in and going in search of some tasty pre-penultimate race day treats, I predictably ordered too many dishes (being used to there being two of us sharing many plates of food), and continued to carb load by the means of another cold beverage.

I had a very quiet night and then left bright and early to meet the coaches and other runners the next morning. I was directed to coach number 7 and the real trip took off from there.

I slept a bit and chatted a bit to the other runners (lovely people) on board for the 6 hour ish it took to get to Wuyuezhai.

I have to say that this was the BEST and most well run and organised event I’ve ever taken part in. Names were ticked off upon boarding the coach, the race gear pick-up was smooth and hassle free as was the hand out of room key cards for the hotel (all went by coach number initially), with no queuing and no confusion.

Even during the race, this high level or care and organization was held up – markers clearly marking the course (so, no getting lost in the mountains as I was worried about), and the check points (where your bib number would be written down, to check you were there within the cut-off time) were laden with every different kind of refreshment you could want: water, sports drinks, bananas, cherry tomatoes, cakes, watermelon, noodles – it was great! (I ate a LOT during the race hey – had everything they were offering.)

 

So, back to the penultimate race day settling in. Once we’d found our rooms (I got lucky hey – for some reason I got a room all to myself! So, my fears re: sharing a room/glass bathroom walls etc, never eventuated) the other ‘laowei’ (foreigner) runners and I met up for some eats and carb-loading beers, in one of the restaurants in this picturesque little town, set into the mountain side, up a long, winding, fairly steep road (one that goes for about 4 kilometres that formed both the start and finish of the race – yes, that’s right: the last 4 kms were spent trudging up a seemingly endless tarmac hill, in the direct burning sun – brutal).

Then, later that day, there was a delicious (carb-loading?) dinner:

Followed by beers in a hill-side gazebo:

Followed by a pre-race safety briefing where I learnt that runners would be disqualified if they didn’t carry either a camelback or the designated drinks bottle we’d received in our race pack. So glad I invested in the camelback option! Even though I ran with the heaviest backpack I’ve ever ran with, it was worth it to have my hands free to steady myself at times.

 

The race pack was a GREAT one! Lots of goodies, check it out:

Ok, onto the part you’ve possibly come here for! The race day recap!!

So, the day started off with a twenty minute aerobic session courtesy of the head coach (I think) of the running group Hey Runners from Beijing who I booked through and who most of the other laoweis (all 8 of us I think?) belong to.

This was a lot of fun!

And, nicely warmed up, we then headed to the starting line, excitement and adrenalin kicking in now.

The race started on time, and we began our descent, down the steepish, tarmac, winding mountain road.

For the first 11kms or so, I was badly needing to go to the loo, but could see no appropriately private tree or bushy area in which to do so. It was getting pretty dire, and was actually causing me to run too fast I think, as I sped up searching for a place to stop and pee. Not good when all the advice you’ve been given is to watch your pace at the beginning and especially going downhill straight off. Eventually it got too much and I found a handy wall/billboard to hide behind. Ahhh. All being much better, I continued with the race.

After about 19kms, just before checkpoint two, I realised something about this race: I would not be able to run the whole thing, as previously imagined and how I thought I would be able to. I eventually succumbed to stopping running up the hills, and began to hike the hard uphill sections, along with everyone else around me. Before then, I had been powering up past others, but perhaps using too much energy too soon by doing so? I had it in my head that I would be able to keep running, no matter what, and come on, even the first hotel was rooting for me:

So, a new plan evolved and was established: hike up the steep/uphill sections, run the flat, downhill, and gently uphill parts. Seemed to be the go for everyone else that I could see too.

From 20 to 30kms or so, it was a very steep ascent, and reminded me of a hard day’s hiking, let alone a running race. This is where people’s poles came into play. Initially I was a bit confused as to all the gear people were carrying. I mean, how do you run with poles? And why?? Well, all was revealed when we were hiking up (in single file at some points), and later, scrambling down, this mountain.

 

Reaching the ‘top’, or so I thought, at the 30kms mark, I was then told we had to ‘just run over there’ to collect a rubber bangle and have photos taken beside the elevation marker. Hmm, maybe ‘over there’ in an ultra event is not the usual ‘just over there’! This bit was tough. But here I am, feeling on top of the world, quite literally:

I have never eaten noodles and then continued to run before, but all was fine. No nausea or spewing as feared. And on with the race:

 

I can see why people love trail running so much. There were a good many points during the race that I could feel myself grinning inanely and thinking to myself ‘I LOVE THIS!’, especially as I was running through some shady forest sections, with gentle up and downs. It was just such a beautiful course:

Coming back down the mountain there were some VERY steep, rocky sections, where I had a few near misses with twisting my ankle. Had to keep reminding myself to take these bits slower than I was trying to, as it just wouldn’t be worth it to have an injury out there hey. There were quite a few dangerous sections. I didn’t take a photo of the terrain here as I was concentrating on just getting down, but again, it was like a hard hike or climb down a mountain side, I though.

