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?

Not long now until the Runners' World 50km trail race. I was reminded of this fact when I excitedly opened an email from the race organisers this morning. This is what I was faced with:

各位尊敬的2014RW五岳寨国际越野大奖赛参赛者：    您好！    感谢您参加2014RW五岳寨国际越野大奖赛！    赛事最新行程如下：6月6日从集合地出发，7日参加比赛，8日早晨8:00从比赛地便返回出发地（北京），具体信息如下：    1.从北京出发的集合地点是北京西客站大方饭店门口，集合时间是6日早晨8：00，出发时间是早晨8:30。   2.由于车程较长（北京出发车程至少5个小时），在大巴上我们也为参赛者准备了简单水和食物，除此之外您也可自备食品。   3.由于五岳寨海拔较高，六月初虽是夏季，但当地早晚温差会很大，请您带好长袖衣物！ 
 PS：①请保持您的手机畅通，我们的工作人员将在近期联系您并告之乘坐大巴车车号（如北京一号车）信息。         ②本周组委会还会将赛道以及补给等相关信息以邮件形式发送给所有参赛者。         ③ 号码布、芯片以及装备包在选手们到达赛地签到时统一领取。


Hmmm, so, after using the not-so-trusty Google translate, this is the result:

Hello !

    Thank you for participating in the International Cross Country Grand Prix Walled 2014RW Sacred Mountains !

    Race latest itinerary is as follows : June 6 Depart from the collection , the 7th race , the 8th from 8:00 game will return to departure ( Beijing ) , specific information is as follows :

    1 Meeting Place starting from Beijing West Railway Station in Beijing generous hotel entrance, the collection is the 6th time 8:00 , the starting time is 8:30 .

   2 Due to drive longer ( Beijing starting drive at least 5 hours ) , on the bus we have prepared a simple water and food for the participants , in addition you can also bring your own food .

   3 due to high five岳寨海pull , though it is summer in early June , but the local morning and evening temperature will be great, could you take a good long-sleeved clothing !


PS: ① Please keep your phone unblocked , our staff will contact you to ride the bus and told the license number ( such as Beijing-1 car ) information in the near future .
         ② committee this week will be the track and supplies , and other related information is sent to all participants by email .
         ③ number bib , chip and equipment bag in the race to sign players to reach a unified collection.


So, not entirely sure about everything they wanted to tell us, but hopefully I've got the gist of it anyway. Sacred mountains sound awesome! As does Grand Prix! Glad I'm picked up running on stairs again, think my legs will need it for this race.

Any fluent Chinese speakers / translators out there - was Google close enough? Any further translation would be much appreciated. Cheers! Have a great Monday everyone!

Yes, that IS a Rocky t-shirt! (Thanks again Josh, love it!). And yes, I did put my camera on a self-timer mode to take this red-faced shot, haha...

So, I know these stairs aren't exactly the terrain I'll be running on, but I hope they'll prepare me somewhat for some of the uneven surfaces and up and down sections (which, I'm pretty sure form the majority of the trail race).

Call the police, I just killed my run! Haha, yes, I know you're not laughing at my excellent joke. Oh well... Just got back from  my long run of the week, which I think was about 25km (again, not very good at charging the Garmin it seems), and took in two different mountainous park areas with hundreds of steps. One of these is the BIG one at the end of town where I did lots of training for the Great Wall race, as I reckoned that some of the steep steps would be a good practice run for the Great Wall (oh how wrong I was haha), and Garmin (which was working at that point) reckoned it is about 400m up to the top. (I think there are about 660 ish steps? I'll count next time...) Anyway, I hadn't been here in quite a while, but it seemed a lot easier than the last time. Or maybe it is because I had already run for 10kms and ran some steps and hills so was more warmed up than usual? Whatever it was, it saw me being able to run further up the steps than ever before and then keep on hiking up the last extremely steep section without stopping for a break (last year I needed a couple of short breaks). So, yay for that.

Now, am off to shower and seek out a mammoth breakfast. Enjoy your Saturday people!