Filed under: Ajijic, General Update, Greg Collett, Hiking, Lynne Green, Travel Storys
We’re down to 12 days left staying here at the ranch in Ajijic. It’s been 18 months since we got here. In some ways it feels like we’ve been here forever, in others, like we just got here. We’ve gone through two ‘Snow Bird’ seasons, a rainy season, time together and time apart. We headed out from Toronto in October 2009 looking for adventure and, we found it. Overall, what a great time this has been.
We’ve met a lot of folks who have the same sort of adventures spirit that we have, and we’ve got some tips on some other cool places to go.
As we sit here now, there is just one couple left to fly out of here, Thee are two women going to be living here full time. Most of the Snowbirds are returning again next year. Our summer plans are that Lynne will hang out at the house in Newmarket most of the summer. I’ve got a 6 week night school course in motorcycle maintenance. That ends on the first of June. Weather depending, I hope to head out west on the bike for a bit then. My plan is to get to Calgary to visit my daughter Christine and the grandkids, then continue on to Victoria. I’ve been reading some blogs of people who have biked across the country. Several have continued up north and done Alaska too. The idea is tempting. I expect I’ll think about that leg after I get out west.
I need to be back in Newmarket for late July to get out to Lake Placid on the weekend of the 24th. I think this years Ironman is going to be a blast. Bryan, Andy and Vickie are the only people that I know of who are participating this year. Bernie and I are volunteering as peelers. Most of the rest of the gang are planning on coming down to watch, train and some to sign up for the next year. I’m really looking forward to that weekend.
We’ll both be home for a few weeks after that but we’re planning on doing the Camino walk in Spain starting in mid September. The walk is a bit under 800k and should take 4 to 5 weeks. We’re booking our return flight for 8 weeks after we arrive. From the stories we’ve read, there are a ton of folks who have done the walk and have had to push though rain because they had to get to the airport for their return flights home. Neither of us can think of anything fun about hiking in the rain so, we’ll hang in wherever we are when the weather’s bad. We’ll spend whatever time we have left after the hike in Portugal.
We’d like to be back home over Christmas this year. I haven’t seen my Mom or the kids over Christmas for two years now so, I want to spend Christmas with them all this year.
We really have no idea of what’s going to happen after Christmas. We may have blown the budget with our summer and fall plans and have to lay low for a bit. I’m thin king that it would be cool to fly down to Panama (Bouquette) where we’d started out towards when we headed out originally. We’re still pretty happy that we’ve been lucky enough to adventure around the way we have so far.
With only 12 days until we leave, we’re getting a bit anise to get going but, our friends Rona nd Bev and coming here for a week, arriving this Saturday night. We had a great time with them last year here and we’re looking forward to expiring another couple of towns with them and just hanging out. The one town I hope we get to is Tequila. It’s about a 3 hour drive from here and I think doing the tour there will be a blast. I’ll post pictures from there if we do that trip.
We’ll pack up the car the same day that Ron and Bev leave and then head out the next morning. 2 days should get us across the border and into San Antonio where we’re going to spend a couple of nights and then, we’re thinking of just fast tracking it home. I’m guessing we’ll be back by around the 20th or so. Here’s hoping it’s bike riding weather when we get back!
Filed under: Ajijic, Fitness, General Update, Greg Collett, Hiking, Motorcycle in Mexico, Travel Storys
Wow – it’s been a whole month since I’ve updated this blog. I haven’t gone anywhere near that long in the last 5 years without updating. I’m working on a book so, I guess that takes away my need to type!
This year feels so different from last year. I guess that when we got here we were feeling so excited to be heading out on this huge adventure and we’d landed in a ‘far and distant land’. The language was different, the sky’s were blue, the temperature was perfect. It felt like everyone we met was doing almost the same sort of adventurous thing. Now, the freshness and excitement is gone. The weather is still great and the sky’s are still blue. The vegetation on the mountains changes all the time, but, we walk the same old roads, (there are only a few) we’re looking at the same old things. The fun of going to the store and trying to figure out what these different food are has switched slowly to “I’d give my right arm to spend 30 minutes in a Loblaws!” I went out to buy a couple of clear 60 watt light bulbs the other day. I found them in the second store, but, they were behind the counter so the girl had to get them for me. It took forever for this idiot to stop removing every 60 watt frosted bulb from the shelf and grab a clear one from the bunch that were 12 inches away. Yup – the fun factor is starting to wear thin.
Last year on the ranch, we almost never saw anyone around except for at happy hour. This year, half the folks are different and it’s impossible to lay outside in the sun during the day without someone coming over to talk. I need that shirt back that Steve had embroidered for me one year that read “I don’t play well with others”. Lynne keeps yelling at me to be nicer to people.
