It's the anual 50km hike tomorrow in hangzhou. Wish I could be there. I was never in a good enough shape to finish it though. The most I did was about 20 to 30 km. it was from 杨家牌楼 to 宋城. It took me half a day and I was exhausted at the end. Nowadays I only do one mile hike up the hill near my son's Chinese school. It's pretty steep and takes about an hour. Then I drive my son back home and head to the ping pong club for league play. I made sort of breakthrough last Sunday. I won my table, winning 3 matches and losing one. I got to move on to the next table this Sunday, playing against players with higher ratings. If I win one match, my rating would jump because it was very low compare to theirs. 

I beat the 9 year old girl again. She didn't cry this time. She was very courageous in the 4th. I was leading 2 games to 1 and 10 to 8 in the 4th with 2 serves coming up. She had trouble with my side spin serve all game. But she did well that time, winning both points and then the set. But I managed to win the last set. I am not holding back anymore. It's glove off time. I have a pretty strong smash. One time when the ball popped up, I stepped in to smash. I saw the girl stopped playing and tried to run for cover. I hit the ball as hard as I could nevertheless. 

One thing I realized was that nobody would respect you because you went easy on them. They would think they earned it and you were weak. Respect the game and my opponent. Give my best effort every time.