7 Continents: The Highs and Lows

Best Start: Rome

As I waited to start, I was standing right next to the Colosseum and "That's Amore" was blasting over the loud speakers. After spending my junior year of college in Italy, it will always have a special place in my heart. I was just so happy to be back there and sitting in such an amazing historic place waiting to start a race. Although all the men just peeing on the sidewalk instead of waiting for a porta-potty did kill some of the romance.

Worst Start: Antarctica
In the early years of the Antarctica Marathon, runners were allowed inside the Russian base before the race. They brought gifts of fresh produce to the scientists stationed there, and the mostly male scientists were thrilled to have some women to talk to. One downside to the Antarctic Treaty is that it disallowed this practice. Tourists are no longer allowed in the science bases. So we were standing around on the exposed beach, trying to stay warm and dry. The worst part was the "bathroom." The bathroom consisted of a bucket with a seat, placed inside a small tent. The wind was so strong that it kept blowing the tent away, leaving the poor person sitting on the toilet exposed!

This boat was our only shelter

Best Finish: New Zealand

After several big city races, it was really nice to do a small race. Rory was able to see me finish and get to me immediately after I crossed the line. Within minutes I was chilling in an ice pool and eating watermelon.

Worst Finish: Tokyo

I woke up sick on race morning and felt awful from my very first step. Plus by the time I crossed the finish line I'd run almost 28 miles (my coral was a good mile back from the start and I couldn't run the tangents). I felt awful and exhausted and just wanted to be done and collapse in my husband's arms. Instead they made us wind through endless exhibition halls. I kept up this awful shuffle until I passed out. Then they couldn't find an English speaking doctor, but also wouldn't release me until I was seen by a doctor. Once I was finally in a wheelchair, I had to wait for half an hour to get down in the elevator. I finally made it to Rory 2 minutes before he was going to go back to the hotel without me!

I finally made it back to the hotel, where I collapsed in bed

Best Aid Stations: Rome

There were buckets of ice cold sponges at the aid stations. It was a hot day and I was very sweaty and salty and those cold sponges felt like heaven. However, Rome had the grossest porta-potties by far!

Worst Aid Stations: Tokyo

The food along the course was more strange than terrible. Food options included whole tomatoes and bread filled with bean paste. I couldn't figure out how you were supposed to eat a whole tomato while running. The bread option actually sounded good until I took a big bite and found it was filled with bean paste. 

Best Travel Experience: Tokyo

I cashed in all my frequent flier miles and we flew home business class! The multi-course meals, unlimited sake, and lie flat seats made the long flight a pleasure instead of just something to be endured.

Worst Travel Experience: Antarctica

This clothing would not have worked in Antarctica

Our group met in Buenos Aires and then we flew on the Argentinian airline, Aerolineas, down to Ushuaia. Our flight left an hour late and then we made two unscheduled stops along the way! So by the time we finally got to Usuaia, we'd missed all our time to explore the town! That turned out to be the least of our problems. We soon discovered that the unscheduled stops had been to drop off mail. To make some extra money, the airline filled the cargo hold with mail and delivered it for the postal service. In order to make room for the mail, they left all our baggage behind!We were headed to Antarctica and we had no luggage- no coats, no hats, no running stuff! The Marathon Tours staff spring into action, our boat departure was delayed, and we waited anxiously. Thankfully we all got our bags before the boat had to leave!

Best Post Race Meal: Almost all of Them!

I did a lot of good eating around the world! After the Antarctica Marathon, the chef on the boat made a dessert buffet, including a cake shaped like a penguin. I ate so much chocolate! In Chile, we had the traditional Chilean cocktail, pisco sour, and I tried squid ink pasta. In Rome, I gorged myself on a bowl on truffle pasta and a huge gelato. In Tokyo, after many hours of rest, I mustered the energy to go eat a hot bowl of Udon noodles. It was just what my sick tired body wanted! And in Morocco, I had a fresh strawberry juice, a cappuccino, an omelette and some bread. It would almost be worth running another marathon in all these places, just to eat these meals again. 

Worst Post Race Meal: Virginia Beach

After the race, we set off to Norfolk, where I remembered a nice waterfront area with a bunch of restaurants from when I'd been there on a class trip in high school. Unfortunately when we got there, the whole area was completely vacant and boarded up. We drove around and around and it seemed like the whole city was closed! We finally ended up at an IHOP.

