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Archive for February, 2012

THE EQUATOR HAS BEEN RUN OVER!

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012

THE EQUATOR AT LAST!

HI ALL JUST A QUICK EMAIL BREAK AFTER BREAKFAST AND DO YOU EXPECT ME TO MISS MY BREAKFAST EVEN FOR THE EQUATOR!!

ITS A LONG WAY FROM THE FINISHING LINE OF THE DUBLIN MARATHON OCTOBER 2010. ALMOST 16,000KM!

I GOT OFF TO A GOOD EARLY START THIS MORNING RUNNING 14KM BEFORE STOPPING HERE IN CAYAMBE. I UNDERSTAND THE MONUMENT IS ONLY ABOUT 4KM AWAY, AMAZINGLY NOBODY SEEMS SURE BUT THATS MY RESEARCH ITS AT KM 47 AND I AM AT KM 51. SO NEXT TIME I STOP RUNNING I WILL BE THERE AND SOUTH BOUND AND IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE! I AM SO EXCITED!  :)

YESTERDAY 27TH FEB. FROM KM 105 TO KM 65 = 40KM RUN.  TOTAL AFTER YESTERDAY = 15,941KM. SHOULD BE CLOSE TO 16K TODAY.

TALK SOON!

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GOOD LUCK TO ALL ATHLETES RUNNING IN THE WORLD 48 HOUR TREADMILL CHAMPIONSHIP ON THURSDAY!

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

 

I understand there is a 48 hour ‘ world challenge ‘ on treadmills between 6 world class ultra running athletes in the French town of Evreux taking place between 22-24th Feburary.
I am honoured that they have set this up to attempt to break my world 48 hour treadmill record of 405.22km.
I have sent the following message to each of the athletes and I understand it be read out at the presentation of the athletes and also at the start.
Alan Young who was the crewman for my own two world 48 hour records will be crewing for my good old friend William Sichel.
I wish each and every one of the athletes the very best of luck. Please read message below.

Also please find the link for the website www.ultrathletic.fr/
which should have regular updates and hopefully webcams to view. Unfortunately the website does not have an English translation but it should be possible to run the website through a google translate tool http://www.google.com/language_tools so as to read it in any language you choose.  Then add the website below to the translate webpage section and press translate.
www.ultrathletic.fr/ Google translate is not perfect for example it calls treadmills Carpets! but we get the gist,

Try  HERE
” I would like to wish all the athletes the very best of luck in this great Treadmill World 48 hour Challenge. I wish I was running with you but by the time you start running I should be running near the Colombian/ Ecuador border on my own world running challenge

All records are meant to be broken, including mine. The best things in life are shared and as this has been such a wonderful experience for me I would also like fellow athletes in our great sport of Ultra Running to share the great experience I have had.

The very best of luck to each of you. Run strong, but most of all run smart :)

Tony Mangan, Dublin, Ireland.
www.theworldjog.com/blog
World Treadmill 48 Hour Record-Holder.

THANKS TO ALAN YOUNG FOR SENDING ME THIS FROM THE EVENT

FRENCH TRANSLATION:
Je voudrais souhaiter très bonne chance à tous les athlètes pour ce Défi 48 heures sur tapis. J’aurais voulu être parmi vous , mais au même moment, je serai en train de courir près de la frontière entre la Colombie et l’Equateur pour mon propre défi en course à pied.
Tous les records sont faits pour être battus, le mien y compris.Les meilleures choses de la vie doivent être partagées et comme cela a été un moment exceptionnel de ma vie, je voudrais que d’autres athlètes appartenant à notre belle communauté d’Ultra Running puissent également connaître une telle expérience.

Très bonne chance à chacun de vous .

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RUNNING AROUND THE FARC GUERRILLA STRONGHOLD

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
The next few days running were in the Caucus Valley and except for the heat were pretty easy. On the way to Buga I met a French cyclist called Bruno who works for the French embassy in Lima, Peru.
BRUNO
                                                                                    BRUNO.
He was on his way to Bogota, the Colombian capital to meet his wife for a short break.
Bruno told me he took a bus from Pasto to Cali as he heard it was too dangerous due to FARC guerilla activities on the road. FARC details > HERE.
I guess he was travelling on a diplomatic passport, I think I would be worried too if I was travelling through FARC territory with such a passport!
I arrived after dark in Buga and took an instant dislike to it. Motorbikes whizzing around every corner, one needs to have eyes in the back of ones head to avoid being run over, many don’t even have lights. And then there are the bicycles and taxis, none having any regard for pedestrians. They just honk and laugh as they run you off the road. It was no fun finishing here in the dark, but a good 55km day never the less.

THE NICEST THING ABOUT BUGA, WELL THIS WAS ON THE ROAD OUT OF TOWN.

The street system is very well designed. Just like the American system of squares, here streets that run from east to west are called Calles. The other connecting streets are called Carreras which run from south to north with the numbering increasing in this direction. The numbering of the Calles increases from east to west. Just like the American system a stranger can find ones way around with little effort. When leaving town I usually check a Google Map to see which Calle or Carreras leaves town towards the Pan American highway.
After yesterdays big effort I noticed that the bottom of my right foot was a bit tender when I got up next morning so feeling it was just one of those 24 hour issues I decided to take a rest day. Many minor injuries one can run through but I always feel it is unwise to ignore pain on the bottom of the foot, having had plantar facitis 10 years ago, which is my biggest nightmare for this run, I will never forget how sore that was.

YET MORE WONDERFUL COLOMBIANS!

Last week the Irish runner Paul Mahon that ran with me asked me why I don’t just send my pack ahead on buses, checking it as cargo in the bus terminal, sending it from bus terminal to bus terminal wherever they have an office. Believe it or not I had this idea in mind having read about how Karl Bushby on his walk through South America sent his cart ahead in Chile. For some unknown reason I just thought this would be problematic and unsafe and hesitated. So after Paul’s prompting I decided to try it and sent four of my six kilos on ahead from Buga to Palmeras. So now I am finally running the way I always dreamt of doing this run, running with just a small satchel and several pockets full of things like sawn off tooth brush and inch size comb!

INSTANT FRIEND ON A HOT DAY, TWO PLEASE!

After running the 49km I had only minor problems finding the Expresso Palmeras office, it worked a treat and I arrived well ahead of their 8pm closing. So no 100km return commute!
I am going to do this more often. This I will call my PLAN D. I found it far from problematic, in fact it couldn’t have been more simple. Everything is documented. I got a receipt and signed for my pack on my arrival. They even sealed the pack with tape. I just have to find out where the offices are and be careful not to send it to a town that does not have a terminal office as I have no cell phone to be contacted at, they didn’t seem interested in taking my email address. And just a few dollars!
There is a PLAN E by the way and that is advertising for someone that would like to cycle South America covering 40-50km per day. This person would cycle on ahead of me. I would not need him on the road perhaps to drop a couple of water bottles at km markers. Each day having decided on a location. I would just require the cyclist to bring my stuff ahead. Camping would also be an option. I would be willing to reimburse their fare, giving percentages back every month so as not to attract free-loaders. This would perhaps suit a retired or unemployed person who wanted to travel to South America, or even someone that wanted to be part of the expedition. I am not really sure if this would be a ‘goer’ but will park it out there and see.

 I have had 20 plus years during my planning of the run to come up with these plans. I mentioned when I sent jogging stroller Nirvana on ahead from southern Mexico last September that I had several plans, well these are those plans.
PLAN E I just want to put out there and see if there is any interest but to be honest, I may continue for a while with PLAN D and the baggage dispatch.
On the way out of Buga I checked my pack ahead to the terminal in Popayn, about three days ahead. Not bad for $4 and what a lot of commuting I will save!
In fact this run took four days as I never got into a proper stride.
On the way to Palmeras I got stopped by two cops who asked me if I wanted some cola!
As I sat on a rock drinking it I noticed that they were manning a road checkpoint and busy searching a truck. They seemed to be taking a lot of interest in a side compartment of the truck. One of the officers came over for his camera and took some photos of the contents of the compartment. There has not been as many police and military checkpoints this last couple of weeks, maybe about two a day.
Friendly cops here. I remember the SIX checkpoints in the last 100km of  Darien in Panama. They held me there for between 30-40 minutes while running my background check. At two of these points they greeted me with.
‘ look it’s the famous runner…Let’s take his photo! ‘
I felt like saying…Well if I am so famous why are you holding me up and hassling me and no I don’t want my photo taken, but then decided it was best to be diplomatic and went along with it.
Back here later a woman in a convenience store gave me four 250ml bags of drinking water for nothing. The Colombian people really are a kind race. There is hardly a day when I don’t get such hospitality.

BICYCLE WITH A MACHETE ATTACHED.

Many years ago Colombia was a very dangerous country to travel  in mainly due to the FARC’S feud with the government. I remember when I was in Panama 10 years ago I decided not to get the ferry over here as there were tales of buses being stopped by criminals who had contacts in banks. The passengers at gunpoint entered their banking details into the criminals laptops which resulted in bank accounts been cleaned out. Many foreigners were kidnapped and held to ransom. Many a walker or cyclist just skipped Colombia. It was never because of the people, my information is that the average Colombian citizen has always been a decent sort. Just the organised crime.
Karl Bushby dressed as a tramp on his walk through Colombia about ten years ago. Nobody pays any attention to tramps, they just walk past checkpoints. They live in their own world. I had been thinking of that for Mexico, just walking it dressed down as a tramp. I had talked to Karl about it and he told me though Mexico had a violent past and still has in certain parts that I should be ok if I made smart decisions and as he said ‘ avoid the drunken drugged-up weekend young punks. ‘
Just like the Mexican government sent in the army to sort out drug and violent crime including the kidnapping of foreigners, so too did the Colombian government. That is what all the checkpoints are for, looking for known criminals. The Colombian government advised the Mexican government about the war on drugs and crime, it seems to be working to a large extent.
On the entrance to Palmeras a signpost declared the altitude to be 1,001 meters, the population to be just under 250,000, but the signpost did look a bit dated and later I was told the population had rocketed to some 400,000 inhabitants. The signpost also gave the temperature as 23 degrees C! I wondered if this was a rival to San Diego, Ca. for that all year round pleasant temperature. Palmeras was just a dot on my map and I wondered if there was even a hotel, here I have a small city, I just never know for sure what a place is like till I arrive.
I have been having some serious trouble using my atm cards here. Many times they were rejected.
 My friend Jesper who had run through Colombia said that some international banks have put a restriction on credit cards and atm cards in certain areas of Colombia due to a huge amount of international fraud here. Some of the banks ask you as a security measure to key in your Colombian cell phone number, so what’s the international traveller supposed to do? There would be no point in keying in any cell number as the cell number would be on file. Hopefully this does not take off as a security measure as so many travellers don’t travel with a cell phone while many others have problems getting service even when they take them. Surely that would also be bad for tourism?
I decided I wanted to avoid the major city of Cali and take the alternative route from Palmeras to Florida and onto Corinth and run to Candlearia.
Half way between Palmeras and Pravda  a police patrol vehicle stopped me and advised me against this route as the mountainous region around Corinth is a serious FARC guerrilla stronghold.

