Inspiration From My Friends

From Francis:


石頭城夢
 
倦雲躺雪嶺，
廕庇石頭城，
城載千年夢，
牧民享地靈。

*************

疆地間
晨霧散，炊煙起，
牛羊趕赴青草地，
終日埋首三尺地；
雪嶺燃，朝日中，
人若雄峰天與地，
不為名利站高地。

From Johnson:

將欲取天下而為之，吾見其不得已．
天下神器，不可為．為者敗之，執者失之．

夫物或行或隨，或噓或吹，或強或贏，或接或隳．
是以聖人去甚，去奢，去泰．

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譯文

想用人為的努力去贏得天下，我看達不到目的。

天下是神的器具，不是人為努力就能得著的。
人為努力的，必然失敗；人為持守的，必然 喪失。

世間是這樣：
有佔先前行的，就有尾追不捨的；
有哈暖氣的，就有吹冷風的；
有促其強盛的，就有令其衰弱的；
有承載的，就有顛覆的。

That will be all for 2012 Gobi March. Time to pursue my dreams for 2013 Gobi March. Here is the most memorable day and moment of this event and I am going to remember this image for a long long time. For now, the journey goes on.

This photo will remind me of an unrealized dream. Anyway, this is a good fun way of wrapping up my thoughts for this event.

"Yes"- Top 10
 1. Try my best to train for next year as competitor
2. Bring a very good compact digital camera and DSLR (dc for the race and DSLR for afterwards)
3. Milo and salt tablets saved my life
4. Buy better gear
5. Pack smart
6. Bivvy blanket and gloves are so useful
7. Coco pops, gummy bears, Japanese sausages
8. Sew nicely and flags properly
9. Train with walking poles from now on
10. Alcohol gel and alchol wipes are awesome


"No" - Top 10
1. Volunteering
2. Overstock food
3. Snickers
4. Nuu electrolytes tablets - coke flavor is disgusting
5. Freeze dried Asian noodles - too spicy
6. Hydra Pak - no space in the bag
7. Running shorts - lots of thorn bushes
8. Running shoes - no grip
9. Socks liner - useless
10. Fear

Of flip flops and Crocs - "whatever works".

Day 4 was a long day. I was on duty at the final checkpoint. Given the difficulty of the terrain and the distance, many competitors only returned after 8 hours or more. But there was one I particularly remembered. This participant came back with one running shoe on one feet and a flip flop on another. Chased by a dog was already traumatic enough for him, but that was not all. He lost one of his running shoes while trying to clean it in the river. I thought he was going to withdraw, but ended up he was lucky. His tent mate withdrew earlier and game him his pair of hiking shoes. While I was telling Ralph Crowley about this,  he gave me a better one. There was a girl in an earlier race who lost her shoes in the luggages. She managed to borrow a pair of flip flops and finished day 1. For the rest of the race, she managed to find a pair of crocs, wore them all the way through, and finished top 50. Later, while I was having a chat with Mary, she told me an even better one - Crocs had once sponsored one athlete to do the entire race on Crocs ;-)

This is a story about the changing sports culture in China.

Meet this team from Shanghai. It started with one guy who loves triathlon and who has problems finding enough choices for gear. So he decided to open his own shop selling gear. The shop eventually attracted 3 loyal customers and fans, and the four of them decided to join competitions everywhere in the world. "The sports culture in China is too focussed on cash prizes and athletes are very competitive". "Here, while every competitor's goal is to race, everyone seems to be having lots of fun". "We want to be pioneers and help change the sports culture in China".

But what they didn't talk about was how heroic they were on the night of the Long March. The regulations require team members to stay within 25m from each other. Unfortunately, one of their team members was very sick that day and collapsed on the way. The 3 of them carried the sick member, running miles and miles  back to camp. A new generation of impressive ultramarathoners indeed.

This is where we had the Gobi March opening ceremony, a region called Kezhou. The local government was very supportive of this event and in appreciation to their support, Racing the Planet has agreed to donate computers to schools close to the competition trail. In fact, every year, RTP would make donations along the trail, as well as supporting medical or other projects benefitting local communities. Esquel Group and the Esquel Foundation are proud and happy to be a partner of RTP in buying and delivering the donations to the intended beneficiaries every year.

This does not need a lot of words...suffice to say, sheer inexperience and bad craftsmanship on my part but a nice spontaneous attempt on the part of my friend wearing this. If I ever get to participate in Racing the Planet whether as a competitor or volunteer, the first thing I will do is read the regulations and sew nicely. My sincere apologies to my friend who has to bear with this for 7 days.

