Update #4
On to the race
Sent October 9, 1998
Hi All,
There were no more e-mail connections until I got back to Kathmandu so if
you want to skip all the rambling the race took place on Wednesday, October
7. Otherwise I warn you now you may find this long and/or boring so
don’t hold it against me:-)
Friday, October 2, 1998
The Cooper test went well! For those that do not know the protocol is simply
to see how far you can go in 12 minutes. From this the team doctor can
estimate the best pace/heartrate to use for the marathon. We went in 3
groups on the university’s 400 meter cinder track. I did my warm-up during
the first run and passed all the runners doing their test. I did my test
with the second group and lapped all but one person — missed him by 15
meters. Did my cool-down with the 3rd group and ran easy with the leader of
it. I managed just shy of 9 laps or right at 5:20 miles at 11,980 feet. I
went 60 yards farther than ’96 and 100 yards farther than ’94 when I
set the current course record for the upcoming marathon. Even better is the fact that
of the 10 or so Cooper tests I have done this one felt the best. Heartrate
stabilized at 173. This leaves Martin Rodriguez (past winner of the Pikes Peak Ascent
and Marathon with a 2:04:50 Ascent PR) as the only unknown. He did not do the Cooper
test because he has been having stomach/diarrhea problems. He seems to be doing
better but the doctor felt it best he skip the test.
The last real food was tonight’s dinner. From here on out things go downhill
fast. I brought 48 Power Bars, 10 lbs. of pasta, a pan, and a plug-in burner so if it gets
too bad I am set:-)
Saturday, October 3, 1998
We left Lhasa at 9:15am. 7 hours and 50 minutes later we arrived in Gyangtse
and our next hotel. We stopped for a 20 minute lunch otherwise it was drive,
drive, drive — good thing I had an empty water bottle;-) (Um, that is the water bottle served as my bathroom). The road is dirt
and it is in bad shape from the recent rains. However we only had to get out
and push the bus one time:-) We did 260K in 7 hours and 30 minutes which
works out to a whopping 34.6 k per hour or 21.5 mph. That should put into
perspective the quality of the “main” road in Tibet! We got to go over a
pass that was 4,974 meters high or 16,318'. It was awesome! A huge lake sits
a couple thousand feet below and is a very neat — if not fake
looking — blue. The fact that this
puppy is 85K (52.8 miles) long just made it all the more breathtaking.
I am told it is called Turquoise Lake but I thought that was in Leadville, Colorado!?
We have not come this way since ’93 and instead have been taking a shorter
route. I can not claim the view was worth the extra 4 hours but it was
better than I remembered plus it was a much better way to come for the
newbies:-)
Thirty minutes in the hotel and my head is still bouncing around from the bumpy
ride. I go for a great 40 minute run which cleared my head. I LOVE it here! The views are
incredible and because we are now in a small little city (Gyangtse — 3rd
largest city in Tibet) I am out of it in less than 2 minutes and running in
some super clean air. There is a huge monastery up on a hill which will
serve as my beacon to find my way back. Lots of locals working the fields
getting ready for the next winter. This is just too cool! As I run next to a
river the kids along the way yell “hello” — perhaps the only word of
English they know — and run 50 or so meters with me before they start walking and laughing.
This is a welcome treat from the kids in the cities who seem to know two
words: “hello, money.” I am starting to relax now — it feels so good to
get away from Lhasa. From here until we get back to the DU is my fun
time and for sure my favorite part of the trip:-)
Exchanged enough foreign currency so that I could get two of each bill China
has. 100 yuan, 50, 10, 5, 2, and 1. At 8 yuan to the dollar it only took $45
to get the complete set and this left me with two extra 10s and four extra
1s. The cashier kind of looked at me strange because I kept giving her back old or
torn bills. Finally I said “for picture” and she got the jest of what I was
trying to do and gave me some fairly new looking bills:-)
Got a slight tummy ache after the meal tonight but while I was writing
today’s stuff (above) it went away:-)
Night night...
Sunday, October 4, 1998
We did some site seeing today before we left Gyangtse. Which is to say that
we did an organized tour because in reality the whole trip is site seeing —
just one incredible view after another:-) We went to a fort way up on a hill
that the Tibetans tried to hold back the British. Eventually they all jumped
off a cliff to martyr themselves. We then headed over to a monastery that I
had not seen. Managed to sneak a quick photo of one of the Buddhas. These
things — about 9 or so in this monastery — are 20 to 25 feet tall and are
covered in gold! Incredible the poverty outside the monastery and the
ungodly (unbuddhaly?) decadence on the inside. But then again I have seen
some pretty snazzy looking churches back in the US of A with homeless people sleeping on the sidewalk just outside.
