TRIP REPORT
RENO, NV
August 23 –28, 2002
Before you start this report I need you to do me (and you) a favor. Go to your bar or wherever you keep your booze and pour yourself a tall, cool drink. Got the drink? Good! Now take a good stiff drink and settle into your favorite chair. Comfy? OK let’s get started.
You need to relax and set the correct atmosphere/mood because I am going to ask you to start by going back in time. Pretend this is a Hollywood script. Your favorite chair is a time machine that not only moves you in time but also can move you to any location in the world. Have another drink and you will get the hang of it! Ready? Now push that time lever --- gently!!----because you only want to go back 20 years in time – precisely to Sunday, September 19, 1982. And set the location to Reno, NV or more precisely the Bower Mansion on Washoe Lake, about 20 miles south of Reno on Hwy 395. Are you there? No? Have another drink and try again!
Good! You finally made it. In front of you are many runners approaching the start line of a race --- ummm, let’s see – the banner says ‘ Silver State Marathon’. Try to pick out that middle-aged male runner over there on the right side of the start line – the one with blonde hair wearing a ‘Silver State Strider’ singlet with race number 324 pinned to the front. Got him? Good! Now we can begin Scene 1.
SCENE 1
The runner is a young 38 years old and looks fit. He appears nervous. He doesn’t know anyone at the start line and what’s probably more frightening is that he doesn’t know anything about running a marathon. It’s his first marathon and in his hometown. He only started running a few years ago to lose the weight he gained when he quit smoking. Running is just a recreational exercise to be done only in good weather a few days a week. Sure, he has run a few local short races in Reno –5 and 10Ks – but got discouraged with those short distances/races when his oldest son –only 11 years old and with no training – whomped his butt in a recent ‘Fathers and Sons’ 5-mile race! Perhaps he should concentrate on long distances? After all, he always feels his best and most comfortable when he does those long 8 to 10 mile runs on the weekend. There seems to be something relaxing and wonderful that kicks in after 4 or 5 miles?
But does that really explain what he is doing at the start line of a marathon? Is it destiny or just a manifestation of a mid-life crisis – trying to prove that 38 is not the end of his life (or manhood)? Surely running a marathon will prove to him and the world that he is still young and strong? Able to compete with the young bucks! Maybe that explains why all-of-a sudden he had announced to his family and friends only a few months earlier “I think I will run a marathon”. He had absolutely no idea how to train or indeed that special training was needed to run a marathon? So his training included increasing the number of daily runs and weekly mileage to 40 miles per week. Heck – he even ran two long runs of 18 miles! So now he is ready and standing at the start line for this new and great challenge in his life! He had either read or heard somewhere that a 3:30 marathon (8-minute pace) was recognized as a challenging/important target for most marathoners so that became his goal.
6am! The race starts– the adrenaline is flowing! The runner has decided to go out at a 7:30 pace to give himself lots of margin – after all, he does expect to slow down a bit in the last 10K! Due to inexperience he gets sucked into following the lead group and runs the first mile at a sub 7-minute pace but quickly realizes that he cannot stay with those runners and backs off. He crosses the Half in 1:38 – he is really doing great – right on schedule and still feeling OK. But he already recognizes that he might not be able to hold this pace to the finish so decides to back off to an 8-minute pace. By mile 18 the legs are beginning to feel rubbery and very heavy? It becomes a struggle and it is starting to hurt just to run an 8-minute pace? By mile 20 his legs feel like they weigh 1,000 pounds each and he can’t believe how much it hurts just to keep his legs moving at an unbelievably slow 9-minute pace? But he is tough and can handle this for another 6 miles!
However he is not prepared for the SOB who built an 8-foot high, 8-foot wide solid brick wall across the marathon course at 22 miles! And he runs smack-dab straight into it! This is his first experience with the ‘WALL’! It is not pleasant!
His body feels like it has been hit with a giant sledgehammer. He picks himself up and tries to continue. He must climb over that wall! He must finish! Quitting is not an option. His family is waiting for him at the finish line! His manhood is on the line! He tries to run again – not possible- his body shuts down and refuses to move! He tries to walk and run but the pain is excruciating and the fatigue unbearable! So he starts cursing and screaming at himself – “how could you do something so painful and stupid”. He tries to move his legs forward but it hurts too much. He is not a very religious person but he looks up to the skies and prays, “please, please God, just help me finish this race – ‘ALIVE’- and I promise that I will never do anything so stupid ever again”! He begins to walk – his body finally allows this simple motion without unbearable pain. Then he tries to run again but this only results in more excruciating pain and prayers. So goes the next few miles – take a step –scream a curse and say a prayer. Finally around 24 miles his body recovers enough that he can begin to walk and run – still lots of pain and curses with each step but prayers no longer needed. At 25 miles he realizes that if he can just manage to jog the last mile he can still finish under that ridiculous goal of 3:30. Why is that so important? More prayers and lots of curses are needed but he finally crosses the finish line in 3:28:34 to the loud and exuberant cheers of his family. His first comment after he passes through the finish chute is “ I will NEVER, EVER run another marathon as long as I live!”
He and his family enjoy the post-race activities. No award for such a slow time in the 30s age group but he does get to talk to a few experienced marathoners and listen to their conversations about ‘fartleks’, ‘tempo runs’, ‘track work’, etc. What are these strange words. He has never heard of these training activities? But those runners must plant some kind of inquisitive or competitive seed. For about two weeks later the runner is sitting at dinner with his family and he is probably more shocked/surprised than his about-to-become sports manager when he looks her straight in the eyes and these incredulous words come out of his mouth “ YOU KNOW, I THINK IF I TRAINED HARDER AND SMARTER I COULD RUN A MARATHON FASTER?”
OK readers – time to ease back on that time lever and return to the present in your favorite time chair/machine.
INTERMISSION!!!!!!!!!!!
Go back to the bar and pour another long, tall drink. I’ll give you a few minutes to get ready. Take another long hard pull on that drink. Comfy? Relaxed? Good? Time for Scene 2.
SCENE 2
Give that time lever just a slight tap because you only need to go back one week – to Sunday, August 25, 2002 – and the same location – Bower’s Mansion in Washoe Valley.
Look - there’s a group of runners approaching the start line of the ‘21st Silver State Marathon’. Can you spot our runner over there on the right side of the start line again? You know - the one with the blonde hair – only this time he is wearing a singlet with ’50 States Finisher’ on the back and race number 200 pinned to the front. Good – you have spotted him? By now you have guessed whom ‘the runner’ is and therefore I am going to switch my story telling to first person-present tense to better describe the action.
Yes, that is ‘moi’ standing at the same start line – but 20 years has passed since I first stood at this line. A lot has changed in those 20 years! Unlike you in your favorite time machine – I have aged 20 years! The hair is still blond but not as thick and plentiful. I am still in fairly good shape and, at 144 pounds, weigh 14 pounds less than I did at that first marathon. My face and body have a lot more wrinkles due to the 20 years and my body has acquired many scars and nagging aches and pains due to running injuries suffered over those 20 years. But the biggest changes are not visible or apparent. They are the psychological and physiological changes that have occurred within my body and mind. I am no longer that nervous and frightened novice runner. I have run another 198 marathons and countless shorter races since that first naive/inexperienced marathon. Today I am running marathon # 200 – I know what to do and what to expect!
But why am I here? After running marathons in all the states, all the provinces, all the continents and 55 countries – why did I come back to Reno for #200? Because of a few unique and special circumstances! As fate would have it, my 200th marathon is happening exactly 20 years after I ran that first marathon in Reno. Since I believe that those 20 years and 200 marathons have now brought me to a stage in life where the effects of age and associated physiological changes on the human body cause such a rapid degradation in physical and athletic limits/capabilities, I want/need to test or confirm where I am on that scale of life. To do a realistic and fair test I need to return to the place where it all started 20 years ago i.e. run the same marathon on the same course and hopefully under the same conditions.
To be honest I was not very confident that I would be able to match or beat my time in that first marathon. I had not announced this goal or ‘dream’ to anyone for fear that it would cause me to put too much stress and pressure on myself. All I would admit is that I wanted to run as close as possible to my original time. But as you know I trained very, very hard for this challenge/test. I am lucky to live in the mountains in the summer because that provides altitude training every day – but I ran ‘Fourteeners’ just for extra hill work and altitude training.
Thus when I walked up to that start line on Sunday morning I knew that I had trained as hard and as smart as I could for this challenge. The other main factors affecting the outcome of this race/challenge would be the course and the weather. Fortunately the ‘Weather Gods’ are kind to us and the temperature is a chilly 37 degrees at the 6am start – and there is no wind! The only potential problem is the course. It has changed slightly from the original course that I ran 20 years ago. My sports manager, a running friend (Edson, who had flown out from NYC just to run the race and help me celebrate my 200th) and I had driven the course on Saturday - or at least we tried to! The original course had followed a paved road around Washoe Lake – the new course follows the same road but the race director has taken about 6 to 7 miles off road. I overheard a local runner say that the off-road sections were dirt trails. That should be OK?
As I stand at the start line with Edson I decide that if I want to achieve my secret or dream goal that I will have to go out as hard as I can and run right on the edge of my physical limits until I either cross the finish line or crash and burn in flames – whichever comes first. This is no time to be conservative!
6am. Bower’s Mansion (elevation 5,050 ft). The race starts. I go out behind the lead pack and they drag me through the first 3 miles –uphill- in 23.04. (7:41 pace) Miles 4 and 5 are flat and fast but then we hit the first off-road section – OH DAMN! There are two miles of sand trails running along the lake and anyone who has run along a beach knows how difficult it is to run on sand. Because my feet sink into the sand and I cannot get good traction I continue to expend the same amount of energy but my pace slows to 8 minutes/mile. At 7 miles the course emerges back on to the pavement and my pace drops back down to the 7:40s until mile 11 when the course turns off-road again. We are now faced with 4 torturous miles of sand trails and roads and my pace slows to 8:05s and 8:10s and I am pushing as hard as I can! This really sucks! I pass the Half in 1:41 and change. In spite of the torturous, sucking sand my overall pace is OK. But I know that I cannot run this same time in the second Half.
Finally we emerge back on to wonderful, black pavement at mile 15. Because I know that the toughest hill on the course is located at Mile 20 and that will certainly cost me time, I feel that I must push the pace through the next 5 miles to bank some more minutes. I know it is risky but I push the pace back down to 7:40s and 7:50s and I catch 3 runners over the next 5 miles. As I pass mile 20 in 2:37:25 I close in on another runner who looks like he might be in my age group and we use each other to push ourselves up that hill. The hill climbs 200 vertical feet over the next mile to the highest point of the course (5,250ft) but it feels like Mt Everest. We crest the hill at Mile 21 in 8:31 – my slowest mile split! Thank goodness that there is a water/aid station at the top of that hill because it gives me an excuse/opportunity to slow down while I swallow another carbo gel and wash it down with some water. I try to let my body recover as we enjoy a short downhill before attacking the last hill – a small one- at mile 22. My age group competitor cannot recover and I pass him on that final uphill and reach mile 22 in 2:54:08. A quick calculation determines that if I can run an 8-minute pace to the finish line that I will just barely beat my original time. But can I do that? My body is crying out in pain and fatigue – it wants to slow down!
That is not acceptable – the margin is too close! I therefore decide to take a huge risk that I would seldom ever take at this point in a marathon – I decide to make an all-out push over the last 4 miles to the finish line! My hear rate soars to 93% Max as I lower the pace to 7:36 over the next mile – my fastest mile split so far. My body is now screaming at me in pain but I must ignore it for 3 more miles so I continue to push --- until we hit a final ½ mile of sand trail! I am so pissed at the race director. Why would he do this crap at this point in a marathon? “Quit whining - everyone else has to run the same crap”! But not everyone is trying to achieve my goal!
Finally I emerge from that soft, sucking sand from Hell at Mile 24 on to a paved road that runs straight and flat to the finish line. I ignore the screams and pleas coming from my exhausted and pain–ridden body and drop the pace back down to 7:50s. I can smell the finish line and I will not be denied! I reach mile 25 in 3:16:56 – one more mile to go! But my body is now telling me that it has used up all readily available energy and there is nothing left. That means that it has to break down fat and muscle tissue for energy but that process is slow and therefore it cannot support a fast pace and I must slow down. No! No! No! That is not acceptable. I have come too far, endured too much pain and I am too close to success. I cannot – I WILL NOT be denied! I WILL NOT concede defeat and slow down!
But what can I do? In desperation I send an urgent plea to ----- the Maddog! HELP ME!
Maddog comes immediately to my rescue and begins screaming his favorite motivational speech “PAIN IS ONLY TEMPORARY – MEMORIES ARE FOREVER”! “ Now get your lazy, tired ass moving”! I will never truly understand how Maddog did it but I believe he used a special mixture of willpower, adrenaline and energy fumes to bump my heart rate up to 97% Max and push my pain-ridden, totally exhausted, old body through the final mile in 7:31 – my fastest mile of the race. But it was without a doubt the longest and most painful mile that I have ever raced in my entire life. However when I reach mile 26 in 3:24:27 and can see the finish line and the finish clock the excitement and exhilaration of sweet success completely overwhelm the pain and fatigue and my mind and body seem to slip into another zone or ‘dream dimension’ and ‘float’ along the final corridor of 285 yards. Now I can read the finish clock –3:25 and something. My mind thinks “Gee that is such a nice sounding number - 3:25 – that has to be our finish time”. Somehow that ‘dream mind’ forces the ‘dream body’ to accelerate into sprint mode and we all continue to float the final 100 yards and cross the finish line together in 3:25:57!
Then – BANG! The dream dimension suddenly vanishes and reality returns instantly. I find myself about three feet across the finish line with a body racked in pain and no energy to move. Not one single step more. In fact if breathing weren’t involuntary that function would stop also! Fortunately a race volunteer recognizes that I am in trouble and grabs and supports me through the finish chute. When we reach the end of the chute and another volunteer puts the finisher’s medal around my neck there is another immediate transformation. The pain and fatigue begin to fade rapidly to be replaced by a sweet memory. Life /fate had presented me with a golden opportunity – with a special set of circumstances to come full circle in my running life/career and test the capabilities and experience of my old bod and mind against the performance of that same body when it was 20 years younger. And I had responded successfully with one of the best running performances of my life! Yesirrrreeeeeeeeee – the Maddog was right. I will cherish this sweet memory forever!
But now it is time to get some recovery fluids into me and go back to the finish line and wait for my friend Edson. I expect Edson to finish under 4 hours but he runs into problems and wisely decides to take it easy and jog across the finish line in 4:13.
We then decide to check the results board. I am surprised but not disappointed to learn that I only place 3rd in my age group (50 –59). There are lots of good runners from the Bay area and Sacramento running the marathon and two youngsters (50 and 53 years old) from the Bay area place 1st and 2nd. The age group awards are solid silver medallions minted at the Nevada City Mint so I decide that I will wait around for my award. I plan to put together a special memento of the race and want to include the medallion.
So #200 is now history and happily a sweet memory.
But unfortunately this is still not the end of this report. For I would be remiss (and in a lot of trouble) if I forgot to report and emphasize that there was a more important event happening during this trip – our 35th wedding anniversary on Aug 26th! So my lovely bride/sports manager and I traveled up to Lake Tahoe for a few days after the marathon to relax and celebrate our anniversary. No details on that part of the trip except for the following comments on Reno and Tahoe. Reno has grown and changed significantly (for the worse) but fortunately Tahoe seems to be in a time warp and has changed very little in the 23 years since we first visited there.
Now you will be happy to hear:
THE END!
John aka Maddog
P.S. Thanks for taking this trip down memory lane with me.
Thursday, August 29, 2002
Monday, August 05, 2002
RR Alaska
Trip Report
Juneau, Alaska
Aug 1-4, 2002
I mentioned at the end of my last marathon report (Denver- June 9th) that I was still trying to decide where marathon #199 would be. Since #200 was cast in concrete for Reno, NV on Aug 25th I needed a race in early August. I wanted/needed a road race to tune the old bod a few weeks before #200. There were a few marathons in CO in late July but they were trail races and they are not the same as a road race. So it came down to two possible marathons – my first choice was Nuuk, Greenland on Aug 3rd. However we had left it too late and when I tried to make reservations with the tour agency the only flights available required a one-week stay in Greenland. Sorry – ‘been there, done that’!
My sports manager and I spent 5 lonnnnnnnggggggggg days in Nanisivik on Baffin Island (500 miles above the Arctic Circle in Canada) in 1997. That four-day tour was lengthened to 5 days due to weather and those 5 days felt like 5 MONTHS by the time the plane finally lifted off the ground. No way we were going to spend a week in Greenland! So I asked the travel agent to put us on the wait list for next year and to book a 3-day trip only!
Plan B or 2nd choice was the Frank Maier Marathon in Juneau, Alaska also on Aug 3rd.
This choice provided a number of benefits: a) I needed a second marathon in Alaska as I make my way around the 50 states for the second time b) I still had enough air miles in an old Alaska Air account from business days for a free ticket and c) I was able to schedule a layover in Seattle on the return trip to spend some time with our son Chris.
So Alaska it was for #199! Unfortunately my sports manager was not able to accompany me because I only had enough miles for one free ticket. But we had already visited Juneau on an Alaska cruise in 93 and for anyone who has been to Juneau, you know that there is not a lot to visit? I had obviously forgotten that fact myself as I arrived in Juneau on Thursday afternoon – 2 days before the race! I rented a car on Friday to check out the city and area. Juneau is the state capitol and is a land-locked harbor. The only way in and out is by plane or ferry! There is a highway that runs from Thane, about 5 miles south of the city to Echo Cove, about 40 miles north of the city. It dead-ends at both locations and there are no roads /highways going east to Canada because that region is blocked by the Juneau Icefield that covers more than 5,000 square miles!
To the west of Juneau lies Douglas Island across a very narrow Gastineau Channel. This region is all part of the ‘Inside Passage’ and the Alexander Archipelago that is frequented by the cruise ships. The scenery is quite spectacular since the region is a temperate rain forest with 90+ inches of rain per year and mountains rise almost straight out of the seas/oceans to heights of 6,000 feet. And then there is the Juneau Icefield with more than 140 valley glaciers flowing down from it. One of the larger and more accessible glaciers is the Mendenhall Glacier, only a few miles from Juneau.
After I had driven all 45 miles of paved highway I crossed over to Douglas Island and drove all 15 miles of paved road there – of which the marathon course used 13.1 miles for an out-and-back route. In all, with the city streets and the road to the Mendenhall Glacier there may be 100 miles of roads in Juneau and the surrounding area. But there are more than 260 miles of trails for hiking/biking etc so at least they have their priorities straight. But what to do now? I had driven almost every inch of paved road? I drove downtown, parked and set out to explore on foot.
