The full story

I dedicate this run to all those who support me at the moment in a battle much more difficult and longer than the hilly 42km between Marathon and Athens.

From Athen2010

My official time split as below;

Bib: 2918
Athlete: SZAIP ANDRAS
Start: 00:23
time behind start of block/race
5km: 26:15
10km: 51:46
21,1km: 1:59:42
30km: 3:06:01
Finish: 4:38:16


but how did I get there?

I arrived in Athens on Thursday late evening, taking a flight from Amsterdam via Rome. I was quite fed up at the end with all the airport terminals and flights I ve been to in the last 3 weeks.

On Friday I started the day by exploring the whole track by car, in order to see what I am going to face with on Sunday. The starting area was in Marathons stadium.

From Athen2010

From here to the finish area; the ancient stadium of Athen it took 1.5 hours by car over several villages and a quite curvy and hilly road, which is unusual for a marathon run.

From Athen2010

After that I went to the marathon expo to pick up my starting package including my bib number and the timing chip. Being Friday it was not crowded yet, but several runner including the favourites from Kenya were already present.

From Athen2010

Later on I visited the Akropolis and the straight of Korinthos. You can see those pics under the picasa link.

Sunday 6a.m. I had to get up to able to catch the bus bringing me to the starting area. 12000 runners were warming up there and heading to the starting blocks from several nations including China, South Africa, Brasil etc.

From Athen2010

I started on one of the front blocks, therefore had quite a high pace already from the first kilometer on. During the first 10km I did around 5min. kilometers, which I did not realise but was too fast.

From Athen2010

By the time the sun became more and more stronger and the hills more and more steaper and longer. Already at the half of the distance I became tired and as usual my joints in my knie sent me signals to slow down. Since not the time but the participation and to finish was me the more important, I slow down and did the second half of the distance with 7.5min. kilometers. That brought me to the finish as you can see on the video below.



It is a better than expected time, considering my total preparation being not more 100-120km for the whole run. I was rather powered that time by my will and endurance.

Track

Look at the track of the run under

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/63790

How to run a marathon?

Just 3 days after returning from China I was facing another adventure. Last weekend I tried to run the 2500th anniversary Athen classic marathon.

I´ll publish the details soon.....

In the mean time see the video taken 1 minute before the start

Spending a week in Shanghai

On Sunday I arrived in Shanghai in order to start the official program on Monday. Arriving at Pudong airport I took the unique oppurtunity to travel the word fastest train. At peak hours it travels every 10 minutes and reaching a speed of 420 kmh in less than 2 minutes. The whole fun costs only 5EUR one way.

From Shanghai

I met my colleagues at the hotel, which was not that fancy like the one in Beijing but more expensive. Still it had a good location. On Monday and Tuesday we visited the Shanghai Intellectual Porperty Office and Volkswagen Shanghai.

From Shanghai

The factory itself is the same like the anyone in Europe and producing 960000 unit a year. They have their own modified modell range adjusted to chineese needs.

From Shanghai

Wednesday there wasn t any official program so I took the chance to explore the city. I went to see some markets and the famous riverside with views about Pudong. Pudong was 15 years ago really flat with some old houses only. Today the skyline is beating the one of Manhattan; featuring several skyscrapers the highest beeing 497m.

From Shanghai

The second highest building the Jin Mao tower is giving home to the Grand Hyatt Shanghai. The lobby is on the 56th floor and has an atrium of 30 stories up...

From Shanghai

This is the view from the 86th floor down to the lobby.

From Shanghai

Beside the official program we also had time for different programs like visiting the Shanghai F1 Cirquit

From Shanghai

or visiting an old village, where even Hollywood movies were shot.

From Shanghai

The last two days we went to another carmaker and a development center making the official program complete.

Saturday on my last day in China I paid a short visit to the Expo and visited the Hungarian pavilion, the only place I didn t have to que, because of being national. The average waiting time for a pavilion was 4 hours average. The total number of visitors on a weekend day was exceeding 1 million.

From Shanghai

From Shanghai

On Sunday after 20 hours being on my way I arrived back home.

My next adventure is coming very soon. You can follow me the next weekend to Athen where I m going to try to complete the 2500th anniversary classic marathon between Marathon and Athen.

