Getting back to some kinda normal...

Last night John and I got to sleep around 8 pm, but both of us woke up at 2:40 am, wide-awake. Not good. We ended up talking for 2 hours before falling back to sleep.

During those wakeful 2 hours we talked and figured out all the Worlds problems. We even figured out how the get the caramel into the middle of a Cara-milk bar. When we finally woke up, I felt much better than yesterday.

I had lots to do today; swim, bike, run, massage, register for the race and pick up groceries. Before we got started, John and I went for breakfast at the hotel. Breakfast is the only meal in the hotel that I can eat; it’s the least tasting “mothball” meal of the day.

At breakfast, I messed with John a little. From the buffet, I put a “chicken paw” on my plate. Essentially it’s a chicken foot that is breaded and deep-fried. I showed it to John and it disgusted him so much, he didn’t even want to look at it. So I did the next best thing, I put it in my mouth and took a bite. It was a “fear factor” moment.

I bit into one of its toes and started chewing. I thought John was going to get sick. I could only chew it for a couple of seconds; the feeling of crunching on a chicken foot bone was gross. It turns out, when it comes to chicken feet, I'm a “spitter”, not a "swallower”. Out of my mouth and onto the plate it went. I don’t’ even know if it was a bone, it could have been its toenail.

After our hearty breakfast, we hooked up with Simon and bused it to swim start to swim the course. It’s the first time I’ve met Simon in person. We got to know each other through reading each other’s blogs, making comments to each other and twittering.

Online we have a good friendship and chemistry, but regardless of that history, meeting face to face is still like meeting for the first time. To me, the “chemistry” was there and I the best part was we got to talk and get to know each other. There’s no substitute for human contact.

I really liked the swim course, especially its favourable current, and I swam it much faster than I thought possible. I did two loops, which is half the distance in 30:45. If I were to do that for the race, I’d have a 1:01:15 swim, which would be unbelievable. I’d be ecstatic with a 1:10. I don’t want to get cocky, because swimming is one of those things that is “here today and gone tomorrow” and it’s not like race conditions where I have people banging into me and panic.

When we got back to the hotel from the swim, Simon and I went for a bike ride. We tried to ride as much of the bike course as possible. I’m glad we rode together; it’s always good to have someone with you in case you get lost or there’s an accident or injury. The best part of riding together was we got to talk and get to know each other better. Simon’s a great guy and one hell of a strong cyclist and the best part was we had some good conversation.

During the ride, I realized I didn’t acclimatize myself properly for China. I anticipated the heat, humidity and Sun and spent time in the steam room and in tanning beds, but I didn’t anticipate the air pollution. As we rode, I could feel it in my lungs and it was slowing me down.

I wish I knew then, what I know now; I would have better prepared myself for the China air quality. What I should have done was hook a hose up to the exhaust pipe of my truck, turned the truck on and started inhaling. It would have even been better if I could have done it as I was riding on the wind-trainer.

We finished the ride and I went for a run. I ran through a residential area near the water. It had very modern condos, no different than you’d see in North America. Even though China is a communist nation with low wages, it looks like some people are doing extremely well.

I forgot to mention a funny story. Yesterday, John weighed himself on the hotel room’s scale. He looked at it and said it was bang on. He was so proud of his weight loss that we started doing push-ups and was doing bodybuilding posses in the mirror and boasting how good he looked.

He had me stand on the scale and I thought it was reading higher than it should. He told me “no way, it’s the exact same readings that he gets at home. He can tell. This morning, as I was looking at the scale it is in KG’s not LB’s.

John had been misreading it and he wasn’t the same weight and I couldn’t stop laughing and giving him a bad time. I was saying, “I’m John Barclay, look at the weight I lost, I look great. (Arg…flexing in mirror), that scale is perfect, what a fine specimen of a man I am, can you believe I’m only 50?”

Everything today was going to schedule. We registered and then went for our massages. The massage was a comedy unto itself. The people at the hotel spa do not speak much English and it took a while for us to figure out where to go.

Then when we got in, we showered and they made us wear paper under wear that looked like the plastic that you pull up over a baby’s diaper. We then put on some gold silk shorts and top. I’m glad I didn’t get a picture of us in our paper under wear, it definitely would have been extortion material.

John and I were in the same room for the massage, him on one table, me on the next. The girl that gave me my massage must HATE westerners and want to move up in the Communist Party because she put a “world of hurt” on my back. She focused on two long muscles and strummed them with her elbow. I was in extreme pain. I almost “tapped out” a couple of times.

John and I ended up going into town to pick up groceries and found a Pizza Hut. It was not like any Pizza Hut you’d find in North America. It felt like we were in a fine dining restaurant. It was super clean, as a matter of fact; in the time we were there they had a guy clean the bathroom three times.

John and I agreed it was the best ever Pizza Hut food we’ve ever had. We order the “diet” onion rings and they came nicely placed on the plate. Each onion ring was the same size and stacked one on top of the other. They looked perfect, like a lot of time, effort and care was placed in the selection of the onions, the frying and presentation.

The one thing about China is the portions are much smaller. North America could learn from the Chinese about portion control. Before dinner I went to the washroom to wash my hands and look at the toilet. John insisted I look at the toilet. It was something he had never seen before.

Basically the toilet was a porcelain hole in the ground that you have to squat over. I sure hope the porta potties at the race site aren’t the same style. Before the race I’d be okay, but after the race I don’t think I’d have the leg strength to “hover” over the toilet. I’d definitely have “leakage” running down my legs.

There is one other thing that the West could learn from the Chinese and that is how to build a “hand dryer”. At Pizza Hut they had one that was so strong; I swear it came out of a drive thru car wash. In seconds, my hands were dry. And I mean dry. They were starting to crack; I wished I had some skin lotion with me.

The night ended with us picking up some groceries. It was a large basement grocery store that smelt like a “bait shop”. We just wanted to get in and out as quick as we could so we wouldn’t have to burn our clothes to get the smell out.

The Chinese must have been laughing at us when John walked out with two cases of water, stacked to his chin, and I had a case of beer and a bag of snack food. We must have looked like “Beavis and Butthead” go to China. We were walking the street with all this stuff, looking for a cab. I still can’t believe John had the strength to carry all that water. It must have been 40 or 50 lbs of water.

We got back to the hotel and crashed. We’re both still suffering from jet lag.

Mod Swim – 30:45 / 1900 meters

Mod Bike – 1:35:37 / 49.20 km / 30.87 kph

Mod Run – 33.26 / 6.68 km / 4:59 pace