I wonder if I’m too young to be in this sort of semi retirement place. I was pretty lucky back home to get into this athletic thing. Almost everyone was younger than I. Many were 10 – 15 years younger and everybody was out training like maniacs with amazing goals ahead. I was pretty lucky to hang with that gang. Here now, it seems like most folks are 5 – 20 years older than us, and much more sedentary than I want to be. I feel a bit like I’m fighting a clock here. It’s almost time to get out of Dodge! We’re leaving in the middle of April. I wouldn’t be surprised if we came back here one day again, but I think we both have a lot of exploring and adventuring to do for the next while.
Lynne and I are planning to walk the Camino de Santiago, a 800k hike through the Pyrenees mountains in Spain this fall. I’m not sure how much hiking we’ll be doing on a daily basis back in Newmarket so, we’ve started walking daily here. We started last month and walked our way up to 70+K per week already. We’re planning on mixing things up a bit in that we’re going to do our Malecone 8k walks a couple of mornings a week, we’ll hike the mountains a couple of mornings and do a 15 – 20+k walk with weight in our knapsacks on the Sundays. It feels good to have an athletic goal ahead of me again. It’s not as intense (there’s an understatement) as Ironman training, but, it’s OK. I’ve ‘been there and done that’ – got the shirts the medals and the tat – now I’m old. you know those really old 70+ year old guys you see at marathons and triathlons? Yea – that’s not me! 
The book is coming along OK. I gave 45 pages or so to Lynne last night to read. Apparently I should have paid much more attention to my grade 6 grammar teacher! I was really hoping she would be so excited about it but, who am I kidding. I’m not a writer and not a big reader. If I can pump this out as best I can and then Lynne and I edit it, I think it will be pretty good. hopefully, we don’t kill each other while we edit together!
I made contact with Jeff, one of Lynnes cousins who is a very successful speaker in the US who has agreed to take me on and tutor me in how to market this book and get my butt out on the speaking circuit. I think that will be a blast. God knows I love talking to groups and there’s nothing more exhilarating than the curtain going up! I’m going to have to work hard at not dropping the “F” word all the time though!
There is a couple coming tomorrow to buy the last 2 puppies. I wonder if “Puppy” is the right word anymore. They are 6 months old now and, I weighted one this morning at 41 pounds. It’s OK, I didn’t hurt my back! We’re lucky that we’ve found good homes for all of them and, the two females left on the ranch are both fixed. I hate seeing them go, but feel good that they are safe and going to be well looked after. I have an incline that raising dogs would be a cool thing to do if I settle down back in Ontario one day.
I’m waiting to hear back from John with the HSBC series about some available dates for me to do some race announcing again this summer. I’m excited about that. That job is a hoot. I want to do a fair bit of riding this summer as well. Hopefully the announcing gigs will leave me with time to get out to the Rockies at some point and time. I haven’t seen my daughter Christine in way too long now. I want to get to Calgary ASAP after we get back. I’ll probably do an Ottawa run first to see Michelle and Gavin first though. I’ll feel safer getting a few miles on that bike within driving distance to home again. It’ll be great to ride a bike that doesn’t just get me there, but gets me back too! That little Vento bike I had here was great for a one way trip! It’s gone now. I sold it for what I bought it for. I’m out the cost of the repairs but, all in all, I had a ton of fun and a number of great adventures on it. I’ve got the x-rays to prove it too!
We have company coming for a few days in mid February, someone coming for the month or March and friends coming for a week and a bit in April. Hopefully, we’re still friends with the month-long visitor at the end of the visit. If nothing else, that should add a new and exciting dimension to the month and, to the 18 month Mexican adventure that we’ll be finishing!
It’s 1:00 pm here. I’ve got one afternoon left to play with the pups! Good luck with that cold and snow back home gang. Congratulations on completing 50 marathons by 50 Zora. A great goal, and a great accomplishment! I’m really looking forward to seeing everyone back in Lake Placid this summer. If you’re going to be there, don’t mit the tag team effort of Bernie and I ripping rubber off of every passer by at the end of the swim!
Lynne and I have started our training early for our walk through Spain this fall. Here’s the data from day 1 – We’re looking to walk 280k this month. Usually 8k a day for 6 days a week and 20k on the Sunday.
4x Malecone by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
SUBJECT: SECURITY UPDATE Date: January 20, 2011
Warden Message
This Warden Message is being issued due to an escalation in criminal activity in Guadalajara and nearby Lake Chapala. In a chain of violent incidents that began on the evening of Saturday, January 15th and continued through the early morning of Sunday, January 16th, a Drug Trafficking Organization (DTO) carried out a series of attacks largely directed at local law enforcement in both Guadalajara and Chapala.