One hour later I had covered every major street downtown and visited every tourist shop on the two main shopping streets. The only thing I remembered from our previous trip was the ‘Red Dog Saloon’ – an old saloon that sits strategically on the edge of downtown and is the first bar the cruise passengers see when approaching the shops. Juneau gets 4 or 5 cruise ships each day that drop off 5000+ passengers to spend money. And the prices reflect that easy economy. I noticed mountain-type items that we had purchased here in Summit County to furnish our home – they were marked up an additional 100% over the high prices we pay in the High Country! Needless to say I bought nothing except for my customary souvenir postcards. And I had had enough of those crazy cruise passengers/tourists!
I left the city and drove out to the Mendenhall Glacier. On our cruise we had taken an optional helicopter tour to the Glacier where we landed on the Glacier and then our kamikaze, ex-Vietnam copter pilot pretended he was ‘Luke Skywalker’ and buzzed down and between the crevasses in the Glacier. Some of the crevasses are 800 feet deep and very narrow so it was a very terrifying but thrilling ride. I still have a video of that exciting tour! But now I had only my feet so I hiked about 2 miles into the Glacier from the Visitor’s Center. Alaska was experiencing a heat wave with temperatures in the mid 70s and the locals were swimming in Mendenhall Lake at the foot of the Glacier to escape from the heat? And they actually looked like they were enjoying it and having fun as icebergs floated by? BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was wishing that I had brought shorts but there was no way in Hell that I would have even put a toe in that water!
But now it was time for the usual pasta dinner and a good night’s sleep for an early race. I was upset and disappointed that I could not enjoy an all-you-can-eat Halibut and Crab Feast that a local restaurant was holding! Damn – I love halibut and crab!
Saturday was M-Day. The race started at 7am at Sandy Beach on Douglas Island. As I stated earlier the course was an out-and-back route than ran to the north end of the island and back. The road was very hilly and ran along the Gastineau Channel and overlooked the city and eventually the Mendenhall Glacier. There were only 30 runners in the Marathon (20 from out-of-state) and about 100 runners in the Half. The weather was cloudy and 50 degrees. All the locals were telling us how lucky we were this year – last year it poured for the whole race! Since the race was so small there were no age group awards – just Open and Masters Divisions. I figured that I had virtually no chance for an award but still wanted to place well in my age group.
At 7am we were off – all 30 of us since the Half started later. The race started at sea level and since I had driven the course the day before I figured the highest hill/point was no more than 200 feet above sea level – but there were a LOT of hills! There were maybe 6 miles of flat and 20 miles of hills! I took off with the lead pack and tried to stay with them because I thought that there were at least two runners in that pack that were in my age group. At the end of the first mile (uphill) they were running about a 7:45 pace and I knew I couldn’t hold that pace for 26 miles of hills so I backed off to an 8-minute pace and just tried to keep them in sight. At the 10-mile mark I was right on an 8-minute pace and I noticed that one of my age-group competitors had started to fall back from the lead pack. I managed to close in on him by 12 miles and passed him going up a hill to the turn-around point at 13 miles. I passed the Half a few seconds under 1:45 but I didn’t believe that I could hold that pace through those hills again on the second half?
And as I was running back down that hill my competitor/soon-to-be-friend passed me back! It didn’t take long for both of us to realize that the race was turning into a friendly but serious competition between the two of us. Might as well get acquainted! Andy was 53, had lived in Juneau for over 20 years, retired from a government job a year ago and started a part-time bike repair business so that he would have more time to ski in the winter and bike, hike, run and fish in the summer! My kind of guy – had his priorities straight! We continued this back-and- forth lead – I would pass him on the uphills and he would pass me on the downhills – for the next 5 miles. At mile 18 Andy made his move and surged ahead. I decided it was too early in the race to lower the hammer – heck the race doesn’t even start until 20 miles! Reluctantly I had to let him go but I did pick up the pace enough to keep him in sight.
As I passed the 20-mile mark I had slowed to about an 8:15 pace but still felt OK. At that point we also reached the turn-around point for the Half Marathon race. That race had started at 9am so now the Half-marathon runners who were running a 7 to 8-minute pace were reaching their turn-around point. I found this situation to be very confusing and discouraging because we now had several runners coming at us and then blowing by us. I am struggling to hold an 8:15 pace and runners are blowing by so fast that I have to look at my feet to see if they are still moving? However it seemed to have a positive effect on Andy. Unfortunately he seemed to get invigorated by the faster runners and picked up the pace. At that point I figured that there was no way I would ever be able to catch him.
However by mile 22, I noticed that I was closing the gap and I had not picked up the pace – yet! He had to be tiring and slowing down. Now I did pick up the pace! By mile 23, I had drawn within a few hundred feet and we had both passed the other runner in our age group that had been in the lead pack. By my recollection we were now competing for 1st place in our age group.
But I had to be smart. I knew that if and when I passed him he would respond and it would become a battle to the finish line. Fortunately I knew the course. Mile 24 was a slight uphill and mile 25 was a long difficult uphill followed by a fast downhill mile to the finish line. I decided to pick up the pace just enough on mile 24 to close within 10 feet of Andy as we approached the bottom of the hill to start mile 25. Then I surged and charged up that hill in 7:57. As I crested the hill I was too scared to waste time looking back – I knew that Andy would be coming! So I asked the Maddog to draw on every once of energy left in the old bod and I continued to push on that last downhill. The old bod came through with the fastest mile of the race –a 7:37 and I crossed the finish line in 3:32:53. As soon as I had handed in my race tag and collected my finisher’s medal I returned to the finish chute to greet my new friend and congratulate and thank him for a great race! He was very gracious and conceded that when I blew by him on that last uphill he had tried to respond but couldn’t and had to coast in. We were both surprised and pleased to learn that only one youngster (43 years old) in the Masters Group had preceded us so that we both had placed and trophied.
There was lots of food including a BBQ after the race but I can’t look at food for several hours and the awards were supposed to be presented at a post-race party at a pizza joint that evening so I decided to return to the hotel for a hot bath. I did attend the party that evening to meet some more of the runners and enjoy some of the great local microbrews.
One of the race volunteers had taken hundreds of pictures throughout the race and these were offered to all the runners. Turned out that they had presented the awards at the finish line but a volunteer drove home to get my award for me. I was happy and pleased with the organization and hospitality of the local running club and its members. They even recommended a great restaurant where I went that evening to finally enjoy my feast of Halibut before leaving Alaska.
On Sunday I caught an early flight home via Seattle. Chris picked me up at the airport in Seattle and we went for breakfast. He is somewhat down in the dumps because he broke his left shoulder a few weeks back during a 100-mile bike race and now he has been relegated to ‘couch potato’ status. I can easily understand his frustration but fortunately he is still young and can rehabilitate quickly. It was great spending some time with him.
But now it is back to more hills and probably at least one more run up a 14er to get ready for #200 in three weeks. Stay tuned for the next report.
Juneau, Alaska
Aug 1-4, 2002
I mentioned at the end of my last marathon report (Denver- June 9th) that I was still trying to decide where marathon #199 would be. Since #200 was cast in concrete for Reno, NV on Aug 25th I needed a race in early August. I wanted/needed a road race to tune the old bod a few weeks before #200. There were a few marathons in CO in late July but they were trail races and they are not the same as a road race. So it came down to two possible marathons – my first choice was Nuuk, Greenland on Aug 3rd. However we had left it too late and when I tried to make reservations with the tour agency the only flights available required a one-week stay in Greenland. Sorry – ‘been there, done that’!
My sports manager and I spent 5 lonnnnnnnggggggggg days in Nanisivik on Baffin Island (500 miles above the Arctic Circle in Canada) in 1997. That four-day tour was lengthened to 5 days due to weather and those 5 days felt like 5 MONTHS by the time the plane finally lifted off the ground. No way we were going to spend a week in Greenland! So I asked the travel agent to put us on the wait list for next year and to book a 3-day trip only!
Plan B or 2nd choice was the Frank Maier Marathon in Juneau, Alaska also on Aug 3rd.
This choice provided a number of benefits: a) I needed a second marathon in Alaska as I make my way around the 50 states for the second time b) I still had enough air miles in an old Alaska Air account from business days for a free ticket and c) I was able to schedule a layover in Seattle on the return trip to spend some time with our son Chris.
So Alaska it was for #199! Unfortunately my sports manager was not able to accompany me because I only had enough miles for one free ticket. But we had already visited Juneau on an Alaska cruise in 93 and for anyone who has been to Juneau, you know that there is not a lot to visit? I had obviously forgotten that fact myself as I arrived in Juneau on Thursday afternoon – 2 days before the race! I rented a car on Friday to check out the city and area. Juneau is the state capitol and is a land-locked harbor. The only way in and out is by plane or ferry! There is a highway that runs from Thane, about 5 miles south of the city to Echo Cove, about 40 miles north of the city. It dead-ends at both locations and there are no roads /highways going east to Canada because that region is blocked by the Juneau Icefield that covers more than 5,000 square miles!
To the west of Juneau lies Douglas Island across a very narrow Gastineau Channel. This region is all part of the ‘Inside Passage’ and the Alexander Archipelago that is frequented by the cruise ships. The scenery is quite spectacular since the region is a temperate rain forest with 90+ inches of rain per year and mountains rise almost straight out of the seas/oceans to heights of 6,000 feet. And then there is the Juneau Icefield with more than 140 valley glaciers flowing down from it. One of the larger and more accessible glaciers is the Mendenhall Glacier, only a few miles from Juneau.
After I had driven all 45 miles of paved highway I crossed over to Douglas Island and drove all 15 miles of paved road there – of which the marathon course used 13.1 miles for an out-and-back route. In all, with the city streets and the road to the Mendenhall Glacier there may be 100 miles of roads in Juneau and the surrounding area. But there are more than 260 miles of trails for hiking/biking etc so at least they have their priorities straight. But what to do now? I had driven almost every inch of paved road? I drove downtown, parked and set out to explore on foot.
One hour later I had covered every major street downtown and visited every tourist shop on the two main shopping streets. The only thing I remembered from our previous trip was the ‘Red Dog Saloon’ – an old saloon that sits strategically on the edge of downtown and is the first bar the cruise passengers see when approaching the shops. Juneau gets 4 or 5 cruise ships each day that drop off 5000+ passengers to spend money. And the prices reflect that easy economy. I noticed mountain-type items that we had purchased here in Summit County to furnish our home – they were marked up an additional 100% over the high prices we pay in the High Country! Needless to say I bought nothing except for my customary souvenir postcards. And I had had enough of those crazy cruise passengers/tourists!
I left the city and drove out to the Mendenhall Glacier. On our cruise we had taken an optional helicopter tour to the Glacier where we landed on the Glacier and then our kamikaze, ex-Vietnam copter pilot pretended he was ‘Luke Skywalker’ and buzzed down and between the crevasses in the Glacier. Some of the crevasses are 800 feet deep and very narrow so it was a very terrifying but thrilling ride. I still have a video of that exciting tour! But now I had only my feet so I hiked about 2 miles into the Glacier from the Visitor’s Center. Alaska was experiencing a heat wave with temperatures in the mid 70s and the locals were swimming in Mendenhall Lake at the foot of the Glacier to escape from the heat? And they actually looked like they were enjoying it and having fun as icebergs floated by? BBBBRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was wishing that I had brought shorts but there was no way in Hell that I would have even put a toe in that water!
But now it was time for the usual pasta dinner and a good night’s sleep for an early race. I was upset and disappointed that I could not enjoy an all-you-can-eat Halibut and Crab Feast that a local restaurant was holding! Damn – I love halibut and crab!
Saturday was M-Day. The race started at 7am at Sandy Beach on Douglas Island. As I stated earlier the course was an out-and-back route than ran to the north end of the island and back. The road was very hilly and ran along the Gastineau Channel and overlooked the city and eventually the Mendenhall Glacier. There were only 30 runners in the Marathon (20 from out-of-state) and about 100 runners in the Half. The weather was cloudy and 50 degrees. All the locals were telling us how lucky we were this year – last year it poured for the whole race! Since the race was so small there were no age group awards – just Open and Masters Divisions. I figured that I had virtually no chance for an award but still wanted to place well in my age group.
At 7am we were off – all 30 of us since the Half started later. The race started at sea level and since I had driven the course the day before I figured the highest hill/point was no more than 200 feet above sea level – but there were a LOT of hills! There were maybe 6 miles of flat and 20 miles of hills! I took off with the lead pack and tried to stay with them because I thought that there were at least two runners in that pack that were in my age group. At the end of the first mile (uphill) they were running about a 7:45 pace and I knew I couldn’t hold that pace for 26 miles of hills so I backed off to an 8-minute pace and just tried to keep them in sight. At the 10-mile mark I was right on an 8-minute pace and I noticed that one of my age-group competitors had started to fall back from the lead pack. I managed to close in on him by 12 miles and passed him going up a hill to the turn-around point at 13 miles. I passed the Half a few seconds under 1:45 but I didn’t believe that I could hold that pace through those hills again on the second half?
And as I was running back down that hill my competitor/soon-to-be-friend passed me back! It didn’t take long for both of us to realize that the race was turning into a friendly but serious competition between the two of us. Might as well get acquainted! Andy was 53, had lived in Juneau for over 20 years, retired from a government job a year ago and started a part-time bike repair business so that he would have more time to ski in the winter and bike, hike, run and fish in the summer! My kind of guy – had his priorities straight! We continued this back-and- forth lead – I would pass him on the uphills and he would pass me on the downhills – for the next 5 miles. At mile 18 Andy made his move and surged ahead. I decided it was too early in the race to lower the hammer – heck the race doesn’t even start until 20 miles! Reluctantly I had to let him go but I did pick up the pace enough to keep him in sight.
As I passed the 20-mile mark I had slowed to about an 8:15 pace but still felt OK. At that point we also reached the turn-around point for the Half Marathon race. That race had started at 9am so now the Half-marathon runners who were running a 7 to 8-minute pace were reaching their turn-around point. I found this situation to be very confusing and discouraging because we now had several runners coming at us and then blowing by us. I am struggling to hold an 8:15 pace and runners are blowing by so fast that I have to look at my feet to see if they are still moving? However it seemed to have a positive effect on Andy. Unfortunately he seemed to get invigorated by the faster runners and picked up the pace. At that point I figured that there was no way I would ever be able to catch him.
However by mile 22, I noticed that I was closing the gap and I had not picked up the pace – yet! He had to be tiring and slowing down. Now I did pick up the pace! By mile 23, I had drawn within a few hundred feet and we had both passed the other runner in our age group that had been in the lead pack. By my recollection we were now competing for 1st place in our age group.
But I had to be smart. I knew that if and when I passed him he would respond and it would become a battle to the finish line. Fortunately I knew the course. Mile 24 was a slight uphill and mile 25 was a long difficult uphill followed by a fast downhill mile to the finish line. I decided to pick up the pace just enough on mile 24 to close within 10 feet of Andy as we approached the bottom of the hill to start mile 25. Then I surged and charged up that hill in 7:57. As I crested the hill I was too scared to waste time looking back – I knew that Andy would be coming! So I asked the Maddog to draw on every once of energy left in the old bod and I continued to push on that last downhill. The old bod came through with the fastest mile of the race –a 7:37 and I crossed the finish line in 3:32:53. As soon as I had handed in my race tag and collected my finisher’s medal I returned to the finish chute to greet my new friend and congratulate and thank him for a great race! He was very gracious and conceded that when I blew by him on that last uphill he had tried to respond but couldn’t and had to coast in. We were both surprised and pleased to learn that only one youngster (43 years old) in the Masters Group had preceded us so that we both had placed and trophied.
There was lots of food including a BBQ after the race but I can’t look at food for several hours and the awards were supposed to be presented at a post-race party at a pizza joint that evening so I decided to return to the hotel for a hot bath. I did attend the party that evening to meet some more of the runners and enjoy some of the great local microbrews.
One of the race volunteers had taken hundreds of pictures throughout the race and these were offered to all the runners. Turned out that they had presented the awards at the finish line but a volunteer drove home to get my award for me. I was happy and pleased with the organization and hospitality of the local running club and its members. They even recommended a great restaurant where I went that evening to finally enjoy my feast of Halibut before leaving Alaska.
On Sunday I caught an early flight home via Seattle. Chris picked me up at the airport in Seattle and we went for breakfast. He is somewhat down in the dumps because he broke his left shoulder a few weeks back during a 100-mile bike race and now he has been relegated to ‘couch potato’ status. I can easily understand his frustration but fortunately he is still young and can rehabilitate quickly. It was great spending some time with him.
But now it is back to more hills and probably at least one more run up a 14er to get ready for #200 in three weeks. Stay tuned for the next report.
