Journey. Light.: Toray Cup Shanghai International Marathon 2011 Day 1/3

Arrived at the airport at around 2245Hr. This was my first time boarding a plane through T3.

Supper.

My plane was scheduled for 0110Hr. The weather at Shanghai would be cold.

At 0055Hr, the staff made an announcement saying the flight would be delayed as the plane had not arrived. I looked out of the window and yah, where's the plane?!!

There was nothing we could do. What we heard was that the delay was due to a SIA cargo plane veering off the airport in the afternoon, causing the runway to be closed for 2 hours. All subsequent flights were delayed.

Not knowing when will the plane reach, I just laid down on the benches to sleep. Lets hope it would not take too long. The plane arrived at around 0145Hr.

At 0200Hr, the airport staff were giving out snacks to all passengers.

Saw 2 fellow Singaporean runners also going for the marathon.

We boarded the plane at around 0235Hr and took off at around 0300Hr.

I tried to catch as much sleep as possible in the plane. The marathon was just the next day. I need as much rest as I could get.

Breakfast at 0630Hr.

Sunrise.

We touched down at around 0730Hr. The weather was 4 degC.

Looking for the metro station.

Its a short walk away.

This was the Maglev station, where the trains were propelled by magnetic field. An engineering feat but not very practical in my sense. It only has 1 stop and terminates at Longyang Road metro station which was not at the city center. In Singapore context, its like having a direct train from Changi Airport to Kenbangan MRT. It was also much more expensive compared to the metro. Of course, it would be worth taking it once for the experience. I took it with my family when we visited Shanghai in 2005.

The metro station. It suddenly felt very cold over here. I guessed it was from the wind from outside. Could guess how cold it would be outside.

Buying the train ticket. They have a One-Day Pass which allows you unlimited rides for 24hrs starting from the time of your first ride. It costs RMB$18.

The ticket machines for the regular rides.

An advertisement at the metro platform. I like the theme behind it.

Pudong International Airport was at the end of Line 2.

Inside the train. It would gradually get more and more crowded.

At Guanglan Road station, we need to switch from a 4 carriage train to a 8 carriage train.

I need to go to Shanghai Indoor Stadium for the race expo. At Century Avenue, we need to switch to another line.

They keep to the right on the escalators. Or at least that was what I read online.

Switching to Line 4, which was their circular line.

Shanghai Indoor Stadium.

Its so cooling on the streets. Its as if there was a gigantic air conditioner blowing on the streets.

Steaming hot baked potato.

We reached!

Adjacent to the Shanghai Indoor Stadium was the Shanghai Stadium.

Its the same official photographer as Tokyo Marathon 2011.

The event tee for the half and full marathon. I was hoping they would have the chinese characters 东丽杯上海国际马拉松 on it since it was in China.

Expo layout.

A nice design for the words 2011.

芯片 = time chip

号码布 = BIB

First we need to collect our 领物卡.

No queue seems to exist in China. So do not be shy.

This is 许老师. She was in charge of registration. When the lady at the counter say my name on my registration form, she immediately directed me to see her.

Initially there was some problem with my registration due to the payment. I had tried to transfer my registration fees over twice using different remittance companies but the organisers kept saying they did not receive my payment. Up till the moment I arrived at the expo, I kept worrying that they have not registered me.

When I saw 许老师, she told me that they could see that I was very sincere in running the marathon as I kept asking them if they had received my payment. Therefore they decided to register for me first regardless whether if I would turn up at the expo. When I heard it I was so relieved.

I resolved the payment with 许老师 in the end. I had checked with the remittance company and they had actually used one of their employee's name in the transaction. That was the reason why the organisers thought they had not receive my payment as they were looking for my name! I gave them the remittance company employee's name and they had the name in record. So now my payment was settled.

Now to collect my gear with the 领物卡.

Event tee for health race.

Event tee for half and full marathon.

Testing of our time chip. There was no monitor to display our names. So what we were testing was only whether the chip worked but we were not sure if the chip was ours.

Athens Marathon.

Medals for the Athens Marathon.

This whole mouthfull refers to Gold Coast Marathon.

Zhengkai International Marathon.

Ningxia Yellow River coast Half Marathon.

Yangzhou Jianzhen International Half Marathon.

Mizuno was the apparel sponsor.

Liu Xiang.

Free photography by the official photographers.

Going to my hotel. It was at Fuzhou Road. The nearest metro station was East Nanjing Road station.

Nanjing Road.

The Apple store was always so crowded every time I passed by.

Middle Henan Road. The hotel was a 5 - 10 min walk away.

Luckily my chinese can be put to use.

On the left, it says "Shanghai National Secrets Agency".

On the right, it says "Shanghai National Security Agency".

This was a place I would never want to step in.

My hotel.

The safe in the room. The best thing about it was it was not secured and could be carried around.

Going for lunch.

回锅肉饭. Had I known what was it I would not have ordered it. Its fatty meat. So oily.

This was good. Bought it from a convenient store nearby.

The convenient store.

永和豆浆.

Taxi stand.

The race would start along this road.

The Shanghai Bull at the Bund, a derivative of the Wall Street Bull.

Shanghai Pudong Development Bank.

Shanghai Custom House.

Behind me across the river is Lujiazui 陆家嘴.

AIA Building.

The Swatch Art Peace Hotel.

Peace Hotel.

Bank of China.

The race would start beside Chen Yi Square.

The former Custom House.

上海海事局

黄浦公园水文站

People's Heros Memorial.

Lujiazui 陆家嘴.

外白渡桥

There would be buses to collect our bags before the race. The buses would be lined up starting from here.

This lamp post reminds of me an episode from Mr Bean.

Nanjing Road pedestrian street.

I went back to the hotel for a short rest and also to read up on the race tomorrow. The information in the race brochure were printed in both chinese and english.

At around 1930Hr, I went out for dinner. The weather was getting colder.