The Great Wall Marathon

At some point in time, before coming here, Dave and I heard about the Great Wall Marathon. We both thought it would be a cool thing to do. We did it. (Warning...a marathon is a long race, thus, this is a long post).

But, doing it wasn't nearly as simple as the previous paragraph might make it seem. The Great Wall Marathon was my first marathon, and hopefully not my last, but it has been almost three weeks and my knee still hurts. I am absolutely glad that I ran it, it was a marvelous experience, and a great accomplishment. It was also undeniably the most difficult physical task I have ever put my body through. After having run it, I have nothing but admiration and respect for anyone who has run a marathon.

The process to the marathon wasn't exactly smooth sailing. But, after registering by Internet, phone, fax, and wired money, I headed to Tianjin. It was only after buying my ticket for Tianjin that I was able to pinpoint the location of the race and realize, that while in the Tianjin municipality, it was actually closer to Beijing. It wasn't a big deal, a bus ride and then mini-bus/van ride later I was at the foot of the Great Wall of China. The race was at Huangyaguan, which is located in the northern corner of Tianjin. On the ride up there I started to get a pretty bad feeling, which was confirmed upon arrival. This marathon was not only going to be on the Great Wall, but it was in the middle of a bunch of hills/small mountains. Now I probably should have known this, but to be perfectly honest, I was about as unprepared for this marathon as one could be. Luckily, as it was explained to me later, my young body was able to make up for my idiotic lack of preparation. I didn't even read the course description before starting the race. My preparation and training consisted of reading the Wikipedia article on marathons, running occasionally (but never for more than 13 miles), running stairs once, and eating a lot of noodles the days before the race. But I finished...albeit slowly, but I finished.

To begin, it's important to note that the Great Wall Marathon is considered an adventure marathon. This essentially means that there's something adventurous or challenging about the marathon that it's not compared to normal marathons for rankings, times, etc. Upon discussions with some experienced marathoners, I might be certifiably crazy to choose to run an adventure marathon as my first marathon. Dave had arrived the day before, so he already had a hotel room. We had dinner with some Kiwis he had met earlier in the day, got our stuff ready, hit the hay, and got up early the next morning. (Two roosters 5 meters from our window made sure of this if our alarms didn't). The plaza area surrounding the large gate to the wall was filled with runners when I got there a bit after seven. The very different thing that they were not Chinese. Although there were some Chinese runners, they made up only 5% of the runners, so it was a foreigner festival to be sure. This is a pretty shocking sight for me, being pretty accustomed to the 99% racial homogeneity of Jiangsu. I bought a PowerBar energy gel pack to go with my imitation Starburst and sugary jello drinks I would use for energy during the race. I carried them in a super stylish fanny pack, which, if nothing else, was sure to get the girls looking while running.

The race started at 7:30. It wouldn't end for me until well into the afternoon. The beginning was flat for awhile and then we started to climb a gradual hill. It consisted mostly of just weaving through people and avoiding any collisions. The marathon, half-marathon, and 10K runners all started together, so there was a fair amount of congestion. Dave ran with me for the first two or three kilometers. He trained more and is a much better distance (and short, for that matter) runner than I, and our goals were almost two hours apart from each other, so we wouldn't be running together. Things were going well for me, and I was keeping a good pace until about kilometer 6. My legs started to twitch and feel exactly like they were 'falling asleep'. This has happened to me after a few of my training runs, and a little when I was running before. I tried to walk it off and stretch, which sort of helped. A nice Italian (I think) lady even came over to see if I was okay, saying that my legs looked really red. I am not sure what caused this, maybe dehydration, but it subsided after a bit. I was mostly just frustrated because I had to walk so early in the race, and on reasonably flat ground.

The next portion of the race was quite easy, and pretty social. We hit the wall and started climbing up and down. But since there were so many people (all the 10K, half, and full marathoners were still together), we had to wait in single file lines as we went up many of the narrow trails. It was at this point that I realized this was really an adventure marathon. Some of the Great Wall has been well preserved or rebuilt with smooth large stones. We ran on this part initially. But then we moved onto some of the original, unimproved wall. It was more of an uneven, thin path with varying instability and jagged rocks. So it was slow going. I chatted with a few of the people around me, and mostly just enjoyed the forced rest. After the path though, the wall opened up a bit and we had a few pretty tall staircases to climb. They weren't too bad, but certainly weren't helping me beat the safety cut off point.