In addition to targeting law enforcement officials, their buildings, and vehicles, members of the DTO set up a road blockade on the highway between Guadalajara and Chapala near the Guadalajara airport on Saturday evening around 11 p.m. This was the first incident of this nature in the Guadalajara area. Armed men opened fire on several vehicles, forcing the drivers to abandon the vehicles on the road. They then lined up the cars to block the road and set fire to them.
Since the weekends surge in violence, local authorities have arrested and detained several DTO members. Local law enforcement authorities assess that the violence will not likely subside in the near future and are taking necessary measures to prepare and defend against further acts of violence by organized crime.
U.S. citizens should make every attempt to travel on main roads during daylight hours, particularly the toll (“cuota”) roads which generally are more secure.
Additional safety recommendations:
- Delay any travel if media reports road closures due to police or emergency responder activity;
- If the road in front of you has been blocked due to a security incident or natural disaster, attempt to return to your point of origin using available alternate routes;
- If you are presented with an imminent threat on the road, do not hesitate to run over any median (or similar obstacle) to make an emergency U-turn to get out of harm�s way;
- If physical barriers along the road prevent emergency evasive action in any direction, locate a restaurant, shopping mall, hotel, or another business establishment where you can temporarily remove your vehicle from the road and take cover until the road is clear;
- If you are driving or walking and you hear or see gun fire and/or explosions, take immediate evasive action, get down on the ground or behind a solid barrier (engine block, tree planter, etc.) and evacuate the area as soon as it is safe to move;
- Always call “066″ (equivalent of 911 in the USA) immediately if you are exposed to a life threatening situation requiring emergency police or fire responders.
Here’s the link to the complete reports.
I’m not going to do this or that, or something else from now on. That’s what my usual New Year Resolutions look like. More often than not, by my birthday in mid January, not only have I broken them all, but I’ve forgotten what the heck they were! (That might have something to do with the 60`s – I`m not sure!)
Years ago, (maybe 20,) Lynne and I found ourselves in an Ethiopian restaurant in Washington D.C. That alone has it`s own story but, we`ll leave that for another time. We decided to write down what we thought the year would have produced for us by the time the next New Years Eve rolled around. neither of us can remember today what we`d written. We do recall that they were amazingly close to how the year unfolded for us both.
A few years ago I thought it would be cool to sign up and participate in an Ironman Triathlon. I was 55 years old. I couldn`t swim, didn`t even own running shoes and hadn`t ridden a bike since I was a kid in public school delivering newspapers. I`m not sure if it`s good luck or bad luck, but I can`t stand to fail at anything. If I say I`m going to do something, I`ll kill myself trying not to fail as I attempt whatever crazy thing it is. The only thing worse for me is having to face someone else and admit that I failed.
I got that to work well for me with the Ironman thing by telling EVERYONE I knew, or met, that I was going to do it. 2 years later after ‘God only knows’ how many miles of swimming biking and running, and what seemed like a never-ending string of longer and longer races, I finished that Ironman in 2007. I had a great coach, (thanks Adam) met an amazing number of like-minded Tri-Folks who became friends along the way. There were a number of times that I wanted to quit, but kept going because I couldn`t possible face everyone and say that I`d quit.
I think I`ve tripped over something that works for me! So . . . . . .
2011 – New Years List to be checked in 365 days.
1. We`ll spend another 3.5 months in Mexico. We`ll leave mid April to head `home`, in Newmarket.
2. The Honda Shadow in the garage with 2900k on it will have at least another 6,000k on it before it`s time to winterize it again.
3. Lynne and I will have completed walking the Camino de Santego hike (about 800k) through the top of Spain in the fall.
4. I`ll finish writing my book and have it published, one way or another!
5. I`ll have started on the public speaking tour and will have had at least 4-5 paying gigs with it. (Jeff – looking for your help on this one . . . . . coach!)
6. Christmas will have been spent with all of my kids, and even better, with Mom included, in the Great White North somewhere.
So – there it is! Number 1 is easy! The rest will take some work but – I`ve just told the world. Here`s hoping my theory on `how to accomplish anything`works for me again!
Happy New Year to all!
Love and Peace
G
Filed under: Ajijic, General Update, Greg Collett, Hiking, Pets, Travel Storys
In some ways, lots has happened since our last update. In other ways, not much really.
From Dallas we drove through to Laredo where we spent the night before crossing the border. Both the US and Canadian travel warnings tell folks not to drive across the Mexican border. They say if you have to go to Mexico, fly in to the middle somewhere. We want to bring our stuff back with us when we return in April so, we need the car. The girl at the car insurance office told us that she usually has lineups of people buying insurance before driving into Mexico but, as of when we were there, we were only about the 3rd policy they’d written so far, this year! She went on to tell us stories of why non of them go across the border anymore. Non of this helped us much with our nervousness of crossing in the morning. We’d decided to cross about 9:00 AM. My thinking was that the ‘bad guys’ stay up wrecking havoc under the cover of darkness and should be asleep until noon. Neither one of us got much sleep that night.
