Well, after 5 bronchitis this year, lack of enthusiasm (hey, I gave up my cigars!), some new training experiments, I needed to pass “the” test: a final run of close to 30 Km.
Sure not in Beijing with the horrendous pollution.
We left on Sunday for Shunyi, a district north of the airport and headed for a small farmer’s village in the triangle of Shunyi, Pinggu and Miyun, close to Jiao Zhuanghu. The mountains were very close and terrain was hilly.
On 1 October I woke up in the farmer’s house and it was still raining. After several eggs and the necessary cups of coffee I started at 8:30 in a drizzle; later it stopped and ran without sun. Great air.

I had a whole team following and guiding me through the countryside, the Chinese friend who owns the house, Sun and Valerie. Great support so I could dump one by one the extra clothes and the empty bottles.
We went through a resort called something like “An Li Long Biological Farm and Tourism Park”. Quite a nice place, huge, with tennis (flooded), fruit trees, hotel (with swimming pool), villas, hunting ground and even a tank. Management of course always Chinese style so not even a brochure or description. What a waste of resources… We might go back there to run in the future, and to enjoy the air.
I still don’t know how I managed but I finished a run of 3 hrs 18 min, according to my pedometer I did 31 Km but according to the car I did nearly 34 Km. Average heart rate 127.
Most surprising, no major aches and I attended two weddings the same day, one at lunch (farmer wedding in Shunyi) and one in Morel’s Restaurant in the evening (Juha and Annie).
For the complete picture gallery of the run and resort, click this link:
http://homepage.mac.com/bjprc/PhotoAlbum8.html