Since we returned from our wonderful vacation.... some unexpected adventures took over our lives for a little bit. Andrew became very ill which caused some nervous tension around the household concerning his condition. It took two hospitals, lots of medicines, and days of just lying in bed to get him back on his feet. Fortunately, he is feeling better but is still not at full strength. I miss my adventure partner...Biking, running and just plain exploration just isn't as fun without him. Being sick in a foreign country where people don't speak your language and the medicine is all together different and in a different language can be very frightening... luckily, we have a great principle that knew where to take us and was willing to help us through the weekend!
Other thoughts:
We returned from our vacation with some fun starboard inflatable SUPs... now its my mission to find places we can use them on the weekend. It's tough,... there isn't much water close to us, and if we do find water its usually pretty disgusting and the thought of climbing onto it makes us cringe.... hmmm....the language, barrier, not having a car or being able to drive a car, and the pain in the butt of buying train tickets makes this process a whole lot more challenging...
Running and such things:
Another road marathon? YES.... road marathon.... I am not as quick on the road as I used to be.... a little frustrating and demoralizing but yet another motivation to train a little differently. I guess the last 8 years I have switched to ultras and mostly adventure racing which is longer off road and requires less specific training... Although it is painful I suppose the speed training and just more running can only add to my fitness?!?...right?
So I am running my second marathon in China in one week. The Chongqing Marathon on March 17th. We didn't do too much specific running over our 5 week holiday so it only gave me 4 weeks to actually train for this marathon... the motivation: External: 10th place gets 500$ US dollars...the Obstacle?: its the national chinese qualifying race for the olympics.... TOUGH....
Its been an interesting ride leaving such an amazing and beautiful place (Vancouver) and coming to a strange, concrete desgined, not much(actually pretty much zero) outdoor activties, and western anything town to live and work for a year... we've used our imagination in the first 5 months to find ways to occupy our weekends and keep our love of adventure and outdoors alive; we've slacklined in bamboo forests, found many side roads to explore the nearby farms, enjoyed the exploration of nearby towns, bike toured and did some sketchy camping,..... I hope the last 3.5 months we don't loose our motivation and keep exploring and learning about China...
live, love, laugh,...DREAM!
lina
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