In the end, all of our worries were for not. The border crossing went smoothly and we were well on our way after getting out of the customs office with Lynne’s visa and our sticker for the car. I got my 5 year visitor status a while ago.
The drive from Nuevo Laredo (the Mexican side of the town) to Ajijic was uneventful. We stayed out one night and arrived here in the middle of the afternoon on the Wednesday afternoon, just a couple of hours late for the weekly market that takes over our street in town.
It felt good to be back. Not as exciting as it had been last year. We felt the same way about the trip down here. Last year was very exciting and all new. This year it was, well, it was just work getting here. We’d done the tourist thing in Nashville, Memphis and Dallas which we enjoyed, but the rest of te 4500k trip wasn’t much fun at all.
Great to see our friends from last year, Paul and Kay from the east coast when we got here. The pups all came running which was pretty cool for me. They looked skinny which bugged me a bit. I’d left 5, 13k bags of dog food for them before I left. I guess the folks on the ranch fed all the dogs with that. Now (3 weeks later) they are pretty fat again. The owner here had given “Moose”, the biggest male to his boyfriend just before I’d gone back home and somehow the guy managed to let it die in the 5 weeks I’d been away. The owner gave him another one so, we were down to 5 pups left. Someone bought one the other weekend so, now we’re down to 4. God only knows what’s going to end up happening to them.
The folks who run the ranch built a small pen for them in a dark cold corner of the ranch so that they wouldn’t be running around pooping all over the place as it fills up with the Snowbird set. I took the dogs out of there and told them that at home I could have them charged with cruelty to animals but keeping them there. For some reason they listened. They often put the pups there during the night, but they are out and free to run all over during the day. Maybe I should stop calling them pups. They were born on August 18, they’re over 4 months old now, and getting pretty big!
So far, we’re not having as much fun as we hoped too. There’s something very exciting about finding and exploring a new place. Coming back again is, just that. We’re here again. Climbing in the mountains is still cool except my ankle that I wrecked in NYC still sisn`t back together properly. I hiked for a few hours last Sunday and had trouble putting weight on it for the rest of the day. Nothing new, all very nice, but we’re both feeling a bit that it’s just the same again. We won’t be back next winter! That’s not to say we’ll never come back, but we still have a lot of the world to see and a ton of new stuff to check out.
Christmas was quiet. We saw some friends, went out for a nice Christmas Eve dinner, met with some other friends for dinner on christmas day, but I think we were both thinking more about my kids all up in Ottawa. Kids, grandkids, extended family, 18 for dinner. Mom alone in Peterborough. Yup – we’ll do that differently next year for sure. I did manage to get out and get a haircut just before the holiday.
Jordan arrives in a few hours for about 9 days. We’re both super excited about seeing him. I have a couple of buddies who may come visit for a bit in January and February. Lynne lifelong girlfriend is coming for the month of March. Ron and Bev are planning to come the first week of April. We’re planing on starting the trip home on April 15th.
I’ve got that new bike waiting for me at home. I’m looking forward to putting some mileage on that next summer. I’m hoping to get a few race announcing gigs with the HSBC series. I’ve dug out all of my notes and the beginning 30 pages of the book I’ve been threatening to write and plan to work o n that before heading back home. I’m looking into how to turn that into a cool speech that I could take out on the road and have some fun with as well.
Lynne and I are looking into the Camino walk through the top of Spain for next fall. I keep hearing about it. It’s an almost 800k walk from France, through the mountains and across to Santiago. It should take about 30 -35 days of hiking. I must have run into 20 people of late who have done it. 15 of them have done it more than once so, we`re thinking it looks like a pretty cool adventure too.
Lynne and I sat in an African restaurant a few years ago in Washington on New Years Eve and wrote down what we thought the next year was going to look like. The possibilities for next year are endless for us right now. I think we`ll spend more time back in Ontario and, by all the things we`re looking into, I think we`ll ave a few pretty good adventures to write about too.
Happy New Year everyone. I hope everyone has some great adventures coming up soon too!
I don’t really know why I wanted to run this race. I’d built up some endurance over the 4 years of Triathlon training, but I’ve sure lost most of it by now. I’d entered the NYC marathon lottery when I first started up with all of this athletic stuff. It seemed like a good idea at the time, even though, running was my slowest and least favorite discipline of the three sports. I had decided to quit all of this athletic stuff after I finished Ironman in Lake Placid in 2009.