 

The route spread out again between 42kms to 45kms, and I still felt pretty good running. Actually, I felt kind of euphoric – this was the furthest I had EVER run before, and maybe the hardest too (although, I’m not sure –I think the Great Wall event may have been more challenging still, although was half the distance of this one – so, short and sweet/painful?).

The sun was quite intense though – it got hot quite early on in the day, so for the whole race we were running mainly in the hot sun. (Note to self: take sun cream to an event in the mountains where there is little to no shade! Rookie mistake.) The last 4 ish kilometres were tough. And not just because they were the last 4kms of a 50kms race – it was purely that they back up that hill. Nooooooo! Everyone struggled with this apparently. Most walked for most of it, it was practically impossible not to (not sure about the elite guys/winners though), and I did a mixture of hobbling/jogging/attempting to run before walking/hiking up most of it (I think it may have been quicker to walk?). It was the hill that kept on giving. Every twist and turn I’d think, ‘surely this is the last turn and I will see the finish line looming ahead soon?!’ Eventually, when I finally did see the finish line, and the markers marking every 100kms away from 500kms down, a fresh surge of energy came back to me and I managed to run the last 100kms feeling pretty strong and awesome. I had done it! Finished! And well under the 12 hour cut-off time too! (My time was 7 and half hours.) I was ecstatic!!!

Then they told me I was in the top 20 (and someone later told me I was either 18th or 19th place)! Wow. I was amazed. And thrilled. Here’s me with my medal, woohoo:

Later, there was yet more shared, delicious meals:

So, all in all, the race went great: I had a blast, I loved the course, the guys I met are lovely and everyone was very friendly/I made new friends etc, AND my legs seem to be recovering pretty well now, as this is the start of day 3 post-race and they’re feeling pretty good. The day after the race was a different story however: even standing up and making my way off the coach to use the toilets when we stopped at service areas was a huge, painful struggle, let alone having to attempt a full squat, courtesy of all the toilets being squatters hey (can you imagine the pain of this?!). However, when I got to my third and final hotel back in Beijing (after a mammoth 8 hour coach journey ,then 2-3 hour trek across town via car/subway/taxi) I dived into their (actually open, operational!) swimming pool and did a form of pool running (not sure if I was doing it right – had no floatation belt or anything, but just tried to jog up and down doing gentle laps) for about 30 minutes, and perhaps this has helped with active recovery? A little bit of walking (mainly through the huge terminal 3 of Beijing) and cycling yesterday too, and this morning: legs are feeling ok.

 

Ok, that’s enough from me. If you’ve stuck with the race recap thus far, thanks for reading! I now need to catch up on all the things I’ve missed on other running blogs since being away. I did think of all your amazing comments while I was running the race, and I was sending positive thoughts out to Amy over at Run Write Hike who was running a trail race relay over this same weekend! Looking forward to reading all about her event too.

 

So tell me, what have you been up to over this weekend? What was your high point? What was your favourite part of your weekend?

Good morning!

 

So, these things happened this morning:

 

1)      First full 22.5km run on the track. (I usually run the warm-up or cool down out on the streets.)

 

2)      First track workout spent during the RAIN and WIND (yes, the weather tricked me. No rain when I left home to go to the track. Two-ish laps in and the drizzle started, building up to a fairly heavy downpour for most of the run. And guess what? No tripping or slipping over after all! So, have banished and conquered that particular track downer and fear for now.)

 

3)      First track workout where I was listening to music whilst looking at Garmin and keeping a set pace (threshold pace for most of it, between 4:07 and 4:18). Yes, when it got hard, the usual suspects (Bon Jovi, Santana, Prince, Roxette, The Killers, Daft Punk etc) were there to spur me on and keep me company.

 

4)      First half marathon time of 1:31!!! Yay! A PB for me!!! (Please give me a definitive answer – does a PB count if it’s just in training and not in an official, chip-timed race??) SOOO stoked and excited by this! That is a whole 3 minutes off my last time at Shanghai. Hmm, yes, there were no other runners to dodge around, but then I had the monotony of the track plus the wind and rain working against me, so I am pretty chuffed with my result. I know, I know, it’s not super speedy, not like some who can run one in 1:20 or 1:15 (I can only dream of ever getting there) but it is my own PB and I am thrilled. It goes to show that I am slowly getting faster due to this training. Here’s what I did this morning: 3.22km easy pace, 4.8km threshold pace, 1.6km easy, 4.8km threshold, 1.6km easy, 5.1km threshold (to get to 21.1!), then an easy/recovery pace for the last 1.4km.

 

5)      First post-run Sunday selfie for this blog. Haha, I was so happy I took TWO. Don’t judge me!

J

So, tell me, what are your thoughts? DOES a PB/PR count if only in training?? Yay or nay?

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!: