This morning I ran the Shanghai Half Marathon 2011, a race I participated in a couple of times over the past years already (incl. the full marathon once). Because I did the New York marathon less than a month ago and I took a break in training after that, I did not really think I would be able to run a good time. My aim was to have a fun race and test how good my condition was after 4 weeks without hardly any practice.

Because the start was at 7:30 I got up at 5 AM so I could have a decent breakfast more than 2 hours before the start. I have learned over the years that a big meal full of carbs (pasta) the night before a full or half marathon makes a huge difference, but that a breakfast is even more important. So I had half a liter of yoghurt with muesli and two knackebrod with jam, plus a huge mug of tea (with sugar for a change). Then my driver picked up Grace and me at 6 AM to drive us to the start at the Bund.

We could not get very close to the Bund because of traffic control, so we had to walk the last couple of blocks. It was still pretty cold at this time, so a lot of people were doing their warm up runs. However, I decided to enter the starting area the moment it opened (at 6:30) in order to get a good place to start from. Over the past years I had learned that if you don’t start at the front you will lose minutes right away and you will spend the first kilometers overtaking other people.

I managed to get a place at the very front, so I had a lot to see. As usual in China a lot of people sneaked in from the side in the last 20 minutes before the start, or they just fought their way from the back to the front. Outside China this may cause a fight, here people seem to just ignore it.

At 7:20 the professional athletes entered the starting grid and a few minutes later about 20 young guys were also let in by the security guards. At first I thought they were local top athletes or so, but they were not wearing typical top athletes running gear. After the start they took off very slowly (I passed most of them in the first kilometer, and 2 others who got away fast were walking after 10 km already) blocking other people. I assume they are probably related to some high level government officials so they don’t have to queue at the start. Typical China.

After the obligatory speeches and the Chinese national anthem the race started at exactly 7:30. I took off fast with the front runners and ran my first km in just over 4 minutes. A bit too fast, so I slowed down a little bit to a pace just below 14 km/h for the next 2 km. I still felt great, but I know the risk of starting too fast so I forced myself to run slower (not easy).

After 5 km the biggest hurdle of the race was in front of us: the Nanpu bridge. I slowed down a bit on the way up (to about 12 km/h) so my heartbeat would not go up to too much and then accelerated on the way down to 15 km/h. I still felt pretty good when we entered Pudong where we would run straight ahead for almost 8 km. Quite some people were singing, clapping and screaming “Jia You” along the road, making running even easier.

At the 10 km point Grace and my driver were cheering for me and they took some pictures. Always nice to see people you know along the course. I told them I still felt great, and that was indeed the case. The next couple of km were quite boring, especially the part over the old Expo 2010 area where most buildings had been demolished already. The Dutch pavilion was still there though. At km 14 we saw the front runners of the half marathon who were at km 19 already, cool to see them race. I gave me inspiration to run even faster.

The last couple of kilometers were a bit harder, especially my muscles were a bit painful. Not running for a few weeks comes at a price I guess. But I kept up my speed (around 13 km/h) and did not feel particularly tired. Some other people around me seemed to be having a harder time, so at the 20 km point I decided to speed up one more time.

There was still a bridge right before the finish and I managed to pass quite a few people there. Then we ran down, took a left and 200 meters ahead of us was the finish line. I looked at the clock and realized I could still finish below 1:36, so I gave all I had and managed to finish the half marathon in 1:35:53. A new personal best for me, despite the rather difficult course and not training too much. A lot faster than expected, but considering that I don’t feel very tired I might have been able to run even faster. I was #183 out of a field of 8000 half marathon runners, which I also was quite happy about.

After the finish I picked up my medal and goodie bag (pair of socks, energy drink, some cookies and a Snickers) and then went to look for Grace. I found her at the finish line and we walked around a bit until the finish of the men’s full marathon about 35 minutes later. Great to see how fast these guys can run and how skinny they are. After the first women also finished we walked back to the car and by 10:30 I was home and had even showered already.