The way the lottery for the marathon works is that if you enter for 3 years in a row but don’t get picked, you’re automatically accepted for the 4th year. You still get o pay of course, but, you’re “In” if you want to be. When I got the email that read “Congratulations, You’re in . . . . .” I figured I might as well. What a cool way to end an otherwise rather exciting and wonderful athletic chapter in my life. I had moment fo thinking that perhaps I could finish it in under 4 hours which is my required Boston Marathon qualifying time but, there were two problems. One was that there are almost 45,000 people running the New York marathon. The course starts on a bridge and the bottleneck means that you’d walk for a while before being able to find room to run. That would kill some time for sure. The second problem, and the real one really is that, well, I’m slow! My pal Bryan offered to come along and pace me. If I’d gotten all of the training in, it might have been possible, but . . . . . .
I’d come to Toronto in the summer for a few weeks. Id have 12 weeks left when I got back to my place in Mexico to train. 16 weeks seems to be the normal time folks train for a marathon for, but, I wasn’t headed there to win. I figured I’d be in pretty good shape in 12 weeks and be able to finish in some sort of respectable time anyway.
I headed out for my first run on August 15. A somewhat slow 3.75k, but, a beginning. Over the next 8 days I got in 6 runs for a total of 36k and the, I motorcycle terms, I had a “Special Moment”. A 360 degree turn, just a touch too quickly on rough cobblestones, a touch of the front break and ‘bang’ it was all over. The bike went down in a second and pined my ankle against one of the cobblestones. I tried to rock the bike to get it off of my ankle, but I couldn’t get it out. A couple of guys came by and gave me a hand. I’d been wearing all my safety stuff. I thought I’d just pinched it and sprained it a bit. I stayed off it for a couple fo days, iced it, kept it high, all the stuff they tell you to do. It got bigger for a couple fo days then started to shrink back down but, when it stopped getting better about 10 days later, I decided to go get an X-Ray. Sure enough, I’d cracked the bone on the outside of my ankle. The doctor called me over to look at the picture and explained that I’d have to wear a brace to 4 – 5 – 6 weeks. I told him that I had a marathon in New York in about 10 weeks. He just looked at me a quietly said “No you don’t”.
I laughed my ass off. In some ways I was really happy. Not to have a broken ankle, but the fact that I could quit running and not have to feel like I just ‘quit’ felt pretty good. Being part of the ‘gang’ back home was great. I was lucky enough to be part of the biggest and most supportive group of folks anyone could hope for. We all cheered each other on, razed the crap out of anyone who missed any workout and, had a great time training. Things were different in Mexico. (I just took a little break to get something to eat. I can’t believe how hard it is to walk even now almost 48 hours after I finished the run!)
There’s no running group that I’ve found in Mexico and really only a couple of routes to run. The work ‘boring’ doesn’t even begin to explain what running was like there for me. So, this broken or, cracked bone wasn’t a great thing but, it gave me an out without losing face from continuing with running and racing.
I took all the time the doctor said I should and slowly the ankle got stronger. October 5th I went out and ran 3.5k, but had to lay low for the next couple of days. The ankle wasn’t happy! On October the 12th, I went out again for a 6.25k run and, I was sore the next day, but it wasn’t too bad. I figured that meant the ankle was OK now. I think I was right!
I had decided, or at least, the doctor had decided, I wasnt’ running so, I didn’t bother running anymore. I went for a couple of climbs in the mountains and had a coupe of 1/2 hour swims and then, headed back to Canada to meet up with Lynne. We had planned our New York trip a long time ago. Michelle and Gavin were coming along to cheer me on in the race. When i had to back out, we all decided we’d still go and just ave a fun New York weekend. I had the odd momentary thought of wondering about maybe giving the run a try. I saw my chiropractor the day before we headed out for new York and told her of my thoughts. She explained that if I cracked it again, I’d probably need surgery to put screws in it and, running would be a really bad idea. Fine – I won’t run. Decision made!
Lynne and I left on Thursday around noon and headed down to St Catherines to visit with Jordan and then drove through to Corning New York for the night. The GPS took us on a crazy route through every little town it could find but, eventually we got there. In the morning we headed to NYC and arrived about 3:00 in the afternoon. We met up with Gavin and Michelle who were already at the hotel and we all went to the Javits Center to pick up my race kit. I might not be running the race but, I want my damned shirt. After all, it’s really ALL ABOUT THE SHIRT anyway!
You know, there’s something really infections about those expos. I got my shirt. I looked at all the athletes (almost 45,000 people ran that race!) I think it took me all of 5 minutes to change my mind and decide I was doing it. I told Lynne, Michelle and Gavin that, if my ankle started to hurt I’d drop out.
