Training Log Archive: blairtrewin

My first experience of orienteering in China. This was the first event of the regional series for the year (so I guess you could call it an approximate State League equivalent) - a 2-person relay for the elites/18s and an individual event for everyone else, using what I'd describe as a long urban format, mostly in a village but with transport legs early and late to get us to/from the arena.

I ran one of the M21 relay legs about 20 minutes after the mass start. It was quickly apparent that this was not going to be your usual urban race in the western world, featuring (among other things) horn-blowing scooters, wandering roosters, and eventually a grazing ox in the vicinity of the 10th control. I was looking forward to a village race after what I'd seen of a similar area on Thursday. The first part of the course was fairly simple (I think the principal purpose of #3 was to take us to the southernmost point of mainland China's southernmost village - the actual southernmost point of mainland China is a couple of kilometres away), but it got steadily more complex, culminating in a long leg 11-12 which, once you read it properly, only had a couple of route choice options, but was fiendishly difficult to try to execute at speed through the maze. Managed this OK, but by then I was fading in the high humidity - 29/25 today, numbers which wouldn't be out of place in Darwin in February, and the first sunshine since I've been here - and the long run-in to the finish was definitely a struggle. I would have had trouble if it were even 5-10 minutes more; the amount of fluid lost was evidenced by the fact it was 8 hours (and about 3 litres of fluid) later before anything came out the other end (just as well I didn't have to do a drug test). Fastest relay leg time I saw was 30 so the actual result was quite respectable.

This takes my number of countries orienteered in to either 29 or 30, depending on how you count Northern Ireland (which for sporting purposes effectively has "dual nationality"; I haven't competed in the Republic). Probably won't collect another one for a while (maybe WMOC 2020 in Slovakia, unless I manage to get to a Hong Kong event at some stage on a World Cup trip?). Most significant omissions, apart from Slovakia, are probably Estonia, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and Ukraine.

The arena set-up removed any possible doubt that the organisers are capable of putting on a good arena show. I doubt if too many State League events in Australia feature a 20-metre-long big screen or a half-hour opening ceremony (opening ceremonies are important in this part of the world). Got to give out some pineapples at the prizegiving...

I was a bit nervous about whether we had enough time to get back to Zhanjiang for the flight. There are advantages of travelling back on a bus with, among others, Guangdong's deputy minister of sport: the police will stop the traffic for you. (The bus driver wasn't as crazy as Friday's, either). Something new I learned about Zhanjiang (with some Wikipediaing once I got back to Australia) is that it was once a French equivalent of Hong Kong; unlike the British or the Portuguese, the French, who had more than enough on their hands in Vietnam, didn't reclaim their possession after it was liberated from the Japanese at the end of World War 2, and it was formally handed over to China in 1946.

C • Countries 4

I've had previous experience of event organisers in Asia having a greater opinion of my importance than I do myself (as those who remember the "Genghis Khan" photo from the 2004 Kazakhstan trip will know) - I think the potential sponsors at Thursday night's dinner were a bit disappointed that I didn't have the authority to sign the IOF up on the spot - so it wasn't a huge surprise to discover that we were guests of honour at the local pineapple harvest festival. ('Guest of honour at a harvest festival in rural southern China' probably isn't high on the list of things I would have anticipated happening when I first did a controllers' course). This involved a lot of speeches from other people, quite a bit of singing and dancing, a few contests (one a relay race while carrying baskets of pineapples, some of which were inevitably spilt), and being introduced myself to a backing soundtrack of booming instrumental music of a sort that wouldn't have been out of place in a 1980s Holden or VB ad. It was good to get out into the countryside - orienteering really does take you into some places you'd never end up in otherwise.

The negative of the location we were staying in was that it was just about impossible for running - on a main highway with no footpaths, with the traffic anarchy mentioned yesterday. (I saw a box of something labelled "China Longevity Village Xuwen" - presumably the secret to longevity here is to stay off the roads). Just about my only option would have been intervals in the car park. I have actually done intervals in a car park before (against a somewhat more scenic backdrop), but on this occasion wasn't too upset to have a reason to give my Achilles another day to settle down.

Set out this morning (we were staying somewhere different, it seems for proximity to a dinner being put on last night by a potential sponsor). The intention was intervals but my Achilles was playing up significantly for the first time in a while (and I can't say I was that enthusiastic about this as a running environment, although there turned out to be a decent path along a river).

