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).

Yes, two years ago yesterday, this was us in Bali, with our friends and family, getting married for the second time in 5 months:

We had a lovely day – the school had given us the day off for it, so we spent a relaxing, chilled morning together (after I got back from my 34km long run that is! Yep, you heard right – 34km! My longest training run EVER. I was aiming for 35km, but I was sick of back-tracking and doubling back by then, so I thought hey, am sure I’ll get that one km in at some point later in the day, by walking puppy or something…) before we went out for a long, relaxed later lunch/early dinner, reminiscing about our 2 years of marriage and all the places we’ve visited since getting together.

 

Great day, just a shame we didn’t organise to have today off too! Starting to feel a bit tired and achey-ish today. Although other than a bit of tiredness, I’m surprised how good my legs feel, despite the massive run. Crazy really, as when I think back to my first marathon, it was probably around the 35km mark that everything started to go wrong and my legs were spent. What a difference a few years makes. Feel happy with my progress, and it encourages me to keep going – we never know what we’re really capable of until we ‘just fucken DO IT’ hey!

All the best to those runners who have gone back for a second year running - you guys are amazing! Once was enough for me, haha.

My husband (and coach!) is full of good ideas hey. Last night, for example, he put it out there, that why don't I still try and get a track workout in, later that night? (maybe my uber-grumpy mood about the rain stopping play was that obvious??) So, hmm, I thought, maybe just maybe there's a chance of getting my speed session in after all. We had a very early dinner at around 4:30-5 ish, so I thought, yeah, why not? Wait til about 8pm then give it a go. Now, bearing in mind this is usually when we're definitely winding down for the day and not drinking coffee to go and do some speedwork around the school's track, this was definitely new ground for me. But the rain had all but dissipated to nothing more than a gentle, light mist (like running through a cloud I reckon), and the light pollution around town meant that I wasn't running in complete darkness and so threw out my fear of tripping in the dark and twisting an ankle again. So there I was, warming up in these perfect running conditions, plus I had the whole track to myself, when I began my first interval: on the plan for this session was 12x 400m ran at economy pace (my pace calculator tells me that this should be between 3:30 - 3:45), with a 400m jog in between, with the usual 1.6 warm-up and cool down. I did it, made the correct pace all the way around, then happily settled down to my jog. Then interval number two. Ok, that didn't feel so good. Weird heartburn / sick feeling, and was a bit of a struggle. This got worse and worse until on my 5th interval I thought I was going to actually heave and vomit everywhere in the not-so-pitch-black open space of the track. Hmmm, maybe I wouldn't finish the twelve planned economy pace laps as planned, and instead focused on not throwing up everywhere as I slowed it back down to cool down and retreat back home. I wasn't sick in the end, hurrah! But note to self: do not attempt speedwork within 4 hours of eating (maybe 5?). I thought 3 hours would have been enough time, but definitely not. Sucks, as the conditions were perfect and my legs felt great. Still, happy that I got a short session in at least. But, I'll definitely be trying out some more night-time runs in the future, so thanks Husband!

This morning's run was a 12.8km run at easy pace, and that was all fine and dandy. Except upon returning having no power for the start of the day. An electrical mystery, which is all fixed now, luckily.

So, back on track with the training and running, and the rain has stopped for now. Fingers crossed this continues!

Have a wonderful Wednesday everyone! What are your running, or otherwise, plans for today?