津门盘山赛「英国选手Penny」的信！

——英国参赛选手F0621Penny赛后的反馈

文中提到的Jack是V越野建鹏的英文名字

原标题：PanShan race feedback

Hi Jack,

Sorry this is so long, it's more like a short-story!

I registered to join PanShan Trail Race on a whim. I had run several marathons and had recently run the Changchun Forest Marathon, so when I saw PanShan race on zuicool, I thought it could be a fun, new challenge.

Perhaps it was because I was using a translator on my computer (I can't read Chinese) but I didn't really have a proper idea of what the race would involve. This is probably a good thing that I didn't realise, otherwise I might have thought it would be too difficult, and not have joined the event.

A week before, I realised I knew little about the race; even where it was exactly. So I contacted the organisers and got in touch with a couple of other foreigners taking part. It was then I found out that I would need to be more prepared, and had to organise proper equipment (such as a water bag) and go to the hospital to get a ECG report.

Getting to PanShan wasn't as simple as I'd anticipated. When I arrived at Beijing Donzhimen bus station on Friday, I found out that there was only one bus a day to PanShan scenic area, and that was at 8am. I thought perhaps I could take a train to Tianjin, so I then got on the subway to go to the train station, and contacted Jack, one of the organisers, to ask for advice. He recommended 2 options: a bus from Beijing, SiHui bus station or an evening train from Beijing East. I changed subway trains and headed towards SiHui bus station. However, Jack informed me that the bus might be a little unreliable. We agreed that I would take the evening train to JiZhou and Jack kindly offered to collect me at the station. I changed subway trains again and headed back home.

I almost missed the train from Beijing East station since I aaked my taxi driver to take me to 'Beijing station'. By the time I realised my mistake, the traffic was so bad that he said there wouldn't be time to get there. I had to run to the subway station (it was 6pm on a Friday, rush hour) and after that I tried to take a shared bike to cycle to Beijing East. However, the first 2 bikes I found were broken, and through confusion, my Mobike account was temporarily frozen! I had no choice but to run the rest of the way. Thankfully, I made it just in time.

Jack collected me as arranged at Jizhou station and drove me to Hengda Hotel to collect my race pack and check in. I was finally able to relax and mentally prepare for the next day's race.

I woke up to a beautiful view of the PanShan hills and blue skies. As the 35km didn't start until 10am I had lots of time to enjoy breakfast in the hotel and do some stretching. At 9.30am I followed other participants and walked up to the race start point. There was a buzz of excitement in the air! I left my bag at the 'bag drop point' (efficient) and I was free to join in with a large group warm up.

The first part of the race we ascended along paved paths, next to streams and up many, many steps. There were a few 'day trippers' along the paths but thankfully they stood aside for the race participants and wished us luck! As we ascended the views became more stunning and I had to stop to take a couple of photos.

I quickly made a race friend who I ran beside for a while and he encouaged me when started to slow down, and advised me to be cautious when the path was less stable.

Once we'd left the main pedestrian area, the route became more wild and really fun. Thankfully the route was clearly marked with red ribbons at all points, so it was eaay to know the way. There was a real variety of terrain and landscape (rocks, grass, soil, sand), which meant you had to pay attention, and also kept the route interesting! Thankfully, there was plenty of shade too. There was even a phone signaI so that I was able to send my mum in England a quick selfie and message "so far, so good!"

I was very impressed with the efficiency of the check-points: the staff used mobile phones to scan our race bracelets. There were also a good selection of snacks and drinks to keep our energy up. More importantly, all the staff were extremely helpful, friendly and encouraging, and even helped me to fill up my water bag.

By the end of the race I was physically tired, but also elated. Being amongst so much nature and in fresh air was very invigorating. I'd also completed my first trail run and haf made friends on the way. Despite being very nervous before hand, I was so glad I'd taken part, the journey to PanShan was definately worth it.

Feedback:

As I mentioned, I signed up through zuicool.com back in July. However, I received no further infomation about the race until I contacted people a week before. I would suggest that upon registration it is made clear what exactly is required for the race (equipment, documents) and much more specific directions for how to get there. As I had a bit of a stressful time trying to organise the equipment and documents in the week leading up to the race.

A foreign participant sent me a helpful wechat document about the race (in English) a few days before. It would have been helpful had the organisers sent me this when I first registered.

I was extremely grateful for Jack's help in organising my travel to and from the race. Without his help, I may not have made it!

I would have appreciated some more hotel suggestions. I appreciate that the Hengda was the official race hotel, however it was very expensive! It would have been more supportive/helpful to be told "We recommend Hengda Hotel as our official race hotel (however, there are also other hotels in the area and within walking distance of the race point)."

I like that the race pack didn't have too much stuff, as organised races often fill the race pack with a lot of unnecessary and wasteful stuff. However, i would have been helpful to have a piece of paper with Chinese and English information. For example, the walking route to the race start point, where the bag drop and toilets are. The day's schedule, transport options after the race etc. That would have been really helpful and reassuring for someone like me who was apprehensive about the day.

I think that's all my feed back! Overall it was a really fun and well organised event. I definately do it again and recommend it to friends. My main suggestion would be that participants should be sent more information about the event when they register. This is especially important for non-Chinese speakers, particularly tjose who haven't lived in China very long and probably won't have heard of PanShan before.

Many thanks,

Penny