RACE REPORT
Sun, Jun 5/05
Steamboat Marathon
Steamboat Springs, CO
Marathon # 243
Time: 3:57:58 - 1st AG
This was a totally unplanned, impromptu race. There were so many reasons why I shouldn’t run a marathon:
Lack of training – I had run very few training miles since we returned from Europe due to that flu bug and the move from FL to CO
Only one week of altitude training/adjustment
I was in very poor marathon condition
But then again there were a few reasons why I should run a marathon:
I had logged 70 miles in the mtns in my first week in the High Country
What better way to correct all of the above than to run a tough, hilly marathon at high altitude?
Then Mother Nature added some additional concerns/reasons “not to run the marathon”. As you saw by the photos I sent, the weather was horrific for the two days before the race. It snowed Fri and Sat and was still snowing when we (the sports manager and I) left home for Steamboat Springs at noon on Sat. But the weather forecast called for sun and temps in the mid 60s on Sun? The snow soon changed to rain and we even had flashes of sun on the drive to Steamboat – until we drove up Rabbit Ears Pass (9,500 ft) where it was raining and the fog was so thick we couldn’t see more than 25 ft! When we arrived in Steamboat it was raining so I collected my race package and we secluded ourselves in the hotel. We were disappointed because we wanted to stroll and window-shop in Steamboat because it is such a nice place to visit – an old western town – now a ski resort village with lots of neat shops, bars and cafes. No such luck – it was still raining when we went for dinner. I was beginning to worry about the forecast – I did not want to run at high elevations in such terrible weather!
But the weather Gods smiled on us and it was sunny with few clouds when I lined up for the bus at 6am. The course is point-to point and starts at Hahn’s Peak (an extinct volcanic mtn) 26 miles northwest of Steamboat. It was sunny with a light breeze and temps in the mid 40s at the 7:30am start. The temps gradually warmed up to 60F when I crossed the finish line. What great weather for a race!
There were 500 runners in the Marathon and 900 in the Half. The race starts at 8128 ft – drops about 200 vertical ft over the first 3 miles and then climbs to the highest point of the course –8178 ft. at mile 4. The course then drops 1400 vertical ft over the next 17 miles although there are several rolling hills and many of them are BAH (Bad Ass Hills). Coming down off the BAH at mile 4 a runner with a gray hair and beard blew by me. Could he be in my age group? I decided to let him go. I ran this race last year with two mates from the UK. I had been in much better shape and had trained at high altitude for one month. I had started out too fast and struggled over the last 10K so I was determined not to make that mistake this year – especially for the reasons above. My goal was to finish under 4 hours so I tried to run a 9-min pace for the 1st Half. However the hills made it difficult/impossible to run a consistent pace so I decided to pace strictly off my heart monitor. It kind of worked as I passed 10 miles in 1:25 and the Half in 1:54. That was about 3 minutes faster than desired and I hoped it would not bite me in the ass later even though I felt strong and relaxed. I contemplated pushing the pace for the 2nd Half but wisely decided to wait till I reached mile 16 and then make the decision. However at mile fifteen I passed ‘Mr. Gray Beard’ and I decided to charge up the BAH at mile 15 to bury him! When I crested the top I continued to push the pace lest he try to catch me? But it didn’t last long! By mile 18 my legs started to feel tired and I decided to slow down to conserve energy for a really BAH starting at mile 21. I reached mile 20 in 2:57:20 but I was starting to struggle. Another competitor with gray hair blew by me – I had to let him go because I knew I could not survive a ‘running duel’ with 10K left to go!
The lack of training miles was staring to tell!
The course had dropped to 6700 ft at mile 21 and then climbed about 300 vertical ft over the next two miles. I struggled to run a 10:15 pace through those two miles. Finally I crested the BAH at mile 23. The last 5K dropped down to finish at 6728 ft in downtown Steamboat. The time was 3:27:44. All I had to do was run a 10-min pace for the final 5K? But there was no gas/energy left in the old legs and bod – and I was starting to have trouble sucking enough air to keep the legs moving. Only experience and will power kept the old, tired legs running/moving for the final 3 miles. When I saw the finish line with ½ mile to go I asked the old bod to give me one final jolt of adrenaline so I could push the pace and cross the finish line in 3:57:58!
After the obligatory photo at the finish line the sports manager drove me back to the hotel for a soothing hot bath and shower. I wanted to return to the finish line to see where I finished. I figured I had at least placed in my age group. I was surprised to discover that I had finished 1st! Mr. Gray Hair was a youngster in his 50s. We stuck around to collect my award since this race provides nice/practical awards – running gear!
From a race results viewpoint this looked like a successful race but from a personal point of view there was both Good and Bad news.
Good News:
I finished under my goal of 4 hrs
I won 1st place in my age group
I had no pain/problems with my left knee that had surgery in Feb
Bad News:
My time was 13 minutes slower than last year
I finished 119th overall vs 54th last year
My marathon shape can be summed up in one word– PATHETIC
I need to beat my pathetic, old, out-of-shape body back into marathon shape if I ever want to achieve my goal of running sub 3:30 marathons again! To accomplish this goal I have scheduled races (Halfs and Marathons at elevations from 8,500 to 13,800 ft) every weekend for the next month.
I am determined to beat this old bod into good marathon shape or KILL it – whichever comes first!
So stay tuned for more race reports – or an Obituary!
Maddog
Monday, June 06, 2005
Wednesday, May 11, 2005
Trip report - Poland
TRIP REPORT
POLAND & ENGLAND
May 5 –10/05
Photos may be viewed on www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Now where were we? Oh yes – this is part two of a two-week European trip and we had just traveled from Belfast to London (Luton airport) and were now departing Luton for Krakow, Poland.
We met up with about 16 runners/mates from London and the Midlands at Luton. I had met most of them on other trips. They are members of the 100 Marathon Club (UK).
When we arrived in Krakow we had a brilliant idea to take a local bus from the airport into the city. Eighteen of us loaded ourselves and all our baggage on to a local bus. Forty-five minutes and another tram later we finally arrived at our hotel. Everyone vowed that they would take a taxi back to the airport when they departed?
Waiting at the hotel was another good friend/runner from London who was our unofficial guide and translator for the trip. Tad is of Polish ancestry and still has family in Poland - and fortunately still speaks Polish! After helping us check in Tad escorted us to Race HQ to pick up our race packets and show us where the race started. His language skills were much in demand and appreciated. After registration most of the runners decided to accompany Tad to a popular local restaurant to enjoy Polish food and beer. However I had still not recovered from the flu – in fact it seemed that I always suffered a relapse each evening. So the sports manager and I found a Thai restaurant near the hotel and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner. What a difference from Ireland and the UK. Our dinner with wine cost about $15 US! Poland is still a relatively good tourist bargain compared with most of Europe. This is true of most of the former Soviet countries but unfortunately it is changing fast so take advantage of these tourist destinations/bargains while you can.
It was an early evening for us as I hoped that lots of rest would finally kill that damn flu bug? On Friday morning several runners decided to visit a 1000-year old salt mine in Wieliczka that contains many underground sculptures but we decided we would rather explore Krakow. Unlike many other Polish cities Krakow miraculously survived WWII and years of socialist planning relatively unscathed. The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is compact and easy to explore on foot. In the center of the Old Town are the Main Marketplace (Rynek Glowny) and the Cloth Hall. The square is ringed with bars and cafes and several interesting buildings and sites such as: St Mary’s Church with a 500-year old wooden altar – the oldest Gothic altar in the world and the small church of St Wojciech – one of the oldest churches in Krakow. Going south out of the Old Town is the Royal Road that leads past many more churches to the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill. The Wawel Castle (Zamek Wawelski) was originally built in the 10th century and remodeled in the 1500s. The royal apartments and staterooms contain the original furnishings and can be visited. The castle complex includes Wawel Cathedral where many polish kings were coronated and Pope John Paul II was the Archbishop. We spent the whole day exploring Wawel Castle and Old Town.
Friday evening many of the runners/mates decided to go to the official marathon pasta party but some including the sports manager and I decided to find a local Italian restaurant to enjoy better pasta. Nicole and I again did our own thing and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner ($15US vs the $40 at the Pizza Hut in Belfast?). I retired early because the flu was still dragging me down.
Saturday was M-day! The race started at 9am. The weather was miserable as we walked from the hotel to the start line – very cold and raining! There were about 2000 runners in the Marathon and a Half marathon. I wore my typical rain gear (garbage bag) for the first three miles because it was so cold and miserable. I felt sorry for those runners just wearing shorts and a singlet. But this race was much better organized than Belfast. There were distance markers every 1Km and water every 3 – 5 Km. Much of the course was on paved bike paths along the Wisla River and when it did run on roads the roads were blocked off to traffic.
I was not sure or confident in my health/condition because of the flu bug and did not want to repeat the same mistake (and pain) as Belfast so I started out very slowly. I watched my heart monitor closely and kept my pace just under 9 min/mile through the first Half. Many of my mates that I normally beat passed me and I just let them go. I reached the Half in 1:57:09 and felt OK. I thought about picking up the pace at that point to see if I could catch some of my mates but decided it was still too early to make a push. I reached 27Km in 2:30 and still felt OK except for the occasional, uncontrollable coughing spasms that hurt like heck but I decided it was now or never to make a push. Besides it was raining hard again and I was so cold and miserable that I needed to get this over with? I dropped the pace to 8:20/8:30s.
I caught and passed a few mates but was looking for one mate in particular – yes Roger I was looking for you! After 8 Km of pushing hard I still couldn’t see Roger? I figured that if I could just see him by 38K I could make an interesting/challenging race out of it? At 37K there was a loop in the course and I still couldn’t see him (regretfully it turned out that Roger did see me at 37K although I didn’t see him – he was only one minute ahead at that point?). So I decided it wasn’t worth killing myself for the last 5 Km and eased off some. I crossed the finish line in the Old Town Square in 3:53:58 – about 1-½ minutes behind Roger!
I was pleased with my race. The time was not great but I had run a smart race and even ran a negative split in the second Half. However I will now have to wait for another opportunity to regain my bragging rights over Roger and a few other mates.
It was still raining when I finished the race and I felt cold and miserable. Unfortunately our hotel room did not have a bath so I had to stand in a shower for more than 30 minutes while running the hottest water I could stand over my poor cold body. Finally I felt like living again and decided it was time to explore some more of Krakow and work up an appetite for some Polish food and beer. Thankfully the sun had come out and the sports manager and I walked over to the Castle to take some pictures and then we walked through Kazimierz – Krakow’s 600-year old Jewish Quarter and back to the Old Town for some food and beer.
Later that evening we met with a group of mates to accompany Tad back to the favorite restaurant for an evening of celebration, food and beer. It was an old Polish restaurant – much like a huge beer hall. They brewed their own beers – the light beer was 11% alcohol and the dark was 14%. The beer was delivered to the table in casks and you poured your own pints. There were over 20 runners/mates at the party/celebration. The food, beer and company were all great! Near the end of the meal Tad ordered a ‘special’ local drink for the table. The drink contains the colors of the Polish flag – white vodka, red raspberry juice and Tabasco sauce. The idea is to ‘shoot’ it and then chase it down with some 11 or 14% beer. Tad ordered a second round. However some couldn’t drink the second one so Tad and I volunteered to finish off them off. Needless to say I was feeling real goooooooodddddddd when we left the restaurant. What stinking flu?
Only later did Tad explain that the special drink is called ‘Wsciekly Pies’ - that literally translates to ‘Mad Dog’! Don’t you think I should be getting royalties for all the use of my nickname?
On Sunday morning I was surprised/pleased to discover that I did not have a huge hangover? Many of the group wanted to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz. Since the normal tours required a full day and we were leaving on a 5pm flight we hired three taxis to be our private drivers and guides. They drove us to Auschwitz, explained the layout of the camps and how to visit them and waited for us. At the first camp, Auschwitz I with the infamous gate “Arbeit macht frei” (Work brings freedom) the original barracks now house exhibits and artifacts describing the atrocities that were conducted there. Fortunately we had seen many TV documentaries on the camps and were somewhat prepared for the gruesome and depressing things we saw. But the sheer size of the camp and the other two camps Auschwitz – Birkenau II & III boggles the mind how so many people could have been forced and duped to their death. We also visited Auschwitz-Birkenau II with the ‘Gate of Death” where the trains entered the camp and unloaded the prisoners. A depressing but educational tour!
Finally our taxis/guides dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way back to London. We arrived at our hotel around 8pm. I had used an award/free points to book the Marriott Grosvenor House near Hyde Park. Usually they give you the worst room in the hotel with these vouchers but the hotel was being renovated and was almost empty so they put us in a corner suite. Biggest damn hotel room I ever saw – a one- bedroom apartment/suite. I could get used to that kind of living? Of course we couldn’t afford to eat at that hotel – breakfast was 20 Pounds/person ($40US). I don’t know how people can afford to live there. Needless to say we found a pub nearby and enjoyed a full English breakfast for 3 Pounds! Maddog knows how to travel like the locals.
In all our trips to London and living there for a year I had never visited the British Museum and that was one of my primary goals on this trip. So on Monday we spent the whole afternoon at the Museum. I especially liked the sections on Egypt, Greece and Roman artifacts. The Rosetta Stone is one of the main artifacts at the Museum. On Monday evening – our last evening in Europe we attended the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “The Woman in White”. The story and music were good but they substituted high-tech for the normal stage scenery and it distracted the audience from the performers. It was OK but not as good as my favorite “The Phantom of the Opera” and certainly not worth the $200 tickets?
Finally it was Tuesday and time to go home. I had managed to get rid of that damn flu by giving it to my sports manager. I felt sorry for her because it was going to be a very long and miserable flight home with that nasty bug. After 14 hours of airport and flight time (London to Chicago to Tampa) we were finally back home. The weather was sunny and mid 80s when we got off the plane in Tampa. Good to be back home – and WARM again!
I don’t believe I will ever be able to get the sports manager to accompany me on any more trips to Europe but I still have three countries left to run so stay tuned for the next adventure!
POLAND & ENGLAND
May 5 –10/05
Photos may be viewed on www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Now where were we? Oh yes – this is part two of a two-week European trip and we had just traveled from Belfast to London (Luton airport) and were now departing Luton for Krakow, Poland.
We met up with about 16 runners/mates from London and the Midlands at Luton. I had met most of them on other trips. They are members of the 100 Marathon Club (UK).
When we arrived in Krakow we had a brilliant idea to take a local bus from the airport into the city. Eighteen of us loaded ourselves and all our baggage on to a local bus. Forty-five minutes and another tram later we finally arrived at our hotel. Everyone vowed that they would take a taxi back to the airport when they departed?
Waiting at the hotel was another good friend/runner from London who was our unofficial guide and translator for the trip. Tad is of Polish ancestry and still has family in Poland - and fortunately still speaks Polish! After helping us check in Tad escorted us to Race HQ to pick up our race packets and show us where the race started. His language skills were much in demand and appreciated. After registration most of the runners decided to accompany Tad to a popular local restaurant to enjoy Polish food and beer. However I had still not recovered from the flu – in fact it seemed that I always suffered a relapse each evening. So the sports manager and I found a Thai restaurant near the hotel and enjoyed a nice relaxing dinner. What a difference from Ireland and the UK. Our dinner with wine cost about $15 US! Poland is still a relatively good tourist bargain compared with most of Europe. This is true of most of the former Soviet countries but unfortunately it is changing fast so take advantage of these tourist destinations/bargains while you can.
It was an early evening for us as I hoped that lots of rest would finally kill that damn flu bug? On Friday morning several runners decided to visit a 1000-year old salt mine in Wieliczka that contains many underground sculptures but we decided we would rather explore Krakow. Unlike many other Polish cities Krakow miraculously survived WWII and years of socialist planning relatively unscathed. The Old Town (Stare Miasto) is compact and easy to explore on foot. In the center of the Old Town are the Main Marketplace (Rynek Glowny) and the Cloth Hall. The square is ringed with bars and cafes and several interesting buildings and sites such as: St Mary’s Church with a 500-year old wooden altar – the oldest Gothic altar in the world and the small church of St Wojciech – one of the oldest churches in Krakow. Going south out of the Old Town is the Royal Road that leads past many more churches to the Royal Castle on Wawel Hill. The Wawel Castle (Zamek Wawelski) was originally built in the 10th century and remodeled in the 1500s. The royal apartments and staterooms contain the original furnishings and can be visited. The castle complex includes Wawel Cathedral where many polish kings were coronated and Pope John Paul II was the Archbishop. We spent the whole day exploring Wawel Castle and Old Town.
Friday evening many of the runners/mates decided to go to the official marathon pasta party but some including the sports manager and I decided to find a local Italian restaurant to enjoy better pasta. Nicole and I again did our own thing and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner ($15US vs the $40 at the Pizza Hut in Belfast?). I retired early because the flu was still dragging me down.
Saturday was M-day! The race started at 9am. The weather was miserable as we walked from the hotel to the start line – very cold and raining! There were about 2000 runners in the Marathon and a Half marathon. I wore my typical rain gear (garbage bag) for the first three miles because it was so cold and miserable. I felt sorry for those runners just wearing shorts and a singlet. But this race was much better organized than Belfast. There were distance markers every 1Km and water every 3 – 5 Km. Much of the course was on paved bike paths along the Wisla River and when it did run on roads the roads were blocked off to traffic.
I was not sure or confident in my health/condition because of the flu bug and did not want to repeat the same mistake (and pain) as Belfast so I started out very slowly. I watched my heart monitor closely and kept my pace just under 9 min/mile through the first Half. Many of my mates that I normally beat passed me and I just let them go. I reached the Half in 1:57:09 and felt OK. I thought about picking up the pace at that point to see if I could catch some of my mates but decided it was still too early to make a push. I reached 27Km in 2:30 and still felt OK except for the occasional, uncontrollable coughing spasms that hurt like heck but I decided it was now or never to make a push. Besides it was raining hard again and I was so cold and miserable that I needed to get this over with? I dropped the pace to 8:20/8:30s.
I caught and passed a few mates but was looking for one mate in particular – yes Roger I was looking for you! After 8 Km of pushing hard I still couldn’t see Roger? I figured that if I could just see him by 38K I could make an interesting/challenging race out of it? At 37K there was a loop in the course and I still couldn’t see him (regretfully it turned out that Roger did see me at 37K although I didn’t see him – he was only one minute ahead at that point?). So I decided it wasn’t worth killing myself for the last 5 Km and eased off some. I crossed the finish line in the Old Town Square in 3:53:58 – about 1-½ minutes behind Roger!
I was pleased with my race. The time was not great but I had run a smart race and even ran a negative split in the second Half. However I will now have to wait for another opportunity to regain my bragging rights over Roger and a few other mates.
It was still raining when I finished the race and I felt cold and miserable. Unfortunately our hotel room did not have a bath so I had to stand in a shower for more than 30 minutes while running the hottest water I could stand over my poor cold body. Finally I felt like living again and decided it was time to explore some more of Krakow and work up an appetite for some Polish food and beer. Thankfully the sun had come out and the sports manager and I walked over to the Castle to take some pictures and then we walked through Kazimierz – Krakow’s 600-year old Jewish Quarter and back to the Old Town for some food and beer.
Later that evening we met with a group of mates to accompany Tad back to the favorite restaurant for an evening of celebration, food and beer. It was an old Polish restaurant – much like a huge beer hall. They brewed their own beers – the light beer was 11% alcohol and the dark was 14%. The beer was delivered to the table in casks and you poured your own pints. There were over 20 runners/mates at the party/celebration. The food, beer and company were all great! Near the end of the meal Tad ordered a ‘special’ local drink for the table. The drink contains the colors of the Polish flag – white vodka, red raspberry juice and Tabasco sauce. The idea is to ‘shoot’ it and then chase it down with some 11 or 14% beer. Tad ordered a second round. However some couldn’t drink the second one so Tad and I volunteered to finish off them off. Needless to say I was feeling real goooooooodddddddd when we left the restaurant. What stinking flu?
