Getting up at the usual ungodly hour today was a little harder than usual. It felt so good to sleep, especially because that beer I had right before bed did a lot to knock me out. The extra adventure hike we did yesterday helped as well. Since yesterday was a short day, we had an optional side trip to go and see some waterfalls that were near by. It was a 45 minute buss ride, followed by a 1.5 km hike. The trip was well worth it as the falls were a couple hundred feet high pouring into a pool at the bottom. Because of certain suspended particles in the water it had a very blue color. The water was cold, but most people took a dip anyway. On the way back our animated bus driver stopped beside some old man with a bucket on the side of the road. He turned to us and said something in spanish which basically came down to "coconut bars, 100 colones." That's about twenty US cents. I got one and it was a nice little treat. Tasted sort of like the center of a Mounds bar.

Todays run was the second longest of the week, just under 50 km. I had taken it easy yesterday because I wanted to make sure I had enough to get me though today. As we gathered for the start by moonlight, daylight finally broke and with another "OK, time to go" we took off towards the mountain we spent the night under. It was a grueling hike to the top on the gravel road that wound back and forth as each switchback took us higher. This kept the pack reasonably close together at first, as even the strongest could only muster a fast walk up most of it. As we reached the top we were greeted to another beautiful view of the valley that spread out below us. I tried to take it really easy on the downhill here as I didn't want to blow out my quads this early in the game, we'd barely been out 40 minutes.

At the bottom of the hill we were greeted by the volunteers of check point 1 serving up wonderful fresh fruit and room temperature water and sports drink, the norm for most of our check points. We followed the road it took us by some residences, rolling up and down and I happily clicked away the kilometers under the cool morning light.

Most of the run today was road, the best view of the day was after coming out of a small town where we were treated to a great view of (what I assumed to be) an inactive volcano. Today was one of the few days that I ran with anyone for more than a couple kilometers and I rather enjoyed the company while I had it. As we left CP 3, I was left by the fellow I was running with who was having a breakout day. Most of the rest of the day I ran alone along country roads, passing the occasional family sitting on their porches probably wondering what the heck would posses us to run in the heat that set in as the day wore on.

After what seemed an eternity I finally made it to the last CP of the day, at which point we were supposed to have only 7 km left. The guys manning the point were excited as they said the "surprise" was coming up, although they hadn't seen it. The racers had been asked the night before if everyone knew how to swim, so it was obvious we were doing some kind of river crossing. As I left the CP I was pretty excited, as the trail turned from the road and got onto some small single track which wound down through the woods. "Why couldn't we do more of this?" I wondered. As I came down a little hill I saw a fence line that had a decent trail beside it so I took off down the fence. I hadn't seen any marks, but it seemed like the best way to go. I was running for about a minute and I saw a foot long lizard streak off the trail and into the woods. I thought it was a little odd as there was a guy right ahead of me and he should have scared it off. I went a few minutes further and saw another lizard. Something was wrong. At this point I still hadn't seen a mark and was very nervous so I decided to turn around and make sure I didn't miss anything. As I headed back I wound up on some other trail, and I knew I hadn't been there before. I had a split moment of fear that I would get lost in the woods of Costa Rica and never find my way out. Not a pretty thought especially as I was feeling good today and was having a good run. As I turned back around I finally saw the marks that I was looking for, trail had taken a left turn onto a freshly cut trail through the woods.

As the trail scrambled up and down some steep little hills all of a sudden I heard water. "I must be close!" I thought. As I made my way to the water I was met by a volunteer who told me to follow the small river upstream and there would be more people to guide me along the way. What followed was a really cool section of canyoneering. We crossed the river at least 5 times, wading through parts, hopping on rocks for others. Coming around the final bend I heard a waterfall and stopped for a moment to snap a picture. If only we could have ended there. Instead, we took a short trail up to the parking lot for the falls and followed a very dry and boring road. Getting in the water was great, but as I got out on the road and looked at my watch I kept think that I'd already run 7 km and I should be done now. I thought that about 4 times. Finally I got to a small dusty orchard of some kind where I saw the trucks and runners that finished before me.

As I made my way over to the lunch table to get some more water and some food I was surprised to find some excellent ceviche the cooks had prepared. It was wonderful cool treat for such a long hot run. I talked with the other runners and they also thought that the finish was a little more than what was stated, but I made it, and it wasn't that far off. Soon after finishing we were presented with another treat, Coca Cola on the rocks. That was the first ice I had seen all week. I savored my small cup and when I was done dumped the ice into my sport drink to cool that off.

When enough other runners had made it in we got on one of the little tour buses and rode back to the falls, this time for a nice swim. It was enjoyed by all and was much better than the very weak showers that they have at this camp. On the way back, we convinced the driver to stop and let us buy some more cold drinks. As we stopped and people started filing off the bus the announcement was made that the place was closed. Drat. We went a little further and found a second, this one was open. We were rejoicing. As we made our way off the bus the second time the announcement was made that they didn't have any cold drinks. Back on the bus again. We tried 2 more places but no one was open in this small no light town. Dejected, we headed back to camp to more luke warm water.

Tomorrow (Thursday) will be our only shuttle during our 6 day run. The buses leave at 4:30 AM, so that means breakfast at 2:00 or so. Not much sleep to be had tonight. Good thing it's a relatively short day at only 32 km. We're going to be ending at the beach tomorrow, I can't wait.

Many of the racers have mentioned to me that they really enjoy the shout outs, so keep them coming. The race staff printed out each persons and handed them out mail call style last night. It was a great motivator for many people, including myself. We've only got 2 days left, but it's been a great race so far and a fantastic experience for everyone.

Peter