You'll find this blog entry coming to you from Yangshuo, China, a small city in the south central part of the country, nearest the border to Vietnam. It's been about a week since I last sent an update and I know that a great many people have been dying to know what happened with the marathon, how I felt, how Closing Ceremonies were, etc. Suffice it to say that the last few days of the Games were a whirlwind with a decision to do the marathon followed by....the race itself....a mad dash to pack and transport my copious luggage back to the States....attendance of Closing Ceremonies and obligatory (duh) post-Games parties....a quick take-off on a domestic light to Guilin, China, followed by now three days of some of the most relaxing moments and beautiful mountains I've experienced in my life. Where to begin?

The marathon was... a blast. I rolled out of bed at about 4:15 am on the morning of the 17th, shoveled in some pre-race breakfast, and we loaded the bus to the start of the race in Tiananmin Square. One of the pleasures of road racing is getting to see all of those loving faces of your teammates in their pre-dawn splendor. Everyone was in fine form and we arrived at the start, complete with the profiles of temples in the sunrise and the start line port-a-loo which Josh dubbed the "potty bus" as it was a bus with a lift and four small bathrooms INSIDE. Life is always full of firsts and this was one for me.... So much more flair than the usual port-a-loo. We got in our racers and proceeded with warm-up, then..the race was off!

I entered this race with the mindset that I would give it hell and do my best, but in a light of doing it for the honor of my sport. I very much prioritized track training in the months proceeding the Games and was not sure if I would even do the Marathon as Beijing approached. After four 4th place finishes and feeling a little bit beat up over that, I decided that it couldn't hurt to give the marathon a go and that, at the very least, it would be a great tour of the city. As the race started, it became clear that it would be reasonable to stay with the pack of lead woman. We started very early with trading off the draft and had an awesome pace line going with about 8 of the top female wheelchair racers in the world. The course was very fast as the roads were all smooth as glass and very flat. We headed out of Tiananmen Sqaure and towards the Temple of Heaven, then through the grounds of the Temple (a bit narrow and bumpy but pretty reasonable), then back toward the Sqaure. Then...out through several wide city streets of Beijing...very easily navigable and allowing for great drafting and for the pace line to stay pretty much in tact. At about mile 18-19 we entered a University and encountered some technically challenging parts of the course - lots of tight turns, rough roads, and small, short inclines/declines. After this we were back on the city streets and headed toward the Birds Nest. As we approached the Olympic/Paralympic venues, we were a pack of 7. I had my eye on the 2 or 3 people I knew would have lots of speed left to make a strike at the end, but in general I was trying to conserve and only take very short pulls at the front. In the last mile, we entered the green and pushed toward the stadium. We had a 180 degree hairpin turn, then a sharp left and a sharp right to enter the stadium, and then 500 meters on the track to the finish. I was feeling really good! The last three turns got really hairy and I was up on two wheels more than once in an effort to start the final sprint, make the turns, and not hit anyone else in the mix. As we entered the stadium Diane Roy missed the last right turn and went outside of the pylons; as she came back in toward the track, unfortunately we nicked each others chairs and she was the one to suffer as she went over sideways and into the grass on the inside of the track. By this time I was going ALL OUT in hopes of gaining on the three women who were in front of me as we entered the stadium, but with 300 to go it was pretty clear that my speed/fitness wasn't going to allow me to overtake them. I was in a dead sprint with Shelly Woods from the UK and we came in 4th and 5th, only hundredths of seconds apart. I took fifth. So - still no podium this time around, but a great race and a very, very cool experience.

I will leaving the waxing poetic for another time with regards to my feel of the Games as a whole.... coming home without a medal but with the experience of a lifetime... how I perceive this in the landscape of my own life... many thoughts roll around in my head but for now, I'm healing a bit emotionally while also attempting to live in the moment.

Which brings us to midnight, September 20th, 2008. I am sitting in a hotel room in Yangshuo, China, with one of my best friends in the whole world, Khaliah, and we are now three days into our meanderings around China. Khaliah is a second year pediatrics resident at Hopkins and it means the world to me that she is here... she took her precious, precious vacation time to come watch me compete and now for our adventurous travels. So far we have: floated down a small river on a bamboo raft, sat by the pool for 3+ hours at a time, eaten gigantic noodle bowls that cost 50 cents .... now two nights in a row, found our favorite bakery that makes homemade mooncakes, played with beautiful Chinese children, created an evening ritual of beer and peanuts, cracked a tooth on a cherry pit (that was khaliah), aquired a bit of a nasty head cold (that'd be me), figured out how to buy Tylenol Cold at a Chinese pharmacy (!!!), flirted with some 20-something Chinese men through a translator *smile*, and started to plan for the 3 days we have coming up back in Beijing.

As always, more coming soon....

xoxo, cheri ann