A day in Ulanbatar

Today finally I could sleep quite long and could have a proper breakfast in the hostel. After that I took a taxi and went for shopping. They say the best deal in Mongolia is to buy kashmir, so I went to look some shops. I had to realise, that prices are more or less the same like back in Europe, which is a bit absurd. Not many mongolians can afford those prices and enjoy what originally they got from the nature in a certain way.
If you wouldn t have known; cashmere wool is so expensive, because of its fine quality. It is estimated that on average yearly production per goat is 150 grams only. Luckily I met a goat in one of the stores and gave me some fure.

From Mongolia

In the afternoon I met Surka my guide again and we went to a street close to the Gandan monastery and asked a fortune teller about several things. He had some good and bed news for me. Let s see if things become true...

From Mongolia

After I was told my future we went to Zaisan, a place with great views over the city. Surka told that young people come out here very often and it is supposed to be her favourite place. As you see she really likes it...

From Mongolia

Some information for geography fans;
Ulan Bator is located at about 1350 meters (4430 feet) above sea level, slightly east of the center of Mongolia on the Tuul River, a subtributary of the Selenge, in a valley at the foot of the mountain Bogd Khan Uul. Due to its high elevation, relatively high latitude, location hundreds of kilometres from any coast, and the effects of the Siberian anticyclone, Ulan Bator is the coldest national capital in the world. It has an average annual temperature of −0.7 °C.


I finished the day with eating the most honorable mongolian food; a sheep head.

From Mongolia

Good bye to Ulanbator and many thanks to Surka for translating and sharing thoughts of a young Mongolian, understanding a lot of things.
Tomorrow I fly out early in the morning to Shanghai and start to work on Monday for the EPO.

track online

http://www.a-trip.com/tracks/view/62637


Zoom in for trips around Beijing and Ulanbator

pics of Mongolia

http://picasaweb.google.de/aszaip/Mongolia#

Nomad life in Mongolia

I spent the last two days in the countryside of Mongolia, visiting 2 national parks around UB. First I drove out with my driver to Khustai national park, which was established some 70 years ago by a dutchman and is famous about its wild horses.

From Mongolia

It took about 2 hours to make the 100km to the NP, because of the bed road conditions and the car I ve got for the trip. Although I asked for a japaneese jeep with a driver fluently speaking english, I ve got a japaneese city van with a driver who spent 4 years in Kentucky but didn t really speak english.

From Mongolia

On the other hand, he really did know all hidden routes and had friends everywhere. After driving around in the park, he brought me to a ger, where I ve got a first impression how the nomads live and we ve got lunch there as well.

From Mongolia

From Mongolia

After leaving the park we had to cross UB, to get to the other NP west from UB. It took about 2 hours to cross the city, because its chaotich traffic. It is a 1.2 million city but has only one 1 lane road road going in and out of the city. Beside that nobody cares about the colours of the traffic lights, not even when there is a policeman standing in the middle of the crossing.

From Mongolia

In the evening around 6 o clock, we arrived in Terelj NP and drove directly to the family, which hosted us for the night. My driver and me were sleaping in the same ger/jurta as the family, which was quite an experience.
Although the family lived in a tent, the woman was very much following the fashion, just look at her bag on the pic below. Never mind about the raw meat just beside.

From Mongolia

From Mongolia

After having dinner from the same bowl, which served 15 minutes earlier to wash hands, my driver and the host started to chat and drink. In less than 1 hour 1l vodka was gone. Everybody slept well after....

From Mongolia

The day after I went horse riding with the host and on the way back to UB I visited a monastery with 108 mythic steps.

From Mongolia

From Mongolia

Link for Mongolia

Click on the pic for more....

Mongolia

Arriving in Mongolia

day 6

After spending 30 hours on the train I arrived in Ulanbatar in the early afternoon. There is nice weather with some snow and cold wind.

From Mongolia

I hired a guide for today and visited different sights of Ulanbatar.We started the visit with the black market and continued with some temples and pallaces.

From Mongolia

For the moment let me just refer to my pics, because it is already late and tommorrow at 6 am. I am leaving with a jeep to see the countryside and hopefully spend a night in a real ger with a family.

Amsterdam-Beijing

China 2010


day 1
I planned to leave in the evening with China Southern Airlines to Beijing.  Arriving at the airport I had to realise that the flight was overbooked and had no seat at the time of the check-in. Quite bothering news 2 hours before departure.
To cut the story short at the end I had a seat on busines class.

