Trip Report –Wyoming
Race Report
Wyoming Marathon
Cheyenne, WY
May 26/02
Wer'e back from our weekend trip/adventure. We had a great time.It's only a short 3 to 4-hour drive up to Cheyenne, WY from Summit County so after picking up our friends, the Grubers, we arrived in Cheyenne about 2pm on Saturday. Checked into the hotel and then proceeded to check out Cheyenne since none of us had ever been there. Not much to check out. There is a small downtown area that has an old train depot built in 1886 that is being restored and turned in to a shopping mall. The architecture is quite nice and there are also several old mansions in the downtown area that have been restored plus the state capital building - but that is it.We were glad that we had only booked the hotel for one night!The Wyoming Marathon is a small, low key race so I wasn' t too surprised when I had problems finding the registration desk. The race director had changed the location of the registration and pasta party but had not informed any runners who were not staying at the host hotel. However I and a few other runners were able to deduce that we should head to the host hotel where we found the registration desk and picked up our race packages.The marathon started at 6am at the Lincoln Monument on I 80 between Cheyenne and Laramie. Unfortunately it was much closer to Laramie which meant that we had a 45 minute drive Sunday morning to get to the start. The start was right beside the monument which was built in 1960 on the highest point on the interstate from coast to coast at an elevation of 8878 feet. The skies were sunny and it was a brisk 39 degrees (F) at the 6am start. After dropping me off my sports manager had to head back to Cheyenne to pick up the rest of the Maddog Support Team (who wanted to sleep in?) since Connie and Gerry planned to join me around 21 miles and run/walk the last 5 miles of the course.At 6am the race started and the runners headed east into the Medicine Bow National Forest. The first 4 miles of the course dropped steeply on a dirt road into the forest. At 4 miles I was averaging a 7:30 pace because of the steep decline. That was much too fast for that altitude and my training. I commented to myself " This is going to be an absolute bitch when we have to run back up these final 4 miles of hills on the return leg!"At 4.5 miles we encounterd the toughest uphill of the first half - a 3 mile constant climb. As I was struggling to reach the crest of that BAH (Big Ass Hill) at an 11:30 pace, I almost gave into my urge to walk. But pride would not allow me to walk that early in the race so I sucked it up (while I was sucking for air at 8,000+ feet) and struggled to the top. At 8 miles we turned east again on to a paved service road of I 80. During the next two miles over gentle rolling hils I realized that we had a strong tailwind pushing us along. Oh Shit! That means a strong headwind on the return leg!At 10.5 miles we turn north off the paved service road on to another dirt road into the National Forest. The scenery on this part of the course was spectacular! Rugged rock formations jut up above the pine forests. I am so awed by the scenerey that I didn't realize that we were running down a steep hill to reach the Half Marathon point. Elevation 8,000 feet! Time - 1:56:43. A nine-minute pace.Believe me. I was under no silly illusions of running negative splits! The return leg was 13.1 miles uphill at 8,000+ feet altitude (except for the backside of the BAH) and into a strong headwind! I figured that I would be doing well to average a pace one minute/mile slower on the second half: i.e. 13 minutes slower! If I could do that I should be able to finish under 4:10 instead of my original goal of 4:15 to 4:30. So I adjusted my finish target and started back!And the course immediately began to kick the shit out of me! The next two miles were sheer torture. I hadn't realized how steep that section of the course had been on the down leg. I struggled to hold a 12 minute pace up that damn hill to mile 15! But I managed to keep the legs churning (if you can consider a 12-minute pace churning?)Soon I was back on the paved service road running west into a strong headwind. Fortunately that only lasted a few miles before we turned back into the National Forest - about mile 19. I had expected to meet my support team at this point but I was about 15 minutes ahead of schedule. I stopped at an aid station to fill up my water bottle. There were only three aid stations on the course - about every 4.5 miles.Since that is not enough water for me I carried a water bottle so that I could drink whenever I needed and just filled my water bottle at the aid stations. This worked fine but cost me time to stop and fill the bottle.Still no support team so I forged on! As I was running down the backside of the BAH around 21.5 miles the support team caught up. Connie and Gerry jumped out of the car. Gerry planned to walk in and Connie planned to run in with me. Although I was only running a 9:30 pace it was still very difficult for Connie to adjust to that pace at 8,000+ feet from a cold start. So I had to leave her behind by mile 22 as I wanted to continue pushing as long as I felt OK! I thought that she would catch me as I was approaching the 4 mile climb back to the finish/start line and I figured that I would end up walking?At that point I started a psyche job on myself because I knew it would be necessary to get up that final 4 miles of hills. My first promise to myself was that if I could just continue running until at least mile 24 then I would allow myself to start walking at that point. Surprisingly I was able to hold a 10 to 10:30 pace up those first two miles of hills. At mile 24 I rewarded myself with a brief walk while I swallowed my last carbo gel and washed it down with the last of my water. Time to start running again! The old bod struggled valiantly to run an 11:25 on mile 25! But at mile 25 the hill/mountain seemed to rise at an impossibly steep grade and the heart, willpower and legs just weren't capable of running up that grade. So I started doing a combination of a power walk, then run, power walk, then run. I was on the verge of making the power walk longer than the run when I noticed another runner ahead of me. I had thought that I had no chance of catching him but he had been beaten down to just walking and I was gaining!Push the old bod harder! As we approached mile 26 I closed to within 100 feet but he heard the footsteps and responded accordingly. He beat his dead horse/legs and started running again and I was already pushing as hard as I could and I could not respond. So I followed him across the finish line about 30 seconds later for a time of 4:09:51! I was very pleased with both my time and my performance. I had run a smart race and finished much faster than predicted - and although my legs were tired I was not really beaten up and recovered quickly.However when I glanced at the results board I was disappointed to learn that the runner I had failed to catch was in my age group and thus took first place in the Senior Division! In hindsight I am not sure that I could have done anything about it in the last mile even if I had known - I would have had to make a move sooner?As I waited at the finish line for my support team I was surprised to see Gerry finish first? He had run the last 5 miles of that tough course and he hadn't run in over a year because of foot problems. Connie soon followed and we headed back to Cheyenne.After breakfast we decided to head to Laramie to check it out. Nicole and I had stayed in Laramie during my last Wyoming Marathon in 94 and thought that we remembered it to be more exciting than Cheyenne? But after a quick drive-by tour of downtown and the University of Wyoming, we decided to travel on to Steamboat Springs, CO. We were looking for a nice charming place to overnight and have a good dinner. None of us had been to Steamboat even though it is only 90 miles north of Silverthorne. We drove across the back country of Wyoming and northern Colorado and were treated to some spectacular scenery. The last 30 miles into Steamboat on Hwy 40 were very scenic but I don't think that I would want to drive over Rabbit Ears Pass in the winter. However it was spectacular scenery at this time of the year!Steamboat Springs is a very charming resort village. We immediately decided to stay overnight and enjoyed a great celebration dinner at a restaurant overlooking the Yampa River. Steamboat is at an elevation of 6,600 feet and thus was 15 degrees warmer than Summit and spring was many weeks ahead of ours. The main street is lined with fruit trees that were in full bloom. It is a very nice village but the major drawback in my opinion is that it is too remote and isolated. Denver is the nearest major city/airport and it is a 180 mile trip over a narrow two lane highway through the Rockies! Too isolated for me to consider living there. But a great place to visit. I discovered that the Steamboat Springs Marathon is being run next weekend. I would go back and run it but that would mess up my marathon schedule/plan to run my 200th in August. But I do plan to run it next year!
Monday, May 27, 2002
Thursday, April 11, 2002
TR Bali
TRIP REPORT
BALI
3/31 – 4/10/02
Now that have filled ourselves with some American food in Hong Kong we are off to Bali on Sunday morning. I forgot to mention that the weather was cool in HK – low 70s which was a nice change from the stifling heat of Thailand and Cambodia.
Using the itinerary of a travel agency in California as a guide I had booked the first 5 days in Nusa Dua and the next 4 days in Candi Dasa. Nusa Dua is on a small peninsula on the southwest part of Bali. It is an exclusive tourist area that reminds me of the Lahaina area on Maui. There are about a dozen 5-star luxury resorts spread along the beach and the whole region is immaculately landscaped and maintained. There were two small villages on the edge of the region. The prices in the hotels were what you would expect in a resort but you could walk into one of the villages and eat a great dinner for $4 (including a beer) vs $20 to $25 at a resort. Since we had cashed in Sheraton points for 5 free days at a Sheraton resort, meals were not included and you can rightfully assume that we walked into the villages for all our meals.
We both wanted to take some time off from the hectic ‘got-to-tour every day’ mentality so Nicole laid on the beach while I took a PADI Open Water Course to earn my dive certificate. I have always wanted to get my dive card but just never seemed to have enough time. The PADI office was located at the Sheraton so it made it real easy. We did our confined dive in the Sheraton pool and four open water dives in the Indian Ocean. There was some coral and lots of fish variety so the dives were fun and interesting.
But we did want to see some of the interesting sights in that region so we hired a car and driver one evening to take us to Mengwi to visit the magnificent royal family temple of Taman Ayun (17th century) and then on to Tonah Lot. This temple was built on a promontory offshore and is one of the most beautiful settings in Bali for watching sunsets.
On Friday we had to move to Candi Dasa located on the south east coast where the marathon was being staged. Instead of paying a taxi $20 just to take us there we hired a car and driver for the day for $30 and had him take us on a day tour and drop us off in Candi Dasa at the end of the day. Our first stop was a cultural center in Batubulan to watch a colorful and exciting Barong Dance. The next stop was the Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) which dates back to the 11th century. Hewn out of the rocks, the cave entrance is fantastically carved and depicts entangled leaves, animals, ocean waves and demonic human shapes. Then it was on to the town of Kintamani which sits on the edge of a volcanic crater overlooking Mt. Batur and Lake Batur. Mt Batur is still an active volcano and last erupted in 1999. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the mountain and lake while enjoying the cool respite – the temperature at the top of thee rim was only in the low 70s. In the afternoon we descended the mountain past lots of scenic terraced rice fields back into the unbearable heat and humidity to the city of Klungkung to visit the Kerta Gosa (the Hall of Justice) which dates from the 18th century. The ceilings of the hall are painted with classical paintings depicting visions of heaven and hell.
Soon we were driving along the coast again and made a final stop at the Goa Lawah (Bat Cave). The walls of the cave are homes to millions of fruit bats (very smelly) and the cave is considered a holy shrine because it supposedly connects to the Besakih Temple, the Mother Temple of Bali, located on Mt Agung. Last stop was Candi Dasa a small, laid-back village located on a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean.
Other runners from around the world were beginning to arrive also. I recognized a few runners from the ‘fifty states club’ and was looking forward to a reunion with a running buddy from London. On Saturday I got my race package and then we decided to hire a car to take us to Tenganan Village. It is an original or traditional village surviving from the pre-Hindu period that strictly adheres to the traditional life of ritual and ceremony. The people are famous for producing the sacred hand woven Geringsing or double ikat cloth. The rest of the day was spent resting on the beach or escaping the heat by staying in our air-conditioned room. That night the race committee held a pasta or carbo load party at the host hotel. The cost of the party was included in the entry fee but I had to pay $12 extra for my sports manager. It was not worth it! For $3 to $4 we could have eaten a much better meal in the hotel restaurant. But I did meet up with my friend from London and we had an opportunity to discuss possible future races.
Sunday was M –Day! The marathon started in front of our hotel at 5:30am. I knew that was too late because it would only give us 45 minutes of darkness before the killer sun started to rise. There were only 35 runners in the full marathon and about 60 in the Half. The first 3Km ran along the coast at sea level and there was enough light from the street lamps to see. At 3 Km the course turned and started to climb Mt Agung – the highest volcano/mountain on Bali (3142m). There was a BAH (Big Ass Hill) from 4 to 7Km and then downhill to about 10.5Km which was the turn-around point for the Half. I had run with the half marathon runners up to that point but once they made the turn I was completely alone. And I stayed alone until 38Km! At 10.5Km the course also started a relentless climb up the volcano. It wasn’t steep but it just kept climbing and climbing and climbing! I pushed as hard as I could and all I could manage was 9:30 min/mile pace. And all I could think about was that friggin Duracell bunny that keeps going and going?
There were some spectacular views of Mt Agung and terraced rice fields along the course. However there was no traffic control and no shoulders on the road so we had to very cautious with all the bikes, motorbikes and trucks passing us. And similar to my two previous runs there were too many damned dogs that wanted to have fun chasing us. I had to stop a few times to make them back off!
Finally I reached the turn at 21Km in a very slow 1:58. Surely I could make up some time on the return downhill leg – maybe even run negative splits? Yeh, right – and the Duracell bunny was going to pace me too!
I did manage to drop the pace to about 8:15s until 32Km (20 miles). But then the wheels started to fall off! I knew I was tiring – my legs were beat from the hills – and my body temp was well over 100F! I had forgotten to bring some sugar candy and was concerned that I would suffer from low blood sugar. But I forged on until I hit that BAH again and then it was all over. There was absolutely nobody near me as I had run alone since 10.5Km and without a challenge I could not muster up the willpower or motivation to push and hurt myself. I decided to walk and jog up the BAH. It quickly became mostly walking although I did chew myself out at the top and made myself run down the other side. But as soon as I reached the coast again about 3Km from the finish line I had nothing left and began walking again. At that point a female runner passed me and I couldn’t respond – and didn’t care. There was no shade on that part of the road and the sun and humidity had become unbearable. I started to feel numbness and tingling in my hands and knew what was happening so I switched to SURVIVAL mode and walked most of that final 3Km. With only 500 meters left I heard footsteps coming from behind me? Oh SHIT! – it’s two male runners trying to pass me before the finish line. NO FRIGGIN WAY! So I dug deep and found just enough energy to hold them off and I crossed the finish line in 4:08. But I was not in good shape.
Fortunately they had a bucket of ice water at the finish line and a kind volunteer began to sponge bath me with the ice-cold water. He thought it was funny when steam came off my head as he poured cold water over me? But he did get my body temp back down to around 100F. Now I needed another miraculous coke or other source of sugar. Thankfully my sports manager was waiting for me at the finish line. We walked back to the hotel and while I jumped into the pool to continue my cool down she got me a cold coke. As usual I felt much better within five minutes of drinking that coke?
Then I rewarded myself with an hour-long massage with one of the Masseuses at the poolside. I thought that some of my muscles would be sore but the only thing that hurt was my toes when he grabbed them. I had damaged/jammed three toes on the downhill legs and will lose those toenails within a few weeks.
Now it was time for a short nap as my head still felt woozy (heat exhaustion?) and then some lunch. That evening there was a ’gala awards banquet’. I don’t normally go to those events but I wanted to see the race results and spend some more time with my friend from London. Turns out that I placed first in the Senior Division (males 50+) and won a very nice hand-carved wooden sculpture.
The following day was to be our last full day in Bali so we again hired a car and driver for the day and had him take us on a tour of the east coast. We visited the ruins of an old floating palace and the palace of Puri Agung Karangasem (The Great Palace). Then we went snorkeling on a black sand beach at Amed. Finally our driver took us over some mountain roads along the coast that are not usually seen by tourists. And we figured out why quickly! You needed a 4X4 to travel them. Several miles of the roads had been washed out by landslides. Fortunately he had an SUV with lots of road clearance but even with that he bottomed many times. But we did get to see where and how the natives lived.
Now it was time to transfer back to Kuta near the airport for an early morning flight to LA via HK. It was a long, long trip, even in first class. To make matters worse I think that I had picked up a flu bug just before we left Bali and I got to enjoy/suffer all the flu symptoms during the long journey home.
But we had a great time and we would do it again. For you runners, Bali is a tough course. The heat is unbearable and the dogs and traffic are a nuisance. But the race organizers and volunteers were friendly and supportive. There are water stops and cold sponges every 3Km to help you get through the heat. Just don’t plan on setting a PR.
BALI
3/31 – 4/10/02
Now that have filled ourselves with some American food in Hong Kong we are off to Bali on Sunday morning. I forgot to mention that the weather was cool in HK – low 70s which was a nice change from the stifling heat of Thailand and Cambodia.
Using the itinerary of a travel agency in California as a guide I had booked the first 5 days in Nusa Dua and the next 4 days in Candi Dasa. Nusa Dua is on a small peninsula on the southwest part of Bali. It is an exclusive tourist area that reminds me of the Lahaina area on Maui. There are about a dozen 5-star luxury resorts spread along the beach and the whole region is immaculately landscaped and maintained. There were two small villages on the edge of the region. The prices in the hotels were what you would expect in a resort but you could walk into one of the villages and eat a great dinner for $4 (including a beer) vs $20 to $25 at a resort. Since we had cashed in Sheraton points for 5 free days at a Sheraton resort, meals were not included and you can rightfully assume that we walked into the villages for all our meals.