THANKS FOR THAT GREAT ADVICE GUYS!

I was told it would be very dangerous for me to go anywhere near this area. The FARC have total control and the police are having little success there. This is guerrilla war territory and there is a lot of violence coming from the mountains.
Instead I had to alter my route and turn right in Pradera, a rough looking place, where even the birds seemed to cry.
 This meant I added an extra 18km to my route and was the reason it took me four days instead of three days, as I also had to stop where the accommodation was.
On the way to CandelaiaI saw the sad sight of a massive hen battery. A line of cages with barely enough room for the poor hens to move. This line was easily 100 meters long, about three or four high and four lines wide. Perhaps hundreds of thousands of hens, all cramped together and barely able to move. The place even had guard watchtowers with spot lights.

Candelaria was in it’s 10th day of 12 days of it’s 58th annual fiesta when I ran into town. The activity was centred around the towns plaza. Hundreds of soldiers were on duty manning checkpoints and entry points around town. I guess this is because of a lot of reported violence by the FARC in the region.
Strangely I noted that about 70% of the population were black. Though there are many blacks in Colombia I have not witnessed such a large percentage in any other Colombian location.
I notice the further south I run the poorer the country seems to me. I also note that the comments I made about how clean Colombia was in the north are no longer true. There is much more thrash on the roadside. Southern Colombia also has the better roads. I am now running on a dual carriageway, sometimes divided and still have my one meter hard shoulder.
There is a huge sugar cane industry here and the sugarcane road trains as I call them often have five trailers attached. Amazingly these vehicles even run through some of the larger towns. I saw one with flat tyres at the entrance to Candelaria causing havoc.

SUGAR ROADTRAIN

That afternoon I got a bit of a fright when a big quiet dog came up behind me and licked the back of my right leg!
Sometimes for breakfast I stop at a panaderia, or bakery and have a bowl of coffee and a couple of pastries for a little more than a dollar, I can’t believe the value in these places and it seems that every small town in Colombia is littered with these delightful eateries!

ONE OF MY BIGGEST DECISIONS EVERY DAY!

 

That Sunday I ran 37km from Villa Rica to Mondomo. Of course Sunday here means that the road was littered by cycle racers, some training with their top of the range racing bicycles and even carbon-fibre disc wheels. Others even seemed to be racing, perhaps a club race.
A couple of times groups of 40 or 50 zoomed by wearing race numbers. They were bravely spread across the dual carriage way as it was not closed. The racers were followed by a support vehicle. I wonder if the Colombian love for cycling is anything to do with the success of the Cafe de Colombia cycle team that raced in the Tour de France. For many years the mountain polka dot titles were dominated by their hero ace climber Luis ‘ Luca ‘ Herrera.
An hour or so before reaching Mondomo and as I ran by an open air restaurant, two men that were drinking beer shouted after me to stop for a drink. I stopped for some water and the two ladies there filled up one of my water bottles with lemonade all for free!


I was back running in the Andes now after a few days in the lower valeys.
The two men had several beer bottles on the table and seemed to be well on. I have noticed in much of the country a huge amount of people including truck drivers and motorcyclists with their crash helmets still on, drinking beer. I am told the drink-driving law is strictly enforced, yet these people leave themselves wide open to be spotted by the many patrolling police officers.
Though there is less traffic on the roads on Sundays, I am sure much of it is drink-driving.


That night I stayed in a hotel of sorts called El Despiste for just over $7. It was really a knock shop. The old woman and her husband just laughed when I said all I wanted to do was sleep for the night. No I don’t want it for a few hours, I want to sleep.
” He want’s to sleep! ” They sniggered.
The hotel was 100 metres off the highway, down a laneway and past a couple of houses.
Used mainly by young lusty Latino couples in need of a bit of….  ’  how’s your father! ‘
The problem for these couples is that just about all of Latin America is strictly Catholic and along with crammed houses where even the grandparents live, well they have little opportunity.
In much of Central America these Auto Hotels as I have mentioned before have garages attached to the entrance to the hotel room where the couple can discreetly hide their car. There is usually a latch on the door for ordering drinks.
So after three days of poor distance that left me with 55km to Popoyn where my pack was in the bus terminal. I decided to go for it and left in the early morning rain.

The rain got progressively heavier so I decided to have an early breakfast after just four km. I came to two restaurants and gave the first a wide berth when I saw the butcher who was probably the chef and owner cutting up a couple of pigs hanging up in the doorway no less. I wondered what the European Union would have made of this back home!

I ordered beef, but no, the only thing on the menu was pork, rice and a form of Colombian potatoes. It took me ages to eat the pork as it was a huge steak. It tasted more like beef jerky to me as it was smoked and very salty. I saved half of it for my lunch sticking it in a plastic bag.
It continued to rain on and off that day and my progress was steady for I stopped very little after that long breakfast. It was another very mountainous day and the traffic was at it’s worst today.
Colombian drivers have now overtaken Guatemalans as the worst drivers on the run so far.
These guys are crazy and for such nice people as I have said before that once they get behind a wheel they just lose all control and patience. Overtaking going up a steep hill and even into a bend is the norm here. The solid yellow lines mean nothing.

THIS HAPPENS ALL DAY LONG, EVEN COMING UP TO A DANGEROUS BEND

 The lash through 30km school zones overtaking at high speed even when children are present.
They overtake even when they see approaching vehicles as they know the oncoming vehicle will just move into (my) hard shoulder. There seems to be some kind of a ‘ nod and a wink ‘ kind of communication going on. Often they flash the hazard lights which means a hazard to the rest of the world but here it means, go ahead overtake me!
Many motorists don’t put on their lights till well after dark presumably thinking they are saving their battery, have they not heard of alternators? Many buses have defective lights.
Sometimes motorcyclists turn off their engines while coasting downhill, I am not sure if this disengages their brakes?
Motorcyclists and cyclists often carry incredible loads, including lumber, rebar, door frames, bags of cement and dogs in crates on the back of their motorbikes. Many motorbikes transport both parents and often two young children including babies and of course no crash helmets. Sometimes I see them riding their bikes with helmets on but not strapped up, what use is that!
I have seen four passengers on the back of a motorbike in the rain with the back three passengers covered in polythene.
So many drivers of buses and cars are plain rude. Just about every day a bus will drive up into the shoulder stopping about 3 metres in front of me to let a passenger out, instead of pulling in behind me once I have run by. Impatience seems to be the problem. Since June when I first entered Latin America I can honestly count on one hand the amount of road courtesies I have experienced, rarely have I seen someone let another motorist out of a junction.
Cars pull in to the right when they want to make a turn or into their drive way, similarly when pulling out of say a gas station as though I am not there, several times a day I have to jump clear of the lunatics! I do not believe that driver education exists.
But a new hazard which I have only seen in Southern Colombia is motorbikes using the hard shoulder as an overtaking lane in heavy traffic they overtake on the inside. Often the pull onto the shoulder and accelerate without even checking.
The dogs here have also overtaken dog notorious mountainous Turkey as having the most ferocious wild dogs.
Loose Rottweiler’s run out of houses while their owners dumbly look on in silence. Today two such Rottweiler’s, luckily for me actually collided! I had a good laugh :)
I eventually made it to km 0 just before dark from where I started that morning in Mondomo at km 55. Then I realized I still had another 5km to the Popoyn city center. My bag was waiting for me at the terminal, yes I like PlAN D, a lot of valuable commute time saved, time I can use for sleep and recovery :)

After checking my pack including my laptop onto Pasto which is about a week away.

I ran on but not much the day I ran out of Popoyn as I was up till 2am working on this blog, I was shattered that day. I ran only 20km and had an early night after a steak dinner.

The roads are bad again, sometimes I have a shoulder, other times I got to run in the gravel. Also small stones and rocks and huge boulders  tumbling off the mountains are a problem for Colombia. They have become unsettled because of heavy rains and mudslides this year. The amount of rock fall is alarming, so much so that huge construction projects are underway to build heavily fortified walls along the highway to keep them at bay. I am not sure if this is why the road itself is in such bad condition due to giant sized boulders falling on the road.

The food here is the best on the whole run, and great value too. For example for about 2-3 dollars one can have a bowl of vegetable or usually chicken soup, followed by a choice of beef, pork or fish with rice, sometimes French fries, rice, beans or other veg, banana plantas, sometimes some bread and a glass of lemonade to wash it all down with!

CHEAPER THAN A CUP OF COFFEE BACK IN IRELAND!

Then the next day I got a decent 41km even after my usual slow start, well there were hills to be climbed!

Hills, you mean mountains… Today I took a look to my left and said, yes these are the Andes, I finally feel I am running in the Andes, so long my dream. In the afternoon it was mostly downhill which saved my day.

THE ANDES AT LAST!

The mornings and evenings are a lot cooler now. The hotels usually just provide a bare oversheet on the bed, but sometimes not. Now I have been starting to get the odd though thin blanket. Either way I am fairly comfortable now.

A hotel I stayed in last week had a blanket on the bed for ‘ viewing purposes only! ‘ When I said I would take the room she took the blanket off.

I am still trying to work this one out… Surely you should get what you view?

Mind you here in Colombia most of the budget hotels, hospedajes etc all are of a decent standard and mostly cost between 6-8 US dollars a night. They are usually painted nicely, clean, tiled etc and at long last the smell of cleaning agents.

I feel I need to stay in them as much as possible for security reasons and also I need to get proper rest and on a soft bed for my recoveries.

I remember when I was in Central America and even though some of the squalor places were a couple of bucks a night that the owners were just pure lazy. I particularly remember the place I stayed in just outside Managua, Nicaragua. The owner was more interested in the Barcelona soccer match on television and ‘ mopped out ‘ my room between goal kicks!

He rushed in and gave the floor a belt of a mop and left a cigarette butt, used matches on the floor and pasta in the sink drain!

