Bienvenido a mis amigos mexicanos querido! Gracias por cuidar de mí tan grande aquí en México.
Mi sitio web tiene una traducción al español la posibilidad!
Por favor, sólo tiene que desplazarse hacia abajo y seleccione el idioma español en la herramienta de TRANSLATE en el lado derecho de mi página de blog. Espero verte en el camino!  Tony

Last time I updated I was in Santa Rosalita, a busy copper mining town. I had been so busy I hadn’t eaten till 10pm as I had more or less spent the late afternoon and evening in an internet cafe. I had also been dropped there by a police officer, it was about 2km away from the station where I was spending the night and I didn’t even know my way back.That particular occasion I went into a restaurant where Derek the project manager for CAT heavy vehicles on the site warmly greeted me. Derek tells me he is from Tijuana, living close to the US border has enabled him to become fluent in English. This copper mining project is a huge boost to Santa Rosalina’s economy. Tonight he was out having dinner with about 8 of his senior workers. He added my dinner to his bill and drove me back home, so all ready for another early start  The ever increasing urgency to get early starts due to the daytime heat adds to the stress, something has to give and readers of this blog know that is almost always adequate rest and recovery time. This is the only part of running around the world I don’t like, the running on the road is fun but this is mostly an 18-20 hour day, day after day.So I am trying to keep up my nutrition getting as many meals as I can. My favorite meal here is carne asada, a very generous beef steak dinner, with all the beans, rice and salad for about $6
Yes I know they say tourists should not eat salad but I do.
The early starts means I got to be careful to eat something resembling a nutritious breakfast. This is not easy now as eateries’ are not open when I am on the move. Perhaps I should try cooking something but for now I make do with some leftover dinner from the night before, or fruit,a can of tuna, beans etc.
Keeping up ones nutrition is particularly important during heavy activity in hot weather.
Javier from Los Angeles Verdes joined me in mid morning.
These guys are wonderful, so dedicated to their job, nothing is too much trouble. They give the impression that time doesn’t matter, no time watching 9-5 attitude, true professionals and heroes in my book. Thank you Los Angeles Verdes, you have made things so much easier and more comfortable for me.
Today was particularly hot, up around 40 degrees C, I would say. It always feels like 40C when you are struggling, it may have been only 30C. I was drinking a 600ml sports water bottle every 3km or so. I wasn’t taking enough electrolytes though as I kept forgetting them.
I was on my way to Mulege 64km away. Palo Verde at around 43km would have been the logical finishing place for me but I had a possibility of a motel room in Mulege a further 21km away. If I was to stop in Palo Verde, which only had a tienda, grocery store that would mean a short day the next day or forget about the room and just run through Mulege towards Loreto.
Once yesterday I noticed my urine was dark, actually rusty brown colour, like the drained off water from a box of nails that had been sitting out in the yard. Could it have been all the cola I had been guzzling in the last week, I wondered. Often when I ran into a tienda I would buy a 2 or 3 litre bottle and savagely guzzle half of it on the spot. Soda dehydrates, so that will have to be drastically cut. I had been drinking 3-5 liters a day like this thinking I was getting a boost and my electrolytes were being helped. I had forgotten about the caffeine and the dehydrating factor of cola. Yesterday I just drank more water and hydrated fairly well.
Then I noticed it again this morning. I began to get worried. I drank more water. Just before Palo Verde at km marker 156 the rusty nail water was back. I peed a small amount into an empty 4 liter water bottle. I told Javier I wanted to go to Mulege hospital for a check up. I was really worried. I wondered if the run was over. In the last half hours running between that first and second alarming pee I greeted each km marker as my buddy.
” Hello again old buddy, I have met you so many times since Dublin.
” How many more times will I see you? ” I wondered.
I called it a day there and then. On the way to Mulege, Javier innocently kept trying to encourage me to sight see in the town, it’s very pretty he said.
Sorry Javier, I know you mean well but I got more serious issues on my mind. At Mulege hospital we were ushered into a doctors examination room.
I brought in the bottle of rusty nail water to the doctor who reassured me it was not blood more like a very low water concentrate. She first put me on a water drip and then on an electrolyte drip.
Its funny how ones focus can change so quickly. As I lay on the bed for over an hour I was confident I would be okay. In fact my biggest problem was how to get back to where I finished 21km away if I stayed herein Mulege tonight. Would the police bring me back at 3 or 4am? I doubt it, I really hadn’t got the nerve to ask, same with Javier. Then I thought as soon as I got out of here I would would ask Javier to bring me back to the tienda where I could hang out till around 5.30pm till it cooled and run on to Mulege.

