Well, after further delays, we made it to Punta Arenas. Our plane out of Atlanta had a leak in the hydraulic system, so we sat on the plane for two hours waiting for it to be repaired, all the while worrying that we would miss our connection in Santiago to Punta Arenas. But our connection was made (miracle!) and four hours later we found our way to our hostel and got some good sleep.
Quickly, after arriving, we phoned our PA friends, Mackarena, Marcelo and Maritza. Marcelo had our American friend Marina with him and she was fine. She´d taken some obscure airline from LA to El Salvador, Peru, Santiago and then to Punta Arenas and never missed a beat, so she´d been in town for a full 24 hours before we touched down.
In the morning yesterday (March 14), we all met at the park at 10am and 5 of us (6 if you include the homeless dog that accompanied us for one mile) commenced our Punta Arenas BYOGPS marathon. We ran through the city, along the Magellan Strait, out toward the country side and finally back into town. We saw penguins, pelting rain, gorgeous views of southern islands and even a funeral along the way. The completion time for us three finishers (Marina, Bill and I all ran together) was 5 hours and 51 minutes. Unfortunately, once we completed 26.2 miles, we still had one kilometer to go to get back to the park where Mackarena, her father, Marcelo and a Punta Arenas newspaper reporter were waiting for us. So we sort of ran an Ultra!
We haven´t seen today´s paper, but we understand there is an article in there about three Americans who came to run the marathon distance in Punta Arenas. I think the name of the paper is El Penguine or something like that. You can try to find it online - or just wait to see a copy when we get home.
Tonight we´ll have dinner at Mackarena´s home and probably stay there for a couple of days. On Wednesday, we have our meeting with DAP, the airline that is taking Marina and me to King George Island, Antarctica. I´ll try to post again once we´ve finished that leg of the journey.
Peace to all.
In March of 2010, I completed my seventh continental marathon distance. Follow me now as I keep running and try to finish a marathon in all 50 U.S. States before I turn 50.
No comments:
Post a Comment