After this we headed down a long path that then lead us to some villages. In between the villages we had an unnecessarily long hill. It just kept rising, rising, and rising. Just past the 21 kilometer point, I asked a Filipino man what time it was, and he said 10:40. (Oh, all the race bibs had the runner's nationality on them, I didn't just ask everyone where they were from). This had me in pretty good spirits, 3:10 for the half was good news. I had originally wanted to complete the course in 6 hours, which is anything but a lofty goal. But the email had said most prepared runners did it in 5-6 hours, so I figured without adequate preparation I was on the low end. By about kilometer 15 or so I realized that I really should just try for 8 hours, the safety cut off time. 26.22 miles is a long way.

After the hill we ran through two very rural villages, filled with kids and teens shouting 'hello' 'jia you' ('let's go' in Chinese-literally 'add gas'), or the occasional 'go, go' 'keep going' or 'you can do it' from the high school students helping mark the course. In one village, as a kid on a bike passed, a friendly Brit running next to me joked he'd like to borrow it. I responded that I would instead offer the kid all the cash I had to buy it. I was encouraged that at least one other runner wasn't taking it too seriously (I did shave a nasty biker-stache just for the race).

The next section was no fun at all. We had to run on a rural path/bike trail for about 3 or 4 kilometers. Actually it may have been less, but it seemed pretty long. This was because the path was made up of dry, clumpy dirt littered with rocks of all sizes. Some were small, others were pretty large, but it was essentially a recipe for ankle disasters. I was pretty tired and the uneven trail occasionally forced me to walk, which made me mad, as this portion was downhill. I had been walking a lot during the race, but had only stopped during my muscle spasm problems. I found that speed-walking kept me pretty loose and rested, while also allowing me to cover some ground. At the end of the path, as we were just about to enter a bit of village, which was paved, I did it. I bit it. I was just jogging along, misstepped, and fell forward onto my left leg. The scrapes weren't too bad, but I could tell this wasn't good for my knee. The British guy ahead of me turned around and started to come back to help me. I made it clear to him that my blunder shouldn't be his slow down, and he wished me well. Luckily, only about a kilometer away, at kilometer 30 was an aid station. So one of the helpers took me to the medic van, got me cleaned up, and tried to put on some band aids, but my sweaty legs weren't conducive to that. The worst part was that my knee and shin were throbbing, and I mean really throbbing. The fact that I had 12 more kilometers to run wasn't the kind of news a knee that just crashed on a rock is looking for. Honestly, though, it was the excuse I needed to walk for awhile. The human body can only run for about 25 or so kilometers on the energy it can store (females longer than males). And, the stuff I got at the town's corner store wasn't exactly the best energy source possible. So I took it pretty easy and walked for a kilometer or so.

Then we hit the Wall. Literally, if not figuratively as well. After seeing the finish line, but being waved the other way, we entered the gate and headed up the wall. At the beginning we ran up the gradual hill and then went up and down on the wall, but mostly down. This time, after having already run 33 or 34 kilometers, we were going mostly up. It was brutal. Excruciating. Disheartening. I, and everyone else around me, had to stop frequently. My muscles were burning, hurting, and buckling. I was just way too tired and the stairs seemed endless. I bought and devoured two bananas from a vendor with the last 10Y in my fanny pack, I think these just kept my muscles from completely shutting down. Slowly but surely, I pudsched along and finally saw a great sight: the last tower and a turn onto a road. As I left the wall, the volunteer joked that now we could 'roll down the hill'. And he was right, the rest of the race was all downhill or flat. As I was exiting the wall, I chatted with an older man from Canada, who had been in the hospital two days earlier with bronchial pneumonia. But he said this was the opportunity of a lifetime, so here he was, outrunning my perfectly healthy 22 year old body. I'd like to say I toughened up and ran past him. I didn't. He beat me. Humiliating, I know. I didn't have the mental or physical energy to run the last 4 or 5 kilometers, even though they were all downhill. In fact, I didn't even start my final push until about 400 meters to go. But I finished, in 6 hours, 26 minutes, and 11 seconds. 218th out of 279 male finishers and 319th out of 437 overall runners. Dave finished in 4:50, which was pretty damn good for his first marathon. I devoured the free Subway sandwich, took some pics, showered, and got on the free bus back to Beijing. I had a great chat with two ladies from South Africa who were very experienced marathoners and triathletes, who made the trip just for the marathon. They were impressed with my time, given my stunning (to them) lack of training. This boosted my confidence, because the clock at the end certainly didn't.

