Marooned

I'm feeling a bit out of sorts, since I'm about to be marooned in China. Gaaaa!

Carol has to go home to Canada in a few days to get her persistent ear infection taken care of. The Chinese health care system has been a bit frustrating for her, as many doctor visits and rounds of medicine have not proved effective. Her ear has continued to bother her since January, and now the doctors say she needs surgery to repair it.

Carol will soon be off to Canada, and I'll be all by lonesome working in Guangzhou. It'll be tough to hack it by myself once she's gone. Carol's been solid company for me since we got off the plane in August. We've had good times, and have gotten along really well.

So far, save for two weeks at the beginning of the term, the whole of my China experience has included Carol. We've done everything together, and now I'll be forced to try and slug away by myself. My whole frame of reference for this year of teaching is shifting, and it will take some getting used to.

I don't really have the option of moping around though. If I do that, the last two months of teaching will be intolerable. The only thing I can do is forge ahead and make my own China experience. Maybe I'll throw myself into my work, or start running for two hours every day. Maybe I'll try to learn Indonesian in preparation for my trip to Bali, or triple the number of books I read.

Whatever I decide to do, I must be strong! I need to stay positive and not let Mother China kick me into the dirt like she did in the first term.

Onwards and forwards!

HK Race IV: Results

Success!

I placed even better than I imagined!

My time of 1:33:23 was good enough to tie for 15th, out of 301 finishers! I placed 4th in my category as well, just out of the prizes.

15th overall, and 4th in my category...what a fantastic way to end the series!

Take the duck go home?

Today after school I was leafing through a book about Stratford that Carol had brought from home back in September. Guo, my co-teacher, came over and we talked about the different things in the book. The book has lots of Stratford photos, and mainly features the popular spots in town like City Hall, the courthouse, the theatres, and the mighty Avon river.

One picture showed a lot of ducks sleeping by the edge of the water as dew clung to their feathers and the surrounding grass. Guo saw this picture and here's a summary of our funny conversation:

Guo: "In Canada, you eat the duck?"

Me: "No! I don't eat ducks. We feed them bread!"

Guo: "So nobody go here, take the duck go home?"

Me: "No...they're always there and nobody takes them to eat."

Guo: "Ohhh...in China, we eat the many things! We eat the snake, the duck, the cat, the goose..."

Me: "And dogs!"

Guo: "Yes! Dog very good!"

And we both had a good laugh at each other's tastes in food...me laughing at the thought of eating cats and dogs, and Guo laughing at me for not eating cats and dogs. It was good times!

Guo: "Later, you go this place and take the duck go home to eat. Very fresh, like China! And, soon I give you dog, but don't say is dog. Hahahahaha! You no like!"

Good ol' Guo!

Hong Kong race IV

I recently got back from Hong Kong, from my fourth and last race in the five race series. We got on a ferry at 7:20am, and made our way to the race. It looked and felt like an airplane inside, and was quite different from our last ferry ride where a batch of live chickens hitched a ride with us.



This race was at Discovery Bay on Lantau Island. Discovery Bay is pretty much a gated community for wealthy expat bankers. It's not a gated community in that there's no gate and anyone can visit, but it is a gated community in that everything looks manicured, expensive, and artificial.

The cafés and restaurants and apartment buildings all reminded me of Whistler...built all at once in a methodical and precise fashion to achieve a certain feel and aesthetic. Discovery Bay is one of three communities in the world that doesn't allow cars, so people drive golf carts around. There are golf cart parking lots full of golf carts and golf cart sized parking spaces.







If you lived at Discovery Bay and then retired to Florida, you could do so without a major lifestyle change. I didn't see very many people with white sailing shoes though, so maybe you'd have to buy a few pairs before you moved down to the American south.

Since there are no cars, the ferry service from Central (the main financial district of Hong Kong) to Discover Bay is incredible. When I looked at the schedule, I noticed that the ferries are running every fifteen to twenty minutes, all day and all night. From 5:00am to 6:15 there is no service, but any other time you can be sure to get a ferry. A very solid ferry schedule! The ferry takes about half an hour.

Anyway, the race had the standard sections that I'm quite used to by now...a steep hill climb, some swimming, some steep descending, and some river gorge rock scrambling. This course was laid out to my advantage, with the river gorge and the steep ascending and descending happening in the first half. The second half of the race was standard cross-country running over fun and familiar terrain.

Last race I tanked early, and struggled to survive from the twenty-minute mark on. Because I didn't want to do that again, I focused my training since then around staying strong, loose and relaxed through the first bits of my workouts, making sure not to bonk. I hoped I'd be able to hold back in the race, and pace myself better than two weeks ago.

At the start line, I saw two people that I thought I should beat...one was wearing a brand new pair of bright red trail running shoes, and one guy had red hair. I wanted the beat the red haired guy because I beat him by a lot in my second race, and he got the better of me last race. I wanted to beat the guy in the red shoes because he looked my age, and looked pretty ambitious. I also wanted to beat him because he looked like a rookie to the series, and I fancied myself the wily veteran who knew what to expect from the course.