We both wanted to take some time off from the hectic ‘got-to-tour every day’ mentality so Nicole laid on the beach while I took a PADI Open Water Course to earn my dive certificate. I have always wanted to get my dive card but just never seemed to have enough time. The PADI office was located at the Sheraton so it made it real easy. We did our confined dive in the Sheraton pool and four open water dives in the Indian Ocean. There was some coral and lots of fish variety so the dives were fun and interesting.
But we did want to see some of the interesting sights in that region so we hired a car and driver one evening to take us to Mengwi to visit the magnificent royal family temple of Taman Ayun (17th century) and then on to Tonah Lot. This temple was built on a promontory offshore and is one of the most beautiful settings in Bali for watching sunsets.
On Friday we had to move to Candi Dasa located on the south east coast where the marathon was being staged. Instead of paying a taxi $20 just to take us there we hired a car and driver for the day for $30 and had him take us on a day tour and drop us off in Candi Dasa at the end of the day. Our first stop was a cultural center in Batubulan to watch a colorful and exciting Barong Dance. The next stop was the Goa Gajah (Elephant Cave) which dates back to the 11th century. Hewn out of the rocks, the cave entrance is fantastically carved and depicts entangled leaves, animals, ocean waves and demonic human shapes. Then it was on to the town of Kintamani which sits on the edge of a volcanic crater overlooking Mt. Batur and Lake Batur. Mt Batur is still an active volcano and last erupted in 1999. We had lunch in a restaurant overlooking the mountain and lake while enjoying the cool respite – the temperature at the top of thee rim was only in the low 70s. In the afternoon we descended the mountain past lots of scenic terraced rice fields back into the unbearable heat and humidity to the city of Klungkung to visit the Kerta Gosa (the Hall of Justice) which dates from the 18th century. The ceilings of the hall are painted with classical paintings depicting visions of heaven and hell.
Soon we were driving along the coast again and made a final stop at the Goa Lawah (Bat Cave). The walls of the cave are homes to millions of fruit bats (very smelly) and the cave is considered a holy shrine because it supposedly connects to the Besakih Temple, the Mother Temple of Bali, located on Mt Agung. Last stop was Candi Dasa a small, laid-back village located on a beautiful beach on the Indian Ocean.
Other runners from around the world were beginning to arrive also. I recognized a few runners from the ‘fifty states club’ and was looking forward to a reunion with a running buddy from London. On Saturday I got my race package and then we decided to hire a car to take us to Tenganan Village. It is an original or traditional village surviving from the pre-Hindu period that strictly adheres to the traditional life of ritual and ceremony. The people are famous for producing the sacred hand woven Geringsing or double ikat cloth. The rest of the day was spent resting on the beach or escaping the heat by staying in our air-conditioned room. That night the race committee held a pasta or carbo load party at the host hotel. The cost of the party was included in the entry fee but I had to pay $12 extra for my sports manager. It was not worth it! For $3 to $4 we could have eaten a much better meal in the hotel restaurant. But I did meet up with my friend from London and we had an opportunity to discuss possible future races.
Sunday was M –Day! The marathon started in front of our hotel at 5:30am. I knew that was too late because it would only give us 45 minutes of darkness before the killer sun started to rise. There were only 35 runners in the full marathon and about 60 in the Half. The first 3Km ran along the coast at sea level and there was enough light from the street lamps to see. At 3 Km the course turned and started to climb Mt Agung – the highest volcano/mountain on Bali (3142m). There was a BAH (Big Ass Hill) from 4 to 7Km and then downhill to about 10.5Km which was the turn-around point for the Half. I had run with the half marathon runners up to that point but once they made the turn I was completely alone. And I stayed alone until 38Km! At 10.5Km the course also started a relentless climb up the volcano. It wasn’t steep but it just kept climbing and climbing and climbing! I pushed as hard as I could and all I could manage was 9:30 min/mile pace. And all I could think about was that friggin Duracell bunny that keeps going and going?
There were some spectacular views of Mt Agung and terraced rice fields along the course. However there was no traffic control and no shoulders on the road so we had to very cautious with all the bikes, motorbikes and trucks passing us. And similar to my two previous runs there were too many damned dogs that wanted to have fun chasing us. I had to stop a few times to make them back off!
Finally I reached the turn at 21Km in a very slow 1:58. Surely I could make up some time on the return downhill leg – maybe even run negative splits? Yeh, right – and the Duracell bunny was going to pace me too!
I did manage to drop the pace to about 8:15s until 32Km (20 miles). But then the wheels started to fall off! I knew I was tiring – my legs were beat from the hills – and my body temp was well over 100F! I had forgotten to bring some sugar candy and was concerned that I would suffer from low blood sugar. But I forged on until I hit that BAH again and then it was all over. There was absolutely nobody near me as I had run alone since 10.5Km and without a challenge I could not muster up the willpower or motivation to push and hurt myself. I decided to walk and jog up the BAH. It quickly became mostly walking although I did chew myself out at the top and made myself run down the other side. But as soon as I reached the coast again about 3Km from the finish line I had nothing left and began walking again. At that point a female runner passed me and I couldn’t respond – and didn’t care. There was no shade on that part of the road and the sun and humidity had become unbearable. I started to feel numbness and tingling in my hands and knew what was happening so I switched to SURVIVAL mode and walked most of that final 3Km. With only 500 meters left I heard footsteps coming from behind me? Oh SHIT! – it’s two male runners trying to pass me before the finish line. NO FRIGGIN WAY! So I dug deep and found just enough energy to hold them off and I crossed the finish line in 4:08. But I was not in good shape.
Fortunately they had a bucket of ice water at the finish line and a kind volunteer began to sponge bath me with the ice-cold water. He thought it was funny when steam came off my head as he poured cold water over me? But he did get my body temp back down to around 100F. Now I needed another miraculous coke or other source of sugar. Thankfully my sports manager was waiting for me at the finish line. We walked back to the hotel and while I jumped into the pool to continue my cool down she got me a cold coke. As usual I felt much better within five minutes of drinking that coke?
Then I rewarded myself with an hour-long massage with one of the Masseuses at the poolside. I thought that some of my muscles would be sore but the only thing that hurt was my toes when he grabbed them. I had damaged/jammed three toes on the downhill legs and will lose those toenails within a few weeks.
Now it was time for a short nap as my head still felt woozy (heat exhaustion?) and then some lunch. That evening there was a ’gala awards banquet’. I don’t normally go to those events but I wanted to see the race results and spend some more time with my friend from London. Turns out that I placed first in the Senior Division (males 50+) and won a very nice hand-carved wooden sculpture.
The following day was to be our last full day in Bali so we again hired a car and driver for the day and had him take us on a tour of the east coast. We visited the ruins of an old floating palace and the palace of Puri Agung Karangasem (The Great Palace). Then we went snorkeling on a black sand beach at Amed. Finally our driver took us over some mountain roads along the coast that are not usually seen by tourists. And we figured out why quickly! You needed a 4X4 to travel them. Several miles of the roads had been washed out by landslides. Fortunately he had an SUV with lots of road clearance but even with that he bottomed many times. But we did get to see where and how the natives lived.
Now it was time to transfer back to Kuta near the airport for an early morning flight to LA via HK. It was a long, long trip, even in first class. To make matters worse I think that I had picked up a flu bug just before we left Bali and I got to enjoy/suffer all the flu symptoms during the long journey home.
But we had a great time and we would do it again. For you runners, Bali is a tough course. The heat is unbearable and the dogs and traffic are a nuisance. But the race organizers and volunteers were friendly and supportive. There are water stops and cold sponges every 3Km to help you get through the heat. Just don’t plan on setting a PR.
Sunday, March 31, 2002
TR Cambodia
TRIP REPORT
CAMBODIA and HONG KONG
3/25 –3/31/02
When I left off in the last report we were about to leave Bangkok for Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia. As I also mentioned previously I had prebooked this portion of the trip as a complete turnkey, private tour both for expediency and safety. In retrospect it was the correct decision because we would never have been able to cram in all the sights and education we received in five days by ourselves. I don’t think safety is a big concern so if you have lots of time you could certainly visit Cambodia on you own for much less money.
We departed Bangkok airport early Monday morning, March 25th – my birthday. I thought that was only fair since I had taken my sports manager to a marathon in Ocala, FL for her birthday? After arriving in PP and paying $20 for a visa at the airport (that took one whole page of the limited space in our passports) we were met by our new tour guide and driver. They drove us to our hotel first – a 4-star hotel that had seen better days and although it was located only one block from the US embassy the neighborhood looked pretty rough. But then again I had noticed from the air and the short drive that the whole city looked rough and to be in shambles. It reminded me of San Jose, Costa Rica except the infrastructure (roads, etc) was in even worse shape. Only the major roads and boulevards were paved – the others were dirt! And PP is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of 1 million. The other thing I quickly noticed was the traffic. There is no public transportation in PP so there are lots of cars and even more (millions) of motorbikes and bicycles. And like Rome and Cairo there didn’t seem to be any traffic rules? Vehicles and bikes were going in all directions – on both sides of the road! I was certainly glad that we had hired a local driver to get us through the maze.
The first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, PP’s main tourist sights. The Royal Palace itself is off limits since the king still lives there but many buildings on the grounds are open to the public. The Silver Pagoda or Preah Vihear Keo Morakot (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) takes its name from the floor of the temple covered with 5329 silver tiles. It also houses the famous Emerald Buddha. I was kind of upset with a gimmick they have in PP. Each tourist site has its own licensed guides so that our private guide had to hand us over to another guide which meant a ‘tip’ at each site. Our guide at the Royal Palace was a history professor at the University in PP. He made more from tips by moonlighting at the Palace than his monthly salary of $50 at the university. The average salary in Cambodia is about $30 per month. So a $1 tip is greatly appreciated.
The other thing we learned quickly is that the local currency ‘the riel’ (4000 per $1 US) was useless. Everyone quoted and requested US dollars. I exchanged $10 at the market later and the only way I could get rid of it was to give it away as tips. Make sure you take US traveler checks and cash since there are no ATMs in the country! The hotels and tourist restaurants will take plastic; otherwise you must have US dollars.
We then visited the Central Market located of course in the center of PP. All the locals do their shopping here on a daily basis. There are few tourists in PP so this is indeed a local market and you must be prepared to negotiate prices and still expect to pay 2 to 3 times what the locals pay (but still get a heck of a bargain because everything is dirt cheap). Now it was time for our first taste of Cambodian food at lunch. All meals were included in our tour package but the disadvantage was that most meals were a set menu and so we ate Cambodian and Thai food for lunch and dinner every day. We could have had it for breakfast too since the breakfast buffets all had a local and American side. But back to lunch! We received the daily special – a whole local fish steamed at our table with local spices and of course fried rice and veggies. Actually it was very tasty.
In the afternoon we visited the National Museum. It houses many of the original statues from the Temples at Angkor Wat. They had to be moved there to save them from looters/thieves. The statues at the temples are copies. Another thing we quickly realized about Cambodia and Asia in general. The only air conditioning in the country is in the hotel rooms of the international hotels. The lobbies, restaurants, public buildings, etc – NOTHING but the hotel room is air-conditioned! We damn near died from heat exhaustion a few times! Just walking and standing around in the museum was a brutal task -as interesting as the museum was I just wanted to leave and go back to our air conditioned car.
Our final stop of the first day was Wat Phnom (wat = pagoda in Cambodia) founded on the only hill in PP. Legend is that in 1372 a local widow, Lady Penh, stumbled across a floating trunk containing four bronze Buddha statues. She saw them as bearers of good fortune and had a small temple built for them on a hill overlooking the convergence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers. This hill became known as Penh’s hill –Phnom Penh – a name adopted by the city.
Finally and thankfully they dropped us off back at our hotel – and air-conditioned room! Both our guidebook and tour guide advised us not to walk around PP after dark (the only safety concern we received). We followed the advice and stayed in our air-conditioned room.
At least until 6am the next morning when I had to get out to do a training run. I was surprised and relieved to find other runners out there winding their way down to the river about a mile from the hotel where lots of locals were running and exercising. I had no problem with traffic for the first part of my run but on the way back I found myself in rush hour traffic and quickly had to adapt to survive. I had to run with the traffic and claim my piece of the road and somehow everyone else seemed to avoid me? I don’t know whether to call it trust or stupidity but it worked?
Now it was time to continue our tour with a visit to Tuol Sleng Museum or Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison. During their reign of terror the Khmer converted a secondary school into a prison. Most of the classrooms were converted into small cells (3ft x 6 ft) but 10 rooms were used to interrogate (read torture and kill) prisoners. The museum has many graphic photos of tortured and dead prisoners including children. It is very gruesome reminder of what went wrong. Over 20,000 victims were imprisoned in S-21. Only seven survived! There were also many photos of the mass graves or killing fields outside of PP but we did not go to the actual sites. I will send you a photo of the prison/house rules. I guarantee that if you post them in your kitchen and implement them immediately that you will never have any insubordination problems with your family.
Our last stop in PP was at the Russian market, a local market that had been frequented by the Russians during their stay in PP. It is noted mostly for its silver and jewellery.
Two days is quite adequate to visit PP and we weren’t disappointed to be leaving for our journey north to Angkor Wat/Siem Reap.
It’s only a 20-minute flight to Siem Reap which is Cambodia’s most touristy town and has many modern international hotels. We were rewarded with a new 4-star hotel that had just opened in Feb. It even had air conditioning in the lobby and restaurant (and it would be appreciated). Although Siem Reap is much smaller than PP the traffic was just as bad.
Our new guide and driver escorted us first to the park entrance/HQ at Angkor to buy a 3-day pass. Foreigners must buy a pass to enter the park and cannot drive in the park. Since there is no public transportation this means that you must hire a taxi or a car and driver for your visits. There are over 40 temples and complexes within Angkor and you would need at least a week to visit all of them. Thus we could only visit the major temples and sites and I will just try to summarize some of the highlights for you.
Angkor Wat – built in the 12th century. The centerpiece of Angkor. A huge temple surrounded by a wall and a moat. The architecture is complex and sophisticated and the statues and relief carvings in the sandstone are intricate and spectacular. There are miles and miles of sandstone carvings depicting the history and religious beliefs of the rulers and people of that period.
Angor Thom – a city built 2 Km north of Angkor Wat in the 12th century to house about 1 Million people. It was surrounded by a wall and a moat with four entrances, one at each compass point. Directly in the center of the city is The Banyon, a huge temple with 54 towers, each containing four heads, each head facing a compass point. It is widely conjectured what or whom the heads are supposed to represent but the common belief is King Jayavarman VII. There are many temples within the grounds of Angkor Thom as well as the Terrace of the Elephants – a long terrace containing sculptures of 3-headed elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.
All of these temples and complexes have intricate carvings depicting the history and religion of the periods. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining the carvings and history to us. Without his knowledge we would have had no idea what the various carvings meant.
Banteay Srei –the citadel of the women. Built in the 12th century. Renowned for its intricate carvings and decorations in pink sandstone and is in a state of remarkable preservation
Ta Prohm – 12th century. It was discovered in the 19th century and has been left untouched by archaeologists. Shrouded in jungle, trees grow amongst the stone pillars. Scenes from the recent movie ‘Tomb Raider’ were shot here.
There are many others but I can best sum up our experience by comparing the temples and ruins to the pyramids of Egypt. They are younger but the architecture is much more sophisticated and complex and the carvings much more vast and intricate. If you like to visit archaeological wonders then you must visit Angkor!
We finished our last tour day with an obligatory visit to a local school/factory where the government trained the locals in the ancient art/skill of carving – both wood and sandstone. It is all done by hand and so each piece is unique. We bought a sculpture of an Apsara dancer (the mythical dancer who is part female and part god) carved in Cambodian marble for $150. I don’t believe you could touch it in a gallery here for less than $1000? Now we are ready to leave – or are we?
All the while we were touring around Angkor I was observing and wondering if I could fulfill a hidden agenda – to run a marathon in Angkor/Cambodia! I had researched and determined that there is a half marathon held each Dec in Angkor but no marathon. A local runner had described the half marathon course to me – it is essentially a loop around the Mini Circle, a road that travels around most of the major temple sites. I asked the driver and guide to drive the loop to confirm the course. It was doable! The problem was getting there and support because I would have to do it very early to escape the heat. I had even booked an extra unscheduled day on the tour in the hope/expectation that I would be able to do it.