Saturday, June 29, 2002
RR Aspen Grove Trail Half
Race Report
Aspen Grove Trail Race
Aspen, CO
13.1 miles
June 29/02
As I had informed y'all in earlier reports I decided to run this race just to stay in shape for my upcoming 199th marathon. The race offered both a Half and full Marathon but I was limited to the Half; otherwise it would mess up my marathon schedule.My sports manager and I left Summit County early Friday morning so that we would arrive in Aspen early afternoon which would give us some time to explore the resort town. We took the short cut via Leadville and up over Independence Pass. This is a very pretty but scary drive!The road over Independence Pass is a narrow, two-lane road that twists and turns with many switchbacks - and no guard rails - as it climbs more than 4,000 feet to the top of the pass at 12,000+ feet. The scenery is spectacular but the drive is scary. One little mistake and the car would not stop rolling or flipping for about 2,000 feet! We made it safely and in fact I didn't seem to be as scared as the last trip over the pass. Maybe all these trail and mountain runs are helping me overcome my fear of heights?The drive down into Aspen is not as spectacular and soon we were in the resort village. We had spent an afternoon in Aspen a few years back but had never really explored the resort town so now was our opportunity. It didn't take us long to determine that we did not like it! It is a nice town, very picturesque, clean and meticulously groomed but there is a haughty, snaughty attitude that permeates everything. Example - there are only two gas stations in the town - both built to blend in with the old Victorian architecture of the town. Maybe that is why gas cost $2/gal? Gimme a break! I thought we were being screwed in Summit County paying $1.35/gal? A hotel in town costs $200+ per night - I had to search on the net to find a hotel on the edge of town for $125. As we were passing one of the many art galleries in town I noticed a Marc Chagell in the window - I didn't go in to ask the price! And finally real estate - from what I could determine our Summit townhome is worth about $1.5 Million in Aspen! Sorry - even if I had the money I wouldn't enjoy living in Aspen!But then we weren't there to buy a home - but to run a race. I also had a second agenda. I was hoping to run one or two of the 14ers that are close to Aspen. So I visited one of the mountaineer shops in town to gather information on the Maroon Bells. There are two peaks: the Maroon Peak (14,156ft) and the North Maroon Peak (14,014 ft). I was hoping to run both on Sunday if my legs and body were not too beat up by the race on Saturday? Well the manger of the store, an experienced climber who had climbed both peaks many times, cured me of that silly notion quickly. He warned/advised me that the saddle between the two peaks was extremely difficult and dangerous and that I should not attempt it without climbing gear and experience! But he did feel that I could run/climb the Maroon Peak and showed me the safest and esaiest way up. Later that day Nicole and I drove out to the park and trailhead for the Maroon Peaks and I must admit - they are awesome and INTIMIDATING! The last 1,000 vertical feet are ragged rock cliffs that seem to go straight up? I would have to wait and see how my legs felt after the race - I definitely was not going to attempt that run/climb on tired legs!Now back to the purpose of the trip and report - The Aspen Grove Trail Race. After treating my sports manager to a Happy Hour drink and the usual pasta dinner we found the race registration and packet pick up. I confirmed, after talking to a few runners, that the race was indeed challenging as advertised and that there were only three aid/water stations which meant I needed to carry water with me. The start time had changed from 8:30 am to 9am which would make it harder for those of us with early check-out times at the hotel. The race director kind of worried me when he advised all runners to purchase 'National Park Rescue Insurance' that provided for helicopter rescue and extraction from the mountains? But I figured since I had survived the Pike's Peak and Breckenridge Crest Marathons that I could make it out on my own?Saturday - Race day! I lined up at the start with another 130 runners (only 15 in the marathon). The course was a half-marathon loop - the marathoners got to do it twice. I was already thankful that I had been forced to register only for the Half! The race started about 10 minutes late. I already had a time crunch. Check-out at the hotel was 11am but I had asked for a one-hour extension. I needed to run this race under 2:30 to get back to the hotel in time? Wer'e off! The course started at the Aspen Art Museum (7900 ft) and immediately turned on to the Hunter Creek Trail - and proceeded to climb 900 feet over the next two miles on a rocky, treacherous single-track trail. It was impossible to run all of this section because of the steep grades and rocks. I followed the tail end of the lead pack and reached the two-mile mark in 26 minutes! The course then flattened out at 8,800 feet out for about 1/2 mile as it crossed the meadows of the Hunter Creek Valley. I almost got lost along this section as I missed a turn. The course/trail was marked with pink ribbons - there were no support staff nor mile markers to direct the runners. Fortunately a female runner behind me shouted at me and I back-tracked to follow her.I continued to follow her as the course climbed 1,500 feet over the next 2 1/2 miles to 10,300 feet to the Four Corners region on Red Mountain overlooking Aspen on one side and the Maroon Bells on the other.That female runner was a good trail runner. She ran that whole 2 1/2 mile climb without walking once! I had to resort to my usual power walk/run technique but I somehow manged to stay with her. When we crested that trail/hill the course turned on to a 4X4 logging road that traversed Red Mountain. 2nd water stop - about 5 miles into the race. I thought that I would overtake my female guide/runner on that dirt road but she would not let me pass her. And then we turned on to another single track trail that ran through a few miles of Aspen groves (hence the name of the race). It was very pretty but I was only able to steal a few glances because I was too afraid to take my eyes off the trail. There were too may rocks, stumps and roots waiting to trip one up if you didn't focus constantly on where your feet were. It was impossible to pass her on that trail so I decided just to continue to follow her.However the trail then started to drop and it almost seemed like magic, but POOF- she was gone! I couldn't believe that she had left my sorry old ass behind so quickly. I became concerned that I had missed another turn in the trail - surely I should be able to catch a glimpse of her ahead? Finally after about 1/2 mile I saw another pink ribbon which meant I was on the correct trail. I had to face the fact/truth - she had left my sorry old ass in the dust as soon as the trail has started downhill because she was a much better trail runner than I am (or ever will be!).Soon the trail emerged from the Aspens and began the truly horrendous descent that we had been warned about. The trail dropped more than 2,000 feet over the next two miles - on single track trail that was rocky and covered with layers of dry, slippery dirt/dust. I was actually afraid! I had my quads on full brake force and I was still losing control on some of the switchbacks! Every once in awhile there would be a short section that looked manageable and I would let my stride lenghten out to take the stress off the quads but I would soon be out of control and screaming at myself to slow down! I finally decided that I had to stop and walk -downhill- at certain times just to maintain control and relieve the stress/pain from my quads! About half-way down that section of the course I had to move aside and let some other runners blow on by. They were going hell-bent-for-leather and completely out of control. At that point I concluded that you must pass two important tests to become a GOOD trail runner:1) You must be CRAZY - I pass that test with flying colors2) You must have absolutely no fear or concern for your health or safety - Unfortunately I fail that test.Having been forced to recognize and accept my weakness I continued to slowly and SAFELY wind my way down off that terrifying trail/mountain. Finally I reached the last water stop (11 miles) that was supposed to be close to where the trail merged on to a paved bike path. I had made it without falling!Yeah! Right STUPID! Counting your chickens before they are hatched! As I grabbed a bottle of water and continued running down the last of that trail I was also patting myself on the back for making it safely down that descent - AND for completing my first-ever trail race WITHOUT falling when POOF again! I found myself flying through the air?I can so vividly recall what I saw and thought in those few terrifying milliseconds! My water bottle went flying out of my hands to land about twenty feet down the trail. I was flying through the air horizontally - BUT the trail dropped at about a 20 degree angle - how and where was I going to land on that trail to minimize the pain and injury that was surely about to happen? I manged to get my arms out to cushion the impact and twist my body to the left. I think that my left foot must have caught a rock or root to start this horrifying/exciting air flight? I landed on my left side in a soft pile of thick black dirt/dust and slid about five feet down the trail leaving some skin and blood along the way before I was able to push myself back up and regain control of my momentum. I didn't/couldn't stop moving downhill so I surveyed the damage as I struggled to maintain control of my momemetum. My left side and front were covered in a thick layer of black dust ( looked like I had attended a coal miner's convention?) and blood was oozing through the dirt in several places. From the severe stinging I was experiencing I knew that I had lost skin on my arm, hip and leg but I couldn't see any cuts or abrasions because of the dirt? I thought that I should try to wash off the dirt but I had already passed the water bottle and besides I figured that the dirt was coagulating the blood and slowing the flow? So I continued on down the trail to the bike path - ONLY 50 feet! I was so pissed off that I had only 50 more feet of trail to navigate to complete my first trail race without falling! Oh well! I kept my record intact - four trail races and I've fallen in all four! Back to the race. I was now on the paved bike path with 1 3/4 miles left to the finish line. The time was 2:20. All I could think of (besides the stinging going on all down my left side) was that I needed to finish this damn race in 10 more minutes to get back to the hotel! At least I was now on my turf - pavement- so I pushed the old bod as hard as it would go. I even managed to catch and pass some of those young jocks that blew by me on the terrifying downhill. There were several people using the bike path and I got numerous strange looks and comments such as " You look terrible. What happened to you? Are you OK?" in those last few miles. Finally I crossed the finish line in 2:35:52 and the race director commented "You look like shit! Are you OK?" I ignored his compliment and question and proceeded directly to the water table and tried to clean myself up. BIG MISTAKE! HURT! PAIN! HURT! PAIN! The water was just washing more dirt into the wounds. So I gave up that Nurse Nightingale shit and decided to go back to the hotel to clean up.When I entered the room my Sports Manager exclaimed "You look terrible! What happened? Are you OK?" I was getting kind of tired of these comments/questions - I thought it was pretty obvious what happened? But she did give me some good news. She had requested another hour for check-out which meant I didn't need to rush my shower. So I headed straight into a scalding hot shower. After much screaming and cursing as first the dirt and then the soap washed out my cuts and abrasions I was finally able to asses the damage. Not bad! A few minor cuts and abrasions on the left elbow, hip and knee. Only one cut on the elbow refused to quit bleeding. Most had already formed scabs thanks to the dirt. I would live for another day and another trail race! And mark my words - there WILL BE another trail race! As much as I hate them I will not retire/quit until I run at least one trail race -WITHOUT FALLING!But now I had a more immediate desion to make. Actually I had already made it on that terrifying downhill section when my quads were screaming at me. Should I stay over till Sunday and run Maroon Peak? NO! Even the MADDOG is not crazy enough to tackle that mountain on sore and tired legs. Go home Stupid!The wisdom of that decision was confirmed on Sunday morning when I ran a slow, easy 7 miles along Lake Dillon. My legs were very sore and tired! So you see - even crazy people can make smart decisions once in awhile!
Aspen Grove Trail Race
Aspen, CO
13.1 miles
June 29/02
As I had informed y'all in earlier reports I decided to run this race just to stay in shape for my upcoming 199th marathon. The race offered both a Half and full Marathon but I was limited to the Half; otherwise it would mess up my marathon schedule.My sports manager and I left Summit County early Friday morning so that we would arrive in Aspen early afternoon which would give us some time to explore the resort town. We took the short cut via Leadville and up over Independence Pass. This is a very pretty but scary drive!The road over Independence Pass is a narrow, two-lane road that twists and turns with many switchbacks - and no guard rails - as it climbs more than 4,000 feet to the top of the pass at 12,000+ feet. The scenery is spectacular but the drive is scary. One little mistake and the car would not stop rolling or flipping for about 2,000 feet! We made it safely and in fact I didn't seem to be as scared as the last trip over the pass. Maybe all these trail and mountain runs are helping me overcome my fear of heights?The drive down into Aspen is not as spectacular and soon we were in the resort village. We had spent an afternoon in Aspen a few years back but had never really explored the resort town so now was our opportunity. It didn't take us long to determine that we did not like it! It is a nice town, very picturesque, clean and meticulously groomed but there is a haughty, snaughty attitude that permeates everything. Example - there are only two gas stations in the town - both built to blend in with the old Victorian architecture of the town. Maybe that is why gas cost $2/gal? Gimme a break! I thought we were being screwed in Summit County paying $1.35/gal? A hotel in town costs $200+ per night - I had to search on the net to find a hotel on the edge of town for $125. As we were passing one of the many art galleries in town I noticed a Marc Chagell in the window - I didn't go in to ask the price! And finally real estate - from what I could determine our Summit townhome is worth about $1.5 Million in Aspen! Sorry - even if I had the money I wouldn't enjoy living in Aspen!But then we weren't there to buy a home - but to run a race. I also had a second agenda. I was hoping to run one or two of the 14ers that are close to Aspen. So I visited one of the mountaineer shops in town to gather information on the Maroon Bells. There are two peaks: the Maroon Peak (14,156ft) and the North Maroon Peak (14,014 ft). I was hoping to run both on Sunday if my legs and body were not too beat up by the race on Saturday? Well the manger of the store, an experienced climber who had climbed both peaks many times, cured me of that silly notion quickly. He warned/advised me that the saddle between the two peaks was extremely difficult and dangerous and that I should not attempt it without climbing gear and experience! But he did feel that I could run/climb the Maroon Peak and showed me the safest and esaiest way up. Later that day Nicole and I drove out to the park and trailhead for the Maroon Peaks and I must admit - they are awesome and INTIMIDATING! The last 1,000 vertical feet are ragged rock cliffs that seem to go straight up? I would have to wait and see how my legs felt after the race - I definitely was not going to attempt that run/climb on tired legs!Now back to the purpose of the trip and report - The Aspen Grove Trail Race. After treating my sports manager to a Happy Hour drink and the usual pasta dinner we found the race registration and packet pick up. I confirmed, after talking to a few runners, that the race was indeed challenging as advertised and that there were only three aid/water stations which meant I needed to carry water with me. The start time had changed from 8:30 am to 9am which would make it harder for those of us with early check-out times at the hotel. The race director kind of worried me when he advised all runners to purchase 'National Park Rescue Insurance' that provided for helicopter rescue and extraction from the mountains? But I figured since I had survived the Pike's Peak and Breckenridge Crest Marathons that I could make it out on my own?Saturday - Race day! I lined up at the start with another 130 runners (only 15 in the marathon). The course was a half-marathon loop - the marathoners got to do it twice. I was already thankful that I had been forced to register only for the Half! The race started about 10 minutes late. I already had a time crunch. Check-out at the hotel was 11am but I had asked for a one-hour extension. I needed to run this race under 2:30 to get back to the hotel in time? Wer'e off! The course started at the Aspen Art Museum (7900 ft) and immediately turned on to the Hunter Creek Trail - and proceeded to climb 900 feet over the next two miles on a rocky, treacherous single-track trail. It was impossible to run all of this section because of the steep grades and rocks. I followed the tail end of the lead pack and reached the two-mile mark in 26 minutes! The course then flattened out at 8,800 feet out for about 1/2 mile as it crossed the meadows of the Hunter Creek Valley. I almost got lost along this section as I missed a turn. The course/trail was marked with pink ribbons - there were no support staff nor mile markers to direct the runners. Fortunately a female runner behind me shouted at me and I back-tracked to follow her.I continued to follow her as the course climbed 1,500 feet over the next 2 1/2 miles to 10,300 feet to the Four Corners region on Red Mountain overlooking Aspen on one side and the Maroon Bells on the other.That female runner was a good trail runner. She ran that whole 2 1/2 mile climb without walking once! I had to resort to my usual power walk/run technique but I somehow manged to stay with her. When we crested that trail/hill the course turned on to a 4X4 logging road that traversed Red Mountain. 2nd water stop - about 5 miles into the race. I thought that I would overtake my female guide/runner on that dirt road but she would not let me pass her. And then we turned on to another single track trail that ran through a few miles of Aspen groves (hence the name of the race). It was very pretty but I was only able to steal a few glances because I was too afraid to take my eyes off the trail. There were too may rocks, stumps and roots waiting to trip one up if you didn't focus constantly on where your feet were. It was impossible to pass her on that trail so I decided just to continue to follow her.However the trail then started to drop and it almost seemed like magic, but POOF- she was gone! I couldn't believe that she had left my sorry old ass behind so quickly. I became concerned that I had missed another turn in the trail - surely I should be able to catch a glimpse of her ahead? Finally after about 1/2 mile I saw another pink ribbon which meant I was on the correct trail. I had to face the fact/truth - she had left my sorry old ass in the dust as soon as the trail has started downhill because she was a much better trail runner than I am (or ever will be!).Soon the trail emerged from the Aspens and began the truly horrendous descent that we had been warned about. The trail dropped more than 2,000 feet over the next two miles - on single track trail that was rocky and covered with layers of dry, slippery dirt/dust. I was actually afraid! I had my quads on full brake force and I was still losing control on some of the switchbacks! Every once in awhile there would be a short section that looked manageable and I would let my stride lenghten out to take the stress off the quads but I would soon be out of control and screaming at myself to slow down! I finally decided that I had to stop and walk -downhill- at certain times just to maintain control and relieve the stress/pain from my quads! About half-way down that section of the course I had to move aside and let some other runners blow on by. They were going hell-bent-for-leather and completely out of control. At that point I concluded that you must pass two important tests to become a GOOD trail runner:1) You must be CRAZY - I pass that test with flying colors2) You must have absolutely no fear or concern for your health or safety - Unfortunately I fail that test.Having been forced to recognize and accept my weakness I continued to slowly and SAFELY wind my way down off that terrifying trail/mountain. Finally I reached the last water stop (11 miles) that was supposed to be close to where the trail merged on to a paved bike path. I had made it without falling!Yeah! Right STUPID! Counting your chickens before they are hatched! As I grabbed a bottle of water and continued running down the last of that trail I was also patting myself on the back for making it safely down that descent - AND for completing my first-ever trail race WITHOUT falling when POOF again! I found myself flying through the air?I can so vividly recall what I saw and thought in those few terrifying milliseconds! My water bottle went flying out of my hands to land about twenty feet down the trail. I was flying through the air horizontally - BUT the trail dropped at about a 20 degree angle - how and where was I going to land on that trail to minimize the pain and injury that was surely about to happen? I manged to get my arms out to cushion the impact and twist my body to the left. I think that my left foot must have caught a rock or root to start this horrifying/exciting air flight? I landed on my left side in a soft pile of thick black dirt/dust and slid about five feet down the trail leaving some skin and blood along the way before I was able to push myself back up and regain control of my momentum. I didn't/couldn't stop moving downhill so I surveyed the damage as I struggled to maintain control of my momemetum. My left side and front were covered in a thick layer of black dust ( looked like I had attended a coal miner's convention?) and blood was oozing through the dirt in several places. From the severe stinging I was experiencing I knew that I had lost skin on my arm, hip and leg but I couldn't see any cuts or abrasions because of the dirt? I thought that I should try to wash off the dirt but I had already passed the water bottle and besides I figured that the dirt was coagulating the blood and slowing the flow? So I continued on down the trail to the bike path - ONLY 50 feet! I was so pissed off that I had only 50 more feet of trail to navigate to complete my first trail race without falling! Oh well! I kept my record intact - four trail races and I've fallen in all four! Back to the race. I was now on the paved bike path with 1 3/4 miles left to the finish line. The time was 2:20. All I could think of (besides the stinging going on all down my left side) was that I needed to finish this damn race in 10 more minutes to get back to the hotel! At least I was now on my turf - pavement- so I pushed the old bod as hard as it would go. I even managed to catch and pass some of those young jocks that blew by me on the terrifying downhill. There were several people using the bike path and I got numerous strange looks and comments such as " You look terrible. What happened to you? Are you OK?" in those last few miles. Finally I crossed the finish line in 2:35:52 and the race director commented "You look like shit! Are you OK?" I ignored his compliment and question and proceeded directly to the water table and tried to clean myself up. BIG MISTAKE! HURT! PAIN! HURT! PAIN! The water was just washing more dirt into the wounds. So I gave up that Nurse Nightingale shit and decided to go back to the hotel to clean up.When I entered the room my Sports Manager exclaimed "You look terrible! What happened? Are you OK?" I was getting kind of tired of these comments/questions - I thought it was pretty obvious what happened? But she did give me some good news. She had requested another hour for check-out which meant I didn't need to rush my shower. So I headed straight into a scalding hot shower. After much screaming and cursing as first the dirt and then the soap washed out my cuts and abrasions I was finally able to asses the damage. Not bad! A few minor cuts and abrasions on the left elbow, hip and knee. Only one cut on the elbow refused to quit bleeding. Most had already formed scabs thanks to the dirt. I would live for another day and another trail race! And mark my words - there WILL BE another trail race! As much as I hate them I will not retire/quit until I run at least one trail race -WITHOUT FALLING!But now I had a more immediate desion to make. Actually I had already made it on that terrifying downhill section when my quads were screaming at me. Should I stay over till Sunday and run Maroon Peak? NO! Even the MADDOG is not crazy enough to tackle that mountain on sore and tired legs. Go home Stupid!The wisdom of that decision was confirmed on Sunday morning when I ran a slow, easy 7 miles along Lake Dillon. My legs were very sore and tired! So you see - even crazy people can make smart decisions once in awhile!