I started well, trying to hold back a bit and not let the excitement of the race spur me on too fast. We started through the Discovery Bay plaza, than ran down the local beach for a few hundred meters. I was in a good position after the beach section as I recognized some of the runners I am usually running with around me. Last week I recognized those around me as the really fast guys, so this week was an improvement. Red Shoes was in front of me, and Red Hair was somewhere behind me.





The river gorge section was pretty close to the start of the race, and I did well in there. Only one runner passed me, and that was Red Shoes. I kept a solid effort level, and was happy to finish it without feeling mentally or physically burned out. I maintained my position as well, except for that one pass by Red Shoes. The rocks were fairly dry at the start, so my grip was good. We had to wade through some knee deep water a few times before the section was over, but it seemed less intense than last race.

We had a very long hill climb next, to the top of a 400ish metre (1300ish feet) mountain. For comparison, Mont-Sainte-Anne's vertical is 2050 feet...so we were slogging up a steep mountain that was just a bit smaller than the whole of Mont-Sainte-Anne. It was definitely a walk, and even that was tough. When we reached the top, we started on our way back down, and it was tough keeping control down the really steep grade. I got a bit frustrated at this point, because for the first 45 minutes of the race, there was little quality running happening...we were either going straight up, or straight down.

On the way up the mountain, I passed Red Shoes, paying him back for besting me in the river gorge. Soon though, both Red Shoes and Red Hair passed me. Red Hair continued to pass others, and was soon quite a ways ahead, with three or four racers between us. We were a line of runners snaking over the trail, which was by this time well above the tree line. This made it easy to see the other runners and gauge distances. When Red Shoes passed me on the way up, I was able to keep him within about ten feet of me. I could tell he was tired, so I passed him in a run just before the crest, trying to break his moral.

On the way down the mountain, there was a line of about five or six of us, with Red Hair in the lead, bounding down the mountain. Red Shoes passed me back, and I was helpless to stop him.

At the bottom of the steep downhills, I saw a nice road section looming, with runners racing on it. I was excited to change gears and put it into cruise control, no longer having to worry about tumbling out of control down the mountain.

I didn't get to run the road section right away though...we would have to jump over the road's guard rail, make our way down to a small lake, and swim for about 15 or 20 strokes along the rocky shore. We'd then get out and run back up to the road again. There would be a water station just at the start of the road section.

I passed Red Hair just before the swim started, as his shoe lace came untied and I took advantage of this as he stopped to do it up. Once in the water, Red Shoes was directly in front of me, and I pulled myself out of the water in the same position. He got out of the water and ran onto the road, but stopped at the water station, while I trucked right through like it was a yellow light on the way to a U2 concert.

The water stations aren't what I'm used to...they offer full bottles of water, and you don't have the option to carry it for even a few metres before dropping it. The volunteers are always yelling that you can't take the water with you. If you want to get water, you must stop, crack the cap, chug as fast as your can, throw the bottle into the garbage, and then start racing again. I lost two places in the first race by stopping for water, so since then I have opted to save my drinking for after the race. This was a good plan here, as Red Shoes stopped for water and I passed him.

After the swimming section, it was ideal terrain for me...mostly trail running, with some ups and downs. I didn't mind, because unlike earlier in the race, they were not the kinds of descents that had my toes trying to break through the front of my shoes. The ascents were also run-able, and not like the previous leg burners that made us walk. This new type of terrain was familiar to me, and I began to feel fast and nimble on it.

I concentrated hard and really tried to bring my speed up a notch, knowing the terrain was more what I was used to. I felt good and felt like I was bounding down the trail instead of suffering through it, so I knew I had paced myself better than last race. I slowly picked off one runner at a time, and soon I had overtaken almost all the runners that were between Red Hair and myself on the way up and down the mountain.

I figured the race had only about twenty minutes left, if I was going to finish it in an hour and half, which would be similar to my times in the previous races. In this late stage, I was running all by myself. I concentrated on not looking back, and trying to stay fast. Both Red Shoes and Red Hair were behind me, but I didn't hear anyone's footsteps approaching and wanted to keep it that way.

The race course wound its way back down to sea level, and after only a few hundred metres of tough coast-line running, the finish was visible. The last bits of the course wound through the Discovery Bay development for a bit, and then would finish in the central plaza where we started. I got a bit lost, as the course was poorly marked through the maze of uniform buildings, manicured cul-de-sacs and golf cart parking spaces. Red Hair suddenly appeared behind me, and we both found our way and headed for the plaza.

We had an epic battle to the finish line, whipping the spectators into a frenzy! I was yelling a bit in the last hundred metres as we ran in tandem to the finish. I was spurring him on to try and get there first, and also using this to get myself to try and beat him. I don't know why I yell and get all excited at the end of races, but I do. We were giving something to the fans, and it was definitely fun. I could hear Carol cheering louder than anyone else, so that fun too.

The final stages of the battle saw us come down the final stretch stride for stride, both straining equally for the tape (except there was no tape). As we crossed the line, I would have to say the finish was too close to call. In the end, I tied with Red Hair and beat Red Shoes by less than a minute. Looks like he shouldn't have stopped for water, and Red Hair should have tied his shoes more tightly!

Carol was busy cheering me on, so there are no pictures of the photo finish. Here's me afterwards though, lingering around the finish line.





