Yesterday’s Macau marathon was a very difficult one, as I mentioned in my last post. I knew in advance that it would not be easy, because I hardly trained for the event. But I did not expect it would be this hard. The combination of warm weather, a lot of wind, hills and bridges, and not enough sport drink and food along the road can be killing. And that the marathon course was not an easy one, as can also be seen from the winning time: the number one runner ‘only’ finished in 2:18. This afternoon I heard that in an article in today’s South China Morning Post the winner said that he trained in the mountains because he knew it would be a hilly course. I wish someone had told me in advance (or maybe not, I might have backed out :-).

The race started off pretty good. My dad and I managed to get into the first row at the start, right behind the invited athletes (mainly from Kenya, China and the DPRK). At the start they literally sprinted away, but we had decided not to burn a lot of energy right away and started at a pace just over 12 km/h. This worked well, and the first 5km we ran in 23:54. At the 10 km mark the clock was at 49:10, so we managed to keep a very steady pace (even though the inclines can slow you down a lot). The first hour we ran 12.2 km, and it all went quite easy. At the half marathon point (21.1 km) we clocked 1:44:44 and we both still felt quite energetic.

A few kilometers later the long bridge from Taipa to Macau suddenly seemed a lot higher than during the first round, but I managed to recover on the way down. I was very glad to get some water (the organization did not provide energy drinks, which is not smart in my opinion) at the 25 km point, but not far after that I suddenly felt very weak, all energy seemed to be gone. I did not know what hit me, but I had to walk a bit. After getting a sponge dipped in cold water my strength came back and I continued running, but not long after that the problem returned. I felt sick but did not want to give up of course. Luckily at 30 km there was another water post, where I drank about 1 liter of water. I then walked up the bridge (fast walking, not much slower than the runners) and on top I felt good again.

At that point I realized that I was probably dehydrated, but I still had 12 km to go, and it was only getting warmer in the full sun (not much shade on the route). But I never give up and so tried to continue running. At 33 km my wife was standing at the road side with a bottle of sport drink and a banana. That was the fuel I needed and within 2 minutes after drinking the bottle I felt much better and continued running. At the next water post (35 km) I had another liter of water and continued to run to the turning point at Macau airport. From there it was only 5 km to the finish line, and I knew I could do it. My dad kept on pushing me, which is what I needed. At that point your body is screaming to stop, everything hurts so much – your muscles, your feet, even your lungs – but you should focus on something else and try to forget about it. It is basically a test of will power, your mind should be stronger than your body.

My dad had calculated we could still finish within 4 hours and although I told him I did not want to think about that, in my mind I decided to go for that. So I blocked out the pain, and on the final kilometers we even managed to pass several other people. The final kilometer of the race was the longest of the whole marathon, but when we entered the stadium and I saw 3:57 on the clock I knew we had done it. One minute later we crossed the finish line together! I left the track almost immediately to cool off inside, while drinking another liter of water. But then the world suddenly started to turn and I had to hold on to the wall in order not to collapse. Because my dad and wife were still outside I decided to try to walk back to them, so that they could catch me in case I collapsed. I still managed to get onto a seat, where I ate a banana and drank a lot more water. That helped, and 20 minutes later I was feeling fine again. Well, fine is maybe not the right word, because my muscles were completely cramped and I could not even get up from my seat anymore. Today is even worse, without help I cannot get off the couch at home and in the office today I only climbed the stairs to the second floor twice (I only get can downstairs walking backwards very slowly).

But I am glad that I finished the race in a reasonable time, and even more happy that I could do this together with my dad. Thanks dad, it was a painful and tiring but nevertheless great experience!

Today my dad and I ran the Macau marathon. It was extremely difficult, especially for me. My dad is in a much better shape than me it seems, although he is 26 years older than me. Not only was the course quite diffucult (several steep inclines, including four times a high bridge plus a lot of wind), but I also had dehyrdation problems (I guess it was too warm for me, about 23 degrees), which was a a bit scary. But my dad managed to pull me through, and we both finished in 3:58:16. A new PR for me (last year in Shanghai I was one minute slower). My dad could have probably run it in 3:30 (his PR is below 3:30), but he stayed with me and pep-talked me into a below 4 hour-time. Right now the only thing I want to do is rest, so I keep the blog entry short and add some pictures to give an impression of the race.

Last weekend I was in Holland, and had lunch with my parents close to Amsterdam. During lunch we discussed about running a marathon, and about the fact that I could not participate in the Shanghai marathon (which was last Sunday, while I was not in Shanghai). My dad is also a runner, and we had planned to run a marathon together for a long time, but it never materialized.

Because I knew this weekend the Macau marathon would be organized, we tallked about this and decided right there to both fly to Macau (he from Amsterdam, myself from Shanghai) to run the full marathon there. Not sure if it’s a smart idea, because I have not trained enough (nor has my dad). But it was my goal to run one marathon a year, and if I have a goal I to stick to it.

So I am off to Macau later today. The marathon will start Sunday morning at 7 AM. Wish me luck !