What are your best and worst race experiences?

Chile Day 2: Race Day!

I woke early on race morning with my stomach churning. I thought that since I had dropped down to the half, that I wouldn't be. Wrong-o. I think it was a combination of not being able to officially switch to the half, not having as much time to acclimate as planed, and being in a foreign country. I had everything laid out and ready to go. Until the 26.2 with Donna, I had no technical difficulties. My garmin and i-pod were full charged. I heard that pretty much everyone in the race wears the official race shirt, but I didn't want to try anything new. 

I had brought peanut butter from home for my traditional pre-race breakfast, but then couldn't find it. So I had a bowl of oatmeal instead and tried not to be too jealous of R's bacon, eggs, and pastries. After a quick pit stop back in the room, we were off. 

I picked our hotel somewhat randomly, but the location was awesome. It was about 4 blocks from the entry chute. I got a little confused at the chutes and ended up in the 10k chute, but managed to extricate myself. The guard then  tried to send me over to the marathon chute, but I played the clueless American and went right by him into the half area. I had expected the worst when it came to porta-potties after Rome last year. But the lines were short and they were clean. I came prepared with my own TP so all was good.

I still had half an hour before the start so I sat down on a curb to chill out. I was still super nervous and could tell my heart rate was high. It was really strange because I couldn't understand anything going on around me. The announcer was blaring and occasionally everyone broke into this cheer, "T, A, TTT, AAA, viva TA." No idea what it means but soon I was shouting along.The chute was absolutely packed and not organized by pace so the first mile was a mess. But then the road opened up into 4 lanes and we spread out.


The race is kind of a blur. I had no idea where I was going and it was so crowded that I had to watch my feet a lot to keep from stumbling. The half course ended up being totally flat, mostly on big wide boulevards. The crowd support was fairly consistent. There was water/gatorade every 5k, but I never saw any food. The race started at 9 so the sun was already fully up and it got hotter as the race went on. Luckily there were firefighters blasting us with water fairly often. At one point they aimed it directly at me and it was so powerful that I got knocked sideways!

I had been worried about the heat since not a single one of my training runs was warmed than 45, but it didn't affect me. In fact, I felt great. I ended up doing a 4 min run/ 30 sec walk ratio until mile 11 when I just ran until the end. I told myself I didn't have to push, that I was just here to finish, but it just came naturally. So when I crossed the line in 2:02 I was thrilled. So strange that in my last race where I felt like I working so, so hard, I finished almost 2 minutes slower.

After the finish there was a giant crush to get into the finish area. I was tired, hot, thirsty, and not thrilled to be shoved and smushed. I grabbed a medal, pushed my way to grab fruit from the fruit table, and water from the water table and got out. I did like that they had separate finish areas for the full, half, and 10k, so that the short distance people didn't take all the food and water.

Overall, I was really impressed with the race organization. There were 25,000 people between the 3 races, but they separated the races nicely and had plenty of resources for each. Also, the humidity and smog wasn't nearly as bad I had heard.

R and I had arranged a meeting place down the road so I made my way there. We headed back to the hotel and headed to the pool. I totally wore my medal into the pool. Is there anything better after a race than swimming and then lying in the sun with a cold Gatorade??

After a hour or so, we got dressed and headed out for a late lunch. We headed to Barrio Lastaria, a cool artsy neighborhood we walked through yesterday with lots of sidewalk restaurants. We chose, Squadritto, a cute Chilean/Italian place and promptly ordered 2 Pisco Sours, another special Chilean drink. They were STRONG, but cold and yummy. We shared an amazing giant salad to start with lettuce, spinach, kale, cucumber and avocado. Everything was so crisp and it was dressed perfectly with oil and vinegar. I got squid ink pasta filled with shrimp and topped with crab sauce. R got fillet over fried potatoes. The food was amazing and it was so nice to sit out in the sun and have a long leisurely meal.

After the pool and lunch, I was feeling recovered enough to climb to the top of Santa Lucia hill. We only went half way yesterday and wanted to see the view from the top. It was spectacular. There was less smog than yesterday, so we had a better view of the mountains. The whole city is surrounded by these absolutely massive peaks. It is strange to be standing where it is 85 and sunny and looking at snow capped mountains.

We weren't starving after our late lunch, so we stopped at a bar right by the hotel for another round of Pisco Sours and some cheese empanadas for a snack before an early bed time.