Wrong time for a religious spiel so onwards, or rather outwards. Besides, all the incense in these places makes me nauseous so I
can’t hang around very long anyway.
At 11:20am we got on the road for a relatively short drive (2 h 45 mins) to
Shigatse. I guess the main reason for the short hop is we get to stay in a
better hotel complete with a bathtub which I managed to use 3 times
today:-))) At any rate, Shigatse it the 2nd largest city in Tibet so we have
covered the top 3. However after Lhasa I am hard pressed to call either
Gyangtse (#3) or Shigatse cities. Whereas it would take an hour and a half —
if not more — to run from one end of Lhasa to the other I could do
Shigatse in perhaps 10 minutes if not less.
Did a small warm-up to get to the edge of town and then ran a marked 8K on the
road at my hoped for marathon pace. 4 minutes per K or 6m24 per mile pace. This
should bring me in just under 2h50 which could be a bit optimistic because
currently we are only at 12,795' so we have 1,555' to go. My best on the course
is 2h56 in ’94 so we shall see. Quads are still a bit sore from all the concrete in
Lhasa.
Monday, October 5, 1998
My simple words can not do our commute to Tingri justice. The short story is
that it took us 14 hours and 50 minutes to go 293K or 182 miles. That works out to 12.3
miles per hour. Let me explain! We left Shigatse at 8:20a.m. At 9:40a.m. we
got stuck in the mud. Well not just stuck — that bus is probably still
there! We got help from almost every passing truck that came by but it just
kept getting worse and worse and the best part was all of the other vehicles
that got stuck trying to help us get unstuck. Now at one point there were 37
Tibetans (yes I counted!!!) working on the problem with shovels, picks, etc.
but no matter how much they dug the bus would just sink until the bottom of
the bus was sitting on the mud! These people made a pretty penny helping all
the other vehicles get unstuck however:-) I passed some time by teaching the
Tibetan runners who have joined us some English phrases: “The bus is stuck
in the mud, the driver is crazy!” We even had a rap version of it where
we would use are coat zippers as instruments. After 3 hours and 30 minutes of this comic relief we piled
into the back of the truck that was carrying our baggage. Now I had not
planned on my bag becoming a seat — nor did anybody else — but it was
flattened and one of my 7 elephants is no more! Even my pan looks like it
got hit by a train. We were in the back of this thing for 2 hours and 50
minutes. This is a Chinese army truck — a big puke blue/green thing with an
even bigger cloth cover on the back — so basically we were riding through
some of the most beautiful scenery on the planet and the only thing we could
see was the dust that the cover so effectively failed to let escape. As
always, I had my heavy duty painter’s mask with me but that did not help for
the major problem of this truck ride — we were tossed around like a human salad.
Sometimes we would all laugh but there were other times where it just plain
hurt:-( In a small town after lunch our group leader whipped out the $100
bills and we hired 3 jeeps. So at 4:45p.m. we proceeded to drive to
Xigar. Not our intended destination — Tingri the race site. However our hired
drivers did not have the permits to cross the Chinese check point. It is not
even a border and despite the fact that the drivers were Nepalese they are not allowed
to go from one part of their own country to the other without permits!!!??? This
drive was sooooo awesome I can only say WOW! One of the ways I pass the time
on these drives is by ridge running. Well tracing the routes I would take in
my mind anyway so perhaps I should call it ridge tracing. We passed by many
crystal formations in the mountains and I even managed to get a few on one
of our pee breaks. At one of the passes we stopped and I managed to squeeze
in a enough of a run (about 15 minutes) to at least keep the streak going
because it was becoming obvious that we were not going to make it to Tingri
by 6p.m. since 6p.m. had already come and gone. Coming down off this final pass
we could see Everest looming large in the distance. This was one of the best
views of it I have seen! It was getting dark but Everest was still in the
sun and at the same time a huge full moon had just come up! Everest just
stood out not unlike the way Pikes Peak stands out. Yes, I know, many of you
would cringe at the thought of putting Pikes Peak and Everest in the same
sentence but I have seen Everest many times from many places so you will
just have to go with me on this: Most everything in the Everest area is
already at 17,000' as far as the “base” goes so you are seeing about
12,000' of mountain beside a couple of other REALLY big mountains all
surrounded by a zillion big mountains so as big as Everest is a lot of times
it kind of gets lost. Pikes, as you know, is 8,000' of mountain next to
nothing so it just looks pretty darn big! If you follow me on that great,
otherwise I guess you will just have to trust me or chalk it up to my