I asked the driver if he would be available to drive me there, assist me and what the charge would be. $10! I felt so guilty about asking him to pick me up at 4am that I insisted he take $20 – a full day’s pay! The tour guide, not to be left out, stated that he used to run half marathons and would like to accompany me for the first half? I was skeptical but didn’t care. The plan was on! At 4am on Friday the driver picked me up at the hotel. My sports manager did not bother waking up? We picked up the guide and proceeded to the west entrance of Angkor Wat. The marathon started at 4:15am in total darkness and a cool temperature of 80+F. As suspected the guide was not fast and after ½ mile I quit trying to run with him and forged ahead at an 8 minute pace. I wanted to get as many miles in as possible before sunrise! The driver continued to follow me and light up the road/path with his headlights. Otherwise it was so dark that I could never have run. The roads are in the park and although there are some local homes/huts along some stretches there was no electricity and thus no lights! Around 8Km the course makes a small loop back on itself and at that point I met my guide coming the other way. He was so discouraged that he quit, got in the car and helped provide support for the rest of the run. It was quite a scene – this white, mostly naked body running down the middle of a deserted road in the middle of a jungle being backlit with the high beams of a car. I think that apparition helped to scare off many of the dogs I encountered when I passed through a small settlement about 12Km into the race. But there were some dogs that decided to give chase and only backed off when I challenged them.
I had prearranged with my support crew to stop every 15 minutes (about 3km) for water as I knew that I would have to drink lots of fluid. I had given the driver money to buy eight 1-liter bottles of water and to put them on ice so I could also use them to cool down. They couldn’t seem to grasp the need to continue running while drinking so I just gave up and stopped for my water break even though it cost me time. A few kilometers after my encounter with the dogs I was running down a very dark stretch of road when I noticed a white or yellow streak slithering across the road right beneath my feet? It took about 5 microseconds to register what it was and another 5 microseconds to leap 5 feet vertically in the air. But it took an eternity as I hung there in mid-air defying gravity and watched a snake slither across the road and into the jungle before I allowed my body to drop back to earth! I had no idea what kind of snake it was. When I went back to the car to ask my support crew they were laughing so hard at my antics that they had not looked at he snake. Can I deduct snake-delay time from my finish time?
Soon I was back at the west entrance to Angkor Wat and passed the Half in 1:50 plus change. As I was following the route around Angkor Wat the second time I was treated to a spectacular sunrise lighting up the temple. Lots of people pay big bucks to go out there early for just that scene and I was getting it for free and I was still lucid enough to enjoy it. However that was about to change rapidly. As the sun rose so did the heat and humidity. And so did the problems with traffic as the locals started riding their bikes and motorbikes to work. By 20 miles I started sucking on sugar candy to prevent the low blood sugar problem I had in Bangkok and in addition to my stop at each water break I started walking for about 30 seconds while pouring cold water over my head to cool down. This slowed me down even more but at least I was able to continue running to the finish line and crossed it in 3:54:50. I was very hot and tired but had suffered no illness or injury and had eight days to recover for Bali.
After a quick cool-down my driver took me back to the hotel to find - guess what? My sports manager was still in bed sleeping! Some people have a tough life? But I still had time for a quick shower, breakfast and a nap before the guide and driver came to transport us to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. We planned to overnight near the airport to catch an early morning flight to Hong Kong. After two weeks of Thai and Chinese food our only goal/desire for that night was to eat some American food. A pepper steak and French fries tasted mighty good!
On Saturday we flew to HK and stayed overnight at a 5-star hotel overlooking Causeway Bay in downtown HK. We had two priorities: meet with a friend and ex-work colleague of Nicole’s for dinner and eat only American food before continuing on to Bali where we figured we would be eaing Indonesian food. There was a minor problem with sticker shock. After spending only $10 per day for three meals, paying $20 for a mid-size pizza was a shock. For dinner our friend was gracious when we took him to an English pub. I had Shepherd’s Pie – the first time I had seen mashed potatoes in two weeks. Funny how you can miss the little things?
We also went window-shopping in HK to see if it was still a shopper’s paradise – it’s NOT! I priced a 128mB memory card for my digital camera – only $5 cheaper than I can buy it here in Sarasota. Which means I can buy it a lot cheaper in NYC or on the net than in HK.
Now it was time to catch the next flight to Bali. Other than the marathon at the end of the stay, nothing was planned or structured for our 10 days there which meant that we could have some rest time and do our own thing. But that is the subject of the next report.
CAMBODIA and HONG KONG
3/25 –3/31/02
When I left off in the last report we were about to leave Bangkok for Phnom Penh (PP), Cambodia. As I also mentioned previously I had prebooked this portion of the trip as a complete turnkey, private tour both for expediency and safety. In retrospect it was the correct decision because we would never have been able to cram in all the sights and education we received in five days by ourselves. I don’t think safety is a big concern so if you have lots of time you could certainly visit Cambodia on you own for much less money.
We departed Bangkok airport early Monday morning, March 25th – my birthday. I thought that was only fair since I had taken my sports manager to a marathon in Ocala, FL for her birthday? After arriving in PP and paying $20 for a visa at the airport (that took one whole page of the limited space in our passports) we were met by our new tour guide and driver. They drove us to our hotel first – a 4-star hotel that had seen better days and although it was located only one block from the US embassy the neighborhood looked pretty rough. But then again I had noticed from the air and the short drive that the whole city looked rough and to be in shambles. It reminded me of San Jose, Costa Rica except the infrastructure (roads, etc) was in even worse shape. Only the major roads and boulevards were paved – the others were dirt! And PP is the capital city of Cambodia with a population of 1 million. The other thing I quickly noticed was the traffic. There is no public transportation in PP so there are lots of cars and even more (millions) of motorbikes and bicycles. And like Rome and Cairo there didn’t seem to be any traffic rules? Vehicles and bikes were going in all directions – on both sides of the road! I was certainly glad that we had hired a local driver to get us through the maze.
The first stop on the tour was the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, PP’s main tourist sights. The Royal Palace itself is off limits since the king still lives there but many buildings on the grounds are open to the public. The Silver Pagoda or Preah Vihear Keo Morakot (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) takes its name from the floor of the temple covered with 5329 silver tiles. It also houses the famous Emerald Buddha. I was kind of upset with a gimmick they have in PP. Each tourist site has its own licensed guides so that our private guide had to hand us over to another guide which meant a ‘tip’ at each site. Our guide at the Royal Palace was a history professor at the University in PP. He made more from tips by moonlighting at the Palace than his monthly salary of $50 at the university. The average salary in Cambodia is about $30 per month. So a $1 tip is greatly appreciated.
The other thing we learned quickly is that the local currency ‘the riel’ (4000 per $1 US) was useless. Everyone quoted and requested US dollars. I exchanged $10 at the market later and the only way I could get rid of it was to give it away as tips. Make sure you take US traveler checks and cash since there are no ATMs in the country! The hotels and tourist restaurants will take plastic; otherwise you must have US dollars.
We then visited the Central Market located of course in the center of PP. All the locals do their shopping here on a daily basis. There are few tourists in PP so this is indeed a local market and you must be prepared to negotiate prices and still expect to pay 2 to 3 times what the locals pay (but still get a heck of a bargain because everything is dirt cheap). Now it was time for our first taste of Cambodian food at lunch. All meals were included in our tour package but the disadvantage was that most meals were a set menu and so we ate Cambodian and Thai food for lunch and dinner every day. We could have had it for breakfast too since the breakfast buffets all had a local and American side. But back to lunch! We received the daily special – a whole local fish steamed at our table with local spices and of course fried rice and veggies. Actually it was very tasty.
In the afternoon we visited the National Museum. It houses many of the original statues from the Temples at Angkor Wat. They had to be moved there to save them from looters/thieves. The statues at the temples are copies. Another thing we quickly realized about Cambodia and Asia in general. The only air conditioning in the country is in the hotel rooms of the international hotels. The lobbies, restaurants, public buildings, etc – NOTHING but the hotel room is air-conditioned! We damn near died from heat exhaustion a few times! Just walking and standing around in the museum was a brutal task -as interesting as the museum was I just wanted to leave and go back to our air conditioned car.
Our final stop of the first day was Wat Phnom (wat = pagoda in Cambodia) founded on the only hill in PP. Legend is that in 1372 a local widow, Lady Penh, stumbled across a floating trunk containing four bronze Buddha statues. She saw them as bearers of good fortune and had a small temple built for them on a hill overlooking the convergence of the Mekong and Tonle Sap Rivers. This hill became known as Penh’s hill –Phnom Penh – a name adopted by the city.
Finally and thankfully they dropped us off back at our hotel – and air-conditioned room! Both our guidebook and tour guide advised us not to walk around PP after dark (the only safety concern we received). We followed the advice and stayed in our air-conditioned room.
At least until 6am the next morning when I had to get out to do a training run. I was surprised and relieved to find other runners out there winding their way down to the river about a mile from the hotel where lots of locals were running and exercising. I had no problem with traffic for the first part of my run but on the way back I found myself in rush hour traffic and quickly had to adapt to survive. I had to run with the traffic and claim my piece of the road and somehow everyone else seemed to avoid me? I don’t know whether to call it trust or stupidity but it worked?
Now it was time to continue our tour with a visit to Tuol Sleng Museum or Khmer Rouge S-21 Prison. During their reign of terror the Khmer converted a secondary school into a prison. Most of the classrooms were converted into small cells (3ft x 6 ft) but 10 rooms were used to interrogate (read torture and kill) prisoners. The museum has many graphic photos of tortured and dead prisoners including children. It is very gruesome reminder of what went wrong. Over 20,000 victims were imprisoned in S-21. Only seven survived! There were also many photos of the mass graves or killing fields outside of PP but we did not go to the actual sites. I will send you a photo of the prison/house rules. I guarantee that if you post them in your kitchen and implement them immediately that you will never have any insubordination problems with your family.
Our last stop in PP was at the Russian market, a local market that had been frequented by the Russians during their stay in PP. It is noted mostly for its silver and jewellery.
Two days is quite adequate to visit PP and we weren’t disappointed to be leaving for our journey north to Angkor Wat/Siem Reap.
It’s only a 20-minute flight to Siem Reap which is Cambodia’s most touristy town and has many modern international hotels. We were rewarded with a new 4-star hotel that had just opened in Feb. It even had air conditioning in the lobby and restaurant (and it would be appreciated). Although Siem Reap is much smaller than PP the traffic was just as bad.
Our new guide and driver escorted us first to the park entrance/HQ at Angkor to buy a 3-day pass. Foreigners must buy a pass to enter the park and cannot drive in the park. Since there is no public transportation this means that you must hire a taxi or a car and driver for your visits. There are over 40 temples and complexes within Angkor and you would need at least a week to visit all of them. Thus we could only visit the major temples and sites and I will just try to summarize some of the highlights for you.
Angkor Wat – built in the 12th century. The centerpiece of Angkor. A huge temple surrounded by a wall and a moat. The architecture is complex and sophisticated and the statues and relief carvings in the sandstone are intricate and spectacular. There are miles and miles of sandstone carvings depicting the history and religious beliefs of the rulers and people of that period.
Angor Thom – a city built 2 Km north of Angkor Wat in the 12th century to house about 1 Million people. It was surrounded by a wall and a moat with four entrances, one at each compass point. Directly in the center of the city is The Banyon, a huge temple with 54 towers, each containing four heads, each head facing a compass point. It is widely conjectured what or whom the heads are supposed to represent but the common belief is King Jayavarman VII. There are many temples within the grounds of Angkor Thom as well as the Terrace of the Elephants – a long terrace containing sculptures of 3-headed elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King.
All of these temples and complexes have intricate carvings depicting the history and religion of the periods. Our guide spent a lot of time explaining the carvings and history to us. Without his knowledge we would have had no idea what the various carvings meant.
Banteay Srei –the citadel of the women. Built in the 12th century. Renowned for its intricate carvings and decorations in pink sandstone and is in a state of remarkable preservation
Ta Prohm – 12th century. It was discovered in the 19th century and has been left untouched by archaeologists. Shrouded in jungle, trees grow amongst the stone pillars. Scenes from the recent movie ‘Tomb Raider’ were shot here.
There are many others but I can best sum up our experience by comparing the temples and ruins to the pyramids of Egypt. They are younger but the architecture is much more sophisticated and complex and the carvings much more vast and intricate. If you like to visit archaeological wonders then you must visit Angkor!
We finished our last tour day with an obligatory visit to a local school/factory where the government trained the locals in the ancient art/skill of carving – both wood and sandstone. It is all done by hand and so each piece is unique. We bought a sculpture of an Apsara dancer (the mythical dancer who is part female and part god) carved in Cambodian marble for $150. I don’t believe you could touch it in a gallery here for less than $1000? Now we are ready to leave – or are we?
All the while we were touring around Angkor I was observing and wondering if I could fulfill a hidden agenda – to run a marathon in Angkor/Cambodia! I had researched and determined that there is a half marathon held each Dec in Angkor but no marathon. A local runner had described the half marathon course to me – it is essentially a loop around the Mini Circle, a road that travels around most of the major temple sites. I asked the driver and guide to drive the loop to confirm the course. It was doable! The problem was getting there and support because I would have to do it very early to escape the heat. I had even booked an extra unscheduled day on the tour in the hope/expectation that I would be able to do it.
I asked the driver if he would be available to drive me there, assist me and what the charge would be. $10! I felt so guilty about asking him to pick me up at 4am that I insisted he take $20 – a full day’s pay! The tour guide, not to be left out, stated that he used to run half marathons and would like to accompany me for the first half? I was skeptical but didn’t care. The plan was on! At 4am on Friday the driver picked me up at the hotel. My sports manager did not bother waking up? We picked up the guide and proceeded to the west entrance of Angkor Wat. The marathon started at 4:15am in total darkness and a cool temperature of 80+F. As suspected the guide was not fast and after ½ mile I quit trying to run with him and forged ahead at an 8 minute pace. I wanted to get as many miles in as possible before sunrise! The driver continued to follow me and light up the road/path with his headlights. Otherwise it was so dark that I could never have run. The roads are in the park and although there are some local homes/huts along some stretches there was no electricity and thus no lights! Around 8Km the course makes a small loop back on itself and at that point I met my guide coming the other way. He was so discouraged that he quit, got in the car and helped provide support for the rest of the run. It was quite a scene – this white, mostly naked body running down the middle of a deserted road in the middle of a jungle being backlit with the high beams of a car. I think that apparition helped to scare off many of the dogs I encountered when I passed through a small settlement about 12Km into the race. But there were some dogs that decided to give chase and only backed off when I challenged them.
I had prearranged with my support crew to stop every 15 minutes (about 3km) for water as I knew that I would have to drink lots of fluid. I had given the driver money to buy eight 1-liter bottles of water and to put them on ice so I could also use them to cool down. They couldn’t seem to grasp the need to continue running while drinking so I just gave up and stopped for my water break even though it cost me time. A few kilometers after my encounter with the dogs I was running down a very dark stretch of road when I noticed a white or yellow streak slithering across the road right beneath my feet? It took about 5 microseconds to register what it was and another 5 microseconds to leap 5 feet vertically in the air. But it took an eternity as I hung there in mid-air defying gravity and watched a snake slither across the road and into the jungle before I allowed my body to drop back to earth! I had no idea what kind of snake it was. When I went back to the car to ask my support crew they were laughing so hard at my antics that they had not looked at he snake. Can I deduct snake-delay time from my finish time?
Soon I was back at the west entrance to Angkor Wat and passed the Half in 1:50 plus change. As I was following the route around Angkor Wat the second time I was treated to a spectacular sunrise lighting up the temple. Lots of people pay big bucks to go out there early for just that scene and I was getting it for free and I was still lucid enough to enjoy it. However that was about to change rapidly. As the sun rose so did the heat and humidity. And so did the problems with traffic as the locals started riding their bikes and motorbikes to work. By 20 miles I started sucking on sugar candy to prevent the low blood sugar problem I had in Bangkok and in addition to my stop at each water break I started walking for about 30 seconds while pouring cold water over my head to cool down. This slowed me down even more but at least I was able to continue running to the finish line and crossed it in 3:54:50. I was very hot and tired but had suffered no illness or injury and had eight days to recover for Bali.
After a quick cool-down my driver took me back to the hotel to find - guess what? My sports manager was still in bed sleeping! Some people have a tough life? But I still had time for a quick shower, breakfast and a nap before the guide and driver came to transport us to the airport for our flight back to Bangkok. We planned to overnight near the airport to catch an early morning flight to Hong Kong. After two weeks of Thai and Chinese food our only goal/desire for that night was to eat some American food. A pepper steak and French fries tasted mighty good!
On Saturday we flew to HK and stayed overnight at a 5-star hotel overlooking Causeway Bay in downtown HK. We had two priorities: meet with a friend and ex-work colleague of Nicole’s for dinner and eat only American food before continuing on to Bali where we figured we would be eaing Indonesian food. There was a minor problem with sticker shock. After spending only $10 per day for three meals, paying $20 for a mid-size pizza was a shock. For dinner our friend was gracious when we took him to an English pub. I had Shepherd’s Pie – the first time I had seen mashed potatoes in two weeks. Funny how you can miss the little things?
We also went window-shopping in HK to see if it was still a shopper’s paradise – it’s NOT! I priced a 128mB memory card for my digital camera – only $5 cheaper than I can buy it here in Sarasota. Which means I can buy it a lot cheaper in NYC or on the net than in HK.