Only later did Tad explain that the special drink is called ‘Wsciekly Pies’ - that literally translates to ‘Mad Dog’! Don’t you think I should be getting royalties for all the use of my nickname?
On Sunday morning I was surprised/pleased to discover that I did not have a huge hangover? Many of the group wanted to visit the concentration camps at Auschwitz. Since the normal tours required a full day and we were leaving on a 5pm flight we hired three taxis to be our private drivers and guides. They drove us to Auschwitz, explained the layout of the camps and how to visit them and waited for us. At the first camp, Auschwitz I with the infamous gate “Arbeit macht frei” (Work brings freedom) the original barracks now house exhibits and artifacts describing the atrocities that were conducted there. Fortunately we had seen many TV documentaries on the camps and were somewhat prepared for the gruesome and depressing things we saw. But the sheer size of the camp and the other two camps Auschwitz – Birkenau II & III boggles the mind how so many people could have been forced and duped to their death. We also visited Auschwitz-Birkenau II with the ‘Gate of Death” where the trains entered the camp and unloaded the prisoners. A depressing but educational tour!
Finally our taxis/guides dropped us off at the airport and we were on our way back to London. We arrived at our hotel around 8pm. I had used an award/free points to book the Marriott Grosvenor House near Hyde Park. Usually they give you the worst room in the hotel with these vouchers but the hotel was being renovated and was almost empty so they put us in a corner suite. Biggest damn hotel room I ever saw – a one- bedroom apartment/suite. I could get used to that kind of living? Of course we couldn’t afford to eat at that hotel – breakfast was 20 Pounds/person ($40US). I don’t know how people can afford to live there. Needless to say we found a pub nearby and enjoyed a full English breakfast for 3 Pounds! Maddog knows how to travel like the locals.
In all our trips to London and living there for a year I had never visited the British Museum and that was one of my primary goals on this trip. So on Monday we spent the whole afternoon at the Museum. I especially liked the sections on Egypt, Greece and Roman artifacts. The Rosetta Stone is one of the main artifacts at the Museum. On Monday evening – our last evening in Europe we attended the new Andrew Lloyd Webber musical “The Woman in White”. The story and music were good but they substituted high-tech for the normal stage scenery and it distracted the audience from the performers. It was OK but not as good as my favorite “The Phantom of the Opera” and certainly not worth the $200 tickets?
Finally it was Tuesday and time to go home. I had managed to get rid of that damn flu by giving it to my sports manager. I felt sorry for her because it was going to be a very long and miserable flight home with that nasty bug. After 14 hours of airport and flight time (London to Chicago to Tampa) we were finally back home. The weather was sunny and mid 80s when we got off the plane in Tampa. Good to be back home – and WARM again!
I don’t believe I will ever be able to get the sports manager to accompany me on any more trips to Europe but I still have three countries left to run so stay tuned for the next adventure!
Friday, May 06, 2005
Trip Report - Northern Ireland
TRIP REPORT
ENGLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND
4/27 – 5/4/05
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
The planning for this trip started last year when my ‘buddies’ from the UK informed me that I would have to run a marathon in Northern Ireland to complete my goal of running every country in Europe. Is Northern Ireland a ‘country’?
“Don’t go there”! If England, Wales and Scotland are countries (and I ran them) I guess I should run Northern Ireland too?
Since the only marathon in N Ireland is in Belfast I had to wait for this year’s race to come up in early May. I really tried to find a second marathon in the same time frame that I could run to check another needed country off my list but alas I was not successful. I still figured that there was no point going all the way to Europe to run ‘just’ one race so I decided to run a second marathon in Krakow following Belfast. That race/adventure will be included in another report. Since both marathons would be in ‘nice’ places the sports manager agreed to go along – it would probably be her last marathon trip to Europe?
After schedules were confirmed I decided to route us through Manchester, England to visit some close friends transplanted from Texas. We departed from Tampa late Wed. and arrived in Manchester at 8am on Thu. Our friends picked us up at the airport and took us to their home in Wilmslow. Normally we try not to crash/sleep when we arrive but this time we had not slept on the flight and decided to crash for a few hours. Later that day I managed to run an easy 5 miles to help my body adjust to the new time zone. Then our hosts, John & Debbi, treated us to a wonderful gourmet dinner at a pub in a nearby village. Since the meal was accompanied by lots of good wine we were very relaxed and tired when we finally went to bed. We slept for 12 straight hours and felt like our body clocks had adjusted to the local time.
Our hosts had a previous business meeting/dinner planned for Fri night so the sports manager and I walked to a pub in Wilmslow (we had stayed there before and knew the town) for a regular pub meal i.e. steak & ale pie! On Sat after a pleasant morning run with John we had to say goodbye to our gracious hosts and depart for Belfast. We arrived in Belfast late Sat. afternoon and after checking into our hotel headed straight to Race HQ to pick up my race packet. Since the race was on Mon. – a bank holiday – we decided that we should tour on Sun. It was cold and raining on Sun morning so we decided to take a day tour north to Antrim County and the Giant’s Causeway.
The Giant’s Causeway is a most extraordinary natural phenomenon – a rock formation of volcanic origin consisting of 40,000 vertical basalt columns of varying sizes and heights. According to legend the Causeway was the work of the giant Finn McCool who fell in love with a giantess from the Island of Staffa (in the Hebrides) and began to build a causeway as a means to bring her to Ireland. It is an interesting site to see but it was so damn cold and rainy when we got there that we did not spend much time out of the bus.
We continued along the Antrim Coast past the Dunluce Castle to the Bushmills Distillery. While many toured the distillery we toured the village of Bushmill. By late afternoon the rain had stopped and it warmed up so I did take a walk down to the rope bridge at Carrick-a Rede. It is not much compared to the rope suspension bridge at Capilano, BC or the rope bridges in the canopies of the rain forests in Costa Rica! But the Antrim Coastline is very scenic. The bus did not arrive back to Belfast until 7:30 pm. By then I was feeling very sick and knew that I was unfortunately coming down with some bug/illness.
There are not many Italian restaurants in Belfast and I didn’t feel well enough to take a taxi to another section of the city and spend lots of money on spaghetti so we found a Pizza Hut near the hotel. Good thing because I learned how expensive things are in the UK. A cheap spaghetti dinner for two was 20 Pounds ($40 US – no booze). It was the same menu and dinner we ate in Trinidad in Feb. – only that meal cost $7 US! The moral of this story is that if you want to retire move to Trinidad – not the UK!
By the time we got back to the hotel I was in BIG trouble! I was really sick! All night I suffered a very high fever and cold chills – sometimes together? I put an extra blanket on the bed in the hope that I might burn the bug out if I kept my temperature high? It partially worked. By 8am my fever was down to about 100F and the cold chills were gone. Should I run? No choice –I was not waiting another year to come back here. And it is too expensive to make another trip!
The good news was that the start of the race was only a few blocks from the hotel – the bad news was that is was very cold and raining again. You cannot imagine how terrible (and cold) I felt standing on that start line in the freezing rain with a temp of 100+F. I decided that I would be lucky just to finish this race alive so there would be no heroics today! I moved to the middle of the pack so I could start out slow.
There were about 5,000 runners at the start – 2,000 marathoners and 3,000 relay runners. The race started at 9am – in the rain but I had my rain gear (a garbage bag) on. I wore the bag for about 3 miles before I was warm enough to throw it away. The race started at City Hall, went through Ormeau Park and then along Falls and Shankill Roads past many of the political murals. There were no mile markers until mile 10 so I could not figure out my pace? I tried to set my pace by my heart monitor and figured I was running just under 9 min/mile? I reached the first marker at Mile 10 in 1:22 – an 8:15 pace. That was not good! I tried to slow down expecting to find another marker at least at the Half. No marker or timing mats where they should be? I didn’t understand or find out why until the next day. A terrorist group (IRA?) had planted a bomb on the course around 12 miles. Luckily they called it in to a newspaper and the police found the bomb (yes – a real bomb with a remote control). Only the 20 lead runners had run past the bomb before the police diverted the course. They added 1106 meters to the length of the course and I suspect bypassed the original Half marathon mark?
I finally reached another marker at 15 miles –2:06. Still too fast! I knew I was in trouble at that point. I started to slow drastically. By the time I reached 16 miles (another 10 minutes) I could hear “the fat lady singing” and I knew the race was over for me. I started to walk. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining and I started to overheat. The water stops were located about every 5 Km and by now they had started to run out of water. The runners had to wait while the volunteers filled the water bottles from taps and then filled cups. I was concerned about drinking local tap water but really didn’t have a choice? It was one of the worst organized races I have ever run. With 3,000 relay teams the relay check points were so congested that we were forced to stop and walk. That didn’t really affect my time near the end – it just frustrated me!
Needless to say it was a very long and painful struggle just to walk and run the last 10 miles. But I finally crossed the finish line in 4:17:13. The official website states that 1106 meters were added to the course because of the bomb and each runner should adjust their own time. Well my time is adjusted to 4:09:47! I figured I walked/ran/crawled those 1106 meters at a 12 minute pace? The finish line was a zoo. I almost couldn’t find my sports manager and I desperately needed to go back to the hotel and crash. My body temp was soaring?
In spite of the high temps I still forced the old bod into the hottest water I could stand because it was aching all over. My legs weren’t sore – I hadn’t run fast enough for them to hurt – but everything else ached? After 30 minutes of soaking I felt alive enough to go find a pub. Fortunately there was one close to the hotel and we immediately made new friends with some locals – one had run the relay. We learned a lot about N Ireland, Belfast and the political views over several pints of beer? We also ate in the pub because it was too expensive to eat in a fancy restaurant. A good meal with wine, etc. would cost about $75 to $100 (pounds) – translate to $200 US! I was hoping that a lot of beer would kill the flu bug that was plaguing me – but it was only a temporary fix?
On Tue we decided to take a tour of Belfast. Belfast (Beal Feirste = “sandy ford”) is situated in the northeast corner of Ireland at the outflow of the River Lagan into the Belfast Lough. It was once a very important shipyard. The Titanic was built here. The downtown is going through a redevelopment. But right now it is not pretty. It closes down at 6pm and all the storefronts and buildings have shutters and iron bars for security. Very few bars and restaurants are open except for a section called the ‘Golden Mile’ between City Hall and Queen’s University.
The tour went into the Falls (Catholic) and Shankill (Protestant) sections of the city. These two communities are separated by a 70-ft high fence and two gates (called the ‘Peace Gates’) that are only opened from 6am to 6pm. Each community has several murals painted on the sides of buildings depicting the political struggle/differences.
But once you leave these areas and downtown the rest of the city looks normal and is quite nice. I guess we just don’t understand the situation?
After our city tour we decided that we would spend our last night in the country instead of the city. We were flying out of Belfast International airport that was located about 20 miles north of the city. We booked a room in a B&B in the village of Moira. It was a quaint little village that reminded us of Bishop’s Stortford (where we lived in England).
We enjoyed a great dinner (at reasonable prices) and the next morning our hostess drove us to the airport at 5am. We had to fly to London (Luton) and connect to a flight to Krakow. Unfortunately we had a 5-hr wait at Luton but finally many of my mates from the London area started to arrive at the airport and we chatted and boarded the flight together.
We were on our way to Krakow – the next marathon – the next adventure - and the next report.
Stay tuned!
ENGLAND & NORTHERN IRELAND
4/27 – 5/4/05
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
The planning for this trip started last year when my ‘buddies’ from the UK informed me that I would have to run a marathon in Northern Ireland to complete my goal of running every country in Europe. Is Northern Ireland a ‘country’?
“Don’t go there”! If England, Wales and Scotland are countries (and I ran them) I guess I should run Northern Ireland too?
Since the only marathon in N Ireland is in Belfast I had to wait for this year’s race to come up in early May. I really tried to find a second marathon in the same time frame that I could run to check another needed country off my list but alas I was not successful. I still figured that there was no point going all the way to Europe to run ‘just’ one race so I decided to run a second marathon in Krakow following Belfast. That race/adventure will be included in another report. Since both marathons would be in ‘nice’ places the sports manager agreed to go along – it would probably be her last marathon trip to Europe?
After schedules were confirmed I decided to route us through Manchester, England to visit some close friends transplanted from Texas. We departed from Tampa late Wed. and arrived in Manchester at 8am on Thu. Our friends picked us up at the airport and took us to their home in Wilmslow. Normally we try not to crash/sleep when we arrive but this time we had not slept on the flight and decided to crash for a few hours. Later that day I managed to run an easy 5 miles to help my body adjust to the new time zone. Then our hosts, John & Debbi, treated us to a wonderful gourmet dinner at a pub in a nearby village. Since the meal was accompanied by lots of good wine we were very relaxed and tired when we finally went to bed. We slept for 12 straight hours and felt like our body clocks had adjusted to the local time.
Our hosts had a previous business meeting/dinner planned for Fri night so the sports manager and I walked to a pub in Wilmslow (we had stayed there before and knew the town) for a regular pub meal i.e. steak & ale pie! On Sat after a pleasant morning run with John we had to say goodbye to our gracious hosts and depart for Belfast. We arrived in Belfast late Sat. afternoon and after checking into our hotel headed straight to Race HQ to pick up my race packet. Since the race was on Mon. – a bank holiday – we decided that we should tour on Sun. It was cold and raining on Sun morning so we decided to take a day tour north to Antrim County and the Giant’s Causeway.
The Giant’s Causeway is a most extraordinary natural phenomenon – a rock formation of volcanic origin consisting of 40,000 vertical basalt columns of varying sizes and heights. According to legend the Causeway was the work of the giant Finn McCool who fell in love with a giantess from the Island of Staffa (in the Hebrides) and began to build a causeway as a means to bring her to Ireland. It is an interesting site to see but it was so damn cold and rainy when we got there that we did not spend much time out of the bus.
We continued along the Antrim Coast past the Dunluce Castle to the Bushmills Distillery. While many toured the distillery we toured the village of Bushmill. By late afternoon the rain had stopped and it warmed up so I did take a walk down to the rope bridge at Carrick-a Rede. It is not much compared to the rope suspension bridge at Capilano, BC or the rope bridges in the canopies of the rain forests in Costa Rica! But the Antrim Coastline is very scenic. The bus did not arrive back to Belfast until 7:30 pm. By then I was feeling very sick and knew that I was unfortunately coming down with some bug/illness.
There are not many Italian restaurants in Belfast and I didn’t feel well enough to take a taxi to another section of the city and spend lots of money on spaghetti so we found a Pizza Hut near the hotel. Good thing because I learned how expensive things are in the UK. A cheap spaghetti dinner for two was 20 Pounds ($40 US – no booze). It was the same menu and dinner we ate in Trinidad in Feb. – only that meal cost $7 US! The moral of this story is that if you want to retire move to Trinidad – not the UK!
By the time we got back to the hotel I was in BIG trouble! I was really sick! All night I suffered a very high fever and cold chills – sometimes together? I put an extra blanket on the bed in the hope that I might burn the bug out if I kept my temperature high? It partially worked. By 8am my fever was down to about 100F and the cold chills were gone. Should I run? No choice –I was not waiting another year to come back here. And it is too expensive to make another trip!
The good news was that the start of the race was only a few blocks from the hotel – the bad news was that is was very cold and raining again. You cannot imagine how terrible (and cold) I felt standing on that start line in the freezing rain with a temp of 100+F. I decided that I would be lucky just to finish this race alive so there would be no heroics today! I moved to the middle of the pack so I could start out slow.
There were about 5,000 runners at the start – 2,000 marathoners and 3,000 relay runners. The race started at 9am – in the rain but I had my rain gear (a garbage bag) on. I wore the bag for about 3 miles before I was warm enough to throw it away. The race started at City Hall, went through Ormeau Park and then along Falls and Shankill Roads past many of the political murals. There were no mile markers until mile 10 so I could not figure out my pace? I tried to set my pace by my heart monitor and figured I was running just under 9 min/mile? I reached the first marker at Mile 10 in 1:22 – an 8:15 pace. That was not good! I tried to slow down expecting to find another marker at least at the Half. No marker or timing mats where they should be? I didn’t understand or find out why until the next day. A terrorist group (IRA?) had planted a bomb on the course around 12 miles. Luckily they called it in to a newspaper and the police found the bomb (yes – a real bomb with a remote control). Only the 20 lead runners had run past the bomb before the police diverted the course. They added 1106 meters to the length of the course and I suspect bypassed the original Half marathon mark?
I finally reached another marker at 15 miles –2:06. Still too fast! I knew I was in trouble at that point. I started to slow drastically. By the time I reached 16 miles (another 10 minutes) I could hear “the fat lady singing” and I knew the race was over for me. I started to walk. The rain had stopped and the sun was shining and I started to overheat. The water stops were located about every 5 Km and by now they had started to run out of water. The runners had to wait while the volunteers filled the water bottles from taps and then filled cups. I was concerned about drinking local tap water but really didn’t have a choice? It was one of the worst organized races I have ever run. With 3,000 relay teams the relay check points were so congested that we were forced to stop and walk. That didn’t really affect my time near the end – it just frustrated me!
Needless to say it was a very long and painful struggle just to walk and run the last 10 miles. But I finally crossed the finish line in 4:17:13. The official website states that 1106 meters were added to the course because of the bomb and each runner should adjust their own time. Well my time is adjusted to 4:09:47! I figured I walked/ran/crawled those 1106 meters at a 12 minute pace? The finish line was a zoo. I almost couldn’t find my sports manager and I desperately needed to go back to the hotel and crash. My body temp was soaring?
In spite of the high temps I still forced the old bod into the hottest water I could stand because it was aching all over. My legs weren’t sore – I hadn’t run fast enough for them to hurt – but everything else ached? After 30 minutes of soaking I felt alive enough to go find a pub. Fortunately there was one close to the hotel and we immediately made new friends with some locals – one had run the relay. We learned a lot about N Ireland, Belfast and the political views over several pints of beer? We also ate in the pub because it was too expensive to eat in a fancy restaurant. A good meal with wine, etc. would cost about $75 to $100 (pounds) – translate to $200 US! I was hoping that a lot of beer would kill the flu bug that was plaguing me – but it was only a temporary fix?
On Tue we decided to take a tour of Belfast. Belfast (Beal Feirste = “sandy ford”) is situated in the northeast corner of Ireland at the outflow of the River Lagan into the Belfast Lough. It was once a very important shipyard. The Titanic was built here. The downtown is going through a redevelopment. But right now it is not pretty. It closes down at 6pm and all the storefronts and buildings have shutters and iron bars for security. Very few bars and restaurants are open except for a section called the ‘Golden Mile’ between City Hall and Queen’s University.
The tour went into the Falls (Catholic) and Shankill (Protestant) sections of the city. These two communities are separated by a 70-ft high fence and two gates (called the ‘Peace Gates’) that are only opened from 6am to 6pm. Each community has several murals painted on the sides of buildings depicting the political struggle/differences.
But once you leave these areas and downtown the rest of the city looks normal and is quite nice. I guess we just don’t understand the situation?
After our city tour we decided that we would spend our last night in the country instead of the city. We were flying out of Belfast International airport that was located about 20 miles north of the city. We booked a room in a B&B in the village of Moira. It was a quaint little village that reminded us of Bishop’s Stortford (where we lived in England).
We enjoyed a great dinner (at reasonable prices) and the next morning our hostess drove us to the airport at 5am. We had to fly to London (Luton) and connect to a flight to Krakow. Unfortunately we had a 5-hr wait at Luton but finally many of my mates from the London area started to arrive at the airport and we chatted and boarded the flight together.
We were on our way to Krakow – the next marathon – the next adventure - and the next report.
Stay tuned!
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Boston Marathon
RACE REPORT
Boston Marathon
April 18/05
As I mentioned in my pre-race report I had no intention or plans to run Boston this year because of all the injuries, surgery, etc that I suffered from Oct through Feb. I had missed so much time and training during the past 4 months that I was not in any shape to run a competitive race at Boston.