Monday, June 10, 2002
RR Denver
RR Denver
Race Report
Jesus Run Marathon
Denver, CO
June 9/02
This was marathon # 198! I would have preferred to run a marathon at the end of June to space out numbers 198 and 199 more evenly to provide better training in preparation for # 200 in late August.However a fellow 50 State member and good running friend, Edson from NYC, was running the Jesus Run in Denver and I promised to do it with him. Edson is one of the 'three musketeers'. Edson, Marty (FL) and myself all met during the the early 90s when we were trying to complete the 50 states. We would run into each other at the start line of marathons across the US and since we were fairly evenly matched we would compete throughout the races and thus became good friends. After we all finished the 50 states we stayed in touch at various races around the world and finally last January at the Walt Disney Marathon we all came together again for the first time in eight years! And as usual we competed unofficially to beat each other - Marty won that race! However I have since beat both Edson and Marty in marathons and have claimed myself the champion of the three musketeers. Furthermore I have made up a 'trophy' or medal that is to be held by the champion. It can only be won (or lost) by defeating the current champ directly in a marathon. Thus I was defending my title against Edson in Denver!However I had a big advantage! Edson had just returned from the Great Wall Marathon in China and his body was still screwed up from jet lag. I might have had some sympathy until he told me he was leaving for South Africa on Wed to run the Comrades Ultra ( a 56 mile race). Also he was going up 5,000 feet in elevation from NYC and I was comimg down 4,000 feet from Summit County (or 9,000 ft if you consider my race last weekend up Mt Evans?). So maybe it wasn't fair - but who said life was fair?So now the scenario is set up. The marathon - the Jesus Run - not surprisingly is a race set up by a religious organization to raise funds. Most runners solicit donations from their family/friends for Jesus. Aren't you glad I didn't hit you up? It is run in the city of Denver. The course starts and ends at City Park and runs through residential streets as well as downtown. It is not an exciting or pretty course. Some of the residential areas were OK and the course did run through Cheesman and Washington Parks. There were very few spectators even in downtown Denver. Then again there were very few runners! Only 200 in the Half and about 200 in the marathon including the relay teams. Much of the course looped back on itself to use the same streets but they still had about 15 miles of Denver streets coned off and closed down with police support at every intersection. I don't know how they can afford the budget with so few runners?The course is fairly flat, elevation 5,300 feet with only a few rolling hills. I was not impressed with the race course/organization. Almost every mile marker was screwed up/incorrect. I ran mile 1 in 6:45, mile 2 in 6:51 and mile 3 in 11:56? In the first Half my mile paces ranged from 5:46 to 11:56! There is no way that you can adjust your pace and settle in to a smooth pace with crap like that! Only at the Half mark where they had mats for the electronic chips to record the official Half time did I trust the marker. And I crossed that in 1:45:21 - an 8 minute pace which was way too fast for my training and that altitude! I knew at that point that this was either going to be a great day or get very ugly!The other big problem on the course was water or lack of water. There was supposed to be water or aid stations every three miles. Well, they seemed to be very sporadic and not often enough. In the first half I drank one-4 oz cup at every stop. In the second half I was drinking two-4 oz cups at every stop and within a mile my mouth was bone dry? I was quite concerned about dehydration. And when I finally made a pit stop (for a pee) at mile 16 I knew that I was headed for trouble? I normally make two or three pit stops in a race when I am well-hydrated.I still felt good at 19 miles but then the wheels started to fall off - quickly! By 20 miles ( a 9:52 pace) and 21 miles (a 10.20 pace) - if you could believe the mile markers - my legs felt like rubber and I had no energy! I decided to just keep moving and struggling since I only had 5 more miles to go. At mile 22 I encountered the last hill on the course but it felt like a damn mountain at that point! But the upside was that when I finally crested the hill the flat course felt so much easier and I was able to pick up the pace.I was so looking forward to mile 23 because once I reach that point it is normally easy to convince myself that it is only another 5K to go. But on this course I passed a bank at mile 23 and the outside thermometer sign indicated that the temperature was now 79 degrees F (vs the 63 F at the start). Immediately the two sides of my brain went into conflict. Ever see those ads with the devil on one side and an angel on the other?Well the evil/dark side wanted to quit at that point and the good/ 'force is with you' side wanted to keep running. So here is a brief exerpt of the discourse that I had to put up with.Evil/dark side: Holy shit! Look at that temperature! 79F!Your legs fell like shit. You are dehydrated. Be smart. Quit! Stop or at least walk! This race isn't important.Good side: Only 5K to go! You have run under worse conditions lots of times. Don't be a wimp! Think how mad you will be at yourself if you quit. Quitting is not an option. If you walk it will take much longer to finish and you will only suffer longer! Edson is closing on you. If you walk he will beat you. Pick up the pace! Let's get this over with quicker! The force is with you!Fortunately the good side won and I actually picked up the pace in spite of rubbery legs that seemed to weigh about 1000 pounds each. Finally I reentered City Park at mile 25 and could see the finish line - across the lake. God - if only I could run across water! Keep struggling - keep the legs moving - you are almost there! As I approached the end of the park I could still see the finish line but there was no mile marker for mile 26 and I began to fear that I might have to do another loop or leave the park and come back? Please, please NO - my legs are finished. So I desperately watched a runner about 500 feet in front of me to see where he went! Oh thank God - he turned on to a bike path and headed for the finish line. Time to draw on the 'force' and every last once of energy I can find to sprint the final few hundred yards to cross the finish line in 3:40:27.I was actually pleased with that time because my pre-race goal/expectation had been to run a 3:40 to 3:45. But I had not run a smart race due to the screwed-up mile markers and had paid for it dearly during the last 10K. I could have run the same time with much less pain and agony. Oh well - I'll live to try it again.I waited around to cheer Edson across the finish line as he had to sprint to finish a few seconds under 4 hours! We didn't even wait for the awards ceremony even though I was pretty sure that I had won my age group.After a quick shower Edson and I enjoyed a victory lunch and discussed our planned schedules to see where we might meet again. My sports manager had not accompanied me on this trip since I planned to share Edson's room with him on Saturday night to save a long, early drive into Denver on Sunday morning.So #198 is in the bag and a distant memory already. After much deliberation I have finally narrowed three choices for #199 down to the final one. The date is August 3rd but I will leave the destination for another story. My concern now is the eight week gap between now and #199. Obviously I can't run a 'practice' marathon because that will screw up my numbers - so I have decided to run some of the local 10Ks and Half Marathons (at 10,000 ft) to stay in shape. This will also give me an opportunity to work on my speed and meet some local runners. So stay tuned!
Race Report
Jesus Run Marathon
Denver, CO
June 9/02
This was marathon # 198! I would have preferred to run a marathon at the end of June to space out numbers 198 and 199 more evenly to provide better training in preparation for # 200 in late August.However a fellow 50 State member and good running friend, Edson from NYC, was running the Jesus Run in Denver and I promised to do it with him. Edson is one of the 'three musketeers'. Edson, Marty (FL) and myself all met during the the early 90s when we were trying to complete the 50 states. We would run into each other at the start line of marathons across the US and since we were fairly evenly matched we would compete throughout the races and thus became good friends. After we all finished the 50 states we stayed in touch at various races around the world and finally last January at the Walt Disney Marathon we all came together again for the first time in eight years! And as usual we competed unofficially to beat each other - Marty won that race! However I have since beat both Edson and Marty in marathons and have claimed myself the champion of the three musketeers. Furthermore I have made up a 'trophy' or medal that is to be held by the champion. It can only be won (or lost) by defeating the current champ directly in a marathon. Thus I was defending my title against Edson in Denver!However I had a big advantage! Edson had just returned from the Great Wall Marathon in China and his body was still screwed up from jet lag. I might have had some sympathy until he told me he was leaving for South Africa on Wed to run the Comrades Ultra ( a 56 mile race). Also he was going up 5,000 feet in elevation from NYC and I was comimg down 4,000 feet from Summit County (or 9,000 ft if you consider my race last weekend up Mt Evans?). So maybe it wasn't fair - but who said life was fair?So now the scenario is set up. The marathon - the Jesus Run - not surprisingly is a race set up by a religious organization to raise funds. Most runners solicit donations from their family/friends for Jesus. Aren't you glad I didn't hit you up? It is run in the city of Denver. The course starts and ends at City Park and runs through residential streets as well as downtown. It is not an exciting or pretty course. Some of the residential areas were OK and the course did run through Cheesman and Washington Parks. There were very few spectators even in downtown Denver. Then again there were very few runners! Only 200 in the Half and about 200 in the marathon including the relay teams. Much of the course looped back on itself to use the same streets but they still had about 15 miles of Denver streets coned off and closed down with police support at every intersection. I don't know how they can afford the budget with so few runners?The course is fairly flat, elevation 5,300 feet with only a few rolling hills. I was not impressed with the race course/organization. Almost every mile marker was screwed up/incorrect. I ran mile 1 in 6:45, mile 2 in 6:51 and mile 3 in 11:56? In the first Half my mile paces ranged from 5:46 to 11:56! There is no way that you can adjust your pace and settle in to a smooth pace with crap like that! Only at the Half mark where they had mats for the electronic chips to record the official Half time did I trust the marker. And I crossed that in 1:45:21 - an 8 minute pace which was way too fast for my training and that altitude! I knew at that point that this was either going to be a great day or get very ugly!The other big problem on the course was water or lack of water. There was supposed to be water or aid stations every three miles. Well, they seemed to be very sporadic and not often enough. In the first half I drank one-4 oz cup at every stop. In the second half I was drinking two-4 oz cups at every stop and within a mile my mouth was bone dry? I was quite concerned about dehydration. And when I finally made a pit stop (for a pee) at mile 16 I knew that I was headed for trouble? I normally make two or three pit stops in a race when I am well-hydrated.I still felt good at 19 miles but then the wheels started to fall off - quickly! By 20 miles ( a 9:52 pace) and 21 miles (a 10.20 pace) - if you could believe the mile markers - my legs felt like rubber and I had no energy! I decided to just keep moving and struggling since I only had 5 more miles to go. At mile 22 I encountered the last hill on the course but it felt like a damn mountain at that point! But the upside was that when I finally crested the hill the flat course felt so much easier and I was able to pick up the pace.I was so looking forward to mile 23 because once I reach that point it is normally easy to convince myself that it is only another 5K to go. But on this course I passed a bank at mile 23 and the outside thermometer sign indicated that the temperature was now 79 degrees F (vs the 63 F at the start). Immediately the two sides of my brain went into conflict. Ever see those ads with the devil on one side and an angel on the other?Well the evil/dark side wanted to quit at that point and the good/ 'force is with you' side wanted to keep running. So here is a brief exerpt of the discourse that I had to put up with.Evil/dark side: Holy shit! Look at that temperature! 79F!Your legs fell like shit. You are dehydrated. Be smart. Quit! Stop or at least walk! This race isn't important.Good side: Only 5K to go! You have run under worse conditions lots of times. Don't be a wimp! Think how mad you will be at yourself if you quit. Quitting is not an option. If you walk it will take much longer to finish and you will only suffer longer! Edson is closing on you. If you walk he will beat you. Pick up the pace! Let's get this over with quicker! The force is with you!Fortunately the good side won and I actually picked up the pace in spite of rubbery legs that seemed to weigh about 1000 pounds each. Finally I reentered City Park at mile 25 and could see the finish line - across the lake. God - if only I could run across water! Keep struggling - keep the legs moving - you are almost there! As I approached the end of the park I could still see the finish line but there was no mile marker for mile 26 and I began to fear that I might have to do another loop or leave the park and come back? Please, please NO - my legs are finished. So I desperately watched a runner about 500 feet in front of me to see where he went! Oh thank God - he turned on to a bike path and headed for the finish line. Time to draw on the 'force' and every last once of energy I can find to sprint the final few hundred yards to cross the finish line in 3:40:27.I was actually pleased with that time because my pre-race goal/expectation had been to run a 3:40 to 3:45. But I had not run a smart race due to the screwed-up mile markers and had paid for it dearly during the last 10K. I could have run the same time with much less pain and agony. Oh well - I'll live to try it again.I waited around to cheer Edson across the finish line as he had to sprint to finish a few seconds under 4 hours! We didn't even wait for the awards ceremony even though I was pretty sure that I had won my age group.After a quick shower Edson and I enjoyed a victory lunch and discussed our planned schedules to see where we might meet again. My sports manager had not accompanied me on this trip since I planned to share Edson's room with him on Saturday night to save a long, early drive into Denver on Sunday morning.So #198 is in the bag and a distant memory already. After much deliberation I have finally narrowed three choices for #199 down to the final one. The date is August 3rd but I will leave the destination for another story. My concern now is the eight week gap between now and #199. Obviously I can't run a 'practice' marathon because that will screw up my numbers - so I have decided to run some of the local 10Ks and Half Marathons (at 10,000 ft) to stay in shape. This will also give me an opportunity to work on my speed and meet some local runners. So stay tuned!
Monday, May 27, 2002
RR Wyoming
Trip Report –Wyoming
Race Report
Wyoming Marathon
Cheyenne, WY
May 26/02
Wer'e back from our weekend trip/adventure. We had a great time.It's only a short 3 to 4-hour drive up to Cheyenne, WY from Summit County so after picking up our friends, the Grubers, we arrived in Cheyenne about 2pm on Saturday. Checked into the hotel and then proceeded to check out Cheyenne since none of us had ever been there. Not much to check out. There is a small downtown area that has an old train depot built in 1886 that is being restored and turned in to a shopping mall. The architecture is quite nice and there are also several old mansions in the downtown area that have been restored plus the state capital building - but that is it.We were glad that we had only booked the hotel for one night!The Wyoming Marathon is a small, low key race so I wasn' t too surprised when I had problems finding the registration desk. The race director had changed the location of the registration and pasta party but had not informed any runners who were not staying at the host hotel. However I and a few other runners were able to deduce that we should head to the host hotel where we found the registration desk and picked up our race packages.The marathon started at 6am at the Lincoln Monument on I 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie. Unfortunately it was much closer to Laramie which meant that we had a 45 minute drive Sunday morning to get to the start. The start was right beside the monument which was built in 1960 on the highest point on the interstate from coast to coast at an elevation of 8878 feet. The skies were sunny and it was a brisk 39 degrees (F) at the 6am start. After dropping me off my sports manager had to head back to Cheyenne to pick up the rest of the Maddog Support Team (who wanted to sleep in?) since Connie and Gerry planned to join me around 21 miles and run/walk the last 5 miles of the course.At 6am the race started and the runners headed east into the Medicine Bow National Forest. The first 4 miles of the course dropped steeply on a dirt road into the forest. At 4 miles I was averaging a 7:30 pace because of the steep decline. That was much too fast for that altitude and my training. I commented to myself " This is going to be an absolute bitch when we have to run back up these final 4 miles of hills on the return leg!"At 4.5 miles we encounterd the toughest uphill of the first half - a 3 mile constant climb. As I was struggling to reach the crest of that BAH (Big Ass Hill) at an 11:30 pace, I almost gave into my urge to walk. But pride would not allow me to walk that early in the race so I sucked it up (while I was sucking for air at 8,000+ feet) and struggled to the top. At 8 miles we turned east again on to a paved service road of I 80. During the next two miles over gentle rolling hils I realized that we had a strong tailwind pushing us along. Oh Shit! That means a strong headwind on the return leg!At 10.5 miles we turn north off the paved service road on to another dirt road into the National Forest. The scenery on this part of the course was spectacular! Rugged rock formations jut up above the pine forests. I am so awed by the scenerey that I didn't realize that we were running down a steep hill to reach the Half Marathon point. Elevation 8,000 feet! Time - 1:56:43. A nine-minute pace.Believe me. I was under no silly illusions of running negative splits! The return leg was 13.1 miles uphill at 8,000+ feet altitude (except for the backside of the BAH) and into a strong headwind! I figured that I would be doing well to average a pace one minute/mile slower on the second half: i.e. 13 minutes slower! If I could do that I should be able to finish under 4:10 instead of my original goal of 4:15 to 4:30. So I adjusted my finish target and started back!And the course immediately began to kick the shit out of me! The next two miles were sheer torture. I hadn't realized how steep that section of the course had been on the down leg. I struggled to hold a 12 minute pace up that damn hill to mile 15! But I managed to keep the legs churning (if you can consider a 12-minute pace churning?)Soon I was back on the paved service road running west into a strong headwind. Fortunately that only lasted a few miles before we turned back into the National Forest - about mile 19. I had expected to meet my support team at this point but I was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I stopped at an aid station to fill up my water bottle. There were only three aid stations on the course - about every 4.5 miles.Since that is not enough water for me I carried a water bottle so that I could drink whenever I needed and just filled my water bottle at the aid stations. This worked fine but cost me time to stop and fill the bottle.Still no support team so I forged on! As I was running down the backside of the BAH around 21.5 miles the support team caught up. Connie and Gerry jumped out of the car. Gerry planned to walk in and Connie planned to run in with me. Although I was only running a 9:30 pace it was still very difficult for Connie to adjust to that pace at 8,000+ feet from a cold start. So I had to leave her behind by mile 22 as I wanted to continue pushing as long as I felt OK! I thought that she would catch me as I was approaching the 4 mile climb back to the finish/start line and I figured that I would end up walking?At that point I started a psyche job on myself because I knew it would be necessary to get up that final 4 miles of hills. My first promise to myself was that if I could just continue running until at least mile 24 then I would allow myself to start walking at that point. Surprisingly I was able to hold a 10 to 10:30 pace up those first two miles of hills. At mile 24 I rewarded myself with a brief walk while I swallowed my last carbo gel and washed it down with the last of my water. Time to start running again! The old bod struggled valiantly to run an 11:25 on mile 25! But at mile 25 the hill/mountain seemed to rise at an impossibly steep grade and the heart, willpower and legs just weren't capable of running up that grade. So I started doing a combination of a power walk, then run, power walk, then run. I was on the verge of making the power walk longer than the run when I noticed another runner ahead of me. I had thought that I had no chance of catching him but he had been beaten down to just walking and I was gaining!Push the old bod harder! As we approached mile 26 I closed to within 100 feet but he heard the footsteps and responded accordingly. He beat his dead horse/legs and started running again and I was already pushing as hard as I could and I could not respond. So I followed him across the finish line about 30 seconds later for a time of 4:09:51! I was very pleased with both my time and my performance. I had run a smart race and finished much faster than predicted - and although my legs were tired I was not really beaten up and recovered quickly.However when I glanced at the results board I was disappointed to learn that the runner I had failed to catch was in my age group and thus took first place in the Senior Division! In hindsight I am not sure that I could have done anything about it in the last mile even if I had known - I would have had to make a move sooner?As I waited at the finish line for my support team I was surprised to see Gerry finish first? He had run the last 5 miles of that tough course and he hadn't run in over a year because of foot problems. Connie soon followed and we headed back to Cheyenne.After breakfast we decided to head to Laramie to check it out. Nicole and I had stayed in Laramie during my last Wyoming Marathon in 94 and thought that we remembered it to be more exciting than Cheyenne? But after a quick drive-by tour of downtown and the University of Wyoming, we decided to travel on to Steamboat Springs, CO. We were looking for a nice charming place to overnight and have a good dinner. None of us had been to Steamboat even though it is only 90 miles north of Silverthorne. We drove across the back country of Wyoming and northern Colorado and were treated to some spectacular scenery. The last 30 miles into Steamboat on Hwy 40 were very scenic but I don't think that I would want to drive over Rabbit Ears Pass in the winter. However it was spectacular scenery at this time of the year!Steamboat Springs is a very charming resort village. We immediately decided to stay overnight and enjoyed a great celebration dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Yampa River. Steamboat is at an elevation of 6,600 feet and thus was 15 degrees warmer than Summit and spring was many weeks ahead of ours. The main street is lined with fruit trees that were in full bloom. It is a very nice village but the major drawback in my opinion is that it is too remote and isolated. Denver is the nearest major city/airport and it is a 180 mile trip over a narrow two lane highway through the Rockies! Too isolated for me to consider living there. But a great place to visit. I discovered that the Steamboat Springs Marathon is being run next weekend. I would go back and run it but that would mess up my marathon schedule/plan to run my 200th in August. But I do plan to run it next year!