 Amazingly I had the doctors blessing! I would take it nice and gentle and have a rest day tomorrow.
We got to Palo Verde having dropped 2 water bottles on the way for me to pick up on my run into town. Javier then told me he was not returning to Mulege but going onto Santa Rosalita and would not be returning for a couple of days. Had I known this I would have left Nirvana in Mulege now I got to push her a long 21km unnecessarily.
So I waited for almost 2 hours at the tienda for the day to cool off. I drank lots of water and fruit juice, ate pot noodles, canned veg and tuna.
I left at 5.30, it was not as cool as I would have liked but I could not wait any longer.
I ran on pushing Nirvana, my progress was slow but steady. I had been nervously drinking lots of water which had sachets of electrolyte mixed. Then it happened, I peed the rusty nail water again. I eased off my effort and thankfully there was a huge 3km steep downhill to Mulege. In town I phoned my contact. The motel possibility didn’t happen. I went to the police station and asked to stay. Then I went out for something to eat. The only place open was a hamburger joint, so hamburger it had to be.
As I sat there a group of vacationing students from Ensenada spotted me and came into the restaurant. I had stopped them earlier to ask for directions. In the meantime they had gone back to their parents rented holiday home and checked out my site. Their father Kevin who was born in Texas but spent most of his life in Colorado, California and now 21 years living in Mexico. Kevin now makes a modest living as a scrap metal trader. He is married to Lourdes, a Mexican.

KEVIN AND FAMILY

After they checked out my site Lourdes expressed her horror and told the kids to go back to town and search for me till they brought me back!
I told Kevin I also needed a rest day and he, Lourdes and the family made me so welcome there for my 2 nights.
Kevin told me he got sick of working day and night in the states, the rat race and never seeing your kids been so busy working.
Here in Mexico, things are a bit more laid back, you don’t need a lot to survive.
Mexicans are great survivors, hard workers and they always seem to find a way to exist.
Here in Mexico kids come and visit their parents and grand parents not just occasionally but every day. In the states how many kids can say that. Here there is a great family life, he told me.
” Back in the states the parents often end up dying in nursing homes.
” Here they die in their home surrounded by their family. ”
The he went on.
” I am not a rich man but every year we come down here for a months holiday fishing and lazing around the lake. It’s heaven and all I had to do was sell 2,000 pieces of fruit to raise the cash for the gas and to be able to rent these 2 holiday houses. They cost $500 for the month. ”
I have noticed property is very cheap here. I saw a sign for a one bedroom holiday home in this beautiful location for only $1,200 for 6 months.
Actually I didn’t stay two nights really, as on the second I set out at 2.30am. This has to be the plan whenever possible. The problem this first night was I didn’t get to sleep before setting out. On the road it was nice and cool but I was shattered. There was little traffic, I was well lit up, have my hi-viz vest and can hear traffic and see their lights far off. That means I can ‘ play both sides of the road ‘ changing over to the opposite side when a vehicle approaches.
I got friendly with a construction crew who were building a bridge. There was a huge clearance underneath so I took a lovely nap under it for several hours. Around 6pm as the workers were going home I asked one if it was safe to stay a few more hours till about midnight when I would set out running the next day.
He told me probably not because of the casabelle snakes!
What! I had been there all afternoon and had forgotten about them. He told me there were many in the fields and I would be lucky to see one!
Did he say Luuuccccckkkkyyy!
When he told me there was a restaurant only 4km away I was off running!
I arrived in a nice resort area called Playa Buenaventura. I noticed the mini-mart had a sign saying closed because their whole stock had been robbed.
A group of American kids, from where else, San Diego, gave me 3 bottles of water. All the Americans in Baja seem to be from California, especially San Diego.
Construction crews are also good at topping me up as I have met them on roads where there are not many services. The kids brought me over to the restaurant. The owners Mark from, yes you guessed it! And Olivia,his Mexican wife told me they had just taken a couple of days off as a group of 8 booked and they turned out to be 18 from yes… S. D.
I apologized and did not want to bother him or his wife on their day off. They said I could lay my sleeping bag out on their deck, so I slept for a couple of hours till Mark woke me up saying he had some left over sandwiches and I was welcome to join them in the bar.
Inside the bar I asked Mark about the shop across the road. It turns out it was his and some people just turned up to take it away from him.
” A gang? ” I asked.
” No not exactly, people with suits and papers.
” We didn’t know about this stuff till we came here.
” Some of the people have left, there are only a couple of loosers left,
” I am hoping they will leave soon, they even sold one of our wardrobes today. ”
This was all a bit confusing to me and Mark seemed caught between not wanting to talk and telling me this, so I just changed the subject, thanked them for their kindness and went back to sleep for another couple of hours.
Next morning it was really hilly. My pace was even slower as I was carrying a lot of water now, up to 10 liters. Am also taking the advice of my pharmacist friend Greg who advises half water and juice with a pinch of sea salt per liter. Sea salt has extra potassium and other nutrients regular salt does not have.
After 44km of beautiful scenery, spectacular beaches, mountains and the sight of 2 eagles sitting on top of a cactus I arrived at a rancho restaurant.