All in all a nice race, although I did not particularly like the course. There are a lot of things that can be improved, but compared to a few years ago the organization was already much better. One important thing they have to change though: the organization was serving local herbal tea at the refreshments posts… I had no idea what it was (I assumed it was cola), so took a cup, but after one sip I threw the rest away. A terrible taste, something bitter made of raisins it seemed, but certainly not something you want to have in the middle of a race. Grace told me that at the 10 km point they ran out of water after 1 hour already, this can absolutely not happen and is actually dangerous. It’s a local race, so you can’t expect too much I suppose, but these are basic things that should not happen again next year.

Joop Dorresteijn, who is co-founder and CTO at unitedstyles, noticed some interesting statistics in our Google Analytics about traffic from Belgium and wrote about it on his personal blog. I repost the full article here with his permission:

 

 Although the book is not out yet, I already look forward to reading Shaun Rein‘s upcoming publication The End of Cheap China. Shaun is a fellow Shanghai entrepreneur as founder and MD of the China Market Research Group. Next to that he is also a well-know columnist for among others CNBC, Forbes, and BusinessWeek. Although I don’t always agree with his opinion, I enjoy reading his columns and I think this book will also be a very interested read.

In “The End of Cheap China” Shaun argues that China’s days as a low cost production center are numbered, something I believe in as well. China is changing quickly into an economy with a huge middle class that wants (and can afford) to buy foreign goods, instead of only producing them for export.

A more detailed description on the Amazon site for this book:

The End of Cheap China is a fun, riveting, must-read book not only for people doing business in China but for anyone interested in understanding the forces that are changing the world.

Many Americans know China for manufacturing cheap products, thanks largely to the country’s vast supply of low-cost workers. But China is changing, and the glut of cheap labor that has made everyday low prices possible is drying up as Chinese seek not to make iPhones, but to buy them. Shaun Rein, Founder of the China Market Research Group, puts China’s continuing transformation from producer to large-scale consumer – a process that is farther along than most economists think – under the microscope, examining eight megatrends that are catalyzing change in China and posing threats to Americans’ consumption-driven way of life.

Rein takes an engaging and informative approach to examining the extraordinary changes taking place across all levels of Chinese society, talking to everyone from Chinese billionaires and senior government officials to poor migrant workers and even prostitutes and drawing on personal stories and experiences from living in China since the 1990s as well as hard economic data. Each chapter focuses on a different aspect of China’s transformation, from fast-improving Chinese companies to confident, optimistic Chinese women to the role of China’s government, and at the end breaks down key lessons for readers to take away.

The book will come out on March 27, 2012 but is now already available for pre-order at USD 12.86, an almost 50% discount on the original price. There is no ebook version (yet), I hope the publisher will make that available as well before the publication date.

When I first saw this video I thought it was fake. But the more I think about it, the more I believe this could really happen when you have 2 young kids. Maybe I should give Scott and Elaine a big bag of flour as well and see what the result is?

The original video is here.

Sunday night around midnight I arrived home after an exhausting business trip that took me to Russia, Cyprus and Amsterdam. The start of the trip was not the best one you can have, first missing my flight and then an adventurous stay in a Moscow hotel room. I was not too happy with Moscow airport and the way they treat their customers there, but after flying back through Moscow on Sunday my dislike of the place turned to hating it.

What happened? Well, actually during the stop over most things went well. In the lounge the employees were rude and not service oriented as usual: they were sitting in the leather chairs eating and drinking the lounge food and drinks, and trying to ignore the few customers. When I turned on the light in the hallway to the toilets they screamed something to me in Russian, and when I came back they had turned the light off again. Not sure why, but I didn’t ask and just ignored them as well.

Boarding the flight was also uneventful. Everybody was trying to get on board as soon as possible, there were no boarding privileges for business class but that’s just Aeroflot I guess (in Shanghai airport while checking in they didn’t even open the biz class counters, so I just went to the front of the economy line). On board the flight attendants could not find my coat anymore upon landing, and just told me that they didn’t know where it was, instead of looking for it. So then I had to look for it myself – and I found it in between their coats in a compartment with flight attendant coats… I have to assume it was an honest mistake.