Here, I seem to be complaining about something in my head...probably the poor set-up and organization of the on-course water checkpoints. I stock up on water at the finish where I don't mind being stationary while drinking it.

It was a great race, and I stuck to my plan of not tanking too early. I kept my form and my speed for the whole race, and finished strong. I saw some familiar runners finish after me, so it may have been my best race placing-wise. Carol said I may have got top twenty, so I'll be super happy if I placed 19th!

I have wanted a top twenty finish, so we'll see what happens when the results are published. I'm a bit worried though...maybe I had a worse finish than I thought. It's hard to know. Regardless of the results, this race was my best for pacing and staying focused on racing and not getting mentally defeated by the course.

The award ceremonies followed the race, and everyone who placed in the five men's categories beat me (except maybe two runners), and so did two women. So, that means that about fifteen runners beat me for sure. Usually I get 8th or 9th in my category, so it'll be interesting to see if I can pull off a 19th place...I'll have to place 5th in my category to have a chance at a Top 19 finish. I think the chances are slim.

Sometimes I think I was faster this race than all the other races, but other times I wonder why I had energy to kick it home at the end like I did. Maybe I was faster, maybe I was slower. I just don't know.

It was my best race enjoyment-wise for sure, and I'm happy to end the race series on this positive note. I'll post the results when they're published, and will be happy with my race even if I don't place as high as I'd like.

Apparently the race organizers are working on posting pictures from all the races, so I may be able to post them here at some point as well. Hopefully there'll be one from the finish...stay tuned!

Translation work

I'm doing some translation work for YIHE, the school's parent company. It's not because of my command of the Chinese language though, don't worry. Jill, our English speaking liaison, is doing a lot of translating for the YIHE head office, and sometimes her grammar is off, or she has trouble finding the right words.

Jill was raised in Guangzhou, and is Chinese. Her real name is Luo Ji, but was nicknamed Jill by her home-stay mother in Australia, where she went to university. Because of those years studying, her English is very good. It's accented of course, and her written work isn't as good as her verbal skills.

So, Jill asked me to help her with the written part. Today at lunch we sat down and went over some YIHE company stuff. I think it's for a catalogue for potential investors to read, since YIHE is going to be traded publicly on Hong Kong's stock market before the end of the year. It's all marketing drivel. I'll give you a sample of my work. Jill gives me the meanings of the Chinese characters, and I try to figure out what they're trying to say and make it flow.

"YIHE's Focused Product Policy

In the primary stages of development, YIHE chooses land that has natural beauty and unique resources. YIHE develops this land to add value, diversifying the area and ensuring constant and increasing returns. This combines the land with its value, using them at their maximum potential.

YIHE's finished developments create spacious, relaxing, natural environments for use in residential, educational, entertainment, and hospitality industries. These sustainable developments are leading the trends in China's new tourism industry, as they rely on YIHE's dedication to 5-star service. This commitment to detail is found not only in their hotels, but in their residential properties as well.

It's tough work, translating. I want to stay close to the Chinese original (or Jill's translation of it) while still making it sound like quality English.

It's interesting, writing material that tries to legitimize development of the natural, virgin environment. I guess what YIHE does is find a place that's still natural and beautiful, and then they send in the bulldozers. Afterwards, they claim to have redefined and improved the area.

Hmmm.

Stratford, Ontario

Right now I'm reading The Wildfire Season by Andrew Pyper (my edition has different cover art though). On page 75, he writes about one of the character's childhoods:

"He studies Alex now and grafts onto her skin the veil of her fortunate youth. Home-video years spent in Stratford, Ontario, a leafy postcard town of moneyed retirees, a repertory theatre, ball bearing factory, and gift shops. Her parents still lived there. Retired themselves now but keeping up the family home, a Tudor monster on one of the broad streets of competitive landscaping and gardens in which beloved Labradors were buried."

I didn't know it when I bought the book over the Lunar New Year break, but it turns out that he was born in our fair city in 1968. I think Carol saw him do a reading during highschool at one point too, so that's neat.

I bought a "Local Author" selection, and I didn't even know. It's pretty good too.

Mosquito revenge

I had a terrible sleep last night. I awoke feeling almost more tired than when I went to sleep! When I put on my socks this morning, I noticed I have a bevy of bites on my feet...quite a few more on my left foot than on my right.

The mosquitos have taken revenge for their brothers that I killed the night before. I turn on the air-conditioning in my room, and then nestle under all my blankets in the hope they'll protect me from mosquito wrath. Last night, that was not the case. The blankets did an OK job, but my foot must have popped out. The mosquitos saw the opportunity and laid waste to my vulnerable left foot.

I think my sleep was so bad because I was being bitten all through the night. I don't remember being bitten at all, but I was probably waking up every time it happened. I counted about sixty bites on my left foot alone, so that means I might have woken up sixty times last night. Goodness. I need a nap.

My mattress also contributed to my poor rest...it's like sleeping on a giant tennis racquet. It's about as soft, but instead of strings, I feel the mattress' springs digging into my back and shoulders. It's pretty much the worst bed ever.