Race Report
Wyoming Marathon
Cheyenne, WY
May 26/02
Wer'e back from our weekend trip/adventure. We had a great time.It's only a short 3 to 4-hour drive up to Cheyenne, WY from Summit County so after picking up our friends, the Grubers, we arrived in Cheyenne about 2pm on Saturday. Checked into the hotel and then proceeded to check out Cheyenne since none of us had ever been there. Not much to check out. There is a small downtown area that has an old train depot built in 1886 that is being restored and turned in to a shopping mall. The architecture is quite nice and there are also several old mansions in the downtown area that have been restored plus the state capital building - but that is it.We were glad that we had only booked the hotel for one night!The Wyoming Marathon is a small, low key race so I wasn' t too surprised when I had problems finding the registration desk. The race director had changed the location of the registration and pasta party but had not informed any runners who were not staying at the host hotel. However I and a few other runners were able to deduce that we should head to the host hotel where we found the registration desk and picked up our race packages.The marathon started at 6am at the Lincoln Monument on I 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie. Unfortunately it was much closer to Laramie which meant that we had a 45 minute drive Sunday morning to get to the start. The start was right beside the monument which was built in 1960 on the highest point on the interstate from coast to coast at an elevation of 8878 feet. The skies were sunny and it was a brisk 39 degrees (F) at the 6am start. After dropping me off my sports manager had to head back to Cheyenne to pick up the rest of the Maddog Support Team (who wanted to sleep in?) since Connie and Gerry planned to join me around 21 miles and run/walk the last 5 miles of the course.At 6am the race started and the runners headed east into the Medicine Bow National Forest. The first 4 miles of the course dropped steeply on a dirt road into the forest. At 4 miles I was averaging a 7:30 pace because of the steep decline. That was much too fast for that altitude and my training. I commented to myself " This is going to be an absolute bitch when we have to run back up these final 4 miles of hills on the return leg!"At 4.5 miles we encounterd the toughest uphill of the first half - a 3 mile constant climb. As I was struggling to reach the crest of that BAH (Big Ass Hill) at an 11:30 pace, I almost gave into my urge to walk. But pride would not allow me to walk that early in the race so I sucked it up (while I was sucking for air at 8,000+ feet) and struggled to the top. At 8 miles we turned east again on to a paved service road of I 80. During the next two miles over gentle rolling hils I realized that we had a strong tailwind pushing us along. Oh Shit! That means a strong headwind on the return leg!At 10.5 miles we turn north off the paved service road on to another dirt road into the National Forest. The scenery on this part of the course was spectacular! Rugged rock formations jut up above the pine forests. I am so awed by the scenerey that I didn't realize that we were running down a steep hill to reach the Half Marathon point. Elevation 8,000 feet! Time - 1:56:43. A nine-minute pace.Believe me. I was under no silly illusions of running negative splits! The return leg was 13.1 miles uphill at 8,000+ feet altitude (except for the backside of the BAH) and into a strong headwind! I figured that I would be doing well to average a pace one minute/mile slower on the second half: i.e. 13 minutes slower! If I could do that I should be able to finish under 4:10 instead of my original goal of 4:15 to 4:30. So I adjusted my finish target and started back!And the course immediately began to kick the shit out of me! The next two miles were sheer torture. I hadn't realized how steep that section of the course had been on the down leg. I struggled to hold a 12 minute pace up that damn hill to mile 15! But I managed to keep the legs churning (if you can consider a 12-minute pace churning?)Soon I was back on the paved service road running west into a strong headwind. Fortunately that only lasted a few miles before we turned back into the National Forest - about mile 19. I had expected to meet my support team at this point but I was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I stopped at an aid station to fill up my water bottle. There were only three aid stations on the course - about every 4.5 miles.Since that is not enough water for me I carried a water bottle so that I could drink whenever I needed and just filled my water bottle at the aid stations. This worked fine but cost me time to stop and fill the bottle.Still no support team so I forged on! As I was running down the backside of the BAH around 21.5 miles the support team caught up. Connie and Gerry jumped out of the car. Gerry planned to walk in and Connie planned to run in with me. Although I was only running a 9:30 pace it was still very difficult for Connie to adjust to that pace at 8,000+ feet from a cold start. So I had to leave her behind by mile 22 as I wanted to continue pushing as long as I felt OK! I thought that she would catch me as I was approaching the 4 mile climb back to the finish/start line and I figured that I would end up walking?At that point I started a psyche job on myself because I knew it would be necessary to get up that final 4 miles of hills. My first promise to myself was that if I could just continue running until at least mile 24 then I would allow myself to start walking at that point. Surprisingly I was able to hold a 10 to 10:30 pace up those first two miles of hills. At mile 24 I rewarded myself with a brief walk while I swallowed my last carbo gel and washed it down with the last of my water. Time to start running again! The old bod struggled valiantly to run an 11:25 on mile 25! But at mile 25 the hill/mountain seemed to rise at an impossibly steep grade and the heart, willpower and legs just weren't capable of running up that grade. So I started doing a combination of a power walk, then run, power walk, then run. I was on the verge of making the power walk longer than the run when I noticed another runner ahead of me. I had thought that I had no chance of catching him but he had been beaten down to just walking and I was gaining!Push the old bod harder! As we approached mile 26 I closed to within 100 feet but he heard the footsteps and responded accordingly. He beat his dead horse/legs and started running again and I was already pushing as hard as I could and I could not respond. So I followed him across the finish line about 30 seconds later for a time of 4:09:51! I was very pleased with both my time and my performance. I had run a smart race and finished much faster than predicted - and although my legs were tired I was not really beaten up and recovered quickly.However when I glanced at the results board I was disappointed to learn that the runner I had failed to catch was in my age group and thus took first place in the Senior Division! In hindsight I am not sure that I could have done anything about it in the last mile even if I had known - I would have had to make a move sooner?As I waited at the finish line for my support team I was surprised to see Gerry finish first? He had run the last 5 miles of that tough course and he hadn't run in over a year because of foot problems. Connie soon followed and we headed back to Cheyenne.After breakfast we decided to head to Laramie to check it out. Nicole and I had stayed in Laramie during my last Wyoming Marathon in 94 and thought that we remembered it to be more exciting than Cheyenne? But after a quick drive-by tour of downtown and the University of Wyoming, we decided to travel on to Steamboat Springs, CO. We were looking for a nice charming place to overnight and have a good dinner. None of us had been to Steamboat even though it is only 90 miles north of Silverthorne. We drove across the back country of Wyoming and northern Colorado and were treated to some spectacular scenery. The last 30 miles into Steamboat on Hwy 40 were very scenic but I don't think that I would want to drive over Rabbit Ears Pass in the winter. However it was spectacular scenery at this time of the year!Steamboat Springs is a very charming resort village. We immediately decided to stay overnight and enjoyed a great celebration dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Yampa River. Steamboat is at an elevation of 6,600 feet and thus was 15 degrees warmer than Summit and spring was many weeks ahead of ours. The main street is lined with fruit trees that were in full bloom. It is a very nice village but the major drawback in my opinion is that it is too remote and isolated. Denver is the nearest major city/airport and it is a 180 mile trip over a narrow two lane highway through the Rockies! Too isolated for me to consider living there. But a great place to visit. I discovered that the Steamboat Springs Marathon is being run next weekend. I would go back and run it but that would mess up my marathon schedule/plan to run my 200th in August. But I do plan to run it next year!
Thursday, April 11, 2002
TR Bali
TRIP REPORT
BALI
3/31 – 4/10/02
Now that have filled ourselves with some American food in Hong Kong we are off to Bali on Sunday morning. I forgot to mention that the weather was cool in HK – low 70s which was a nice change from the stifling heat of Thailand and Cambodia.
Using the itinerary of a travel agency in California as a guide I had booked the first 5 days in Nusa Dua and the next 4 days in Candi Dasa. Nusa Dua is on a small peninsula on the southwest part of Bali. It is an exclusive tourist area that reminds me of the Lahaina area on Maui. There are about a dozen 5-star luxury resorts spread along the beach and the whole region is immaculately landscaped and maintained. There were two small villages on the edge of the region. The prices in the hotels were what you would expect in a resort but you could walk into one of the villages and eat a great dinner for $4 (including a beer) vs $20 to $25 at a resort. Since we had cashed in Sheraton points for 5 free days at a Sheraton resort, meals were not included and you can rightfully assume that we walked into the villages for all our meals.
We both wanted to take some time off from the hectic ‘got-to-tour every day’ mentality so Nicole laid on the beach while I took a PADI Open Water Course to earn my dive certificate. I have always wanted to get my dive card but just never seemed to have enough time. The PADI office was located at the Sheraton so it made it real easy. We did our confined dive in the Sheraton pool and four open water dives in the Indian Ocean. There was some coral and lots of fish variety so the dives were fun and interesting.
But we did want to see some of the interesting sights in that region so we hired a car and driver one evening to take us to Mengwi to visit the magnificent royal family temple of Taman Ayun (17th century) and then on to Tonah Lot. This temple was built on a promontory offshore and is one of the most beautiful settings in Bali for watching sunsets.
On Friday we had to move to Candi Dasa located on the south east coast where the marathon was being staged. Instead of paying a taxi $20 just to take us there we hired a car and driver for the day for $30 and had him take us on a day tour and drop us off in Candi Dasa at the end of the day. Our first stop was a cultural center in Batubulan to watch a colorful and exciting Barong Dance. The next stop was the Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) which dates back to the 11th century. Hewn out of the rocks, the cave entrance is fantastically carved and depicts entangled leaves, animals, ocean waves and demonic human shapes. Then it was on to the town of Kintamani which sits on the edge of a volcanic crater overlooking Mt. Batur and Lake Batur. Mt Batur is still an active volcano and last erupted in 1999. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the mountain and lake while enjoying the cool respite – the temperature at the top of thee rim was only in the low 70s. In the afternoon we descended the mountain past lots of scenic terraced rice fields back into the unbearable heat and humidity to the city of Klungkung to visit the Kerta Gosa (the Hall of Justice) which dates from the 18th century. The ceilings of the hall are painted with classical paintings depicting visions of heaven and hell.
Soon we were driving along the coast again and made a final stop at the Goa Lawah (Bat Cave). The walls of the cave are homes to millions of fruit bats (very smelly) and the cave is considered a holy shrine because it supposedly connects to the Besakih Temple, the Mother Temple of Bali, located on Mt Agung. Last stop was Candi Dasa a small, laid-back village located on a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean.
Other runners from around the world were beginning to arrive also. I recognized a few runners from the ‘fifty states club’ and was looking forward to a reunion with a running buddy from London. On Saturday I got my race package and then we decided to hire a car to take us to Tenganan Village. It is an original or traditional village surviving from the pre-Hindu period that strictly adheres to the traditional life of ritual and ceremony. The people are famous for producing the sacred hand woven Geringsing or double ikat cloth. The rest of the day was spent resting on the beach or escaping the heat by staying in our air-conditioned room. That night the race committee held a pasta or carbo load party at the host hotel. The cost of the party was included in the entry fee but I had to pay $12 extra for my sports manager. It was not worth it! For $3 to $4 we could have eaten a much better meal in the hotel restaurant. But I did meet up with my friend from London and we had an opportunity to discuss possible future races.
Sunday was M –Day! The marathon started in front of our hotel at 5:30am. I knew that was too late because it would only give us 45 minutes of darkness before the killer sun started to rise. There were only 35 runners in the full marathon and about 60 in the Half. The first 3Km ran along the coast at sea level and there was enough light from the street lamps to see. At 3 Km the course turned and started to climb Mt Agung – the highest volcano/mountain on Bali (3142m). There was a BAH (Big Ass Hill) from 4 to 7Km and then downhill to about 10.5Km which was the turn-around point for the Half. I had run with the half marathon runners up to that point but once they made the turn I was completely alone. And I stayed alone until 38Km! At 10.5Km the course also started a relentless climb up the volcano. It wasn’t steep but it just kept climbing and climbing and climbing! I pushed as hard as I could and all I could manage was 9:30 min/mile pace. And all I could think about was that friggin Duracell bunny that keeps going and going?
There were some spectacular views of Mt Agung and terraced rice fields along the course. However there was no traffic control and no shoulders on the road so we had to very cautious with all the bikes, motorbikes and trucks passing us. And similar to my two previous runs there were too many damned dogs that wanted to have fun chasing us. I had to stop a few times to make them back off!
Finally I reached the turn at 21Km in a very slow 1:58. Surely I could make up some time on the return downhill leg – maybe even run negative splits? Yeh, right – and the Duracell bunny was going to pace me too!
I did manage to drop the pace to about 8:15s until 32Km (20 miles). But then the wheels started to fall off! I knew I was tiring – my legs were beat from the hills – and my body temp was well over 100F! I had forgotten to bring some sugar candy and was concerned that I would suffer from low blood sugar. But I forged on until I hit that BAH again and then it was all over. There was absolutely nobody near me as I had run alone since 10.5Km and without a challenge I could not muster up the willpower or motivation to push and hurt myself. I decided to walk and jog up the BAH. It quickly became mostly walking although I did chew myself out at the top and made myself run down the other side. But as soon as I reached the coast again about 3Km from the finish line I had nothing left and began walking again. At that point a female runner passed me and I couldn’t respond – and didn’t care. There was no shade on that part of the road and the sun and humidity had become unbearable. I started to feel numbness and tingling in my hands and knew what was happening so I switched to SURVIVAL mode and walked most of that final 3Km. With only 500 meters left I heard footsteps coming from behind me? Oh SHIT! – it’s two male runners trying to pass me before the finish line. NO FRIGGIN WAY! So I dug deep and found just enough energy to hold them off and I crossed the finish line in 4:08. But I was not in good shape.
Fortunately they had a bucket of ice water at the finish line and a kind volunteer began to sponge bath me with the ice-cold water. He thought it was funny when steam came off my head as he poured cold water over me? But he did get my body temp back down to around 100F. Now I needed another miraculous coke or other source of sugar. Thankfully my sports manager was waiting for me at the finish line. We walked back to the hotel and while I jumped into the pool to continue my cool down she got me a cold coke. As usual I felt much better within five minutes of drinking that coke?
Then I rewarded myself with an hour-long massage with one of the Masseuses at the poolside. I thought that some of my muscles would be sore but the only thing that hurt was my toes when he grabbed them. I had damaged/jammed three toes on the downhill legs and will lose those toenails within a few weeks.
Now it was time for a short nap as my head still felt woozy (heat exhaustion?) and then some lunch. That evening there was a ’gala awards banquet’. I don’t normally go to those events but I wanted to see the race results and spend some more time with my friend from London. Turns out that I placed first in the Senior Division (males 50+) and won a very nice hand-carved wooden sculpture.
The following day was to be our last full day in Bali so we again hired a car and driver for the day and had him take us on a tour of the east coast. We visited the ruins of an old floating palace and the palace of Puri Agung Karangasem (The Great Palace). Then we went snorkeling on a black sand beach at Amed. Finally our driver took us over some mountain roads along the coast that are not usually seen by tourists. And we figured out why quickly! You needed a 4X4 to travel them. Several miles of the roads had been washed out by landslides. Fortunately he had an SUV with lots of road clearance but even with that he bottomed many times. But we did get to see where and how the natives lived.
Now it was time to transfer back to Kuta near the airport for an early morning flight to LA via HK. It was a long, long trip, even in first class. To make matters worse I think that I had picked up a flu bug just before we left Bali and I got to enjoy/suffer all the flu symptoms during the long journey home.
But we had a great time and we would do it again. For you runners, Bali is a tough course. The heat is unbearable and the dogs and traffic are a nuisance. But the race organizers and volunteers were friendly and supportive. There are water stops and cold sponges every 3Km to help you get through the heat. Just don’t plan on setting a PR.
BALI
3/31 – 4/10/02
Now that have filled ourselves with some American food in Hong Kong we are off to Bali on Sunday morning. I forgot to mention that the weather was cool in HK – low 70s which was a nice change from the stifling heat of Thailand and Cambodia.
Using the itinerary of a travel agency in California as a guide I had booked the first 5 days in Nusa Dua and the next 4 days in Candi Dasa. Nusa Dua is on a small peninsula on the southwest part of Bali. It is an exclusive tourist area that reminds me of the Lahaina area on Maui. There are about a dozen 5-star luxury resorts spread along the beach and the whole region is immaculately landscaped and maintained. There were two small villages on the edge of the region. The prices in the hotels were what you would expect in a resort but you could walk into one of the villages and eat a great dinner for $4 (including a beer) vs $20 to $25 at a resort. Since we had cashed in Sheraton points for 5 free days at a Sheraton resort, meals were not included and you can rightfully assume that we walked into the villages for all our meals.
We both wanted to take some time off from the hectic ‘got-to-tour every day’ mentality so Nicole laid on the beach while I took a PADI Open Water Course to earn my dive certificate. I have always wanted to get my dive card but just never seemed to have enough time. The PADI office was located at the Sheraton so it made it real easy. We did our confined dive in the Sheraton pool and four open water dives in the Indian Ocean. There was some coral and lots of fish variety so the dives were fun and interesting.
But we did want to see some of the interesting sights in that region so we hired a car and driver one evening to take us to Mengwi to visit the magnificent royal family temple of Taman Ayun (17th century) and then on to Tonah Lot. This temple was built on a promontory offshore and is one of the most beautiful settings in Bali for watching sunsets.
