5 Miles Today

I have a goal this month of running at least 5 miles every day this month. The weather today was not exactly outdoor runnable so I had to hit the treadmill again.  It is very foggy and still ridiculously muddy out there. So it would be too dangerous to try to run out there on the road dodging trucks that may not see me, or bears that I might not see!

I got official notification that I was accepted into the 100 Marathon Club of North America.  That was fun.

Outdoors Finally!

Wow, it's a beautiful sunny 50 degree day here in Deadhorse.  The road around the lake is a slippery mud hole, but it's pretty dry down the Dalton Highway.  So I drove down to the little side road leading to the river, parked the car, and ran back and forth there foe 5 miles. It wasn't even windy!
I ran into a cute little ground squirrel but no other wildlife.  I was glad not to see any bears. They are still out but I haven't seen any yet.

5 Miles Again

I guess I may be stuck running on the treadmill for a while. I ran 5 miles on it today. Pretty boring but better than just rolling over and going back to bed!  It is still incredibly muddy and foggy outside.  I hope it clears up at some point so I can get outside.  It's much too wet to do anything out there right now.

Back to Work

Well all the exciting travel is over for a little while.  Back to the treadmill here at Deadhorse.  It is exceedingly muddy and wet outside making it impossible to run outdoors.

I'm pretty disgusted at how slow I have gotten. I lost a lot of running time when I broke my elbow. So I'm planning to try to get some good training time in this month, even if I do have to do it all on the treadmill.

I registered for the Grand Rapids Marathon in Michigan and will be repeating both the Polar Circle Marathon and the Havana Cuba Marathon on my next two month break. So I need to get in some serious training to make up for lost time.  I don't like the frustration of trying to beat impossible time limits.  I feel optimistic after my short 5 mile run today. The most important part of training will be simply the act of doing it and not rolling over and going back to sleep, even if I can't get in extremely long training runs.

This is the parking lot at the Prudhoe Bay Hotel!

Zambia

This was the final race. I started at 2:30 am so I had lots of time and wasn't the last person to finish. Today's course was quite pleasant and not nearly as stressful. The zebras and emus and lots of ducks were wandering around keeping us company. This was a beautiful lodge with lush grounds, ponds and flowers.

I really enjoyed seeing little bits of these countries and especially having the chance to see Victoria Falls.  That made it all worthwhile. Plus of course I logged 6 more countries, bringing my country list to 29.

Victoria Falls

Namibia

I started earlier today so it wasn't quite as much pressure.  Some of the guys are starting much earlier in the dark.  I may do that. we had the choice of an early start today though. It looks like I will be able to finish the rest of the races. But these have been difficult due to the time constraints, the altitude, and the travel in between each race. We end up taking unexpected amounts of time at some of the border crossings too. But we aren't as pressed for time for the rest of the marathons.

Today was really beautiful by the Zambezi River.

Botswana

This was a very slow day for me. Lots of pressure to move faster.  I thought for sure they would stop me. I kept checking to see if there was still enough time, and was assured there was. It was very hot and the terrain was sandy and difficult. Of course I was last.  I really hate that. But I did finish.