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Biketobeijing <biketobeijing2008>

	We are Now - Aug 6th	470 days ago
	hey all................so we finally made it to beijing! the cycle from tianjin wasn't as easy as we thought. once we left the city outskirts we realised that the sign we had seen was misleading and had underestimated our final leg by an extra 30km. so our penultimate day ended up being longer than we expected which had us cycling further into the afternoon heat than we would normally like, buy hey it our second last day and we didn't care. nothing was going to knock us off our stride, not even the fact that 3 hotels on the outskirts of beijing wouldn't give us a room, just because we were foreigners! thankfully on 4th attempt we succeeded and pretended to be part of a discovery channel documentary team to get a 50% discount. ( it really was a more upmarket hotel than we were used to). with all the excitement and anticipation it really felt like christmas eve, so much so that i insisted on blaring out bad aids "feed the world" on the ipod as we packed up our bags for the last time. leaving the hotel we had only left ourselves a little 20km hop of a cycle, so we stopped at an o briens sandwich bar for a sandwich and a self conratulatory pint ( god i love and miss good sandwiches!) and waited for the phone call to say everyone was ready at the hostel. we then left and cruised along through the multitude of beijing cyclists, sweating like mad in the smoggy heat, but elated to be finally on the home straight. cycling down the hutong to our hostel was incredible. as we pulled our bikes up in front (the lads dumped theirs on the ground,i took a little more care with angelina) a cacophony of noise erupted from our friends, family,hostel staff and guests and a rte camera crew. they had also draped a banner across the front of the hostel and tricolours were hanging off every lamppost. after the initial bedlam, things settled down and we did our interview with RTE and dutifully posed for photos ( the girls in the hostel had put on ireland tshirts and were going mental, jumping into as many photos as possible! i think they even were more excited than we were!). after everything eventually calmed down we sat down in front of the hostel, drank a few pints from the keg the hostel kindly donated to our "cause" and caught up with friends and family who we hadn't seen in ages. after that it was time to answer the phones and do all the radio interviews and talk to journalists about our achievement. last night we went down to one of the main streets to watch the opening ceremony. its finally starting to hit home that we're at the Olympics. the atmosphere on the street was unreal as the chinese went ballistic when their athletes strode out. the national fervourism was clearly on display as they booed szarkosky ( who really likes the french?), starting tchanting "CHINA CHINA CHINA" when the japanese came out (these 2 countries really really hate each other) and stared chanting out the presidents name every time the camera panned to him. so we alternated standing, sitting on each others shoulders, and sitting on the ground as the ceremony unfolded. it really was some display, especially when it showed the fireworks exploding on the screen all over the city and then one went off in the street next to us. so we're finally here at the Olympics. i watched some weightlifting over breakfast in the hostel and it started to strike home. i cant really describe how it feels to have finished this mammoth challenge we set ourselves back in october 06. its not liking the feeling after a rugby match or a mma competition. it wasnt that sharp feeling of an adrenaline rush and fatigue and feeling of achievement after a high tempo encounter. in the same way that the cycle itself was a slow steady expenditure of energy over 11 months, i feel that the sense of achievement is more like a gentle glow of accomplishment. i don't think i can fully get my head around it at the moment. i think the enormity of it all will only sink in when im back in Dublin doing the mundane day to day stuff. it ll probably hit home how tough the off the bikes stuff has been when i go home and order a sandwich in the shop, buy a drink and a packet of crisps and itll all be exactly what i wanted , ordered, and occur without any delays our confusion or mixups as ill be conducting the whole process in fluent vernacular for the first time since leaving rosslare. its been a long tough year, the lows have been so like chasms and the highs have reached the sky. the only way to describe it is incredible. really looking forward to seeing gillick run on the 18th, the leprechaun suits are out and the markers are waiting to enscribe slogans on our flags. thanks to everyone who got in contact with us over the year, it really lifted us when we were down and encouraged us to keep going slan conor
	posted by Biketobeijing

1 Comment:

	Dee Ni Bhuachalla said...	469 days ago
	Congratulations................have a brilliant time at the games! Pamper yerselves if ye can ye deserve after all that ye have accomplished
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