Back in Beijing, Dave and I demolished bloomin' onions, steaks, salads, and sides at Outback Steakhouse, and put back a few beers. I wasn't the least bit worried about calories. We even saw two other groups of marathoners doing the same thing. Dinner at Outback was actually one of my big motivators for finishing the race. It was by far the biggest and best piece of meat (and salad) I had eaten in 10 months. So, there you have it, if you ever want to put your body through pure, unadulterated torture, I know a beautiful and fun place you can do it. The race really was an absolute blast and I am really glad to have run it. And that's it's over.

English Festival?

A while ago, all the foreign English teachers received an email saying that we were to give a speech as part of the “English Festival” (I use quotations because I am not convinced it was really a festival, nor did it utilize/celebrate English as its name indicates). We were told to give our speech about something related to learning English or to Western culture. I gave my speech about intellectual property, as it is something I am interested in as well as something that I think will be of incredible importance in China in the future. In retrospect, I probably ought to have picked a subject more relevant and entertaining to my students (who were essentially the only people to attend) but I think they learned something, which is always good. Of course, as usual, my speech did not take place where the email said it would be, but I was told the morning of about the change via text message. When I got there I was a bit surprised, as I expected there to be a professor or two from the department, and maybe someone to give an introduction or some sort of ceremonial fanfare (which is quite popular here). No dice. Just a classroom, with mostly my students, one of whom I had to ask to make sure I was in the right place and everything was as planned. Well, apparently the planning was to put me in a room with a computer and projector and a lot of my students. The lack of organization wasn’t really a big deal; my students were all pretty awed by my shirt and tie (I wear jeans and a polo to class). As I said, I think a few people learned from the speech, and all of them got in some great English listening practice. On a side note, I warned Danthemanstan (who was to give a speech the next week) about the location confusion. He double-checked with the English department, who reassured him the original plan was correct. He then received a last minute text telling him that, (gasp); it was actually where I suggested.

My next obligation for the “English Festival” was to judge a competition. I was sent a text message a few hours before it began saying it had been moved to the next day. No big surprise there. Unfortunately, I was busy the next day, so thus couldn’t attend. I have given up feeling sorry or guilty when I can’t attend the impromptu events. I love helping my students: I voluntarily attend English corner every week, and have on a few occasions agreed to help with activities that I knew would not be too enjoyable. I have even put on the Foreign Language School uniform for every intra-faculty sports competition. But, unlike all the students and many of the professors at this school, I am unwilling to sit patiently beside my cell phone at all hours in case someone on campus wants a foreign teacher to immediately appear somewhere. Hilariously, Amy attended the opening ceremony for this ‘English Festival’ by accident when she walked by it one afternoon. The students complained that none of the foreign teachers were there (besides her cameo). Of course, a simple email or text message a few days in advance would have assured the attendance of some, if not all of us. Make plans. Stick to them. It’s a pretty simple concept (in my opinion), but it’s almost comedic how hard of a time our sub-par university has grasping this concept.

Enter the second event that I was signed up to judge for the “Festival”. Of course 45 minutes before it was to begin I received a text saying it was delayed. Then about two hours later I was told to show up an hour later, with an emphasis that I should be on time. I was. The event started thirty minutes late. The translation of its title in Chinese was essentially ‘many cultures displayed in the street’ or a culture fair. It turned out to be fairly accurate. Essentially, there were five or six groups told to give a performance representing a country/culture (performances are really big in China). The performances were given on a cheap red carpet laid out in front of some tables in the plaza in front of the library. Danthemanstan and I were judges, along with three Chinese teachers. The performances, introductions, and scorecards were all given in Chinese. The teacher next to us helped out by telling us to “give score”. With the help of my student in the audience, I was able to figure out the (pretty much useless) categories, and where to write the final score. A few of the performances were pretty good (visually, my Chinese is miles away from understanding what they said) and showed a lot of student effort. The performance for America consisted of a bad dance to an old hip-hop song. I was very disappointed. Apparently that’s all the group could come up to display the most widespread and identifiable culture in the world. The most disappointing thing though, was that our scorecards were collected about one third of the way through the last group’s performance. Which turned out to be the best of all of them, but I was only able to score a third of it, so they didn’t fare so well. They represented Japan, and even made sushi for us. Given the Chinese people’s quiet (but ubiquitous) disdain for Japan, Danthemanstan and I found the sketchy scorecard collection only too ironic.