But the thing that really pissed me off about the airport and Aeroflot is when I came home and realized the lock of my suitcase was broken. When I opened it I realized someone had broken into my luggage and stolen things! Among others I am missing 2 bottles of wine that I bought in Amsterdam and a lot of Sinterklaas candy for the kids. I am not sure if other things were missing as well, but because I never put valuables in my suitcase probably nothing expensive. This sucks and makes me really angry, and of course I shared my feelings on social media.

It turns out that this is quite normal in Moscow, several of my Facebook and Twitter followers had had the same experience there. A journalist gave me the contact details of the Aeroflot CEO, so I contacted him. I also mentioned what happened to the airline itself on Twitter, but of course no reaction from either the CEO or Aeroflot (Note: Aeroflot checks Twitter, because when I said something nice about them a few days ago they immediately thanked me). The terminal where it happened (Terminal F) is only in use by Aeroflot, and I am sure they are aware of this but just don’t care. The same attitude that all the Aeroflot staff has, from the transit desk people to the lounge staff, and from the ground stewardesses during boarding to the flight attendants. Not sure whether Aeroflot is still a state-owned company, but if it’s not the staff still acts like it. Service oriented? What’s that?

This won’t be the last time I fly to Moscow because I am doing business there, but from now on I will avoid Aeroflot and Moscow as much as possible. A company and an airport like this don’t deserve my money. I prefer to pay more money and fly a different route from now on. And as for my kids, I will bring them extra candy next time I’ll be in Holland.

Last Thursday night I walked by the Occupy Amsterdam camp on the Beursplein in Amsterdam. It was very similar to the Occupy Wall Street camp that I visited 2 weeks earlier (before the people were kicked out), just a bit smaller and a bit less crowded.

I had some sympathy for the ideas of the people at Occupy Wall Street, but I totally don’t understand the occupants in Amsterdam. Holland is so completely different from the US, with an excellent social system for everyone (health care, guaranteed minimum income etc.), that I don’t understand what these people are protesting for. They don’t even know it themselves it seems, they say they just want to change the world. And how or why? To quote the site: When asked to define a simple goal that defines WHY, supporters worldwide, offen struggle to answer because, “Our dreams and expectations are too much to fit in a single ‘sound bite’ …”

It feels more like a summer camp in autumn, and if you check their website that feeling becomes even stronger. Among the most important news on the front page of their site are a wedding in the camp and several posts about a group that makes others laugh going on a tour in The Netherlands. The mission of this group (this is not joke!): In its mission team X uses a non-violent technique that requires its “victims” to be non-violent and completely give in to the moment. This creates a minute of laughter giggling and an increase of blood flow that helps to keep people warm and thus happy.

I don’t think they can make me laugh, but what did make me laugh was when I saw the banner they hung up a the entrance to the camp with the banks that made this Occupy camp possible. I wonder who was too stupid to understand that this is sarcasm, the tourists walking by or the occupants themselves?

After a stop-over in Moscow that lasted 24 hours longer than planned I am now on the island of Cyprus. I had planned to be here a day longer, but luckily I could rearrange my meetings here after yesterday’s adventure. The Aeroflot flight from Moscow to Cyprus went smoothly and I was very happy that I even got my suitcase back!

Cyprus reminds me a bit of Turkey, but that’s not something you should tell the people here (Cyprus was partly occupied by Turkey in 1974 and that was never resolved, so the island is now split into two parts). It’s a very dry island, and when you land here the first thing you see is a brown landscape.

The island is located in the Eastern Mediterranean and therefore very warm with not too much rain. But today that’s different, it’s been raining off and on since I arrived.

Next to my meetings I don’t have a lot of time (just enough to check my email and quickly write this post actually), but it’s nice to be here for a few hours. Next time I will try to stay a few days longer (e.g. adding a weekend) to explore the countryside and the culture of the island.