Here in Colombia there is a decent standard, many nicely furnished and as I have said, some rooms are of the quality one would pay $40 a night for in the US mid west, one even had a cd player. They almost always have a television with Fox Sports, Espn and all the major networks, but I still prefer my music and only use the fan to dry my clothes. I hang them on the fan, usually with safety pins. I actually find fans and ac to be too cold, no matter how warm the room is without it on.

On the way today I stopped for a delicious freshly squeezed lemonade, she squeezed six large lemons and all for only 50 cents!

I also met a Spanish man called Mateo from Valencia. Every year he comes over to South America and walks for a few months. This year from Peru to Venezuela. Last year Brazil. He walks with his dog. I always thought it was difficult bring your dog away but he said no it’s easy once he has his vaccine certificate.

MATEO AND HIS DOG

I don’t know how he manages on the road with his dog and all these wild mongrels!

Then later I met Daniel a Colombian motorbiker  from Bogota who was on his way to Tierra del Fuego, 11,000km away. When he went to take my picture he discovered his camera had a flat battery, and him only after leaving home a day or two ago, I couldn’t help wondering about his chances!

Then another really good day from where I finished yesterday at km 61 I ran all the way to km 0. I stopped at a nice place for the night called Hostel Carolina which also had a nice restaurant. It seems that one half of the hostel is used as a police station.

As always the road was very busy. I think I have seen more trucks and buses here in five weeks than all of my five months in the USA.

The scary part about running on the road is the vehicles that silently overtake another, they just whisk past me. I have trained myself not to move to the right even slightly without first looking back. As I have mentioned many times I run on the left and towards oncoming traffic. I have also have to brainwash myself to be extra careful when coming up to the dozens of small bridges I run over every day as often the surface is uneven and bumpy due to poor workmanship. It would be easy to trip and fall as I have stumbled many times.

Sometimes I do not see slight blemishes on the road if I am wearing sunglasses and am tired. My feet are obviously very tired these days, so I don’t lift them as high as I should.

Then next day it was back to 37km which I seem to have run a few times lately. I stopped to ask some cops, four of them manning a speed check where the next town was. They gave me some cola and told me it was in a place called Remolino, they didn’t see the joke when I asked if it was named after a Brazilian footballer!

I stopped at a roadside house which sold drinks. The nice lady there called Rosa was cracking monkey nuts, as we call them in Ireland. How labour intensive as first they have to be brought in from the field. They have a three month turnaround. Then she spends an hour cracking a kilo of nuts that sells for 5,000 pesos (2,000 to the US dollar)

In her house she had some young guinea pigs which she says are for eating.

I also saw my first cactus since Central America. I don’t remember many after Mexico, but can’t be sure. It seems that things like this just suddenly vanish and one day you say… ” Where are all the sugar can road trains gone? ” I haven’t seen them in almost a week and didn’t even realise it.

Then I stopped again and this time three women were peeling the nuts out of a wheel barrow.

ROLL OUT THE BARROW!

Back in Ireland and in our family the joke was would the Halloween monkey nuts be gone before Christmas!

I remember many a year when I returned from Colorado for my Christmas break (well sometimes a couple months!) finishing off the nuts on Christmas morning.

From Remolino at km 88 I ran to Bascula at km 37 for 51 km today, A nice hard day today including a 24km hill start to wake me up at the start. I stopped half way up to have a chat with some construction workers, about ten of them building a house. There is a lot of house building going on here, a boom of sorts as far as I can see. They filled up my water bottles as I was drinking copiously that hot morning. I was all set to run by another house near the top of the climb till the lady called Marina called me over to her house/shop. She opened he refrigerator and gave me a nice cold bottle of soda.

MORE GREAT PEOPLE! THANK YOU MARINA

As I said this seems to happen every day here, the hospitality is almost Islamic, such is the reverence of the traveler for I remember when cycling through Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan how the people would rush out of their houses or run down from the mountains and even pay my meal bill in restaurants and silently leave for their hospitality was genuine I ran through two tunnels today without incident, though they were lit and had pedestrian paths it was safer to run on the road as it was quiet and besides you can clearly hear a vehicle driving through a tunnel. They were only about 200 metres long.

All the way up the steep climb today, the truckers that once blasted me off the road were giving me unmistakingly friendly hoots. Their hands waved out their windows and they gave me the thumbs ups sign on more than one occasion.

Then just before I finished I met an English cyclist called Judi Zebedee.

Judi has been cycling around the world for almost two years now. She spent 8 months in China and tells me about the 6km tunnels there :( and having two police escorts through them.

She has a website strangely named getjealous.com/judezebedee

Judi tells me that at first she got a three month visa and then had to leave the country and return twice for the other five months. She is heading south now towards Argentina and cycles 120km per day. I was so interested in this conversation and as it was so late in the day that she wanted to get to the next village before dark that I cleanly forgot to take Judi’s photo. She cycled on and I just stayed in the Oro Negro hotel beside a gas station some 500 metres away. I don’t know if she missed this, if she did it was a pity but I suspect she wanted to get to an internet cafe in the next village.

So only 37km to Pasto, and I thought I was going to have a handy day!

Not at all! More uphill, almost 26km and tight curves,windy roads and a shoulder the width of a saucer! I had to run in an angle rain water drain for most of the day with open manholes along this drain every 100 metres.

It was mostly cool, so cool that I didn’t even bother putting on sun block.

A dog followed me for about 4km till I stopped to shelter from some ice cold rain near the top of the pass. Dogs have a nerve, the give me hell on the road and then come begging at just about every restaurant I eat at!

At the top with 11km to go I came to a restaurant called Pueblito Viejo. It seemed to be a posh place, well to the budget traveller used to squalor, posh can mean they accept credit cards, it was that nice and clean.

I just asked for a coffee and asked for it to be very hot as I have cold hands. Then I asked for it in a big bowl.

All four of the staff stared at me from behind the counter as I sipped from the bowl, French style. I am sure the swanky Sunday lunch diners thought I had no table manners and was drinking soup!

I knew from the staff they were having the ‘ where is his bicycle ‘ conversation, especially as one went over to to bouncer on the door to ask.

Time for the wow! factor. I poured salt into my water bottles, eyes blink! I had one of my business cards ready and went over to pay for the bowl of coffee.

” No Senor, es gratis! ”

No need to pay thanks for heated up my hands and I was off down the mountain, almost all downhill till Pasto.

I am going to have some cold times ahead, and it may not be in too far away either with serious altitude on the way… And then there is Bolivia with the altiplano or the high plains of over 4,000 metres and it will be almost winter then! Yes fun times ahead, but where there is a will there will be a way.

I made my way to the centro and call the two phone numbers I have for my contact here, Alex and his wife Lubia. Actually I spent half an hour and only found one broken phone. The downtown was throbbing as a football game between Narino and Cali had just ended and the crowds were swarming the streets. I asked several people would the phone and nobody would oblige till one lady did. She told me the two numbers were out of order!

Luckily I had Alex’s address and ended my day at the Pan American junction, so I hopped in a taxi and arrived at his house. Actually it was his moms house as he thought it best for me to send my packages there, remember Plan C.

Alex and Lubia were not there but Alex’s mom Mercedes soon became my Colombian mom.

Sit down there son, do you like coffee and sweet bread and soup and beef steak and rice and French fries! And I met his dad Hermes and sister Yaneth and her hubby Alexander and Carlos Julio and Maria and all fussing and we had a great chat.

MY COLOMBIAN FAMILY

Then Alex arrived and brought me over to his house. I met his wife, Lubia a free-lance Russian journalist who speaks Spanish like a local, at least that’s what the taxi driver said on the way back from the bus station where i picked up my pack.

Yes sending the bag on (this time from Popoyn a week ago has saved me a huge amount of time.

So now it’s time to change my shoes out for Ecuador and a few other minor kit alterations. I swapped my bivy for my summer sleeping bag with pocket size tarp. My Ecuador contact tells me it is no more than 10-15km between water points, so with early starts I intend to have a roof over my head every night

I forgot to mention that last week I bought a high-viz vest which has five pockets, I love pockets, helps spread the weight around and off my back, even if I sometimes feel like a Michellin man!

Did I just make it to Pasto, what was that about running around  their stronghold, was that an exaggeration? I don’t know, but if I was a French diplomat I would not have travelled through either had I a diplomatic passport.

I guess just like many other things, this I may never know.

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ECUADOR ROUTE HAS BEEN CHANGED. ALSO DAYS AWAY FROM THE EQUATOR.

Monday, February 20th, 2012

 

COLOMBIA HAS BEEN RUN NOW FOR EQUADOR, THE EQUATOR IS ONLY DAYS AWAY

FOR INFORMATION ON ECUADOR PRESS  HERE

UPDATE:

TODAY THURSDAY 23RD FEB… I CROSSED FROM COLOMBIA TO ECUADOR. IT TOOK LONGER THAN EXPECTED, SO I TOOK ANOTHER REST DAY WORKING ON MY ECUADOR ROUTE WHICH I HAVE MODIFIED. I ALSO SENT MY 16KG BAG OF RUNNING  SHOES, CLOTHES AND SUPPLIES TO RICHARD EVANS AN AMERICAN RUNNER LIVING IN GUAYAQUIL. THIS WORKED LIKE CLOCKWORK.

HERE IS MY NEW ROUTE FOR ECUADOR. PRESS > HERE  FOR MAP AND DETAILS.

BECAUSE OF MY ROUTE CHANGE I WILL NOW BE CROSSING INTO PERU AT HUAQUILLAS AND NOT MACARA AS ORIGINALLY PLANNED. THIS CHANGE OF BORDER CROSSING MEANS MY PERU ROUTE WILL BE ALTERED. I RECKON I HAVE SAVED AROUND 200KM HERE :)

I AM LESS THAN 0.8 DEGREES ABOVE THE EQUATOR! ABOUT 160KM OR 3/4 DAYS ON THE ROAD.

TODAY MONDAY 20TH FEB.. I DECIDED TO TAKE A REST DAY AND USE IT AS A PREPARATION DAY FOR MY ASSAULT ON ECUADOR STARTING ON THURSDAY! MANY THANKS TO ALEX AND LUBIA MY KIND HOSTS HERE IN PASTO. I SEE MY SPOT DID NOT UPDATE MY 37KM FROM BASCULA TO PASTO YESTERDAY, IT’S BECOMING A PAIN ALONG WITH THEIR POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE.

I HOPE IT WILL BE WORKING WHEN I RUN ACROSS THE EQUATOR FROM THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE TO THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE IN ABOUT A WEEKS TIME.

HERE IS MY NEW ROUTE FOR ECUADOR. PRESS > HERE  FOR MAP AND DETAILS.