I had been hoping I could sleep a few hours some where out back till late evening when I would start running again. The owners of the restaurant didn’t seem to have a problem but the mean spirited man whose property it was on did.
I ran on another km and got stopped by a fun-loving construction crew that took a liking to Nirvana. The wheel barrow operator asked me which I thought was the heaviest, his wheelbarrow of concrete or Nirvana. The barrow of concrete, I remember only too well!
So we had a race up route one and I won easily!

CONCRETE EFFORT

20km up the road, which was 64 for the day I stopped at Rancho San Juan Londo for my second carne asada for the day. The people here were really nice, I really needed to stay here tonight as I dont want to go on again.
I hustled my way to sleep by asking one of the owners what the Spanish name for a hammock was. It was in a shady area at the side of the restaurant.
He said something like ” Maca ” and then ask me if I would like to try it. Good he fell for the bait. I tried it and fell asleep for about 3 hours, then got up after hours and lay my sleeping bag out on the floor.
I was away a bit late, about 5am. I noticed the pad area behind my toes on my right foot was a bit swollen. I took a couple of Nurofen Plus tablets and put on a new pair of shoes.
Not sure if it was as a result of the extra mileage I had to run yesterday but today’s 30k to Loreto will be like a half-day, nice and easy. I have been promised a room in town by Pablo the Tourism Secretary for Baja Sur.
On the way I stopped at a military checkpoint soon after I started. The reason for all the military checkpoints is because the Mexican president has said the best way to defeat the drug cartels is with the military. There is also a lot of military movement of troops in Hummers all over Baja and I presume all over Mexico.
The young soldiers were delighted to see me and when I told them what I was doing they got me to sign my autograph!
I asked one had he any coffee and when he said yes I told him to stick on the kettle.
As I sat there waiting for the kettle to boil one of the soldiers jokingly asked if I would swap my running shoes for his boots. Then an American family whose truck was towing a power boat ignored my good morning greeting. I think because I was sitting down talking to the soldiers that they thought I was having a problem.
Behind me was a noticeboard with wanted pictures of the various drug cartels.
Just down the road and still in darkness a brown scorpion sat on the road waiting for me! I took a photo but in the darkness it did not come out well. I side stepped around it, thankfully it didnt move. It did when a car ran over it with the wind gush the scorpion got blown up and smacked against the cars undercarriage loosing a limb which separated on the road.
On I ran to Loreto, phoned Pablo he told me to make my way to the Hotel Desert Inn. Just then Green Angel/Angeles Verdes Manuel arrives to escort me to the hotel.

Manuel immediately gave me an air of professionism. He asked me what time I plan to start and as I have a nice hotel room I thought I would have a long lie in till 4am.

I told him I would run out of town and perhaps meet him on the road somewhere. These guys dont start work till 8.30 or so. At the Desert Inn Loreto  I was given a warm welcome by the receptionist and staff.
I haven’t had any hydration problems since. I am now more worried about the ferry from Baja to the Mexican mainland as it is booked out for the rest of the year but I am being told there is a big effort going on to get me a place.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011 at 5:44 am and is filed under jogging. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.