The hotel that I chose is one of the better ones that I have stayed in in Europe, it’s the Londa in Limsassol. It’s a luxurious design boutique hotel directly on the Mediterranean, with its own small beach and a nice swimming pool. No time to try them out this time, but this is a certainly good place to stay for a holiday as well.

The only problem is that they charge for wifi, something that I hate. I thought I had seen on their website that they had free wifi and that’s why I chose this hotel over the Meridien, but I likely made a mistake. I mentioned at the front desk upon check in that I normally don’t stay in hotels with paid wifi (explaining that wifi to me is something like electricity and water, you also don’t pay separately for those things) and they generously gave me free wifi for my stay here. A very nice gesture!

The rooms are very nicely designed, with a great bed and a small balcony. There is also a beach bar and a covered terrace bar, plus a nice restaurant (where I will have a business dinner later). If only they would have free wifi I would certainly come back, now I might try another hotel next time. Or maybe I will just try to make a deal with them to include free wifi in the rate for my next stay.

If someone would tell me a story like this, I probably would not believe it. But what follows really happened to me today.

I landed early this morning in Moscow on an overnight flight from Shanghai. I had a lay-over of a couple of hours for a flight to Larnaca, so I sat in the lounge and wrote some emails and worked on a blog post about online games for the Business Insider. My flight would be boarding at 11:15, so at 10:50 I decided to pack my stuff and walk to the gate.

When I left the lounge I looked on the board to verify the gate number and to my astonishment it said that the gate had closed already. I thought I was looking at the wrong flight, but I double checked and then realized that the time on the board was one hour later than the time on my watch, my iPhone and my MacBook Pro. I didn’t understand this, both my iPhone and my laptop automatically switch to the right time when I land in a different time zone, so I never have to think about manually changing the time. I changed my watch on the plane with the official time on the flight tracking system, so that should be correct as well. I was flabbergasted, but decided to run to the gate anyway to see what was going on and if I could still board.

Well, bad luck. The plane had just left the gate and I was left stranded in Moscow Sheremetyevo airport. I asked the lady at the gate if there would be another plane to Larnaca, but she first tried to ignore me and then told me rudely that looking that up was not her job. Welcome to Russia…

So I went to look for the Aeroflot transfer desk. For the whole international terminal F there was only one transfer desk and at that desk there was only 1 computer with a seat, but there was nobody sitting there. Some other people were waiting in line, so I decided to wait as well. I guess waiting is part of life in Russia, because nobody complained when a girl appeared 10 minutes later from the back room.

After waiting another 15 minutes it was my turn, I explained my situation, but the girl did not believe me. She told me it was an hour later than I thought. Yes, I had figured that out as well, but my phone and laptop told me differently. She had no idea of course how that could be (neither did I yet at that point), but she went to talk to her manager. I was lucky, probably because I flew business class her manager (sitting in the back drinking a coffee) was willing to help and rebook me on a different flight. I just had to wait 20 minutes for the rebooking.

Okay, seemed reasonable, so I started to change my scheduled meetings and then did a quick online search about what may have happened. Well, it only took me 2 minutes until I found this article in Pravda: http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/31-10-2011/119477-winter_time_russia-0/. Putin had decided to abolish winter time earlier this year, but Apple and many other computer makers did not get that message. Everybody who owns an iPhone or Apple computer suddenly had the wrong time on the screen. And apparently Apple did nothing to solve the issue over the past 2 weeks! I am sure I am not the only one with this problem, and I am almost 100% sure that the inflight tracking system of Aeroflot also still showed the wrong time.