What is sportsmanship? Tomiyama-san can tell you all about it. At 65, he has run the Aso Cardella Ultramarathon 21 times, and also the MDS, the Great Wall Marathon, Cheju Ultramarathon and he also summitted Mount Kilimanjaro. Having such achievements in life, Tomiyama-san would not let injury, pain or fatique stop him from crossing the finishing line, all by himself. I never understood why I signed up to be sweeper on the last day of the Gobi March as I initially thought it was boring. Now that I looked back, I was there to witness the power of determination, the meaning of mind over matter, true sportsmanship and the admirable qualities of so many competitors who came up and cheered for him during the last 2 km. It was an honour to have walked with this gentleman and hero - salute!

There are some people whom you won't remember their faces after a while, but some you will remember for a long long time because of their distinct persona.

Mr. Spiderman has been in full suit during the 7 days of the competition. When the race began, I thought he was just being funny. But as the race proceeded, it seemed that he derived certain strength from living the persona of Spiderman. But he is Spiderman with a twist, occasionally taking out his bible for a boost of faith. I really had a good understanding of what this identity meant to him on the final day. I was sweeper he was in front of us. Along the competition trail, despite fatique and pain, he went through the ritual of putting on a pair of stretchy hot pants with the words "Iron Man from Ginza" written on the butt. After walking for longer, he had to put on his Spiderman boots and Spiderman cape. Most people wouldn't understand what he is doing, or what kind of faith drives him. But to have the faith to persist to the end of this race is no doubt strong faith.

Too bad I was too busy being a volunteer and no time for pictures. Pam, I hope to meet you again soon and promise you a nicer photo next time. This photo isn't doing her justice. You can't see her charisma and her courage here, which naturally overflows when you talk to her one on one.  You simply cannot be more touched when you hear her talk about her lifelong passion as a runner, her strength and courage in facing substance and alcohol abuse, her determination in running for charity and inspiring so many lives along the way. When I first saw her, I noticed her T-shirt with the words "www.runwell.com" and I thought she was running for a pharmaceutical company. In a way, she really is in the business of healing people, or helping people heal themselves, and much more. When you meet her, all you want to do is to give her a hug and a kiss and say "the world is a better place because you have helped to change so many lives!"

I truly agree with what Mary said about joining Gobi March - it's either life changing or life-enhancing.

One of the reasons has to be meeting lots of inspiring people. I was asked to contribute feature articles by doing interviews with some of the runners. Meet Stephanie Case. She is a UN Volunteer/Human Rights lawyer working in Afghanistan (and 1st runner up female in this race by the way). The competition trail was close to the Kunlun mountain range separating China and Afghanistan. She told me she felt sad because the world is so different over on the other side. Here, she has been running with absolute freedom along the competition trail. Over on the other side, she is confined to the military zone, which is a tiny section of Kabul. Most athletes can train almost anywhere they want, whereas for her, she would be running round and round the military zone for hours a day, hearing gun shots at the same time. "The mental training is quite good though, and you can train yourself on how to face fear." We talked about how we could make Afghanistan a place for running freely. "30 years", she said. I told her, "we both have plenty of time to make this happen".

What do you do after the longest day and longest night?

Stage 5 of the race was toughest since competitors had to finish 80 km under 27 hours. Certainly doesn't sound very daunting, if it is a standalone race. But in this race, competitors have already done 140 km in the few days before. After completion of this stage, there was a day's rest for competitors to recover. Me and my friends spent an afternoon doing nothing and just looking at this. Not exactly doing nothing...this environment actually inspired us to think and talk about broader issues in life. The magical thing about this breathtaking scenery is that we seemed to have lost our sense of time and found peace of mind.

To me, they are all giants.

This photo is a good metaphor of what I think about the competitors I went with or those I met at the Gobi March. In fact, every competitor to me is a giant. Even some of the volunteers are to me, giants. Competitors who join this competition seem to have a subconscious will of trying to test the theory of mind over matter. Walking 40km for one day is already a challenge to our physical limits. But this competition is 7 days and 6 nights, plus steep up-and-down mountain climbs, plus self-supported. The weight is not only the supplies they are carrying, but also the exhaustion, the injuries, and the will to reach the finishing line.

During the week of the Gobi March, I have been travelling mostly in these 4 by 4s. These vehicles have taken us through mountains, deserts and rivers. This is the first time for me to try using them as the major mode of transportation and I have enjoyed very much. This is also my first time carrying all of my own supplies and go camping outdoors. As the staff of Racing the Planet said at the orientation, this is a competition about going "back to basics", "what you carry on your back is what you survive for a week." I never  thought I would enjoy it, but I really do now.

This is a snapshot taken when I was in the bus on my way from downtown Kashgar to the Gobi Desert on June 8, 2012. The bus stopped while trying to negotiate a narrow bend and I took a second to take this photo. This is the start of the journey to the Gobi March 2012, an event which I will always remember. The happenings, the people I met and the dialogues with them were very inspiring and have much impact on me. I would like capture these as much as I can.