On Friday we had to move to Candi Dasa located on the south east coast where the marathon was being staged. Instead of paying a taxi $20 just to take us there we hired a car and driver for the day for $30 and had him take us on a day tour and drop us off in Candi Dasa at the end of the day. Our first stop was a cultural center in Batubulan to watch a colorful and exciting Barong Dance. The next stop was the Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) which dates back to the 11th century. Hewn out of the rocks, the cave entrance is fantastically carved and depicts entangled leaves, animals, ocean waves and demonic human shapes. Then it was on to the town of Kintamani which sits on the edge of a volcanic crater overlooking Mt. Batur and Lake Batur. Mt Batur is still an active volcano and last erupted in 1999. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the mountain and lake while enjoying the cool respite – the temperature at the top of thee rim was only in the low 70s. In the afternoon we descended the mountain past lots of scenic terraced rice fields back into the unbearable heat and humidity to the city of Klungkung to visit the Kerta Gosa (the Hall of Justice) which dates from the 18th century. The ceilings of the hall are painted with classical paintings depicting visions of heaven and hell.
Soon we were driving along the coast again and made a final stop at the Goa Lawah (Bat Cave). The walls of the cave are homes to millions of fruit bats (very smelly) and the cave is considered a holy shrine because it supposedly connects to the Besakih Temple, the Mother Temple of Bali, located on Mt Agung. Last stop was Candi Dasa a small, laid-back village located on a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean.
Other runners from around the world were beginning to arrive also. I recognized a few runners from the ‘fifty states club’ and was looking forward to a reunion with a running buddy from London. On Saturday I got my race package and then we decided to hire a car to take us to Tenganan Village. It is an original or traditional village surviving from the pre-Hindu period that strictly adheres to the traditional life of ritual and ceremony. The people are famous for producing the sacred hand woven Geringsing or double ikat cloth. The rest of the day was spent resting on the beach or escaping the heat by staying in our air-conditioned room. That night the race committee held a pasta or carbo load party at the host hotel. The cost of the party was included in the entry fee but I had to pay $12 extra for my sports manager. It was not worth it! For $3 to $4 we could have eaten a much better meal in the hotel restaurant. But I did meet up with my friend from London and we had an opportunity to discuss possible future races.
Sunday was M –Day! The marathon started in front of our hotel at 5:30am. I knew that was too late because it would only give us 45 minutes of darkness before the killer sun started to rise. There were only 35 runners in the full marathon and about 60 in the Half. The first 3Km ran along the coast at sea level and there was enough light from the street lamps to see. At 3 Km the course turned and started to climb Mt Agung – the highest volcano/mountain on Bali (3142m). There was a BAH (Big Ass Hill) from 4 to 7Km and then downhill to about 10.5Km which was the turn-around point for the Half. I had run with the half marathon runners up to that point but once they made the turn I was completely alone. And I stayed alone until 38Km! At 10.5Km the course also started a relentless climb up the volcano. It wasn’t steep but it just kept climbing and climbing and climbing! I pushed as hard as I could and all I could manage was 9:30 min/mile pace. And all I could think about was that friggin Duracell bunny that keeps going and going?
There were some spectacular views of Mt Agung and terraced rice fields along the course. However there was no traffic control and no shoulders on the road so we had to very cautious with all the bikes, motorbikes and trucks passing us. And similar to my two previous runs there were too many damned dogs that wanted to have fun chasing us. I had to stop a few times to make them back off!
Finally I reached the turn at 21Km in a very slow 1:58. Surely I could make up some time on the return downhill leg – maybe even run negative splits? Yeh, right – and the Duracell bunny was going to pace me too!
I did manage to drop the pace to about 8:15s until 32Km (20 miles). But then the wheels started to fall off! I knew I was tiring – my legs were beat from the hills – and my body temp was well over 100F! I had forgotten to bring some sugar candy and was concerned that I would suffer from low blood sugar. But I forged on until I hit that BAH again and then it was all over. There was absolutely nobody near me as I had run alone since 10.5Km and without a challenge I could not muster up the willpower or motivation to push and hurt myself. I decided to walk and jog up the BAH. It quickly became mostly walking although I did chew myself out at the top and made myself run down the other side. But as soon as I reached the coast again about 3Km from the finish line I had nothing left and began walking again. At that point a female runner passed me and I couldn’t respond – and didn’t care. There was no shade on that part of the road and the sun and humidity had become unbearable. I started to feel numbness and tingling in my hands and knew what was happening so I switched to SURVIVAL mode and walked most of that final 3Km. With only 500 meters left I heard footsteps coming from behind me? Oh SHIT! – it’s two male runners trying to pass me before the finish line. NO FRIGGIN WAY! So I dug deep and found just enough energy to hold them off and I crossed the finish line in 4:08. But I was not in good shape.
Fortunately they had a bucket of ice water at the finish line and a kind volunteer began to sponge bath me with the ice-cold water. He thought it was funny when steam came off my head as he poured cold water over me? But he did get my body temp back down to around 100F. Now I needed another miraculous coke or other source of sugar. Thankfully my sports manager was waiting for me at the finish line. We walked back to the hotel and while I jumped into the pool to continue my cool down she got me a cold coke. As usual I felt much better within five minutes of drinking that coke?
Then I rewarded myself with an hour-long massage with one of the Masseuses at the poolside. I thought that some of my muscles would be sore but the only thing that hurt was my toes when he grabbed them. I had damaged/jammed three toes on the downhill legs and will lose those toenails within a few weeks.
Now it was time for a short nap as my head still felt woozy (heat exhaustion?) and then some lunch. That evening there was a ’gala awards banquet’. I don’t normally go to those events but I wanted to see the race results and spend some more time with my friend from London. Turns out that I placed first in the Senior Division (males 50+) and won a very nice hand-carved wooden sculpture.
The following day was to be our last full day in Bali so we again hired a car and driver for the day and had him take us on a tour of the east coast. We visited the ruins of an old floating palace and the palace of Puri Agung Karangasem (The Great Palace). Then we went snorkeling on a black sand beach at Amed. Finally our driver took us over some mountain roads along the coast that are not usually seen by tourists. And we figured out why quickly! You needed a 4X4 to travel them. Several miles of the roads had been washed out by landslides. Fortunately he had an SUV with lots of road clearance but even with that he bottomed many times. But we did get to see where and how the natives lived.
Now it was time to transfer back to Kuta near the airport for an early morning flight to LA via HK. It was a long, long trip, even in first class. To make matters worse I think that I had picked up a flu bug just before we left Bali and I got to enjoy/suffer all the flu symptoms during the long journey home.
But we had a great time and we would do it again. For you runners, Bali is a tough course. The heat is unbearable and the dogs and traffic are a nuisance. But the race organizers and volunteers were friendly and supportive. There are water stops and cold sponges every 3Km to help you get through the heat. Just don’t plan on setting a PR.
Sunday, March 31, 2002
TR Cambodia
TRIP REPORT
CAMBODIA and HONG KONG
3/25 –3/31/02
When I left off in the last report we were about to leave Bangkok for Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia. As I also mentioned previously I had prebooked this portion of the trip as a complete turnkey, private tour both for expediency and safety. In retrospect it was the correct decision because we would never have been able to cram in all the sights and education we received in five days by ourselves. I don’t think safety is a big concern so if you have lots of time you could certainly visit Cambodia on you own for much less money.
We departed Bangkok airport early Monday morning, March 25th – my birthday. I thought that was only fair since I had taken my sports manager to a marathon in Ocala, FL for her birthday? After arriving in PP and paying $20 for a visa at the airport (that took one whole page of the limited space in our passports) we were met by our new tour guide and driver. They drove us to our hotel first – a 4-star hotel that had seen better days and although it was located only one block from the US embassy the neighborhood looked pretty rough. But then again I had noticed from the air and the short drive that the whole city looked rough and to be in shambles. It reminded me of San Jose, Costa Rica except the infrastructure (roads, etc) was in even worse shape. Only the major roads and boulevards were paved – the others were dirt! And PP is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of 1 million. The other thing I quickly noticed was the traffic. There is no public transportation in PP so there are lots of cars and even more (millions) of motorbikes and bicycles. And like Rome and Cairo there didn’t seem to be any traffic rules? Vehicles and bikes were going in all directions – on both sides of the road! I was certainly glad that we had hired a local driver to get us through the maze.
The first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, PP’s main tourist sights. The Royal Palace itself is off limits since the king still lives there but many buildings on the grounds are open to the public. The Silver Pagoda or Preah Vihear Keo Morakot (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) takes its name from the floor of the temple covered with 5329 silver tiles. It also houses the famous Emerald Buddha. I was kind of upset with a gimmick they have in PP. Each tourist site has its own licensed guides so that our private guide had to hand us over to another guide which meant a ‘tip’ at each site. Our guide at the Royal Palace was a history professor at the University in PP. He made more from tips by moonlighting at the Palace than his monthly salary of $50 at the university. The average salary in Cambodia is about $30 per month. So a $1 tip is greatly appreciated.
The other thing we learned quickly is that the local currency ‘the riel’ (4000 per $1 US) was useless. Everyone quoted and requested US dollars. I exchanged $10 at the market later and the only way I could get rid of it was to give it away as tips. Make sure you take US traveler checks and cash since there are no ATMs in the country! The hotels and tourist restaurants will take plastic; otherwise you must have US dollars.
We then visited the Central Market located of course in the center of PP. All the locals do their shopping here on a daily basis. There are few tourists in PP so this is indeed a local market and you must be prepared to negotiate prices and still expect to pay 2 to 3 times what the locals pay (but still get a heck of a bargain because everything is dirt cheap). Now it was time for our first taste of Cambodian food at lunch. All meals were included in our tour package but the disadvantage was that most meals were a set menu and so we ate Cambodian and Thai food for lunch and dinner every day. We could have had it for breakfast too since the breakfast buffets all had a local and American side. But back to lunch! We received the daily special – a whole local fish steamed at our table with local spices and of course fried rice and veggies. Actually it was very tasty.
In the afternoon we visited the National Museum. It houses many of the original statues from the Temples at Angkor Wat. They had to be moved there to save them from looters/thieves. The statues at the temples are copies. Another thing we quickly realized about Cambodia and Asia in general. The only air conditioning in the country is in the hotel rooms of the international hotels. The lobbies, restaurants, public buildings, etc – NOTHING but the hotel room is air-conditioned! We damn near died from heat exhaustion a few times! Just walking and standing around in the museum was a brutal task -as interesting as the museum was I just wanted to leave and go back to our air conditioned car.
Our final stop of the first day was Wat Phnom (wat = pagoda in Cambodia) founded on the only hill in PP. Legend is that in 1372 a local widow, Lady Penh, stumbled across a floating trunk containing four bronze Buddha statues. She saw them as bearers of good fortune and had a small temple built for them on a hill overlooking the convergence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers. This hill became known as Penh’s hill –Phnom Penh – a name adopted by the city.
Finally and thankfully they dropped us off back at our hotel – and air-conditioned room! Both our guidebook and tour guide advised us not to walk around PP after dark (the only safety concern we received). We followed the advice and stayed in our air-conditioned room.
At least until 6am the next morning when I had to get out to do a training run. I was surprised and relieved to find other runners out there winding their way down to the river about a mile from the hotel where lots of locals were running and exercising. I had no problem with traffic for the first part of my run but on the way back I found myself in rush hour traffic and quickly had to adapt to survive. I had to run with the traffic and claim my piece of the road and somehow everyone else seemed to avoid me? I don’t know whether to call it trust or stupidity but it worked?
Now it was time to continue our tour with a visit to Tuol Sleng Museum or Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison. During their reign of terror the Khmer converted a secondary school into a prison. Most of the classrooms were converted into small cells (3ft x 6 ft) but 10 rooms were used to interrogate (read torture and kill) prisoners. The museum has many graphic photos of tortured and dead prisoners including children. It is very gruesome reminder of what went wrong. Over 20,000 victims were imprisoned in S-21. Only seven survived! There were also many photos of the mass graves or killing fields outside of PP but we did not go to the actual sites. I will send you a photo of the prison/house rules. I guarantee that if you post them in your kitchen and implement them immediately that you will never have any insubordination problems with your family.
Our last stop in PP was at the Russian market, a local market that had been frequented by the Russians during their stay in PP. It is noted mostly for its silver and jewellery.
Two days is quite adequate to visit PP and we weren’t disappointed to be leaving for our journey north to Angkor Wat/Siem Reap.
It’s only a 20-minute flight to Siem Reap which is Cambodia’s most touristy town and has many modern international hotels. We were rewarded with a new 4-star hotel that had just opened in Feb. It even had air conditioning in the lobby and restaurant (and it would be appreciated). Although Siem Reap is much smaller than PP the traffic was just as bad.
Our new guide and driver escorted us first to the park entrance/HQ at Angkor to buy a 3-day pass. Foreigners must buy a pass to enter the park and cannot drive in the park. Since there is no public transportation this means that you must hire a taxi or a car and driver for your visits. There are over 40 temples and complexes within Angkor and you would need at least a week to visit all of them. Thus we could only visit the major temples and sites and I will just try to summarize some of the highlights for you.
Angkor Wat – built in the 12th century. The centerpiece of Angkor. A huge temple surrounded by a wall and a moat. The architecture is complex and sophisticated and the statues and relief carvings in the sandstone are intricate and spectacular. There are miles and miles of sandstone carvings depicting the history and religious beliefs of the rulers and people of that period.
Angor Thom – a city built 2 Km north of Angkor Wat in the 12th century to house about 1 Million people. It was surrounded by a wall and a moat with four entrances, one at each compass point. Directly in the center of the city is The Banyon, a huge temple with 54 towers, each containing four heads, each head facing a compass point. It is widely conjectured what or whom the heads are supposed to represent but the common belief is King Jayavarman VII. There are many temples within the grounds of Angkor Thom as well as the Terrace of the Elephants – a long terrace containing sculptures of 3-headed elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.
All of these temples and complexes have intricate carvings depicting the history and religion of the periods. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining the carvings and history to us. Without his knowledge we would have had no idea what the various carvings meant.
Banteay Srei –the citadel of the women. Built in the 12th century. Renowned for its intricate carvings and decorations in pink sandstone and is in a state of remarkable preservation
Ta Prohm – 12th century. It was discovered in the 19th century and has been left untouched by archaeologists. Shrouded in jungle, trees grow amongst the stone pillars. Scenes from the recent movie ‘Tomb Raider’ were shot here.
There are many others but I can best sum up our experience by comparing the temples and ruins to the pyramids of Egypt. They are younger but the architecture is much more sophisticated and complex and the carvings much more vast and intricate. If you like to visit archaeological wonders then you must visit Angkor!
We finished our last tour day with an obligatory visit to a local school/factory where the government trained the locals in the ancient art/skill of carving – both wood and sandstone. It is all done by hand and so each piece is unique. We bought a sculpture of an Apsara dancer (the mythical dancer who is part female and part god) carved in Cambodian marble for $150. I don’t believe you could touch it in a gallery here for less than $1000? Now we are ready to leave – or are we?
All the while we were touring around Angkor I was observing and wondering if I could fulfill a hidden agenda – to run a marathon in Angkor/Cambodia! I had researched and determined that there is a half marathon held each Dec in Angkor but no marathon. A local runner had described the half marathon course to me – it is essentially a loop around the Mini Circle, a road that travels around most of the major temple sites. I asked the driver and guide to drive the loop to confirm the course. It was doable! The problem was getting there and support because I would have to do it very early to escape the heat. I had even booked an extra unscheduled day on the tour in the hope/expectation that I would be able to do it.
I asked the driver if he would be available to drive me there, assist me and what the charge would be. $10! I felt so guilty about asking him to pick me up at 4am that I insisted he take $20 – a full day’s pay! The tour guide, not to be left out, stated that he used to run half marathons and would like to accompany me for the first half? I was skeptical but didn’t care. The plan was on! At 4am on Friday the driver picked me up at the hotel. My sports manager did not bother waking up? We picked up the guide and proceeded to the west entrance of Angkor Wat. The marathon started at 4:15am in total darkness and a cool temperature of 80+F. As suspected the guide was not fast and after ½ mile I quit trying to run with him and forged ahead at an 8 minute pace. I wanted to get as many miles in as possible before sunrise! The driver continued to follow me and light up the road/path with his headlights. Otherwise it was so dark that I could never have run. The roads are in the park and although there are some local homes/huts along some stretches there was no electricity and thus no lights! Around 8Km the course makes a small loop back on itself and at that point I met my guide coming the other way. He was so discouraged that he quit, got in the car and helped provide support for the rest of the run. It was quite a scene – this white, mostly naked body running down the middle of a deserted road in the middle of a jungle being backlit with the high beams of a car. I think that apparition helped to scare off many of the dogs I encountered when I passed through a small settlement about 12Km into the race. But there were some dogs that decided to give chase and only backed off when I challenged them.
I had prearranged with my support crew to stop every 15 minutes (about 3km) for water as I knew that I would have to drink lots of fluid. I had given the driver money to buy eight 1-liter bottles of water and to put them on ice so I could also use them to cool down. They couldn’t seem to grasp the need to continue running while drinking so I just gave up and stopped for my water break even though it cost me time. A few kilometers after my encounter with the dogs I was running down a very dark stretch of road when I noticed a white or yellow streak slithering across the road right beneath my feet? It took about 5 microseconds to register what it was and another 5 microseconds to leap 5 feet vertically in the air. But it took an eternity as I hung there in mid-air defying gravity and watched a snake slither across the road and into the jungle before I allowed my body to drop back to earth! I had no idea what kind of snake it was. When I went back to the car to ask my support crew they were laughing so hard at my antics that they had not looked at he snake. Can I deduct snake-delay time from my finish time?
Soon I was back at the west entrance to Angkor Wat and passed the Half in 1:50 plus change. As I was following the route around Angkor Wat the second time I was treated to a spectacular sunrise lighting up the temple. Lots of people pay big bucks to go out there early for just that scene and I was getting it for free and I was still lucid enough to enjoy it. However that was about to change rapidly. As the sun rose so did the heat and humidity. And so did the problems with traffic as the locals started riding their bikes and motorbikes to work. By 20 miles I started sucking on sugar candy to prevent the low blood sugar problem I had in Bangkok and in addition to my stop at each water break I started walking for about 30 seconds while pouring cold water over my head to cool down. This slowed me down even more but at least I was able to continue running to the finish line and crossed it in 3:54:50. I was very hot and tired but had suffered no illness or injury and had eight days to recover for Bali.
After a quick cool-down my driver took me back to the hotel to find - guess what? My sports manager was still in bed sleeping! Some people have a tough life? But I still had time for a quick shower, breakfast and a nap before the guide and driver came to transport us to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. We planned to overnight near the airport to catch an early morning flight to Hong Kong. After two weeks of Thai and Chinese food our only goal/desire for that night was to eat some American food. A pepper steak and French fries tasted mighty good!