However a close friend from Siesta Key- Frank – who is also a member of our local Running Club had decided that he wanted to run Boston only nine months after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. Most of his running friends tried to discourage him and his cardiologist (also a member of the Club) advised him that his heart no longer had the capacity or efficiency to run a marathon and he should limit himself to a maximum distance of a half-marathon. Like any runner who is stubborn and invincible I knew that he would/could not be talked out of running the marathon so I decided that I should accompany him to help pace him through the race and watch over him. There were several members from the Club going to the marathon as well as many friends from around the country so it would be a fun and social event.
After meeting up with Club members and other friends during the few days and pasta dinner before the race we were finally ready for the marathon. Unfortunately the weather forecast called for warm, sunny weather although not as hot as last year! Frank and I took different modes of transportation to the start so we agreed to meet in Frank’s corral. I had qualified for corral # 8 but would be permitted to drop back to Frank’s corral (#18). Good idea – but I couldn’t find Frank among the other thousand runners in the corral as I waited for the start. At 12 (Noon) the race started but it took 8 minutes before we started to move in corral #18. Still no Frank so I stepped out of the corral to let the rest of the corral and corral #19 pass by me in the hopes of finding Frank? I jumped back into the throng of runners with the hope that Frank was in front of me and I would catch him after I started the race.
It took 24 minutes to reach the start line (where I started my watch for chip time) and by then the throng was running about a 10-minute pace. By that time the leaders were almost at the 5-mile mark and I as weaving my way around the back of the pack looking for Frank? Fortunately he was wearing a distinctive singlet with his name and a brief message about his bypass and I finally spotted and caught him about 1½ miles into the race. Thank goodness! I slowed my pace down to his and we settled into our race strategy. The plan was to run a 10 to 11-min pace for the first 10 miles and then walk and run the last 16 miles. The heat and sun were bothering Frank by 10K so I decided that we should walk for 1 minute at that point while I poured water over his head and body to cool him down. We reached 10 miles in 1:42. We were doing well but Frank was already starting to tire and having difficulty with the heat (mid 60s) and the sun.
As we approached mile 12 we could already hear the screams of the Wellesley girls. Wellesley College (for girls) is located on the Boston course at mile 13 and the young ladies line the course for about 1 mile and scream encouragement to the runners. The noise level is almost painful but it provides an emotional high that is impossible not to succumb to. They also hold up signs offering hugs and kisses and many male runners stop to oblige. Frank insisted on stopping – twice- while I took his picture getting his Wellesley kisses. After that emotional boost we reached the Half in 2:20.
We continued to walk at the beginning of each mile for one minute and then run to the next mile marker hoping that the walk would provide Frank with some recovery time to rest and cool down. However by mile16 Frank was hurting and in trouble. He was very tired and his body was overheated. He was feeling slightly dizzy so we stopped. I poured water over his head and body to reduce his body temp and we decided to walk the next 5 miles through the hills of Newton. He felt so bad that he conceded that his cardiologist had been right – his heart no longer had the capacity and efficiency to run a marathon and “this would be his last marathon”.
He urged me to continue on without him but I refused. I told him that “we started together and we would finish together”! Besides at that point it was irrelevant and meaningless whether I finished in 4:15 or 6:15? I asked him what his heart monitor was reading? I was both shocked and upset when he told me that he had forgot to wear it! I had specifically instructed him to wear it! Damn fool! So we measured his pulse rate frequently and compared it to my heart rate. Fortunately his heart rate was only about 10% higher than mine and it was well below the minimum level I have set on my monitor. If I am below that minimum level it indicates: a) I am not working/running fast enough or b) I am in big trouble if it is that low and I am working hard! Since we were walking I felt comfortable that our heart rates were not in any danger zone! So I continued to throw water on Frank to cool him down and asked him to eat a carbo gel at mile 17 in the hopes that it would help him recover?
This strategy seemed to work. By mile 19 we started to ‘jog’ some of the downhill sections of the hills but continued to walk all the flat and uphill sections. Finally we approached the last big hill on the course –‘Heartbreak Hill’. I had never ‘seen’ Heartbreak Hill even though I had run Boston six previous times. I was always too obsessed with some specific time or performance goal and totally focused on charging up the hill and blocking out the pain to ‘see’ the hill? In fact I had never had time to see or enjoy the Boston course or the millions of spectators like I was seeing and enjoying it during this race? Heartbreak Hill ain’t that big and bad – it only seems that way because it is the last big hill on the course and located at 20.5 miles when your legs are totally trashed from all the hills. We crested Heartbreak Hill at 21 miles in 4:26 (but that was chip time and official clock time was 4:50). I informed Frank that we had only 70 minutes to complete the final 5 miles if we wanted to finish under the course limit of 6 hours and receive a finishers’ medal. We could do it easily if we walked and ran.
Frank again urged me to continue on without him but I explained that we would finish together and either receive a medal together or not! I knew that he wanted to walk the final 5 miles by himself because of his concern about his health and lack of confidence that he had recovered. He just needed some motivation and a gentle push. So I coaxed him to try running just a short interval until he tired and then we would walk again. Much to his credit he dug deep and starting running. Soon the running intervals started to become longer. When we reached 35K we got some unexpected motivation. The race volunteers had already unplugged the mats that read the electronic chips. It was like they were saying “the time limit is 6 hours and you bozos are too slow to make it so you don’t need a split at 35K”! We were determined to prove them wrong! The running intervals became longer and the walks much shorter. By the time we reached 40K they were removing the mats from the course and we were really PO’d because we knew that we were going to beat the 6-hour limit. We later learned the early removal of the mats caused much concern/worry to Frank’s wife (and my sports manager) who were following our progress on the Internet via the split times. All of a sudden there were no more split times and we were no longer on the course? Shame, shame on the BAA for being so thoughtless and unprofessional.
We ran all of the last 2K except for one brief 30-second walk that I forced Frank to take just before we made the final turn on to Boylston St. I wanted to make sure that we could run the last ½ mile down Boylston St in front of the thousands of screaming spectators. Yes, even 6 hours after the start there were thousands of spectators along the course screaming encouragement at the runners to beat the time limit! This is one of the many things that make Boston one of the best marathons in the world – and my favorite!
Frank and I crossed the finish line together in 5:54:42. I had a net or chip time of 5:30 and Frank had a chip time of 5:32. That was 15 minutes faster than his time at Boston last year. As we walked through the finish chute I congratulated Frank on a great performance/race for his last marathon. He admitted that this race “had been the most difficult marathon in his life” and I commented that was a fitting tribute for a ‘retirement’ marathon. Knowing runners and how easily and fast pain disappears (and minds change) I reminded him that I would tell everyone and hold him to his promise “not to run another marathon”!
It would be hard for him to top this performance. If he was not the first runner to run Boston after quadruple bypass surgery he must surely be the earliest – only 9 months after the bypass?
As for the Maddog it was an interesting and unique Boston experience. I was happy and proud to be a small part of the team that supported Frank in his quest. (Even his cardiologist went to Boston to run the marathon and provide support). And I got to see and enjoy the scenery and spectators along the course for the first time. The race itself served as a very lonnnnnnngggggggggggggg training run. Since nothing hurt or was sore at the end of the race I will be able to continue my speed workouts in preparation for the marathons in Europe in a few weeks. I believe that I should be in good enough shape by then to run sub 3:45 in both marathons.
Stay tuned for the next adventure!
Maddog
Boston Marathon
April 18/05
As I mentioned in my pre-race report I had no intention or plans to run Boston this year because of all the injuries, surgery, etc that I suffered from Oct through Feb. I had missed so much time and training during the past 4 months that I was not in any shape to run a competitive race at Boston.
However a close friend from Siesta Key- Frank – who is also a member of our local Running Club had decided that he wanted to run Boston only nine months after undergoing quadruple bypass surgery. Most of his running friends tried to discourage him and his cardiologist (also a member of the Club) advised him that his heart no longer had the capacity or efficiency to run a marathon and he should limit himself to a maximum distance of a half-marathon. Like any runner who is stubborn and invincible I knew that he would/could not be talked out of running the marathon so I decided that I should accompany him to help pace him through the race and watch over him. There were several members from the Club going to the marathon as well as many friends from around the country so it would be a fun and social event.
After meeting up with Club members and other friends during the few days and pasta dinner before the race we were finally ready for the marathon. Unfortunately the weather forecast called for warm, sunny weather although not as hot as last year! Frank and I took different modes of transportation to the start so we agreed to meet in Frank’s corral. I had qualified for corral # 8 but would be permitted to drop back to Frank’s corral (#18). Good idea – but I couldn’t find Frank among the other thousand runners in the corral as I waited for the start. At 12 (Noon) the race started but it took 8 minutes before we started to move in corral #18. Still no Frank so I stepped out of the corral to let the rest of the corral and corral #19 pass by me in the hopes of finding Frank? I jumped back into the throng of runners with the hope that Frank was in front of me and I would catch him after I started the race.
It took 24 minutes to reach the start line (where I started my watch for chip time) and by then the throng was running about a 10-minute pace. By that time the leaders were almost at the 5-mile mark and I as weaving my way around the back of the pack looking for Frank? Fortunately he was wearing a distinctive singlet with his name and a brief message about his bypass and I finally spotted and caught him about 1½ miles into the race. Thank goodness! I slowed my pace down to his and we settled into our race strategy. The plan was to run a 10 to 11-min pace for the first 10 miles and then walk and run the last 16 miles. The heat and sun were bothering Frank by 10K so I decided that we should walk for 1 minute at that point while I poured water over his head and body to cool him down. We reached 10 miles in 1:42. We were doing well but Frank was already starting to tire and having difficulty with the heat (mid 60s) and the sun.
As we approached mile 12 we could already hear the screams of the Wellesley girls. Wellesley College (for girls) is located on the Boston course at mile 13 and the young ladies line the course for about 1 mile and scream encouragement to the runners. The noise level is almost painful but it provides an emotional high that is impossible not to succumb to. They also hold up signs offering hugs and kisses and many male runners stop to oblige. Frank insisted on stopping – twice- while I took his picture getting his Wellesley kisses. After that emotional boost we reached the Half in 2:20.
We continued to walk at the beginning of each mile for one minute and then run to the next mile marker hoping that the walk would provide Frank with some recovery time to rest and cool down. However by mile16 Frank was hurting and in trouble. He was very tired and his body was overheated. He was feeling slightly dizzy so we stopped. I poured water over his head and body to reduce his body temp and we decided to walk the next 5 miles through the hills of Newton. He felt so bad that he conceded that his cardiologist had been right – his heart no longer had the capacity and efficiency to run a marathon and “this would be his last marathon”.
He urged me to continue on without him but I refused. I told him that “we started together and we would finish together”! Besides at that point it was irrelevant and meaningless whether I finished in 4:15 or 6:15? I asked him what his heart monitor was reading? I was both shocked and upset when he told me that he had forgot to wear it! I had specifically instructed him to wear it! Damn fool! So we measured his pulse rate frequently and compared it to my heart rate. Fortunately his heart rate was only about 10% higher than mine and it was well below the minimum level I have set on my monitor. If I am below that minimum level it indicates: a) I am not working/running fast enough or b) I am in big trouble if it is that low and I am working hard! Since we were walking I felt comfortable that our heart rates were not in any danger zone! So I continued to throw water on Frank to cool him down and asked him to eat a carbo gel at mile 17 in the hopes that it would help him recover?
This strategy seemed to work. By mile 19 we started to ‘jog’ some of the downhill sections of the hills but continued to walk all the flat and uphill sections. Finally we approached the last big hill on the course –‘Heartbreak Hill’. I had never ‘seen’ Heartbreak Hill even though I had run Boston six previous times. I was always too obsessed with some specific time or performance goal and totally focused on charging up the hill and blocking out the pain to ‘see’ the hill? In fact I had never had time to see or enjoy the Boston course or the millions of spectators like I was seeing and enjoying it during this race? Heartbreak Hill ain’t that big and bad – it only seems that way because it is the last big hill on the course and located at 20.5 miles when your legs are totally trashed from all the hills. We crested Heartbreak Hill at 21 miles in 4:26 (but that was chip time and official clock time was 4:50). I informed Frank that we had only 70 minutes to complete the final 5 miles if we wanted to finish under the course limit of 6 hours and receive a finishers’ medal. We could do it easily if we walked and ran.
Frank again urged me to continue on without him but I explained that we would finish together and either receive a medal together or not! I knew that he wanted to walk the final 5 miles by himself because of his concern about his health and lack of confidence that he had recovered. He just needed some motivation and a gentle push. So I coaxed him to try running just a short interval until he tired and then we would walk again. Much to his credit he dug deep and starting running. Soon the running intervals started to become longer. When we reached 35K we got some unexpected motivation. The race volunteers had already unplugged the mats that read the electronic chips. It was like they were saying “the time limit is 6 hours and you bozos are too slow to make it so you don’t need a split at 35K”! We were determined to prove them wrong! The running intervals became longer and the walks much shorter. By the time we reached 40K they were removing the mats from the course and we were really PO’d because we knew that we were going to beat the 6-hour limit. We later learned the early removal of the mats caused much concern/worry to Frank’s wife (and my sports manager) who were following our progress on the Internet via the split times. All of a sudden there were no more split times and we were no longer on the course? Shame, shame on the BAA for being so thoughtless and unprofessional.
We ran all of the last 2K except for one brief 30-second walk that I forced Frank to take just before we made the final turn on to Boylston St. I wanted to make sure that we could run the last ½ mile down Boylston St in front of the thousands of screaming spectators. Yes, even 6 hours after the start there were thousands of spectators along the course screaming encouragement at the runners to beat the time limit! This is one of the many things that make Boston one of the best marathons in the world – and my favorite!
Frank and I crossed the finish line together in 5:54:42. I had a net or chip time of 5:30 and Frank had a chip time of 5:32. That was 15 minutes faster than his time at Boston last year. As we walked through the finish chute I congratulated Frank on a great performance/race for his last marathon. He admitted that this race “had been the most difficult marathon in his life” and I commented that was a fitting tribute for a ‘retirement’ marathon. Knowing runners and how easily and fast pain disappears (and minds change) I reminded him that I would tell everyone and hold him to his promise “not to run another marathon”!
It would be hard for him to top this performance. If he was not the first runner to run Boston after quadruple bypass surgery he must surely be the earliest – only 9 months after the bypass?
As for the Maddog it was an interesting and unique Boston experience. I was happy and proud to be a small part of the team that supported Frank in his quest. (Even his cardiologist went to Boston to run the marathon and provide support). And I got to see and enjoy the scenery and spectators along the course for the first time. The race itself served as a very lonnnnnnngggggggggggggg training run. Since nothing hurt or was sore at the end of the race I will be able to continue my speed workouts in preparation for the marathons in Europe in a few weeks. I believe that I should be in good enough shape by then to run sub 3:45 in both marathons.
Stay tuned for the next adventure!
Maddog
Monday, March 21, 2005
Ocean Drive Marathon
RACE REPORT
Cape May, NJ
Sun, Mar 20/05
Ocean Drive Marathon
Cape May, NJ
Marathon #239 - State # 38 (2nd loop)
It was a long, boring trip and a lot of time and money just to expunge a ‘DNF’ from my marathon record but the deed is done! The only disappointment came when I read the marathon history and learned that the course record for ROFs (Really Old Farts) was 3:36:52. If I had not been suffering from a strained hamstring that tore in the first mile of last year’s race (hence the DNF) I would have blown that record out of the water. I was in excellent marathon shape after training hard all winter for Boston and planned/expected to run under 3:20. But alas – it was not to be!
And this was another year and another body stepping up to the start line. After so much forced rest and inadequate/lack of training during the past four months because of injuries and surgery (y’all know the story) I wasn’t even confident that I could run the entire distance let alone finish under my goal of 4 hours? But I was confident I could finish!
The weather was also different this year – worse! In addition to the cold (42F with a wind chill of 37F) it had been raining since midnight and was forecast to rain throughout the whole race. There was a 10/15mph wind blowing from the North. Since the marathon started in Cape May and finished 26 miles north in Sea Isle City that meant a head wind the whole way. Oh Goody – oh Joy!
The weather was so miserable before the start that I refused to get out of my car until the very last moment. Finally I forced myself out of the car and jumped into the middle of the pack along with 600 other runners (300 in the marathon and 300 in a 10-mile race) just before the 9am start. I was wearing a green garbage bag for rain gear and a throwaway sweat shirt on top of my race gear – a long sleeve T-shirt, shorts and gloves. I had decided to skip my usual warm up and stretches because of the rain and use the first mile of the race as a warm up. Bad decision! Every joint in my body was stiff and ached during that cold/wet/miserable mile! I considered dropping out again? No way - I am not coming back here no matter how miserable it is or gets! Mile 1 – a slow, painful 9:38!
However many things improved during the 2nd mile. The weather Gods took pity on us and stopped the rain. It only drizzled a few more times during the race. The wind was not as big a factor as expected and when it did gust I just dropped in behind another runner and drafted. By mile two I had shed the garbage bag and sweat shirt and settled into a smooth/easy 9-min pace. That was my target pace and I was pleased when I reached mile 10 in 1:30:08 and the Half in 1:57:33. That should provide me with enough cushion/margin to come very close to my goal of 4 hours? But I wasn’t suffering any false/silly illusions. My longest run in the past four months had been 16 miles (I don’t count the Trinidad Marathon where I walked and jogged as a ‘Run’) and I expected the last 10K of this race to get ugly! So I wasn’t surprised when I reached 18 miles and found myself struggling to hold a 9:15 pace.
It was too early to slow down – I did not have enough cushion. So I decided I had to push the pace back below 9 min and hold on as long as I could? Fortunately the old bod responded to the pain by producing more endorphins (ahhhhh – those wonderful endorphins) to mask the pain and I started to feel better. Mile 20 - 3:00:57 and an 8:50 pace. I was still on target pace. I continued to push to mile 23 – 3:28:11. The time was good – I had about 32 minutes to run the last 5 K but there was a slight problem. My legs were trashed – there was nothing left! I was both surprised and pleased that I had hung in that long and contemplated walking and jogging the last 5K. But OH NO! – NOT the Maddog! He wasn’t having any such NONSENSE! He could smell the finish line and taste success and he would not give up or give in and slow down or walk! I knew it was pointless to argue with Maddog so I just sucked it up, dug deeper and forced my tired old legs to keep moving.
And I started playing the usual mind games: “One step at a time” – “just one more step” – ‘pain is only temporary”- “any old fool can stand pain for a measly 30 minutes”! Then Maddog explained “the pain is good for me and necessary training for that BIG race when I am competing for 1st place and need to block out all pain”! I had to agree that he was right and so I pushed on. When I reached mile 25 in 3:47:17 I knew that my goal of 4 hours was in the bag if I could just keep the old legs moving. The smell of sweet success was enough incentive for the old bod to provide a few final jolts of adrenaline to carry my old, wasted legs through the final mile and across the finish line in 3:58:18! I had done it!
I was happy and so very pleased with both my time and performance. I had run a smart and disciplined race. I even amazed myself by running the entire race at a fairly consistent 9-min pace. My time was good enough for 2nd place in my age group (indicative of the competition and not my competitive prowess at this stage) and more importantly qualified me for Boston for 21 consecutive years! But before I got too confident and cocky I reminded myself that I still had a long way to go to reach my ultimate goal – to be truly competitive again in marathon races! That requires running a sub 8-min pace in my age group. I believe I can attain that level again if I can stay healthy and injury-free! But that is a BIG IF since my right foot is already giving me problems? During the last 10 miles of the marathon my right foot was suffering the same symptoms and discomfort that I experienced last fall just before the pain got severe and I discovered I had a stress fracture. Thus I need to manage a fine balance between adding the necessary intensity and speed work back into my training program vs. resting and monitoring closely the condition of my foot and knee.
It’s tough being a jock – in a broken-down, 61-year old body!
Stay tuned for my next adventure. It will be a surprise!
Cape May, NJ
Sun, Mar 20/05
Ocean Drive Marathon
Cape May, NJ
Marathon #239 - State # 38 (2nd loop)
It was a long, boring trip and a lot of time and money just to expunge a ‘DNF’ from my marathon record but the deed is done! The only disappointment came when I read the marathon history and learned that the course record for ROFs (Really Old Farts) was 3:36:52. If I had not been suffering from a strained hamstring that tore in the first mile of last year’s race (hence the DNF) I would have blown that record out of the water. I was in excellent marathon shape after training hard all winter for Boston and planned/expected to run under 3:20. But alas – it was not to be!
