China - Third time's a charm!

If you would've asked me 5 or 10 years ago if I would ever go to China my response probably would've been no.  Not that I never wanted to go, but it's so far, tickets are expensive, I don't speak the language, there's other places I'd like to see more, and so on.  Who would've guessed that this year I will be headed back for the third time in two years!  Hazzah frequent flyer miles!  Last year I made the US team for the World Cup of Race Walking in Taicang, China.  It was such an amazing experience.  I met so many fun and interesting people that I still talk to, have gone to Europe to stay with and they have come to the US to stay with us.  One thing is for sure, the world of race walking is full of amazing people.  Then later in the year I was invited to do a stage race in Taihu, China.  You'd go and race four races in four days, distances from 10K up to 16K.  Again, I met wonderful people and had a blast racing.  I definitely wasn't the fastest woman - there were some amazingly talented women there, but when I went through the results and looked at how much people had slowed down their pace from day one to day four, I found my pace actually got faster where most people's had gotten slower.  I thrive on distance!   

This year, having the experience of last year, I know a bit better how to prepare for the four days.  Race distances are basically the same but in a slightly different order.  I'll be coming off racing a bunch in Europe in August - World Master's in Lyon, France where I'll do the 5K and 10K and then we buzz over to the Isle of Man for our second Centurion attempt.  I'm also much, much smarter about training for that, and this time I'm not coming off a discus to the knee injury, so I'm feeling great about earning my first Centurion number (for those who don't know, to earn the title of Centurion you must walk 100 miles in 24 hours, not an easy task!).  

It's amazing how sport can bring us together, can transcend language and culture.  How a group who may otherwise have very little in common can put all differences aside for one purpose.  Music is also like that, in a way.  There are lots of ways I think music and sports are similar.  That'd probably make a good topic for another blog entry. 

For now I'll dream about all the fantastic races I have coming up, the friends I will see again and the friends I am soon to meet.  I will plan training to go out and push my body just to the limit and see how strong I can get.  And maybe I'll go get in a quick workout :)