Now it was time to catch the next flight to Bali. Other than the marathon at the end of the stay, nothing was planned or structured for our 10 days there which meant that we could have some rest time and do our own thing. But that is the subject of the next report.
Tuesday, March 26, 2002
TR Thailand Temple Run
TRIP REPORT
SE ASIA - THAILAND
3/18 – 3/25/02
Because of the length of time we were gone on this trip I plan to split the report into three separate reports chronologically in time.
Actually this trip was planned in a very short time since it was an alternative to my main goal for the spring – to run a few more countries in Europe. However all my attempts to contact the race directors in Yugoslavia, Latvia and Lithuania went unanswered. In addition the house situation in Florida clouded matters because we didn’t know when we would have to move. Finally the townhouse sold with a closing date of April 30th which meant the European marathons would be difficult to fit into our schedule anyway. So I decided to look into a new marathon being run in Thailand in late March. It appealed to me because it was being run outside of Bangkok which is polluted and has too much traffic. However I wanted/needed a second marathon in the area to spread the travel costs over and found a candidate in Bali, Indonesia two weeks later. Since we would have to stay and travel the region for two weeks maybe I could find a third marathon?
When trying to decide where we might visit during the interim period I remembered our son Jason telling us how much he enjoyed visiting the temples and ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Why not? Maybe I could find a marathon in Cambodia? The basic outline of the itinerary was set. After countless hours on the Internet I had the itinerary and reservations confirmed. Because I had decided to arrange private tours within Thailand and Cambodia for expediency and safety I needed to save money elsewhere and we agreed to use some of our frequent flyer miles and hotel points. That turned out to be a wise or lucky decision because we had to accept first/business class air tickets (for only 20,000 miles more than economy) and they were a blessing. I would not fly to Asia again unless it was first or business class because you spend too much time on planes and in airports!
Both marathons offered packages that included entry fees and discounted hotel rates that were very reasonable. Combined with the private tours we only had one additional night in Bangkok and five in Bali to cover and we cashed in some Sheraton points to arrange those hotels nights. So far our costs were only about 25% of the actual cost of the trip and we would only have to cover meals and tours in Bali. We were ready! (Sorry for the preamble but it is important to understand that these trips just don’t magically appear – there is a lot of planning and work involved. Even more when you are not sure about the local political climate and safety.) But now – on with the trip.
We left Sarasota late afternoon on March 18th and as usual it did not take too long to hit our first road (or is that air) bump. When we arrived in Vancouver, BC at 11pm to transfer to Cathay Pacific for the Asian leg, we were informed that the flight was delayed from a 1:30am departure to 4:30am. Not enough time to bother going to a hotel so we decided to wait in the airport. Well the flight finally left at 8am after we tried to sleep on the floor of the airport for six hours. What really pissed us off was that no Cathay rep showed up to advise us that the first class lounge was open and we could have slept on a comfortable couch in the lounge. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Hong Kong and since we had missed our connection we had to wait another two hours (at least this time we enjoyed the lounge). Finally 42 hours after we left Florida we arrived in Bangkok! But our luggage, or at least my luggage, did not arrive with us! So after putting in a lost baggage report, etc we finally, finally arrived at the Sheraton 43 hours after we left home. Needless to say we were a bit tired! It was 7pm and our tour started the next day with a 7am transfer to the airport to fly north to Chiang Mai. Finally (for us and for you too) the vacation is truly about to start.
7am. We are on our way to the airport (still without my luggage that didn’t show up at the hotel as promised by Cathay). Depart 9:30 and arrive Chiang Mai at 10:30 to be met by a private tour guide and driver. We chose Chiang Mai because we had visited Bangkok and the beaches in South Thailand on a previous visit and decided to explore the northern part of the country this time. Chiang Mai is the capital of the northern region and is the main center for hilltribe trekking. Northern Thailand’s hilltribes, about 750K people living in about 3500 villages, have so far preserved their way of life with little change over thousands of years.
Our first stop of the morning was a Handicraft Village where there were numerous shops and factories making labor intensive products such as furniture, wood carvings, silk, etc. We visited a few that were interesting but then told our guide enough. We didn’t come to shop but to see Thailand. So after lunch she took us up Doi Suthep mountain that rises steeply on the western edge of the city to visit Wat Phra Doi Suthep (wat = temple), the North’s holiest temple or shrine because its chedi is supposed to contain fragments of Buddha. The temple is very colorful and striking as are most Buddhist temples in Thailand and commands a great view overlooking the city. It was a pleasant change to get out of the city. We then returned to the city for a brief tour around the city including the old quarter set within a 2Km square moat. That evening we went to the Thailand Cultural Center for dinner and a show that featured traditional Thai music and dances.
The following morning I ran around the moat of the old city (twice) before we headed north out of Chiang Mai to visit an elephant camp and one hilltribe. There are still about 5000 elephants left in Thailand. They were used as work animals for logging, etc but now are kept in camps to do shows and provide rides for tourists. We rode an elephant for one hour across rivers and up a mountain trail. My biggest surprise was that they could navigate so well up and down mountain trails. But are they ever slow! We covered about 1½ miles in one hour. After the elephant ride we rode on a bamboo raft for a few miles down the Ping River. It was the dry hot season so the water was low but it was a nice relaxing ride.
Time for lunch at an orchid farm before we visit the Hmong hilltribe. Although a few of the traditional family huts have electricity for lighting there is no water, plumbing, etc. They still grind and prepare rice with the same tools that they have been using for hundreds of years and cook over open fires inside the huts. I took a picture of an 80 year-old Hmong woman and her mother (100+). They were both quite healthy in spite of a very tough life?
Now it was time to head back to Bangkok where the marathon was being staged and hopefully reunite with my lost luggage (I did!). As mentioned previously we had booked a ‘marathon package’ and now I understood how and why the packages were put together. The Thailand Temple Run was organized by a runner who wanted to offer an alternative to the Bangkok Marathon. It just so happens that the runner (a Swede) is also the manager of the Amari Watergate Hotel, a 5-star hotel that is the flagship of a chain of hotels throughout Asia. We stayed at the Watergate since it was the host hotel and all the activities were held there. Part of the package was a tour of the floating market followed by a tour of the course. All these benefits were included in the entry fee but I had to pay extra for my sports manager. We had visited a floating market in Bangkok on our previous trip that was a ‘real market’ for the locals. That market is gone and has been replaced with a new floating market that is about 60Kms outside of Bangkok. The new one in my opinion was built strictly as a tourist trap and not worth the visit. But it was close to where the marathon was being run so was included in the package. The marathon route started and finished at the Phumrinkudeethong Temple in Samut Songkram, a rural community about 60km west of Bangkok. The course was a narrow country road winding past plantations (bananas, lichys, lemons) and rice fields. It also passed a total of 18 temples in the half marathon loop before returning on the same path. There were many (too many) twists and turns in the course. There were a number of huts or dwellings along the route and it seemed to me that every family in Asia owns at least two dogs. And since most of the homes don’t have doors or windows the dogs are not kept indoors. I was a bit concerned about the number of dogs along the course?
The package also included the usual carbo load dinner at the Amari Watergate. I had to pay $17 for my sports manager and all we got was a single SMALL plate of pasta, bread and a dessert. Water was included but you had to pay for booze or a soft drink. And there were no seconds. We could have gone to any Italian restaurant in Bangkok and both eaten better for $17! Now it was time for bed since we had to get up at 2am to catch the bus at 2:45am. Needless to say my sports manager was not going to accompany me to the start line!
Sunday (3/24) was M- day! We arrived at the P temple at 4am. No need to worry about warm ups or being cold before the start. It was close to 80F at 4am! There were about 150 runners in the Full and 250 in the Half. I and only one other runner from the US – in fact from the Sarasota running Club ran topless. Everyone else wore a singlet or T-shirt. No way – not when it is 80+ at the start! After the monks from the temple sprayed all the runners with holy water for good luck the race started at 5am. There were a few streetlights for the first ½ mile and then we were running in total darkness on a small, narrow road in the country. Couldn’t see my feet so had to focus on the silhouette of the runners in front. I ran the first 5Km with my friend from Sarasota but then he started to drop off and I wanted to continue to push while the temperature was still a cool 80F. I couldn’t see or read my watch and I couldn’t find any distance markers until 16Km so had no idea what my pace was until then. Sub 8 minutes at 16Km. Thank goodness for the race volunteers and police who were stationed at many of the turns. They prevented us/me from getting lost and more importantly shone flashlights on the road so that we could see and to caution the many cyclists and bikers to watch for runners. About 5:30 am the locals started going to work. There were very few cars but lots of bikes and motorbikes – AND none of them had lights. I had several near collisions until I started shouting whenever I heard or saw a bike approach. My other concern also turned real as there were many dogs along the route. Most seemed too tired and hot or afraid to bother the runners but there were a few mangy, snarly dogs that caused me to slow down and challenge them to back off. They must get abused and kicked a lot because they would normally back down and cower away when challenged – but it was still a big nuisance!
It remained dark until 6am and then there was just enough light so that we could see the road but I still couldn’t read my watch. I thought/hoped that the road would be safer now from the bike traffic but it only seemed to get worse as they now went faster? I crossed the Half in 1:43 – way too fast for my training and the heat conditions but I decided to continue to push and take advantage of the cool (now mid 80s) temps. Another thing I did like about the race was the race bib/number scheme. The race bib contained both your age group and number. As I approached the Half the lead runners were coming back and I began counting the runners in my age group: one about 10 minutes ahead and a second about 5 minutes. I caught a 3rd runner in my group right before the Half so I should have been in 3rd place at that point. “Continue to push Maddog”. I caught 2nd place about 30K and continued to push although I knew I was slowing and beginning to hurt. However about 34K a Japanese runner in my group caught up to me and we began a ‘cat and mouse’ game. Neither of us wanted to take the lead at that point – just hang on to the runner in front and make a final kick at the end. Finally I saw a 38K marker and decided to go for it. I quickly left him behind but I was starting to hurt real bad. I felt I could hang on for just 4K more. But 10 minutes later, when I should have reached the 40K mark, another marker said 38K - AGAIN! That killed me! I knew that I did not have enough left to push for another 4K. Sure enough the runner passed me and made his final kick and I couldn’t respond.
By now in fact I knew that I was in serious trouble. I was extremely overheated and my fingers and arms started to go tingly and numb and I was experiencing dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I have been there, done that and knew that my blood-sugar level had dropped to zero. Unfortunately there were no more water/aid stations before the finish line so I had to struggle on. Finally crossed the finish line in 3:35 with only two priorities: get my body cooled down and get some sugar into me. The first priority was easy as there was a large bucket of crushed ice waiting right at the finish line and I liberally applied ice until I lowered my body temperature back to around 100+. I started to look for a coke or something with sugar but after a few minutes I was so dizzy that I couldn’t stand up any more so I just collapsed on to the temple grounds and waited for a race volunteer to come to my aid. It only took a few minutes and when I explained my problem and need that wonderful guy quickly brought me an ice-cold coke. You can’t believe how quickly the body absorbs that stuff. Within two minutes of guzzling that coke the tingling and numbness went away and I could get up and walk around. However I didn’t feel like waiting around for the awards so I tried to find the results. Duh! They had another great system. When I crossed the finish line they handed me a finisher’s medal, a piece of paper with my official finish time and a small plastic card with my group placing. I had been so sick and out of it at the finish all I had remembered was the medal.
It turned out that I had placed 4th. I still have no idea where #2 was or came from because I know that I deeked it out for 3rd place – and lost! However the awards did go five deep and were quite nice although just the standard trophy type. I later learned that I had been the first non-Asian and American to cross the finish line – 1st overseas runner as they called it? Back to the hotel for a quick shower and a nap.
Later that night I made another mistake by going to the ‘Gala Awards Banquet’. Cost another $23 to take my sports manager and again it was not worth it.
But overall I still have to give the race and the management good marks. It is certainly a better alternative than running a marathon in Bangkok itself.
Now it is time to pack and move on to Cambodia. But let’s leave that for the next trip report.
SE ASIA - THAILAND
3/18 – 3/25/02
Because of the length of time we were gone on this trip I plan to split the report into three separate reports chronologically in time.
Actually this trip was planned in a very short time since it was an alternative to my main goal for the spring – to run a few more countries in Europe. However all my attempts to contact the race directors in Yugoslavia, Latvia and Lithuania went unanswered. In addition the house situation in Florida clouded matters because we didn’t know when we would have to move. Finally the townhouse sold with a closing date of April 30th which meant the European marathons would be difficult to fit into our schedule anyway. So I decided to look into a new marathon being run in Thailand in late March. It appealed to me because it was being run outside of Bangkok which is polluted and has too much traffic. However I wanted/needed a second marathon in the area to spread the travel costs over and found a candidate in Bali, Indonesia two weeks later. Since we would have to stay and travel the region for two weeks maybe I could find a third marathon?
When trying to decide where we might visit during the interim period I remembered our son Jason telling us how much he enjoyed visiting the temples and ruins at Angkor Wat, Cambodia. Why not? Maybe I could find a marathon in Cambodia? The basic outline of the itinerary was set. After countless hours on the Internet I had the itinerary and reservations confirmed. Because I had decided to arrange private tours within Thailand and Cambodia for expediency and safety I needed to save money elsewhere and we agreed to use some of our frequent flyer miles and hotel points. That turned out to be a wise or lucky decision because we had to accept first/business class air tickets (for only 20,000 miles more than economy) and they were a blessing. I would not fly to Asia again unless it was first or business class because you spend too much time on planes and in airports!
Both marathons offered packages that included entry fees and discounted hotel rates that were very reasonable. Combined with the private tours we only had one additional night in Bangkok and five in Bali to cover and we cashed in some Sheraton points to arrange those hotels nights. So far our costs were only about 25% of the actual cost of the trip and we would only have to cover meals and tours in Bali. We were ready! (Sorry for the preamble but it is important to understand that these trips just don’t magically appear – there is a lot of planning and work involved. Even more when you are not sure about the local political climate and safety.) But now – on with the trip.
We left Sarasota late afternoon on March 18th and as usual it did not take too long to hit our first road (or is that air) bump. When we arrived in Vancouver, BC at 11pm to transfer to Cathay Pacific for the Asian leg, we were informed that the flight was delayed from a 1:30am departure to 4:30am. Not enough time to bother going to a hotel so we decided to wait in the airport. Well the flight finally left at 8am after we tried to sleep on the floor of the airport for six hours. What really pissed us off was that no Cathay rep showed up to advise us that the first class lounge was open and we could have slept on a comfortable couch in the lounge. Fourteen hours later we arrived in Hong Kong and since we had missed our connection we had to wait another two hours (at least this time we enjoyed the lounge). Finally 42 hours after we left Florida we arrived in Bangkok! But our luggage, or at least my luggage, did not arrive with us! So after putting in a lost baggage report, etc we finally, finally arrived at the Sheraton 43 hours after we left home. Needless to say we were a bit tired! It was 7pm and our tour started the next day with a 7am transfer to the airport to fly north to Chiang Mai. Finally (for us and for you too) the vacation is truly about to start.
7am. We are on our way to the airport (still without my luggage that didn’t show up at the hotel as promised by Cathay). Depart 9:30 and arrive Chiang Mai at 10:30 to be met by a private tour guide and driver. We chose Chiang Mai because we had visited Bangkok and the beaches in South Thailand on a previous visit and decided to explore the northern part of the country this time. Chiang Mai is the capital of the northern region and is the main center for hilltribe trekking. Northern Thailand’s hilltribes, about 750K people living in about 3500 villages, have so far preserved their way of life with little change over thousands of years.
Our first stop of the morning was a Handicraft Village where there were numerous shops and factories making labor intensive products such as furniture, wood carvings, silk, etc. We visited a few that were interesting but then told our guide enough. We didn’t come to shop but to see Thailand. So after lunch she took us up Doi Suthep mountain that rises steeply on the western edge of the city to visit Wat Phra Doi Suthep (wat = temple), the North’s holiest temple or shrine because its chedi is supposed to contain fragments of Buddha. The temple is very colorful and striking as are most Buddhist temples in Thailand and commands a great view overlooking the city. It was a pleasant change to get out of the city. We then returned to the city for a brief tour around the city including the old quarter set within a 2Km square moat. That evening we went to the Thailand Cultural Center for dinner and a show that featured traditional Thai music and dances.
The following morning I ran around the moat of the old city (twice) before we headed north out of Chiang Mai to visit an elephant camp and one hilltribe. There are still about 5000 elephants left in Thailand. They were used as work animals for logging, etc but now are kept in camps to do shows and provide rides for tourists. We rode an elephant for one hour across rivers and up a mountain trail. My biggest surprise was that they could navigate so well up and down mountain trails. But are they ever slow! We covered about 1½ miles in one hour. After the elephant ride we rode on a bamboo raft for a few miles down the Ping River. It was the dry hot season so the water was low but it was a nice relaxing ride.