I CROSS THE EQUATOR JUST SOUTH OF CAYAMBE WHICH IS A USEFUL BYPASS OF ANOTHER HUGE CITY QUITO, THE ECUADORIAN CAPITAL.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE EQUATOR PRESS HERE

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QUICK UPDATE

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

TOTAL TO DATE 17TH FEB = 15,559KM FOR 361 ROAD DAYS. 10,000 MILES IS NOT TOO FAR AWAY PLEASE DIVIDE KMS BY 1.60934 FOR MILES, SORRY NO CALCULCATOR, SINCE I NO LONGER HAVE A MOBILE PHONE!

A ROUGH ESTIMATE IS……..340 KM TO THE EQUATOR JUST SHORT OF CAYAMBE,ECUADOR (THE COUNTRY WAS OBVIOUSLY NAMED AFTER THIS LANDMARK) ABOUT 8/10 DAYS.

HI ALL!  THANKS FOR ALL YOUR GREAT AND WELCOME MESSAGES :)

AM IN A TOWN ABOUT 88KM AWAY FROM PASTO. THINK ITS NAMED AFTER A BRAZILLIAN FOOTBALLER! REMILLINO OR SOMETHNG LIKE THAT!!

I HAVE A LOT TO REPORT BUT AS ALWAYS TIME POOR AS THIS IS FIRST INTERNET TIME IN A WEEK.

PASTO IS WHERE SOME MAY REMEMBER I SENT MY SUPPLY BAG AND THIS WAS NAMED AS PLAN C. MY GREAT CONTACT THERE ALEX SAYS BAG ARRIVED WITH MY RESUPPLY, INCLUDING SHOES AND SLEEPING BAG FOR THE COLDER MOUNTAINS AS I NEED TO KEEP THESE THINGS NEAR ME AND NOT ON ME IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

PASTO WILL BE 2 DAYS RUNNING, SO SAY SUNDAY.

IF IT IS OK WITH ALEX I HOPE TO VISIT HIM AND HE HAS GIVEN ME A BED FOR THE NIGHT! THANKS ALEX AND LUBIA, HIS WIFE. I THINK AS IT IS 2 FURTHERD DAYS TO ECUADOR BORDER I WILL RUN TO THE BORDER, CIRCA 90KM AND THEN RETURN FOR MY BAG AND AS MENTIONED I WILL CARRY IT OVER TO ECUADOR AND MAIL IT AS QUICKLY TO MY OTHER GREAT FRIEND AN AMERICAN ENGLISH TEACHER CALLED RICHARD WHO LIVES IN GUAYANQUILL,(SORRY ABOUT SPELLING!) NEAR PERU BORDER.

I EXPECT TO CROSS TO ECUADOR ON TUES/WEDNESDAY AND THEN THE EQUATOR BECKONS, I HAVENT GOT TIME TO FIND OUT EXACT LOCATION AS TOO BUSY. I THINK I AM ABOUT 2 DEGREES ABOVE.

MY NEXT CONTACT IS THE IRISH CONSUL IN LIMA,PERU BUT AS PERU IS BIG CIRCA 2,800KM I ALSO NEED A CONTACT IN PUNO NEAR BOLIVIAN BORDER.

I HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS FOR 2 MONTHS AND HAVE NONE. IF SOMEONE HAS TIME TO GOOGLE A BACKPACKERS HOSTEL AS I CANT FIND ANY EMAIL ADDRESS FOR  A HOSTEL, I WOULD APPRECIATE THIS. IF POSSIBLE SEND EMAIL ADDRESS TO ME.

THERE IS A TOWN IN BOLIVIA CALLED SOMETHING LIKE TARIKO AND NEAR ARGENTINA BORDER, PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO BOLIVIA MAP ON ROUTE PAGE AND IF SOMEONE HAS TIME TO DO SAME HERE I WOULD BE SO HAPPY :)

TA AGAIN, SORRY FOR RUSH.

PS I SHOULD EXPLAIN I AM NOT COMMUTING ANYMORE, EXCEPT FOR SMALL STUFF WHEN 10/20KM AWAY FROM ACCOMODATION.

MY NEW SYSTEM AND ITS WORKING A TREAT IS TO SEND MY LAPTOP AHEAD ON BUSSES TO THE TERMINAL WHERE I COLLECT DEPENDING ON DISTANCE A DAY OR A WEEK LATER. I HAVE DONE THIS SINCE BUGA ABOUT 425KM BACK FROM PASTO. THIS MEANS I JUST COMMUTE MY LAPTOP AND NOT ME!!

SORRY FOR THE RUSH, I HAVE ANOTHER BLOG ALMOST FINISHED, BUT AS ALWAYS TIME!

THANKS VERY MUCH TO GERRY DUFFY FOR HIS KIND DONATION WHICH WILL BUY ME A COUPLE OF STEAKS AND A COUPLE OF NIGHTS ACCOMODATION ON THE ROAD. ALSO THANKS SO MUCH TO A FOLLOWER WHO WANTED TO REMAIN ANNOYMOUS FOR HIS KIND DONATION TO A COUPLE MORE FINE STEAKS AND WELCOME SHELTER. IT IS IMPORANT FOR ME TO HAVE A SAFE SECURE LOCATION EVERY NIGHT NOT ONLY TO RECOVER BUT FOR SECURITY REASONS.

ANY READER THAT MAKES A DONATION TO MY RUN, DETAILS ON SIDEBAR TO RIGHT OF THIS PAGE, WILL BE ACKNOLEDGED HERE, VERY GRATEFULLY!

MANY IRISH READERS WILL KNOW GERRY FROM HIS 32 MARATHONS IN 32 IRISH COUNTRIES IN 32 DAYS

THANKS AGAIN EVERYONE FOR YOUR WARM MESSAGES AS WARM AS THE COLOMBIAN MOUNTAINS, WHICH BY THE WAY IS SO FAR SO GOOD, I AM DELIGHTED WITH MY PROGRESS HERE.

MY FRIEND JESPER OLSEN WHO RAN THRU COLOMBIA A MONTH BEFORE ME ADVISED ME STRONGLY AGAINST THIS ATTEMT THRU COLOMBIA WITHOUT A SUPPORT VEHICLE DUE TO HUMIDITY AND HEAT. IT LOOKS LIKE I WILL MAKE IT AGAINST ALL THESE ODDS!

I HAVE ALWAYS APPRECIATED JESPER´S ADVICE A TRUE SPORTSMAN WHO WILL BE THE FIRST TO SAY WELL DONE. THANKS JESPER FOR YOUR GREAT SUPPORT, ADVICE AND ENCOURAGEMENT :)

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COLOMBIA DAILY LOG.

Friday, February 17th, 2012

TOTAL KMS RUN IN COLOMBIA = 1,328KM FOR 35 ROAD DAYS.

TOTAL TO DATE = 15,729KM.

22/2/2012. FROM KM 38 IN EL CAPULI TO COLOMBIAN/ECUADOR FRONTIER. 38KM RUN TODAY NICE DAY.

21/2/2012. KM 0 IN PASTO RESET TO KM 82 ON PAN AMERICAN HIGHWAY 25, SO START THERE AND RAN TO IN EL CAPULI, STACENTRO RECRECIONAL LOS TOBOGANES. REALLY ENJOYABLE DAY! 44KM TODAY.

20/2/2012. REST DAY IN PASTO TO PREPARE MY BAGS FOR ECUADOR.

19/2/2012 FROM KM 37 IN BASCULA TO KM 0 AT PAN AMERICAN JUNCTION IN PASTO. 37KM TODAY BAD ROAD, NO SHOULDER AND DANGEROUS CURVES, HAD TO RUN/WALK IN ANGLED DRAINS.

18/2/2012FROM KM 88 IN REMOLINO TO KM 37 HOTEL ORO NEGRO IN BASCULA ON ROUTE 25. GOOD DAY 25KM HILL CLIMB AT START OF DAY. 51KM TODAY.

TOTAL TO DATE 17TH FEB = 15,559KM FOR 361 ROAD DAYS. 10,000 MILES IS NOT TOO FAR AWAY PLEASE DIVIDE KMS BY 1.60934 FOR MILES, SORRY NO CALCULCATOR, SINCE I NO LONGER HAVE A MOBILE PHONE!

THIS IS MY UPDATED LOG.. LAST UPDATE WAS ON THE 11TH SO PLEASE SCROLL DOWN TO THERE AND READ UP. THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND BEST WISHES.

17/2/2012 FROM KM 125 ON ROUTE 25 IN MOJARRES TO KM 88 IN REMOLINO. 37KM TODAY, TOUGH HILLY DAY, LATE START DUE TO TORRENTIAL RAIN.

16/2/2012 FROM KM 61 AT TOLL BOOTH ON ROUTE 25 TO KM 0 AT MOJARRES AND THEN KMS RESET TO 125. TODAY A MASSIVE 61 AS I FELT I NEEDED A KICK IN THE BEHIND AFTER MY VALENTINES DAY EFFORT! ROAD VERY BUSY AND MOUNTAINOUS.

15/2/2012 FROM LA CRUZ AT KM 102 TO KM 61 AT TOLL BOOTH ON ROUTE 25 = PAN AMERICAN. 41KM TODAY

14/2/2012. FROM KM 122 IN POPOYN BUS TERMINAL TO KM 102 AT LA CRUZ (NEAR TIMBIO) 20K TODAY, TIRED AFTER YESTERDAY AND TOUGH TIME CLEARING POPOYN AND FOLLOWED BY MOUNTAINS. FINSHED VERY EARLY, VERY LAZY AND NEED A GOOD KICK UP THE BEHIND!

13/2/2012. FROM KM 55 IN MONDOMO TO KM 0 NEAR POPOYN AND THEN 5KM TO CENTER. OF TOWN, PICKED UP MY PACK FROM BUS TERMINAL, 60KM TODAY ON ROUTE 25. CRAZY DOGS AND MOTORBIKES.

12/2/2012.  FROM KM 92 IN VILLA RICA TO KM 55 IN MONDOMO. 37KM TODAY.

TOTAL FOR 355 ROAD DAYS = 15,303KM.

11/2/2012. From Candlearia KM 35 TO VILLARRICA KM 0. TODAY 35KM RUN. NICE COOL DAY ON ROUTE 25. MEETING LOTS OF FRIENDLY PEOPLE.

10/2/2012. FROM PALMEIRA TO CANDLEARIA ON ROUTE 31 AN LOCAL ROADS TODAY 30KM RUN, LATE START, NO OTHER LOCATION TO STAY.

9/2/2012. FROM BUGA TO PALMEIRA FROM KM 71 TO KM 22 ON ROUTE 25 TODAY 49KM RUN.