personal bias — not just for Pikes but Colorado in general:-) That being
said, the combo of the full moon and Everest still in the sunlight was just
awesome. Soon however Everest was out of site and the road turned to mud
and once again the travel became very very slow. We got into Xigar at 9:00p.m. and
sat another 40 minutes while we hired 2 more jeeps to take us the final 1 h
35 mins to Tingri. I would have preferred Xigar because that is where we
have always stayed and where I have found all of my fossils. However by
staying in Tingri we will eliminate the 3 h 10 min roundtrip drive on race
day. It was only after we got to Tingri that I learned that this place has
electricity for 3 hours a night and the bathrooms are 3 holes in the ground
outside and down the sidewalk a ways. I managed to fill about 3 water
bottles my first night because there was NO way I was doing that routine 5-6
times a night. (Before I go on and since this is my second mention of using
water bottles as toilets: These are the water bottles that the water we buy
comes in — not water bottles like you would put on your bike. Just thought
I would clarify lest some of you wonder if you ever see me with a water
bottle:-) Anyway, we got to Tingri at 11:10pm or 14 hours and 50 minutes after we
started the 182 mile trip. Now out of fairness we only had 10 hours and 10 minutes of
actual driving time so that brings our average up to a very bumpy 17.9 miles
per hour!!! Again we are talking the MAIN road in Tibet!!! The people that
do Lhasa to Kathmandu as a bike tour are looking smarter all the time! While
everyone else went to eat I jumped in bed. I have eaten tons of Power Bars
and can not count on getting much sleep tomorrow — the night before the
race — so the plan here is to trade a bad meal for a good sleep.
Long paragraph for a long day!
Tuesday, October 6, 1998 (day before the race)
I woke slowly! The cold crept in while we slept once the generator for the
power was turned off. Well the generator would not have made a difference
because it only powers one light bulb per room so change that to just “the cold
crept in while we slept.” However, so as not to waste a sentence let the first version serve as a
reminder that the electricity does not come from the local power plant. We are
at 14,350' now and no matter how hot the sun makes it in the day — hot as
hell — it gets very cold at night. I started the day with some psyche tests
where we were asked to find certain symbols among tons of symbols. After the test
we were asked to right down which symbol was the hardest to find so to keep
things interesting I made up my own symbol and said it was the hardest to
find because it was not there. Kind of stupid I guess but after yesterday’s
“fun” I decided to lighten up a bit — the trip has been a hard one and a
bunch of athletes are starting to look worn around the edges. If in fact
they are not puking!
Then a quick check of our oxygen saturation and heartrates. Most of the
saturation numbers came in about the same however my pulse at 52 was 24
beats lower than the next athletes, Martin, who had a 76. After many years I
have learned that numbers can fool you and often mean nothing, but in the
dark mental times before a race any positive can be a life saver! Bottom line 52
is a good number at 14,350'.
Next we went for some photo shoots. I managed to get the camera guy to shoot
some extra ones for me with Everest in the background:-)
After lunch (they cooked pasta) I did the course drive. I already know the
course well but if Martin turns this into a dogfight I want one less thing
to worry about. Besides, I took a wrong turn in ’93 and ’96 so perhaps there
really are some side effects to running with no air;-)
Rest of the day will be spent just kicking back and relaxing.
Hugh Jones, the 1982 winner of the London Marathon in 2:09:24 just finished
measuring our course. The Skyrunners organization brought him over to
validate the course so that they can submit this as an official record! It
turns out that in ’94 and ’96 we were 460 meters short of 26.2. On the grand
scheme of things this works out to just under 2 minutes which I think was
pretty darn incredible when on considers the terrain on which we run the
course on. On the downside this means I am going to have to run about 2
minutes faster just to get a course record. Skyrunners are really wanting a
new record and were psyched after my Cooper test and I feel the pressure to deliver. My goal pace should
accomplish this but this just cuts the margin even closer. Martin too has
been studying my splits from my 2h56 in ’94.
Wednesday, October 7, 1998 (race day)
I wake up a little quicker today. Of course that is due to the fact that
there was not a whole lot of sleeping going on. Managed to fill 5 water
bottles throughout the night. I also had my first little run in with Mr.
Diarrhea and had to make the trip outside and to the hole. This morning’s
production was already better and I should be fine by the 11:30a.m. start.
Some plain toast and crackers should take care of it.
