The China Adventure - Thursday 11th.

First of all, sorry the previous post was supposed to read Wednesday 10th.

So, onto today - slept a little later than intended but checked with hotel and a shuttle ran to the swim start every 30mins.

I spoke to Bryan and his buddy John Barclay and we met up on the shuttle. He leaves a video update on his blog every week so I felt I knew what to expect and felt that I knew him quite well already.

Chatting away and I am pleased to say I was right. A totally cool dude, immediately likeable and on the same wavelength - although both of them struggle to understand my accent!!! They're not the first (note to self, must work on that).

Into our wetsuits and the biggest shock of my life - yes the water was cold but what shocked and worried me the most was that these two Canadians were squealing about how cold the water was (I was squealing too I might add). BUT they had just come from a -17C winter (Bryan even rode outdoors using chemical heaters in his gloves and shoes to prevent frost bite).

As it turned out we were all just being little girls. As soon as the wetsuits started working the temperature was fine and you could have comfortably swam without a wetsuit if the truth be told.

2 laps of the 4 lap course done in 32mins. I was happy with that. I could go a little faster on race day but the small loops will mean a congested course so will probably be slowed a little - we'll see.

We headed back to grab the last shuttle and low and behold there was a very cold looking Carmen. She confessed that she wasn't going to swim and her bike was still in the box. Tch tch!!!

Bryan and I then headed out for a 90minute ride - it was great fun and we got to know each other a little more. We got a little lost at one point although avoiding the oncoming traffic was the main worry.

Bryan then went for a run, I tootled around and then registered - very efficient so it took less than 5mins.

Managed to speak to Shilpa and the boys on video Skype which was soooooo cool and made me very happy.

Then I felt a tad restless and a bit blotted so went for a swift 7.5k run.

And that my dear friends pretty much brings you up to date.

Sam has sourced Carmen a wetsuit which Sofian will bring tomorrow so she has no excuses now. I'll be swimming again in the morning so off to beddy byes now.

Laterz

Regards,
Simon Cross
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