Shanghai International Marathon - 12/04/2011

This was my first race in Asia and my third race overseas - twice I have run marathons in Europe. It was a fantastic experience! Because this was a last-minute race entry for me, I chose to run the half marathon. I ran a perfectly even paced 1:32 (7:02/mi avg), to finish 129th out of over 8,000+ runners from all over the world.

When I quit my job as Global Operations and Logistics Director at my last company, I thought my international travel days were behind me. Not quite! Two months after I started my new job as VP Operations for an Ohio Manufacturing company, I found out I needed to go to China for a few things. My current Chinese visa expired at 12:00am on 12/02/2011 - so I had to hurry! Then I found out this race was going on during the weekend I was there - but it was already filled and closed! :( I told my friend in Shanghai about it... and he managed to get me in!

Race morning was nice as far as weather goes... clear, sunny and about 50F at the start. We started right on the Bund! Me, and 25000+ of my closest running friends from all over the world! See how tightly packed together we are? I had to stand, jammed in like this for about 45 minutes!

Before the race, there were drumlines, dancers and a "warm-up leader". It was quite something - not quite like the opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics - but you get the idea.

Then it was 7:30am and time to start!

The crowded start made it impossible for me to find my friend or for him to find me. The amazing thing is that since I was running with my camera, and taking photos along the way - I accidentially got a picture with him in it!!

About 5k (3.1miles) into the race, we ran up and over the NanPu bridge. I've driven across it scores of times, usually in heavy traffic... it was amazing to cross it by foot with zero vehicles on it!

First 5K was about 21:50... as it turns out, my next three 5K splits would all be the same! I ran quite the even pace for this race!

After about the 10k mark, I finally had room to run. I was surprised and impressed at the number of good runners in the race. I guess I shouldn't have been. This is one of the biggest races in China, and much of Asia. Runners from Japan and Korea were everywhere... as well as some "ex-pats" like myself from Europe and USA. The Chinese runners are solid as well. The fastest marathon for a Chinese was 2:12. Not too shabby! (the top 3 were 2:10-2:11... Kenya, Ethopia and South Africa).

My legs felt good, and since I carried my own nutrition, I was OK in that regard. I wasn't ready to experiment with the local energy drinks, tea or water on the course...

I kept taking pictures and video along the race course. There were a lot of people lining the race course - yelling "Jiao Ye" or something to that effect... Not sure what it meant, but it sounded encouraging to everyone!

In the last 5K of the race, we doubled-back along an earlier section of the race course, where I could see the bulk of the 25,000 runners... man - there were a LOT!

As I came to the finish (1K to go), I let my legs run hard, and had to pound up a bridge with a decent incline and decline. It felt good to have strong legs that far into the race. With no one behind me and no one to catch, I just pushed myself to the last 100 meters - which was packed with people. I turned on my video camera and recorded those last 100m. It was pretty cool!

Once I finished, I learned that I won a pair of socks for my finishing position. (top 50 won shoes, next 100 won socks).


I gathered my post-race food and drinks and my finisher's medal, then found my friend and his wife outside. We made our way back to the finish line to watch the professional men finish the marathon... and cheered in the first place man at 2:10:XX (from Kenya) and second (South Africa) place only :07 seconds behind! Third place (from Ethopia) made it to the finish, and then I was right by him when I staggered around, totally out of it. He had put himself into the hurt locker big-time... it was kinda cool to see a world class athelte hurting so much right after a race!

Japan and China - March 2011

I made my 4th trip to Japan, just two weeks after the major 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami that devastated the north-east region of the country. The Fukushima Dai'ichi nuclear power plant was still out of control and in partial melt-down - to me that was the most dangerous part of making the trip there. That was, until I landed. I was in a 6.5 magnitude aftershock on one of the elevated highways in a bus... things were swaying. In all of my visits to Kobe (where the massive 1995 earthquake destroyed everything), it was alwyas the elevated highway that freaked me out the most. I didn't like that.

I was in Japan for 3 full days (on the tail end of my 2 week trip to Asia). Each morning, I ran along the ocean in Akashi. Each time I hear a siren, I could only think "tsunami warning - where to go?!?!?"... even though the area where I was, was pretty protected from large tsunami - or so I had hoped.

In general, it was business as usual there. The only significat difference you could see - was the reduction in electricity use. They are conserving to avoid rolling black-outs and keep sending power to the badly damaged northeast. The people were quite calm about things - even the nuclear situation. Were the Japanese too sheltered by the media? Was the West too "hyped up" by the media coverage? Probably the reality lies somewhere in between - now having been in both "worlds" during this disaster.