The plan is to take 5 Power Gels with me and space them out over the
approximately 3 hours. Otherwise it is going to be straight water and lots
of it because we have aid stations at every 5K and even closer sometimes. I
am going to eat my first Power Gel at about 8K (5 miles) because I think I
often wait too long (15 miles or so) and it then becomes much harder on my
stomach. The team doctor agrees with my theory but convinced me to move my
first one from 5K to the now planned 8K.
Well better stop typing lest I miss the start. Be back in a few:-)
DONE! 2:52:57, the win, a course record and an official world marathon altitude record recognized by AIMS:-)
I can not imagine a much more
satisfied feeling! Although I have won 5 of the 6 key races I did this year
they have not been in the hoped for times or at least up to my potential as
indicated by my training. This justifies in my mind all the hard work!
I took the lead at 2 minutes and never was challenged. I set the high/low
limits on my pulse monitor at 155 and 160 and played “ping pong” as the
alarms sounded. Although I have worn a monitor a lot this year (my regular
watch broke) I do not like to let it dictate my pace. However this race in
particular is the perfect race to let it do so. The slightest variations in
terrain can send the pulse up or down 10 beats without you even noticing it.
More importantly, by the time you do notice it is too late. The small 5 beat
range I selected meant I had to concentrate a great deal!
Martin was about 45 seconds back at 5k. This was our first aid station and I
grabbed a bottle and drank half of it on the run. At 8k I ate a Power Gel.
The plan worked! It went down very easy and did not cause any problems like
most of the other times. At the next aid station I was at 40:02 which was 9
seconds ahead of my ’94 split despite the fact that they added the 460
meters to the beginning of the race so I was flying. However I only gained
15 more seconds on Martin. After some more water I hammered the next
section. This is a two loop course and it is slightly uphill on the way out
and so I really could move on the slight downhill on the way back. “Slight”
is the key word here because it is perhaps only a 50 meter drop over 10k. However
at 14,350' it is amazing what an effect this can have on the pace. After
only 12 more minutes I added another whole minute on Martin so I was now at
2 minutes. I also took my second — and as it turns out last — Power Gel
and again it went down great. At 20K I had a five minute lead and that was
the last time I worried about that. I was at 1:18:50 so I was over a minute
ahead of plan so in hindsight I may have pushed too hard to get away from
Martin. My main worry now was that my groin was getting stiff. I
concentrated on keeping more of a shuffle stride to lesson the impact on it.
On the uphill on the way back out I was able to press the pulse up over 160
for a while but then I stared to have a slight bad patch as I realized I
still had about 1h30 of running to go. I quickly decided I would “simulate”
my Garden of the Gods lunch run with Paul and Jim. I convinced myself that I
had to run only 20 more minutes before I met them and this would get me to
the 27K point. I then ran “with” them for the next 5K to finish the uphill
portion and put me at the 32K point. I actually held an out loud
“conversation” with them that was pretty funny and I caught myself laughing.
I did not need to finish “our” run however because with only 10K to go and
most of it slightly downhill I was psyched and did not need to play any more
games. I was feeling strong enough that I did not feel the need for any more
Power Gels and in fact this would be my last water. I was still perfectly on
my goal pace (2:08:04) but unfortunately my groin was tight enough that I
could not push the slight down hill like last time. However this is the best
I ever felt in this race and I was able to cruise in and enjoy it. Martin
faded badly to 4th and the second runner was 33 minutes back! There was some
serious dying going on out there on that second lap!!! My record was all the
more sweet because of the longer course and the fact that when I set it the
last time a Kenyan runner was with me for all of the first lap and I was
pushing hard to leave him on the second lap. This was a true solo effort.
The recovery went fast although my groin is tight. I passed a lot of time
taking pictures with the Tibetan runners. Unlike other years, some of them
finished the whole marathon and a few did quite well. Over the
last few days we have had lots of laughs trying to learn different words
in each other’s languages. They even showed me how to write my name
in Chinese and Tibetan. I gave them 5 pair of new running shoes and tried
to convince them to wear them only for running so they would last longer
but I am not sure if I got the point across. Or rather, I am not sure that they saw
the logic of getting new shoes and being told to wear their old shoes with holes
in them for most of the day.
A great plain pasta dinner leaves me now writing this. Tomorrow is the big drive back to
Kathmandu!
I MUST SLEEP NOW:-) Well perhaps not — all the runners (except the Tibetans)
just came into the
room and are discussing why they all died on the second lap. The consensus
seems to be the hell day in the truck two days ago. I tend to agree that was
*a* factor. Even now my arms are still sore from bracing myself on the bumps
and yesterday my stomach muscles felt like I had done a thousand sit-ups.