I know this has been a pretty long post describing a not too interesting “English Festival”, but I think it is perfectly symbolic of the pretty dismal situation my students deal with. This activity (and almost all others) was put on by the student union, which isn’t required, but strongly encouraged, and required for any positive recommendations for jobs or graduate school. It is run quite poorly. The seniors all have internships or jobs, so they don’t help. The juniors have the heaviest course load at the school, so very few of them help. Therefore, it’s led by the sophomores, but many of them have become disillusioned, so only some help. Thus, the freshmen do all the legwork and a fair amount of the planning, despite having no experience and little knowledge about how the school works. But they must put on all the activities, or receive bad marks on their non-scholastic report card (yes this school keeps them, and a messy dorm room does constitute a demerit). These report cards do actually come into play when job and grad school considerations are made. So the students, (freshmen and some sophomores) put lots of effort into planning and executing various activities, but receive little attention and no commendation for doing so. I felt really bad for some of the students, who obviously spent lots of time planning their activity, as a thrown together PA system drowned them out, most of the crowd was chatting-including the teachers judging, one of the judges took a phone call during their performance (this is actually pretty common here), and two of the judges shouldn’t have even been there (as we don’t speak the language in which they were performing). Yet the students resiliently kept at it, knowing they had to do it. I have tried to encourage some of my students to effect some change in the student union or on campus, but they say it’s useless. I pretty much believe them, 5,000 years of feudal, imperial, and then authoritarian rule along with a very traditional culture don’t really facilitate change. I tell them I hope when they become teachers and administrators they’ll remember to eliminate some of the more futile aspects of their college life. I hope they do, but for now I just compliment them on their positive attitude and great work ethic.

The Great Firewall

For those avid readers, you will realize that I haven't updated my blog in a little longer than normal period. About two weeks ago, when on a trip, I got a message from Teddy (our advisor) saying that blogspot has been blocked. It was anything but a surprise. I wasn't too stoked about this news, but knew that Danthemanstan was using a program to get around it. So I did some research, and bought access to the VPN host which he uses. I had to do some troubleshooting, as the Great Firewall even blocks some levels of the program, but obviously it is running and working now. There are many very popular ways around the Firewall, but unfortunately for me, most of them are written for Windows, as it (or an illegal copy of it) is the primary operating system used in China. So far, the firewall (or Golden Shield Project, as it's officially titled) hadn't really affected me, as many of the news sites blocked in Chinese are open in English, and I don't watch too many YouTube videos. But, with blogspot being blocked, it got too inconvenient, so now, with the click of a button I am enjoying some good ol' Internet from the U.S.

The agreed upon (although not official or admitted) reason for the block is the upcoming twentieth anniversary of the Tian'anmen Square massacre on June 4th. I had read a little about the firewall before, but did a little more reading about it recently. It is actually commended for being one of the best developed Internet blocking technologies in the world, and apparently the Chinese government has given advice to other countries that also share China's aversion to freedom of the press. It's a pretty public project, but surprisingly, all of the students I talked to were unaware that the Internet was blocked here. So I guess the firewall isn't doing too bad of a job. In general, most of my students don't really care. They can access all the sites they want to and are in general just pretty happy to have a cell phone or laptop to access the Internet. It's part of an overall feeling that I see a lot in my students and most of the Chinese people I talk with. Through the middle of the twentieth century China suffered a civil war, massive starvation due to the Great Leap Forward, and a significant clamp down on freedom via the Cultural and Spiritual Revolutions. So, for most of my students, the massive development and enrichment made by the government (since opening to the world in 1978) is much more important than gaining 'rights' which they and their families never really knew before. Most of the dissent in China comes from the small group of wealthy, educated people living in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzen. As I see it, the rest don't really see the value in dissent, when the current government has done so much to enrich and educate them. This is a major generalization and simplification, but I contend it's quite accurate. A very good article in the NY Times talked about how irrelevant the Tian'anmen Square massacre is to most young Chinese. This just kind of makes the whole blocking ironic, as few Chinese even seek out the information that is blocked, because, like as previously mentioned, they don't really care. The two pictures show life with and without the VPN program. So, the blogs will start rolling soon.