I'm going for a nap in my terrible bed now. I'm only half looking forward to it, since it could turn out to be as bad as last night's Let's All Bite Jon! mosquito festival.

Mosquitos

I'm pretty sure that the mosquitos here in Guangzhou are worse than anything I experienced in Cochrane or even Winnipeg. Mind you, I was in Winnipeg in the dead of winter and it was at least -20C for a solid six weeks. I guess the mosquitos hadn't had a chance to grow as big as bats yet.

I'm sitting here in the school office, and I've killed about 20 of them so far. They keep trying to bite me, and I keep trying to kill them. Some I kill by squashing them with my foot, and that leaves a big streak of someone else's blood on the white faux-tile floor. I think I'll leave it there, along with the twenty or so other dead mosquitos, as an incentive for their friends to make me a no-fly zone.

I seem to remember Erik saying that when he was tree planting he'd swat the mosquitoes on his face and leave the carcass there as a warning for other mosquitos, telling them that he meant business. I wonder if this method had proven success, because even though I'm surrounded by dead mosquitos and streaks of blood, I'm still getting bitten.

They sell mosquito nets at the grocery store here, so I might buy one. They're not your conventional mosquito net though...they're little dome tents made out of really fine mesh, complete with zippered access doors. On your mattress, you set it up like a normal tent, with those collapsible poles, and then you put all your bedding inside. It'd be like camping every night!

I'm tired and am off to bed. Maybe the mosquitos will have turned in for the night as well. If I am bitten, I'll just be thankful my bed doesn't have bedbugs. Yet.

My Kids

I've decided to post a few pictures of me teaching. All these shots are pretty recent, within the last few weeks. As always, click the picture for a larger view.

These pictures are taken in our newish classroom that we inherited after the Lunar New Year. It is freshly built, but the flooring is starting to bubble in places. I guess that's what you get when you try and slap up a new classroom in a couple weeks!





We are in an Olympic unit, so I stole Carol's idea of having a small standing long jump competition in the classroom. I put a small line on the floor, and taught the kids how to pump their arms three times and then jump. I have a metre stick that I used to measure their jumps, and I recorded the results on the white board behind me.



Here we are playing letter bingo. We play every Friday, and the kids love it. Everyone gets to call bingo, and everyone gets a sticker, even if they're the last to fill the eight spaces on the card. I encourage them to yell BINGO!! loudly, so that adds to the fun. I pick a letter, say the letter, then walk around showing the letter. About half of the children don't need to see the letter, and half do.

Most all of the children will tell me if they have the letter or not. "Mr. Jon! I don't have H!" or "Mr. Jon! Mr. Jon! Mr. Jon! I have H!" I congratulate them on having the letter, or commiserate with them if they don't have it. It's quite a lot of effort actually, giving everyone attention on almost every letter called.

Every day we must play outside for an hour, between 10am and 11. My kids are three and four years old, so they have to be entertained pretty much the whole time. There are now three teachers in the class, so we take turns doing the entertaining. I prefer to play with the kids after Guo Lao Shi (Teacher Guo) or Ma Lao Shi tell them what we're doing or what we're playing. Guo and Ma don't play with the kids as much as I do, although sometimes they do.





Here we are playing Mr. Wolf. The children love being the wolf, so sometimes there are multiple wolves, as you see in the first picture. You can also see Linda cheating by sneaking a peak!

The wolf is also a villian character in Chinese children's games, so it wasn't too hard to teach them the premise of What Time Is It Mr. Wolf? A wolf in Chinese is pronounced Da Hui Lang and means Big Grey Wolf. I hear "Da Hui Lang!" a lot when we're playing.





Now, we're playing Train. As you can see, the kids are stoked. I'm the engine, and I chug around with the children behind me. I try to weave around as many trees and other things as possible, since they find that fun. We're playing in a garden of sorts, one of the only places on the compound that has grass. A lot of grandparents bring their small grandchildren here, and sometimes the infants join in our games.

There are about three or four places we go to play, and we cycle through those every two weeks or so. Sometimes we'll play inside if it's raining, or do things like fish for tadpoles which we did yesterday.



Here we are at the beach. It's a fake beach, with coarse sand so we leave our shoes on. We bring sand toys, and generally dig holes and cover up other toys. Lily gets excited as I cover the rabbit. The beach is a great place because the children entertain themselves and it's less work for me!



This is at the playground. It's pretty small, with a swinging bridge, a curly slide, three straight slides, and some platforms. I like the playground, because the children like it and they can play by themselves. Guo doesn't like the playground because sometimes the children get hurt. I think the kids are going to get hurt anyway, so we might as well get used to it. Here I am on the teeter-totter with Linda.





Last week we had a Family Day picnic at the top of the mountain. It's not really a mountain though, more of a large steep hill. It's where the pagoda is. Carol and I have eaten fancy meals up there with the bosses and other teachers. We walked up first, ate at the top, and played with bubbles for awhile. The whole excursion was about 2 hours long.

The mountain is familiar territory for me since I do my hill workouts there a few times a week. It's pretty steep, although that's hard to see in the pictures. Here we are climbing the mountian before our small picnic. I don't remember how long it took us to walk up, but it's about 500m long and takes me about 3:10 (on a good day and during a fast interval) to reach the top.