We went out and explored the town all day Saturday. I did a bit of shopping. I had my running shoes with me and a pair of gym shorts. I thought of all the wicking, CWX stuff that I had back in Newmarket. I wasn’t about to replace that stuff for one race, but I did need some warm clothes anyway. I found a soft pair of black track pants with stripes down the side and a couple of shirts that I could drop along te way. I headed back to the hotel late in the afternoon to rest up a bit and got to bed early.
Sleep didn’t come too well and 4:15 came pretty quickly. Michelle and Gavin got up and came down to the library with me to where I had to catch my bus. When Michelle did the race a couple of years ago, she’d had to wait for a couple of hours for the bus. I figures we’d all talk and keep warm together while we waited but, the bus was there and I was on my way in 5 minutes. The ride to Statin Island was uneventful. Waiting from 5:45 until 10:40 for my race start felt like forever. It was cold and windy. I did get inside one of the tents and talked to a few of the folks in there for a while. Amazing how many people have the 50 marathons before turning 50 mentally. It’s always interesting to drop into other people s worlds and seeing what makes them tick too!
The first wave of 15,000 people headed out at 9:40, 10:10 was the 2nd wave 0f 15,000 and our 15,000 left at 10:40. I was in the 2nd last coral which ment there were probably no more than 1500 people behind me to start. Our start cannon went off and we just stood there. No one could move. We laughed about how we thought the race would be harder than this for the 10 minutes of so it took us to actually get to the start line. I was hoping to stick to a nice easy 7 minute kilometer pace for the race. That’s about a minute slower than I used to do and I thought that would have been a good and reasonable goal.
We headed out across the bridge from Staten Island to Brooklyn. The crowds of people on the other side of the bridge were great. The streets were lined from one end of the race to the other. I was hoping that I could keep about a 7 minute per kilometer pace. That was about a minute more than my usual times, but, I didn’t know how that would equate under these circumstances. All the way through Brooklyn I felt great. Every time I felt my heart rate picking up too much I slowed down. I kept slowly passing people. (That was one advantage of starting almost at the back!) I didn’t have my GPS or even a watch. I’d thought of borrowing Michelle’s GPS watch but then I thought it would probably be better if I just ran by feel. They say never try anything new on race day but, this was a day to try anything new! I never did dump any of the clothes that I’d bought to keep warm and dump. It was pretty cool in the shade. There was about an hour mid day where I was a bit warm, but I knew it would cool down again before I finished.
I wasn’t sure of my time but, but the half way point I felt like I was pretty much on track with the pace I was hoping for. It ends up, looking at the times, I was almost dead on at the 13.1 miles in 2:36:08. But then, it started to fall apart and fall apart fast. I’d been extra careful of not hurting my left ankle, but I must have been putting extra pressure on the right because that right leg was starting to hurt. Both knees and my quads started to burn and then my ankle started to hurt. The right one, not the left one that I’d cracked a couple of months earlier. I was walking through all of the aid stations for Gatorade in one and then water in the next. I’d bought some Gu and was eating that every 45 minutes or so, but, as I felt my energy drop, the pain in my legs was building.
After we crossed the Greensboro Bridge, I was almost not able to run at all. I’d been pretty happy about running almost every step of the first half of the race, but it was next to impossible now. My left arm was starting to ache. I knew it was swinging oddly, but I couldn’t get it to work properly. I had a feeling that maybe I wasn’t running straight either. I knew I wasn’t able to straighten my legs out completely either so I must have been running and been squatting a bit at the same time. I thought of all those pictures from Ironman where people are running like crabs (John!) and hoped I wasn’t doing the same thing. Just after the bridge we crossed 79th street. Our hotel was just a few short blocks away. For a couple fo minutes I thought of just saying screw it and heading over to my hotel but, I knew I’d want to kill myself the next day if I’d done that.
The fun factor had gone a few miles back. My head was down and I just concentrated on trying my best to navigate myself up the center of the road. Out of Queens and into the Bronx and around to Harlem. There were a few spots in the race where I could see for miles straight up the road. It was a pretty cool sight to see so far and see nothing but runners. I started noticing that there was a [pretty steady stream of people passing me now. It was disappointing but, there was nothing I could do about it. My feet had swollen bunch. I felt like I wanted to tear my running shoes off.
We finally turned into the park. Michelle and Gavin had said they’d see me around the 100′s streets, but I didn’t know where they were, or if that was going to be on the way up or down or when so, I just pushed along. I tried to guess how long each mile was taking. How much longer I had to be out there, but I couldn’t really do any math in my head and, I didn’t really have any idea how fast, or slow, I was going.