On Saturday we flew to HK and stayed overnight at a 5-star hotel overlooking Causeway Bay in downtown HK. We had two priorities: meet with a friend and ex-work colleague of Nicole’s for dinner and eat only American food before continuing on to Bali where we figured we would be eaing Indonesian food. There was a minor problem with sticker shock. After spending only $10 per day for three meals, paying $20 for a mid-size pizza was a shock. For dinner our friend was gracious when we took him to an English pub. I had Shepherd’s Pie – the first time I had seen mashed potatoes in two weeks. Funny how you can miss the little things?
We also went window-shopping in HK to see if it was still a shopper’s paradise – it’s NOT! I priced a 128mB memory card for my digital camera – only $5 cheaper than I can buy it here in Sarasota. Which means I can buy it a lot cheaper in NYC or on the net than in HK.
Now it was time to catch the next flight to Bali. Other than the marathon at the end of the stay, nothing was planned or structured for our 10 days there which meant that we could have some rest time and do our own thing. But that is the subject of the next report.
CAMBODIA and HONG KONG
3/25 –3/31/02
When I left off in the last report we were about to leave Bangkok for Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia. As I also mentioned previously I had prebooked this portion of the trip as a complete turnkey, private tour both for expediency and safety. In retrospect it was the correct decision because we would never have been able to cram in all the sights and education we received in five days by ourselves. I don’t think safety is a big concern so if you have lots of time you could certainly visit Cambodia on you own for much less money.
We departed Bangkok airport early Monday morning, March 25th – my birthday. I thought that was only fair since I had taken my sports manager to a marathon in Ocala, FL for her birthday? After arriving in PP and paying $20 for a visa at the airport (that took one whole page of the limited space in our passports) we were met by our new tour guide and driver. They drove us to our hotel first – a 4-star hotel that had seen better days and although it was located only one block from the US embassy the neighborhood looked pretty rough. But then again I had noticed from the air and the short drive that the whole city looked rough and to be in shambles. It reminded me of San Jose, Costa Rica except the infrastructure (roads, etc) was in even worse shape. Only the major roads and boulevards were paved – the others were dirt! And PP is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of 1 million. The other thing I quickly noticed was the traffic. There is no public transportation in PP so there are lots of cars and even more (millions) of motorbikes and bicycles. And like Rome and Cairo there didn’t seem to be any traffic rules? Vehicles and bikes were going in all directions – on both sides of the road! I was certainly glad that we had hired a local driver to get us through the maze.
The first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, PP’s main tourist sights. The Royal Palace itself is off limits since the king still lives there but many buildings on the grounds are open to the public. The Silver Pagoda or Preah Vihear Keo Morakot (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) takes its name from the floor of the temple covered with 5329 silver tiles. It also houses the famous Emerald Buddha. I was kind of upset with a gimmick they have in PP. Each tourist site has its own licensed guides so that our private guide had to hand us over to another guide which meant a ‘tip’ at each site. Our guide at the Royal Palace was a history professor at the University in PP. He made more from tips by moonlighting at the Palace than his monthly salary of $50 at the university. The average salary in Cambodia is about $30 per month. So a $1 tip is greatly appreciated.
The other thing we learned quickly is that the local currency ‘the riel’ (4000 per $1 US) was useless. Everyone quoted and requested US dollars. I exchanged $10 at the market later and the only way I could get rid of it was to give it away as tips. Make sure you take US traveler checks and cash since there are no ATMs in the country! The hotels and tourist restaurants will take plastic; otherwise you must have US dollars.
We then visited the Central Market located of course in the center of PP. All the locals do their shopping here on a daily basis. There are few tourists in PP so this is indeed a local market and you must be prepared to negotiate prices and still expect to pay 2 to 3 times what the locals pay (but still get a heck of a bargain because everything is dirt cheap). Now it was time for our first taste of Cambodian food at lunch. All meals were included in our tour package but the disadvantage was that most meals were a set menu and so we ate Cambodian and Thai food for lunch and dinner every day. We could have had it for breakfast too since the breakfast buffets all had a local and American side. But back to lunch! We received the daily special – a whole local fish steamed at our table with local spices and of course fried rice and veggies. Actually it was very tasty.
In the afternoon we visited the National Museum. It houses many of the original statues from the Temples at Angkor Wat. They had to be moved there to save them from looters/thieves. The statues at the temples are copies. Another thing we quickly realized about Cambodia and Asia in general. The only air conditioning in the country is in the hotel rooms of the international hotels. The lobbies, restaurants, public buildings, etc – NOTHING but the hotel room is air-conditioned! We damn near died from heat exhaustion a few times! Just walking and standing around in the museum was a brutal task -as interesting as the museum was I just wanted to leave and go back to our air conditioned car.
Our final stop of the first day was Wat Phnom (wat = pagoda in Cambodia) founded on the only hill in PP. Legend is that in 1372 a local widow, Lady Penh, stumbled across a floating trunk containing four bronze Buddha statues. She saw them as bearers of good fortune and had a small temple built for them on a hill overlooking the convergence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers. This hill became known as Penh’s hill –Phnom Penh – a name adopted by the city.
Finally and thankfully they dropped us off back at our hotel – and air-conditioned room! Both our guidebook and tour guide advised us not to walk around PP after dark (the only safety concern we received). We followed the advice and stayed in our air-conditioned room.
At least until 6am the next morning when I had to get out to do a training run. I was surprised and relieved to find other runners out there winding their way down to the river about a mile from the hotel where lots of locals were running and exercising. I had no problem with traffic for the first part of my run but on the way back I found myself in rush hour traffic and quickly had to adapt to survive. I had to run with the traffic and claim my piece of the road and somehow everyone else seemed to avoid me? I don’t know whether to call it trust or stupidity but it worked?
Now it was time to continue our tour with a visit to Tuol Sleng Museum or Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison. During their reign of terror the Khmer converted a secondary school into a prison. Most of the classrooms were converted into small cells (3ft x 6 ft) but 10 rooms were used to interrogate (read torture and kill) prisoners. The museum has many graphic photos of tortured and dead prisoners including children. It is very gruesome reminder of what went wrong. Over 20,000 victims were imprisoned in S-21. Only seven survived! There were also many photos of the mass graves or killing fields outside of PP but we did not go to the actual sites. I will send you a photo of the prison/house rules. I guarantee that if you post them in your kitchen and implement them immediately that you will never have any insubordination problems with your family.
Our last stop in PP was at the Russian market, a local market that had been frequented by the Russians during their stay in PP. It is noted mostly for its silver and jewellery.
Two days is quite adequate to visit PP and we weren’t disappointed to be leaving for our journey north to Angkor Wat/Siem Reap.
It’s only a 20-minute flight to Siem Reap which is Cambodia’s most touristy town and has many modern international hotels. We were rewarded with a new 4-star hotel that had just opened in Feb. It even had air conditioning in the lobby and restaurant (and it would be appreciated). Although Siem Reap is much smaller than PP the traffic was just as bad.
Our new guide and driver escorted us first to the park entrance/HQ at Angkor to buy a 3-day pass. Foreigners must buy a pass to enter the park and cannot drive in the park. Since there is no public transportation this means that you must hire a taxi or a car and driver for your visits. There are over 40 temples and complexes within Angkor and you would need at least a week to visit all of them. Thus we could only visit the major temples and sites and I will just try to summarize some of the highlights for you.
Angkor Wat – built in the 12th century. The centerpiece of Angkor. A huge temple surrounded by a wall and a moat. The architecture is complex and sophisticated and the statues and relief carvings in the sandstone are intricate and spectacular. There are miles and miles of sandstone carvings depicting the history and religious beliefs of the rulers and people of that period.
Angor Thom – a city built 2 Km north of Angkor Wat in the 12th century to house about 1 Million people. It was surrounded by a wall and a moat with four entrances, one at each compass point. Directly in the center of the city is The Banyon, a huge temple with 54 towers, each containing four heads, each head facing a compass point. It is widely conjectured what or whom the heads are supposed to represent but the common belief is King Jayavarman VII. There are many temples within the grounds of Angkor Thom as well as the Terrace of the Elephants – a long terrace containing sculptures of 3-headed elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.
All of these temples and complexes have intricate carvings depicting the history and religion of the periods. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining the carvings and history to us. Without his knowledge we would have had no idea what the various carvings meant.
Banteay Srei –the citadel of the women. Built in the 12th century. Renowned for its intricate carvings and decorations in pink sandstone and is in a state of remarkable preservation
Ta Prohm – 12th century. It was discovered in the 19th century and has been left untouched by archaeologists. Shrouded in jungle, trees grow amongst the stone pillars. Scenes from the recent movie ‘Tomb Raider’ were shot here.
There are many others but I can best sum up our experience by comparing the temples and ruins to the pyramids of Egypt. They are younger but the architecture is much more sophisticated and complex and the carvings much more vast and intricate. If you like to visit archaeological wonders then you must visit Angkor!
We finished our last tour day with an obligatory visit to a local school/factory where the government trained the locals in the ancient art/skill of carving – both wood and sandstone. It is all done by hand and so each piece is unique. We bought a sculpture of an Apsara dancer (the mythical dancer who is part female and part god) carved in Cambodian marble for $150. I don’t believe you could touch it in a gallery here for less than $1000? Now we are ready to leave – or are we?
All the while we were touring around Angkor I was observing and wondering if I could fulfill a hidden agenda – to run a marathon in Angkor/Cambodia! I had researched and determined that there is a half marathon held each Dec in Angkor but no marathon. A local runner had described the half marathon course to me – it is essentially a loop around the Mini Circle, a road that travels around most of the major temple sites. I asked the driver and guide to drive the loop to confirm the course. It was doable! The problem was getting there and support because I would have to do it very early to escape the heat. I had even booked an extra unscheduled day on the tour in the hope/expectation that I would be able to do it.
I asked the driver if he would be available to drive me there, assist me and what the charge would be. $10! I felt so guilty about asking him to pick me up at 4am that I insisted he take $20 – a full day’s pay! The tour guide, not to be left out, stated that he used to run half marathons and would like to accompany me for the first half? I was skeptical but didn’t care. The plan was on! At 4am on Friday the driver picked me up at the hotel. My sports manager did not bother waking up? We picked up the guide and proceeded to the west entrance of Angkor Wat. The marathon started at 4:15am in total darkness and a cool temperature of 80+F. As suspected the guide was not fast and after ½ mile I quit trying to run with him and forged ahead at an 8 minute pace. I wanted to get as many miles in as possible before sunrise! The driver continued to follow me and light up the road/path with his headlights. Otherwise it was so dark that I could never have run. The roads are in the park and although there are some local homes/huts along some stretches there was no electricity and thus no lights! Around 8Km the course makes a small loop back on itself and at that point I met my guide coming the other way. He was so discouraged that he quit, got in the car and helped provide support for the rest of the run. It was quite a scene – this white, mostly naked body running down the middle of a deserted road in the middle of a jungle being backlit with the high beams of a car. I think that apparition helped to scare off many of the dogs I encountered when I passed through a small settlement about 12Km into the race. But there were some dogs that decided to give chase and only backed off when I challenged them.
I had prearranged with my support crew to stop every 15 minutes (about 3km) for water as I knew that I would have to drink lots of fluid. I had given the driver money to buy eight 1-liter bottles of water and to put them on ice so I could also use them to cool down. They couldn’t seem to grasp the need to continue running while drinking so I just gave up and stopped for my water break even though it cost me time. A few kilometers after my encounter with the dogs I was running down a very dark stretch of road when I noticed a white or yellow streak slithering across the road right beneath my feet? It took about 5 microseconds to register what it was and another 5 microseconds to leap 5 feet vertically in the air. But it took an eternity as I hung there in mid-air defying gravity and watched a snake slither across the road and into the jungle before I allowed my body to drop back to earth! I had no idea what kind of snake it was. When I went back to the car to ask my support crew they were laughing so hard at my antics that they had not looked at he snake. Can I deduct snake-delay time from my finish time?
Soon I was back at the west entrance to Angkor Wat and passed the Half in 1:50 plus change. As I was following the route around Angkor Wat the second time I was treated to a spectacular sunrise lighting up the temple. Lots of people pay big bucks to go out there early for just that scene and I was getting it for free and I was still lucid enough to enjoy it. However that was about to change rapidly. As the sun rose so did the heat and humidity. And so did the problems with traffic as the locals started riding their bikes and motorbikes to work. By 20 miles I started sucking on sugar candy to prevent the low blood sugar problem I had in Bangkok and in addition to my stop at each water break I started walking for about 30 seconds while pouring cold water over my head to cool down. This slowed me down even more but at least I was able to continue running to the finish line and crossed it in 3:54:50. I was very hot and tired but had suffered no illness or injury and had eight days to recover for Bali.
After a quick cool-down my driver took me back to the hotel to find - guess what? My sports manager was still in bed sleeping! Some people have a tough life? But I still had time for a quick shower, breakfast and a nap before the guide and driver came to transport us to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. We planned to overnight near the airport to catch an early morning flight to Hong Kong. After two weeks of Thai and Chinese food our only goal/desire for that night was to eat some American food. A pepper steak and French fries tasted mighty good!
On Saturday we flew to HK and stayed overnight at a 5-star hotel overlooking Causeway Bay in downtown HK. We had two priorities: meet with a friend and ex-work colleague of Nicole’s for dinner and eat only American food before continuing on to Bali where we figured we would be eaing Indonesian food. There was a minor problem with sticker shock. After spending only $10 per day for three meals, paying $20 for a mid-size pizza was a shock. For dinner our friend was gracious when we took him to an English pub. I had Shepherd’s Pie – the first time I had seen mashed potatoes in two weeks. Funny how you can miss the little things?
We also went window-shopping in HK to see if it was still a shopper’s paradise – it’s NOT! I priced a 128mB memory card for my digital camera – only $5 cheaper than I can buy it here in Sarasota. Which means I can buy it a lot cheaper in NYC or on the net than in HK.
Now it was time to catch the next flight to Bali. Other than the marathon at the end of the stay, nothing was planned or structured for our 10 days there which meant that we could have some rest time and do our own thing. But that is the subject of the next report.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
TR Thailand Temple Run
TRIP REPORT
SE ASIA - THAILAND
3/18 – 3/25/02
Because of the length of time we were gone on this trip I plan to split the report into three separate reports chronologically in time.
Actually this trip was planned in a very short time since it was an alternative to my main goal for the spring – to run a few more countries in Europe. However all my attempts to contact the race directors in Yugoslavia, Latvia and Lithuania went unanswered. In addition the house situation in Florida clouded matters because we didn’t know when we would have to move. Finally the townhouse sold with a closing date of April 30th which meant the European marathons would be difficult to fit into our schedule anyway. So I decided to look into a new marathon being run in Thailand in late March. It appealed to me because it was being run outside of Bangkok which is polluted and has too much traffic. However I wanted/needed a second marathon in the area to spread the travel costs over and found a candidate in Bali, Indonesia two weeks later. Since we would have to stay and travel the region for two weeks maybe I could find a third marathon?
When trying to decide where we might visit during the interim period I remembered our son Jason telling us how much he enjoyed visiting the temples and ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Why not? Maybe I could find a marathon in Cambodia? The basic outline of the itinerary was set. After countless hours on the Internet I had the itinerary and reservations confirmed. Because I had decided to arrange private tours within Thailand and Cambodia for expediency and safety I needed to save money elsewhere and we agreed to use some of our frequent flyer miles and hotel points. That turned out to be a wise or lucky decision because we had to accept first/business class air tickets (for only 20,000 miles more than economy) and they were a blessing. I would not fly to Asia again unless it was first or business class because you spend too much time on planes and in airports!
Both marathons offered packages that included entry fees and discounted hotel rates that were very reasonable. Combined with the private tours we only had one additional night in Bangkok and five in Bali to cover and we cashed in some Sheraton points to arrange those hotels nights. So far our costs were only about 25% of the actual cost of the trip and we would only have to cover meals and tours in Bali. We were ready! (Sorry for the preamble but it is important to understand that these trips just don’t magically appear – there is a lot of planning and work involved. Even more when you are not sure about the local political climate and safety.) But now – on with the trip.
We left Sarasota late afternoon on March 18th and as usual it did not take too long to hit our first road (or is that air) bump. When we arrived in Vancouver, BC at 11pm to transfer to Cathay Pacific for the Asian leg, we were informed that the flight was delayed from a 1:30am departure to 4:30am. Not enough time to bother going to a hotel so we decided to wait in the airport. Well the flight finally left at 8am after we tried to sleep on the floor of the airport for six hours. What really pissed us off was that no Cathay rep showed up to advise us that the first class lounge was open and we could have slept on a comfortable couch in the lounge. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Hong Kong and since we had missed our connection we had to wait another two hours (at least this time we enjoyed the lounge). Finally 42 hours after we left Florida we arrived in Bangkok! But our luggage, or at least my luggage, did not arrive with us! So after putting in a lost baggage report, etc we finally, finally arrived at the Sheraton 43 hours after we left home. Needless to say we were a bit tired! It was 7pm and our tour started the next day with a 7am transfer to the airport to fly north to Chiang Mai. Finally (for us and for you too) the vacation is truly about to start.
7am. We are on our way to the airport (still without my luggage that didn’t show up at the hotel as promised by Cathay). Depart 9:30 and arrive Chiang Mai at 10:30 to be met by a private tour guide and driver. We chose Chiang Mai because we had visited Bangkok and the beaches in South Thailand on a previous visit and decided to explore the northern part of the country this time. Chiang Mai is the capital of the northern region and is the main center for hilltribe trekking. Northern Thailand’s hilltribes, about 750K people living in about 3500 villages, have so far preserved their way of life with little change over thousands of years.
Our first stop of the morning was a Handicraft Village where there were numerous shops and factories making labor intensive products such as furniture, wood carvings, silk, etc. We visited a few that were interesting but then told our guide enough. We didn’t come to shop but to see Thailand. So after lunch she took us up Doi Suthep mountain that rises steeply on the western edge of the city to visit Wat Phra Doi Suthep (wat = temple), the North’s holiest temple or shrine because its chedi is supposed to contain fragments of Buddha. The temple is very colorful and striking as are most Buddhist temples in Thailand and commands a great view overlooking the city. It was a pleasant change to get out of the city. We then returned to the city for a brief tour around the city including the old quarter set within a 2Km square moat. That evening we went to the Thailand Cultural Center for dinner and a show that featured traditional Thai music and dances.