I'll finish it off with a class picture. It's not just my class, as there are some members and teachers of the Baby Class in there too. You have to be two years and three months old to be in the Baby Class. Li Lau Shi and Sue are their teachers, and they work hard. This is ultra daycare! I don't know how they do it, herding and dealing with crying 2 year olds from 8am until 5.

Sue has taken an English course at university, so she's good to chat up. She's the one pointing at my head. Ma Lau Shi is sitting with the kids. She used to help with the Baby Class but the administration traded her to my class two weeks ago. Li is on the far left, who is also a Baby Class teacher and seems to have endless patience. Guo is in the middle. Guo has learned a lot of English this year and I communicate with her well now. She's probably the best teacher in the school and I'm happy to work with her.

Photo credits go to Guo.

HK Race III: Results

The results are in from Sunday's race.

I finished in 1:33:18, 28th overall and 7th in my age category. There were 228 finishers, 45 in my category.

It is still a respectable result, but I know I could have done much better. The results had split times, so I could see how many spaces I lost in the last 4K of rock scrambling. I went into that section in 13th position, and finished the race in 28th. Looks like I got owned by the coastline and river gorge! I got passed a few times before the rock scrambling section as well, which means for a good chunk of the race I was running in a top ten position. No wonder I found myself hurting!

Next race I'll be ready to go. So will everyone else though, so the competition will be tough! My ankle's feeling a bit better, so today I will go on a short jog to test it out.

I must be in top form for the last race of the series!

Riot police at YIHE

Today I left the compound to buy some noodles. When I got to the bus stop, I noticed quite a scene happening on the road.

A very large crew of workers were busy cutting down every single tree that stood between the busy four-lane road and the YIHE compound. I watched them cutting the last of them down because my bus was stalled, along with all other vehicles, as traffic was stopped in both directions. Our compound used to be protected from road noice and smog by these large trees, and the trees created a barrier that made YIHE seem further from the busy streets than it really is.

Along with all the workers cutting down the trees, there were lots of policeman, and a riot squad of about 20 police officers with helmets, shields and billy clubs. It was really odd, and I didn't know what was going on.

I just asked Joe what was happening, and he said they are cutting down the trees to build a bridge. I figured it was a pedestrian bridge, because crossing four lanes of traffic to get to bus stop can get pretty hairy! However, it turns out that they're building an elevated expressway for cars, not people. This new expressway will come very close to the YIHE buildings...they will be separated by only eleven metres.

Obviously, the residents at YIHE and the compound next door are very unhappy. This new Gardiner Expressway will bring levels of pollution and noise to a very high level, and it will be really ugly too. Construction will last about two years and will include a new subway line as well, passing beneath the new highway.

When the project was proposed last year, residents of our compound and the one next door protested on the street with signs, and it got on the news. It's a pretty big deal when an elevated freeway gets approved for your front yard. Joe said that the policemen and the riot squad were on site this time because last year, fights broke out between YIHE residents and workers who were trying to chop down the project's first trees. Today there were 200 police officers and 300 private security officers on hand to quell any disturbances, along with the twenty-man riot squad. Today, all the remaining trees were cut with no further violence.

Up until now, the YIHE compound has been pretty quiet and secluded, and a nice shelter from the hectic Guangzhou lifestyle. From today onwards though, that will change. I wonder if current residents will move on to greener and quieter places.

Joe said "The YIHE people, they only care themselves. They not care the Guangzhou city grow up."

I think it's good to care for your city, but I also think it's important to stand up and protest when an elevated superhighway is planned for your front yard.

Hong Kong Race III

Yesterday was the fourth race in the Action Asia Spring series, and the third that I have run. I missed the first one because I didn't know it existed, but will hopefully attend the last four. The next and last race is in two weeks, followed by a closing party of sorts.

The excursion started in the Tsim Sha Tsui area of Hong Kong, when we tried to find our hostel. Carol came with me, and we had reserved a room with two twin beds, which were in high demand I guess. There's a big trade fare going on in Hong Kong, so most places were booked. I found a good cheap place anyway, but we had trouble finding it since I'd never been there before. It was in the Chung King Mansion, beside the Mirador Mansion where we have stayed in the past.

Like Mirador, the Chung King Mansion is not a mansion...both buildings are old firetraps with sketchy stairwells and rickety elevators. I love the buildings though, since they bring so much character, and are really cheap! The Chung King Mansions are a meeting place for Hong Kong's Indian community, so there are hundreds of Indians milling around the many shops and restaurants on the first two floors. There are a lot of cell phone shops, electronic shops, garment factories, and places selling Indian DVDs. The best curry houses in HK can be found around Chung King.

Our room was really clean, really cheap, and the staff were friendly. We didn't have a window, so that was good as it meant we didn't have to listen to street noise all night. The air conditioner was broken, but the ceiling fan worked well enough since the night wasn't too hot.

I got an OK sleep, but pre-race nerves kept me from having a deep sleep, but I'm used to that by now. At least it wasn't people jiggling my door knob this time! We had to wake up early, to catch a 7am ferry to Lantau Island. There was a later one, but I wanted to get to the start early enough to get a good warm-up in, look at the first bit of the course, and get comfortable.