8/2/2012.. REST DAY TODAY, BUT AS USUAL THIS WILL BE A WORK DAY!

NO REST FOR THE WICKED AS THEY SAY :)

7/2/2012.. FROM KM 22 IN PILIA TO KM 0 AND THEN KM MARKERS RESET TO KM 104, RUN FROM THERE TO BUGA AT KM 71 (SEBASTIAN REAL HOTEL). TODAY = 55KM RUN.

AM NICE MORNING AND EASY RUNNING. PM HOT AND TOUGH.  MANY STOPS AND FINISH IN THE DARK. NOT A NICE TOWN, BROKEN PAVEMENTS AND THE ROADS ARE SWARMING WITH MOTORBIKES, CANT WAIT TO GET OUT!

6/2/2012. FROM KM 55 IN OBANDO TO KM 22 IN PILIA ON ROUTE 25. THE ROAD HAS IMPROVED WITH A DECENT SURFACE AND 2 MT HARD SHOULDER. A NICE DAY, SOME RAIN, NOT TOO HOT. I MADE A BIG COMMUTE FORWARD TO BASE IN BUGA, WILL RETURN TOMORROW TO KM 22 IN PILIA AND HOPEFULLY A BIG DAY. ABOUT 600KM LEFT IN COLOMBIA. STAYING IN NICE HOTEL SEBASTIAN REAL WITH WIFI.

5/2/2012. FROM LA VIRGINIA TO OBANDO ON ROUTE 25. TODAY I STARTED WITH PAUL AND HILARY. PAUL WENT ON AHEAD IN A BUS TO CHECK MY BAG INTO  HOSPEDAJE ISKIDARA AND THEN RETURNED TO RUN A LITTLE MORE. HILARY RAN ABOUT 14KM. IT WAS GREAT RUNNING WITH YOU, I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH. THANKS ALSO FOR PAYING FOR MY HOTEL AND MEALS FOR THE LAST THREE DAYS!

TODAYS ROUTE. 2KM ON LOCAL ROADS BACK TO HIGHWAY AND THEN 11KM TO KM ZERO. THEN KMS RESET TO KM 88. I RAN TO FINISH AT KM 55 IN OBANDO. TODAY 46KM RUN, VERY TOUGH FINISH.

4/2/2012. TODAY I RAN 50KM WITH THE HELP OF PAUL AND HILLARY :)   FROM KM 5 IN ANSERMA TO KM 0 THEN KMS RESET TO KM 56 AND RAN TO KM 14 AND THEN 3KM ON LOCAL ROADS TO LA VIRGINIA. PAUL RAN THE ENTIRE 50KM. HE IS THE LEADER NOW IN MOST KMS WITH ME IN ONE DAY! HILLARY WENT AHEAD AND DROPPED THE BAGS IN LA VIRGINIA AND RETURNED TO RUN THE LAST 20 INTO TOWN, VERY TOUGH DAY BUT IT WAS GREAT TO BE RUNNING WITH OTHER RUNNERS!

3/2/2012. FROM KM 50 IN SUPIA TO KM 5 IN ANSERMA. TOUGH DAY AS FIRST 23KM WERE ALL UPHILL. BUT THE REWARD WAS THAT KM 15,000 WAS WAITING FOR ME WHEN I GOT TO KM10 :) RETURN TO SUPIA. A HILL RUNNING RIVAL  FROM MANY YEARS AGO PAUL MAHON FROM DUBLIN AND HIS GIRLFRIEND HILARY HAPPENED TO BE ON HOLIDAYS IN COLOMBIA AND TRACKED ME DOWN IN THE HOTEL PREMIUM BISS.

2/2/2012.

ZERO KM TODAY. ENFORCED REST DAY TODAY AS WHEN RETURNING TO SUPIA FINISH SPOT AT KM 50 MY BUS WAS STUCK IN ROADWORKS FOR 4 HOURS, SO IT WAS TOO LATE TO RUN. FOUND AN INCREDIBLE HOTEL HERE, CLEAN,WIFI,POOL, HOT WATER :) FOR ONLY $10.

1/2/2012. FROM KM 94 TO KM 50 IN SUPIA. TOUGH DAY, VERY HILLY. 44KM COMMUTE BACK TO LA PINTERA.

31/1/2012. GOOD DAY TODAY WITHOUT PACK I RAN 41KM. FROM KM 26 TO KM 0 AND THEN RESET TO KM 109. I RAN TO KM 94 STOPPING AT  MIRADOR DEL PIPINTA RESORT AND COMMUTED BACK TO LA PINTERA. THE DOGS HERE ARE GETTING UGLIER,FERROCIOUS AND HAVE BIG FANGS!

30/1/2012. FROM KM 50 TO KM 26 = 24KM RUN TODAY. VERY LITTLE SHOULDER, DANGEROUS CURVES AND HEAVY TRAFFIC, SO MANY TRUCKS. TODAY WAS MY 8TH DAY STRAIGHT RUNNING WITH MY PACK BUT IT’S KILLING ME. THE COMPUTER IS HALF THE WEIGHT I AM CARRYING, I THINK I NEED TO START COMMUTING FOR A REST! LONG DELAY AND SHELTER TODAY DUE TO RAIN.

29/1/2012. FROM KM 72 TO KM 5O. TOUGH DAY RAN ON AUTOPISTA 25. ONE LANE OF ROAD WAS CLOSED FOR CYCLISTS,WALKERS,RUNNERS AND SKATERS :) lATE START AND EARY FINISH DUE TO HEAVY RAIN. . STAYED IN ROADSIDE RESTAURANT SHED FOR THE NIGHT. 22KM TODAY.

TOTAL TO DATE =14,829KM FOR 343 ROAD DAYS. = 9,263 MILES.

28/1/2012. From km 55 to Hotel Monterrey, in Itagui. 24km today. Cleared Medellin, a large city, spent a long time on the internet at Terminal del Niorte. Very tired today.

27/1/2012. (Please read entry for 26th first) Early am RETURN to km 40 at entrance to tunnel the way I came  – these kms don’t count.  PM ..Attempt number two… I ran over the tunnel itself on the mountain trails. The tunnel is 4.5km long but my mountain trail route was probably 12km… 4.5km, = the actual length of the tunnel claimed for this segment. Note I ran this second attempt immediately after returning from the aborted first attempt without even having a meal despite not eating in almost 24 hours, crazy or what, reason will be in the blog. After successful crossing finished at km 55 on route 62. Today 15km claimed. Tough, shattered and now I know my trail racing days are over!! Unfortunately my Spot didnt seem to update here, I would have loved to have known how far away from the highway I was when I aborted.

26/1/2012 From km 20 in San Jerinimo to km 4o at entrance to tunnel on route 62. = 20km run. Note: Not allowed to run thru tunnel, So I made an (aborted) attempt to run over the mountains. Details in blog when I write it. These mountain kms dont count. Slept in the cold and rain in the mountains.. Total that counted today = 20km. (please read entry for 27th now)


I AM SO SORRY FOR THE TERRIBLE SPOT MAP! FOR MY ROUTE MAP PLEASE SEE THE ROUTE PAGE. NOTE THAT MY TRACKER HAS NOT BEEN UPDATING PROPERLY THESE LAST FEW DAYS WHICH IS PROBABLY DUE TO POOR SIGNAL IN THE MOUNTAINS.

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TOTAL TO DATE = 14,770KM FOR 340 ROAD DAYS. = 9,177 MILES.
25/1/2012..From km 90 to km 115 in Santa Fe where km markers reset to zero. Then after lunch from km 0 to km 20. Finish in San Jeronimo.
Today = 45km. Good day. Today was my third day straight running with reduced weight pack and without a commute. Things are looking up. Got a big discount on a very nice hotel ‘ Hotel Cacique Tonunu. ‘  which Liam Mycroft from Dublin,Ireland sponsored along with a very nice dinner! Thanks Liam. Any sponsored hotels or meals will be acknowledged in this blog. :)
24/1/2012.. from km55 to km 90.  A nice day..Dull and overcast! 35km run today. Routine day on route 62. Stayed in nice hospedaje. Nobody knows the name of the mountains I am in and not on my map. Good warm up for Los Andes!
23/1/2012.. From Km 25 to Km 55. = 30km today. Stopped for the night at Rancho de Occidente. Which is a 24 hour buffet restaurant. I made a note of this place on the way to my starting point as the bus stopped here for our meal. They have free wi-fi and I was told I can sleep around the back. Hot in parts today but also a lot of shade from tall trees and the mountain, raining now :)  TOTAL: 14,690KM for 338 road days.
22/1/2012. FROM KM111 TO KM 112 IN DABEIBA AND THEN KM MARKERS RESET TO ZERO. FROM KM 0 -KM 25….. 26KM TODAY ON ROUTE 62. SOME MOUNTAINS TODAY, VERY SLOW PROGRESS. I DECIDED TO KEEP IT SHORT TODAY AS I WANTED TO MAIL A SECOND PACKAGE OF MY BAGGAGE TO ALEX IN PASTO. HOPEFULLY AT LAST I CAN RUN WITH MY PACK NOW AND NOT MUCH MORE COMMUTING! HOT AND HUMID BUT WITH HILLS NOT AS BAD AS OTHER DAYS. 26KM TODAY
21/1/2012 FROM KM 70 ON ROUTE 62 TO KM111 IN DABEIBA = 41KM TODAY. ROUGH DAY, VERY HOT/HUMID. RUNNING IN SMALL MOUNTAIN RANGE, HUGE AMOUNT OF STOPS TO TALK TO PEOPLE AND TO REST. VERY TIRED.
20/01/2012. FROM KM 40 TO KM 70. SHORT HARD DAY. STARTED RUNNING IN SOME MOUNTAINS. VERY HOT AND HUMID, AS ALWAYS! 30KM TODAY. COMMUTE TO DABEIBA
19/01/2012. FROM CAREPA AT KM 0  TO MUTAPA AT KM 40. TODAY = 50KM RUN..NOTE KMS RESET TO ZERO AT KM 10 IN CHIGORDO.

THE SIGHT OF THIS ICE CREAM MACHINE IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE WAS LIKE A MIRAGE :)

18/01/2012.. FROM TURBO AT KM 0 TO CAREPA AT KM 44 ON ROUTE 62. TODAY 44KM RUN. TOUGH AND HUMID DAY
17/01/2012..  FROM NECOCLI AT KM 33 TO KM 0 IN TURBO =33KM. TOUGH DAY. COMMUTE BACK AND FORTH AFTER.
16/01/2012.. CRAZY START IN SOUTH AMERICA,SEE BLOG! START FROM PUEBLO NUEVO ON ‘ UNKNOWN ROAD AND RAN 25KM TO NECOCLI AND THEN 10KM ON ROUTE 62 SOUTH OF NECOCOLI TOWARDS TURBO. FINISH AT KM 33 MARKER. = 35KM TODAY.