The following morning I ran around the moat of the old city (twice) before we headed north out of Chiang Mai to visit an elephant camp and one hilltribe. There are still about 5000 elephants left in Thailand. They were used as work animals for logging, etc but now are kept in camps to do shows and provide rides for tourists. We rode an elephant for one hour across rivers and up a mountain trail. My biggest surprise was that they could navigate so well up and down mountain trails. But are they ever slow! We covered about 1½ miles in one hour. After the elephant ride we rode on a bamboo raft for a few miles down the Ping River. It was the dry hot season so the water was low but it was a nice relaxing ride.
Time for lunch at an orchid farm before we visit the Hmong hilltribe. Although a few of the traditional family huts have electricity for lighting there is no water, plumbing, etc. They still grind and prepare rice with the same tools that they have been using for hundreds of years and cook over open fires inside the huts. I took a picture of an 80 year-old Hmong woman and her mother (100+). They were both quite healthy in spite of a very tough life?
Now it was time to head back to Bangkok where the marathon was being staged and hopefully reunite with my lost luggage (I did!). As mentioned previously we had booked a ‘marathon package’ and now I understood how and why the packages were put together. The Thailand Temple Run was organized by a runner who wanted to offer an alternative to the Bangkok Marathon. It just so happens that the runner (a Swede) is also the manager of the Amari Watergate Hotel, a 5-star hotel that is the flagship of a chain of hotels throughout Asia. We stayed at the Watergate since it was the host hotel and all the activities were held there. Part of the package was a tour of the floating market followed by a tour of the course. All these benefits were included in the entry fee but I had to pay extra for my sports manager. We had visited a floating market in Bangkok on our previous trip that was a ‘real market’ for the locals. That market is gone and has been replaced with a new floating market that is about 60Kms outside of Bangkok. The new one in my opinion was built strictly as a tourist trap and not worth the visit. But it was close to where the marathon was being run so was included in the package. The marathon route started and finished at the Phumrinkudeethong Temple in Samut Songkram, a rural community about 60km west of Bangkok. The course was a narrow country road winding past plantations (bananas, lichys, lemons) and rice fields. It also passed a total of 18 temples in the half marathon loop before returning on the same path. There were many (too many) twists and turns in the course. There were a number of huts or dwellings along the route and it seemed to me that every family in Asia owns at least two dogs. And since most of the homes don’t have doors or windows the dogs are not kept indoors. I was a bit concerned about the number of dogs along the course?
The package also included the usual carbo load dinner at the Amari Watergate. I had to pay $17 for my sports manager and all we got was a single SMALL plate of pasta, bread and a dessert. Water was included but you had to pay for booze or a soft drink. And there were no seconds. We could have gone to any Italian restaurant in Bangkok and both eaten better for $17! Now it was time for bed since we had to get up at 2am to catch the bus at 2:45am. Needless to say my sports manager was not going to accompany me to the start line!
Sunday (3/24) was M- day! We arrived at the P temple at 4am. No need to worry about warm ups or being cold before the start. It was close to 80F at 4am! There were about 150 runners in the Full and 250 in the Half. I and only one other runner from the US – in fact from the Sarasota running Club ran topless. Everyone else wore a singlet or T-shirt. No way – not when it is 80+ at the start! After the monks from the temple sprayed all the runners with holy water for good luck the race started at 5am. There were a few streetlights for the first ½ mile and then we were running in total darkness on a small, narrow road in the country. Couldn’t see my feet so had to focus on the silhouette of the runners in front. I ran the first 5Km with my friend from Sarasota but then he started to drop off and I wanted to continue to push while the temperature was still a cool 80F. I couldn’t see or read my watch and I couldn’t find any distance markers until 16Km so had no idea what my pace was until then. Sub 8 minutes at 16Km. Thank goodness for the race volunteers and police who were stationed at many of the turns. They prevented us/me from getting lost and more importantly shone flashlights on the road so that we could see and to caution the many cyclists and bikers to watch for runners. About 5:30 am the locals started going to work. There were very few cars but lots of bikes and motorbikes – AND none of them had lights. I had several near collisions until I started shouting whenever I heard or saw a bike approach. My other concern also turned real as there were many dogs along the route. Most seemed too tired and hot or afraid to bother the runners but there were a few mangy, snarly dogs that caused me to slow down and challenge them to back off. They must get abused and kicked a lot because they would normally back down and cower away when challenged – but it was still a big nuisance!
It remained dark until 6am and then there was just enough light so that we could see the road but I still couldn’t read my watch. I thought/hoped that the road would be safer now from the bike traffic but it only seemed to get worse as they now went faster? I crossed the Half in 1:43 – way too fast for my training and the heat conditions but I decided to continue to push and take advantage of the cool (now mid 80s) temps. Another thing I did like about the race was the race bib/number scheme. The race bib contained both your age group and number. As I approached the Half the lead runners were coming back and I began counting the runners in my age group: one about 10 minutes ahead and a second about 5 minutes. I caught a 3rd runner in my group right before the Half so I should have been in 3rd place at that point. “Continue to push Maddog”. I caught 2nd place about 30K and continued to push although I knew I was slowing and beginning to hurt. However about 34K a Japanese runner in my group caught up to me and we began a ‘cat and mouse’ game. Neither of us wanted to take the lead at that point – just hang on to the runner in front and make a final kick at the end. Finally I saw a 38K marker and decided to go for it. I quickly left him behind but I was starting to hurt real bad. I felt I could hang on for just 4K more. But 10 minutes later, when I should have reached the 40K mark, another marker said 38K - AGAIN! That killed me! I knew that I did not have enough left to push for another 4K. Sure enough the runner passed me and made his final kick and I couldn’t respond.
By now in fact I knew that I was in serious trouble. I was extremely overheated and my fingers and arms started to go tingly and numb and I was experiencing dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I have been there, done that and knew that my blood-sugar level had dropped to zero. Unfortunately there were no more water/aid stations before the finish line so I had to struggle on. Finally crossed the finish line in 3:35 with only two priorities: get my body cooled down and get some sugar into me. The first priority was easy as there was a large bucket of crushed ice waiting right at the finish line and I liberally applied ice until I lowered my body temperature back to around 100+. I started to look for a coke or something with sugar but after a few minutes I was so dizzy that I couldn’t stand up any more so I just collapsed on to the temple grounds and waited for a race volunteer to come to my aid. It only took a few minutes and when I explained my problem and need that wonderful guy quickly brought me an ice-cold coke. You can’t believe how quickly the body absorbs that stuff. Within two minutes of guzzling that coke the tingling and numbness went away and I could get up and walk around. However I didn’t feel like waiting around for the awards so I tried to find the results. Duh! They had another great system. When I crossed the finish line they handed me a finisher’s medal, a piece of paper with my official finish time and a small plastic card with my group placing. I had been so sick and out of it at the finish all I had remembered was the medal.
It turned out that I had placed 4th. I still have no idea where #2 was or came from because I know that I deeked it out for 3rd place – and lost! However the awards did go five deep and were quite nice although just the standard trophy type. I later learned that I had been the first non-Asian and American to cross the finish line – 1st overseas runner as they called it? Back to the hotel for a quick shower and a nap.
Later that night I made another mistake by going to the ‘Gala Awards Banquet’. Cost another $23 to take my sports manager and again it was not worth it.
But overall I still have to give the race and the management good marks. It is certainly a better alternative than running a marathon in Bangkok itself.
Now it is time to pack and move on to Cambodia. But let’s leave that for the next trip report.
SE ASIA - THAILAND
3/18 – 3/25/02
Because of the length of time we were gone on this trip I plan to split the report into three separate reports chronologically in time.
Actually this trip was planned in a very short time since it was an alternative to my main goal for the spring – to run a few more countries in Europe. However all my attempts to contact the race directors in Yugoslavia, Latvia and Lithuania went unanswered. In addition the house situation in Florida clouded matters because we didn’t know when we would have to move. Finally the townhouse sold with a closing date of April 30th which meant the European marathons would be difficult to fit into our schedule anyway. So I decided to look into a new marathon being run in Thailand in late March. It appealed to me because it was being run outside of Bangkok which is polluted and has too much traffic. However I wanted/needed a second marathon in the area to spread the travel costs over and found a candidate in Bali, Indonesia two weeks later. Since we would have to stay and travel the region for two weeks maybe I could find a third marathon?
When trying to decide where we might visit during the interim period I remembered our son Jason telling us how much he enjoyed visiting the temples and ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Why not? Maybe I could find a marathon in Cambodia? The basic outline of the itinerary was set. After countless hours on the Internet I had the itinerary and reservations confirmed. Because I had decided to arrange private tours within Thailand and Cambodia for expediency and safety I needed to save money elsewhere and we agreed to use some of our frequent flyer miles and hotel points. That turned out to be a wise or lucky decision because we had to accept first/business class air tickets (for only 20,000 miles more than economy) and they were a blessing. I would not fly to Asia again unless it was first or business class because you spend too much time on planes and in airports!
Both marathons offered packages that included entry fees and discounted hotel rates that were very reasonable. Combined with the private tours we only had one additional night in Bangkok and five in Bali to cover and we cashed in some Sheraton points to arrange those hotels nights. So far our costs were only about 25% of the actual cost of the trip and we would only have to cover meals and tours in Bali. We were ready! (Sorry for the preamble but it is important to understand that these trips just don’t magically appear – there is a lot of planning and work involved. Even more when you are not sure about the local political climate and safety.) But now – on with the trip.
We left Sarasota late afternoon on March 18th and as usual it did not take too long to hit our first road (or is that air) bump. When we arrived in Vancouver, BC at 11pm to transfer to Cathay Pacific for the Asian leg, we were informed that the flight was delayed from a 1:30am departure to 4:30am. Not enough time to bother going to a hotel so we decided to wait in the airport. Well the flight finally left at 8am after we tried to sleep on the floor of the airport for six hours. What really pissed us off was that no Cathay rep showed up to advise us that the first class lounge was open and we could have slept on a comfortable couch in the lounge. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Hong Kong and since we had missed our connection we had to wait another two hours (at least this time we enjoyed the lounge). Finally 42 hours after we left Florida we arrived in Bangkok! But our luggage, or at least my luggage, did not arrive with us! So after putting in a lost baggage report, etc we finally, finally arrived at the Sheraton 43 hours after we left home. Needless to say we were a bit tired! It was 7pm and our tour started the next day with a 7am transfer to the airport to fly north to Chiang Mai. Finally (for us and for you too) the vacation is truly about to start.
7am. We are on our way to the airport (still without my luggage that didn’t show up at the hotel as promised by Cathay). Depart 9:30 and arrive Chiang Mai at 10:30 to be met by a private tour guide and driver. We chose Chiang Mai because we had visited Bangkok and the beaches in South Thailand on a previous visit and decided to explore the northern part of the country this time. Chiang Mai is the capital of the northern region and is the main center for hilltribe trekking. Northern Thailand’s hilltribes, about 750K people living in about 3500 villages, have so far preserved their way of life with little change over thousands of years.
Our first stop of the morning was a Handicraft Village where there were numerous shops and factories making labor intensive products such as furniture, wood carvings, silk, etc. We visited a few that were interesting but then told our guide enough. We didn’t come to shop but to see Thailand. So after lunch she took us up Doi Suthep mountain that rises steeply on the western edge of the city to visit Wat Phra Doi Suthep (wat = temple), the North’s holiest temple or shrine because its chedi is supposed to contain fragments of Buddha. The temple is very colorful and striking as are most Buddhist temples in Thailand and commands a great view overlooking the city. It was a pleasant change to get out of the city. We then returned to the city for a brief tour around the city including the old quarter set within a 2Km square moat. That evening we went to the Thailand Cultural Center for dinner and a show that featured traditional Thai music and dances.
The following morning I ran around the moat of the old city (twice) before we headed north out of Chiang Mai to visit an elephant camp and one hilltribe. There are still about 5000 elephants left in Thailand. They were used as work animals for logging, etc but now are kept in camps to do shows and provide rides for tourists. We rode an elephant for one hour across rivers and up a mountain trail. My biggest surprise was that they could navigate so well up and down mountain trails. But are they ever slow! We covered about 1½ miles in one hour. After the elephant ride we rode on a bamboo raft for a few miles down the Ping River. It was the dry hot season so the water was low but it was a nice relaxing ride.
Time for lunch at an orchid farm before we visit the Hmong hilltribe. Although a few of the traditional family huts have electricity for lighting there is no water, plumbing, etc. They still grind and prepare rice with the same tools that they have been using for hundreds of years and cook over open fires inside the huts. I took a picture of an 80 year-old Hmong woman and her mother (100+). They were both quite healthy in spite of a very tough life?
Now it was time to head back to Bangkok where the marathon was being staged and hopefully reunite with my lost luggage (I did!). As mentioned previously we had booked a ‘marathon package’ and now I understood how and why the packages were put together. The Thailand Temple Run was organized by a runner who wanted to offer an alternative to the Bangkok Marathon. It just so happens that the runner (a Swede) is also the manager of the Amari Watergate Hotel, a 5-star hotel that is the flagship of a chain of hotels throughout Asia. We stayed at the Watergate since it was the host hotel and all the activities were held there. Part of the package was a tour of the floating market followed by a tour of the course. All these benefits were included in the entry fee but I had to pay extra for my sports manager. We had visited a floating market in Bangkok on our previous trip that was a ‘real market’ for the locals. That market is gone and has been replaced with a new floating market that is about 60Kms outside of Bangkok. The new one in my opinion was built strictly as a tourist trap and not worth the visit. But it was close to where the marathon was being run so was included in the package. The marathon route started and finished at the Phumrinkudeethong Temple in Samut Songkram, a rural community about 60km west of Bangkok. The course was a narrow country road winding past plantations (bananas, lichys, lemons) and rice fields. It also passed a total of 18 temples in the half marathon loop before returning on the same path. There were many (too many) twists and turns in the course. There were a number of huts or dwellings along the route and it seemed to me that every family in Asia owns at least two dogs. And since most of the homes don’t have doors or windows the dogs are not kept indoors. I was a bit concerned about the number of dogs along the course?
The package also included the usual carbo load dinner at the Amari Watergate. I had to pay $17 for my sports manager and all we got was a single SMALL plate of pasta, bread and a dessert. Water was included but you had to pay for booze or a soft drink. And there were no seconds. We could have gone to any Italian restaurant in Bangkok and both eaten better for $17! Now it was time for bed since we had to get up at 2am to catch the bus at 2:45am. Needless to say my sports manager was not going to accompany me to the start line!
Sunday (3/24) was M- day! We arrived at the P temple at 4am. No need to worry about warm ups or being cold before the start. It was close to 80F at 4am! There were about 150 runners in the Full and 250 in the Half. I and only one other runner from the US – in fact from the Sarasota running Club ran topless. Everyone else wore a singlet or T-shirt. No way – not when it is 80+ at the start! After the monks from the temple sprayed all the runners with holy water for good luck the race started at 5am. There were a few streetlights for the first ½ mile and then we were running in total darkness on a small, narrow road in the country. Couldn’t see my feet so had to focus on the silhouette of the runners in front. I ran the first 5Km with my friend from Sarasota but then he started to drop off and I wanted to continue to push while the temperature was still a cool 80F. I couldn’t see or read my watch and I couldn’t find any distance markers until 16Km so had no idea what my pace was until then. Sub 8 minutes at 16Km. Thank goodness for the race volunteers and police who were stationed at many of the turns. They prevented us/me from getting lost and more importantly shone flashlights on the road so that we could see and to caution the many cyclists and bikers to watch for runners. About 5:30 am the locals started going to work. There were very few cars but lots of bikes and motorbikes – AND none of them had lights. I had several near collisions until I started shouting whenever I heard or saw a bike approach. My other concern also turned real as there were many dogs along the route. Most seemed too tired and hot or afraid to bother the runners but there were a few mangy, snarly dogs that caused me to slow down and challenge them to back off. They must get abused and kicked a lot because they would normally back down and cower away when challenged – but it was still a big nuisance!
It remained dark until 6am and then there was just enough light so that we could see the road but I still couldn’t read my watch. I thought/hoped that the road would be safer now from the bike traffic but it only seemed to get worse as they now went faster? I crossed the Half in 1:43 – way too fast for my training and the heat conditions but I decided to continue to push and take advantage of the cool (now mid 80s) temps. Another thing I did like about the race was the race bib/number scheme. The race bib contained both your age group and number. As I approached the Half the lead runners were coming back and I began counting the runners in my age group: one about 10 minutes ahead and a second about 5 minutes. I caught a 3rd runner in my group right before the Half so I should have been in 3rd place at that point. “Continue to push Maddog”. I caught 2nd place about 30K and continued to push although I knew I was slowing and beginning to hurt. However about 34K a Japanese runner in my group caught up to me and we began a ‘cat and mouse’ game. Neither of us wanted to take the lead at that point – just hang on to the runner in front and make a final kick at the end. Finally I saw a 38K marker and decided to go for it. I quickly left him behind but I was starting to hurt real bad. I felt I could hang on for just 4K more. But 10 minutes later, when I should have reached the 40K mark, another marker said 38K - AGAIN! That killed me! I knew that I did not have enough left to push for another 4K. Sure enough the runner passed me and made his final kick and I couldn’t respond.
By now in fact I knew that I was in serious trouble. I was extremely overheated and my fingers and arms started to go tingly and numb and I was experiencing dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I have been there, done that and knew that my blood-sugar level had dropped to zero. Unfortunately there were no more water/aid stations before the finish line so I had to struggle on. Finally crossed the finish line in 3:35 with only two priorities: get my body cooled down and get some sugar into me. The first priority was easy as there was a large bucket of crushed ice waiting right at the finish line and I liberally applied ice until I lowered my body temperature back to around 100+. I started to look for a coke or something with sugar but after a few minutes I was so dizzy that I couldn’t stand up any more so I just collapsed on to the temple grounds and waited for a race volunteer to come to my aid. It only took a few minutes and when I explained my problem and need that wonderful guy quickly brought me an ice-cold coke. You can’t believe how quickly the body absorbs that stuff. Within two minutes of guzzling that coke the tingling and numbness went away and I could get up and walk around. However I didn’t feel like waiting around for the awards so I tried to find the results. Duh! They had another great system. When I crossed the finish line they handed me a finisher’s medal, a piece of paper with my official finish time and a small plastic card with my group placing. I had been so sick and out of it at the finish all I had remembered was the medal.
It turned out that I had placed 4th. I still have no idea where #2 was or came from because I know that I deeked it out for 3rd place – and lost! However the awards did go five deep and were quite nice although just the standard trophy type. I later learned that I had been the first non-Asian and American to cross the finish line – 1st overseas runner as they called it? Back to the hotel for a quick shower and a nap.
Later that night I made another mistake by going to the ‘Gala Awards Banquet’. Cost another $23 to take my sports manager and again it was not worth it.
But overall I still have to give the race and the management good marks. It is certainly a better alternative than running a marathon in Bangkok itself.
Now it is time to pack and move on to Cambodia. But let’s leave that for the next trip report.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)