travels, races, and other musings

On Sunday we ate breakfast and then hopped in the car to go to Caño Negro Wildlife Refuge. Caño Negro is in northern Costa Rica, almost to the Nicaraguan border. It is a refuge of forests and marshlands along the Rio Frio. The plan was to travel north to Los Chiles and catch a boat tour down the river to view the wildlife.  We had originally intended to visit Monteverde Cloud Forest (which is southwest of Arenal), but Felix, our tour guide for the bike trip said that Caño Negro was better in terms of wildlife. Caño Negro is also closer at about an hour and a half drive as opposed to three to four for Monteverde. The drive seemed to take longer and when we hit one of the towns where we were supposed to turn, we seemed to have come at it from the wrong direction. We clearly didn't make a turn we were supposed to, but we ended up in the right place. It just took us longer. A couple of hours later, we arrived at a dirt road turn off with signs indicating Caño Negro, however, I thou...

Saturday was another beautiful day. The weather was shining and perfect but the volcano had some fog around the top. We were leisurely this morning. We ate breakfast and then headed out to explore some areas we hadn't checked out before. We drove up around the volcano and explored another hiking trail we hadn't tried. We hiked through some forested areas awhile before turning around and going back to the hotel for our afternoon of canyoning (aka canyoneering or rappelling). We were picked up in a tour van and taken to the canyoning company's lodge where we ate lunch. It was a typical tico lunch of rice with vegetables and beans. It was quite good. After lunch, everyone piled into a couple of vans and drove on a paved road, then a dirt road. Then, when the dirt road became impassable by van, we transferred to four-wheel drive vehicles and bumped our way through the hills. Finally, we arrived at the mouth of a trail where we put on our harnesses and helmets. Then we w...

We began this morning with a mountain bike tour. They picked us up in a van with the bikes on top and we drove to a location near Arenal National Park. There was one other couple on our tour, the van driver and our guide, Felix. The ride was on dirt roads, all passable by vehicle so we weren't really seeing anything we couldn't see by car but it was rough enough that a mountain bike was required in terms of using a bike. It wasn't super hilly - mostly rolling hills and the steeper hills were fairly short. It wasn't overly technical (since it was on roads for cars). The entire trip was an out and back course with several stops on the way out to look at scenery and a top at the turnaround with pineapples, watermelon, cookies, water and juice. We enjoyed the ride, but we were tired when we got back and I decided that I'm definitely a roadie! Even on an easy course, I'm not very good at mountain biking. It was also strange riding without clipless pedals. I kept ...

We got up early to try to get to Bike Arenal (who offer mountain bike tours) when they opened at 8 AM, so we could make a reservation for a half day mountain bike tour for that afternoon (with the plan of going to the 9 AM Sky Tram tour). Unfortunately, when we arrived, they didn't have any space left and could only make us a reservation for the following day. We chose their morning departure at 8 AM. Then we headed down the street to check out some possibilities for other tours. We made a reservation to go canyoning (rappelling) on Saturday afternoon. Then we set out for the Sky Tram tour. We made it there in time for a 9 AM tour, however, there were enough people for two groups so we waited until 9:15 or so and went up with a fairly large group. There was a group of 6 (a family and their friends) and two other couples besides ourselves. We chatted a bit with a couple on their honeymoon from Boston. The tram ride up was nice. It was peaceful and the guide told us some facts abou...

We awoke to sun streaming in the window and birds chirping outside our windows. We got showered, dressed and headed up to breakfast. The free breakfast provided by the hotel is really quite extensive. They have some Costa Rican food (such as black beans and rice, which is traditionally eaten at nearly every meal, and fried plantains which are like bananas) as well as more traditional western breakfast items (eggs, french roast, cereal, etc). I enjoyed some fresh fruits (papaya, pineapple, and watermelon) as well as the fried plantains and rice with black beans. After breakfast we started our day at the Arenal Hanging Bridges. This hike through the Arenal forest is about 2 miles of trails interspersed with small bridges as well as large pedestrian suspension bridges. We didn't see many animals - mostly some birds, a praying mantis, leaf cutter ants, and lizards. Near the end, we did get to enjoy watching several spider monkeys in the trees above. We saw some beautiful scenery (wit...