And this was another year and another body stepping up to the start line. After so much forced rest and inadequate/lack of training during the past four months because of injuries and surgery (y’all know the story) I wasn’t even confident that I could run the entire distance let alone finish under my goal of 4 hours? But I was confident I could finish!
The weather was also different this year – worse! In addition to the cold (42F with a wind chill of 37F) it had been raining since midnight and was forecast to rain throughout the whole race. There was a 10/15mph wind blowing from the North. Since the marathon started in Cape May and finished 26 miles north in Sea Isle City that meant a head wind the whole way. Oh Goody – oh Joy!
The weather was so miserable before the start that I refused to get out of my car until the very last moment. Finally I forced myself out of the car and jumped into the middle of the pack along with 600 other runners (300 in the marathon and 300 in a 10-mile race) just before the 9am start. I was wearing a green garbage bag for rain gear and a throwaway sweat shirt on top of my race gear – a long sleeve T-shirt, shorts and gloves. I had decided to skip my usual warm up and stretches because of the rain and use the first mile of the race as a warm up. Bad decision! Every joint in my body was stiff and ached during that cold/wet/miserable mile! I considered dropping out again? No way - I am not coming back here no matter how miserable it is or gets! Mile 1 – a slow, painful 9:38!
However many things improved during the 2nd mile. The weather Gods took pity on us and stopped the rain. It only drizzled a few more times during the race. The wind was not as big a factor as expected and when it did gust I just dropped in behind another runner and drafted. By mile two I had shed the garbage bag and sweat shirt and settled into a smooth/easy 9-min pace. That was my target pace and I was pleased when I reached mile 10 in 1:30:08 and the Half in 1:57:33. That should provide me with enough cushion/margin to come very close to my goal of 4 hours? But I wasn’t suffering any false/silly illusions. My longest run in the past four months had been 16 miles (I don’t count the Trinidad Marathon where I walked and jogged as a ‘Run’) and I expected the last 10K of this race to get ugly! So I wasn’t surprised when I reached 18 miles and found myself struggling to hold a 9:15 pace.
It was too early to slow down – I did not have enough cushion. So I decided I had to push the pace back below 9 min and hold on as long as I could? Fortunately the old bod responded to the pain by producing more endorphins (ahhhhh – those wonderful endorphins) to mask the pain and I started to feel better. Mile 20 - 3:00:57 and an 8:50 pace. I was still on target pace. I continued to push to mile 23 – 3:28:11. The time was good – I had about 32 minutes to run the last 5 K but there was a slight problem. My legs were trashed – there was nothing left! I was both surprised and pleased that I had hung in that long and contemplated walking and jogging the last 5K. But OH NO! – NOT the Maddog! He wasn’t having any such NONSENSE! He could smell the finish line and taste success and he would not give up or give in and slow down or walk! I knew it was pointless to argue with Maddog so I just sucked it up, dug deeper and forced my tired old legs to keep moving.
And I started playing the usual mind games: “One step at a time” – “just one more step” – ‘pain is only temporary”- “any old fool can stand pain for a measly 30 minutes”! Then Maddog explained “the pain is good for me and necessary training for that BIG race when I am competing for 1st place and need to block out all pain”! I had to agree that he was right and so I pushed on. When I reached mile 25 in 3:47:17 I knew that my goal of 4 hours was in the bag if I could just keep the old legs moving. The smell of sweet success was enough incentive for the old bod to provide a few final jolts of adrenaline to carry my old, wasted legs through the final mile and across the finish line in 3:58:18! I had done it!
I was happy and so very pleased with both my time and performance. I had run a smart and disciplined race. I even amazed myself by running the entire race at a fairly consistent 9-min pace. My time was good enough for 2nd place in my age group (indicative of the competition and not my competitive prowess at this stage) and more importantly qualified me for Boston for 21 consecutive years! But before I got too confident and cocky I reminded myself that I still had a long way to go to reach my ultimate goal – to be truly competitive again in marathon races! That requires running a sub 8-min pace in my age group. I believe I can attain that level again if I can stay healthy and injury-free! But that is a BIG IF since my right foot is already giving me problems? During the last 10 miles of the marathon my right foot was suffering the same symptoms and discomfort that I experienced last fall just before the pain got severe and I discovered I had a stress fracture. Thus I need to manage a fine balance between adding the necessary intensity and speed work back into my training program vs. resting and monitoring closely the condition of my foot and knee.
It’s tough being a jock – in a broken-down, 61-year old body!
Stay tuned for my next adventure. It will be a surprise!
Thursday, March 03, 2005
Trip report -Trinidad
TRIP REPORT
TRINIDAD
2/23 – 3/2/05
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Where to start - for this trip almost immediately became the ‘trip that was destined not to happen’. Why? The first reason was that I began planning for the trip last Oct and as soon as I had booked and prepaid our air and hotel I tried to register on line for the marathon and encountered problems. So I contacted the race committee and a few days later was informed that the website was being redesigned and by the way “the marathon was postponed from Jan 16 to Feb 27/05”! I had only decided to run the marathon because it was scheduled for mid-Jan in the Caribbean and that is a good time not to be in FL because the weather can be iffy (i.e. a 50/50 chance of a cold front from TundraLand).
The airline and hotel would not refund my payment but they were kind enough to let me reschedule the trip without any fee so I was locked into the trip and the new date.
And as most of my readers know my plans and ‘running’ life only went downhill from that point. I ran three marathons in Nov on a sore right foot that caused an additional injury to my left knee as I changed my gait and stride to compensate for the foot injury. I was forced to rest both injuries during Dec.and finally in Jan learned that the foot injury was actually a stress fracture. It was healing with rest but not the knee and Xrays and a MRI showed no problem with the knee? So for the whole month of Jan I was forced to cross train at the YMCA while the orthoped tried to figure out what was wrong with my knee. Although I had to cancel three marathons scheduled (and paid for) in Dec and Jan I was still planning/hoping that I could recover and be ready for the marathon in Trinidad. Finally I exhausted all non-surgical medical options on the knee and decided to proceed with arthroscopic surgery on the left knee on Feb 3/05. Fortunately my cross training program had included several exercises to strengthen my legs and knee and the surgery went well. The orthoped found and cut out a tear in the meniscus. Four days after surgery the bandages were removed and I walked three miles. Within a week I had built the daily walk up to ten miles. I had not yet given up on Trinidad even though the orthoped advised (warned) me not to run for 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery! I needed some kind of reward for all the suffering and pain I had endured with that frustrating knee injury. One of my biggest disappointments was not being able to keep my streak going for the Tampa marathon that was run three days after the surgery.
In week two after the surgery I was vacationing in the Rocky Mountains. Instead of skiing with my kids as planned I walked 7 to10 miles in the mountains each day. When the knee became sore I went back to the gym and pool to cross train. Finally two weeks after surgery I decided to test the knee by walking and jogging 10 miles. It was successful – no problem or pain with the knee. So the next day – exactly one week before the Trinidad marathon I walked and jogged a ‘test’ Half marathon without any problems with the knee. But I wanted one more test before making my final decision about Trinidad. On Tue – the day before we left for Trinidad I asked my buddy Frank from Siesta Key to join me for another test Half marathon. I knew Frank would understand and support my decision whatever it was. Why? If you will recall Frank is one of my friends that ran Boston with me in 2004. He was the one who ran Boston after having stents placed in his main arteries. A few months after Boston he had quadruple bypass surgery and three months later he was running again! He is now training seriously to run Boston again this year - and beat his time from 2004! As Frank and I walked and jogged the Half with all our injuries and scars we discussed how all our family, friends and even doctors think many of our actions are extreme (some use the word ‘nuts’). We concluded/agreed that the rest of the world is crazy and we are the only two sane people left. And it is nice to run with the only other person in the world who is sane and can give you ‘sane’ advice and support!
Thus with another successful test run completed and the support of the only other sane person in the world I made my decision – I would indeed run the Trinidad Marathon!
And finally the actual trip report can begin!
Since we had a very early (6:30 am) flight out of Tampa on Wed. my sports manager and I decided to drive into Tampa Tue evening and stay at an airport hotel. This would allow us to get a few extra hours of sleep and the hotel let us park one week for free so the hotel only cost a few bucks more than regular parking. Worked out very well!
We arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad mid afternoon and were met by a driver and car to take us to our apartment. I had rented a 2 BR apartment because Trinidad has only a few modern, international hotels and they are very expensive - $150 to $200/day vs $65 for an apartment? By pure luck (or should I say skill) our apartment was located in a very convenient and upscale location. It was close to the US and UK embassies and only a half block from Queen’s Park. Queen’s Park – called the Savannah by the Trinis (what the locals call themselves) is a large 200-acre park on the northern edge of Port of Spain between the city and the North Coastal Mountains. There are several soccer/cricket/sports fields and a 2-½ mile jogging path around the park. All the Trinis run and play sports in the Savannah.
Before describing any more of the city and Island a brief history lesson is necessary to understand much of what I will tell you. Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1498. The inhabitants were aboriginals called the Caribs and Arawaks. The islands changed hands many times among the colonial super powers – Spain, England and
France. Slavery was abolished by the British in 1834 and indentured labor was brought in from India and China to replace the slaves. There are very large communities of Chinese and Indians and much of the culture and food on the Island is derived from these two ethnic groups. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962 and a Republic in 1976.
The islands were once part of the South American continent (Venezuela) and are only seven miles from Venezuela. Trinidad was lucky and got a small share of nature’s oil and gas that is common in Venezuela. Tobago has none. Oil drives the economy of Trinidad and there is virtually no tourist infrastructure. Tobago survives on tourism.
Port of Spain is the largest city in Trinidad – 350,000 of the 1.3 million inhabitants of the two islands. The city burned down in the late 1800s and was rebuilt in the early 1900s so most of the ‘old’ buildings are 100 years old. Because the city is wedged in between the Gulf of Paria and the North Mountains it is very compact and densely populated. The streets are old and narrow and there is not much room for cars and traffic that is horrendous (and driving on the wrong side of the road to boot). All the homes and buildings are surrounded by 8-ft walls topped with barbed wire and all doors and windows are covered by iron bars (just like Jamaica and Venezuela). There is obviously a serious crime problem – yet we never felt unsafe or threatened at any time? Trinidad is definitely not a tourist destination!
After we checked into our apartment we decided to scout out the neighborhood (called Newtown). Because of all the embassies in the area there were several upscale restaurants including a few American chains – Tony Roma’s, TGI Friday and Trotters- an English Pub! We found a local supermarket to stock the apartment with snack food and Caribbean beer and retreated to our air-conditioned apartment to escape the afternoon sun and temps in the mid 90s!
The following morning we decided explore Port of Spain on foot. There is a bus/taxi transport system in the city but no information on where it goes or how to use it so we decided our feet would be the best transport system. There is a downtown commercial area called “Downtown’ on the map. It was only a mile from our apartment. It is pretty dirty and the shops are pretty ratty but we were able to find the typical souvenirs (postcards and a silver teaspoon) easily and quickly. We passed several old churches and buildings that looked interesting but had no idea what they were? Luckily we stumbled across a tourist office and were able to collect some maps, brochures and a list of tourist guides. They were even able to give me a contact number for the marathon. Up to that time all I was able to get from the website was the starting time and place. I wasn’t even sure if the race was still on? After lunch we retreated back to the apartment and A/C – you cannot walk around Trinidad in the afternoon sun/heat unless you are a Trini!
Back at the apartment I called a few tourist guides and finally located a guide that had a car and offered us a tour of the city and North Coast for a reasonable price. I also made contact with the main sponsor of the marathon – Colonial Life Insurance Corporation – hence the name of the marathon – CLICO Marathon! The rep informed me that I could pick up my race package at the corporate HQ the next day and get more info on the race.
Things were looking up! After a few cold Carib beers it was time to look for a restaurant. But the only restaurants we could find other than the expensive, upscale restaurants were a Pizza joint, several Chinese joints and fast food joints called ‘Rotis”? We selected a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner for about $40TT ($7 US).
On Fri morning our tour guide, Derik picked us up at our apartment and started our morning tour. As we drove around the city he pointed out many of the buildings we had walked by and explained their history. He also explained the history of the country and city and provided much-needed information about how to find things in the city and what the local culture and politics were. Some things finally made much more sense? For instance the main meal for the Trinis is lunch and many of them eat a big meal in local fast food restaurants. Most of the restaurants are Chinese or Indian. The Chinese food is similar to what we find in the US but has a Creole flair added. However the Indian food is called ‘roti’ and is mostly fast food. There are very few Indian restaurants as we know them? Very few Trinis eat a big dinner and they don’t eat out at restaurants for dinner so many of the restaurants are closed in the evenings. As Derik was providing this explanation on food he stopped at a roadside cart that served ‘Doubles’. It is a local food derived from Indian culture. A type of dough/bread called ‘bara’ made from flour and split peas is deep fried. Then they add curried channa (chickpeas) and hominy and some hot chutney and spices. Since the bread is small they always serve two – hence doubles! Doubles is a very common breakfast or morning snack for Trinis. We declined to eat one because it didn’t comply with Maddog’s travel rules – “never eat food from a street vendor/cart’.
After Derik enjoyed his Doubles we continued our tour through the North Coastal Mountains to Maracas Beach on the North Coast. The nicest beaches in Trinidad are located on the North Coast facing the Caribbean Sea. The Gulf of Paria on the west and the Columbus Channel on the south are full of silt from the rivers of Trinidad and Venezuela and are brown and dirty. The beaches on the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean are supposed to be OK but are rocky and the water/waves are much rougher. Maracus beach is supposed to be the nicest beach in Trinidad. It was very pretty and the water is clear and calm. But the beach is remote and isolated and there is only one small hotel/resort on the beach. I would go stir-crazy in one day! We arrived at the beach around noon so we were able to enjoy a typical Trini treat/lunch – ‘shark and bake’. They deep fry pieces of fresh shark and wrap them in a piece of fried leavened bread (bake). It was delicious! The sports manager declined because everything was fried?
Before Derik dropped us off at the apartment we hired him for another tour on Mon to take us along the west coast to the south end of the island. I had considered renting a car and doing our own tour but after a morning of driving on bad roads, horrendous traffic and total lack of any directional signs I wisely decided that we were safer to let a Trini drive and tour us around the island! When we returned to the city we decided to walk downtown to the CLICO office to pick up my race package.
Although the website was very poor and offered little information I must say that the volunteers of CLICO made up for that issue with their hospitality and exuberance. They had lost my online registration so I had to register again but for a $25 entry fee foreign runners were given a polo race shirt and a finisher’s medal. We were also offered a tour of the course on Sat morning and a taxi to pick us up at our hotel to take us to the start line. (Race directors in the US – take note!) While we were waiting around at CLICO I met a few fellow runners – from Seattle, Houston, Germany, Poland and Martinique.
After returning to the apartment and enjoying a few more Caribs (hey – I don’t normally drink beer two days before a race but I knew that I couldn’t take this race seriously) it was time for dinner. Normally I would eat Chinese food two nights before a race but since we had eaten Chinese on Thu night we decided to try Trini food at a well-known Trini restaurant that only served local food. I tried ‘spicy pork’. It was similar to ‘pepper pot’ a popular dish in Guyana.
On Sat morning I woke early to do a short run around the Savannah. I had done a lot of walking the past few days in Trinidad but had not run since the test Half on Tue. I was running around the Savannah by 7am along with hundreds of Trinis trying to beat the morning sun. All went well so I was feeling very confident that I could finish the marathon on Sun.
The bus tour of the course started at 10 am and took about the same amount of time that we expected to run the course because of the horrendous traffic. Our tour guide was a lovely young Trini named Vanessa who had run the marathon a few times. The course started in Chaguanas about 20 miles south of Port of Spain. It was fairly flat with some rolling hills and finished at the Oval (a Cricket Stadium) in Woodbrook – about 1 mile from our apartment. Everyone was very concerned about the roads, the traffic and the heat. Unfortunately all turned out to be legitimate concerns. After the course tour I retreated to the apartment and A/C – no way I was going outside in the afternoon sun!
Finally Sat night – time for carbo/pasta loading! There was no pasta party. And there are no Italian restaurants in Trinidad. Well I lie a wee bit. There were two but both were upscale and very expensive. So we walked around and found a Pizza Hut where I ordered spaghetti for $20TT ($3 US).
Sun was M- day! The marathon started at 5:30am so a bus picked me and a few other foreign runners up starting at 3:30 am and delivered us to the start line at 5am. Five hundred runners started the marathon. There was prize money offered by CLICO for both the open and national divisions so there were elite runners from a few countries. The race started in the dark to escape the sun and heat (the temps were only in the high 70s at the start). I attempted to walk and jog before the start to loosen up the knee but I still walked at the start and found myself in very last place when I reached the one-mile mark in 13:05 – and proud of it! I had stuck to my strategy to start slow and walk. With the heat and humidity my knee had loosened up and I jogged the 2nd mile in 9:15 and passed the back of the pack. Too fast! The knee felt OK but I did not have that much confidence in it. I figured that I needed to walk at least one minute each and every mile and try to average a 10-minute pace. I settled into a 10-minute pace by mile 4. By then the residents were lined up along the course shouting their usual (Caribbean) cheers – ‘Go Pappy”; “Good job Grandpa”! Miles 8 to 10 ran through a cane field and I was still passing runners. I reached mile 10 in 1:41:13 and the knee still felt OK.
However by then the traffic had started to increase and become a problem. There was good traffic control at major intersections but we had to share the narrow roads and be very wary as we ran with the traffic along major roads. I reached the Half in 2:12:18 on a busy road in San Juan. By then the sun was up and the temps were starting to rise and there was no shade! My knee, legs and body felt OK but I was now entering virgin territory? I had not run longer than 13 miles in the past three months. I could only hope that the cross training in the pool had helped to maintain some level of aerobic conditioning? By mile 18 we were approaching Downtown – it was very hot – no shade and the traffic was really bad. I started catching and passing a lot of runners. Mile 20 – the center of Downtown – time 3:21:28. The course turned west so that the morning sun was beating directly down at our backs. I thought I was being broiled. I walked and applied some more sun block to my back and shoulders. I still felt OK but my body was overheating in spite of the fact that I had been dumping water over my head and neck every mile. I calculated that I had 68 minutes to finish the last 10K and beat a time of 4:30. I needed to average 11-minute miles! Just at that moment Vanessa jumped on to the course and ran with me for about ½ mile and then encouraged me to continue on. Strange how the pace on that mile slowed to 12 minutes? I reached mile 23 in 3:55:06 where the course looped back into the sun and to the finish line. I had 35 minutes to finish the last 5K but I didn’t care because I was burning up. I decided that time wasn’t important - I needed to walk at least twice in each mile if I wanted to finish and survive! Mile 25 – 4:17:11. My legs were now tight and sore but I didn’t believe that I could afford to walk anymore so I dug deep and forced the old legs and tired, hot old bod to keep shuffling until I crossed the finish line in 4:29:37.
I had done it! Marathon #238 and country #71!
But there was no time to celebrate – I had to get my body temp down! The temps were 90+F and my body temp was 100+ F! I found some cold water and ice that I applied liberally to my face and neck to reduce my body temp. Then I applied the ice pack to my knee for about five minutes. Only then did I find my sports manager and take the usual finish line photos. Finally we hobbled/limped the mile back to the apartment since my quads had tightened up. Obviously my old bod was not in marathon condition!
After a nice cold shower and a few Carib beers we decided to splurge and walked over to the English Pub for a Sunday ‘carvers’ brunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I deserved a great meal and beer to celebrate running/finishing a marathon only three weeks after knee surgery!