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I WANT TO BREAK FREE!

Thursday, February 9th, 2012

PLEASE NOTE THAT SOMETIMES WHEN I HAVE INTERNET ACCESS I UPDATE MY ” COLOMBIA DAILY LOG ” (PLEASE SCROLL DOWN A COUPLE OF POSTS BELOW) EVEN WHEN I DONT POST A NEW BLOG. PLEASE CHECK THIS FOR MY LATEST DISTANCES.

11/2/2012…………LATEST TOTAL FOR 355 ROAD DAYS = 15,303KM  =  9,509 MILES!

15,000km, the toughest 15 thousand of the run so far, no doubt about that. I needed just 40 when I set out from Supia that morning. I had to work hard for it, very hard as the first 23 were all uphill in the Andes foothills.

THE PROLOGUE FOR THE ANDES!

There will be tougher to come, that’s for sure but this was a brute. Huge lemons scatter along the side of the highway. The dogs are getting uglier and even more bad-tempered. They continue to bark for no reason flashing their long sharp fangs. Sometimes the owners just stand by and watch as I squirt them with my precious fluid should they get uncomfortably close. One or two dozy dogs just licked the water up off the road! Thank God dogs are not as smart as cats, they give a warning, that is except a few German Sheppard’s over the last year.
I often wondered what a dog would do if you fell down a deep hole and couldn’t get out! He probably would jump down, lick you to death and then starve trying to get back out. I reckon a cat would round up his mates and have a party on top!
Just before the top of this climb I got into a nice flow. About 3km before the top I came to a village. I just ran through without looking either left or right. I was afraid of spotting an ice cream refrigerator, I think I would have buckled and gone all wobbly-kneed and lost my rhythm. The downhill was nice, but it never seems to be even. No matter what way one approaches a mountain it always seems to have less of a downhill.
When I got to km 10 that was my 15,000 km for the run.

15,000 AND COUNTING!

After about twenty unsatisfactory trying to photograph myself in front of the km marker I just went over to a house and asked a real nice man called Adrian to take the photo. I think he thought history was being made, so delighted was he to take it.
Another 5km took me to Anserma where I made the last bus back to Supia with just 5 minutes to spare. Close thing since an old running friend from Ireland called Paul Mahon and his girlfriend Hilary were due at my hotel that night.

HILARY AND PAUL

They are on holidays in Colombia and looked me up on the road for a couple of days! It’s great to be running with runners again. I don’t get lonely, except for other runners.
During their three nights and two days they very generously paid for my hotels and meals,
thanks Paul and Hilary for sponsoring me. Anyone that wants to sponsor a meal/hotel night which cost just a few dollars will be mentioned in this blog, sponsor details on the right side of this page.


It’s a pity Paul and Hilary missed my big day yesterday, I was thinking I should have held off with a kilometer to go for the next day.
Anyway the day started with Hilary taking all our bags on a bus to La Virginia while Paul and I ran the entire 50km there. This 50km puts Paul on the leader board for the longest run with me in one day. Hilary got back in time to run the last 20km.

One the way Paul told me of his Guinness World Record.
” I was part of a twelve person team to run up and down Croak Patrick hill in Ireland twelve  times.
” It was the same as up and down Everest and we were shattered at the end. ” He told me.
” Fair play to you Paul! Was the training hard? ” I asked.
” Yes but not as hard as my other world record attempt! ”
” What was that Paul? ”
” Using only one hand to open as many women’s bras with one hand in one minute. They were all lined up and I was supposed to go up the back of their tee-shirt! ”
I wondered why he said ‘womens!’ bras.
Just then a couple of trucks flashed by and we moved in further onto the gravel. Also some long sugar cane trucks which can have up to five trailers.

SUGAR CANE ROAD TRAIN

Not letting this one go by I asked.
” So Paul how did you train for this? ”
” Very hard but I used my experience too, ”
” How many bra openings in a minute would you say is the record? ”
” Fifteen? ” I said.
” No. Thirteen. ”
” Did you break the record? Come on I am dying to know! ”
” I didn’t do it! ” He disappointed told me.
” Ah! Shucks and all that hard training went to waste. ”
” Then I met Hilary and broke another record… ”
” How many times did you open Hilary’s bra? ” I asked.
” No I mean she went out with me for a year and that was another record. ”
” I am not surprised! ” I laughed.


When Paul is not busy opening women’s bras he earns his living as a race director having over twenty races. His biggest and most popular race is the ‘ Run A Muck ‘ race. He is also a very competitive adventure racer. Here he also got some of the ‘ where is your bicycle ‘ treatement from the locals.
We made it into town stopping for a well earned ice cream and then went out to dinner.

COOL DOWN IRISH STYLE!

Next day Paul brought my bag in a bus to Obanto and checked it into Hospedaje Iskidara. He drew out a map of the road ahead saying where my water points would be.
My bag is in room 5 on the bed and paid for, the note said.
On the road Hilary ran 14km with me as they have to head north to the beach this afternoon before flying back to cold Ireland in 10 days time.


She was telling me about her ironman events and encouraged me to train for one. I have always loved running and cycling and would have loved to have competed in an iroman except I can’t swim properly, something to do before I turn sixty I said, putting it on the long finger!
She has her own pottery buisiness when she is not adventure racing, but does not race on Paul’s team.


” I value our relationship too much! ” She said.
Each adventure team which usually comprises of four members must have at least one female athlete. The format is running, biking and sometimes kayaking, swimming and climbing. They must all stay together, helping each other in a true team sport carrying their own supplies and emergency gear as they go.
There were so many cyclists out that sunday, it was incredible, literally thousands. Colombia is easily the most sports active country of my Latin American run so far.

CYCLE CRAZY COLOMBIA

I was sad to see Paul and Hilarly go. They helped me so much and have offered to assist with my workload in the future. It is always a joy running with other runners, this was fun! Thanks guys, 50km yesterday and 46 today, you have been a wonderful help.

SONG FOR PAUL PRESS HERE

LORD KNOWS, I WANT TO BREAK FREE!

 

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WELL DONE RICHARD DONOVAN WHO BROKE HIS OWN RECORD FOR RUNNING 7 MARATHONS ON 7 CONTINENTS IN UNDER 5 DAYS!

Wednesday, February 8th, 2012

MANY CONGRATS TO MY FRIEND AND SPONSOR RICHARD DONOVAN FOR HIS INCREDIBLE RUN AROUND THE WORLD IN LESS THAN 5 DAYS!! RICHARD HAS BROKEN HIS OWN RECORD SET IN 2009 BY RUNNING 7 MARATHONS ON 7 CONTINENTS IN 4 DAYS AND 22 HOURS. AN OUTSTANDING EFFORT.
PLEASE VISIT RICHARDS WEBSITE FOR MORE DETAILS 

THIS IS A REPORT ON THE CHALLENGE PRESS ON LINK  HERE

TO RUN ONE OF RICHARDS COOL MARATHONS PRESS HERE

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15,000KM RUN!

Saturday, February 4th, 2012

TODAY I CLOCKED UP 15,000 KM IN MY 45KM RUN FROM SUPIA TO ANSERMA. :)

15,000KM RUN! HERES TO THE NEXT 5,000!

MY 15th AND MOST DIFFICULT 1,000KM IS DEDICATED TO MY NEPHEW AND GODSON MARK SALMON, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARK!

I JUST HAD A LOVELY NIGHT CELEBRATING WITH A RUNNING FRIEND PAUL MAHON AND HIS GIRLFRIEND HILARY FROM IRELAND. THANKS FOR TREATING ME TO DINNER FOLLOWED BY A DELICIOUS ICE CREAM AND TAKING CARE OF MY HOTEL BILL!

WE ARE STAYING IN A LOVELY HOTEL IN SUPIA CALLED HOTEL PREMIUM BISS.

THE PLAN TOMORROW IS THAT HILARY WILL TAKE THE BAGS ON TO LA VIRGINIA, ABOUT 90 KM AWAY, WHILE PAUL AND I WILL RETURN TO WHERE I FINISHED TODAY IN ANSERMA. PAUL WILL RUN WITH ME AND WHEN HILARY FINDS A PLACE IN LA VIRGINIA SHE WILL RETURN TO RUN THE REST OF THE WAY TO LA VIRGINIA WITH US. IT’S GREAT TO HAVE SOMEONE TO RUN WITH AGAIN THANKS FOR YOUR GREAT HELP GUYS :)

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THE TUNNEL

Thursday, February 2nd, 2012

She wore a red baseball cap, a white shirt, black silk pants, white casual tennis shoes, aged about seventy. Her clothes were spotless. I couldn’t help wondering why she was washing another load. She lived a one hour hike up a mountain trail in a small proud house. I had stopped for directions. She pointed me over a mountain to the south-east. I hadn’t eaten anything in 24 hours and offered to pay for a meal. She cooked me a large plate of rice, a fried egg, 3 potatoes and small chunks of fish. Her name was Martha and very camera shy. A pity,  I told her this memory will be etched permanently into my memory bank as one of my most memorable experiences of the run.
Que pasa? What are you doing here? She asked me.
As I ate my delicious meal I told her…
Well Martha I left Ireland 15 months ago and have run almost 15,000km in my quest to run around the world. I want this to be as continuous a run as possible around the world. Yesterday was the first time I came to a standstill when the authorities wouldn’t let me run through the tunnel from km 40 that leads to San Cristobal. The tunnel is 4.5 kilometers long, one lane each way and even though there is a pedestrian path I was not allowed to run on it. A man called Oscar who lived for six years in Belgium stopped and got out to help me persuade the toll booth attendants, but to no avail.

OSCAR

 I knew that near the tunnel entrance there was a 4-wheel drive road to San Antonio and if I could make it there I would knock about a half day off the run and also avoid the large city of Medellin and most important of all make it through the tunnel. Oscar offered to give me a lift through the tunnel but I refused. This time I will try going cross-country. It may not always be possible to do this in the future, say if its a sheer cliff, I am refused permission or deep snow but any of these is a get out with my mission statement, but just like Mexico and the so called dangers I had heard so much about, I at least want to give it a shot.
I had estimated the distance to be between 12 and 15km. Three hours taking it handy, I figured. There were no shops here, just a restaurant and as I had already eaten a large breakfast and had a mid morning bowl of bean soup I just decided to go for it.
The road started off on decent tarmac up a very steep windy hill. Two young school girls were walking up it almost as fast as I was running up it with my pack on my back and my red satchel across my chest.