As soon as I turned into the park I heard Michelle calling me. Oh my God what a great sight. There was Michelle and Gavin cheering me on. I collapsed sobbing into her arms. She sobbed, I sobbed, people arround laughed. We didn’t care. We got our shit together rather quickly and talked and walked a bit. They thought they’d get tossed off the corse pretty soon but, I think the race folks were happy that someone was looking after me and it wasn’t them!
I knew we had about 2.5 miles to go when I finally got into the park. During the day I’d noted the 10% mark, the 20%, the 25% the 1/3 and the 50% marks. Now we were down to the last 5% and it felt like it would never end. I’m conscience of the fact that my head can play games with me on a race course. I wondered if this had been a 50k race, if these 2.5 would have felt as tough. I couldn’t figure that out. I just wanted this to be over. A couple fo times I got concerned about the time and did my best to run. I pushed for all I was worth. Head down. No distractions. Just ran. I looked over at Michelle and Gavin who were on either side of me, walking along! Damn – running wasn’t working for me. It just wouldn’t happen!!
Michelle and Gavin stuck with me and talked to me until we got to the 800 meters left mark where they were tossed off the course. 800 meters – it’s nothing – 800 meters is not even hardly a warm up distance – It felt like it took forever. I was shocked when I got to the 400 meter mark. They’d had to have made a mistake! 200, 100, there’s the line and . . . . done. Where’s the dude to catch you so you don’t fall? Don’t they do that like they do at an Ironman? I guess not.
Eventually I got my medal (which once again doesn’t read “but he sucked”), finisher bag with recovery stuff and was out of the park and on the way back to our hotel. It was odd that I couldn’t find Michelle and Gavin then but, I was a hurtin’ puppy at that point os, I looked for a minute or two and then headed out.
What an amazing event that was. I had a great time for the first half of the race and, the lack of training and endurance kicked in and, the second half was . . . . not so much fun.
That’s it! I’m done with this. I can hear the fat lady sing and it’s over! On to new adventures with great memories and great friends from this chapter. What’s next? I’m not sure. Lynne and I are leaving again for winter in Mexico on December the 1st. I can see a cool motorcycle tour on the horizon. We’re talking about perhaps doing a walking tour across the top of Spain next fall. Who knows. Right now . . . . maybe another nice warm bath and a good nights sleep!
Filed under: Ajijic, General Update, Greg Collett, Hiking, Motorcycle in Mexico, Pets, Travel Storys
Wow – 14 days since the last update and 14 more sleeps until I head back to the “Old Country” for a 5 week visit.
I haven’t been writing for a while because, there isn’t a lot going on that’s new and different.
The weekend before last I decided to go for another ride out to Sayula and then Colima. Sayula is the town where all the knife makers are. I’m looking for a particular knife but, they didn’t have any, again! I’d taken the back road part way and loved it. Riding a bike down here is wonderful. The drivers are all crazy here. I have no idea what’s about to pop up in front of me in town, any town, but the highways are great. They go for miles and miles. I love riding in the sunshine sightseeing. Colima is the town beside the closest active volcano to where I live here. It’s about 200k from our casa, and about 100k from Sayula. It’s along that same great highway, but that second leg of the trip takes me through more mountains and then some bridges that span drops of several hundred feet. It’s beautiful. I couldn’t see the top of the volcano because of the clouds but it was still a great ride . . . . out!
No - I don't ride without a helmet and stuff!
This bike is only a 250 cc thing that shakes like crazy at its high-speed. It only manages 90 – 100 kph which, back home would be OK, but drivers here on the highway move between 125 – 140 – 160 kph. It’s a bit unnerving when a tandem tractor-trailer passes at those speeds. It would be nice to have a bike with enough power to get away from those guys and, not shake like the worlds biggest vibrator! I have to stop and stretch a bit every 100k or so. I got to my last stop on the way back. My GPS showed that I had 99.7k to go to get back to my house. I finished the last bit of water and the last cereal bar that I had with me. Walked a bit at the side of the road to get the kinks out and got back on the bike for the last leg of the trip. Turn the key . . . . nothing! No cranking of the engine, not lights, no horn, nada! It was as if someone had taken the battery out of the bike or had cut the wire of something. It was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the folks I knew were out-of-town this weekend. I wasn’t even sure if the cell phone I had would work where I was. There’s a really long complicated story to go with how I got back home, but, it’s enough to say that 5.5 hours later, the bike and I in the back of a pickup got home again! A reliable bike would be nice too!
A local guy here got it going after a few days and the boys back at the shop that I use got it humming again. It’s running like a charm right now. I think I’ll forego any long trips for a while!
Heading out at the end of the day!