On Mon morning Derik picked us up again to drive south to the 2nd largest city in Trinidad, San Fernando where he stopped for some more Trini treats. These snacks (some called phulouri and pelou) were made of fried bread (what else) with various vegetables such as eggplant, etc wrapped into the bread before it was fried. Again we declined. Then we continued our journey to Pitch Lake that is a lake of pitch or asphalt covering about 200 acres. It is the only pitch lake in the world. The pitch is natural asphalt about 250 feet deep that constantly replenishes itself. Trinidad mines the asphalt for export to be used for asphalt roads and other petroleum based products. It is possible to walk out on the lake but you must be accompanied by an experienced local guide. The hot sun bakes a crust on certain areas of the pitch. As long as you walk on those areas and keep in constant motion you will not sink into the hot, deep pitch – never to be seen again! We followed a guide across the lake. That proves a point I have always made – “marathon runners are not mere mortals and can walk across a lake”.
After our successful walk across a lake we toured along the coast of the Gulf of Paria to enjoy some of the various sights. For lunch we stopped in San Fernando to experience/taste ‘roti’. What is roti? Remember I said its roots were Indian. Derik took us to a small restaurant and introduced us to ‘Mama’ the owner and cook. Mama took us into the kitchen and showed us how roti is prepared. She takes a dough made of flour and crushed split peas and kneads it into a shape similar to a large tortilla. She then fries this bread (called dhalpouri) just like a tortilla is fried. When the dhalpouri is fried she adds boiled chickpeas and potatoes as the standard ingredients and then you order other ingredients such as meat or vegetables to be added. Then the bread is wrapped around everything and you eat it like a big burrito. It was actually very delicious.
After our roti we continued our drive along the coast back to port of Spain. Other than a few interesting sights such as ‘The Temple in the Sea’ (a Hindu temple) that part of Trinidad is very boring and ugly since it contains most of the industries and refineries. Certainly not a tourist area.
So to bring this longer-than-expected report to an end the summary is:
Trinidad is not a tourist destination. I believe that Tobago is but we never had time to visit.
The CLICO Marathon does not get high marks. The volunteers get high marks but the course, traffic and heat get very low marks. There are better marathons and countries to enjoy in the Caribbean.
But the good news is that I finished – the knee is OK and I can resume my training program to get ready for my next marathon and adventure in Europe in May. Stay tuned!
TRINIDAD
2/23 – 3/2/05
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Where to start - for this trip almost immediately became the ‘trip that was destined not to happen’. Why? The first reason was that I began planning for the trip last Oct and as soon as I had booked and prepaid our air and hotel I tried to register on line for the marathon and encountered problems. So I contacted the race committee and a few days later was informed that the website was being redesigned and by the way “the marathon was postponed from Jan 16 to Feb 27/05”! I had only decided to run the marathon because it was scheduled for mid-Jan in the Caribbean and that is a good time not to be in FL because the weather can be iffy (i.e. a 50/50 chance of a cold front from TundraLand).
The airline and hotel would not refund my payment but they were kind enough to let me reschedule the trip without any fee so I was locked into the trip and the new date.
And as most of my readers know my plans and ‘running’ life only went downhill from that point. I ran three marathons in Nov on a sore right foot that caused an additional injury to my left knee as I changed my gait and stride to compensate for the foot injury. I was forced to rest both injuries during Dec.and finally in Jan learned that the foot injury was actually a stress fracture. It was healing with rest but not the knee and Xrays and a MRI showed no problem with the knee? So for the whole month of Jan I was forced to cross train at the YMCA while the orthoped tried to figure out what was wrong with my knee. Although I had to cancel three marathons scheduled (and paid for) in Dec and Jan I was still planning/hoping that I could recover and be ready for the marathon in Trinidad. Finally I exhausted all non-surgical medical options on the knee and decided to proceed with arthroscopic surgery on the left knee on Feb 3/05. Fortunately my cross training program had included several exercises to strengthen my legs and knee and the surgery went well. The orthoped found and cut out a tear in the meniscus. Four days after surgery the bandages were removed and I walked three miles. Within a week I had built the daily walk up to ten miles. I had not yet given up on Trinidad even though the orthoped advised (warned) me not to run for 4 to 6 weeks after the surgery! I needed some kind of reward for all the suffering and pain I had endured with that frustrating knee injury. One of my biggest disappointments was not being able to keep my streak going for the Tampa marathon that was run three days after the surgery.
In week two after the surgery I was vacationing in the Rocky Mountains. Instead of skiing with my kids as planned I walked 7 to10 miles in the mountains each day. When the knee became sore I went back to the gym and pool to cross train. Finally two weeks after surgery I decided to test the knee by walking and jogging 10 miles. It was successful – no problem or pain with the knee. So the next day – exactly one week before the Trinidad marathon I walked and jogged a ‘test’ Half marathon without any problems with the knee. But I wanted one more test before making my final decision about Trinidad. On Tue – the day before we left for Trinidad I asked my buddy Frank from Siesta Key to join me for another test Half marathon. I knew Frank would understand and support my decision whatever it was. Why? If you will recall Frank is one of my friends that ran Boston with me in 2004. He was the one who ran Boston after having stents placed in his main arteries. A few months after Boston he had quadruple bypass surgery and three months later he was running again! He is now training seriously to run Boston again this year - and beat his time from 2004! As Frank and I walked and jogged the Half with all our injuries and scars we discussed how all our family, friends and even doctors think many of our actions are extreme (some use the word ‘nuts’). We concluded/agreed that the rest of the world is crazy and we are the only two sane people left. And it is nice to run with the only other person in the world who is sane and can give you ‘sane’ advice and support!
Thus with another successful test run completed and the support of the only other sane person in the world I made my decision – I would indeed run the Trinidad Marathon!
And finally the actual trip report can begin!
Since we had a very early (6:30 am) flight out of Tampa on Wed. my sports manager and I decided to drive into Tampa Tue evening and stay at an airport hotel. This would allow us to get a few extra hours of sleep and the hotel let us park one week for free so the hotel only cost a few bucks more than regular parking. Worked out very well!
We arrived in Port of Spain, Trinidad mid afternoon and were met by a driver and car to take us to our apartment. I had rented a 2 BR apartment because Trinidad has only a few modern, international hotels and they are very expensive - $150 to $200/day vs $65 for an apartment? By pure luck (or should I say skill) our apartment was located in a very convenient and upscale location. It was close to the US and UK embassies and only a half block from Queen’s Park. Queen’s Park – called the Savannah by the Trinis (what the locals call themselves) is a large 200-acre park on the northern edge of Port of Spain between the city and the North Coastal Mountains. There are several soccer/cricket/sports fields and a 2-½ mile jogging path around the park. All the Trinis run and play sports in the Savannah.
Before describing any more of the city and Island a brief history lesson is necessary to understand much of what I will tell you. Christopher Columbus discovered Trinidad in 1498. The inhabitants were aboriginals called the Caribs and Arawaks. The islands changed hands many times among the colonial super powers – Spain, England and
France. Slavery was abolished by the British in 1834 and indentured labor was brought in from India and China to replace the slaves. There are very large communities of Chinese and Indians and much of the culture and food on the Island is derived from these two ethnic groups. The islands of Trinidad and Tobago became independent in 1962 and a Republic in 1976.
The islands were once part of the South American continent (Venezuela) and are only seven miles from Venezuela. Trinidad was lucky and got a small share of nature’s oil and gas that is common in Venezuela. Tobago has none. Oil drives the economy of Trinidad and there is virtually no tourist infrastructure. Tobago survives on tourism.
Port of Spain is the largest city in Trinidad – 350,000 of the 1.3 million inhabitants of the two islands. The city burned down in the late 1800s and was rebuilt in the early 1900s so most of the ‘old’ buildings are 100 years old. Because the city is wedged in between the Gulf of Paria and the North Mountains it is very compact and densely populated. The streets are old and narrow and there is not much room for cars and traffic that is horrendous (and driving on the wrong side of the road to boot). All the homes and buildings are surrounded by 8-ft walls topped with barbed wire and all doors and windows are covered by iron bars (just like Jamaica and Venezuela). There is obviously a serious crime problem – yet we never felt unsafe or threatened at any time? Trinidad is definitely not a tourist destination!
After we checked into our apartment we decided to scout out the neighborhood (called Newtown). Because of all the embassies in the area there were several upscale restaurants including a few American chains – Tony Roma’s, TGI Friday and Trotters- an English Pub! We found a local supermarket to stock the apartment with snack food and Caribbean beer and retreated to our air-conditioned apartment to escape the afternoon sun and temps in the mid 90s!
The following morning we decided explore Port of Spain on foot. There is a bus/taxi transport system in the city but no information on where it goes or how to use it so we decided our feet would be the best transport system. There is a downtown commercial area called “Downtown’ on the map. It was only a mile from our apartment. It is pretty dirty and the shops are pretty ratty but we were able to find the typical souvenirs (postcards and a silver teaspoon) easily and quickly. We passed several old churches and buildings that looked interesting but had no idea what they were? Luckily we stumbled across a tourist office and were able to collect some maps, brochures and a list of tourist guides. They were even able to give me a contact number for the marathon. Up to that time all I was able to get from the website was the starting time and place. I wasn’t even sure if the race was still on? After lunch we retreated back to the apartment and A/C – you cannot walk around Trinidad in the afternoon sun/heat unless you are a Trini!
Back at the apartment I called a few tourist guides and finally located a guide that had a car and offered us a tour of the city and North Coast for a reasonable price. I also made contact with the main sponsor of the marathon – Colonial Life Insurance Corporation – hence the name of the marathon – CLICO Marathon! The rep informed me that I could pick up my race package at the corporate HQ the next day and get more info on the race.
Things were looking up! After a few cold Carib beers it was time to look for a restaurant. But the only restaurants we could find other than the expensive, upscale restaurants were a Pizza joint, several Chinese joints and fast food joints called ‘Rotis”? We selected a Chinese restaurant and enjoyed a great dinner for about $40TT ($7 US).
On Fri morning our tour guide, Derik picked us up at our apartment and started our morning tour. As we drove around the city he pointed out many of the buildings we had walked by and explained their history. He also explained the history of the country and city and provided much-needed information about how to find things in the city and what the local culture and politics were. Some things finally made much more sense? For instance the main meal for the Trinis is lunch and many of them eat a big meal in local fast food restaurants. Most of the restaurants are Chinese or Indian. The Chinese food is similar to what we find in the US but has a Creole flair added. However the Indian food is called ‘roti’ and is mostly fast food. There are very few Indian restaurants as we know them? Very few Trinis eat a big dinner and they don’t eat out at restaurants for dinner so many of the restaurants are closed in the evenings. As Derik was providing this explanation on food he stopped at a roadside cart that served ‘Doubles’. It is a local food derived from Indian culture. A type of dough/bread called ‘bara’ made from flour and split peas is deep fried. Then they add curried channa (chickpeas) and hominy and some hot chutney and spices. Since the bread is small they always serve two – hence doubles! Doubles is a very common breakfast or morning snack for Trinis. We declined to eat one because it didn’t comply with Maddog’s travel rules – “never eat food from a street vendor/cart’.
After Derik enjoyed his Doubles we continued our tour through the North Coastal Mountains to Maracas Beach on the North Coast. The nicest beaches in Trinidad are located on the North Coast facing the Caribbean Sea. The Gulf of Paria on the west and the Columbus Channel on the south are full of silt from the rivers of Trinidad and Venezuela and are brown and dirty. The beaches on the East Coast along the Atlantic Ocean are supposed to be OK but are rocky and the water/waves are much rougher. Maracus beach is supposed to be the nicest beach in Trinidad. It was very pretty and the water is clear and calm. But the beach is remote and isolated and there is only one small hotel/resort on the beach. I would go stir-crazy in one day! We arrived at the beach around noon so we were able to enjoy a typical Trini treat/lunch – ‘shark and bake’. They deep fry pieces of fresh shark and wrap them in a piece of fried leavened bread (bake). It was delicious! The sports manager declined because everything was fried?
Before Derik dropped us off at the apartment we hired him for another tour on Mon to take us along the west coast to the south end of the island. I had considered renting a car and doing our own tour but after a morning of driving on bad roads, horrendous traffic and total lack of any directional signs I wisely decided that we were safer to let a Trini drive and tour us around the island! When we returned to the city we decided to walk downtown to the CLICO office to pick up my race package.
Although the website was very poor and offered little information I must say that the volunteers of CLICO made up for that issue with their hospitality and exuberance. They had lost my online registration so I had to register again but for a $25 entry fee foreign runners were given a polo race shirt and a finisher’s medal. We were also offered a tour of the course on Sat morning and a taxi to pick us up at our hotel to take us to the start line. (Race directors in the US – take note!) While we were waiting around at CLICO I met a few fellow runners – from Seattle, Houston, Germany, Poland and Martinique.
After returning to the apartment and enjoying a few more Caribs (hey – I don’t normally drink beer two days before a race but I knew that I couldn’t take this race seriously) it was time for dinner. Normally I would eat Chinese food two nights before a race but since we had eaten Chinese on Thu night we decided to try Trini food at a well-known Trini restaurant that only served local food. I tried ‘spicy pork’. It was similar to ‘pepper pot’ a popular dish in Guyana.
On Sat morning I woke early to do a short run around the Savannah. I had done a lot of walking the past few days in Trinidad but had not run since the test Half on Tue. I was running around the Savannah by 7am along with hundreds of Trinis trying to beat the morning sun. All went well so I was feeling very confident that I could finish the marathon on Sun.
The bus tour of the course started at 10 am and took about the same amount of time that we expected to run the course because of the horrendous traffic. Our tour guide was a lovely young Trini named Vanessa who had run the marathon a few times. The course started in Chaguanas about 20 miles south of Port of Spain. It was fairly flat with some rolling hills and finished at the Oval (a Cricket Stadium) in Woodbrook – about 1 mile from our apartment. Everyone was very concerned about the roads, the traffic and the heat. Unfortunately all turned out to be legitimate concerns. After the course tour I retreated to the apartment and A/C – no way I was going outside in the afternoon sun!
Finally Sat night – time for carbo/pasta loading! There was no pasta party. And there are no Italian restaurants in Trinidad. Well I lie a wee bit. There were two but both were upscale and very expensive. So we walked around and found a Pizza Hut where I ordered spaghetti for $20TT ($3 US).
Sun was M- day! The marathon started at 5:30am so a bus picked me and a few other foreign runners up starting at 3:30 am and delivered us to the start line at 5am. Five hundred runners started the marathon. There was prize money offered by CLICO for both the open and national divisions so there were elite runners from a few countries. The race started in the dark to escape the sun and heat (the temps were only in the high 70s at the start). I attempted to walk and jog before the start to loosen up the knee but I still walked at the start and found myself in very last place when I reached the one-mile mark in 13:05 – and proud of it! I had stuck to my strategy to start slow and walk. With the heat and humidity my knee had loosened up and I jogged the 2nd mile in 9:15 and passed the back of the pack. Too fast! The knee felt OK but I did not have that much confidence in it. I figured that I needed to walk at least one minute each and every mile and try to average a 10-minute pace. I settled into a 10-minute pace by mile 4. By then the residents were lined up along the course shouting their usual (Caribbean) cheers – ‘Go Pappy”; “Good job Grandpa”! Miles 8 to 10 ran through a cane field and I was still passing runners. I reached mile 10 in 1:41:13 and the knee still felt OK.
However by then the traffic had started to increase and become a problem. There was good traffic control at major intersections but we had to share the narrow roads and be very wary as we ran with the traffic along major roads. I reached the Half in 2:12:18 on a busy road in San Juan. By then the sun was up and the temps were starting to rise and there was no shade! My knee, legs and body felt OK but I was now entering virgin territory? I had not run longer than 13 miles in the past three months. I could only hope that the cross training in the pool had helped to maintain some level of aerobic conditioning? By mile 18 we were approaching Downtown – it was very hot – no shade and the traffic was really bad. I started catching and passing a lot of runners. Mile 20 – the center of Downtown – time 3:21:28. The course turned west so that the morning sun was beating directly down at our backs. I thought I was being broiled. I walked and applied some more sun block to my back and shoulders. I still felt OK but my body was overheating in spite of the fact that I had been dumping water over my head and neck every mile. I calculated that I had 68 minutes to finish the last 10K and beat a time of 4:30. I needed to average 11-minute miles! Just at that moment Vanessa jumped on to the course and ran with me for about ½ mile and then encouraged me to continue on. Strange how the pace on that mile slowed to 12 minutes? I reached mile 23 in 3:55:06 where the course looped back into the sun and to the finish line. I had 35 minutes to finish the last 5K but I didn’t care because I was burning up. I decided that time wasn’t important - I needed to walk at least twice in each mile if I wanted to finish and survive! Mile 25 – 4:17:11. My legs were now tight and sore but I didn’t believe that I could afford to walk anymore so I dug deep and forced the old legs and tired, hot old bod to keep shuffling until I crossed the finish line in 4:29:37.
I had done it! Marathon #238 and country #71!
But there was no time to celebrate – I had to get my body temp down! The temps were 90+F and my body temp was 100+ F! I found some cold water and ice that I applied liberally to my face and neck to reduce my body temp. Then I applied the ice pack to my knee for about five minutes. Only then did I find my sports manager and take the usual finish line photos. Finally we hobbled/limped the mile back to the apartment since my quads had tightened up. Obviously my old bod was not in marathon condition!
After a nice cold shower and a few Carib beers we decided to splurge and walked over to the English Pub for a Sunday ‘carvers’ brunch of roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. I deserved a great meal and beer to celebrate running/finishing a marathon only three weeks after knee surgery!
On Mon morning Derik picked us up again to drive south to the 2nd largest city in Trinidad, San Fernando where he stopped for some more Trini treats. These snacks (some called phulouri and pelou) were made of fried bread (what else) with various vegetables such as eggplant, etc wrapped into the bread before it was fried. Again we declined. Then we continued our journey to Pitch Lake that is a lake of pitch or asphalt covering about 200 acres. It is the only pitch lake in the world. The pitch is natural asphalt about 250 feet deep that constantly replenishes itself. Trinidad mines the asphalt for export to be used for asphalt roads and other petroleum based products. It is possible to walk out on the lake but you must be accompanied by an experienced local guide. The hot sun bakes a crust on certain areas of the pitch. As long as you walk on those areas and keep in constant motion you will not sink into the hot, deep pitch – never to be seen again! We followed a guide across the lake. That proves a point I have always made – “marathon runners are not mere mortals and can walk across a lake”.
After our successful walk across a lake we toured along the coast of the Gulf of Paria to enjoy some of the various sights. For lunch we stopped in San Fernando to experience/taste ‘roti’. What is roti? Remember I said its roots were Indian. Derik took us to a small restaurant and introduced us to ‘Mama’ the owner and cook. Mama took us into the kitchen and showed us how roti is prepared. She takes a dough made of flour and crushed split peas and kneads it into a shape similar to a large tortilla. She then fries this bread (called dhalpouri) just like a tortilla is fried. When the dhalpouri is fried she adds boiled chickpeas and potatoes as the standard ingredients and then you order other ingredients such as meat or vegetables to be added. Then the bread is wrapped around everything and you eat it like a big burrito. It was actually very delicious.
After our roti we continued our drive along the coast back to port of Spain. Other than a few interesting sights such as ‘The Temple in the Sea’ (a Hindu temple) that part of Trinidad is very boring and ugly since it contains most of the industries and refineries. Certainly not a tourist area.
So to bring this longer-than-expected report to an end the summary is:
Trinidad is not a tourist destination. I believe that Tobago is but we never had time to visit.
The CLICO Marathon does not get high marks. The volunteers get high marks but the course, traffic and heat get very low marks. There are better marathons and countries to enjoy in the Caribbean.
But the good news is that I finished – the knee is OK and I can resume my training program to get ready for my next marathon and adventure in Europe in May. Stay tuned!
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Mississippi Coast Marathon
RACE REPORT
Mississippi Coast Marathon
Waveland, MS
Nov 27/04
I can sum this race up in one word – UGLY. Or I can expand the description to Ugly, Ugly, Ugly!
