Aug 5th I ran about 24km from the Nayarit state line. Ricardo and Ismael were with me and I treated them to sodas at a restaurant where a very nice lady lets me eat my own food from my dog bowl. I had told her it is a secret menu for world runners and if I don’t eat it soon I will die! Actually it’s just pasta. I have to hunt pasta every night now due to my early starts.
I like Mexican food very much but prefer pasta for road fuel.
So I zoom down the road like Speedy Gonzales and then we are joined by Javier and Esteban, an Angeles Verdes supervisor.
I have about 50km up so far and am starting to struggle as it’s now really hot. I think we are finishing at km 89 or Rosamorada and decide I will run the extra 6 all the way to town.
Javier starts acting the mick. He gets out on the road and starts outrunning me. He is sprinting up the highway as I pant along. He is waving a red flag to the traffic and just as I get near him he starts walking and then starts sprinting again!
I look at his smiling face, and he is wearing a uniform and his work boots, he is not good for my spirit
 So idiot that I am I shout over.
” Javier, I suppose you drink a lot of beer and smoke cigarettes and think you can show me up like this?
” No only agua! ”
So I shout over. ” I will get you on the downhill you little bastard! ”
Then I think I shouldn’t as it is not wise to outrun a flagger.
He gets tired 3km from town and jumps into Esteban’s pickup.
I smile and run the downhill fast. Just then the Federalis come along. The officer in the passenger seat has a sheet of a4 paper in his hand and a pen in the other.
” What’s your name? ” He asks me.
I point to my singlet. He writes it down. Then he asks me where I am going. I tell him this town. As usual I can never remember the name of a town I am heading to or even in. I tell him we are headed into the centro and that there is a reception waiting there for me.
There is a second police car waiting at the junction. Ricardo is in the vehicle behind me and moves to the left lane to turn left between the two police vehicles.
I run along the middle of the wide road and turn left. I run up to the town arches and just then Roberto asks me where I am going!
” How do you mean? ” You moved to the left, told me we were finishing at km 89 so Que Pasa? “” They changed the plans for tonight! ”
I was too tired to work this one out so I ran back across the junction with the Federali is still looking at his sheet of a4 paper and probably wondering ‘ reception, what reception ‘
I call it a day at the crossroads and am commuted the 19km to Tuxpan where I am hoping there will not be a reception as I am shattered! There is!
I am driven to the steps of the mayors office. Am greeted by his secretary, thinking he was the mayor. Eventually I am brought into mayor Oscar Barragan’s office. A very friendly man and told him my route which now is getting longer and more complex to explain as I add in the Baja bit and now the mainland.
I am delighted and grateful when they tell me they have a hotel for me. I am asked if I want to eat now, it’s 2 O’ clock or later.
So I say I need to eat now, later again for dinner, and my tupperware dish filled for breakfast and the road tomorrow and a coffee for now. The lads saw me eating from this dish and not for the first time this week in a mayors office a science was made out of how to get pasta, keep it cool etc.
I say I will just pick it up and keep it under the fan, near the AC or somewhere cool. His secretary returns from a gas station with my coffee.
So the mayor tells us to go to some restaurant downtown. I eat a huge noodle and liver dinner telling the lady to keep heaping it on and she will be all night waiting if she is waiting for me to stop her. I am a bit peeved off when she tells us she is closing in an hour.
But what about my dinner? So I get a take away for dinner and another for breakfast.
I am continually amazed at the never-ending kindness of city officials and their workers and just about everyone I meet towards me.
As I said a few days ago the attitude seems to be.. ‘ Tony what do you need? And what can we do for you to make this work? ‘
I never really thought Newfoundland would be in danger of being knocked off the top of the list as the most amazing place of this World Run but it is really in danger of loosing that title to Mexico!
These people, the ordinary people like Esteban and his workers, who are probably on a very low wage, bought me water, Gatorade and electrolyte drinks before I even realized it.
Nor do they seem to care how long their day is. Ricardo and Ismael told me they left their home in Tepic almost 150km away at midnight and waited in my hotel as I slept till I was ready to leave today. Then after a long day they have to drive back home, always with cheery faces.