Dead beat...

The first thing I did when I got into the hotel room last night was set up the computer and connected to the Internet. All was going well until I tried to log on to YouTube to upload video and the site wouldn’t come up. I then tried blogger and twitter. Same thing. Access denied.

I called the front desk for help and when the IT guru arrived, he explained that the Chinese government doesn’t allow access to some sites, primarily social media sites. I was “bummed” and thought, “What are they, commie’s?”

Not to be deterred, I figured out a way to access my blogger account through my iPhone. I also figured out a way to post video to my “mobile me account” and provide links for viewing.

Before I fell asleep, John gave me a sleeping pill. At least I thought it was a sleeping pill. It looked like a Viagra. I was worried that I had taken a sleeping pill, John took a Viagra and I wasn’t going to be able to walk in the morning.

We woke up at around 9:30 am and I could walk fine. We ate breakfast and went for a swim. It was cloudy, windy and only 13 C outside. We swam in the-50 yard hotel pool. Good thing we had our wetsuits on, the water was COLD. I swear it was only a few degrees away from being a skating rink.

After the swim we did a bike ride. It was a wild ride. There was so much to look at in terms of people and surroundings. We saw a lot of things we had never seen before. John and I both agreed, what we saw on that ride alone was worth coming to China.

The roads were full of motorcyclists and vehicles that looked “homemade”. On some parts, the roads were smooth and fast. On other parts, it was so bumpy I’m surprised John’s false teeth didn’t fall out. At least I think he has false teeth, he’s old enough.

It was a slow and more of a social ride. When we got back I was tired. I’m sure it’s from Jet Lag, but who knows, it could be from the air pollution we sucked into our lungs during the ride. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Originally, we were going to go into town to get food and water. Everything in our hotel, except for the room, is very expensive. I think they lure you in with the cheap hotel room and make all their money on water and chocolate bars. I bought 4 waters, a coke, a snickers bar and a store size package of Oreo’s and they charged me $32 U.S.

I’m also having trouble eating. Everything is starting to taste like formaldehyde. I normally can eat anything. Not here. We are in a 5 star Chinese hotel, which is the equivalent of a 3 .5 star hotel in North America and I was expecting more.

The one thing I’ve noticed at this race that I’ve never experienced before at any other, is the athletes are not as friendly. Normally, there’s a lot of hi’s as you walk past each other. Maybe tomorrow will be different when the registration opens and more athletes arrive.

I only ate the pasta for dinner. I tried the other stuff, but the taste turned me off. No wonder Chinese people are so thin; they don’t want to eat anymore than they have to.

When we got back to the room, I got into bed and started righting my blog post. It was tough to do. John wouldn’t stop talking. I think it took me 20 minutes to get only four paragraphs done with all John’s questions. I hinted for him to let me be, and eventually, albeit politely, I had to tell him to “shut the F##K up”. However, I will give John credit, if he was rooming with a blind man, the blind guy would know everything going on.

“I need to take a shower”, “there’s no clock in this room”, “do you use a razor or electric to shave”, “There’s just enough room for the bikes to fit”, “the lighting is not bright enough for me to read”. It just goes on and on and on.

John wanted to go for a beer and tried to convince me to have one. I wasn’t going for it. There’s no way I’m going to deny myself beer for over two months, and then four days before the Ironman, have one.

Simon Cross is in the same hotel and called our room. He asked if we wanted to join him, he was going into town to do some grocery shopping. I was too tired to go and we made plans to touch base in the morning. Simon’s a Brit, now living in Malaysia. We’ve never met face-to-face, just through twitter and my blog.

Links to video and photo’s will come tomorrow. Too tired to write anymore. Good night.

Swim – 42:03 / 2000 meters

Bike – 1:29:50 / 34.37 / 22.96 / 91 avg hr