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?

Ahh, speedwork. I love it and I hate it. (Hate it when I’m in the middle of it and pushing myself so much that am well and truly out of puff and feeling a bit sick at times / Love it when it’s over and I feel amazing and badass at having done it and showing myself that yes, I can do that.)

 

This morning’s training saw me back at the track doing this: 1.6km warm-up, then SIX times: 1.6km at VO2Max pace with 3 mins rest, then finish with another 1.6km cool-down. According to a pace calculator (where you plug in the time you are aiming for and the length of the race), my VO2Max pace should be between 3:46 – 3:56. This was tough hey, not going to lie. So, most of the time (according to Garmin) my pace crept back up to about 4:05 and sometimes 4:10 (even though it felt like I was running at the same speed). Garmin told me at the end that my fastest km took 3:55, so I guess I kept it pretty close to the target pace. It was tough but I feel AWESOME now. J

 

Yesterday’s run was a nice 10 km (I think – Garmin reckons it is 10, but mapmyrun.com had it at almost 12km?! wtf??) run on a usual route down by the river. Spring has definitely sprung and the beautiful pink, purple, and white flowers adorning trees all around town = a beautiful, early morning run.

 

So, we’ve got the usual four lessons today, but quite frankly, I kind of just feel like staying in our flat and organizing and having a massive spring-clean instead. Better snap out of it, as Tuesdays are great lesson-wise and student-wise.

 

Husband is busy studying and preparing for his Chinese driving test (theory) tomorrow. Wish him luck! He will ace it I’m sure. The only trouble being that most of the questions do not make any sense (very bad translations) and some are completely wrong but you have to put the answer that they say IS correct (even when it’s clearly not). Hey-ho. Positive thoughts he will pass first time, and then we can get one of these babies to tour around China in and to drive up to Inner Mongolia with our puppy:

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!

Ok no messing with the date today. Weird stuff - I posted a post yesterday (which I will copy and paste below, as per the link on facebook), but which does not exist here anymore? But exists on the link from facebook? What happened? Did changing the date make me go back ./ forward in blogging time? No idea. But anyhoo, here's the post from yesterday:




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.

OR, maybe Weebly was censoring me? As there may have been swearing in the title, as I enthused about those awesome pjs.




Now, here's today's thrilling instalment:




This morning's run was my long run of the week. About 20kms ish. Which I took nice and slowly, and used this as my opportunity to try THIS as fuel:

Yes, that is a Snickers bar. Yum. Still seemed slightly wrong to be eating chocolate at half six in the morning, but hey-ho. It's not junk food, it's FUEL. Seemed to work alright and didn't make me want to vomit on the run, so that's a bonus. Still prefer skittles though, as easier to eat those while running.

Ok, got to rush back to work now for a couple of lessons before we head off to catch a train to Shanghai this afternoon ready to meet my mum at the airport tomorrow morning. Excited!

Have a GREAT weekend everyone!