China Marathon Event in Columbus - Come One, Come All!

If you follow my blog or keep track of me on social media, then you know I was selected as a Columbus Marathon Ambassador to represent my city and run a marathon in Hefei, China this November. (Here's my blog about it.) Well, November is coming faster than you'd think!

The Main Event

The big news for now is that the Hefei Ambassador team (Avery, Courtney, Kristian, Will and me) is planning an event at Land-Grant Brewing Co. on Wednesday, October 18th - and you are invited! If you're local to Columbus, please come on out that night. Land-Grant will donate a percentage of sales to fund our travel.



Our event will include:
  • An optional pub run organized by Fleet Feet Sports, so bring your running shoes!
  • A silent auction - we have great prizes from local businesses
  • Raffles - we're doing both a prize raffle and a 50/50 cash raffle
  • A food truck, so you won't go hungry
Plus, you'll get the opportunity to interact with me and my fellow ambassadors to Hefei as we prepare the final arrangements for our trip. All while enjoying delicious craft beer from Land-Grant. Here's the Facebook event URL: https://www.facebook.com/events/120557468609750/.

If you can't make it to our event, there are still ways to help:
  • Business owners/managers - we're still accepting prizes for our silent auction and raffle; email us here.
  • Anyone - you can donate (tax-deductible) to Greater Columbus Sister Cities International on behalf of the Hefei Ambassador team; click here, select "Tickets" and choose the "Hefei Marathon Ambassadors-Group" option.
  • Close friends and family - you are welcome to sponsor me directly; just keep scrolling through the options until you see my name.

Other China Preparation

What else is going on with my trip to China? Next week I have two events to help prepare me for China:
  1. Global Fluency Training is a non-country specific session intended to improve travelers' cultural awareness. I've traveled quite a bit and I'm comfortable in various settings, but I couldn't turn down this free session offered to the Ambassadors.
  2. Hefei Training at the Columbus School of Chinese will help get us ready for the Sister City we'll be visiting as Columbus Marathon Ambassadors.

Hefei, China (image courtesy of Greater Columbus Sister Cities International)

Logistics-wise, I still need to book my flights! I needed to wait until I had my travel visa, and since I received it the prices have gone up. But my primary challenge is with trying to fly into one city and leave from another, and trying to add a stopover in Bangkok (to visit my friend Christine) on my way home. I need to figure this out right away.

The Ambassador team is still waiting on our itinerary for our time in Hefei. We know what days we will be there, but other than the marathon, we don't know our schedules. Other than the time in Hefei, I plan on spending a couple days in Beijing with a day-trip to the Great Wall. So I should look into tickets for the Great Wall trip and figure out exactly which sites I'll be visiting in Beijing. I need to do all the standard research I do before any trip; I just haven't been able to prioritize this yet.

Lots to do, little time! But I'm genuinely excited! I hope you can share in the festivities at Land-Grant on October 18th. I'll be sure to blog about it!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

2019 Hong Kong Marathon Race Report

2018 Running Recap

2018 Running Goals