I didn't know a lot about plans for this week before I came here so I've gone with the flow as best I could. This meant I wasn't totally shocked when I found out that when they said we were going to an event on Sunday a long way from Guangzhou and that I shouldn't book a flight on Sunday before 8pm, what they actually meant was that the event in question is at the far southwestern corner of the province (in the southernmost town in mainland China, the ferry port for Hainan island), perhaps 500km from Guangzhou, and that they were going to fly us (most of the way) there and back. It will be a good chance to see how things are done locally, and to meet some key people (especially from the national federation).

We headed down there in the afternoon (after first looking at another possible area which I wasn't too enthused about for orienteering - forest too thick - but is possibly in close enough subway range to be a place to run when I'm here for IPCC in June), going a bit close for comfort to missing check-in for the flight. The trip involved flying to a small-by-local-standards place I've never heard of, Zhanjiang, and then driving 120km or so to another smaller-by-local-standards place I've never heard of, Xuwen. (Haven't looked it up yet but I'd guess their populations are similar to those of Adelaide and Canberra respectively). Our bus driver was an enthusiastic user of the horn, something which became more apparent towards the end of the journey - Guangzhou's traffic is heavy but not too outrageous, but Xuwen's main drag was just about the most anarchic I've seen anywhere on the planet.

Staying in what seemed to be, at night, another part of the Chinese urban jungle and thought I might have trouble finding somewhere reasonable to run, but it turned out the towers were only a couple of blocks deep, and a kilometre to the west took me into what could be considered semi-rural (at least for now - it will probably be city in five years' time) - a village and a back road along a river/channel, where for 20 minutes the only vehicles I saw with more than two wheels were the school bus and a couple of delivery trucks. Was just starting to think about a turnaround point when I spotted a dog in the middle of the road - something to be avoided in this part of the world. A reasonable run, and not as humid as I thought it might be (and got in before the rain which fell on and off for the rest of the day).

Most of the rest of the day (at least those parts of it which weren't spent eating more than I should) was then devoted to looking at potential World Cup areas. The proposed individual sprint area is fantastic, a real rabbit-warren in a village which still has a traditional layout - well up there with the best Mediterranean old town sprints I've seen. The others aren't quite as good but should still make for a good competition (the middle will be of the 2009/2013 World Games type rather than a "true" middle).

A very early start to get something in before the flight. Felt OK today (apart from some mild Achilles soreness), but pretty slow - perhaps the early hour and the darkness? Humid by recent standards, but it will be much more humid in Guangzhou.

I now know where our local Anzac dawn service is, hearing the sound of the Last Post coming from the All Nations Park hill (and keeping a respectful distance from it).

It's a bit of a worry that a short session at such a slow pace was showing 3.5 days recovery time on my watch. (I'm not sure what algorithm this uses, but it doesn't seem to bear any resemblance whatsoever to how hard the session was).

Now in Hong Kong after the first leg of the flight (all to plan so far). My attempts to acquire a map of the Guangzhou area have drawn a blank in the bookshops of both Melbourne and of Hong Kong Airport (the latter are hardly deserving of the name 'bookshop', at least the ones I found), so I've downloaded a few Google screenshots.

Woke up with a stiff back - first time for a while - so took to the water instead.

This wasn't one of Northcote Pool's better days. The outdoor pool was closed due to chemical issues and both of the most obvious ways from the changerooms to the water were blocked by apparently unconnected (and uncoordinated) building works. Thought the inside pool might be too crowded for comfort, but it worked out OK. Back loosened up eventually.

I've had my first go at pilates this evening - trying something different. Difficult to read too much into a first attempt but it will be interesting to see if it works out.

Heading to China tomorrow for my first World Cup SEA visit.

C • China! 2

C • Pilates 2

Always feels somewhat autumnal when there's a fog, even if it wasn't a particularly cold fog (today's heat record was the highest temperature ever in Victoria in the last 10 days of April, 34.2 at Hopetoun). It wasn't a particularly dense fog either, otherwise it might have scuttled my plans for the outdoor pool. A decent session in the water, although I clearly haven't adjusted properly to the new belt yet as there was a bit of chafing (producing some anti-photogenic blood marks on my shirt later - fortunately I didn't have any TV engagements today).