The only reason I ran this marathon was to join some of my UK mates who were finishing up a weeklong trip to the US to run 3 marathons in their quest to run the 50 states. They had invited me to join them for the week (and 3 marathons) but I explained that it was Thanksgiving week in the US and I would be lucky to get a pass to run the final race on Thanksgiving weekend. But I agreed to meet them in MS because I needed a 2nd marathon in MS as I work my way around the 50 states for the 2nd time.
So on Fri I flew from Tampa to New Orleans and drove 90 minutes east to Waveland, MS. As I left I-90 and drove into Waveland I recognized that “I’ve been here –done this”. Nicole and I stayed one night in Waveland and enjoyed a nice seafood dinner in the old, historic fishing village of Bay St Louis on the Gulf of Mexico on one of our many trips between FL and CO. I met my usual two mates Roger and Jack at the host hotel and two other runners from the ‘100 Marathon Club (UK) – Warren and Dave as well as Cliff from Waco, TX. We picked up our race packets and ate the traditional pasta dinner provided by the race organization. I don’t normally attend the pasta dinners provided by the races because it is usually terrible food and overpriced. But the UK guys like to go to these dinners to meet and talk to the US runners so I just go along for the ride.
After dinner we retired to our rooms to prepare for the race and watch the weather channel. The forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms on Sat morning – we were hoping it was wrong? When we woke at 6am and checked outside it was sunny and warm – maybe we would luck out and the storms would miss us? But as we drove north 15 miles to the Stennis Space Center the skies became very dark and gloomy and the winds started to increase. The marathon is held totally within the Stennis Space Center – a large complex owned by NASA and located on several thousand acres of MS forest and swamp/bayou land. This complex is where they test all the rockets for the NASA space craft and missiles. I was surprised that Homeland Security still allowed the marathon to be held here but we had no problem getting through the security gates?
The marathon course is two loops around paved roads throughout the base. It is very flat and also very boring. There was also a 5K and Half Marathon race. There were only about 300 runners lined up for the 8am start so I was surprised to learn there were 118 runners in the marathon? About 5 minutes before the start the thunderstorms moved in the skies opened up with rain! Great! I hate starting a race or even to run in the rain let alone a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning. But the race started on time and we were thoroughly soaked within a few minutes so we didn’t have to worry about getting any wetter or trying to avoid the huge puddles and streams on the roads.
I had decided before the marathon to set a goal of 3:40. I have been struggling with a foot injury ever since I ran a 5-mile race in Sarasota at the end of Oct. I wore racing flats for that race i.e. no support or cushioning but lightweight and fast. And I paid dearly for that decision. I thought I was suffering from inflammation in the tendons and since I am scared to take any anti-inflammatory after that little mishap a few years ago I have been trying to run through the pain and control the injury with ice and massages. I had actually taken a few days rest before the marathon and the foot felt the best it had been for the past month. Since I have been unable to do any hard/fast training the past month I figured that 3:40 was a realistic target?
I also made an important discovery the night before the race. As I was massaging my foot and remarking how much better it felt I found a small point in a bone near the joint of the big toe that hurt like Hell to touch? Maybe it was not inflammation but some kind of contusion or worse yet a stress fracture in the foot? That would explain why it was not healing as fast as it should? No matter – I was running the marathon and I would just have to take it easy!
Back to the race. The race started in a torrential downpour. When I reached the 1st mile I discovered that I had somehow screwed up starting my stopwatch. A fellow runner shouted 7:35 for the 1st mile. Too fast but at least I had a gauge on how much my watch was out of synch with the official race clock? This was not turning out to be a good day?
At mile 3 my mate Jack caught up to me and his watch indicated 23:40 for the first 3 miles. Still too fast so I decided to slow down some more. Jack slowed down with me since he had run his previous two marathons in 3:36 and wasn’t sure how much he had left in his legs? We slowed the pace to 8:15s and ran together for the 1st Half. Several times we bitched and whined about the miserable weather and wished that the rain would stop. We passed the Half together in 1:47 and Jack told me to “go on ahead” because his legs were starting to tire. About that same time our wish came true – and it became one of those cases where ‘you should be careful what you wish for’! The thunderstorms, rain and wind passed over and the sun came out. The temps soared immediately into the 70s and we could see steam rising off the blacktop!
The heat and humidity were torturous and immediately every runner started to slow down and many started to crash. I managed to hold an 8:15 pace until 18 miles and then it slipped to 8:30s. I hoped/tried to hold that pace for the last 8 miles but by mile 23 I was struggling and hurting like Hell just to hold the pace under 9 minutes! By then my right foot was killing me and every foot plant brought a cry of pain. My body tried to compensate for the foot injury by subconsciously changing my gait and stride and now my left knee was also hurting like Hell! I just needed to get this ordeal over with before I really screwed up something! I tried to pick up the pace but there was nothing left in my legs and the foot and knee seemed to hurt more when I tried to run faster. So I decided to ignore my time goal and just finish the race – alive and without causing any more serious injury.
Fortunately at that moment the 2nd place female passed me and I decided to try to stay with her. She was half my age, very pretty and provided some nice scenery/distraction to follow. Unfortunately the body was unable to keep up with the mind (seems to happen often at this age?) but I was able to keep her in sight as I followed her to the finish line. Mile 26 was an excruciating, painful and slow 8:59! I was certain that mile had killed any chance of achieving my goal of a sub 3:40. But -----WAIT --- I could see the finish line and the race clock indicated 3:38 and small change. If I could sprint the last few hundred yards I could still beat 3:40! I begged the old bod to give me one last jolt of adrenaline as I ignored the pain and sprinted/hobbled across the finish line in 3:39:40.
I was totally shocked/surprised that I had done it! Don’t know how but I was pleased to accept it. And the strange thing is that my official time was listed as 3:38:17? Either they adjusted the times or I was delirious as I was sprinting towards the finish line? I also didn’t believe that I had placed very well in the race but I was surprised there too. I placed 15th overall and 1st in my age group. Not too bad for an old fart with a broken foot and bum knee?
However it was a painful wake-up call. As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped my right foot locked up and fired bolts of pain. With my left knee competing for the gold medal in pain level I was barely able to walk/hobble through the finish chute. I tried to stretch and massage the pains/injuries but even that didn’t help much. So I decided to head back to the hotel to apply ice and heat. I managed to stay around the finish line long enough to cheer Jack across the finish line in 4:07 but I couldn’t wait for the rest of the gang. As I applied ice to my foot and knee back at the hotel I finally realized that I can’t bury my head in the sand any longer and hope the foot injury is going to go away. I will have to visit a quack/doctor next week and request an X-ray to see if we can find the problem. I already know it will be an ugly confrontation because his advice is going to be “quit running” and that is not an acceptable solution to Maddog!
I have one more marathon this year (mid –Dec in Jacksonville) and 4 marathons scheduled in Jan and Feb. so I can’t afford to take time off! In fact I need to start some serious speed training so that I can win all those races!
Fortunately all of the guys made it back to the hotel before I had to leave for the airport so I was able to say my goodbyes – but I will see most of them again in May when I go back to Europe for two more marathons.
So in summary it was indeed an UGLY marathon. The course is flat and fast but very boring. It could be a very fast course with good weather. The post race party is good with beer and jambalaya. I don’t know about the awards – I didn’t stick around to get mine.
For me it was marathon #237 and my 37th state on my 2nd circuit around the 50 states.
Mississippi Coast Marathon
Waveland, MS
Nov 27/04
I can sum this race up in one word – UGLY. Or I can expand the description to Ugly, Ugly, Ugly!
The only reason I ran this marathon was to join some of my UK mates who were finishing up a weeklong trip to the US to run 3 marathons in their quest to run the 50 states. They had invited me to join them for the week (and 3 marathons) but I explained that it was Thanksgiving week in the US and I would be lucky to get a pass to run the final race on Thanksgiving weekend. But I agreed to meet them in MS because I needed a 2nd marathon in MS as I work my way around the 50 states for the 2nd time.
So on Fri I flew from Tampa to New Orleans and drove 90 minutes east to Waveland, MS. As I left I-90 and drove into Waveland I recognized that “I’ve been here –done this”. Nicole and I stayed one night in Waveland and enjoyed a nice seafood dinner in the old, historic fishing village of Bay St Louis on the Gulf of Mexico on one of our many trips between FL and CO. I met my usual two mates Roger and Jack at the host hotel and two other runners from the ‘100 Marathon Club (UK) – Warren and Dave as well as Cliff from Waco, TX. We picked up our race packets and ate the traditional pasta dinner provided by the race organization. I don’t normally attend the pasta dinners provided by the races because it is usually terrible food and overpriced. But the UK guys like to go to these dinners to meet and talk to the US runners so I just go along for the ride.
After dinner we retired to our rooms to prepare for the race and watch the weather channel. The forecast was calling for severe thunderstorms on Sat morning – we were hoping it was wrong? When we woke at 6am and checked outside it was sunny and warm – maybe we would luck out and the storms would miss us? But as we drove north 15 miles to the Stennis Space Center the skies became very dark and gloomy and the winds started to increase. The marathon is held totally within the Stennis Space Center – a large complex owned by NASA and located on several thousand acres of MS forest and swamp/bayou land. This complex is where they test all the rockets for the NASA space craft and missiles. I was surprised that Homeland Security still allowed the marathon to be held here but we had no problem getting through the security gates?
The marathon course is two loops around paved roads throughout the base. It is very flat and also very boring. There was also a 5K and Half Marathon race. There were only about 300 runners lined up for the 8am start so I was surprised to learn there were 118 runners in the marathon? About 5 minutes before the start the thunderstorms moved in the skies opened up with rain! Great! I hate starting a race or even to run in the rain let alone a torrential downpour with thunder and lightning. But the race started on time and we were thoroughly soaked within a few minutes so we didn’t have to worry about getting any wetter or trying to avoid the huge puddles and streams on the roads.
I had decided before the marathon to set a goal of 3:40. I have been struggling with a foot injury ever since I ran a 5-mile race in Sarasota at the end of Oct. I wore racing flats for that race i.e. no support or cushioning but lightweight and fast. And I paid dearly for that decision. I thought I was suffering from inflammation in the tendons and since I am scared to take any anti-inflammatory after that little mishap a few years ago I have been trying to run through the pain and control the injury with ice and massages. I had actually taken a few days rest before the marathon and the foot felt the best it had been for the past month. Since I have been unable to do any hard/fast training the past month I figured that 3:40 was a realistic target?
I also made an important discovery the night before the race. As I was massaging my foot and remarking how much better it felt I found a small point in a bone near the joint of the big toe that hurt like Hell to touch? Maybe it was not inflammation but some kind of contusion or worse yet a stress fracture in the foot? That would explain why it was not healing as fast as it should? No matter – I was running the marathon and I would just have to take it easy!
Back to the race. The race started in a torrential downpour. When I reached the 1st mile I discovered that I had somehow screwed up starting my stopwatch. A fellow runner shouted 7:35 for the 1st mile. Too fast but at least I had a gauge on how much my watch was out of synch with the official race clock? This was not turning out to be a good day?
At mile 3 my mate Jack caught up to me and his watch indicated 23:40 for the first 3 miles. Still too fast so I decided to slow down some more. Jack slowed down with me since he had run his previous two marathons in 3:36 and wasn’t sure how much he had left in his legs? We slowed the pace to 8:15s and ran together for the 1st Half. Several times we bitched and whined about the miserable weather and wished that the rain would stop. We passed the Half together in 1:47 and Jack told me to “go on ahead” because his legs were starting to tire. About that same time our wish came true – and it became one of those cases where ‘you should be careful what you wish for’! The thunderstorms, rain and wind passed over and the sun came out. The temps soared immediately into the 70s and we could see steam rising off the blacktop!
The heat and humidity were torturous and immediately every runner started to slow down and many started to crash. I managed to hold an 8:15 pace until 18 miles and then it slipped to 8:30s. I hoped/tried to hold that pace for the last 8 miles but by mile 23 I was struggling and hurting like Hell just to hold the pace under 9 minutes! By then my right foot was killing me and every foot plant brought a cry of pain. My body tried to compensate for the foot injury by subconsciously changing my gait and stride and now my left knee was also hurting like Hell! I just needed to get this ordeal over with before I really screwed up something! I tried to pick up the pace but there was nothing left in my legs and the foot and knee seemed to hurt more when I tried to run faster. So I decided to ignore my time goal and just finish the race – alive and without causing any more serious injury.
Fortunately at that moment the 2nd place female passed me and I decided to try to stay with her. She was half my age, very pretty and provided some nice scenery/distraction to follow. Unfortunately the body was unable to keep up with the mind (seems to happen often at this age?) but I was able to keep her in sight as I followed her to the finish line. Mile 26 was an excruciating, painful and slow 8:59! I was certain that mile had killed any chance of achieving my goal of a sub 3:40. But -----WAIT --- I could see the finish line and the race clock indicated 3:38 and small change. If I could sprint the last few hundred yards I could still beat 3:40! I begged the old bod to give me one last jolt of adrenaline as I ignored the pain and sprinted/hobbled across the finish line in 3:39:40.
I was totally shocked/surprised that I had done it! Don’t know how but I was pleased to accept it. And the strange thing is that my official time was listed as 3:38:17? Either they adjusted the times or I was delirious as I was sprinting towards the finish line? I also didn’t believe that I had placed very well in the race but I was surprised there too. I placed 15th overall and 1st in my age group. Not too bad for an old fart with a broken foot and bum knee?
However it was a painful wake-up call. As soon as I crossed the finish line and stopped my right foot locked up and fired bolts of pain. With my left knee competing for the gold medal in pain level I was barely able to walk/hobble through the finish chute. I tried to stretch and massage the pains/injuries but even that didn’t help much. So I decided to head back to the hotel to apply ice and heat. I managed to stay around the finish line long enough to cheer Jack across the finish line in 4:07 but I couldn’t wait for the rest of the gang. As I applied ice to my foot and knee back at the hotel I finally realized that I can’t bury my head in the sand any longer and hope the foot injury is going to go away. I will have to visit a quack/doctor next week and request an X-ray to see if we can find the problem. I already know it will be an ugly confrontation because his advice is going to be “quit running” and that is not an acceptable solution to Maddog!
I have one more marathon this year (mid –Dec in Jacksonville) and 4 marathons scheduled in Jan and Feb. so I can’t afford to take time off! In fact I need to start some serious speed training so that I can win all those races!
Fortunately all of the guys made it back to the hotel before I had to leave for the airport so I was able to say my goodbyes – but I will see most of them again in May when I go back to Europe for two more marathons.
So in summary it was indeed an UGLY marathon. The course is flat and fast but very boring. It could be a very fast course with good weather. The post race party is good with beer and jambalaya. I don’t know about the awards – I didn’t stick around to get mine.
For me it was marathon #237 and my 37th state on my 2nd circuit around the 50 states.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Trip report - Albania
TRIP REPORT
Macedonia & Albania
11/02 – 11/11/04
Part 2
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Now where did we leave off in Part 1? Oh yes – my support team (Aleksandar and Toni) and I were having a traditional pre-race pasta dinner in Ohrid to discuss our plans/strategy for the marathon in Albania on Sunday morning.
I asked them how many times they had traveled to Albania. I was surprised to learn that they had never been to Albania! They were both in their 30s and only lived 100 miles from the border?
Q: “Why not I asked?”
A: “It is not a nice place – there is nothing there – and no reason to go there!”
Apparently not many of Albania’s neighbors have a burning desire to visit that country? I had the most experience with crossing the border into Albania since I had visited one year ago by crossing the border from Montenegro into northern Albania. But they were willing to help me and curious to see what Lake Ohrid looked like from the Albanian side?
On Sunday morning we left Ohrid at 8am and arrived at the border 30 minutes later. We passed through the Macedonian side of the border quickly with no fees but as soon as we entered the Albanian side the rip-offs began. First we were required to pay a fee of 250 denars ($4 US) to drive the car through a puddle (of water?). An Albanian border guard claimed it was disinfectant but I didn’t believe it was anything but water? But you pay the fee or you don’t go any further. Then we proceeded to immigration where I had to pay a fee to get my passport stamped and Aleksandar and Toni had to pay for visas. I didn’t understand the logic or reasons for the fees: I, the American had to pay a fee of 10 Euros; my support team being Europeans (and neighbors) had to pay a fee of $10 US?
Fortunately as an experienced international traveler I was carrying both currencies and paid the fees for my support team and myself. After 30 minutes of paperwork for visas and car registration we crossed the border into Albania around 9am.
Our map indicated that the highway was a main route west to the capital of Tirana and there was a junction only a few kilometers from the border where a small road split off and ran south along Lake Ohrid. We decided to drive to the junction and begin the marathon there. As soon as we crossed the border we noticed the hundreds (and hundreds) of concrete bunkers along the highways and in the mountains. I had heard and read about these bunkers. The former communist dictator Enver Hoxha in an effort to control the country by fear convinced the population that an invasion was imminent from any or all neighbors and as part of that ploy/strategy implemented a “bunker-in-every-plot’ defense campaign.
The junction was located at the top of a small mountain pass about 500 feet above the lake level. Aleksandar suggested that we drive down to the lake level to start the marathon but I figured it would be easier to start the marathon at the junction and run downhill for the start of the marathon. It was very chilly so I wore a throw away T-shirt to start the run. We agreed that the support team should drive ahead about 3 Km and wait with water and they drove off. And I ran into problems almost immediately! A few minutes after I started running I blew my nose to clean out my sinuses and felt like my nose was running? I wiped it with my sleeve and noticed it was covered in blood? Damn – my nose was gushing blood! In my previous 235 marathons I had never experienced this problem. My support team was already gone and I was alone and running down a steep, narrow mountain road with no shoulders and traffic passing me in both directions! What could I do? Not wanting to stop or waste time I tried to pinch the nostrils but that didn’t work well. I needed to plug the nostrils to stop the flow of blood. I had an idea! Since I was wearing a throw away shirt that was now covered in blood I might as well tear a piece of cloth from the shirt to plug the nostril? Still not wanting to stop or lose time for this delicate medical procedure I tore off a piece of cloth and shoved it up the bleeding nostril – only it was way too big and was hanging down my chin. I started laughing as I ran down that mountain pass! What a strange and comical sight I must have been – a lone, Caucasian male running down a remote mountain pass in Albania wearing shorts and a bloody T-shirt – face covered in blood and a bloody rag hanging out of his nose? My biggest concern was that a cop would drive buy and ask me what the problem was. I knew he wouldn’t believe the answer even if he could understand me which would be unlikely?
Fortunately no police drove by but I did get a lot of strange looks from passing cars. Fifteen minutes later I reached my support team at 3 Km and explained the problem. I was able to swap the bloody rag in my nose for a piece of tissue and wash the blood off my face but I kept the bloody T-shirt on because it was still cold. By the time I reached the 6Km mark the road was at lake level, my nose had stopped bleeding as it had warmed up enough to take off the bloody T-shirt. The next 10Km were almost enjoyable. The road was flat and ran close to the lake. If I ignored the hundreds of concrete bunkers located along the shores of the lake and in the mountains (protecting Albania from evil Macedonia?) the scenery was quite pretty. My support team was amazed with all the Mercedes cars driving on the road – more than half the cars we saw were Mercedes? And Albania is the 2nd poorest country in Europe? I wondered out loud “How many of those Mercedes were brought into the country legally” and “How can they afford all these Mercedes but they can’t afford to destroy and remove all those concrete bunkers that are a blight on the countryside and a constant reminder of their folly and naivety?
I passed through a few small villages where the villagers looked at me very strangely and shouted at me. I wasn’t sure whether they were shouting insults or words of encouragement so I just smiled, waved and kept on running. A few kids rode along beside me on their bikes. We tried to converse but their English was as good/bad as my Albanian and the conversations didn’t last long and they got bored and rode off. I never felt threatened along the route but I also never felt completely safe!
Around 16Km I could see the outline of a large city, Pogradec, in the distance. And the scenery started to look like the Albania I remembered – there was garbage/litter/filth piled on both sides of the road and lots of abandoned and burned-out cars and buildings along the road. And it got worse as I got closer to the city. It confirmed my opinion of Albania. Albania is a DUMP – it is the OUTHOUSE of Europe (and I am trying to be nice!).
