I slept in a bit til 930 am this morning (out partying last night lol). 

Everything is working fine, and I feel pretty good, all things considered, vis a vis what happened yesterday. 

We are camped on the periphery of marina, at a small seaside town Ermioni. 

Given the proximity to the town, the race organizers allowed racers to wander into town. Some had breakfast there, I didn't manage to mobilize to town until noon but had a simple, delicious (real!) Greek salad. Eating real food for which you need teeth is amazing, I had forgotten that pleasure. Then, just a period of house keeping, tying all clothes to a perimeter fence to get some drying done, and languishing in my tent a bit (too hot to sleep). 

Most people are in good spirits and chatty, looking forward to a shower tomorrow afternoon. We have a simple 6k last stage, then the pizza celebration, then pack into busses for 2.5 hour ride back to the origin hotel, where we’ll celebrate at 7 pm with viewing of photos, videos, awards, a banquet, and to bed early for me! I am flying back to home on Sunday to reenter real life.

Resting, all of a sudden. Mind and body. It feels good to let everything takes its own time.

Yesterday I did the Longest Long March, but not on purpose. That is a dubious distinction. More on that later. 

The day 5 began with a 4:30 rising. The day plan had been shifted up a bit. Broke down my tent and packed. Ate my oatmeal. Spent 45 min carefully taping my feet which now had a few blisters. Double layer of socks plus gaiters. One cup of powdered coffee. We’re off, a brief hike to the pier all loaded up, int the drizzle. We did a 1 hour sunrise cruise on a ship (lol except it was raining) to reach our departure spot. Some announcements about a course change I didn’t really hear, then we were off in the rain.  Town road, then some miles on the beach. Between wading calf deep through muddy flooding in the town and a few required steps through surf (it was high tide) we managed all to completely soak our feet right of the bat even though this race was not planned with ‘water crossings’. Wet feet in 50 mile races usually means lots o’ blisters.

Early there was some lightning and thunder but then just rain. The course diverted upwards into the headlands onto stony muddy trails that had become creeks basically. I was thinking of the River Styx. The race staff regulated a one by one entry into that section because it was so slippery and we hit a bottleneck of people scrambling up the muddy hill. Eventually we crested and descended to road. Maybe some additional beach. 

I’m a little fuzzy on details after that. Dusty road in the woods. A lot of ascent. Heart rate spiking. Sweating. At the top of a final incline the stunning monastery, built into a vertical stone wall, with views over the mountains to the sea. Beautiful. 

Then more ascent through woods onto a dusty road. This where my day went awry. I was feeling pretty good, for me, and the gravel road was down ish, so I started moving a bit faster, was Maurten bar and some ginger candies and water and Nuun electrolytes. I was in a zone by myself, do my internal meditation by myself. At some point I realised I was not seeing course markers, or racers. I stopped and reversed course back up the hill. I was already a mile back up the hill then reached a fork going the other I did not recall. I guessed to backtrack on the upper (left) fork, but wasn’t sure. I ascended another half mile and still no markers. A little despair settled in. I sat for a minute to think. I turned on my phone which had 8 percentage power, found the photo I took of the course notes with race directors tel number, and fortunately had one bar cell connection and I called her. She said yes they could see me off course. The choices were to get picked up (and end my race) or make my way back to the missed turn. They confirmed I was on the right road back, just still 1.5 miles away. So I packed up immediately and got myself back to the turn I missed off the road into brush and up the mountain.

Mentally all I could do was try to recalculate and reset.  The trail ascended a mountain at the top of which were wind turbines, and a lone farmer and his wife with sheep and some Barry herding dogs, at the very top. 

Then we descended a ways on a gravel stone road. It was getting to be later afternoon. Incredibly, near sunset, I was in a string of 6 people picking our own pace down, and we all missed another road to trail diversion. Fortunately this one was only 3/4 mile mistake, but discouraging nevertheless. 

It was darkening so I added headlamp, and the reflective markers in the brush became much less obvious. From here we also could see the Mediterranean, which was a bit of a tease, since l realised we were still a marathon away from camp.

The order of things is fuzzy to me this morning, but we did see a fascinating cave site at one of the checkpoints. A descent into the earth through a white painted tunnel, emerging into a very large circular dirt and stone well several hundred feet apart, and there were several churches or worship spaces carved into the red mud walls, again painted in white.  We ran around the circumference and then ascended back out of the cave. Fascinating. 