Our flight departed early in the morning so we were on the road to the airport before dawn. The flights were uneventful. We went to Houston, changed planes in Houston, then boarded a flight for San José, Costa Rica. The flight to Costa Rica was about 3.5 hours (we were shown a heavily edited version of "Casino Royale" in flight). We landed, went through passport control, obtained our luggage, went through customs and headed for the car rental counter. We then boarded a shuttle to the main rental facility and went through the (slow) process of renting a mini-SUV for our excursions. Our hotel had good directions from San José so we used those in conjunction with a couple of maps we had. The roads were actually in fairly good condition (and paved). After about an hour, the roads became narrower, with one lane bridges interspersed here and there and it was very very curvy and often very steep. Luckily, I'm no flatlander and I learned to drive in the Rockies. We arrive...

I felt very good about my race this morning at the Lone Star Triathlon. The weather on Saturday was horrible and poured rain on the racers competing in the sprint distance triathlon. We handed out gatorade at the Texas Iron aid station (and cheered and rang our cow bells) on Saturday and it was truly miserable weather for a triathlon. We had some concerns about the weather today, but it turned out to be okay (except for some unbelievable wind which I'll get into more details about later). Pre-Race I was actually feeling pretty nervous yesterday about the race. I talked a bit to Jamie and Andrea late in the afternoon and they were both so reassuring I felt better after talking to them. By this morning my nervousness was gone for the most part and I felt ready to race. I woke up around 6:30, ate a bit of breakfast I knew would sit well (banana bread, a few bites of apple and some pomegranate juice). I took a shower (pointless, I know since I was about to go get gross and sweaty...

I exceeded my own expectations today. Today's half marathon experience was a polar opposite in every way to Disneyland in September. I felt great the whole time, nothing hurt and the miles flew by. It was a great race in every way. I finished in 2:15:05 for an average pace of 10:19/mi. (This is way beyond my expectations.) My alarm went off at 4:45 AM. I snoozed until 5 AM and then grudgingly got out of bed. I ate a half an apple, a small glass of pomegranate juice and a very tiny bowl of Rice Krispies with soy milk. We headed to the race site around 5:45, arriving around 6 AM. We sat in the car until around 6:15 when we headed over to the start line. It was cold - around 35 degrees outside. I wore running tights, a thin long sleeve tech shirt and a thin tech hoodie. I also had on gloves and an ear warmer headband. Before the race started we were so cold. There was one heat lamp and everyone was crowding around it. We found the shuttle stop for the second leg relay participants...

I had a serious PR today at Frosty's 5k. Now, admittedly, the course was pretty flat, however, I did have a bit of a headwind in a couple of places which slowed me down in those spots. Headwind aside, the flat course helped and I did it! I don't have the official chip time yet, but my watch says 29:56 (9:39/mi pace) which smashes my previous PR by over 4 minutes! (Edit: The chip time was 29:50, so a few seconds better than I thought.) My goal for the coming year in the 5k was going to be to get it under 30 minutes. Looks like I need to revise my future goals! Splits: Mile 1 9:28 Mile 2 9:51 Mile 3 9:38 last .1 :58 (9:37/mi pace) When I saw that I ran the first mile in under 10 minutes, I got really worried that I went out too fast but I was actually feeling pretty good so I just decided to keep the same pace. I slowed slightly for a small hill and headwind just after mile 1. When I passed mile 2 and realized I was still running at under a 10 minute mile, I figured I...

I'm not sure how, but I made it through the Turkey Trot 5 miler. The McMillan running calculator thinks I can do a 5 miler in 52:57 which I definitely think is doable. However, with my being sick and the tough course (whoa! hilly!) I ended up coming in at 55:21. I'll take it. While I was waiting in line for the port-a-potty, I saw Amy who asked me how I was feeling and I explained that I decided to go the cold medicine route. Running half asleep seemed more appealing than running with a fit of coughing and hacking. As soon as she walked off I realized I forgot to ask her how she was feeling since she also has the plague. Then I felt like a dork for being so rude as not to inquire and decided to chalk it up to the haze of cold medicine. I emerged from the port-a-potty (OMG, grossest port-a-potty ever, that includes the icky one outside RunTex) in time to hear the national anthem start. I was feeling grouchy and ignored the dirty looks from those standing tall and patriotic w...