Last time I wrote I was in Mongolia and now I’m in China, amazing heh? Tom, Jacob, Noah and I accomplished this with the help of another train, I spent the night in a strange position as I shared a 5 foot bunk with all my luggage and in the morning we were in Beijing. We stayed at the Saga International Youth Hostel, which I can recommend you don’t do, especially if that French bloke’s still there. Anyway, we spent little time there because Beijing is pretty big and there were lots of places we wanted to try and find.
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We did, of course, go to see the Great Wall. Having got up the steep hill and on to a watch-tower on the wall, I took out my camera, took off the lens cap and dropped it over the edge. It was now on the wrong side of the inpenetrable defence. I thought it was lost forever but after a while happened to find a way through. Immediately I was verbally attacked by a feisty woman, screaming ‘no, no, no’ at me, I told her I had no idea what she was talking about and trotted past with her ‘no, no, no’ echo behind me. Anyway, the point is that I found a way through the wall (and got my lens cover back after a long, slightly hairy walk) and I think it’s very lucky for the Chinese that the Mongolians didn’t happen upon the same weakness.
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Some more sight-seeing and other touristy things and then last night we took another train from Beijing to Shanghai and arrived here this morning. Our first job on arrival was to build our bikes. Yey! We’ve both really missed cycling (it’s been over 2 months) and it’s great to let the bikes carry us again for a change. Putting them together drew quite a crowd, some eager to help Tom by unscrewing all the wrong screws and all laughing at our silly little pedals. Then, with bikes built and loaded, we wobbled off into the Shanghai traffic hoping to stumble across our hostel. They have good cycle lanes here but they are so crowded that they are often more dangerous than the road, it’s supposed to be one-way but that’s more of a suggestion than a rule - Tom had a very close shave with an oncoming moped while he was distracted by pot-holes. Anyway, with a helpful moped escort part of the way we made it, we will take a few days here to recover from today’s 3 mile ride and then we’ll be on a ferry to Osaka, Japan.
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This last bit is a little off subject. I was having a look at our charity pages and noticed that we’ve reached somewhat of a plateau at 3 and a bit thousand pounds. That’s a lot of money but we had made 10,000 our aim. So we got to thinking and have decided to set a challenge, or offer, depending on which side you view it from. It’s a bit like a Dale Winton game-show where the more money we manage to raise, the more pain we offer to put ourselves through. So, here’s the sheet:
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4,000 pounds - Tom will have his upper body waxed
5,000 pounds - Tom and I will compete in a 600km audax event
6000 pounds - Tom and I will compete in an ultra-marathon
6,500 pounds - Tom will compete in an insane marathon
7,000 pounds - I will compete in an ironman triathlon
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This is genuine, if you want to see photos of our grimaces then find someone rich and get them to donate to our chosen charities (there are links here [MSF - FOE] or on the homepage).
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Here are some details for those who want to know more. First of all, with the need for preperations and so on, entries will close at the end of February. Now the events.
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Tom getting his upper body waxed is no small feat - evidence.
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I have mentioned audax rides (AKA randonneuring) they are long-distance continuous rides, there are loads of events in the states. The 600km version is usually over 2 days and we will have to complete a 200km ride before it to qualify.
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We will both compete in the Siskiyou outback trail run, which is a 50km (about 31 miles) run in the mountains of Oregon.
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Tom hopes to compete in the ridiculously grueling Pikes Peak marathon, which includes a 6,000-foot climb. It’s an event which claims to be America’s toughest challenge. Entries haven’t opened yet.
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An ironman triathlon consists of a 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and a 26.2 mile run - you must get to the line within 17 hours to officially complete it. The event in mind is the Louisville, Kentucky event in late August, entry is limited but I have a place reserved, just in case.