Time for lunch at an orchid farm before we visit the Hmong hilltribe. Although a few of the traditional family huts have electricity for lighting there is no water, plumbing, etc. They still grind and prepare rice with the same tools that they have been using for hundreds of years and cook over open fires inside the huts. I took a picture of an 80 year-old Hmong woman and her mother (100+). They were both quite healthy in spite of a very tough life?
Now it was time to head back to Bangkok where the marathon was being staged and hopefully reunite with my lost luggage (I did!). As mentioned previously we had booked a ‘marathon package’ and now I understood how and why the packages were put together. The Thailand Temple Run was organized by a runner who wanted to offer an alternative to the Bangkok Marathon. It just so happens that the runner (a Swede) is also the manager of the Amari Watergate Hotel, a 5-star hotel that is the flagship of a chain of hotels throughout Asia. We stayed at the Watergate since it was the host hotel and all the activities were held there. Part of the package was a tour of the floating market followed by a tour of the course. All these benefits were included in the entry fee but I had to pay extra for my sports manager. We had visited a floating market in Bangkok on our previous trip that was a ‘real market’ for the locals. That market is gone and has been replaced with a new floating market that is about 60Kms outside of Bangkok. The new one in my opinion was built strictly as a tourist trap and not worth the visit. But it was close to where the marathon was being run so was included in the package. The marathon route started and finished at the Phumrinkudeethong Temple in Samut Songkram, a rural community about 60km west of Bangkok. The course was a narrow country road winding past plantations (bananas, lichys, lemons) and rice fields. It also passed a total of 18 temples in the half marathon loop before returning on the same path. There were many (too many) twists and turns in the course. There were a number of huts or dwellings along the route and it seemed to me that every family in Asia owns at least two dogs. And since most of the homes don’t have doors or windows the dogs are not kept indoors. I was a bit concerned about the number of dogs along the course?
The package also included the usual carbo load dinner at the Amari Watergate. I had to pay $17 for my sports manager and all we got was a single SMALL plate of pasta, bread and a dessert. Water was included but you had to pay for booze or a soft drink. And there were no seconds. We could have gone to any Italian restaurant in Bangkok and both eaten better for $17! Now it was time for bed since we had to get up at 2am to catch the bus at 2:45am. Needless to say my sports manager was not going to accompany me to the start line!
Sunday (3/24) was M- day! We arrived at the P temple at 4am. No need to worry about warm ups or being cold before the start. It was close to 80F at 4am! There were about 150 runners in the Full and 250 in the Half. I and only one other runner from the US – in fact from the Sarasota running Club ran topless. Everyone else wore a singlet or T-shirt. No way – not when it is 80+ at the start! After the monks from the temple sprayed all the runners with holy water for good luck the race started at 5am. There were a few streetlights for the first ½ mile and then we were running in total darkness on a small, narrow road in the country. Couldn’t see my feet so had to focus on the silhouette of the runners in front. I ran the first 5Km with my friend from Sarasota but then he started to drop off and I wanted to continue to push while the temperature was still a cool 80F. I couldn’t see or read my watch and I couldn’t find any distance markers until 16Km so had no idea what my pace was until then. Sub 8 minutes at 16Km. Thank goodness for the race volunteers and police who were stationed at many of the turns. They prevented us/me from getting lost and more importantly shone flashlights on the road so that we could see and to caution the many cyclists and bikers to watch for runners. About 5:30 am the locals started going to work. There were very few cars but lots of bikes and motorbikes – AND none of them had lights. I had several near collisions until I started shouting whenever I heard or saw a bike approach. My other concern also turned real as there were many dogs along the route. Most seemed too tired and hot or afraid to bother the runners but there were a few mangy, snarly dogs that caused me to slow down and challenge them to back off. They must get abused and kicked a lot because they would normally back down and cower away when challenged – but it was still a big nuisance!
It remained dark until 6am and then there was just enough light so that we could see the road but I still couldn’t read my watch. I thought/hoped that the road would be safer now from the bike traffic but it only seemed to get worse as they now went faster? I crossed the Half in 1:43 – way too fast for my training and the heat conditions but I decided to continue to push and take advantage of the cool (now mid 80s) temps. Another thing I did like about the race was the race bib/number scheme. The race bib contained both your age group and number. As I approached the Half the lead runners were coming back and I began counting the runners in my age group: one about 10 minutes ahead and a second about 5 minutes. I caught a 3rd runner in my group right before the Half so I should have been in 3rd place at that point. “Continue to push Maddog”. I caught 2nd place about 30K and continued to push although I knew I was slowing and beginning to hurt. However about 34K a Japanese runner in my group caught up to me and we began a ‘cat and mouse’ game. Neither of us wanted to take the lead at that point – just hang on to the runner in front and make a final kick at the end. Finally I saw a 38K marker and decided to go for it. I quickly left him behind but I was starting to hurt real bad. I felt I could hang on for just 4K more. But 10 minutes later, when I should have reached the 40K mark, another marker said 38K - AGAIN! That killed me! I knew that I did not have enough left to push for another 4K. Sure enough the runner passed me and made his final kick and I couldn’t respond.
By now in fact I knew that I was in serious trouble. I was extremely overheated and my fingers and arms started to go tingly and numb and I was experiencing dizziness and nausea. Thankfully I have been there, done that and knew that my blood-sugar level had dropped to zero. Unfortunately there were no more water/aid stations before the finish line so I had to struggle on. Finally crossed the finish line in 3:35 with only two priorities: get my body cooled down and get some sugar into me. The first priority was easy as there was a large bucket of crushed ice waiting right at the finish line and I liberally applied ice until I lowered my body temperature back to around 100+. I started to look for a coke or something with sugar but after a few minutes I was so dizzy that I couldn’t stand up any more so I just collapsed on to the temple grounds and waited for a race volunteer to come to my aid. It only took a few minutes and when I explained my problem and need that wonderful guy quickly brought me an ice-cold coke. You can’t believe how quickly the body absorbs that stuff. Within two minutes of guzzling that coke the tingling and numbness went away and I could get up and walk around. However I didn’t feel like waiting around for the awards so I tried to find the results. Duh! They had another great system. When I crossed the finish line they handed me a finisher’s medal, a piece of paper with my official finish time and a small plastic card with my group placing. I had been so sick and out of it at the finish all I had remembered was the medal.
It turned out that I had placed 4th. I still have no idea where #2 was or came from because I know that I deeked it out for 3rd place – and lost! However the awards did go five deep and were quite nice although just the standard trophy type. I later learned that I had been the first non-Asian and American to cross the finish line – 1st overseas runner as they called it? Back to the hotel for a quick shower and a nap.
Later that night I made another mistake by going to the ‘Gala Awards Banquet’. Cost another $23 to take my sports manager and again it was not worth it.
But overall I still have to give the race and the management good marks. It is certainly a better alternative than running a marathon in Bangkok itself.
Now it is time to pack and move on to Cambodia. But let’s leave that for the next trip report.
Monday, February 11, 2002
RR Birmingham Marathon
RACE REPORT
Mercedes Marathon
Birmingham, AL
2/10/02
This trip/race fell into place because I wanted to run one more marathon before taking a few weeks off for a ski trip to Colorado. Initially I had planned to go to a race in Myrtle Beach, SC but when I met up with my friends from the 50 States Club at Disney, Edson, my friend from NYC indicated that he was going to run the inaugural marathon in Birmingham. I decided to run that race instead and share a room with Edson.
That meant leaving my sports manager behind but she didn’t mind since it was only going to be a one-night trip. Besides she slipped up in her duties at the Ocala Marathon last weekend! She slept in and didn’t get to the finish line until after I had finished? But you have to remember that sports managers have a tough job. They have to travel all over the country and world going to places that they may not want to visit. They always have to eat pasta (or Italian) the night before the race even if they don’t feel like it! They sometimes have to get up at 3am to drive the runner to the start line and wait around until the race starts to take his warm-up clothes. But mostly they just pull the covers over their head when the runner rises at 5am and tries to dress in the dark so as not to wake them as he slips out into the dark to walk to the start line! And then they MUST be at the finish line to cheer the runner in and take a finish photo. The real good sports mangers will also appear at various spots along the course to cheer the runner on but that type of manager is difficult to find (especially after 100+ races). Typically they stay in bed or go back to bed right after the start while the poor runner is out there on the course busting his ass. And then they will be upset and look for sympathy because they have to wake up (again) in 3 hours and hustle out to the finish line before the runner finishes. Yes sirree – a tough job! So I took pity on my sports manager and gave her the weekend off.
I arrived in Birmingham late Saturday afternoon and headed straight to the Sheraton Hotel and race registration. I had to check to make sure that I had arrived in Birmingham, AL and NOT Birmingham, England because the first two runners that I met at registration were friends from London, England! Small world – especially for runners! After picking up my race package I found Edson and we decided to go to the race pasta party. We don’t normally go to those dinners but they were offering a great pasta buffet at the McWane Center followed by a free movie at the Imax Theatre. The movie was about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica and the spectacular scenery brought back fond memories of our marathon adventure to Antarctica. During dinner we met up with another friend, Don Lang, from the 50 States Club and my English mates again.
Sunday was M-Day. Do I ever like these kinds of races. The start line was right in front of the Sheraton so Edson and I slept in until 6am and then walked out the front door at 6:55am and strolled over to the start line. No lining up for a porta-potty or freezing our butts off waiting for the gun to go off! We lucked in with the weather. It was supposed to be cool and rainy but instead it was cool and sunny at the 7am start. It warmed up for the next hour but then became overcast and cooled off again. The only negative weather factor was a strong wind that always seemed to blow INTO our face no matter which direction we ran? We got off to a fast start – first mile in 7:59! We wisely slowed down to an 8:10 pace over the next 4 miles. Edson and I ran together until 5 miles and then he dropped back and I never saw him again until he crossed the finish line about nine minutes behind me. We had looked at the course profile the night before. The course was very hilly with lots of BIG hills staring at mile 6 and continuing all the way through to mile 23 with the toughest/biggest hills in the first half. At mile 5 I felt that the pace was too fast but the hills soon corrected that problem. From mile 9.5 to 11 we climbed the toughest BAH (Big-ASS Hill) of the course. I had forgotten how big the hills in Birmingham are! I pushed as hard as I could up that BAH and still could only manage a 9:30 pace. I was able to make up some time running down the backside of that BAH and crossed the half in 1:50:54.
I still felt OK but was concerned about how much toll those hills had taken on my legs. I had really wanted to break 3:40 in this race but that meant that I would have to run negative splits i.e. run the 2nd half faster than the 1st. This is difficult enough to do on a flat, fast course but I still had another 10 miles of hills ahead of me. But what the hell –give it a try - at least to mile 20 and then reevaluate! The challenge became very difficult at mile 15 when the course turned directly into the wind for the next 5 miles. And my right leg started to hurt for the first time in the race. But it was only a MINOR pain/discomfort and the massage/pressure trick on the IT band got rid of it. Fortunately I found a big, fast runner who was running an 8:20 pace and tucked in behind him until mile 19. At that point we had to climb another big hill and he faded. As I pulled out to pass him I thanked him for being a great windbreak for 4 miles and continued to push on.
Mile 20 – 2:49:02! A quick calculation determined that I would have to run exactly an 8- minute pace with a sprint at the end to beat 3:40! Not likely to happen with still more hills and a strong head wind to overcome. Just as I was making a decision to back off the pace a ‘grayhead’ (a runner with gray hair who looks like he is in my age group) blew by me. Heh! – What’s this shit! I ain’t letting some old fart beat me at this point of the race!
So I tucked in behind him with a strategy to stick close and pick my time to make a move. It didn’t take long as we approached another hill at mile 21 and he stopped to walk. I passed him and continued to push hard for the next few miles to kill any silly notion/incentive he might have to try to catch me again.
Mile 24 –3:23:06. No way in hell I can break 3:40 - BUT – if I continue to push hard I can still run a negative split which is something I haven’t done in years! I am hurting but still feel good! (Only runners will understand that oxymoron). The pace drops to 8:14 over the next mile. I can taste that negative split now! Push harder – hurt more! Remember those famous words by Maddog “PAIN IS TEMPORARY – MEMORIES ARE FOREVER!” I am blowing by people on the final mile who are clapping and congratulating me on a great finish – that keeps the juices flowing and the legs churning. I am again rewarded with my fastest mile of the race – a 7:52! As I approach mile 26 I see another ‘grayhead’ about 100 feet in front. Can I do it? Only 285 yards left in the race and he has 100 feet on me! I am gaining but is there enough distance/time left? I don’t think there is anyway I can push the body faster?
I beg/plead for the old bod to find some more speed. I believe I ran that last 285 yards on pure 100% adrenaline as I caught and passed ‘grayhead’ 50 feet before the finish line and continued to charge across the finish line in 3:40:44! I almost collapsed as I crossed the finish line and my right hip/leg was screaming at me in pain for that maniacal push but the pain faded quickly to be replaced with the memory of my accomplishment!
Later when I checked the results I discovered that ‘grayhead’ was indeed in my age group and I had beaten him - but only for 4th place. 3rd place had run a 3:29 so neither of was in contention for an award or silverware. But I didn’t care. I was very, very happy with my performance and time. I had run negative splits (1:50:54 and 1:49:50) for the first time in many years. And most importantly my right leg had experienced very little pain during the race and I am optimistic that it is finally healing?
Nicole and I are leaving on Tuesday for Colorado. I plan to ski a lot with our son Jason and do very little running for two weeks which should give the leg lots of time and rest to heal properly. And my next marathon is not scheduled until March 24th in Thailand so it will have an additional 6 weeks of rest from racing.
But back to Birmingham. The course is tough as described but the race was well organized and supported for an inaugural race. There were water and time clocks every mile and the locals were very supportive along the course. There was a great post-race party at the Sheraton. I don’t normally go to the award ceremony but I had a late afternoon flight and nothing to do so went to the party. There was lots of food, beer and entertainment. After the wards were completed at 1pm there were only about 30 runners left to drink the last keg of free beer and believe me we made a gallant effort.
I give the race high marks!
Mercedes Marathon
Birmingham, AL
2/10/02
This trip/race fell into place because I wanted to run one more marathon before taking a few weeks off for a ski trip to Colorado. Initially I had planned to go to a race in Myrtle Beach, SC but when I met up with my friends from the 50 States Club at Disney, Edson, my friend from NYC indicated that he was going to run the inaugural marathon in Birmingham. I decided to run that race instead and share a room with Edson.
That meant leaving my sports manager behind but she didn’t mind since it was only going to be a one-night trip. Besides she slipped up in her duties at the Ocala Marathon last weekend! She slept in and didn’t get to the finish line until after I had finished? But you have to remember that sports managers have a tough job. They have to travel all over the country and world going to places that they may not want to visit. They always have to eat pasta (or Italian) the night before the race even if they don’t feel like it! They sometimes have to get up at 3am to drive the runner to the start line and wait around until the race starts to take his warm-up clothes. But mostly they just pull the covers over their head when the runner rises at 5am and tries to dress in the dark so as not to wake them as he slips out into the dark to walk to the start line! And then they MUST be at the finish line to cheer the runner in and take a finish photo. The real good sports mangers will also appear at various spots along the course to cheer the runner on but that type of manager is difficult to find (especially after 100+ races). Typically they stay in bed or go back to bed right after the start while the poor runner is out there on the course busting his ass. And then they will be upset and look for sympathy because they have to wake up (again) in 3 hours and hustle out to the finish line before the runner finishes. Yes sirree – a tough job! So I took pity on my sports manager and gave her the weekend off.
I arrived in Birmingham late Saturday afternoon and headed straight to the Sheraton Hotel and race registration. I had to check to make sure that I had arrived in Birmingham, AL and NOT Birmingham, England because the first two runners that I met at registration were friends from London, England! Small world – especially for runners! After picking up my race package I found Edson and we decided to go to the race pasta party. We don’t normally go to those dinners but they were offering a great pasta buffet at the McWane Center followed by a free movie at the Imax Theatre. The movie was about the Shackleton expedition to Antarctica and the spectacular scenery brought back fond memories of our marathon adventure to Antarctica. During dinner we met up with another friend, Don Lang, from the 50 States Club and my English mates again.
Sunday was M-Day. Do I ever like these kinds of races. The start line was right in front of the Sheraton so Edson and I slept in until 6am and then walked out the front door at 6:55am and strolled over to the start line. No lining up for a porta-potty or freezing our butts off waiting for the gun to go off! We lucked in with the weather. It was supposed to be cool and rainy but instead it was cool and sunny at the 7am start. It warmed up for the next hour but then became overcast and cooled off again. The only negative weather factor was a strong wind that always seemed to blow INTO our face no matter which direction we ran? We got off to a fast start – first mile in 7:59! We wisely slowed down to an 8:10 pace over the next 4 miles. Edson and I ran together until 5 miles and then he dropped back and I never saw him again until he crossed the finish line about nine minutes behind me. We had looked at the course profile the night before. The course was very hilly with lots of BIG hills staring at mile 6 and continuing all the way through to mile 23 with the toughest/biggest hills in the first half. At mile 5 I felt that the pace was too fast but the hills soon corrected that problem. From mile 9.5 to 11 we climbed the toughest BAH (Big-ASS Hill) of the course. I had forgotten how big the hills in Birmingham are! I pushed as hard as I could up that BAH and still could only manage a 9:30 pace. I was able to make up some time running down the backside of that BAH and crossed the half in 1:50:54.