After about 20 minutes I came to a few houses with some youths hanging about, I was feeling a bit vulnerable, it’s different on the road, here there were not many people about and a shout for help would not be heard. All it would take would be a phone call ahead to an accomplice and I could be ambushed. One of the men seemed friendly enough but I didn’t want to hang about too much. In English he said something which seemed strange at the time but I was to hear his words over and over in my mind later.
” I hope you brought your lunch with you? ”
In fact I did not even have as much as a Smartie with me.
I came to a school and turned left to follow the road which gradually deteriorated into first a single lane and then totally impassable due to rock slides. I ran on as the track gradually became a hiking trail over the mountains.

 I was a bit surprised by this but just kept running on.
After a while a brown terrier came across a field and started barking at me. I figured there must be people about. Right enough just as I turned the next bend there was a black dog and two ugly, toothless campesinos walking their burro down the trail. They greeted me in the usual friendly but knowing every campesino worth his salt carries a machete. I don’t carry any weapons as the first rule in carrying a weapon is you got to be prepared to use it and be sure it is not used against you. All very well saying take someone out with a weapon, then you go to prison! I prefer to take my chances and use my senses and hopefully better judgement.
As I was running towards them one of the campesinos was to my left and in the long grass off the trail. The burro was blocking the trail standing at right angles to it. The other campesino was standing towards the head of the animal and towards his friend. He invited me to step around the burro and between the two men. No way was I going to do that, but pretended I was and then just feigned my move around the back of the burro who got a bit startled. I moved on up the trail swiftly as they waved me a good afternoon. I am sure they were friendly, but this is not the time for photo taking and chatting, plenty of time for that another day.
I passed a couple of abandoned houses and cow sheds. I passed through about ten gates with bared-wire loop closures.

FOR SOME STRANGE REASON I MARKED SOME OF THE GATES PLACING STICKS TO THE SIDE

 For some strange reason I decided to mark some of them by placing sticks to the side and also sticking small branches into the barbed-wire section of the gate. I ran over about 5 or 6 streams of which two had waterfalls.

 Then at half past four I came to a 3 room building which appeared to be abandoned. It was tempting to stay the night, at this stage I was starting to get worried that something was a miss. I ran on and on and at about six pm I came to a shed, though grubby had cover for the night. There was signs of daily usage, perhaps a worker. I don’t know what I expected to find but with half an hour of daylight left I ran on and left that shelter.

 Fifteen minutes later, my worst nightmare, the trail ran out. It ran right up to a river bank and ended at some dense shrubbery. This area is not traversed much, perhaps the locals know the area well and clear out the trail with their machetes, to me it was a stone wall. I climbed down off the bank and figured I would find my way back to the trail easily as this part of the river has a lot of fallen rocks and trees in it.


The river was fairly shallow, so I criss-crossed it about four times looking for the trail. I couldn’t find it. I then decided it was time to settle down for the night. I didn’t have a sleeping bag, instead I had my bivy sack. For those that don’t know a bivy sack is like a sleeping bag cover but made from waterproof material, a kind of a light weight sleeping bag tent but without the warmth of a bag. It’s ideal for warm nights, in reality one can sleep in the rain and snow in this and stay dry, but condensation is another matter! Mine has mosquito netting with a pull over flap at the head.
I settled down to sleep around seven pm under a tree close to the river. Fire flies lit up the forest, fooling me every time as I thought they were car lights in the distance, silly me, I got to get over that mountain first before I can hope to see anything. I wondered if I was lost. I was worried about no food, by morning it will be 18 hours since I last ate. There is no fruit on the trees, not a sausage!

 Suppose I run on and get terribly lost for another day, it might be too late to go back. At least I know the way I came and marked the gates just for my reassurance.
I decided I would run on. I worried about my folks back home, they would have noticed I left the road and was running cross country and not knowing why. Would they see the tunnel on the Spot map and guess?
I don’t mind admitting I was very worried. Should I go on, perhaps I am close to the road. The maps here are crap, Latinos will never win any awards for mapping, that’s for sure. I said a few rare prayers that night. I reckon I only slept for about two half hour naps. I really needed a good nights sleep, with no food I need to sleep the night away and besides I need my energy for the next day.
During the night I decided that in the morning I would have a quick look for the trail and if I couldn’t find it I would return the way I had come, I had ‘ lost my bottle. ‘
It was a very cold night. In the middle of the night I put my spare running tights over my head and around my chest as I had lost my hat. I pulled on my light-weight singlet as that was all I had got left. It rained heavily and except for some condensation I was dry, dry but very worried.


Martha’s cell phone rang a few times. I ate slowly and enjoyed the meal so much while she talked. I figured that even with one meal like this every day I could survive a long time out here.
She told me her husband was out working in the fields and they lived here on top of the mountain for over ten years.
Then I told Martha when I awoke that morning I had a fruitless look for the trail. I decided to return the way I had come and go back to the road. I was not expecting this and as a result was not fully prepared.
It took me several hours to get back to the road running through the overgrown trails, no worries about snakes now, I don’t have much option, just keep on going.


It was always a relief to find one of the gates I marked yesterday. There were cows all over the trail and I guess that’s what the gates were for, to keep them in a particular pasture.
The trail gradually became better till I had my 4-wheel track and then the road back, what a relief, and I didn’t even mind the cars and motorbikes honking at me, what a magical sound!
I ran by the school, I could hear the kids in class.

THE SCHOOL

 It was around noon, here things get slack around lunchtime. I was thinking that perhaps I may be able to sneak through the tunnel.
As I approached the road there was a restaurant at the tunnel entrance but if I was to hang about I might miss my opportunity to sneak through. I told Martha, even though it was almost 24 hours since I last ate, that I was not particularly hungry.
My plan to sneak through was going well. I slipped by two cops who didn’t notice me as they were busy giving a ticket to a trucker. The toll booth attendants unlike yesterday didn’t seem to notice me. On up to the entrance to the tunnel and I got stopped by a security guard. No way was he letting me through.
I spotted a paved path over the tunnel. The start of another trail I wondered and immediately wanted to take this
” Impossible! ” He kept on saying and then added it would take all day!
He also told me there were a lot of bad people there and I would be killed or robbed. I reckoned he just wanted to be rid of me.
I stopped a cop car that was about to drive through. He reversed back out. The cops told me I could not run on the pedestrian path, I wondered what it was for then, perhaps he was afraid of ‘ rubber-necking’ and as a result vehicles crashing. I don’t think he cared about my mission, nor did the crazy gummy guard as he kept shouting ” Impossible! ”
Impossible is my favourite motivator!
All along both he and the cops tried to no avail to get me into the cop car.
” No! Cien percent a pied. ” 100 percent on foot.
The cops told me the trail over the tunnel was safe. So off I went. It was paved for about 5 minutes and then became a trail. It was a strange sensation running over a tunnel, this of course was just like any other mountain. After another few minutes I saw two men taking a wash under a waterfall. They waved me a good day. There were a few houses along the trail also, houses on top of a road!
It was not too steep at this stage, a gradual climb. I felt I was making good progress and was more confident this time. So long as I keep heading south-east I will be alright. My only concern was to get finished in daylight hours, I don’t want another night up here, especially without eating.
I pointed the hour hand of my watch towards the sun. Half way between the hour hand and the 12 is due south, a handy compass.
After an hour that’s when I came to Martha’s house. She was very cautious at first, Till I showed her my card. After I said goodbye to Martha she pointed me over the looming mountain to the south-east. There is another house a bit further on up. Stop and ask directions she told me. I could not believe all the houses on these mountains actually have electrical connections.
On I went, running was very difficult for the footing was so unstable and uneven. At the second house the lady there was understandably suspicious of me and just confirmed I should keep on going over the mountain in a south-easterly direction.


I came to a gorge and had to climb right over it. There was a skeletal carcass, perhaps a cow, a dead runner I wondered. I looked up and saw a few buzzards.
” You are not getting me! ” I shouted at them.

CARCUS IN THE GORGE

The trails kept disappearing and then reappearing with junctions and decisions. I was not worried as I knew the general direction.
My climb over the gorge was difficult and precarious. It was a straight up climb. I had my backpack on and a satchel across my chest. I more or less just inched my way up about 100 meters of a climb, criss-crossing for the best foot and hand holds. Some of the rocks were loose and came away. I heaved my way up grabbing some roots and whatever I could find.
I came to a second gorge and had to do the same.
On I ran slipping a couple of times. Once very heavily on my right knee, twisting it slightly but thankfully all was well after a short breather. This part of the trail is probably not used, I see no sign of animal waste or footprints. To have a broken ligament up here could result in death. But I always have the emergency SOS button on my tracking device. I would push it if needed but only as a serious last resort. I don’t know what the Latino rapid response would be like! Somehow I have no faith in them, for they barely have any computers to find my location. Almost all of the police stations I stayed in in Central America had no computers or even phones. Just radios and the officers having to use their own mobile phones. All typing I saw was done on the old-fashioned manual typewriters.
I ran on went over another couple of mountain peaks till I came to the top where several electrical pylons were located. From this vantage point I could see two houses and what looked like the outline of a road between them. It was about another half hour away. I pushed on without renewed excitement. If there is a road there, It has to go somewhere!
I got to the gravel road and turned right, hiking it as fast as I could down hill. I could not move very fast now as my tired and battered joints just didn’t allow for a fast downhill run.
There were several houses here and two people told me the road only led back up the mountain again!
Nevertheless I ran on. I rounded a bend and saw the glorious sight of a large town!

IT MUST BE SAN CRISTOBAL!

 That must be San Cristobal… I was so thrilled I could hardly hold my excitement.
If I run across the fields and with three hours of daylight I will make it without the fear of another food less, cold night up here…

But which path to take down. As luck would have it I came to a farm and asked the farmer if I could head down the mountain through his land. He pointed to a trail which gradually became a battered paved trail. Ten minutes he optimistically told me. Well half an hour later I was running into San Cristobal. The tunnel exit was 500 meters to my left. I had made it across!

I MADE IT ACROSS THE TUNNEL WITH 500 METERS TO SPARE.

Had I not found that trail at the farm it would have been easily two hours as the terrain was tough, ankle twisting stuff.


