Tuesday, May 19, 2009

Namibia Day 3

Well, I am still alive and kicking. I had a better day today, since it was only 35 kilometer stage I decided to bear and grind the shoulder pain and just go for it. I finished on about 5 and a half hours, consideribly better than I have done so far, my motivation was to get to camp faster to rest for tomorrows stage which is the feared long day 100 kilometre stage, I have been barely eating since I been coming to late and my tent has the top 25 runners so its light out and sleeping by 6pm.

Today was hot, as usual we had 3 checkpoints between camps, the course started as a wide valley then quickly turned on to sharp stony ground, for about 10K then along the riverbend. I have to say the best treat was finding out that we camp next to the river, you should have seen us all jumping in the river like little kids, is amazing what little pleasures in life can bring the kids inside.

Right now the yellow jersey wearer is Salvador Calvo Redondo from Spain and Ryan Sandes is not far behind as second place, Lucy Hilton from the United Kingdom is fastest female and Lia Farley from the United States is second female. As for us Canadians, Stephanie Case a resident of Toronto and Vancouver is leading the race and Ashkan Mokhtari si fastes male not far behind Stephanie. I talked to Stephanie today and she has been struggling with stress fractures and hasn't been able to run for the last 5 months, she literally took her cast off the morning she boarded the plane to come to the race, now, that really boosted my morale, She can out run me on a cast.

Tomorrow is the long stage and will not be able to do a race report since I am anticipating to be out there on the course for about 20 hours. There is an option of stopping halfway and sleep for a few hours but right now I might rather push through. It will be touch and go since we are all getting on a bus at 3am to be transfered to another area of Namibia then literally dropped and go.

So wish me luck, I am still struggling with shoulder pain, the problem was that I didnt pack my stuff correctly yesterday and having nine kilograms bouncing on your shoulders isn't pretty, its also getting hotter so it makes it harder, but I am just going to take it easy and do my best after all, sometimes that's all we can do

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck Norma....you're doing amazing. Keep it going....I wish you a great day. Just manage yourself & you'll be fine!

Anonymous said...

Norma you are amazing! What an experience. Go for it! Feel your strength!

Anonymous said...

da

Anonymous said...

Norma, it's wonderful to hear how fabulous you are doing. Thanks for the wonderful updates.

We are having our party this evening and we are all thinking of you. I hurt my foot so can't have a pedicur tonight. Tracy can't come tonight as she is with her son and Rhonda is not able to make it tonight either, so the 4 of us will have to have our own little celebration when you are finished your run.

We are all thinking of you and wish you the best. Looking forward to hearing more of your wonderful news on your blogs. Good luck and keep going, you are doing great!!

All the best
Dagmar and the team

Anonymous said...

As long as you have hope, you have direction, the energy to move and the map to move by. You have a hundred alternatives, a thousand paths and an infinity of dreams. Hopeful you are halfway to where you want to go, hopeless you are lost forever.

Keep the faith, good luck.

Leslie said...

She is A Mexican Running Wild!

Keep strong amiga. We know you are mentally TOUGH, so take care of you. Good thoughts your way.