I still felt OK but was concerned about how much toll those hills had taken on my legs. I had really wanted to break 3:40 in this race but that meant that I would have to run negative splits i.e. run the 2nd half faster than the 1st. This is difficult enough to do on a flat, fast course but I still had another 10 miles of hills ahead of me. But what the hell –give it a try - at least to mile 20 and then reevaluate! The challenge became very difficult at mile 15 when the course turned directly into the wind for the next 5 miles. And my right leg started to hurt for the first time in the race. But it was only a MINOR pain/discomfort and the massage/pressure trick on the IT band got rid of it. Fortunately I found a big, fast runner who was running an 8:20 pace and tucked in behind him until mile 19. At that point we had to climb another big hill and he faded. As I pulled out to pass him I thanked him for being a great windbreak for 4 miles and continued to push on.
Mile 20 – 2:49:02! A quick calculation determined that I would have to run exactly an 8- minute pace with a sprint at the end to beat 3:40! Not likely to happen with still more hills and a strong head wind to overcome. Just as I was making a decision to back off the pace a ‘grayhead’ (a runner with gray hair who looks like he is in my age group) blew by me. Heh! – What’s this shit! I ain’t letting some old fart beat me at this point of the race!
So I tucked in behind him with a strategy to stick close and pick my time to make a move. It didn’t take long as we approached another hill at mile 21 and he stopped to walk. I passed him and continued to push hard for the next few miles to kill any silly notion/incentive he might have to try to catch me again.
Mile 24 –3:23:06. No way in hell I can break 3:40 - BUT – if I continue to push hard I can still run a negative split which is something I haven’t done in years! I am hurting but still feel good! (Only runners will understand that oxymoron). The pace drops to 8:14 over the next mile. I can taste that negative split now! Push harder – hurt more! Remember those famous words by Maddog “PAIN IS TEMPORARY – MEMORIES ARE FOREVER!” I am blowing by people on the final mile who are clapping and congratulating me on a great finish – that keeps the juices flowing and the legs churning. I am again rewarded with my fastest mile of the race – a 7:52! As I approach mile 26 I see another ‘grayhead’ about 100 feet in front. Can I do it? Only 285 yards left in the race and he has 100 feet on me! I am gaining but is there enough distance/time left? I don’t think there is anyway I can push the body faster?
I beg/plead for the old bod to find some more speed. I believe I ran that last 285 yards on pure 100% adrenaline as I caught and passed ‘grayhead’ 50 feet before the finish line and continued to charge across the finish line in 3:40:44! I almost collapsed as I crossed the finish line and my right hip/leg was screaming at me in pain for that maniacal push but the pain faded quickly to be replaced with the memory of my accomplishment!
Later when I checked the results I discovered that ‘grayhead’ was indeed in my age group and I had beaten him - but only for 4th place. 3rd place had run a 3:29 so neither of was in contention for an award or silverware. But I didn’t care. I was very, very happy with my performance and time. I had run negative splits (1:50:54 and 1:49:50) for the first time in many years. And most importantly my right leg had experienced very little pain during the race and I am optimistic that it is finally healing?
Nicole and I are leaving on Tuesday for Colorado. I plan to ski a lot with our son Jason and do very little running for two weeks which should give the leg lots of time and rest to heal properly. And my next marathon is not scheduled until March 24th in Thailand so it will have an additional 6 weeks of rest from racing.
But back to Birmingham. The course is tough as described but the race was well organized and supported for an inaugural race. There were water and time clocks every mile and the locals were very supportive along the course. There was a great post-race party at the Sheraton. I don’t normally go to the award ceremony but I had a late afternoon flight and nothing to do so went to the party. There was lots of food, beer and entertainment. After the wards were completed at 1pm there were only about 30 runners left to drink the last keg of free beer and believe me we made a gallant effort.
I give the race high marks!
Monday, February 04, 2002
RR Ocala Marathon
Race Report
Ocala Marathon
Ocala, FL
2/3/02
I decided to go back to Ocala since I had run such a great race last year and finished in 3:26 - my fastest time last year. When I had finished a summer of hard training in the mountains of Colorado last year I was in great shape and planned to go back to Ocala and beat 3:25. But the constant injuries to my right leg that started last fall unfortunately killed that idea. However the latest treatments seemed to be helping and I had been able to run one tempo run last week - my first in several months.Ocala is about 140 miles north of Sarasota. It is the location of Florida's thoroughbred horse industry and the area is much different from Sarasota and South Florida. It has lots of rolling hills -yes, there are actually some hills in FL although they aren't big - and huge pine trees. The horse ranches are similar to those in Kentucky - miles of white fences along the roads. It is very scenic.It is a small local race with a marathon (250 runners) and a half (another 350 runners). But it is well managed.The race had been designated as a regional meeting for the 50 States Club and there were about 60 members of the club that showed up so I managed to meet many of my colleagues.Last year the weather was miserable - cold and rainy. But this year it was sunny and a pleasant 46 degrees at the 7am start. The course starts in the parking lot of the town mall and winds through horse country southeast of the town. There are lots of rolling hills but they are not big and I actually enjoy that type of course because I get to use all my leg muscles instead of suffering from the constant strain and 'muscle memory lock' of a flat course. I was lined up on the start line and looking around to see if I could spot my friend Marty from Lake Mary, FL (remember the guy who beat me by 30+ seconds at Disney?). As I was walking back into the pack the gun went off so I had to turn around and take off with the pack. First mile - 8:34. That was right on pace. I knew that 3:25 was out of the question. With all the damn injuries and lack of hard training the past few months any thought of a sub - 8 minute pace would be folly. But the leg had felt a bit better last week so I was hoping that I could at least get my finish time back down below 3:45. By mile 4 I had settled into an 8:20 pace which felt comfortable . My right hip started to ache a little but some massaging and pressure on the IT Band reduced the pain to a dull throb.The miles kept clicking by comfortably at 8:20s and I cruised across the half in 1:49:35 - the first time I had run the half under 1:50 in a long, long time. I still felt good and decided to hold that pace until my body told me otherwise. It didn't take long. At mile 15, I began to feel that if I tried to hold that pace till the end I would probably pay dearly in the last 10K. Besides my right hip started to flare up again and the massaging trick was not reducing the pain. So I decided to back off to 8:35 to 8:45s until 20 miles and reevaluate. About mile 17 a very pretty, long-legged lass about half my age blew past me and jokingly asked me to join her. "I'm only running an 8:20 pace - you can keep up to me" - she shouted. As I sadly watched her cute little buns leaving me behind I momentarily considered catching up and running with her but wisely decided to run my own race.20 miles -2:49:35! I did my customary gut check and was pleased to find that the old bod had indeed replenished some glycogen/energy during my slower pace so I decided to push again. I lowered the pace to 8:30. At mile 21 I spotted Ms Blonde Long Legs about one-quarter mile ahead and resolved to reel her in. I dropped the pace some more. Now my whole body was starting to hurt but it masked or overrode the pain in the right hip and it never bothered me again during the last 10K.It took me 3 miles but finally I passed her at 24 miles and sadly had to leave those cute little buns behind. I was determined that she would not pass me again so continued to push to mile 25 - 2:32:20! I knew that a sub 3:40 was not possible and was about to back off the pace when I noticed a few 'gray heads' about one-quarter mile in front of me. Oh Hell! Why not try to catch them? They just might be in my age group. I figured that I probably had no chance to place in my age group since my 3:26 last year was only good enough for 2nd place - but - I might as well try eliminate them anyway. So I begged the old bod to give me everything it had left and surprisingly it responded with my fastest mile of the race - a 7:53! I passed the last gray head at mile 26 and continued to sprint across the finish line in 3:41:51. It isn't a fast or great time but I was very pleased that I had run a smart race and felt good all the way. The right leg had some minor pain throughout the race but was much improved compared to the last few races. And you can imagine how surprised I was when I read the race results to learn that I had finished in 1st place in my age group (Old Farts!). I guess the competition didn't show up? And then another pleasant surprise - Marty came struggling across the finish line behind me - I had reclaimed my championship! However I get a chance to lose it as early as next weekend when I meet up with our other friend (Edson from NYC) at the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, AL.So I have to get back to training, continue the treatments on my leg which seem to be helping and prepare to defend my championship. I also plan to return to Ocala next year to defend my age group award. It is a small but very well-managed race and I believe that most runners would enjoy it.
Ocala Marathon
Ocala, FL
2/3/02
I decided to go back to Ocala since I had run such a great race last year and finished in 3:26 - my fastest time last year. When I had finished a summer of hard training in the mountains of Colorado last year I was in great shape and planned to go back to Ocala and beat 3:25. But the constant injuries to my right leg that started last fall unfortunately killed that idea. However the latest treatments seemed to be helping and I had been able to run one tempo run last week - my first in several months.Ocala is about 140 miles north of Sarasota. It is the location of Florida's thoroughbred horse industry and the area is much different from Sarasota and South Florida. It has lots of rolling hills -yes, there are actually some hills in FL although they aren't big - and huge pine trees. The horse ranches are similar to those in Kentucky - miles of white fences along the roads. It is very scenic.It is a small local race with a marathon (250 runners) and a half (another 350 runners). But it is well managed.The race had been designated as a regional meeting for the 50 States Club and there were about 60 members of the club that showed up so I managed to meet many of my colleagues.Last year the weather was miserable - cold and rainy. But this year it was sunny and a pleasant 46 degrees at the 7am start. The course starts in the parking lot of the town mall and winds through horse country southeast of the town. There are lots of rolling hills but they are not big and I actually enjoy that type of course because I get to use all my leg muscles instead of suffering from the constant strain and 'muscle memory lock' of a flat course. I was lined up on the start line and looking around to see if I could spot my friend Marty from Lake Mary, FL (remember the guy who beat me by 30+ seconds at Disney?). As I was walking back into the pack the gun went off so I had to turn around and take off with the pack. First mile - 8:34. That was right on pace. I knew that 3:25 was out of the question. With all the damn injuries and lack of hard training the past few months any thought of a sub - 8 minute pace would be folly. But the leg had felt a bit better last week so I was hoping that I could at least get my finish time back down below 3:45. By mile 4 I had settled into an 8:20 pace which felt comfortable . My right hip started to ache a little but some massaging and pressure on the IT Band reduced the pain to a dull throb.The miles kept clicking by comfortably at 8:20s and I cruised across the half in 1:49:35 - the first time I had run the half under 1:50 in a long, long time. I still felt good and decided to hold that pace until my body told me otherwise. It didn't take long. At mile 15, I began to feel that if I tried to hold that pace till the end I would probably pay dearly in the last 10K. Besides my right hip started to flare up again and the massaging trick was not reducing the pain. So I decided to back off to 8:35 to 8:45s until 20 miles and reevaluate. About mile 17 a very pretty, long-legged lass about half my age blew past me and jokingly asked me to join her. "I'm only running an 8:20 pace - you can keep up to me" - she shouted. As I sadly watched her cute little buns leaving me behind I momentarily considered catching up and running with her but wisely decided to run my own race.20 miles -2:49:35! I did my customary gut check and was pleased to find that the old bod had indeed replenished some glycogen/energy during my slower pace so I decided to push again. I lowered the pace to 8:30. At mile 21 I spotted Ms Blonde Long Legs about one-quarter mile ahead and resolved to reel her in. I dropped the pace some more. Now my whole body was starting to hurt but it masked or overrode the pain in the right hip and it never bothered me again during the last 10K.It took me 3 miles but finally I passed her at 24 miles and sadly had to leave those cute little buns behind. I was determined that she would not pass me again so continued to push to mile 25 - 2:32:20! I knew that a sub 3:40 was not possible and was about to back off the pace when I noticed a few 'gray heads' about one-quarter mile in front of me. Oh Hell! Why not try to catch them? They just might be in my age group. I figured that I probably had no chance to place in my age group since my 3:26 last year was only good enough for 2nd place - but - I might as well try eliminate them anyway. So I begged the old bod to give me everything it had left and surprisingly it responded with my fastest mile of the race - a 7:53! I passed the last gray head at mile 26 and continued to sprint across the finish line in 3:41:51. It isn't a fast or great time but I was very pleased that I had run a smart race and felt good all the way. The right leg had some minor pain throughout the race but was much improved compared to the last few races. And you can imagine how surprised I was when I read the race results to learn that I had finished in 1st place in my age group (Old Farts!). I guess the competition didn't show up? And then another pleasant surprise - Marty came struggling across the finish line behind me - I had reclaimed my championship! However I get a chance to lose it as early as next weekend when I meet up with our other friend (Edson from NYC) at the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, AL.So I have to get back to training, continue the treatments on my leg which seem to be helping and prepare to defend my championship. I also plan to return to Ocala next year to defend my age group award. It is a small but very well-managed race and I believe that most runners would enjoy it.
Wednesday, January 23, 2002
TR Bermuda Marathon
TRIP REPORT
BERMUDA
1/17 –23/02
I had wanted to run the Bermuda Marathon for years but didn’t see any sense in going there unless we could stay for a week and enjoy the island. Now that we are retired, time is no longer a hindrance. However money could be as the island is very, VERY expensive. We had visited Bermuda in 1993 on a combined pleasure/business trip but I must have forgotten how expensive it was? I got my first clue when I tried to book a hotel room – they ranged from $200 to 400 in OFFSEASON! Fortunately I was able to book a one-bedroom apartment in a guesthouse located on the South Shore (near the pink sandy beaches and next to all the luxury hotels) for only $100/day. We were on our way!
Even with a transfer in Atlanta it is only a 4-½ hour trip to Bermuda from Florida. After we arrived at our guesthouse we walked over to a supermarket to stock up on some of the essential food groups (beer, wine, water, pop and snack food) and received our second price shock. A 2-liter bottle of Coke - $3.49, potato chips that were marked at $1.49 for sale in the US were marked up to $3.12? And hold on to your seat –tenderloin steak -$19.95/lb. Since the Bermudian dollar is on par with the US dollar and interchangeable on the island, I don’t know how the locals can afford to live there? I naively thought that we could eat in pubs instead of restaurants to save money. Yeah right! First of all it is not like Merry Old England with a pub on every corner. The only pubs are located in Hamilton and a few hamlets/villages on the island. And pub food such as fish & chips or shepherd’s pie cost $15 to 20? Hell I could get good pub food in England for 5 or 6 pounds ($8 to 10 US). But that was still much cheaper than the restaurants where you would be lucky to feed a couple for $100 excluding booze! My next bitch (I’ll get all the money bitches unloaded first and then tell you the good things about the island so you’ll remember them last) was transportation. Tourists can’t rent cars – only a moped- so we had to take taxis or use public transportation. Our guesthouse was approximately 1-½ miles from Hamilton. A taxi was $10, a bus $3 – each way! Fortunately we were able to buy a multiple-day pass that provided unlimited travel on the buses and ferries for about $8/day which was very reasonable. And just in case I have you all excited about moving there –WAIT – there is a rule that non-Bermudians can only purchase homes that generate a specific level of rental income that equates to a home valued at a minimum of $2Million! That is about the price that homes located on the water start at. Still packing your stuff?
Now that I have my money bitches out of my system I can start to tell you about some of the good/nice things about the island. It is beautiful and very scenic. The beaches really do have pink sand that is fine as salt. Most of the good beaches are located on the south shore. The rest of the coastline is rocky and rugged and there are numerous secluded coves and inlets that are postcard pretty. There are lots of hills and most of the island is covered in tropical vegetation. The roads are narrow and most have no sidewalks or shoulders so driving (left side like the UK) and walking can be somewhat unnerving and dangerous but it adds to the charm. All the houses are constructed of concrete and stucco with white limestone roofs that are used as catchments for rainwater (the only source of water for each home). However the houses are painted every shade of pastel color that you can imagine which gives a lot of color and charm to the island. The Bermudians are very friendly and since it was off-season most assumed that we were residents when they struck up conversations with us. Crime is almost non-existent and we felt safe and comfortable everywhere we went.
The total population of the island is only 60,000. There are few high rises so most of the residents live in houses and condos spread over the 21 square miles of the island. The island is very quiet – not much nightlife.