Of course this did not help me in any way, but at least I now understood what the problem was. After 30 minutes the girl came back and told me there were no other flights to Cyprus anymore today, but she could book me on the flight for tomorrow. I didn’t have much choice of course so I agreed. At least I would be able to leave tomorrow. But then there was another problem, I could not leave the airport because I didn’t have a Russian visa. And there is no airport hotel on Moscow Sheremetyevo…

I asked if I could get a transit visa, but the girl told me that’s not possible. However, she then asked me how much money I had on me, and I told her no cash but that I have a credit card. She told me she may have another solution, she had to make a phone call and I had to wait another 20 minutes. Sure, I had nothing else to do anyway. After 20 minutes she told me she had a hotel room for me if I was willing to pay USD 170. Great, I thought, a bit expensive but better than a chair in the terminal for the night. Then a big lady who spoke no English told me to follow her. I did so and we went to a side door to the empty transit area. We waited for a while and then a custom person came out of another door to inspect my passport. After that the big lady took me down the stairs to passport control, but instead of going through there we took a side door and we were suddenly outside on the tarmac of Moscow aiport!

A large bus pulled up and I was asked to board it. I had no clue what was happening, but I found it interesting so boarded of course. The big bus was completely empty except for the driver, the big lady and me. We drove all around the airport to a side entrance where security opened the gate for us without asking.

We then drove for a couple of minutes until we came to a Novotel. The hotel looked nice and I was quite happy. But we did not drive to the main entrance, but to the side. The big lady went in first and came over with a security guy that escorted me to check in. I found this a bit strange, but hey, this is Russia. So I checked in and then was told that I would be escorted to a special room and that I was to remain in the room until 9 AM tomorrow, when someone would come to get me!

At first I thought, fine. But when I was escorted through the personnel lift to my room and I saw that a big guard was sitting in front of it with a TV I felt less happy about the whole situation. But not much you can do I guess. I am now in my room, which is quite spartan. The window can’t be opened and there is a second glass window on the inside. I can see people walking outside, but I can’t go outside myself. This feels very very strange. I am basically a prisoner here and have to wait until 9 AM tomorrow to leave this hotel room.

Luckiy I have Internet (although that disconnects every 30 minutes or so), so I can work and make calls over Skype. But it feels very awkward. I guess I am lucky, but I now understand a little bit how it must feel to be in a real prison. This is a luxury prison for sure, but the fact that you can’t leave makes me feel uncomfortable. I can’t even go down to the lobby to eat something or work out in the gym (I don’t have my suitcase with my running gear here anyway). I just have to stay in the room and call if I want to eat something.

I am not sure if this is standard procedure, or whether the USD 170 went into several pockets to get this arranged. Why would they let me out through a side door and then have a big bus transport me to the side entrance of the hotel? I don’t really want to know. It’s at least better than spending the night on a chair in the departure lounge of Moscow airport and it makes for a nice story. But I will be happy when it’s 9 AM tomorrow morning. And Apple, if someone reads this please solve this bug!

 

Update next morning 10:30 AM: I made it out without any real problems. No knock on the door in the middle of the night to check my visa in order to obtain some bribes. They let me wait another 10 minutes before they let me out at 9:10 AM (“Come go, quick quick!”), then a security guard led me through the hotel lobby to the emergency exit where a bus was waiting (Why the emergency exit? I still think the whole thing was illegal, otherwise they could let me use the main entrance, right?)

The drive back to the airport took a bit longer than planned. First we ended up in a traffic jam and then the driver drove the wrong way and we had to drive back again. Eventually we ended up at the side gate of the airport where they let us in without inspecting my bags or passport. Another tour of the airport followed and 10 minutes later I was at another side entrance where someone was waiting for me to open the door. Two minutes later I was back in the terminal, without anybody checking my passport. 

I am now in the lounge having a coffee and apple cake. Getting into the lounge was a small problem, they refused to let me in without an invitation (despite flying business class and having all kinds of frequent flyer cards). They were extremely rude, first sending me to the wrong place to get an invitation and then telling me to go back to my “friends” at the transfer desk. I don’t give up easily and I eventually managed to get the invitation, but not after another lesson in Russian arrogance and rudeness. China may not be perfect, but this is 10 times worse. I look forward to being in the air in 1 hour. Too bad I will be flying through Moscow again on Sunday…

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