A trip to the peaceful ocean

Last weekend was labor day in China (May 1). This meant that we got Friday off to make it a three day weekend. I have a three day weekend every single weekend, but the students don't, so this is a big holiday for them, and almost every single student goes home. As I have previously alluded, life on our campus is just a bit less comfortable than my time at TU, so I completely understand the students going home whenever they can. 星星 (Xingxing), who I have mentioned a lot, invited Dave and me to come visit her home and family. Dave's mom is currently here visiting, so she came, along with two of Xingxing's friends and one friends' boyfriend. The trip got off to a very poor start for me. I was supposed to meet the three of them for a six a.m. bus on Friday morning. Unfortunately, Danthemanstan and I did a fair amount of baijiu drinking after poker night on Thursday, and I slept through both of my alarms and four phone calls. As this post explains, baijiu's power is similar to those of Superman or Wolverine.

I got a later bus ticket, made it to Hai An (海安), Xingxing's hometown, without too much trouble, and also had a good chat with the man next to me. He had actually visited the U.S. for business training and meetings with GE, seeing the Detroit airport and Erie, PA. His group took a three day tourist trip to Los Angeles, which he said he didn't like because it was too hot. I guess not everyone will be impressed with America. Upon buying the bus tickets, I realized that Hai An meant peaceful ocean. Hai An is not on the ocean, but is pretty close. The only reason I bring this up is that both Xingxing and her/my friend Qin Chen, who is from a town near Hai An, have never seen the ocean. This absolutely shocked me when I heard it; but is more understandable after finding out more about China and how travel is very uncommon, and realizing that the ocean near Hai An is pretty polluted and mostly shipping ports.

It was a fun, albeit short trip. I went to the KTV (karaoke bar) with Xingxing, Qin Chen, Jiang Ling, and Yang Bo, which was a pretty fun time. I reluctantly sang 'My Heart Will Go On', which is about as popular as rice in China. Otherwise I used their singing as a way to practice my Chinese characters by reading along on the screen. We had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant with Xingxing's family (mom, dad, cousin, cousin's wife and daughter). There was enough food to fill all of us three times over, which is the Chinese custom. At her house the next day we had a lunch, and by that I mean feast. Her mom really put out the Chinese spread. We had delicious fish, some awesome, awesome shredded pork with peppers and onions, lots of good vegetables, and some mini-lobster/crayfish. Seeing Xingxing's childhood pictures around her house was pretty awesome, there were some outrageously cute ones. The best was one when she was pretty young, essentially had a bowl cut, and was wearing boy's clothes. Rest assured a few jokes were made.

One interesting thing we did was to visit the high school which both Xingxing and Qin Chen attended, as well as the new one under construction. It wasn't a bad campus, in fairly good condition and the new campus was nice and had lots of gardens and trees. It was drizzling when we visited them, so that may have added to my experience. What struck me was how serious and drab the atmosphere at the school was. Classes were in session, and we visited in the post-lunch period. I caused a pretty big stir when walking by the classrooms (picture to the right). Xingxing explained I was probably the first foreign (and non ethnic Chinese) person these students had ever seen. The students weren't in class, but rather were required to be in the classroom. This was successfully enforced by locking the dormitories. I was blown away by the stacks (I mean stacks) of books on each student's desk. I talked at length with some of my friends about their high school life. At poker night we determined that it was pretty similar to prison in the U.S. Danthemanstan made a very convincing argument that he would rather go to prison. A good portion of the students at the school live in the dormitories, although a few live at home. The majority of the kids were asleep on their desks, as they can't go to the dormitory (it's locked, remember), and they use this time to catch up on sleep. The other students were silently and solemnly studying at their desks. I'd be one of the students sleeping for sure.