So what did we do? After paying our ransom for food supplies we decided to explore the island using our bus passes. On Friday we ventured into Hamilton to pick up my race package and then we took a ferry across the inner harbor to the Royal Naval Dockyards. We strolled around the dockyards, had lunch at a pub, and bought a beautiful original watercolor of a Bermuda scene for our art collection. Then we took a bus back along the south shore to our apartment before proceeding into Hamilton again to watch some of the race activities. The weekend was advertised as ‘International Race Weekend’ with an Elite One Mile Race on Friday night, a 10K on Saturday and a Half and Full Marathon on Sunday. Elite runners had been invited from around the world for all three races with prize money offered. Leonard Mucheru from Kenya won the mile in a course record 4:02 on a tough course along Front Street with two 180-degree turns in the course. We were standing about 100 feet from the finish line and believe me that boy was flying each time he passed us!
On Saturday we skipped the 10K in favor of exploring the east end of the island. We took a bus along the south shore to the town of St. George established in 1612. Much of the town has been restored. We arrived just in time to catch the end of a funeral ceremony in the town park for a Bermudian who had been killed in the WTC. The funeral ended with a ceremonial dance by Bermuda’s Gombey Dancers in their colorful costumes. Then we proceeded over to King’s Square where the Town Crier was preparing a trial for bad wives/women. I ordered Nicole to go on trial for being disobedient and talking back but true to form she disobeyed me and refused. So they tried a local lass for being disobedient and nagging and proceeded with the ancient punishment of the ‘ducking stool’ and ducked her into the bay. I can’t understand why we males ever allowed that custom to vanish?
I was hungry after the ducking so we went to the local pub and in a moment of weakness ordered the ‘English’ fish & chips (for $20!). They sucked!
After spending the day exploring St George we caught a bus into Hamilton via the north shore for a pasta dinner. Our host had recommended an Italian restaurant that turned out to be great – some of the best spaghetti Bolognese I have eaten.
Sunday was M-Day! The weatherman had forecasted warm weather with overcast skies and gale-force winds. He got one right – gale force winds. It was a warm 69 degrees, 90% humidity and sunny at the 8am start on Front street in Hamilton. The wind was blowing about 35mph with gusts up to 50mph! The course was a scenic but hilly half- marathon loop that started on Front street, ran east along the South Shore Rd for about 5 miles. There was a big, bad-assed hill at 4 miles (and again at 17 miles). The gale force winds were at our back for the first 5 miles but then we cut across the island and headed back west along the North Shore Rd. Seven miles directly into the wind before we cut back in to Front Street. On the first loop I was able to hide behind and draft off the half-marathoners to save energy. My right leg/hip started to hurt around 5 miles but I figured it was the IT band and discovered that if I applied pressure to a few points along the band while running the pain would disappear. I crossed the half in 1:53 but knew that the second loop would not be so quick and easy. By the time I crested the BAH (big-ass hill) for the second time there were only a few runners in front of me. I passed the last runner (who appeared to be in my age group) around mile 20 and was completely alone for the next 5 ½ miles. There were 400 runners in the marathon – where was everybody?
Boy – talk about lonely and tough miles! Running directly into gale force winds – nobody to draft behind, nobody to catch to motivate me, my right hip is now throbbing constantly and the pressure point strategy doesn’t work anymore. I almost went off course once before a kind volunteer caught up and redirected me. And to make matters worse they had reopened the roads to traffic. On the first loop they had closed down the left lane of the narrow roads so we only had to worry about oncoming traffic in the right lane. But on the second loop (marathoners are more sacrificial that half-marathoners?) they reopened the left lane so now we had to worry about traffic coming up behind us. I almost got clipped a few times by car mirrors. I later learned that one runner did get clipped and knocked down by a car but thankfully was not seriously hurt.
But when you are fighting fatigue, boredom and 45mph headwinds the last thing you need to worry about is damn cars running you down! By mile 23 I was struggling to hold a 9:15 pace and not really caring all that much. On top of that the local spectators were starting to annoy me with their insults! They kept shouting: “Good job Pops” “Well done Pappy”! What to Hell is this? An Island insult only used in Atlantic Ocean Islands (remember Jamaica?) After all I was beating 90% of the marathon runners, most of whom were much younger than me and they weren’t shouting insults at them?
I figured that there was no point in trying to pick up the pace because it wasn’t going to change my place in the race. Finally around 25 ½ miles I spotted another runner ahead and that motivated me enough to chase and catch him at 26 miles. I continued to sprint across the finish line in 3:51:52.
Not a great time but I couldn’t be disappointed considering the problems with my leg and the weather conditions. I was actually excited and pleased that my leg had hurt so little compared to the Disney marathon.
After the race while I was cooling down, the runner whom I had passed around 20 miles approached me and confirmed that he was indeed in my age group and he thought that he had been in third place until I passed him? Nicole and I waited around for about 30 minutes in the hope that they would post some interim results so I could determine my age group place but they never did post any so we left. Back to the apartment for a hot bath, some ice on the leg, beer and watch the football playoffs – in that order! I don’t normally go to awards ceremonies but we decided to go into Hamilton for the awards at 7pm to see who had won the marathon and what my time and place were. (I had screwed up my watch at the end and could not tell what my actual time was?) We sat through all the awards for the Mile, 10k, Half and Marathon and never did find out what my place or time was. I definitely did not finish in the top three (no award) and they never did post any results. I had to wait until I got home to find out on the website that I finished in 3:51:52 which was 4th place in my age group and 26th overall.
On Monday, our final full day in Bermuda, we decided to visit Fort Hamilton, a fort built in 1870 that has been restored, to explore the fort and enjoy the ‘Skirling Ceremony’ - a band of Scottish pipers marching and playing the bagpipes. Then we took a bus out to Somerset in the West End to enjoy a beer and lunch at a pub that came very close to making me believe that I was back in England. On the way back to the apartment we stopped at some of the more famous beaches to explore and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Tuesday morning I made my final training run on the ‘Railway Trail’ – a trail that runs 20 miles along the old Bermuda Rail route. If you want to walk or run while in Bermuda that is the place to go. No traffic to fight and a nice soft dirt trail.
So to sum it all up I rate Bermuda very high on scenery, charm and people but negative on price. I rate the marathon low because of the poor traffic control and poor race organization. I am not going back for either!
BERMUDA
1/17 –23/02
I had wanted to run the Bermuda Marathon for years but didn’t see any sense in going there unless we could stay for a week and enjoy the island. Now that we are retired, time is no longer a hindrance. However money could be as the island is very, VERY expensive. We had visited Bermuda in 1993 on a combined pleasure/business trip but I must have forgotten how expensive it was? I got my first clue when I tried to book a hotel room – they ranged from $200 to 400 in OFFSEASON! Fortunately I was able to book a one-bedroom apartment in a guesthouse located on the South Shore (near the pink sandy beaches and next to all the luxury hotels) for only $100/day. We were on our way!
Even with a transfer in Atlanta it is only a 4-½ hour trip to Bermuda from Florida. After we arrived at our guesthouse we walked over to a supermarket to stock up on some of the essential food groups (beer, wine, water, pop and snack food) and received our second price shock. A 2-liter bottle of Coke - $3.49, potato chips that were marked at $1.49 for sale in the US were marked up to $3.12? And hold on to your seat –tenderloin steak -$19.95/lb. Since the Bermudian dollar is on par with the US dollar and interchangeable on the island, I don’t know how the locals can afford to live there? I naively thought that we could eat in pubs instead of restaurants to save money. Yeah right! First of all it is not like Merry Old England with a pub on every corner. The only pubs are located in Hamilton and a few hamlets/villages on the island. And pub food such as fish & chips or shepherd’s pie cost $15 to 20? Hell I could get good pub food in England for 5 or 6 pounds ($8 to 10 US). But that was still much cheaper than the restaurants where you would be lucky to feed a couple for $100 excluding booze! My next bitch (I’ll get all the money bitches unloaded first and then tell you the good things about the island so you’ll remember them last) was transportation. Tourists can’t rent cars – only a moped- so we had to take taxis or use public transportation. Our guesthouse was approximately 1-½ miles from Hamilton. A taxi was $10, a bus $3 – each way! Fortunately we were able to buy a multiple-day pass that provided unlimited travel on the buses and ferries for about $8/day which was very reasonable. And just in case I have you all excited about moving there –WAIT – there is a rule that non-Bermudians can only purchase homes that generate a specific level of rental income that equates to a home valued at a minimum of $2Million! That is about the price that homes located on the water start at. Still packing your stuff?
Now that I have my money bitches out of my system I can start to tell you about some of the good/nice things about the island. It is beautiful and very scenic. The beaches really do have pink sand that is fine as salt. Most of the good beaches are located on the south shore. The rest of the coastline is rocky and rugged and there are numerous secluded coves and inlets that are postcard pretty. There are lots of hills and most of the island is covered in tropical vegetation. The roads are narrow and most have no sidewalks or shoulders so driving (left side like the UK) and walking can be somewhat unnerving and dangerous but it adds to the charm. All the houses are constructed of concrete and stucco with white limestone roofs that are used as catchments for rainwater (the only source of water for each home). However the houses are painted every shade of pastel color that you can imagine which gives a lot of color and charm to the island. The Bermudians are very friendly and since it was off-season most assumed that we were residents when they struck up conversations with us. Crime is almost non-existent and we felt safe and comfortable everywhere we went.
The total population of the island is only 60,000. There are few high rises so most of the residents live in houses and condos spread over the 21 square miles of the island. The island is very quiet – not much nightlife.
So what did we do? After paying our ransom for food supplies we decided to explore the island using our bus passes. On Friday we ventured into Hamilton to pick up my race package and then we took a ferry across the inner harbor to the Royal Naval Dockyards. We strolled around the dockyards, had lunch at a pub, and bought a beautiful original watercolor of a Bermuda scene for our art collection. Then we took a bus back along the south shore to our apartment before proceeding into Hamilton again to watch some of the race activities. The weekend was advertised as ‘International Race Weekend’ with an Elite One Mile Race on Friday night, a 10K on Saturday and a Half and Full Marathon on Sunday. Elite runners had been invited from around the world for all three races with prize money offered. Leonard Mucheru from Kenya won the mile in a course record 4:02 on a tough course along Front Street with two 180-degree turns in the course. We were standing about 100 feet from the finish line and believe me that boy was flying each time he passed us!
On Saturday we skipped the 10K in favor of exploring the east end of the island. We took a bus along the south shore to the town of St. George established in 1612. Much of the town has been restored. We arrived just in time to catch the end of a funeral ceremony in the town park for a Bermudian who had been killed in the WTC. The funeral ended with a ceremonial dance by Bermuda’s Gombey Dancers in their colorful costumes. Then we proceeded over to King’s Square where the Town Crier was preparing a trial for bad wives/women. I ordered Nicole to go on trial for being disobedient and talking back but true to form she disobeyed me and refused. So they tried a local lass for being disobedient and nagging and proceeded with the ancient punishment of the ‘ducking stool’ and ducked her into the bay. I can’t understand why we males ever allowed that custom to vanish?
I was hungry after the ducking so we went to the local pub and in a moment of weakness ordered the ‘English’ fish & chips (for $20!). They sucked!
After spending the day exploring St George we caught a bus into Hamilton via the north shore for a pasta dinner. Our host had recommended an Italian restaurant that turned out to be great – some of the best spaghetti Bolognese I have eaten.
Sunday was M-Day! The weatherman had forecasted warm weather with overcast skies and gale-force winds. He got one right – gale force winds. It was a warm 69 degrees, 90% humidity and sunny at the 8am start on Front street in Hamilton. The wind was blowing about 35mph with gusts up to 50mph! The course was a scenic but hilly half- marathon loop that started on Front street, ran east along the South Shore Rd for about 5 miles. There was a big, bad-assed hill at 4 miles (and again at 17 miles). The gale force winds were at our back for the first 5 miles but then we cut across the island and headed back west along the North Shore Rd. Seven miles directly into the wind before we cut back in to Front Street. On the first loop I was able to hide behind and draft off the half-marathoners to save energy. My right leg/hip started to hurt around 5 miles but I figured it was the IT band and discovered that if I applied pressure to a few points along the band while running the pain would disappear. I crossed the half in 1:53 but knew that the second loop would not be so quick and easy. By the time I crested the BAH (big-ass hill) for the second time there were only a few runners in front of me. I passed the last runner (who appeared to be in my age group) around mile 20 and was completely alone for the next 5 ½ miles. There were 400 runners in the marathon – where was everybody?
Boy – talk about lonely and tough miles! Running directly into gale force winds – nobody to draft behind, nobody to catch to motivate me, my right hip is now throbbing constantly and the pressure point strategy doesn’t work anymore. I almost went off course once before a kind volunteer caught up and redirected me. And to make matters worse they had reopened the roads to traffic. On the first loop they had closed down the left lane of the narrow roads so we only had to worry about oncoming traffic in the right lane. But on the second loop (marathoners are more sacrificial that half-marathoners?) they reopened the left lane so now we had to worry about traffic coming up behind us. I almost got clipped a few times by car mirrors. I later learned that one runner did get clipped and knocked down by a car but thankfully was not seriously hurt.
But when you are fighting fatigue, boredom and 45mph headwinds the last thing you need to worry about is damn cars running you down! By mile 23 I was struggling to hold a 9:15 pace and not really caring all that much. On top of that the local spectators were starting to annoy me with their insults! They kept shouting: “Good job Pops” “Well done Pappy”! What to Hell is this? An Island insult only used in Atlantic Ocean Islands (remember Jamaica?) After all I was beating 90% of the marathon runners, most of whom were much younger than me and they weren’t shouting insults at them?
I figured that there was no point in trying to pick up the pace because it wasn’t going to change my place in the race. Finally around 25 ½ miles I spotted another runner ahead and that motivated me enough to chase and catch him at 26 miles. I continued to sprint across the finish line in 3:51:52.
Not a great time but I couldn’t be disappointed considering the problems with my leg and the weather conditions. I was actually excited and pleased that my leg had hurt so little compared to the Disney marathon.
After the race while I was cooling down, the runner whom I had passed around 20 miles approached me and confirmed that he was indeed in my age group and he thought that he had been in third place until I passed him? Nicole and I waited around for about 30 minutes in the hope that they would post some interim results so I could determine my age group place but they never did post any so we left. Back to the apartment for a hot bath, some ice on the leg, beer and watch the football playoffs – in that order! I don’t normally go to awards ceremonies but we decided to go into Hamilton for the awards at 7pm to see who had won the marathon and what my time and place were. (I had screwed up my watch at the end and could not tell what my actual time was?) We sat through all the awards for the Mile, 10k, Half and Marathon and never did find out what my place or time was. I definitely did not finish in the top three (no award) and they never did post any results. I had to wait until I got home to find out on the website that I finished in 3:51:52 which was 4th place in my age group and 26th overall.
On Monday, our final full day in Bermuda, we decided to visit Fort Hamilton, a fort built in 1870 that has been restored, to explore the fort and enjoy the ‘Skirling Ceremony’ - a band of Scottish pipers marching and playing the bagpipes. Then we took a bus out to Somerset in the West End to enjoy a beer and lunch at a pub that came very close to making me believe that I was back in England. On the way back to the apartment we stopped at some of the more famous beaches to explore and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
Tuesday morning I made my final training run on the ‘Railway Trail’ – a trail that runs 20 miles along the old Bermuda Rail route. If you want to walk or run while in Bermuda that is the place to go. No traffic to fight and a nice soft dirt trail.
So to sum it all up I rate Bermuda very high on scenery, charm and people but negative on price. I rate the marathon low because of the poor traffic control and poor race organization. I am not going back for either!