Once in San Cristobal I went about looking for a place to stay and to my amazement for such a large town there were no hotels, that’s a first for such a large town.
I went to the police station and asked there but after a runaround for over half an hour I was told it was not permitted and would I not run on into ‘ town. ‘
Town I soon discovered was the city of Medellin and not the center of San Cristobal, as I was led to believe. On I went, It started raining heavily just as I reached the last few buildings of the town out on the highway. I went into a restaurant and had a delicious steak dinner. After a while I asked the owner if I could sleep there once he closed at nine o’clock.
No problem I was told. There was an old lady that kept moving my things around from one table to another, she was about eighty and had incredible energy, so much so that she was pestering me. I wondered if she was the owners mother and he just gave her a job to keep her happy. I just need to relax now!

THANKS FOR THE SHELTER, AND THE OLD LADY!

Eventually it was closing time and I settled down at the back of the restaurant in my bivy on some cardboard. At about 2 am the old lady shouted in through the open door to see if I was ok!

Next day I made my way into Medellin, a large busy city. Infamous for Pablo Escobar’s drug cartel. DETAILS HERE 

At the height of its power, the Medellín drug cartel was smuggling 15 tons of cocaine a day, worth more than half a billion dollars, into the United States. According to Roberto, Pablo’s accountant, he and his brother’s operation spent $250 a month just purchasing rubber bands to wrap the stacks of cash—and since they had more illegal money than they could deposit in the banks, they stored the bricks of cash in their warehouses, annually writing off 10% as “spoilage” when the rats crept in at night and nibbled on the hundred dollar bills.

 I was told that two of the football teams here were used to launder his money. Also many of the tall expensive buildings with nobody living in them now was another guise.
The tourist brochures here have made a shrine of his death place. See where Pablo (and not Escobar) lived and was killed. Fly into his secret airport. I was told that many people were holding large amounts of  dollar cash for him. And when he was eventually taken out of it, most likely by the CIA, well it was ‘ happy days ‘ for all those people holding hiis cash. The place where he met his end has been left the same as when he was blown out of it. Many of the locals have dug up the land looking for his money.
It seemed Escobar was considered somewhat of a Robin Hood as he built schools, and sports centers in the poor neighbourhoods, or barrios as they are called here.
I was told he was even elected to government till the Colombian government stepped in, enough is enough!
I stopped on the outskirts of Medellin and observed a tall, probably 30 story high rise under construction. The brickies were working out front on the entrance. One man with a hard hat on was just standing around, he was clean, probably the foreman I thought, you always know the foreman, the clean one! I looked closer and saw he had a pump-action shotgun slung across his back. The security man.

 

IS THIS THE FOREMAN OR THE SECURITY GUARD WITH THE PUMP ACTION SHOTGUN BEHIND HIS BACK!

 

Truck drivers and security seem to me to be the two biggest industries here!
I stopped at a shoemakers stall to get a couple of stitches in my running shoes for I had gotten a couple of rips on the jagged rocks. This seems to happen easier when the shoes are wet, as mine where as I had to run through several streams.
The shoemakers name was Oscar, he ran a coffee service also and gave me a free one.
1,000 pesos or 50 cents was my bill!

A STITCH, AND A COFFEE IN TIME.

I made my way through Medellin to a subburb called Itagui. I need a nice soft bed tonight. Two nights sleeping on hard ground is more than I can take without an air matress. I think I am gone soft in my old age!
Then running out of Itagui that Sunday morniing was a pleasure. It seems they close one lane of the highway for a 23km stretch. Runners, walkers, skaters and cyclists have a blast without the intrusion of motorised vehicles.

IF ONLY COLOMBIAN ROADS WERE ALWAYS LIKE THIS

 It was such a joy to see so much activity, pushing the baby in jogging strollers and all with such great enthuaism. I was told this happens every Sunday and festive day. There were food stalls and even bicycle mechanics along the route. It was a slow day for me. I was shattered, especially as I headed up into the hills. I think the exersions of my tunnel escapade have taken a toll on me. I was also very late leaving as I spent too much time on the internet and Skyping. I ended up finishing early due to a heavy rain downpour. I was just 50km from la Pintera and went and sheltered at a roadside restaurant. I really should have gotten a bus to the town and commutted back, another mistake, but so long as my mistakes are minor I am not complaining.
I spent a pleasant evening listening to my music on my computer. A group of kids cam over to listen. I was a bit surprised when none of them had even heard of U2. I guess they just don’t listen to western music as they don’t understand the lyrics.

ACTUNG BABY! WHAT YOU MEAN YOU NEVER HEARD OF U2!

Next day was also another bad day, only 24. More hills but I am physically shattered running with the pack, eight straight days now. Its great when I can do it and negate the commute, but this effort is compounding. I need to start commuting again and get a break. It’s the netbook computer that’s the problemn, it’s half my weight I haul. I wonder will I just do the blog and post the pictures from internet cafes. It may not always be so convenient but running with my pack I cover less ground, even with no commute, I seem to do worse.
I wonder about all those journey runners I have heard about that run with 10 kilo packs. I am starting to not believe this. As I have said, you get away with it for a while, feeling like a horse but the effort is compounding and catches up with you. I am only carrying a little more than 4 kilos.
So I did commute a couple of days using La Pintera as base running 41km and then a 44km to Supia.
The first day I met Roger when I stopped at a place called Mirador del Pipinta a plush resort with a swiming pool. I had stopped for water and to see if they would give me a discount for the next night, not a hope.
Roger orriginally from Nottingham in the UK is 67. He spent most of his life in much of the area in Canada I ran through, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. He made it big selling insurance. After a failed marriage he took a severance package from his firm and settled with a very generous pension.
Now he lives the ‘ life of Riley ‘ here in Colombia driving a really nice VW Colwagen sports car and a nice house in a gated community.

Nice car Roger!

To top it all he has a 21 year old Colombian girlfriend!
” I am under no illusions that she loves me, but I have my fun and it’s well worth putting her up in an appartment, paying her a monthly allowance and her university fees!
” I can well affford it and life is great for me, the best thing I ever did was to retire and come down here, I am the luckiest man in the world, I could have been back in Canada still argueing with the ex-wife. ”
I finished my run for the day at the resort and as Roger had nothing else to do as he said he dropped me back to La Pintera. I bought him a beer as he had rushed off leaving his wallet at the pool.
Next morning I stopped by just before I started and he stood me a nice breakfast telling me about how honest the people here are as he was immediately presented with his wallet upon his return yesterday. Over Breakfast we got talking about the ‘ two Escobars ‘ Pablo Escobar as mentioned above and the other Pablo Escobar, the unfortunate Colombiaan player that scored an own goal to eliminate Colombia from the 1994 World Cup. This ‘ mistake ‘ resulted in his execution, such was the fortune lost in gambling. Roger sent  me this information if anyone wants to check it out > The TV show that I told you about is called “The two Escobars”. I don’t know if you have the facilities to do this on your journey, but all you have to do to watch it is log on to Utube, then type in that title. I think it’s split into 7 or 8 segments. < Thanks Roger

I got an email from an ultrarunning friend of mine. Paul Mahon from Dublin just happens to be here holidaying with his girlfriend. Like all good ultra runners Paul packed his running shoes!
He said he will try to hook up with me for a run on the road, today Thursday.
Well as I type this on the bus it’s almost noon. This commute from La Pintera to where I finished yesterday in Supia is not working out due to road works delay. Yesterday when I ran by here a digger was busy clearing fallen rocks from the side of the road. They just closed the road for about three hours and counting. Obviously here there is little regard for the road user. When I was involved in road construction both in Ireland and Colorado the road user was treated with the uupmost respect with minimual delays. They just did a little clearing before moving aside to let the traffic through and then get the flaggers to open it again. As it’s coming up to their noon lunchbreak I bet they will open it for a short while!

FOUR HOURS STUCK IN TRAFFIC MEANT I DIDN'T GET TO THE START LINE TODAY, REST DAY DECLARED.

There doesn’t seem to be the same amount of respect here.
As a pedestrian here I should know, I am treated like the lowest of low! As I sit in restaurants and talk to nice truckers and bus drivers I wonder what it is that possesses them to become so bad tempered once they get behind a wheel.
Driving here in latin America is considered to be so macho, I could never understand why driving is considered so macho, seems more lazy to me!!
I hope Paul is not looking all over for me, he said he would take a bus down the road and look for me. Too bad I was too late to make the commute back here last night, that would have saved a lot of grief. It will be a short one today, if I get going at all. The commute is killing me, I have been up since 6am waiting for this bus as nobody was sure what time it left.

 

 

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About Tony

I have always considered myself to be an average runner. In school, I was even bullied for I was a sports wimp. Through hard work, dedication, perseverance, self-belief and a strong mind I succeeded in not only running around the world but breaking four ultra running world records during my competitive career. Having previously cycled around the world I didn't start running until I was almost 30. Then I had a dream of running around the world. For many reasons, I waited for over 20 years. One reason was to establish my pedigree as an endurance athlete. I started and finished my world run as the current World Record-Holder for 48 Hours Indoor Track 426 kilometres (265 miles), a record I have held since 2007. I also broke and still hold the World Record for 48 hours on a Treadmill 405 kilometres (251 miles) in 2008. When I retired from competition, more pleasing than any of my world, European or Irish records I had the respect of my fellow athletes from all over the world - in my opinion, sports greatest reward - an achievement I am most proud of. Then I finally put myself out to pasture, to live my ultimate dream to run around the world! This blog was written on the road while I struggled to find places to sleep and to recover from running an average of 43.3 kilometres or 27 miles per day for 1,165 road days. There were many nights I typed this blog on a smart phone, so fatigued my eyes closed. Many journalists and endurance athletes have referred to my world run as the most difficult endurance challenge ever attempted. During my expedition I rarely had any support vehicles, running mostly with a backpack. In the more desolate areas I pushed my gear, food and water in a cart which I called Nirvana, then I sent her on ahead to run with my backpack once again over altitudes of almost 5,000 metres in the Andes. I stayed in remote villages where many people had never seen a white person before. I literally met the most wonderful people of this world in their own backyard and share many of those amazing experiences in this blog. My run around the world took 4 years. There were no short cuts, I ran every single metre on the road while seeking out the most comprehensive route across 41 countries, 5 continents, I used 50 pair of running shoes and my final footstep of the run was exactly 50,000 kilometres, (almost 31,000 miles) I eventually finished this tongue in cheek named world jog where I started, at the finish line of my city marathon. I started my global run with the Dublin Marathon on October 25th 2010 and finished with the Dublin Marathon on October 27th 2014 at 3 05pm! Thank you for your support, I hope you can share my unique way of seeing the world, the ultimate endurance challenge! Read more...

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