I can't really say enough about how good of a friend Xingxing has been to me. She essentially is a 24/7 translation and cultural interpretation center. I don't know the number of times I have put her on the phone with a store owner, taxi driver, or someone else, and every time she gets the job done. She is incredibly courteous and helpful, which in my opinion is her greatest downfall, as she seems to spend her life helping me (and other foreigners). The biggest reason that she has been such a good friend is her great sense of humor and sarcasm. I don't think she would be able to deal with me if she took half of what I said seriously, and luckily she doesn't. Having seen every episode of Friends, Sex and the City, One Tree Hill, and Two and a Half Men, she has a good bearing on American humor. So it was great fun to see where she grew up, and meet her parents. Her dad was very quiet and reserved, much like many Chinese men, but her mom was cheery, and as I have mentioned, incredibly gracious. Lastly, I always thought my parents were pretty strict when I was in high school. I won't be complaining so much after seeing Xingxing's house. The only door to her bedroom comes from her parents bedroom, and they share a not so thick wall. There was no sneaking out or staying up late for Xingxing as a child.

Not so hazy skies

For the last few days, we have had beautiful weather here in Changzhou. Much of spring was filled with drizzle and even if it wasn't raining it would be pretty hazy and muggy, because of all the post rain moisture. But it has warmed up now so that I am wearing shorts and a t-shirt most days. My students continue to wear pants and long sleeves, and even jackets. From what I can tell, this is mostly due to a great fear of the sun among the girls, as pale skin is prized in China. So, the other afternoon, I had some free time, so I went around campus to try and take some pictures of the places I go by every day. The campus here can look pretty dreary in the winter, as many of the buildings are gray or ivory (which with some pollution becomes gray), and the pollution and overcast winter skies add to the grayness. There isn't too much architectural diversity on campus, most of the buildings are very utilitarian looking. This makes sense, when considering that when trying to establish and build hundreds of universities within a decade, to educated tens of millions of students, the Chinese government wasn't spending time on architectural innovation. In the sunny skies of the last few days, though, I have realized that our campus really has a good amount of gardens and trees. The grounds crew, using an odd combination of modern power tools and some almost ancient looking tools, does a good job of upkeep around campus.

Outside of my apartment and the classrooms, I spend the most time on shang ye jie (商业 街), or market street, as we call it in English. It has about everything I need. There are four restaurants, although I seldom stray away from my three favorites. It has two copy/printing/technology stores, some snack shops, two barber shops, a small supermarket on the corner, and another store which is essentially the housewares and office section of Wal-Mart or Target compressed into a store the size of a living room. This store always seems to amaze me at what it has in stock. Early in the year, Xingxing told me that in her whole college career they never didn't have what she needed, and predicted the same for me. I was able to prove her theory wrong a few times, but I guess it was because I wanted some special 'foreign' things. It's also a great place to sit at night, eat some ice cream or fruit and watch all the students bustling back from the library, going to get hot water for their canteens (a ubiquitous site on campus), or getting some snacks or doing some light shopping.

I also tried to take some pictures of some of the prettier parts of campus. They all are essentially 'lover's lane' as a result of the strict dormitory policies banning the opposite sex from entering. Thus, couples are forced to chat, hug, and kiss on park benches around campus, if they don't want to make the trip downtown (to a little less public locale). Because of this, something I have noticed is that couples are really good at ignoring all that around them. I noticed this (once again) as I was walking around a pretty secluded corner by a pond, and the couple on the park bench barely seemed to notice me. My bike wasn't parked more than a foot from them, and I think the guy only looked up once. Then again tonight, as I came back to my apartment, near by the bushes outside my porch, a couple was kind of hugging/kissing/clandestinely making out and didn't even blink an eye or pause as I rode by and locked up my bike. I don't think I caught any bench sitting couples in my pictures, but it's possible.
Following are descriptions of the pictures.
Top left, the new library under construction. Top right, market street. Second left, boys' dormitory. Second right, the main teaching building, where most of my classes are located. Third left, the largest pond on campus with a pagoda. Third right, the courtyard inside the arts building. Fourth left, a view of the main teaching building from across the pond and garden. Bottom right, the side/back view of the new library under construction. Bottom left, the bridge over the pond and some apartment buildings in the distance.