We were running a bit late, and almost missed the ferry...I hadn't scoped out the pier we had to get to, other than looking at a bad map on the internet. We got off the subway, and followed an arrow toward Central Pier 6, where we had to go. But then there were no more signs, and I thought we wouldn't make it since I had no idea where to go. Finally we found out we had to travel for a few blocks along an elevated bridge to the piers. I broke into run, since I had to make it to the pier before the ferry shoved off in a couple minutes! I ran as hard as I could in my flip flops and backpack, with Carol giving it her all behind me. Another runner with a helmet saw me blow by him and took up the chase too.

I got to the pier and saw the ferry hadn't left yet, and I was able to hold it for Carol, the other runner, and his girlfriend. Carol chugged into the terminal last, and just in time! She was exhausted from the early morning 500m sprint!

The ferry would go to Launtau Island, and it would be a 55 minute sailing to get there. I was tired, so I tried to catch some more sleep. It's interesting that I was able to sleep (lightly) on the ferry, but had trouble doing the same in my bed!



In Hong Kong there are signs everywhere with tips about how to avoid avian flu, like staying away from live chickens. Mainland China has had a few recent cases, a few in Guangzhou, and some further north. So, with avian flu threatening a come-back, I found it interesting that we shared the ferry ride with a shipment of live poultry, especially when they tell us to avoid them.



We got to the start, at Mui Wo on Lantau. What a wonderful little community! There was a small ferry pier where lots of bikes were parked, and the whole area had a nice small-town and uncrowded vibe that you don't get in other busier parts of Hong Kong. I could live on Lantau for sure. The ocean is close, there are mountains, there is lots of space, and it's beautiful. It reminds me of BC a bit! When we were there, it was an overcast day and the mist clung to the sides of the mountains, just like it does on Vancouver Island.



The race was to start at Mui Wo, and finish at the Pui O beach. The runners would run overland, while the volunteers and spectators would have to take a ten minute bus ride to get to the finish line.

The race started on the road, where we were to run for about 800m before the course veered off onto a single-file trail that snaked its way up into the mountains. It would be really important to get a good start, since I was expecting a huge bottleneck a few minutes into the race.

The race director is always hyper-sensitive about displaying the sponsors' banners. This time, he had them put right at the start line, blocking everything except a ten-foot wide opening. He wouldn't let anyone stand in front of the banners either. This was a silly choice, since he's got about two hundred runners to accommodate! After awhile he stopped policing the banners, as you can see a few people in front of them. I didn't want to deal with a scrum before the race even started, and I had already been told not line up in front of the banners so I lined up way over to the side, right on the edge of the water. It was a good place to start, and I was happy with it even though I was dangerously close to falling into the water. That's me in my lucky yellow racing shirt. I wear it every race.





My start was good, and I was in an excellent position by the time we got to the single-file trail. I didn't have to elbow for room, since the road had been wide enough for all of us. I pounded it up the mountain and kept advancing, passing many runners, some that I knew were really fast. I was thinking about my hill training and how it must be helping me dominate the steep grade.

After about fifteen minutes though, I started to pay for my fast start. My legs began to feel stiff, and I didn't feel like I was able to push and bound up the hills like I had been minutes before, and had been able to in the other races. My form began to suffer and I felt like I was simply trudging along slowly. The runners who I passed earlier began to return the favour. I think this can be attributed to my poor training the two weeks before the race. It had rained a lot in Guangzhou, and I didn't have the ambition to go out and run so my training was sporadic and low quality. My fitness must have taken a hit, and I felt it almost right away in this race. I wanted to run faster and better, but I couldn't. My mind was willing, but my flesh was weak! My poor preparation and my overly ambitious start were taking their toll.

I kept chugging away, and was still in the company of some fast runners I recognized from the other racers. I lost a lot of ground on the steep downhills, and got passed more than I would have liked. The trail was covered in large cow pies, so that told me that there were some free range cattle around! I really liked the rural feel of the race course.

The course started with 8K of trail running, and most of this was up and down big hills. The second part of the course, the last 4K, was a combination of coastline rocks, and, like every race, a long river gorge section.

We would run by the finish line on the beach, and then do a smallish loop. This loop started with sand running, morphed into intense coastline rock-scrambling where the sand ended, and then turned off up a river gorge. After the river gorge, we would run a short trail back down to the coastline and finish on the beach.

The terrain of the first 8K was reletively familiar for me, since it was mostly rocky trail. I knew the last 4K would be my downfall though, since I know rock scrambling and negotiating river gorges are my weakest sections in these races. As I ran along in the sand nearing the end of the beach and beginning of the rock sections, I passed three random cows just chilling on the beach. They were about ten feet away from where we ran, and they just idly watched me run buy as they absentmindedly chewed. There have been many times during these races when I wished I had a camera (and the time to take pictures), and this was definitely one of those times!

My goal after last race was to not get beat mentally by the river and rock sections, so I took it a bit easier this time. I tried not to stress about time because I know I can't go quickly in there anyway. I wonder if the humourous cattle crossing helped me take this section less seriously.