The rest of the night was mostly grinding out the miles on dusty roads, stony roads, grassy trails, broken asphalt with a headlamp. Setting off barky dogs at nearly every house or farm we passed. One loose German shepherd seemed particularly exercised and aggressive, charged me a little, just to warn me, and I skirted around. The course ran us up a hill to a historical site with lit up windmills, which was interesting. 

Several hours of up and down on the roads. My mantras got pretty simple, “keep going.”  “Woah, this is up. I can do up”

Finally I started feeling cool breezes from the sea, and the trails and roads seemed mostly descending and it felt like arriving to the coast. I could see lights shimmering on a far shore in the water. At 3 miles to go I bottomed out a sea level and the quiet lapping of the water on shore was the only sound. 

Three miles through the sleepy beach town and finally into a marina area, a cowbell, and I knew I was there.

Obviously was paced for a 16 hour day, but then I added on a couple extra hours with my wrong turns. So I ended up on my feet quite a long time. But I executed on all the basics, sunscreen, fluids, electrolytes, calories, running with max HR goal. So I arrived healthy and happy to be here. I ate my dinner (3:30 am), set up my tent (not that easy after 18 mile day!) chatted with some friends then went to bed at 4:15 am. 

This morning is beautiful. I feel good, all things considered. It’s nice to have a rest. 

Jim

Hello friends,

Stage 1 is a wrap.

It rained a lot last night. Everything was wet when we arose, in our camp site by the sea

The usual scramble after waking up at 630 am to start at 8. Took my tent down and packed.

I was a little rusty at everything (there is a lot to do!) so i was rushed and missed a lot of things. Did not have time to tape my feet. Ate my breakfast 3 min before the start and only part of it. I missed the morning briefing, something about if severe thunderstorms occur, be safe!

Then we were off.

Our crowd shuffling through quiet neighborhoods, then the periphery of tiny little villages. Old stone houses, each with a small meditation hut or chapel. Dogs barking. Figs and olives and apples along the way when we were near villages. 

A few miles end, we left the populated zone and boom we were moving up a very step path, of very irregular stones.The stones had been placed, but they werent flat. I am sure goat could scramble that, but I was picking the spot for every footfall. The day just became up and up and up. We entered the mountains. Some drizzle, always cloudy, virtually no sun today. But it was humid. I was sweating the whole time profusely. My pack is 30 pounds while carrying 2L water, its too heavy.  I am not sure how others bring all the food and required equipment in 20 pounds, Many do. 

There were three cehckpoints along the way. The volunteers at this race are terrific. I never stopped or rested today, but hearing the encouragement and getting water reloaded is always a boost.

There were a lot of wonderful smells today. The fruits, and evergreen trees, plus we were crushing all sorts of herbs on the trail, sage, mint, santolina, and the smell of those wafted in the air

The flora is great here. Many different species of wildflower, yellows, pinks, purples. I was not familiar with many of them, and their shapes were sometimes a bit fantastical. The wild plants at the edge of the trail (´weeds´) like mullein and thistle were of an impressive scale.

The minerals here are interesting but subtle. Greece is old, both as a culture and as a physical site. The rocks are not raw, many of them are old from long exposure. We went through a patch in the middle (one of the relentless climbs) when many of the stones were purple or an emerald green. I meditated on those to pass the time.

As we got higher in elevation the temperature dropped. The road became swathed in clouds, which were obscuring the tops of the mountains. It darkened a bit. It was only 2 or 3 in the afternoon, but it felt like evening.

I finished today, obviously (I am in the cyber tent blogging), but I was just trying to be consistent and move forward at all times. I was never moving fast. There was one moment i was running downhill at a 9 min pace. For a minute. Mostly I just trying to move one foot in front of the other. I left my poles at CP2 and had to circle back a bit (even though i have a system to avid this, a caribiner on my pack to clip the poles at checkpoints, and at one point i climbed some steep elevation because i followed another racer across the wrong bridge. But otherwise I was executing best I could under the circumstances. Drinking, electrolytes, taking calories, trying to avoid craning my neck forward (fail), etc. I am very undertrained for this race, so, moving on muscle memory mostly. The mental processes are still there.

The community of racers is so fun. Everyone is positive. Grateful. I have lots of buddies here, from previous races (it is a small group of people who loves running 250ks with a backpack in fierce environments. 

I am glad I am here.