The food was fantastic as always in Japan. I made a point of having sushi each day, as well as trying something new for dinner each night. Work was quite challenging. There is so much to be done, and I'm short on manpower in Asia - so all roads seeme to lead to me for the time being. Good news is that our business in Japan has quadrupled in a short time! It was overwhelming at times... so many thing to get sorted out.

I was able to get solid training in during this trip as well. Logged over 100 miles of running! During my first week (all in China), I ran 70 miles in 6 days (one day lost for travel to China). During my second week (mostly in Japan), I managed 32 miles + time on the bike trainer. I had 4 "speed" workouts - during these two weeks. Two were threshold workouts: 3x15 min @ T, 8x5min @ T, and two were MP runs of at least 5 miles of MP running. In addition, my last "long" run of 23 miles was done in Shanghai. I leveraged the jetlag to my benefit - running in Shanghai is easy at 4am!

In China, I was interviewing candidates for my new Purchasing Coordinator, and looking for people for the China and Japan warehouses. I found "my guy" for the Purchasing Coordinator role during this trip. Let's hope he works out as well as I think he will!

Much of my time in China, however, was sorting out a major quality problem. The supplier I inherited from my predecessor made an out of compliant shipment, and is now refusing to replace it without more money. Without going into details, we are over a barrel, and I'm finding other options - quickly! I was jumping from city to city to city, visiting suppliers around China. Shanghai to ZhengZhou to Tianjin to Beijing back to Shanghai. Whew!

I was able to have some time to see Beijing. Very interesting! From Tiananmen Square to the Fobidden City to the 2008 Olympic Village - there is a lot to experience in Beijing. While Shanghai is a huge, modern city, Beijing has the history in it. Forbidden city was just amazing to see. Took you back to the early 800AD times when it was used as a fortress and seat of power. Quite interesting!

The Olympic village was special for me as an athlete. To see the "Water Cube" aquatics center where Michael Phelps broke so many world records, and became the most decorated Olympic athlete... and to see the "Birds Nest" stadium where the track and field events took place (which I watched from Oregon before and after running the 197 mile "Hood To Coast" race).

Tiananmen Square was quite a sight to see as well. The first night in Beijing, we were in front of the Square, starting to take pictures, when suddenly, a group of soldiers and poilce came out and forced everyone off the square, and to stop taking photos. It was a little unreal. The Square had been packed with people, and with all of the protests and unrest in the Middle East, I wondered if we found ourselves in the middle of something. We never found out for sure, but we think some high ranking officials were coming to the Square. Next morning, things were back to normal. I love "Peking Duck", and found a fantastic restaurant right next to T-Square to enjoy it for dinner. It was perfect! (Peking is the old name for Beijing)

I found a beautiful 11 mile course to run in Beijing that included Tiananmen Square, passing the Forbidden City to a gorgeous lake area, which was a perfect place to run, away from the hustle and bustle of this great city.

China and Japan - January 2011 (and some of the most weird foods yet!)

I had my 4th trip to China and my 3rd to Japan during this insane 12 day journey. I had 10 flights in 12 days... I was only in the same city (Shanghai) for 3 days in a row - the rest had me going all over China and Japan. Leaving the hotel a 4-5am, flying and driving for hours... visiting plants / having meetings... and back to the hotel at 10pm-midnight. Ugh... Never again will I schedule a trip like that! But I did get a lot done! I was in Shanghai, ZhengZhou, Xinyi, Zibo, Qindao, China... and Kobe and Akashi, Japan.

I had a few objectives in this trip. Visit 4 manufacturing facilities, spend 2 weeks focused and with my "guy" (Cao Xiu) in China to keep his training, mentoring and development going, and determine the strategy to better support Japana, India, Malaysia with the resources in place, and what additional resources are needed.
For the most part, mission accomplished! Like many of these trips, I left with more actions and work to be done than I went to the region with!

I had some incredible and new experiences on this trip!

- my first meal of DOG - which was actually quite delicious - till I realized what it was - then it was hard to go on...
- A delicious platter of stir-fried SCORPIONS, CICADAS and BUBMLEBEES...

- Ate raw SEA CUCUMBER...
- Had an amazing seafood dinner at a 'single-table restaurant' in Japan where we had fresh conch, fish cheeks, perfect miso soup, sashimi and lots of sake!

- Went shopping at local grocery stores in both Japan and China and got some cool stuff for Amy

- Ate my weight in sushi - it's always good - but this was super-fresh, perfectly done sushi!


- Drove through the mountains in China - beautiful and rugged territory.

- Experienced a mega-polluted town in China (Zibo). Whoa... it was like being in a stinky forrest fire smoke cloud all day. Quite depressing. Thankfully, they have cleaned up a lot of the big, coastal cities in China - more work to be done.