I reached the Half on the outskirts of Pogradec where Aleksandar was waiting to join me for the 2nd Half. I was really glad he ran the 2nd half with me because we had to run through the center of the city. It was poor/filthy with narrow sidewalks filled with pedestrians so we decided to stay on the main street and share it with cars/trucks/buses/donkey carts/horse carts. Almost everyone in the city stared at us with strange looks and shouted at us. Even though Aleksandar couldn’t understand the language he claimed that they were shouting encouragement and I accepted that explanation because it was better than the other one? A few even took pictures. I figured that a) they had never seen anyone run in shorts, etc through the city or b) they thought we were members of the Albanian National/Olympic sports team? I would be curious to hear the story they tell when they show the photos to their friends? So I began to worry less about the people and more about the traffic. I did not have any desire/wish to spend any time in an Albanian hospital (or morgue)! Thankfully/mercifully we passed through the city center in about 5Km and soon we were back on a quiet road along Lake Ohrid heading to the border at the south end of the lake. There were very few buildings and traffic on this road.
At 32.5Km we passed through a small village and reached a steep hill with only 1Km to the border. We decided the best strategy would be to turn around and run back 5Km towards the city and then loop back and finish in the village. With only 10Km to go my legs were feeling very tired – both hams were sore and tight and my right plantar fascia was killing me. I now regretted running that 2-mile race on Saturday! But I was determined to finish if I had to crawl the last 10Km – I did not want to have to come back to Albania ever again! I told Aleksandar that I was tired/hurting and intended to let the old legs run whatever pace they felt comfortable with. When we made that final turn at 37Km I tried to dig deep and push the last 5Km to get the ordeal over with but there was no push left in the legs. So we jogged the last 5Km and crossed the finish line in 3:53:06.
Marathon #236 and country # 70 completed. It was a very unnerving and challenging marathon even though the course was easy
As I struggled through the last 5Km I had commented to Aleksandar that some runners/people claim that “running a ‘solo’ marathon is not running a ‘real’ marathon”! Well I finally have a great response for these people. Only after they have duplicated/ran my solo/non-real marathon in Albania will I consider listening to their stupid/ridiculous comments! Running an official/organized marathon (anywhere in the world) is a piece of cake compared to running this solo marathon. And I considered myself lucky to have chosen one of the easiest and safest routes in Albania!
After some finish photos and a brief rest we headed for the border expecting to breeze across? Everything went smoothly until we reached the last gate on the Albanian side and the border guard demanded a fee of 1 Euro (a commission for something)? Toni figured it was another rip-off and started to argue and suddenly the fee went up to 2 Euros? I advised Toni to stop arguing, paid the 2 Euros and we escaped to the Macedonia side of the border. We had to drive about another 30Km to Ohrid to complete the loop around lake Ohrid – a total of 90Km.
We congratulated ourselves on the successful achievement of two goals – I had completed a marathon in Albania and Aleksandar and Toni had completed their first loop around Lake Ohrid! I thanked my support team. It would have been impossible to complete my goal without their help and support!
After a quick shower at the apartment I checked into a hotel in Ohrid because I was wanted to stay and explore the city. Then we went for a quick snack/meal before my support team drove back to Skopje. I agreed to meet them when I returned to Skopje on Wednesday.
I was on my own again and looking forward to exploring the Old City.
Archaeological findings show evidence of civilization in Macedonia between 7000 and 3500BC. Ohrid is the 2nd largest city in Macedonia (50,000) and is one of the most ancient cities in the Balkans. Its ancient name is Lychnidos. The Old City is located on Gorni Saraj – a hill that has been continually settled between the Iron Age and the Ottoman period. It was the site of the acropolis of the city of Lychnidos and later of the citadel of mediaeval Ohrid and Samoil’s Fortress that still exists today. Many of the existing buildings and churches date back to the 9th and 10th centuries.
However when I woke up on Monday morning I immediately knew it was going to be a bad day! The weather was cold, windy and raining and my throat was sore and I was coughing and hacking. Even so I ventured outside after breakfast to reconnoiter the Old City. But after an hour both the weather and my health had deteriorated. I passed many locals on the street who were also coughing so I guessed that the marathons had suppressed my immune system and I had caught some local cold bug. I found a pharmacy and managed to explain my problem to the pharmacist who sold me some cough syrup. I went back to the hotel to rest and take some medicine. That syrup had to be the worst medicine I have tasted since I was a kid? But I remembered my mommy telling me that medicine tasted bad because it was good for me. Damn – this stuff must be really, really good? I took some and stayed in bed and rested/slept for 20 hours!
Tuesday morning started out much better. The weather was sunny and warm – my sore throat was gone, I was coughing very little. That medicine really was good! However the cold had transformed from a cough to a sinus cold and my nose was running like Niagara Falls. But it was my last day and I had to explore the Old City. I started wandering through the narrow cobblestone streets to find the Church of St Sophia. The church and its frescoes date back to the 11th century. Next was the Church of St John the Theologian of Kaneo. This church is built on a cliff above Lake Ohrid and has frescoes painted in 1290. Then I climbed the cobblestone streets up Gorni Saraj to Samoil’s Fortress that was built in the 9th century and is being restored. Next on the agenda was the amphitheater. It was built before the Roman Period and used by the Romans for gladiator fights. It has been restored and is used for musical festivals in the summer.
There are several more churches and monasteries in the Old City but I limited my visit to one more – the Church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos (St Clement). It was built and decorated with frescoes in 1295 and has an attached Icon Museum that displays religious Icons dating back to the 9th century. One could spend several days exploring the Old City if you are interested in history.
I had one final task to complete before I returned to Skopje. I wanted to enjoy a dinner of the local trout from Lake Ohrid so that is what I ordered for dinner along with a bottle of wine. I couldn’t taste much difference from the Rocky Mountain trout I enjoy all summer in Colorado? I was feeling pretty good after dinner and decided that I should drown/kill my cold germs with alcohol. There is a local liquor called rajika – a grape brandy that is about 80%alcohol and tastes like kerosene. I asked the bartender at the hotel if I was supposed to chug or sip the rajika. “Sip it”! It tasted terrible so I chased it down with a glass of wine. The bartender warned me not to do that! “Rajika is supposed to be chased with water or coffee – never beer or wine”. I ignored him and ordered two more rajika and chased them down with wine! I was feeling really good when I went to bed and passed out!
There was good news/bad news when I woke up the next morning. The cold was much better but my head and stomach were complaining about the rajika. And I had a 3-½ hour bus ride into Skopje. It was a long bus ride but I arrived in Skopje in the afternoon and called Aleksandar. He informed me that a couple of the local newspapers wanted to interview me so I spent the next few hours giving an interview and running along the Vardar River for press photos. Then I met with Aleksandar to say goodbye and thank him for all his help. On the way to a coffee shop Aleksandar showed me the original home site where Mother Teresa had been born and raised. I had missed that historical site on my self-guided tour of Skopje? Aleksandar gave me a souvenir T-shirt from a previous marathon that his running club had held in Skopje and we said our goodbyes. He promised to help me find marathons and/or contacts in Bulgaria and Bosnia.
It was time for an early dinner since I had a 5am taxi to the airport for my flights home. The 11-hour flight from Zurich to Dallas was very long/painful with the sinus cold but finally and exactly 24 hours after I left the hotel in Skopje I arrived at my front door in Longboat Key. Doesn’t international travel sound exciting and fun?
But it was an enjoyable and interesting trip/adventure. Macedonia was much nicer than I expected and the Macedonians are very friendly, kind and hospitable. Albania is still a DUMP but we won’t dwell on that anymore.
I have now completed 47 marathons and countries in Europe. Only 4 more to go. After the 5 marathons/countries I have run this past year in Europe I better understand why nobody has ever accomplished this crazy goal! It is very difficult, challenging (and sometimes even dangerous)! If I had known 5 years ago what I know now I would never have started this crazy challenge/goal! But I am too close to the end/success to give up now. In fact I have become obsessive about finishing the goal in 2005. Thus I plan to run the remaining two countries in continental Europe (Bulgaria and Bosnia) in April and the final two island-countries (N Ireland and the Faroe Islands) in May and July!
So stay tuned for the next adventure!
Macedonia & Albania
11/02 – 11/11/04
Part 2
Photos may be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
Now where did we leave off in Part 1? Oh yes – my support team (Aleksandar and Toni) and I were having a traditional pre-race pasta dinner in Ohrid to discuss our plans/strategy for the marathon in Albania on Sunday morning.
I asked them how many times they had traveled to Albania. I was surprised to learn that they had never been to Albania! They were both in their 30s and only lived 100 miles from the border?
Q: “Why not I asked?”
A: “It is not a nice place – there is nothing there – and no reason to go there!”
Apparently not many of Albania’s neighbors have a burning desire to visit that country? I had the most experience with crossing the border into Albania since I had visited one year ago by crossing the border from Montenegro into northern Albania. But they were willing to help me and curious to see what Lake Ohrid looked like from the Albanian side?
On Sunday morning we left Ohrid at 8am and arrived at the border 30 minutes later. We passed through the Macedonian side of the border quickly with no fees but as soon as we entered the Albanian side the rip-offs began. First we were required to pay a fee of 250 denars ($4 US) to drive the car through a puddle (of water?). An Albanian border guard claimed it was disinfectant but I didn’t believe it was anything but water? But you pay the fee or you don’t go any further. Then we proceeded to immigration where I had to pay a fee to get my passport stamped and Aleksandar and Toni had to pay for visas. I didn’t understand the logic or reasons for the fees: I, the American had to pay a fee of 10 Euros; my support team being Europeans (and neighbors) had to pay a fee of $10 US?
Fortunately as an experienced international traveler I was carrying both currencies and paid the fees for my support team and myself. After 30 minutes of paperwork for visas and car registration we crossed the border into Albania around 9am.
Our map indicated that the highway was a main route west to the capital of Tirana and there was a junction only a few kilometers from the border where a small road split off and ran south along Lake Ohrid. We decided to drive to the junction and begin the marathon there. As soon as we crossed the border we noticed the hundreds (and hundreds) of concrete bunkers along the highways and in the mountains. I had heard and read about these bunkers. The former communist dictator Enver Hoxha in an effort to control the country by fear convinced the population that an invasion was imminent from any or all neighbors and as part of that ploy/strategy implemented a “bunker-in-every-plot’ defense campaign.
The junction was located at the top of a small mountain pass about 500 feet above the lake level. Aleksandar suggested that we drive down to the lake level to start the marathon but I figured it would be easier to start the marathon at the junction and run downhill for the start of the marathon. It was very chilly so I wore a throw away T-shirt to start the run. We agreed that the support team should drive ahead about 3 Km and wait with water and they drove off. And I ran into problems almost immediately! A few minutes after I started running I blew my nose to clean out my sinuses and felt like my nose was running? I wiped it with my sleeve and noticed it was covered in blood? Damn – my nose was gushing blood! In my previous 235 marathons I had never experienced this problem. My support team was already gone and I was alone and running down a steep, narrow mountain road with no shoulders and traffic passing me in both directions! What could I do? Not wanting to stop or waste time I tried to pinch the nostrils but that didn’t work well. I needed to plug the nostrils to stop the flow of blood. I had an idea! Since I was wearing a throw away shirt that was now covered in blood I might as well tear a piece of cloth from the shirt to plug the nostril? Still not wanting to stop or lose time for this delicate medical procedure I tore off a piece of cloth and shoved it up the bleeding nostril – only it was way too big and was hanging down my chin. I started laughing as I ran down that mountain pass! What a strange and comical sight I must have been – a lone, Caucasian male running down a remote mountain pass in Albania wearing shorts and a bloody T-shirt – face covered in blood and a bloody rag hanging out of his nose? My biggest concern was that a cop would drive buy and ask me what the problem was. I knew he wouldn’t believe the answer even if he could understand me which would be unlikely?
Fortunately no police drove by but I did get a lot of strange looks from passing cars. Fifteen minutes later I reached my support team at 3 Km and explained the problem. I was able to swap the bloody rag in my nose for a piece of tissue and wash the blood off my face but I kept the bloody T-shirt on because it was still cold. By the time I reached the 6Km mark the road was at lake level, my nose had stopped bleeding as it had warmed up enough to take off the bloody T-shirt. The next 10Km were almost enjoyable. The road was flat and ran close to the lake. If I ignored the hundreds of concrete bunkers located along the shores of the lake and in the mountains (protecting Albania from evil Macedonia?) the scenery was quite pretty. My support team was amazed with all the Mercedes cars driving on the road – more than half the cars we saw were Mercedes? And Albania is the 2nd poorest country in Europe? I wondered out loud “How many of those Mercedes were brought into the country legally” and “How can they afford all these Mercedes but they can’t afford to destroy and remove all those concrete bunkers that are a blight on the countryside and a constant reminder of their folly and naivety?
I passed through a few small villages where the villagers looked at me very strangely and shouted at me. I wasn’t sure whether they were shouting insults or words of encouragement so I just smiled, waved and kept on running. A few kids rode along beside me on their bikes. We tried to converse but their English was as good/bad as my Albanian and the conversations didn’t last long and they got bored and rode off. I never felt threatened along the route but I also never felt completely safe!
Around 16Km I could see the outline of a large city, Pogradec, in the distance. And the scenery started to look like the Albania I remembered – there was garbage/litter/filth piled on both sides of the road and lots of abandoned and burned-out cars and buildings along the road. And it got worse as I got closer to the city. It confirmed my opinion of Albania. Albania is a DUMP – it is the OUTHOUSE of Europe (and I am trying to be nice!).
I reached the Half on the outskirts of Pogradec where Aleksandar was waiting to join me for the 2nd Half. I was really glad he ran the 2nd half with me because we had to run through the center of the city. It was poor/filthy with narrow sidewalks filled with pedestrians so we decided to stay on the main street and share it with cars/trucks/buses/donkey carts/horse carts. Almost everyone in the city stared at us with strange looks and shouted at us. Even though Aleksandar couldn’t understand the language he claimed that they were shouting encouragement and I accepted that explanation because it was better than the other one? A few even took pictures. I figured that a) they had never seen anyone run in shorts, etc through the city or b) they thought we were members of the Albanian National/Olympic sports team? I would be curious to hear the story they tell when they show the photos to their friends? So I began to worry less about the people and more about the traffic. I did not have any desire/wish to spend any time in an Albanian hospital (or morgue)! Thankfully/mercifully we passed through the city center in about 5Km and soon we were back on a quiet road along Lake Ohrid heading to the border at the south end of the lake. There were very few buildings and traffic on this road.
At 32.5Km we passed through a small village and reached a steep hill with only 1Km to the border. We decided the best strategy would be to turn around and run back 5Km towards the city and then loop back and finish in the village. With only 10Km to go my legs were feeling very tired – both hams were sore and tight and my right plantar fascia was killing me. I now regretted running that 2-mile race on Saturday! But I was determined to finish if I had to crawl the last 10Km – I did not want to have to come back to Albania ever again! I told Aleksandar that I was tired/hurting and intended to let the old legs run whatever pace they felt comfortable with. When we made that final turn at 37Km I tried to dig deep and push the last 5Km to get the ordeal over with but there was no push left in the legs. So we jogged the last 5Km and crossed the finish line in 3:53:06.
Marathon #236 and country # 70 completed. It was a very unnerving and challenging marathon even though the course was easy
As I struggled through the last 5Km I had commented to Aleksandar that some runners/people claim that “running a ‘solo’ marathon is not running a ‘real’ marathon”! Well I finally have a great response for these people. Only after they have duplicated/ran my solo/non-real marathon in Albania will I consider listening to their stupid/ridiculous comments! Running an official/organized marathon (anywhere in the world) is a piece of cake compared to running this solo marathon. And I considered myself lucky to have chosen one of the easiest and safest routes in Albania!
After some finish photos and a brief rest we headed for the border expecting to breeze across? Everything went smoothly until we reached the last gate on the Albanian side and the border guard demanded a fee of 1 Euro (a commission for something)? Toni figured it was another rip-off and started to argue and suddenly the fee went up to 2 Euros? I advised Toni to stop arguing, paid the 2 Euros and we escaped to the Macedonia side of the border. We had to drive about another 30Km to Ohrid to complete the loop around lake Ohrid – a total of 90Km.
We congratulated ourselves on the successful achievement of two goals – I had completed a marathon in Albania and Aleksandar and Toni had completed their first loop around Lake Ohrid! I thanked my support team. It would have been impossible to complete my goal without their help and support!
After a quick shower at the apartment I checked into a hotel in Ohrid because I was wanted to stay and explore the city. Then we went for a quick snack/meal before my support team drove back to Skopje. I agreed to meet them when I returned to Skopje on Wednesday.
I was on my own again and looking forward to exploring the Old City.
Archaeological findings show evidence of civilization in Macedonia between 7000 and 3500BC. Ohrid is the 2nd largest city in Macedonia (50,000) and is one of the most ancient cities in the Balkans. Its ancient name is Lychnidos. The Old City is located on Gorni Saraj – a hill that has been continually settled between the Iron Age and the Ottoman period. It was the site of the acropolis of the city of Lychnidos and later of the citadel of mediaeval Ohrid and Samoil’s Fortress that still exists today. Many of the existing buildings and churches date back to the 9th and 10th centuries.
However when I woke up on Monday morning I immediately knew it was going to be a bad day! The weather was cold, windy and raining and my throat was sore and I was coughing and hacking. Even so I ventured outside after breakfast to reconnoiter the Old City. But after an hour both the weather and my health had deteriorated. I passed many locals on the street who were also coughing so I guessed that the marathons had suppressed my immune system and I had caught some local cold bug. I found a pharmacy and managed to explain my problem to the pharmacist who sold me some cough syrup. I went back to the hotel to rest and take some medicine. That syrup had to be the worst medicine I have tasted since I was a kid? But I remembered my mommy telling me that medicine tasted bad because it was good for me. Damn – this stuff must be really, really good? I took some and stayed in bed and rested/slept for 20 hours!
Tuesday morning started out much better. The weather was sunny and warm – my sore throat was gone, I was coughing very little. That medicine really was good! However the cold had transformed from a cough to a sinus cold and my nose was running like Niagara Falls. But it was my last day and I had to explore the Old City. I started wandering through the narrow cobblestone streets to find the Church of St Sophia. The church and its frescoes date back to the 11th century. Next was the Church of St John the Theologian of Kaneo. This church is built on a cliff above Lake Ohrid and has frescoes painted in 1290. Then I climbed the cobblestone streets up Gorni Saraj to Samoil’s Fortress that was built in the 9th century and is being restored. Next on the agenda was the amphitheater. It was built before the Roman Period and used by the Romans for gladiator fights. It has been restored and is used for musical festivals in the summer.
There are several more churches and monasteries in the Old City but I limited my visit to one more – the Church of the Holy Mother of God Peribleptos (St Clement). It was built and decorated with frescoes in 1295 and has an attached Icon Museum that displays religious Icons dating back to the 9th century. One could spend several days exploring the Old City if you are interested in history.
I had one final task to complete before I returned to Skopje. I wanted to enjoy a dinner of the local trout from Lake Ohrid so that is what I ordered for dinner along with a bottle of wine. I couldn’t taste much difference from the Rocky Mountain trout I enjoy all summer in Colorado? I was feeling pretty good after dinner and decided that I should drown/kill my cold germs with alcohol. There is a local liquor called rajika – a grape brandy that is about 80%alcohol and tastes like kerosene. I asked the bartender at the hotel if I was supposed to chug or sip the rajika. “Sip it”! It tasted terrible so I chased it down with a glass of wine. The bartender warned me not to do that! “Rajika is supposed to be chased with water or coffee – never beer or wine”. I ignored him and ordered two more rajika and chased them down with wine! I was feeling really good when I went to bed and passed out!
