Why run 70 k at all..?

Three days to go, and I ask myself why I do this. Why run 70 km at all? What is driving me? When I think of it, why not go surfing instead..?

I think part of it, maybe a large part, relates to an inner journey. And curiosity. After 20-30 km, things start to happen with the body, pain starts to make itself noticed. It sort of moves around after that, sometimes the right knee, other times the left, both, the feet. But it never quite go away. That is the know factor.

What I do not know, is how my mind will react. What will I think? How do I motivate myself when I have run for 7 hours, pain, a long uphill in front of me and the rain starts to pour down? This is the exciting, or rather interesting part. Well, not the pain, but how I react and feel, and how I handle it. When I have encountered that, I know I can handle so many other situations, and I know how I will react, how I function.

When encounter difficult situations in my daily life. I can take with me the certainty that I for sure can go beyond what I might have thought were my limits, and I know how.

3 days to go..

Running and cancer, anything in common..?

Running and cancer, do that have anything in common? Maybe not at first glance, and even though running as far as 70 km is a challange, fighting against cancer is a fight for life. 

Ericsson, the company I work for, have promised to donate money to Funda Ayuda if (or rather when!) I make it all the way to the Pacific. Funda Ayuda collects money to support the fight against cancer, and I feel honored to run for this cause. I am sure the last part of the race will be painful, the legs will hurt, I will think of quitting- then this will give me extra energy. If I make it, I help others. That feels good.

My toe continues to irritate me. It is still very blue, and not very comfortable running with it. I guess I have to stick with it, and hope for the toe to get better. In a way, it adds to the excitement...

Surfing, blue toe and a fast lap

Surfing is fun. Even, or maybe especially, for someone from the far north where skiing is more common. But taking the waves are not so easy. Happy just to get up, it is very easy to be just slightly too much in front of the board, with the result that the forward end of the board gets stuck in the water. The result: spectacular falls and hitting the seabottom hard. 

It is sort of fun, believe me, tumbling around in the wave, not knowing what is up and down. Arms above my head to avoid getting hit by the board, then finally finding the surface when the wave have passed. The whole head full of water, a big smile on my face. Fantastic!

When I surf, or try to surf, I spend more time below the surface than above. Eating sand. This time, a rock decided to hit me on my toe, quite hard as well. Nasty rock. My toe decided to go blue, and I had to cancel the long run on Sunday. I could move the toe, so it was not broken. I decided to test it today, Monday, just to see if it works.

Decent pace from work to the park, 2.5 km like warming up. Then a fast lap, around 4 km in 4:16 min/km pace. Felt the toe, but it worked. Jogging down home, 3 km, a little less than 10 km today. But a good test. Now cooling down the toe. It is still blue, but hopefully ok in a few days. 

Last three weeks have been a bit difficult from a preparation point of view. A lot of travelling have made for difficulties keeping the continuity: 

Guatemala-Panama-Sweden-Panama-Costa Rica-Panama-Honduras-El Salvador-Panama-Guatemala-Panama in 3 1/2 weeks. A bit difficult, and the last week have been pretty bad. The week before better, 70 km, which is a normal weekly running-diet.

Now I am looking forward to get started- I am curious about the last 20 km. I have run only 50 km in a race before, and the last 20 k will be an exploration of the unknown for me, to see how I react, how my mind works. Of that, I am curious.

Problematic preparations..

Surfing one week before the run might not have been a good idea. Hitting the bottom hard with a very blue toe as result...

The route. Coast to coast!

Finally had a closer look at the track. First 1 1/2 km is maybe not 100 % safe for a 187 cm swedish guy- I dont really blend in, and even though we stopped and talked to several very nice people, both the people we met and the police warned us about the area for a Saturday night.

Lets see what kind of police protection we can get. Otherwise, I will have to start from Rey. Then I could not dip my toes in the Atlantic at the start of the run, but it would feel ok.

Click on a picture to have a closer look!

Back-to-back and a new president

Saturday 24.32 km, Sunday 26.37 km. My first back-to-back.

Back to back is a way to get the body used to longer runs without actually running longer.. The theory, I think, is that instead of running 50 km on one day, I run 25 km two days in a row. Since the body dont really recover until the second day, it is a way to get used to running longer distances. Also, it is good mental training since the legs are a bit tired the second day.

Since it was the first time I tried it, I did not run too long, around 25 km each day. Which would have been really long for me half a year ago- its amazing really, thinking back. Today run felt really good. I had very nice company the first half, my new friend Carlos, talking about everything from running, family, politics and other things.
For the second half my company was the swedish group Kent, sort of slow, almost sad rock. By now I recognise many, if not most people in the park.

The chinese group, always walking, spreading out forcing me to run in the grass to pass. Yesterday, one of them actually made a gesture that could have been interpreted as a greeting. Otherwise they form a tight group.

The middle age man running really really slow, toung moving from side to side. Which I found out to be one of Panamas best cardiologists!

The middle age woman that struggles on, lap after lap, with just a tiny bit too much weight.

The runners, that almost always say hi, sometimes with a smile, sometime with a tired face.

The police "guarding" the park (i.e. reading SMS on the mobile, or looking at a football game, preferably when ladies play).

The two guys that I always seem to meet, really long guy and a somewhat shorter with mustage.

And all the others...

I had the pleasure of meeting Luis also this morning, Carlos friend. He was complaining that the guards did not let him in the park when he was there 2:30 in the morning. Luis is training for a 100 miles run later this year. When I left the park 8:30 in the morning, Luis was still running...

A new president. That is what we have now, even though we dont know who yet. The voting was closed 40 minutes ago. Balbina or Martinelli. Left or Right. Ghosts from Noriega or kapitalism. I think this is a pretty important election for the future of Panama. Panama have come quite far in the 20 years after the invasion when Noriega was removed, but they have some way to go.
Corruption.
Violence.
Huge differences in income.
They are of course related, and I believe that only way to move forward is to have a stonger middle class and more education. But the men and women in power might not think that more even incomes are so good. Cheap services, chea maids, high standard of living. They do not want to loose that of course.
Whoever wins the election, the road is truly winding. Lets hope that he or she stays on the track.

Three weeks of travel- difficult to plan training

10.34 km, 1 h 2 min 8 sec. Legs tired, pain in my legs, took two laps to get into the run..

I can feel that I have increased the weekly volume, and the 90 km week two weeks ago still hurts. Old injuries remind me to keep the balance between training and rest, and with four surgeries done on legs and knees throughout the years, there are a few to chose between.. Balance, balance, balance, a difficult game.

Five weeks left, and the next three weeks will be very difficult to plan when it comes to training.
Next week Guatemala Monday to Friday, Friday back to Panama a few hours before going to Sweden.
Sweden for one week, back Sunday evening, sleep home in Panama, then take the morning flight to Costa Rica.
Costa Rica Monday-Tuesday, then off to another country in the region (El Salvador, Guatemala, Dominican Republi or Jamaica probably). Then actually home to Panama I hope...

Since travelling almost always mean 12-14 hours of work, or more, it is not so easy to fit the training in. But I have no choice...

Now some more work before going to bed early. Tomorrow is an early morning. I am getting used to them.