I went as fast as I could, but didn't get upset about losing places when people passed me. I got passed a lot in the last 4K! It was so tough. Since it was mid to high tide, the coastline section had us wading and swimming through the ocean in parts, avoiding waves and trying to stay near the rocks so we wouldn't float out to sea. It was impossible for me to run, since the course contained water, or huge rocks we had to climb up, over, and down. We also had to run along a rock beach section, where the rocks ranged from baseball to basketball size, so it was hard to run on that too. For me, it was all about picking a safe-looking line.

The river gorge section was really tough too. The past two races had us running up mostly dry river gorges, but this river was flowing. There were vines hanging from the trees and dangling into the water, and lots of animals and insects were busy making noise. It felt and sounded like a jungle in some parts! We had to wade in and out of the water numerous times, and cling to the rocks so we wouldn't fall in. I have been working on my upper body strength lately, and that helped me as I had to hoist myself up and over big boulders. We had to climb steep sections with ropes again, holding on to the knots. There was one place where it was too steep for ropes, so they had strung a cargo net over the section that we had to climb. That was pretty fun and interesting, as I've never tackled a cargo net before. Unlike last race, I managed to not fall in this river gorge section.

By the time I got back to the last 500m of beach running, I was whipped. Even though I didn't push it on the rocky sections, the climbing and scrambling had done me in. I ran as fast as I could toward the finish line, but it was so hard to keep a good pace. I tried to finish strong and did, but I was in pain for sure.





Carol took these good pictures of me finishing. In the first, you can see me about 50m from the line. In the distance you might be able to see where the sandy beach ends, and the rocks begin (remember, click on the picture to make it bigger). We had to run along those rocks for about one kilometre before we turned off into the river gorge. It was definitely some really tough terrain! While we were finishing, we had to negotiate a final obstacle...moms and babies! They were there to cheer on their fathers who were racing. Carol said the moms couldn't control the kids, and they kept running in front of racers in their final, painful last strides.

This race was pretty good all around, and I found myself having more fun than last race. I'll be interested to see the results when they come out. Some racers passed me who I beat last race, and I felt like I got passed more than any other race. Carol said I did pretty well overall though, so we'll see where I placed. I had more fun in this race because I didn't take the rocky sections as seriously and concentrated on being careful.

I wasn't careful enough though. It rained through some parts of the race, and twice I slipped on some wet rocks and painfully rolled my ankle. I should have gone out a bit slower off the line, and conserved some energy. I wonder if my tiredness had a hand in me hurting my ankle. Both times I went over on it, I had to pull up in a limp, grimacing and grunting in pain. I kept running slowly though, and gradually increased my speed as the pain ebbed away. Today, a day after the race, my ankle is still swollen and sore. It hurts in the morning after it's been inactive through the night, but in the day it's not as bad once I get it moving. To be safe, I'm not going to run until I can do it with confidence.

I made some costly mistakes in this race, beginning with lazy training beforehand, and then starting too fast on race day. I took my body out of the race too early, and struggled for the rest of the race. It would have been nice to feel dynamic and spry like I have before, but this race I just felt slow and sluggish. I sure hope to finish the race series on a fast note in two weeks! If my ankle lets me, I'm aiming for solid pre-race training.

My running gear was soaked through after the race, since we had to wade through lots of water. Here I am happy to be done racing, putting my gear into a plastic bag after I had showered and changed.



Carol enjoys some of the free bevies after the race. In the background are a number of Asian runners who are happy to pose with two female racers their age who are white. The white girl on the viewers right has gotten steadily faster through the races. In the first race, she came in pretty late, and collapsed over the line and had to be helped by the paramedics for huge bloody blisters and (presumably) dehydration. The next race, she won her category and took home a really expensive Suunto training watch. This race, she placed third over-all in the women's category, and got a cash prize for her efforts.



So, the next race is in two weeks and will close out the series. If I can keep my training up, I hope I can run well. There are points awarded after each race, so we'll see what my race series point total and final over all series place will be.

I saw a dead body today.

I was taking the bus downtown after school today. Like usual, I took it all the way to the station. The station has a big bus depot, is the end of the line for the subway, and is also a major long distance train terminal. There's lots of action around the station as it's a public transportation hub...crowds rushing, cabs vying for fares, people running to catch the bus. I was arriving at the station at its busiest time of the day.

Just before the bus turned into the terminal, I saw a large group of people standing around looking at a taxi that was stopped in the middle of the road. I wondered why it was sitting in the centre of the street, and not moving toward the taxi stand that was still a few hundred metres away.

Then, I saw that it had a pretty badly broken windshield. It was clear that a concentrated impact happened on the passenger side, just above the wiper. Before I could wonder what caused the impact, the bus moved past the cab, revealing a solitary man lying on the road. He had blood all over his head and face, and a small pool of blood lay beneath him on the road. His briefcase/satchel was about a metre away from his outstretched hand.

I'm pretty sure this man was dead. I looked for some movement to give me hope, but I didn't see any. His eyes were closed and his face looked peaceful rather than traumatized or anguished. He could have been unconscious or comatose from his head hitting the windshield or road, but I'll never know. He looked to be between 40 and 50 years old. While I've never seen a dead body outside a funeral home, I'm pretty sure this guy was not alive.

