Thursday, 8th September 2011. Now because I am some 3km from the race venue, and also far from the registration and other gathering venues I am reliant on the laid on bus services. They plan the bus departures an hour before we have to be there, and return an hour after the end of whatever it is. The trip is only 10 minutes and so a 30 minute activity turns into a 3-6 hour ordeal. One can get a taxi but they are hard to come by, and you sometimes end up at the wrong venue. You can't explain to the driver he is going the wrong way, so you have to sit tight till he gets there, find an interpreter and then, hopefully get back to your right destination.
When the Chinese have a problem, they solve it by throwing people at it. They have planned systems for everything. However when something happens that is not in the system plan, then lots of loud discussion ensues. An example is going to one of the other hotels to eat. Even though you pay cash, they still want to write your room number down. When you tell them you are from another hotel, you can see you have broken the system, and you may never get your dinner because there is an unfilled field on the form. So we learned just to make up a number.
The race organisers had enlisted the aid of hundreds of volunteers from the local universities. They could all speak a smattering of English, at least. They were dressed in red t-shirts and were located at every point where athletes might be faced with any other type of official or other person, e.g. taxi driver, hotel staff, race officials, and most importantly security, which were everywhere. These young volunteers were our saviours. I thank them all!
In the afternoon we headed for the Parade of Nations, and the opening ceremony. This was a tightly controlled operation. There was airport style security to get on the buses, to ensure that nothing untoward was going to get anywhere near the festivities.
The parade was great fun. The opening ceremony quite formal and pompous. But then, I suppose it was a grand occasion. The parade took place in the "little town" of Changpin. I had read somewhere that it had a population of 83,000. I was wrong - I missed a zero. It was 830,000.
The team photo, prior to the parade. I am third from left in the back row, standing coincidently next to the other Saffer in the Kiwi team.
The Kiwis on the march. Front centre is the team captain, and ironman legend, Tiare Lund. She was to take out her age group Gold. More on her later.
The lovely Shirley Roulston with my flag. Shirley and I have been racing each other for many years now. It was great to have her along, especially after her ordeals of the last couple of years. She is probably the toughest person I know in a sport filled with tough people.
A good crowd had come out to watch. In the foreground is a red-shirted volunteer
Security was everywhere.
Inside the closed stadium, for the formalities.
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