The pups are about 9 weeks old now. The owner sent his boyfriend over the other day to take one of the pups for himself. I was pretty pissed that the owner never said anything to me. No Thanks or, hey, I’m giving one of the pups to my friend. The friend, who spoke zero English just came, picked them all up one at a time and took the biggest one. I gave the owner a bit of a hard time about it later but he’s one of those typical polished useless pieces of shit who say the right thing, but there’s nothing behind it. You know the type. the “My dad is a very successful self-made man and I’m the playboy son, pretending to be important the actually just pissing away dads money waiting for him to die so he can sell out and go back and hang out in Paris. Dick!! Luckily for me, he doesn’t come around to the ranch much, and almost not at all during snow bird season.
Heading Home!
I am so looking forward to getting back together with Lynne again. We talk almost every day. Being alone for the first week or two was great, but then, I started to really miss her. I’m flying up to Toronto on November the 2nd. We’ll head to NYC for the weekend and then back to Newmarket on the Monday. (NYC? I want my shirt at least!) Michelle and Gavin are meeting us there so, we should have a fun weekend bee-bopping around New York.
It will be nice to see the gang(s) back home and hang out for a bit. Lynne and I are going to drive back down here for the winter. We’re planning on leaving on about Dec 10th. Hopefully, the snow wont be flying before that. I expect we’ll do this trip in just a few days. I know people who have done it in 4 days. I think we’ll take 5 or 6.
Winter here and then drive back in the spring, probably in April or May. After that, who knows. I really don’t want to join back into city life, but I don’t want to spend endless periods of time without Lynne either. The time I’ve spent alone here has been nice in lots of ways, including letting me figure out a bit more of who and what I am and want. Part of what I discovered is that, a large part of what I am is ‘half of Lynne and Greg’!
There’s lots of time to think about next summer. I’m not going to worry about it much now. I do plan to do some looking at larger used bikes for sale while I am home next month. I’m sure the fall is the least expensive time to buy. The Honda ST 1100 is looking pretty good to me at the moment!
Honda ST 1100
The fun factor from running had dropped pretty low when I cracked my ankle and couldn’t walk. Now, 6 weeks later, the ankle is a bit stiff, but I’d say it’s back to about 85%. I decided to go for a shoirt run this morning and see how it would stand up. (No pun intended)
I can see from the time splits that I was being pretty cautious for the first bit of the run. I only did 3.5 k at an average moving pace of 6:22, but, I’m good with that. The first step is the hard one so, with that out of the way, maybe I’ll geet back into some sort of running routine to keep in shape.
Below is the link to the Garmin data from the run.
First Run in about 5 Weeks by gregcollett at Garmin Connect – Details.
Filed under: Ajijic, Day Trips, General Update, Greg Collett, Motorcycle in Mexico, Travel Storys
I don’t have a lot to write about this week. The Rainy Season appears to be over. My ankle seems to be healed up pretty well. I haven’t tried running yet, but that ne a bit more from laziness than anything else. I’ve been out on the bike a bunch, about 2100 kilometers so far. Out to Sayula and a few trips to the south side of the lake and even one around it. (250k).
The only funny story I have been from the bike ride yesterday around the lake. First the clutch cable broke when I was half way to Jocotepec and the bike shop. I thought I was supposed to be able to just kick it up a notch and expect the bike to jump, but I couldn’t make that happen. 30 minutes to go 10k, with all my safety stuff on! They replaced the cable at the shop in about 15 minutes, for 40 pesos, about $3.50 in our world!
Half way around the lake something stung the side of my neck. I don’t know what it was but, I was doing about 90 kph and after it stung my neck if flew down the back of my shirt and started stinging my back! I pulled over to the side of the road, rather quickly, and tore off my helmet, jacket and t-shirt and tried to scratch the bit spot and swat at the rest of my back with my t-shirt. I never did find the bug. 24 hours later i still have welts on my back. I’m just really glad it hadn’t flown up my pants!
The following is the story a friend forwarded to me about Hell. I LOVE it!
HELL EXPLAINED
The following is an actual question given on a University of Arizona> chemistry mid term, and an actual answer turned in by a student.
The answer by one student was so ‘profound’ that the professor shared it with colleagues, via the Internet, which is, of course, why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well :
Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law (gas cools when it expands and heats when it is compressed) or some variant.
One student, however, wrote the following:
First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving, which is unlikely.. I think that we
can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today.
Most of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there is more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can
project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase xponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because
Boyle’s Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand proportionately as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities:
1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
2. If Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Teresa during my Freshman year that, ‘It will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you,’ and take into account the fact that I slept with her last night, then number
two must be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and has already frozen over. The corollary of this theory is that since Hell has frozen over, it follows that it is not accepting any more souls and is therefore,
extinct….. ….leaving only Heaven, thereby proving the existence of a divine being which explains why, last night, Teresa kept shouting ‘Oh my God.’
THIS STUDENT RECEIVED AN A+.