From Beijing

After a good night's sleep I arrived at 13.05 in Beijing and took a taxi to my hotel. The ride for 40km was a 120RMB, which is about just 10EUR.
In the hotel the next surprise was already waiting for me. The hotel was overbooked as well, so I got an upgrade to an executive room on the 26th floor, with a king size bed.

From Beijing

I took a shower and went to look at the Temple of Heaven, which was in the close neighbourhood just 10 minutes walk from my hotel.

From Beijing

day 2
I got up early in the morning, not because of the jetleg, but because I was expecting a guest. His family name is Szajp
, not a common family name especially in China. We met once already in The Hague and since he has been working in China, we organised a "family" meeting. I asked the concierge the night beforet to hire a car with a driver for the whole day.

From Beijing

We left at 9 o'clock and were heading to visit the Great Wall.
In chineese they call it the long wall, which suits much better actually. The section we visited was some 600 years old. You might know, the the wall is almost 4000km long and was built over 1000 years
The weather quite warm and humid, sorry for the grey pics.

From Beijing

day 3
This day was scheduled to explore a piece of real China i.e. to walk around in a Hutong of Beijing. These districts are really authentic, where everything happens on the street actually. I really enjoyed to take photos there about the daily life of people. I had my breakfast there as well. Just to compare; I paid 6RMB in total compared to the continental breakfast at my hotel for 160RMB.
The diferences are really huge in China even within 100m.

From Beijing

Early afternoon I said goodbye to Szabolcs and continued my city walk in the Olympic park. You can visit here both the Olympic Stadium and the so called cube (watersport events) as well.

From Beijing

In the late afternoon I met a friend of Szabolcs's and went to one of the nightmarkets of Beijing, where I tried different delicacies such as snake, spider and crocodiles.

From Beijing

day 4
As for the last day I went to visit maybe the most famous landmark of Beijing; the Tiennamen square and the Forbidden City.
Some books say the the emperors pallace has some 5000 rooms. Some others say 9999. The 9 is a lucky number in China. For example the gates have 9 times 9 knobs as well.

From Beijing

The palace is quite impressive, stretching over 1,5km times 1km in the middle of the city. More than 100000 visitors average per day come here from all over the country and the world.
98% of them is Chinese!!!

From Beijing

day 5
I checked out early from my luxurious hotel and took a taxi to the main railway station to catch the train to Ulann Batar.
It was not easy to find the platform, since everything was written in chineese and nobody spoke english.

From Mongolia

The platform was opened only 20 minutes before departure. I counted a total of 20-25 passangers entering the whole train of 10 carrieages, which is not too many
especially taking into account that every carriage has a personal of 3. 1 conductor, 1 safety and 1 supervising them.
Time is flying on the train, travelling through breathtaking landscpapes and just writing these lines.....

A day of relaxing

I spent my last day in Iceland around Reykjavik. A sightseiing takes in this village (pop. 110000) max 2 hours.The most famous monument is its modern church on a hilltop.

I went shopping in a mall and tried to figure out why everybody likes the puffin. I found a book in a shop, which explains it very well in a single sentence.

In the evening I used the guesthouse facilities to prepare for the long trip. What I made in 10 days on a yacht, I´ll do in 3 hours tomorrow.

Tomorrow I´m going to fly out in the early morning and finally sleep again in my sweet home...

Reykjavik fine dining

They say that Reykjavik is famous about its quality restaurants and fine foods.

So we went for a culinary exploration in the evening and were dining in a fancy restaurant of a hotel. I think I´ve never eaten a better tourist menu like the one there.

Lobster bisque

Smoked arctic char tartar and tuna fish with dill mayonnaise, pickled cucumber and foie gras

Smoked puffin and cured goose with deep fried cheese beet root jam and rye bred

Lightly seared minke whale and slow cooked salted icelandic horse with pumpkin sauce, root vegetables and iceland moss glace

Slow cooked lamb fillet and lamb confit with langoustine, potato purée and thyme sauce

Licorice flavored chocolate cake with strawberries and peach sorbet

Waffle with strawberry ice cream and baileys ice cream with skyr panna cotta and pashion