The value of a marriage in the suburbs of Shanghai seems not to be worth more than USD 7000. At least, that is my conclusion after a funny story in today’s Shanghai Daily. In Luchao Harbour (in Shanghai’s Nanhui District) the authorities noted that in 2006 already more than 400 people had gotten divorced, although in 2005 the total was only about 100.

After some investigations they found that most people got married to someone from outside Shanghai right after their divorce. And these marriages in turn also did not last long. After divorcing again the original partners would get back together again and remarry. A very strange behaviour. But it turned out economic incentives were behind it.

It all started when a new town was planned to be built, and people had to relocate for that. However, if they did not have a local housing certificate they would not get an allowance to move. Because most people from outside Shanghai did not have this, the government decided that all non-Shanghainese would automatically get an allowance. So smart villagers figured out that if they divorced and married a non-Shanghainese they could earn some extra cash (about USD 7000, to be shared with the new spouse). And that’s what happened. Everybody participated, even a senile 91 year old whose family married her off to get an extra allowance. As the Shanghai Daily reported “she’s not even aware of her new husband’s last name”.

But the fun did not last long, because the government closed the loophole. Now marriages have to last at least 2 years before qualifiying for an allowance. One village lady had really bad luck. First she divorced her husband, married a non-local and divorced him again. But now she does not get the allowance anymore. And to make matters worse, her ex-husband now refuses to re-marry her!

A not-so-smart Chinese man read about the corruption scandal around Shanghai’s Party Secretary Chen Liangyu, and saw an opportunity to make some easy money. Many of the people around Chen have been detained because of financial malversations, and he (probably rightfully) assumed that many more would be involved. He decided to blackmail more than 100 Shanghai government officials, saying that he was part of the Party’s discipline commission and was going to investigate them. He wrote a letter saying that he knew the receiver was involved with the Party Secretary, and asked for money to be transferred into his bank account. And that was of course the weak link. None of the officials transferred money into his account, but the man was caught when he was checking his balance at an ATM near his home. He learned the hard way that you should not mess with the government in China – and certainly never provide them your bank account number.
(source: Shanghai Daily)

A Chinese student living in Japan managed to make 1.3 million USD over the past 9 months – with games. Not by participating in high-paying tournaments, but simply by selling in-game items (virtual products that can be used in games) on an auction site. According to this article he was not able to enjoy his riches long though: his student visa did not allow him to earn money in Japan so he ended up in jail… The good news is that once released he will be able to continue his work from China, because this kind of work can of course be done from anywhere in the world.

This week the winner of the Spill Group Game Award 2006 was announced during the Dutch Gaming Days. This year Pieter Visser and Nienke Veenendaal won the prize for the best flash game. They received EUR 20,000 for the webgame ‘Doordraaien’ (literally translated as ‘Keep on turning’) that they created especially for this competition. In the picture the very happy winners right after they received the award during the party in Utrecht’s Centraal Museum.

If you want to play the game you can find it here. Later we also plan to put the game on our Chinese portal game.com.cn.

During the past days I was among others in the Dutch city of Utrecht to attend the Nederlandse Gamedagen (Dutch Gaming Days), a two-day conference about gaming. Although most of what was discussed there is not relevant for this blog, I noted a few things that I would like to mention. One of the themes that was discussed during the conference was internationalization, something that really interests me. But the panel discussion was not what I expected from it.

Two Dutch game developers, a professor and two Americans that run a game studio in Holland, discussed the current and future trends of game development internationalization. These guys should be business people, but to me they sounded incredibly naive. Which countries do you think they see as a threat in terms of competition? Canada and France, not countries like China and India. And what should be done about that? The Dutch government should subsidize game developers so they can be more competitive… Come on guys, if you need subsidies you’d better close down your company and choose a different line of business.

China and India were mentioned, but they felt these countries are no threat. According to them companies there are not as creative, so they are no big danger. True, but things change incredibly fast. So don’t be fooled by believing this will stay like this. Furthermore, and this really made me laugh, they said that a 20-30% lower price in these countries would not be sufficient for game publishers to make their games there. First of all, 20-30% is a lot of money, and most business people would be very interested in finding a partner that can reduce their purchasing prices by this amount. But the fact is that prices in China are probably 50-60% lower than prices in Holland (and sometimes up to 80% lower – I know this from my own experience). There is no way Dutch game developers can survive in a price battle against China. Their argument that salaries in China are catching up fast is also totally wrong: of course salaries grow fast, but it will take decades to bring them at the same level.

If I look at Zlong Games (the company that was bought by Spill Group Asia a few months ago) for example, they produce at least the same quality products as the Dutch studios. But until now they were not very competitive in the international market. Because of cultural and language barriers, but also because they did not have the right contacts outside China. We put an experienced foreign sales manager in their company, and I am also helping them in their day-to-day business with foreign clients. The management of Zlong Games is very smart and learning incredibly fast, so they might not need me anymore one or two years from now. And that’s my goal of course, they should learn from us and then do it themselves. Their prices are much lower than what Dutch studios will ever be able to achieve, and they will stay much lower. And this is just one company (although a top one), I know many more that could achieve the same. Watch out Dutch game developers!