Checkpoint Zero/Inov-8 Team Blog
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The Coastal Challenge: Day 3 - Short and Sweet
posted Wednesday, February 07, 2007 by Team Checkpoint Zero @ 4:31 PM - 0 comments

After yesterdays hard run I had hoped for a good nights sleep, as did a lot of the other competitors. Unfortunately the camping spot we had was almost as bad as sleeping in a wind tunnel. Setting up camp was comical at times as entire tents got caught by the wind and were blown away. I managed to get several hours of sleep as the tent creaked, groaned, and flapped around me. We did however get to sleep in a bit longer as day 3 is one of the shortest days.

As I got up the stiffness from the past 2 days had not left my body and I think I have resigned myself to feeling a dull pain in my legs for the rest of the week. I knew coming into this run it would be a suffer fest, but I didn't know how much. Not only are my legs sore, the 3+ hours in the blazing sun yesterday fried the few patches of skin I had missed when applying sunscreen. I've now got some pretty bad burns on the back of my arms, and on the top of my calves. And if that isn't bad enough, I've also got some bleeding under a couple toenails, one on each foot. It feels like someone had put each toe in a vice and is gently crushing it. The doctors said if it gets bad they can take a hot needle and burn right through my toenail to relieve the pressure. I'm looking forward to that possibility.

Today's run started with a paved road leading out of Tierras Morenas, towards the rolling hills to the north. We were quickly diverted to a dirt and gravel road where we could see it rise and fall with the terrain. We passed another row of wind turbines, although they seemsed to be moving slower than yesterday. Maybe the wind would be easy on us. Maybe not. Through the entire run we were presented with winds from all 4 corners of the earth. I've never been in a place where the wind blows in so many different directions.

My most memorable view of the day came as I rounded a bend in the road and I was greeted with a little sprinkle from the spotty couds. As I looked up I could see the runner ahead of me running right into a vivid rainbow. Quite an amazing sight.

The remainder of the days run was a mixture of some pavement and more gravel road, ending in a small cluster of homes called Rio Chiquito. Today's camp site doesn't appear to be a lot better than yesterdays, there is a constant shifting wind which is making it difficult to set up tents. It's not all bad though, as the reward for todays run is the option for an extra hour hike to get to what we have been told is one of the best swimming holes in the world. I'm going to try and make it, hopefully it won't take too much out of me because tomorrow we have another long day, 50 km. If our gide book is any indication we have some big climbs again. I can't wait.

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