The cabbie responsible was leaning on his car absentmindedly lighting a cigarette, while a uniformed police man was relaxing about ten feet away. On the sidewalk, there were about 30 people standing around watching, chatting amongst themselves. Nobody looked overly concerned. All the while, the man lay dead or dying in the middle of the road, without a blanket or sheet to cover him, and without anybody to attend to his injuries.

Life seems to be very cheap here. While a man had presumably died minutes before, the crowed looked like they were taking in the evening's entertainment. The police officer looked like he was waiting for his shift to end. The cabbie seemed to be enjoying his cigarette. And I got off the bus and went along with my business, just like everyone else.

I'm not quite sure how I feel about the whole situation.

What a satisfying day!

Today has been an excellent day so far. It is Qing Ming holiday, where the Chinese visit the graves of their relatives and light incense sticks in their memory, sweep the gravesite, leaving roast pig and paper money to appease them and bring luck to those still living. For me, not being Chinese and not really into ancestor worship, Qing Ming simply means that I have a day off school.

I awoke to my regular cell-phone alarm at 7am, and stumbled around my apartment trying to find it to turn it off. I rued the early morning wake-up, and wished I didn't have to teach. Then in my stupour I remembered that it was a holiday, and I could go back to bed!

I slept for another four hours, then woke up and read my book for two hours. I took a break, went for a run, then tucked back into my book and finished it.

The book is The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. It was fantastic, and I read it in about a week.

I had heard about the book over the January break in Stratford, when I was in Fanfare books. The owner and another customer were talking about it, but I decided not to buy it because after I read the first page, I felt its premise was too similar to The Thirteenth Tale by Dianne Setterfield which I had recently finished.

Back in Guangzhou, I spied a copy of the Shadow of the Wind being used as part of a display in an Irish Pub that serves great burgers. I asked the manager if I could borrow it, and she said that would be fine. So I took it home last week, and just finished it today.

What a wonderful day, just running and reading The Shadow of the Wind. Read it! It's definitely good, and stirred up my emotions like Mitch Albom's The Five People You Meet in Heaven did.

Have a good weekend everyone, and while you're out and about, pick up The Shadow of the Wind.

HK Race II: Results

The results are up from Sunday's race at Repulse Bay, Hong Kong.

The results were posted along with this picture of the start, which I also posted on Sunday's race recap entry. When I look at the picture, I realize my start wasn't as good as I thought it was as I see what look to be a lot of novice runners around me, grinning and having a fun time. I wondered what happened, because I remember being in the third layer of people from the starting line. Then, I remembered...the start line was really full, so a lot of the people began lining up perpendicular to the start line, on my left. This new starting configuration would have looked like a big "L" from above, with me being on the horizontal section, and a lot of the late-comers to the line being on the vertical one. As soon as the race started, they must have all collapsed in on me, and I became surrounded by more bodies than I expected. So, it looks like it was even more important for me to be aggressive off the gun, and I'm glad I was.

You'll also notice that everyone seems to be wearing a red and white racing singlet. These are the shirts we got in the race packet at registration, and the race organizers recommend that we wear them to appease the race sponsors. I feel that wearing the race shirt of the race you're running is not only tacky, but bad luck too! The race I do that I'm sure to injure myself. It's like buying a concert t-shirt before the band takes the stage, then putting it on and wearing it during the show. Bad move! I needed to wear my lucky yellow Brazil soccer jersey instead, since it's been my racing shirt for quite a few years and I must wear it if the conditions are right. Plus, I don't care so much about making race sponsors happy...I paid my $200HKD ($27USD) to race, so I'll wear my own shirt.

My training and decision to take a few days off prior to the race must have really helped (along with my decision to wear my lucky racing shirt), because I turned in a better performance than I did two weeks previously at the Sai Kung race.

The races were different distances and different courses obviously, so they're not easy to compare. I looked at the results, and found a few racers that finished around me, and compared their times to mine for both races. I'll also compare my finishes relative to the runners in my age group, and in the whole field.

In the first race, I was 23rd over all and 6th in my category, with a time of 1:34:10. There were 159 total racers two weeks ago, 33 in my category.

On Sunday, I placed 22nd over all, and 8th in my category. My time was 1:33:33. This time, there were 224 total races, and 46 in my category.

The results look pretty similar so far. But when I compare my times with other racers' times from both races, I'm happy to see I did much better.

Two weeks ago, I out-kicked Wong Wei Chuen in the final stretch to beat him by seven seconds. On Sunday though, it looks like I finished 9 minutes ahead of him, as he finished in 1:43:17. In the first race, I was beaten by a runner named Shek Kong by more than three minutes. This time, he took me by 80 seconds. A Ron Tupac beat me by one place and 45 seconds in the first race, but on Sunday I had him by a solid 5 minutes and six places. So, judging by the runners around me, I had much better performance this week!

The next race happens in two weeks. It's on an island, and I'll need to take a ferry to get there. Apparently there is a cargo net that needs to be climbed somewhere in the race, so that will be a new experience for me. Hopefully I can keep up on my training and turn in another solid performance.