There was good news/bad news when I woke up the next morning. The cold was much better but my head and stomach were complaining about the rajika. And I had a 3-½ hour bus ride into Skopje. It was a long bus ride but I arrived in Skopje in the afternoon and called Aleksandar. He informed me that a couple of the local newspapers wanted to interview me so I spent the next few hours giving an interview and running along the Vardar River for press photos. Then I met with Aleksandar to say goodbye and thank him for all his help. On the way to a coffee shop Aleksandar showed me the original home site where Mother Teresa had been born and raised. I had missed that historical site on my self-guided tour of Skopje? Aleksandar gave me a souvenir T-shirt from a previous marathon that his running club had held in Skopje and we said our goodbyes. He promised to help me find marathons and/or contacts in Bulgaria and Bosnia.
It was time for an early dinner since I had a 5am taxi to the airport for my flights home. The 11-hour flight from Zurich to Dallas was very long/painful with the sinus cold but finally and exactly 24 hours after I left the hotel in Skopje I arrived at my front door in Longboat Key. Doesn’t international travel sound exciting and fun?
But it was an enjoyable and interesting trip/adventure. Macedonia was much nicer than I expected and the Macedonians are very friendly, kind and hospitable. Albania is still a DUMP but we won’t dwell on that anymore.
I have now completed 47 marathons and countries in Europe. Only 4 more to go. After the 5 marathons/countries I have run this past year in Europe I better understand why nobody has ever accomplished this crazy goal! It is very difficult, challenging (and sometimes even dangerous)! If I had known 5 years ago what I know now I would never have started this crazy challenge/goal! But I am too close to the end/success to give up now. In fact I have become obsessive about finishing the goal in 2005. Thus I plan to run the remaining two countries in continental Europe (Bulgaria and Bosnia) in April and the final two island-countries (N Ireland and the Faroe Islands) in May and July!
So stay tuned for the next adventure!
Friday, November 12, 2004
Trip Report Macedonia
TRIP REPORT
Macedonia & Albania
11/02 – 11/11/04
Part 1
Photos nay be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
The plans for this trip began during my last international trip to Eastern Europe in July. I asked my friend Dimitry in Moldova if he could help me confirm a marathon in Macedonia in November and also help me find a marathon or contact in Albania. He succeeded fairly quickly in finding a contact for me in Macedonia who did confirm a marathon in Struga, Macedonia in November but was unable to find a marathon or any contacts in Albania. However my new contact/friend in Macedonia informed me that he and the race director for the Struga marathon were willing to help me run a ‘solo’ marathon in Albania if they were unable to find/confirm an ‘official’ marathon in Albania.
I delayed making the final travel arrangements as long as possible but finally had to commit to the trip in late September before we left Colorado for Florida. By that time I had confirmed a marathon in Struga on November 7 and a preliminary plan to run a ‘solo’ marathon in neighboring Albania a few days later. All my attempts to contact a sports organization/authority, runner/running club and even a government official such as the Albanian Ambassador to the USA were neglected and unsuccessful! Albania is the only country in the world that has refused to offer me help/assistance to run a marathon in their country? It disappointed but didn’t surprise me – and it certainly wasn’t going to stop me!
I had to purchase non-refundable discount tickets because AA and their partners could only get me to Zurich on free air-mile tickets. The airfare from Zurich to Skopje was $465 return but the total fare from Tampa to Skopje was only $865. I couldn’t see wasting 60,000 miles to fly to Zurich to save $400? However the risk/concern was that I now had non-refundable tickets and coach/economy class. Both of these concerns eventually did bite me – and it didn’t take long!
Shortly after we returned to Florida I contacted my friend Aleksandar to inform him that I would be leaving soon and wanted to confirm that everything was OK? His return email stated that he was sorry to inform me that the marathon in Struga had been cancelled! Great! I am getting ready to leave in three days and I have non-refundable tickets? I had two options: a) postpone the trip for one year and hope that the marathon would really happen then. Hopefully AA would let me change my tickets with a penalty/fee? b) go ahead with the trip as planned and add another ‘solo’ marathon in Macedonia. Aleksandar confirmed that it would be possible to safely run a solo marathon in Skopje and that he would help me. I prefer to run an‘official’ marathon (if one exists) in any country but option a) had too many risks so I decided to go ahead with the planned trip.
Thus I left Tampa on November 2 for a 24-hour trip and three flights in coach – the flight from Dallas to Zurich took 10 hours! That is a lonnnnnnnggggggggggg time to sit in one of those small coach seats! I arrived in Skopje on November 3 and called Aleksandar as soon as I checked into the hotel. He invited me to a concert that night but I was too tired and knew that I would never be able to stay awake that long. We agreed to meet the next day so that he could show me the route/course he had selected for my marathon.
I had booked a 2-star hotel where locals stayed because of the low price. Macedonia – especially Skopje - has many foreign visitors/workers from the EU and UN and the western/international hotels have learned that they can charge these people 120 to 150 Euros/night for a room. My hotel cost 40 Euros/night. It was only four blocks from the main square, it was clean and had an ensuite bath and TV. The only drawbacks were that the whole room was smaller than our master bedroom closet and the TV only had three local stations. Actually this turned out to be a blessing since they didn’t provide much coverage of the US election and I couldn’t understand what they did say? It took me two days to learn that Bush had won.
Since the preliminary plan was to run a solo marathon on Friday and then travel to Struga on Saturday I figured that I had better play tourist on Thursday and explore Skopje. Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, has a population of 700,000 – about 1/3 of the population of the country. The city sits in a valley or bowl surrounded by mountains that trap the smog/pollution from the cars, etc and thus the air quality is not good much of the time. An earthquake destroyed 90% of the city in 1963 and much of the new city was built by the Soviets – thus square, unimaginative concrete buildings. However there appeared to be construction cranes all over the center of the city and lots of modern new buildings were being built. The center of the city has lots of modern, upscale shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes. Fortunately the earthquake spared most of the old city that dates back to the 13th century and contains the Old Bazaar, the Turkish Fortress and many old churches and mosques. An old Stone Bridge connects the new city center to the old city.
Since many of the locals like to eat out and go to bars the meals and booze prices are not out of whack like hotel prices. A great dinner with (a bottle of) wine costs less than $10. A ½ liter beer costs about $1.50 in a bar. Thus you can visit Macedonia very cheaply if you stay and eat where the locals go which I like to do anyways because you learn and experience more of the local culture.
I met Alexsandar after work on Thursday and he showed me a bike path along the Vardar River that flows through the center of the city. One section of the path was paved and marked every 100 meters for 2.5 Km. An adjoining section was concrete and 2.8 Km long for a total length of 5.3 Km. I would have to run 8 laps but there was no traffic to worry about. The biggest problem would be water. There were water fountains along the path but I couldn’t risk drinking local water and would have to place water bottles along the course. I planned to start my run early (7am) because very few people used the path at that time of day. Unfortunately Aleksandar could not provide support since he had to work but he informed me that another runner from his club would join me for the last 10 to 16 Km of the marathon.
It was time for my traditional pasta dinner and a good night’s sleep to get ready for the marathon. On Friday I arrived at the path/course by 7am carrying three 1.5 liter bottles of water. It was quite chilly – in the mid 30s – so I had to wear a throw away long sleeve T-shirt at the start. I left one bottle of water at the start and had to carry the other two through the first lap. I left the 2nd bottle at the end of the paved section and the 3rd at the end of the concrete section so I never had to run more than 2.8 Km to get water. It worked out quite well except that I had a problem hiding the bottles so that I would be sure they would not be taken. The path was flat and in excellent shape so the marathon was very easy. Since there wasn’t any competition (or company) I just ran an easy 8:30 to 9:00 min pace. After I finished 4 laps or the first half there still was no sign of a running mate. However as I finished the 5th lap I heard my name called and a male runner introduced himself as Ljubco and joined me for the last three laps or 16Km. He understood English but couldn’t speak well but we managed to converse and exchange some stories. He was a marathoner/ultra runner who ran about the same times/pace as me.
I was glad that he showed up because it made the time go faster and he forced me to pick up the pace for the last three laps. We crossed the finish line in 3:49:11. Marathon number 235 and country # 69 completed!
Later that day I talked to Aleksandar only to discover that our plans had changed once again. Instead of taking a bus to Struga and hiring a taxi there to take us into Albania, another member of his running club had volunteered to drive us to Struga on Saturday and into Albania on Sunday for the solo marathon. The club had a 2-mile race on Saturday morning and we would leave after the race. I expressed some interest in going to the club race to watch and maybe even run if my legs felt OK so I was invited to join them.
On Saturday morning I arrived at the race location in a city park at 8am to meet other members of the club including Ljubco and Toni who would drive us to Albania. They are members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team that is part of the international Sri Chinmoy spiritual organization. I foolishly decided to run the 2-mile race and not surprisingly went out too fast. I finished the race in 14:30 on sore/tight legs and hoped that I wouldn’t regret that decision too much the next day? After the race Aleksandar and Toni picked me up at the hotel and we took off for Struga.
Struga is located on Lake Ohrid in the southwest corner of the country about 160 Km from Skopje. It is a pretty drive over two or three mountain ranges so we had lots of time to exchange information on each of our countries. I learned a lot. There is still a lot of political and ethnic issues/turmoil going on in Macedonia. The constitutional name of the country is ‘The Republic of Macedonia’. However Greece objects to that name and claims it belongs to Greece and has objected to the UN and the EU and closed down its borders to Macedonia many times in the past few years. The UN tried to resolve the issue by admitting the country to the UN as ‘FYR Macedonia’ (The Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia). This did not appease Greece. Two days after the US election (and while I was in Skopje) the US government and George Bush recognized the country in a speech as ‘The Republic of Macedonia’. To the Macedonians this symbolized recognition/approval of their constitutional name by the USA. They were very happy – in fact as I was leaving Skopje they were preparing the main city square for a party on Saturday night to celebrate this important event. I watched on TV as they celebrated and waved both Macedonian and US flags together. It was nice to be loved somewhere in the world. But not in neighboring Greece where they were burning the US flag at the same time in protest and anger at the USA.
I also learned that about 25% of the population of 2 Million are Albanian Muslims whereas the Macedonians are Orthodox. Most of the Albanians live in the western part of the country and two years ago started a brief war for independence. A Referendum was being held on Saturday to determine if the Albanians should be granted more autonomy in certain regions of the country (one of the reasons the Struga marathon was cancelled). The referendum failed. I am sure that you, like I, had no idea any of this political and ethnic strife was/is going on. So you see these marathon trips/adventures are a great way to learn about the history and current affairs of countries around the world.
I learned much more on the 2-½ hour drive to Struga. When we arrived in Struga I went to check into the hotel I had booked but they tried to rip us off by charging almost 100 Euros for the three of us. We agreed that was too much and thankfully both Aleksandar and Toni had visited Lake Ohrid many times and knew of an apartment complex in Ohrid. We rented an apartment in Ohrid that slept all three of us for 20 Euros. We then went for pasta dinner and discussed our plans/strategy for the solo marathon in Albania the next day.
But as usual this report is much longer and wordier than I planned so I am going to split it into two parts. Stay tuned for Part 2 and Albania!
Macedonia & Albania
11/02 – 11/11/04
Part 1
Photos nay be viewed at www.maddog.smugmug.com.
The plans for this trip began during my last international trip to Eastern Europe in July. I asked my friend Dimitry in Moldova if he could help me confirm a marathon in Macedonia in November and also help me find a marathon or contact in Albania. He succeeded fairly quickly in finding a contact for me in Macedonia who did confirm a marathon in Struga, Macedonia in November but was unable to find a marathon or any contacts in Albania. However my new contact/friend in Macedonia informed me that he and the race director for the Struga marathon were willing to help me run a ‘solo’ marathon in Albania if they were unable to find/confirm an ‘official’ marathon in Albania.
I delayed making the final travel arrangements as long as possible but finally had to commit to the trip in late September before we left Colorado for Florida. By that time I had confirmed a marathon in Struga on November 7 and a preliminary plan to run a ‘solo’ marathon in neighboring Albania a few days later. All my attempts to contact a sports organization/authority, runner/running club and even a government official such as the Albanian Ambassador to the USA were neglected and unsuccessful! Albania is the only country in the world that has refused to offer me help/assistance to run a marathon in their country? It disappointed but didn’t surprise me – and it certainly wasn’t going to stop me!
I had to purchase non-refundable discount tickets because AA and their partners could only get me to Zurich on free air-mile tickets. The airfare from Zurich to Skopje was $465 return but the total fare from Tampa to Skopje was only $865. I couldn’t see wasting 60,000 miles to fly to Zurich to save $400? However the risk/concern was that I now had non-refundable tickets and coach/economy class. Both of these concerns eventually did bite me – and it didn’t take long!
Shortly after we returned to Florida I contacted my friend Aleksandar to inform him that I would be leaving soon and wanted to confirm that everything was OK? His return email stated that he was sorry to inform me that the marathon in Struga had been cancelled! Great! I am getting ready to leave in three days and I have non-refundable tickets? I had two options: a) postpone the trip for one year and hope that the marathon would really happen then. Hopefully AA would let me change my tickets with a penalty/fee? b) go ahead with the trip as planned and add another ‘solo’ marathon in Macedonia. Aleksandar confirmed that it would be possible to safely run a solo marathon in Skopje and that he would help me. I prefer to run an‘official’ marathon (if one exists) in any country but option a) had too many risks so I decided to go ahead with the planned trip.
Thus I left Tampa on November 2 for a 24-hour trip and three flights in coach – the flight from Dallas to Zurich took 10 hours! That is a lonnnnnnnggggggggggg time to sit in one of those small coach seats! I arrived in Skopje on November 3 and called Aleksandar as soon as I checked into the hotel. He invited me to a concert that night but I was too tired and knew that I would never be able to stay awake that long. We agreed to meet the next day so that he could show me the route/course he had selected for my marathon.
I had booked a 2-star hotel where locals stayed because of the low price. Macedonia – especially Skopje - has many foreign visitors/workers from the EU and UN and the western/international hotels have learned that they can charge these people 120 to 150 Euros/night for a room. My hotel cost 40 Euros/night. It was only four blocks from the main square, it was clean and had an ensuite bath and TV. The only drawbacks were that the whole room was smaller than our master bedroom closet and the TV only had three local stations. Actually this turned out to be a blessing since they didn’t provide much coverage of the US election and I couldn’t understand what they did say? It took me two days to learn that Bush had won.
Since the preliminary plan was to run a solo marathon on Friday and then travel to Struga on Saturday I figured that I had better play tourist on Thursday and explore Skopje. Skopje, the capital of Macedonia, has a population of 700,000 – about 1/3 of the population of the country. The city sits in a valley or bowl surrounded by mountains that trap the smog/pollution from the cars, etc and thus the air quality is not good much of the time. An earthquake destroyed 90% of the city in 1963 and much of the new city was built by the Soviets – thus square, unimaginative concrete buildings. However there appeared to be construction cranes all over the center of the city and lots of modern new buildings were being built. The center of the city has lots of modern, upscale shops, restaurants, pubs and cafes. Fortunately the earthquake spared most of the old city that dates back to the 13th century and contains the Old Bazaar, the Turkish Fortress and many old churches and mosques. An old Stone Bridge connects the new city center to the old city.
Since many of the locals like to eat out and go to bars the meals and booze prices are not out of whack like hotel prices. A great dinner with (a bottle of) wine costs less than $10. A ½ liter beer costs about $1.50 in a bar. Thus you can visit Macedonia very cheaply if you stay and eat where the locals go which I like to do anyways because you learn and experience more of the local culture.
I met Alexsandar after work on Thursday and he showed me a bike path along the Vardar River that flows through the center of the city. One section of the path was paved and marked every 100 meters for 2.5 Km. An adjoining section was concrete and 2.8 Km long for a total length of 5.3 Km. I would have to run 8 laps but there was no traffic to worry about. The biggest problem would be water. There were water fountains along the path but I couldn’t risk drinking local water and would have to place water bottles along the course. I planned to start my run early (7am) because very few people used the path at that time of day. Unfortunately Aleksandar could not provide support since he had to work but he informed me that another runner from his club would join me for the last 10 to 16 Km of the marathon.
It was time for my traditional pasta dinner and a good night’s sleep to get ready for the marathon. On Friday I arrived at the path/course by 7am carrying three 1.5 liter bottles of water. It was quite chilly – in the mid 30s – so I had to wear a throw away long sleeve T-shirt at the start. I left one bottle of water at the start and had to carry the other two through the first lap. I left the 2nd bottle at the end of the paved section and the 3rd at the end of the concrete section so I never had to run more than 2.8 Km to get water. It worked out quite well except that I had a problem hiding the bottles so that I would be sure they would not be taken. The path was flat and in excellent shape so the marathon was very easy. Since there wasn’t any competition (or company) I just ran an easy 8:30 to 9:00 min pace. After I finished 4 laps or the first half there still was no sign of a running mate. However as I finished the 5th lap I heard my name called and a male runner introduced himself as Ljubco and joined me for the last three laps or 16Km. He understood English but couldn’t speak well but we managed to converse and exchange some stories. He was a marathoner/ultra runner who ran about the same times/pace as me.
I was glad that he showed up because it made the time go faster and he forced me to pick up the pace for the last three laps. We crossed the finish line in 3:49:11. Marathon number 235 and country # 69 completed!
Later that day I talked to Aleksandar only to discover that our plans had changed once again. Instead of taking a bus to Struga and hiring a taxi there to take us into Albania, another member of his running club had volunteered to drive us to Struga on Saturday and into Albania on Sunday for the solo marathon. The club had a 2-mile race on Saturday morning and we would leave after the race. I expressed some interest in going to the club race to watch and maybe even run if my legs felt OK so I was invited to join them.
On Saturday morning I arrived at the race location in a city park at 8am to meet other members of the club including Ljubco and Toni who would drive us to Albania. They are members of the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team that is part of the international Sri Chinmoy spiritual organization. I foolishly decided to run the 2-mile race and not surprisingly went out too fast. I finished the race in 14:30 on sore/tight legs and hoped that I wouldn’t regret that decision too much the next day? After the race Aleksandar and Toni picked me up at the hotel and we took off for Struga.
Struga is located on Lake Ohrid in the southwest corner of the country about 160 Km from Skopje. It is a pretty drive over two or three mountain ranges so we had lots of time to exchange information on each of our countries. I learned a lot. There is still a lot of political and ethnic issues/turmoil going on in Macedonia. The constitutional name of the country is ‘The Republic of Macedonia’. However Greece objects to that name and claims it belongs to Greece and has objected to the UN and the EU and closed down its borders to Macedonia many times in the past few years. The UN tried to resolve the issue by admitting the country to the UN as ‘FYR Macedonia’ (The Former Yugoslavia Republic of Macedonia). This did not appease Greece. Two days after the US election (and while I was in Skopje) the US government and George Bush recognized the country in a speech as ‘The Republic of Macedonia’. To the Macedonians this symbolized recognition/approval of their constitutional name by the USA. They were very happy – in fact as I was leaving Skopje they were preparing the main city square for a party on Saturday night to celebrate this important event. I watched on TV as they celebrated and waved both Macedonian and US flags together. It was nice to be loved somewhere in the world. But not in neighboring Greece where they were burning the US flag at the same time in protest and anger at the USA.
I also learned that about 25% of the population of 2 Million are Albanian Muslims whereas the Macedonians are Orthodox. Most of the Albanians live in the western part of the country and two years ago started a brief war for independence. A Referendum was being held on Saturday to determine if the Albanians should be granted more autonomy in certain regions of the country (one of the reasons the Struga marathon was cancelled). The referendum failed. I am sure that you, like I, had no idea any of this political and ethnic strife was/is going on. So you see these marathon trips/adventures are a great way to learn about the history and current affairs of countries around the world.
I learned much more on the 2-½ hour drive to Struga. When we arrived in Struga I went to check into the hotel I had booked but they tried to rip us off by charging almost 100 Euros for the three of us. We agreed that was too much and thankfully both Aleksandar and Toni had visited Lake Ohrid many times and knew of an apartment complex in Ohrid. We rented an apartment in Ohrid that slept all three of us for 20 Euros. We then went for pasta dinner and discussed our plans/strategy for the solo marathon in Albania the next day.
But as usual this report is much longer and wordier than I planned so I am going to split it into two parts. Stay tuned for Part 2 and Albania!
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