Wednesday, October 31, 2012

XC Champs - Hong KONG


XC Championships in Hong Kong
were held on Halloween, during a week off.

Cross Country is so crazy out here!
So disorganized, makes my head spin a little.

The race was held at the same location as the last race, so at least we were familiar with the area, kinda.   It is pretty far from where we live, but most things are.   The race was to take place at the Aberdeen Country Park. It is a Nature park set up in the hills of Hong Kong.  Very beautiful, very steep paths, and lots of bugs!   

Todd was able to re-arrange his schedule to attend the race.  We cabbed over to the location to save some time.  What we hadn't anticipated was that it would be so COLD!  I mean not cold really, but on Hong Kong standards COLD, shivering cold with wind. I mean it was probably close to 66 degrees F.   BRRR.  We didn't bring any jackets, as the temp hasn't dipped that low yet, since we have been here.  Oh, it was lightly raining too, which we did have an umbrella for!  

Logan and Krystin have a cute friend that wanted to cheer for them, and come with us to the race. Her name is Queenie and she is from Hong Kong.  It was fun having her with us for the event, and she is awesome and was happy to answer all our Canto questions, and help with translation when needed (without being asked even!).  

Logan and Krystin are still pretty jet-lagged from France.  Krystin wasn't feeling super great either. They also have had NO time to train for the race in the past few weeks, but they don't turn down a challenge easily!

Krystin was set to race with the Under 16 Girls at 10:30am.  Wasn't feeling super great, has a slight cough and head ache, but figured she would just give it her best shot! Under 16 Girls are supposed to run a 4K, which Krystin was happy about.  Her first race was supposed to be a 4K, but ended up running a 5K.  Her last race was her first 4K.  Well, for championships, they were already running late, and some how the people in charge of making sure the kids run the correct path were confused and sent the girls on the 20 and under boys 6K course. The poor girls hadn't trained at all for a 6K and didn't even KNOW they were running a 6K, up HUGE hills mind you (in the rain).   They realized about halfway in and so some girls ran a little less, some a little more.  Krystin's group ended up running about 6.5K, instead of the 4K.  The girls were all vomiting at the end, and the places were completely messed us with people changing course in the middle and chaos....  So, they have to have another champ race for the girls....

Logan's race went well.  The boys actually ran the 6K that was planned.  Apparently, the guy that was in the first position actually KNEW the course, and when they came to a junction that splits the official told them to go the WRONG way (probably thinking they were to run a 5K or something?) he said NO it is that way!  Thankfully, someone knew the right way to go and he was in the lead.   Crazy, crazy!  It was fun to cheer for Logan and enjoy the beautiful terrain!

Here are some pics from the day.




















Logan's team mate is sitting next to him. (: 





the officiator 


The sweet girls that adopted Krystin to be part of their team last time,
 found her again! (:





Even though it was a bit crazy, it was fun race day!

No comments:

html/java