However the *main* difference between me and them was that most of them got
sick at some point eating the local food where as I stuck to my Power Bar and
rice plan. Also I think they expose themselves to far too much local
air on their daily pilgrimages to see the sites. That is a hard call to make
however because in all honesty I approach this is a “job” and for
them this trip is a
chance of a lifetime. But perhaps because I approach it like a “job” I have
been invited back 5 times now and I have seen in those 5 times more than
they could ever see in one trip;-) I stand on a soap box perhaps but I am
not sitting around upset about my race. I sincerely believe you can not have
your cake and eat it too on a trip like this. You are here to site see or
you are here to race. With a few precautions (no local food, almost always
wearing my mask) I can do most of the site seeing and all of the race:-)
Thursday, October 8, 1998
Drive to Kathmandu! The big news is we are taking jeeps instead of a bus —
again probably because the bus is still stuck in the mud! This should cut
the drive down tons and in fact we left at 8:20a.m. instead of the planned
5a.m.! We stopped on Tugla Lu pass. This is where we did the 1995 marathon at
a relatively constant 17,060'. It is at the base of Shisha Pangma one of the
top 10 highest mountains in the world. I hope they have this race again but
it is doubtful. The expense and logistics of both of these races in Tibet is
just to crazy! They are talking about moving the marathon to Lhasa so that
we could fly in and out. Too bad because the current course is in one of the
most beautiful and inspiring settings in the world.
The drive was very long — 13 hours total — but one of the smoothest of the
6 times (up and down in ’95) I have been on the road. Another advantage to
the jeeps was that we were much lower to the ground than on the bus so the
2,000' cliffs felt like they were whole 2 feet away instead of 2 inches. However
the jeeps were much faster and several of us held our breath a couple of
different times as we faced what we thought was certain death.
When we reached the Tibet/China Nepal border we all had to pile into the
luggage truck again for the 8k journey between “no man’s land” which lies
between the two border towns. To fit us all in we removed the bike from the
truck that Hugh had used to measure the course. I got to ride it down five of the strangest
miles in the world. You go between two border cities
that are just too crazy to put into words! Just picture two “gypsy/cardboard” cites filled
with people trying to make a living by 1) converting money, 2) hauling
luggage the 5 miles (most can not afford the luxury of a special truck
and in fact walk the five miles) or 3) selling “last/first chance”
souvenirs. The first and last 800 meters are the most polluted of the whole
trip as far as garbage goes. The middle 4K are just awesome however and I
must say the ride was the most fun I have in the five
times I have come over! I flew by cars and trucks that were stuck in lines and/or mud. The
whole way I think I only had to pedal 3 times:-) Again to put the road in
perspective I beat the truck on this short section by almost an hour!!! At
the end you cross the “friendship” bridge were they have a big red line painted in the middle of it —
how appropriate.
The rest of the drive I thought a lot about the race. I should have broken
the 2h50 barrier. I think I should have kept pushing the Power Gels. The
whole plan to move them forward was to start before I needed them. That
worked great! I should have kept it up while I was feeling good however
because I could have perhaps pressed it a bit harder at the end. I am slowly
learning that when you do things in a marathon because you need to it is too
late. You have to do things before you need them. My groin did bother me a lot but
that is just pain — I was getting tired too. I told myself that I had the
record and just failed to want to continue to hurt. Oh well, I am always
hard on myself — it is how I learn.
Did a 20 minute run on the hotel track and then went for the AYCE (all you can eat)
dinner. I had 9 chocolate covered doughnuts in honor of the doughnuts I
missed on top off Pikes Peak while on this trip:-)
Friday, October 9, 1998
Sitting here on the bed at 7:00a.m. getting ready to face two days of travel.
I still have to get in a short run and go buy a few more souvenirs. I also want to get a set of Nepalese money.
I have been debating taking out the “preachy” bit about
the other runners after the race (see above) but when have I not been known for saying
what I feel:-)
It has been an incredible trip as always. I am not as bad off as usual but
then again I still face about 20 hours of flying and another 24 hours of f___ing layovers.
Even in the 3rd world it is like two worlds — the world of the cities and the world of the
mountains. Together they make a complete package but I could feel the transformation between them.
For me one is hell and the other is heaven. I do tend to start off rather negative while I am stuck in
Kathmandu but once I am set free up high in the mountains I am awe inspired by that most
incredible place. Perhaps one day I shall make the trip when it is not “job”
related and then I may even have a different perspective of the cities. There is
something to be said for them too I know — I just can’t take the chance of
doing so while a race is on the line.
See you soon!
Matt
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