Costa Rica

The flight from the USA was totally uneventful. I am glad I packed 2 sandwiches - the flight only had expensive meals, dried out turkey sandwiches. The flight was also late getting in, for the typical reasons - another flight was cancelled so they can squeeze more into ours. Almost everyone on the flight was a gringo going on vacation, like myself. But the weird thing is, once we got to Liberia, they all disappeared into the night. It was only myself and the plane's crew that took the free shuttle to the Hilton. There were swarms of taxi drivers jumping all over the passengers exiting the very tiny airport (it is just a parking lot sized hanger,with just our plane there; we were theonlyreason the place was open). The Hilton was empty but for us.

The customs inspector ( who confiscated the rest of my lunch) taught me how to say Samara correctly. He said you say it like a song. I kept accenting it wrong, and this little singing trick is helpful.

After a decent night sleep, I got up early, to decide my next location. The hilton is a total rip off; one night costs the same as a week at a nice local hotel ( I said hotel, not dorm room hostel). The front desk informed me that the local bus to Nicoya (transfer point to Samara) is just across the street and costs about $2 USD. I was not in the mood to explore Liberia, so sleeping on a bus sounded great. Again, no gringos in sight. I am the only person hanging out at the bus stop at 9 am. I know 300 somegringos arrived last night... Where did they all go? Did the jungle eat them up? I guess they'll took midnight taxis to local beaches. None are on the bus to Nicoya.

The local bus was even cheaper that the hotel stated. It was a local, so many stops in villages, picking up moms and kids mostly. Local city bus - hard seats and heat,but the weather is actually mild, maybe 75f.

In Nicoya I had to use my very poor Spanish to find the bus depo, since this bus did not actually stop there,but circles back to Liberia. Again,in poor spanish, a local taxi driver informed me that I had 8 minutes to wait for the Samara bus. The depo toilets were spartan, but cheap and clean, and western style. (always bring your own TP; of coarse I had mine, I am no noob.)

The bus to Samara was plush - big soft seats. The road was very twisty and turny, up and down small mountains on good paved roads. Half the bus was local teens going to the beach on winter break. As soon as I got off the bus I made a bee line to the info center. That was super smart. Hadn't reserved a room. The Canadian guy who runs it called around town and secured me a great private room at a
beachfront hostel for 25$ a night. The place was perfect, a little casablanca not in any of the brochures, run by a local family. I got the only open room. A couple of exchange students had been following me and tried to get a room there, even cut in front of me. They were told the place was full. Then I stepped up and they knew my first name and walked me to my private room. And when I say on the beach, I mean, I am a few steps away. I can drink my free morning coffee watching the waves.

Houston

At the sky box sports bar, seemingly affiliated with fox sports. 1.5 layover. Who the f$&@ is Tim tibow? he appears to be a big deal. (and excuse my iPad piss poor typing)


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Day 1 SFO to LIB

It is 7:30 am in SFO, and I am having my second coffee of the morning. Already Spanish is the first language of the day; the ladies in line for coffee are discussing the calorie count of the creamer in espanol. I still use the half and half over the milk; it just tastes better and 40 calories is not going to kill me.

Miles to go...

60 miles in the past 30 days, according to my crappy pedometer. I am using my iPhone and an app called Pedometer Pro. It is pretty good for .99. I know that the devise missed a few runs, either because of lack of GPS signal, or human (me) error. So I know for sure 60 in 30 so far, plus a few extra miles here and there.

Ran 2 races in Novmber. November 6 was the US Half Marathon. Went pretty well. Beautiful coarse over the Golden Gate Bridge. The second was November 27, a 10K in Golden Gate Park. The time on the Half was 1:44, slow, but there were issues, such as a bottleneck at the base of the bridge, where we came to a full stop and had to stand around to cross the bridge. The 1oK time was respectable - 1:04.

First day jitters

Today is the first day of my marathon training schedule, and all my pre-run actions are now feeling ritulized. I eat a small amount of protein and coffee. I put on my knee brace on my gimpy left knee. I check the weather. I put on 2 sports bras and Toms of Maine deoderant (that does not have anti-persperant, so no gross white chunks.) I choose Nike capri tights, with a hidden key pocket on the butt. I choose my grey, broken-in New Balance Minimus trainers, that have held up for over 100 miles already and are kind of stinky. I double knot - I do not use any fancy tight tying techniques - those give me blisters. I never run in Nikes - they give me shin splints. I brush my teeth and hair. I put on Banana Boat sun screen. I pick out a shirt - today it is a red long sleeve tech shirt. I pack up my cell phone, that also acts as my pedometer, into a very tight and small fanny pack. I do not run with water - it is too bulky. I don't need it unless I am running over 10 miles. I think briefly about how many miles I plan on doing and pick out a tried and true trail. All my trails are near roads, in case of an emergency such as a leg cramp or twisted ankle or dog attack. Well, I will do a trail run once a week. I will contact Hugh for those, and give him an itenerary, in case of an emergency. I will not become the guy from 127 Hours.

Training for the marathon

I signed up for my first marathon - the San Francisco July 29, 2012 full marathon. I have been training and running half marathons for the last 6 months; now I am modifying my running plan to achieve the full 26.2 next year. Today is day one of this modified plan. And today is an easy 3 mile day. (Plus kung fu class.) Since I just did a good half marathon 7 days ago, an easy day is fine.

Occupy

A picture Speaks for itself...


















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Location:Oakland