野雪

三月飛花冬不去，日影支離無暖意。
滿樹銀裝勝梨花，蓋盡山嵐不春泥。
步履鏗鏘上坡難，樹影橫梗作天梯。
待到山巔極目時，且借勁風問春去。

March arrives with flying snowflakes, winter lingers on.
The sun’s rays scattered, lacking warmth.
Trees dressed in silver, surpassing pear blossoms,
Hills covered in white, no earth can be seen.
With resounding steps, I climb difficult slopes,
Holding on a ladder to the sky, formed with trees’ shadows.
At the mountain’s summit, I look far and wide,
And follow the fierce wind, where spring comes.

No ZUO No High (不作不开心）

There is a popular saying in Chinese Community – “No ZUO No Die” – meaning that you would not be miserable if you didn’t do stupid things. There is a similar saying in English – “Anything makes you exciting is either illegal or danger”

Illegal is the hardline we don’t across, but danger is something judged personally. I don’t think cross country ski is any kind of danger. It is a kind of struggle though especially in my capacity – I skied as slow as snail – that’s kind of ZUO (作）- perfectly depicted in the Chinese wording.

Well, we are a group of Chinese friends (Team Chinada) who play together many years. In last few years, we caught by a winter bug named cross country ski. Most of the team members managed the art very well and 4 of them moved to instructor level already. But for me, not dedicating to ski, I am still struggling on balance and diagonal strides.

Living in southern Ontario, we do not have much opportunity here for skiing, so during early and later seasons, our group goes to Quebec as a favoured place to catch the bug. One member wrote: “意念魁岭经年，肝胆皆冰雪” （”thinking of mountains in Quebec many years, ice and snow are deep in my heart and gut”). We were talking Loppet International Race in Gatineau Park (between Ontario and Quebec) since last summer. Booked cottages to accommodate the large group, trained every weekends with High Park Ski Club, and exchanged news about the event and other Loppet events around the world often.

But the weather kept changing, from mounting snow to heavy rain to the temperature rising way above 0. We couldn’t sure there were enough snow on the ground during the race event. Until the last week before the race, weather forecast provided good news, after some rain, there were heavy snow on the way.

Now, no more excuses, we had to register. The elites of our team registered 51km races, and back to back (classic one day and skate the next). For me 15km was the limit of my ZUO . There were 4 in our group registered 15km classic skiing race.

On the race day, February 16th, we all placed ourselves in Wave B, for letting fast skiers go first.

Here is a video from my GoPro. Loppet 15km Classic Race

The guy at the front of me seemed professional. At the horn, every one pushed hard to get a quick start, but he was relaxed and moving slowly not until his ski crossed chip line. Then he dashed away between a narrow gap of two skiers, and I could see him flying away into cloud of skiers.

A little girl on my right tried hard to double poling  herself forward, such a nice young spirit and I wish her have a fun race that day.

I caught up with my friends now. Josie was ahead of me, Cheeling and TaoTao were on my right. The lady at their front moved slowly, and blocked their track. I asked Cheeling jump to my track but he did not want take the option. Every one had set to their own pace now, and just had to keep it until finish line.

The trail was all hilly up and up for the first 6km, some sections I had to use herringbone to walk up the hills.

Before I reached rest station, I saw Josie was on the other side of the trail, she already left the rest station. We cheered each other and kept going.

At the rest station, I drank one cup of warm water that volunteer handed over, and kept going. Now there was a long stretch of downhill, I expected moving fast and all the way to finish line. But the reality was different. The slop wasn’t steep enough and the speed wasn’t good. I have to double poll or diagonal stride most of the times during the downhill stretch. And I tried to hard that caused me fell once. No ZUO No Die, wasn’t it?

I thought the slop should be about 2km, but when I reached a mileage post, I found it only had a little more than one km. Still have 8km to go when my foot in sharp pain – nerve pain that was never cured for more than 10 years. I had to step out of the track and did some tow stretch with the boots on. Then back to the track again.

At 12km, I saw TaoTao rest at trail side. He got a cramp leg. Urge him do more hard stretch and I kept going.

One km left, but I felt sharp pain again. Knowing that I was unable to cross finish line with one leg not functioning, I stepped out track again. Then I saw TaoTao flying over, he conserved all his energy for the last 1km! Cheeling also came by smoothly, before my leg felt a bit better.

200m to go. I was told double poling to cross finish line for looking more professional. I did and, unfortunately, fell once more. Got up quickly, and did more double poling while I heard my name called in the announcement. I finished the race.

Greeted by friends and had photos with each other, my first international rase finished.  I was happy – if ZUO can bring you happiness, why not?

In the evening, we all sharing stories and teasing each other. Joyce was not a fan of cross country. She needs more exciting activities like downhill skiing or mountain biking. She decided to go for 5km snowshoe running the next day. I announced to join her so that she would not feel lonely at start line. Although I am a regular runner, but never run with snowshoes on. It meant ZUO once more to me!

Next day, we put on snowshoes and tried running small loops to familiar running with bigfoot. Then we stood at start line. 10km racers ran first. A few minutes later, that’s our 5km started with a long horn below.

Again I had my GoPro on during the run. Loppet 5km Snowshoe Run Race

Joyce had an incident a few steps away from start line, one of her snowshoes was off. While she tried to put snowshoe back, I had ran into wood. The trail was much steeper and narrower than ski trails. Running with snowshoes on were daunting. A girl at front of me kept running, even on up hills. I could catch her up during flat or downhill sections but always lagged behind on uphills – I walking up to hills for saving energy.

I passed a few during the first half of the race and then passed by others during the second half. Near finish line now, I heard friends cheering “Paul! Run, run faster, be strong!” but I could barely maintain my pace to the finish line.

I did not expect that the 5km was so hard, I was totally exhausted. Joyce came back later and she told us that her snowshoes got off involuntary twice, and almost happened again near finish line.

Game was over now, we 15 people, including two support persons, participated 18 races and all finished. We ZUOed again and we ZUOed together that made us all happy. On the way back to Cottage, I announced my blog title, by reversing the saying “No ZUO No Die”, I wanted to say “No ZUO No High”.