- I did manage to get a lot of run training in, despite the crazy schedule. I did have one free day, and I got in a 20 miler. Rest of the days, I was up super early and did 8 - 12 mile runs in China and Japan. I refused to run in Zibo due to the pollution - I figured the little bit of fitness gain, wasn't worth the risk to my lungs!


- I was able to go to the "EXPO" (World's Fair) in Shanghai. It was pretty cool! The most interesting part of the China Pavilion was the exhibit about the incredible changes in lifestyle of the Chinese over the past 30 years. In general, we know there has been a lot of progress - but to see the full size displays of the home 30 years ago, 20, 10 and now was amazing. The dwelling sizes, the lack of modern appliances, etc. was pretty incredible to see... compared to today (which is still quite restricted compared to the USA for example).



My Chinese is improving, but still limited. I tried and tried to work on it while there. Progress... I need to spend more time on my Japanese before I go back in March.



My next trip is scheduled in March... USA to Germany (3 days) to India (3-5 days) to Japan (3 days). Should be interesting! I just hope I can keep my run training on track for the Boston Marathon - in April. Luckily it is relatively easy to run while I'm traveling. That should help.

Above is one of my Japanese colleagues... and below is the man who cooked our "single table" dinner in Japan. That was such a cool experience!

Weird things I've eaten while traveling...

I'm often asked about what I'm exposed to for food, and how I handle it when I travel abroad. I believe strongly in "When in Rome, do as the Romans do". How many chances in your life (besides reality game shows) do you get a chance to be exposed to such unusual food choices? I love food as it is, I love adventure, and I enjoy being tested / taken to the extreme at times. Plus, you win the respect of the locals and learn more about the culture when you are open to try new things!
China:
- Duck tongue (weird, but good)
- Pickled silk worm larve (sadly, a lot of these)
- Baby octopus (raw) - I liked it except for the "stomache / ink sack"
- Cuttlefish on a stick - I love cuttlefish, to have the whole squid-like thing on a stick was a bit weird...
- 100 year old egg (took like 30 minutes to get up the courage to take a bite - turns out to be quite good)
- Crab on a stick (entire softshell crab)
- Shui Zhu Yu (live fish boiled in hot pepper oil and served with these other peppers that make your tongue numb / tingle)
- Tianjin pancake (looks like a rotten pancake wrapped around fish)
- Rabbit stew (in the middle of rural China)

Favorite - Dim Sum meals with dumplings (esp BBQ pork), and so many things to try, and it is communial, so you get to try it all!
--> Love all the food I've had in China so far (some more than others)

- Toughest thing - it is extremely rude to be seen picking at your teeth, espeically with fingers instead of toothpick. (Would be like someone picking nose and eating your boogers in public in the US). It is a habit I have (picking at teeth) and struggle with there in public. Even using a toothpick is to be "hidden" from view.

Korea:
- Pigeon hot pot - lots of bones, work for a little gamey meat.
- Squid soup at 3am from a street food vendor (after bar hopping)
- Mulaki (sp?) a milky alcoholic drink - bizzare
- Soju - kinda like sake... but it sneaks up on you...

- Toughest part is sitting cross-legged on floor at low tables... and remembering to never eat / drink with left hand. In Korea, that is the "unclean" hand you "wipe" with... Oh - and take your shoes off before going in!

Japan:
- Sea urchin - just don't like it raw, cooked or otherwise. One of few foods I just can't get to like.
- To many, all the sushi and sashimi is weird. I love it and it is one of my top favorite meals in any country - when done properly, of course!
The rest of the food, I really, really like!


Holland:
Nutella ice cream with hot Nutella on it - not weird, but unique and soooooo delicious!

Germany:
Again, not weird dishes like Asia, but different and delicious!
Breakfast is always smoked salmon and other meats, cheeses and breads. Fresh local yogurt and whatever berries are in season.
The Hotel Weidenbruck where I always stay (a little, family hotel) has incredible food, and my favorite dinner (Ratsherrenteller = "Mayor's plate") is an incredible pork / spaetzel / bernaise sauce dish. They always have it ready for me on my first night there.
I wash it down with Kolsch beer (the local beer there)... YUM!

Spain
Paella, tapas and cheese plates are big in the Basque region where I stayed, and very, very good with their local wines y cerveza!
Nothing weird here, except for the hours... Tapas (snacks and beer time) from 6:00-8:30pm... can't even get into a restaraunt until 8:30pm at the earliest... I can't eat a big meal that late in the day every day.
Toughest part - finding out the hard way that breakfast isn't served until after 8:00am... I'm usually up, had a run and starvin by 7:00am... That was tough to get used to.