Monday, January 07, 2002
RR Disney Marathon
Race Report
Disney Marathon
Disney World, FL
1/6/02
Mild weather - very PAINFUL! What else do you need to know?What's that - you want some of the gory details? I don't know - it may be like childbirth - the mind blocks it out?The weekend started out wonderful when I received an invitation from a few friends (members of the 50 States Club) to join them for a pasta dinner at one friend's (Marty) place in Lake Mary, FL. I hadn' t seen Marty since we ran a race (my 50th state) in Ft Wayne, IN in 1995. I hadn't seen the other compadre (Edson from NYC) since the Turin Marathon in March 2000 so it was afun reunion.I wasn't too excited about the actual race because the weather was expected to be very cold and the logistics of the Disney Marathon is a bitch. On top of that I wasn't very confident that my right leg would hold up.The race starts outside the entrance to Epcot at 6am but because of thelarge number of runners (12,000 in the marathon and 7,000 in the half) you have tobe in the parking lot by 4am. That means waking up at 3am and waiting two hours in the cold!The running expo was held in Disney's Wide World of SportsComplex but was pretty lame for a race of that size.Marty's pasta party with pasta cooked by chef Edson was the highlight of thetrip. Nicole and I left early though since it was a 40 minute drive back to the hotel and I had to be up at 3am.There was good news on the weather front however. Instead of the record low of 31 degrees Sat morning, the low on Sun was expected to be 55. I had takenpolypro tights and long sleeve top expecting cold weather and had to switch to shorts and short-sleeve T-shirt. I arrived at the parking lot at 4am which allowed me to park close enough tothe staging area to stay in the car until 5am instead of standing around in the dark. 55 degrees still feels cold at 4am! Finally all the runners made their way to the start and Mickey Mouse started us on time. I had beenseeded in the first corral which allowed me to get about 3 rows from the startline. That may have been a mistake as I took off with the fast crowd and ran the first mile under 8 minutes on stiff and unstretched muscles. By mile 2 my right leg was sore as Hell and screaming at me! Thunderbolts ofpain were shooting from my right hip down my leg to my knee. TWO MILES!"Boy, this is going to be a long, painful day!" I knew that if I wanted to finish the race (only 24 more miles to go) that I had to find a pace at which the pain eased off some. Quitting was NOT an option - the Maddog NEVER quits! Bymile 5 I had determined that if I kept the pace around 8:40 I could just barely tolerate the pain.For the next 15 miles my leg and I played a little game of "How much paincan you stand?" For a few miles I would seem to find a pace or groove where my body could manufacture endorphins (a natural drug/pain killer) fast enoughto reduce or mask the pain. But then the hip would shoot out a bolt of pain so severe that I would involuntarily cry out and the complete leg would go intoparalysis and start to collapse under me. Luckily the paralysis would only last for less than a second and I would recover before falling? No matter what I tried (other than walking or stopping which was not an option for theMaddog) this silly and painful little game lasted until 20 miles.And the sad part was that energy-wise I felt good through the first 20 milesbut whenever I tried to pick up the pace -WHAMMO -THUNDERBOLTS of PAIN!By mile 21 the game was getting to me and I believe the leg was starting to win. BUT the marathon Gods came through for me! At that point the course looped back on itself for about one mile and on the other side of the medianwas Marty - heading for the finish line! My competitive juices took over! I figure that he had about a 2 to 2 1/2 minute lead on me. We were bothrunning about a 9 minute pace so if I dropped the pace to 8 1/2 minutes (and he didn't speed up) I might be able to catch him by 25 miles. I summoned every last once of willpower and begged/coaxed/beat my body and leg to drop the pace to 8:30. Actually 8:35 was the best I could beat out of the old bod butI figured that may still do it.Over the next 5 miles I was so focused on catching Marty that I barely noticed the thunderbolts shooting out of my right hip. For the first time inthe race I was starting to hurt from running FAST. I was initially disappointed when I reached mile 25 and still couldn't see Marty but responded by beating the dead horse, er body, to give me an 8:20 on the lastmile! Alas, Marty had guessed what I might try and had picked up his pace over the last 5 miles to finish in 3:48. I finished 56 seconds behind him.But I was not disappointed. No Siree! If it had not been for that friendlycompetition those last 5 miles would have been mighty ugly and painful.The course runs through all the kingdoms of Disney World and Epcot so youget a 26 mile tour of Disney World. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck et al are out in force to cheer the runners on. However listening to Disney theme music for26 miles (or 4 hours) did start to bother me. There are a zillion twists and turns in the course as it weaves through the kingdoms so it is not a fast course. But it would make an enjoyable weekend for a marathon family. I'mnot sure that I would want to run it again because of cost ($75 entry fee) and the logistics as described.My biggest concern is what do I do NOW? I am obligated/committed to two moremarathons in the next month. Bermuda is in two weeks and the tickets are purchased and reservations made so I am definitely going and I will raceeven if I have to crawl the damn course! But I am not sure that even the high levels of pain tolerance and willpower possessed by the Maddog can continue to overcome the adversity that was thrown at him in the last race?I have tried massages, herb supplements,a chiropractor and even two weeks ofrest - ALL to NO AVAIL? I would go to an orthoped or a sports doctor but he is just going to tell me to take anti-inflammatories and rest. Hell, I can self diagnose that treatment but that is not acceptable! Any suggestions?
Disney Marathon
Disney World, FL
1/6/02
Mild weather - very PAINFUL! What else do you need to know?What's that - you want some of the gory details? I don't know - it may be like childbirth - the mind blocks it out?The weekend started out wonderful when I received an invitation from a few friends (members of the 50 States Club) to join them for a pasta dinner at one friend's (Marty) place in Lake Mary, FL. I hadn' t seen Marty since we ran a race (my 50th state) in Ft Wayne, IN in 1995. I hadn't seen the other compadre (Edson from NYC) since the Turin Marathon in March 2000 so it was afun reunion.I wasn't too excited about the actual race because the weather was expected to be very cold and the logistics of the Disney Marathon is a bitch. On top of that I wasn't very confident that my right leg would hold up.The race starts outside the entrance to Epcot at 6am but because of thelarge number of runners (12,000 in the marathon and 7,000 in the half) you have tobe in the parking lot by 4am. That means waking up at 3am and waiting two hours in the cold!The running expo was held in Disney's Wide World of SportsComplex but was pretty lame for a race of that size.Marty's pasta party with pasta cooked by chef Edson was the highlight of thetrip. Nicole and I left early though since it was a 40 minute drive back to the hotel and I had to be up at 3am.There was good news on the weather front however. Instead of the record low of 31 degrees Sat morning, the low on Sun was expected to be 55. I had takenpolypro tights and long sleeve top expecting cold weather and had to switch to shorts and short-sleeve T-shirt. I arrived at the parking lot at 4am which allowed me to park close enough tothe staging area to stay in the car until 5am instead of standing around in the dark. 55 degrees still feels cold at 4am! Finally all the runners made their way to the start and Mickey Mouse started us on time. I had beenseeded in the first corral which allowed me to get about 3 rows from the startline. That may have been a mistake as I took off with the fast crowd and ran the first mile under 8 minutes on stiff and unstretched muscles. By mile 2 my right leg was sore as Hell and screaming at me! Thunderbolts ofpain were shooting from my right hip down my leg to my knee. TWO MILES!"Boy, this is going to be a long, painful day!" I knew that if I wanted to finish the race (only 24 more miles to go) that I had to find a pace at which the pain eased off some. Quitting was NOT an option - the Maddog NEVER quits! Bymile 5 I had determined that if I kept the pace around 8:40 I could just barely tolerate the pain.For the next 15 miles my leg and I played a little game of "How much paincan you stand?" For a few miles I would seem to find a pace or groove where my body could manufacture endorphins (a natural drug/pain killer) fast enoughto reduce or mask the pain. But then the hip would shoot out a bolt of pain so severe that I would involuntarily cry out and the complete leg would go intoparalysis and start to collapse under me. Luckily the paralysis would only last for less than a second and I would recover before falling? No matter what I tried (other than walking or stopping which was not an option for theMaddog) this silly and painful little game lasted until 20 miles.And the sad part was that energy-wise I felt good through the first 20 milesbut whenever I tried to pick up the pace -WHAMMO -THUNDERBOLTS of PAIN!By mile 21 the game was getting to me and I believe the leg was starting to win. BUT the marathon Gods came through for me! At that point the course looped back on itself for about one mile and on the other side of the medianwas Marty - heading for the finish line! My competitive juices took over! I figure that he had about a 2 to 2 1/2 minute lead on me. We were bothrunning about a 9 minute pace so if I dropped the pace to 8 1/2 minutes (and he didn't speed up) I might be able to catch him by 25 miles. I summoned every last once of willpower and begged/coaxed/beat my body and leg to drop the pace to 8:30. Actually 8:35 was the best I could beat out of the old bod butI figured that may still do it.Over the next 5 miles I was so focused on catching Marty that I barely noticed the thunderbolts shooting out of my right hip. For the first time inthe race I was starting to hurt from running FAST. I was initially disappointed when I reached mile 25 and still couldn't see Marty but responded by beating the dead horse, er body, to give me an 8:20 on the lastmile! Alas, Marty had guessed what I might try and had picked up his pace over the last 5 miles to finish in 3:48. I finished 56 seconds behind him.But I was not disappointed. No Siree! If it had not been for that friendlycompetition those last 5 miles would have been mighty ugly and painful.The course runs through all the kingdoms of Disney World and Epcot so youget a 26 mile tour of Disney World. Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck et al are out in force to cheer the runners on. However listening to Disney theme music for26 miles (or 4 hours) did start to bother me. There are a zillion twists and turns in the course as it weaves through the kingdoms so it is not a fast course. But it would make an enjoyable weekend for a marathon family. I'mnot sure that I would want to run it again because of cost ($75 entry fee) and the logistics as described.My biggest concern is what do I do NOW? I am obligated/committed to two moremarathons in the next month. Bermuda is in two weeks and the tickets are purchased and reservations made so I am definitely going and I will raceeven if I have to crawl the damn course! But I am not sure that even the high levels of pain tolerance and willpower possessed by the Maddog can continue to overcome the adversity that was thrown at him in the last race?I have tried massages, herb supplements,a chiropractor and even two weeks ofrest - ALL to NO AVAIL? I would go to an orthoped or a sports doctor but he is just going to tell me to take anti-inflammatories and rest. Hell, I can self diagnose that treatment but that is not acceptable! Any suggestions?
Saturday, December 15, 2001
RR Jacksonville Marathon
Race Report:
Jacksonville Marathon
Jacksonville, FL
12/15/01
Yeah, yeah, I know - this marathon was almost as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.After all - I'm supposed to be resting? But since my right hamstring/leg felt OK in the last two marathons I thought I could/should run one more to close out the year for the following reasons:a) it rounded off the number of marathons run this year to a nice even 20b) it increased my total to 189 and decreased by ONE the number I have to run next year to reach my next big goal of 200. I want/need to accomplish this goal next year because it is the 20th anniversary of my FIRST marathon -Reno, NV, Sept/82!c) Jacksonville is a short 4 hour drive and we only needed one night in a hotel so it was a cheap race to rund) I had nothing else to do this weekend anywaye) and of course I am crazyI couldn't come up with any reasons NOT to run the marathon - until the 11th mile of the race when my legs became heavy and very tired and my body started screaming at me "You stupid SOB - Are you f*#*ing crazy asking me to run hot, humid marathons on three consecutive weekends? - I'll get even with your sorry,stupid ass!"More about this derogatory discourse later on.Because of the unseasonably warm weather we are enjoying in FL, it was a warm 67 degrees at the 7am start with 100% humidity (fog). Fortunately the fog and overcast skies slowed the rise in temperature so that it was only 74 degrees when I finished. The course is a flat, scenic course through the southeast suburbs of Jacksonville along the St. John's River. I had planned to run slow and easy since I considered this marathon to be a 'junk' race or just another number to get me closer to my goal of 200. However I found myself charging out of the start with a fast pack and passing mile 4 under 32 minutes! I knew that pace would kill me in that heat and humidity so I slowed down immediately to an 8:30 pace. But it was already too late (or maybe it was too late when I showed up at the start?) as my legs started to feel lazy? By mile 11 my body began having that derogatory discourse with me but I decided to ignore it and hold the pace until the half and then recheck the status.As I crossed the half in 1:51 my body was again screaming at me "You try to run the second half in the same time and I'll make sure your sorry fat ass is dragging on the ground - if not worse". This time I did what I coach novice runners - I listened to my body! (Is it unusual or a healthy sign to have derogatory discourses with your body because I have them quite often and I must admit that they have probably saved my life a few times?)Anyway I decided to listen to my body and since it was only a junk race I figured that if I jogged the last half at a 9 to 10 minute pace I could still finish under four hours -and more importantly live to run another day! So I jogged the next 7 to 8 miles at an average 9:30 pace. However by mile 21 both knees started to hurt because my legs had stiffened up which caused me to alter my stride and put more stress on the knees. So after another more friendly chat/discourse with my body we decided that we had only two options:1) Stop and walk2) Pick up the pace which would force my legs to flex and resume my normal running strideOption 1 was not acceptable so I dug deep to see if the legs had recovered any from the easy pace of the last 8 miles and - fortunately they had! I was able to drop the pace down to 8:30 but watched my heart rate soar 15 to 20 beats/min. to gain that minute reduction in pace. But alas - it was not to last long. By mile 24 my legs were heavy and tired again. Time 3:34 (I should be finishing by now?)For some strange and inexplicable reason all-of-a-sudden it became important that I salvage some respect for myself and finish under 3:55 which meant I had to run at least a sub-9 minute pace for the last two miles. So I had to ignore the derogatory rants and screams coming from my body as I played mind games and tricks on myself and dug up every last ounce of energy I could find to push the legs on. The course did not make it easy either as the last 1/2 mile made several turns, crossed a soccer field and ran along some trails so that it could funnel us on to a school track for the finish line. As I emerged on to the track I managed to sprint the last 200 meters to finish in 3:54:47! A very pathetic performance and time that was even more embarrassing when a 72 year-old runner finished only 4 minutes behind me! (But 3:58 is a damn good time for a 72 year old runner!)But I had survived to run another day! No heat exhaustion - no further damage or injury to my right leg as far as I can tell.NOW I will definitely take some time off and rest my poor old body. I have three lonnnnnnggggggggggg weeks to rest and let my body and legs recover before we start the 2002 marathon season at the Disney Marathon on Jan 6/02.
Jacksonville Marathon
Jacksonville, FL
12/15/01
Yeah, yeah, I know - this marathon was almost as much of a surprise to me as it is to you.After all - I'm supposed to be resting? But since my right hamstring/leg felt OK in the last two marathons I thought I could/should run one more to close out the year for the following reasons:a) it rounded off the number of marathons run this year to a nice even 20b) it increased my total to 189 and decreased by ONE the number I have to run next year to reach my next big goal of 200. I want/need to accomplish this goal next year because it is the 20th anniversary of my FIRST marathon -Reno, NV, Sept/82!c) Jacksonville is a short 4 hour drive and we only needed one night in a hotel so it was a cheap race to rund) I had nothing else to do this weekend anywaye) and of course I am crazyI couldn't come up with any reasons NOT to run the marathon - until the 11th mile of the race when my legs became heavy and very tired and my body started screaming at me "You stupid SOB - Are you f*#*ing crazy asking me to run hot, humid marathons on three consecutive weekends? - I'll get even with your sorry,stupid ass!"More about this derogatory discourse later on.Because of the unseasonably warm weather we are enjoying in FL, it was a warm 67 degrees at the 7am start with 100% humidity (fog). Fortunately the fog and overcast skies slowed the rise in temperature so that it was only 74 degrees when I finished. The course is a flat, scenic course through the southeast suburbs of Jacksonville along the St. John's River. I had planned to run slow and easy since I considered this marathon to be a 'junk' race or just another number to get me closer to my goal of 200. However I found myself charging out of the start with a fast pack and passing mile 4 under 32 minutes! I knew that pace would kill me in that heat and humidity so I slowed down immediately to an 8:30 pace. But it was already too late (or maybe it was too late when I showed up at the start?) as my legs started to feel lazy? By mile 11 my body began having that derogatory discourse with me but I decided to ignore it and hold the pace until the half and then recheck the status.As I crossed the half in 1:51 my body was again screaming at me "You try to run the second half in the same time and I'll make sure your sorry fat ass is dragging on the ground - if not worse". This time I did what I coach novice runners - I listened to my body! (Is it unusual or a healthy sign to have derogatory discourses with your body because I have them quite often and I must admit that they have probably saved my life a few times?)Anyway I decided to listen to my body and since it was only a junk race I figured that if I jogged the last half at a 9 to 10 minute pace I could still finish under four hours -and more importantly live to run another day! So I jogged the next 7 to 8 miles at an average 9:30 pace. However by mile 21 both knees started to hurt because my legs had stiffened up which caused me to alter my stride and put more stress on the knees. So after another more friendly chat/discourse with my body we decided that we had only two options:1) Stop and walk2) Pick up the pace which would force my legs to flex and resume my normal running strideOption 1 was not acceptable so I dug deep to see if the legs had recovered any from the easy pace of the last 8 miles and - fortunately they had! I was able to drop the pace down to 8:30 but watched my heart rate soar 15 to 20 beats/min. to gain that minute reduction in pace. But alas - it was not to last long. By mile 24 my legs were heavy and tired again. Time 3:34 (I should be finishing by now?)For some strange and inexplicable reason all-of-a-sudden it became important that I salvage some respect for myself and finish under 3:55 which meant I had to run at least a sub-9 minute pace for the last two miles. So I had to ignore the derogatory rants and screams coming from my body as I played mind games and tricks on myself and dug up every last ounce of energy I could find to push the legs on. The course did not make it easy either as the last 1/2 mile made several turns, crossed a soccer field and ran along some trails so that it could funnel us on to a school track for the finish line. As I emerged on to the track I managed to sprint the last 200 meters to finish in 3:54:47! A very pathetic performance and time that was even more embarrassing when a 72 year-old runner finished only 4 minutes behind me! (But 3:58 is a damn good time for a 72 year old runner!)But I had survived to run another day! No heat exhaustion - no further damage or injury to my right leg as far as I can tell.NOW I will definitely take some time off and rest my poor old body. I have three lonnnnnnggggggggggg weeks to rest and let my body and legs recover before we start the 2002 marathon season at the Disney Marathon on Jan 6/02.
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