With the prospect of missing another Borders cross country (what will Digby say?) I ventured to the outskirts of Beijing yesterday for the Dajue Temple – Haidian Three Peaks Race to, in the words of Google Translate, “experience the most pure cross-country race”. I had assumed entry on the day would be possible but discovered on the Saturday night that in China insurance must be purchased for each individual person and therefore pre-entry was the only way to race. Still, I showed up at the startline hoping my English charm might sway them and sure enough I was permitted to start, but would be ineligible for any prizes should I be so fortunate.
The race itself took in three peaks that if Google translate is to be believed were Miaofeng, Sangfeng and “the northern tip of radish”, all above 1000m in height and was a bit further than the course at Berwick being 21km in length. A small group led out with me tucked in just behind for the 1000m climb to the first top. Warm sunshine on the climb was quickly replaced by a bitter north-westerly wind for the majority of the race as we sped along rocky single-track and dusty paths. A happy miscount of the climbs meant I was surprised to find myself at the top of the final descent still expecting another climb and not too far behind 3rd place who passed me while I struggled to negotiate a particularly low-hanging section of tree branches. Still an unofficial 4th place and “first foreigner” meant that, with prizes down to 8th had I entered I would have returned weighed down with a hefty collection of goodies that by my reckoning easily doubled your entry fee. Probably a good thing I didn’t though as my suitcase is pretty close to weight as it is and the 5km jog back to the station would have been even more unpleasant.
Again I have no idea where results are, although perhaps if someone has a smattering of Chinese they can decipher their location from the website http://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/QSrli2ZDNTw7e3waiKiMKA or perhaps Google translate works more effectively for others.
Alex