Best week so far, 550 total miles (532 land, 18 water). We are over 3,000 miles biking for the year, over 1,500 running, and just under 200 water miles.
The usual suspects (Chris Fry and Rachel for running, Mike and Rob for all-around) are still doing their damage, and we also got a great week from Katie (33 miles biking, 10.5 running), and great contributions from Beth (10 miles running) and Renee (17 miles biking).
As for our travels, we continued across the Darien Gap, crossing from Panama to Colombia along the way. We passed through several major cities, and also several national parks (here's a pretty cool picture from Panachi, aka Chicamocha National Park). We just crossed over the Colombia/Venezuela border before coming to rest.
After this current week we will be roughly 25% done with 2009, and I will update our team and individual progress. Have a good week, stay healthy out there.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Saturday, March 21, 2009
March 9 through March 15
Sorry about the late update, I have been out of town.
I was hoping we could total 500 miles this last week, and we managed to put in 499.9 (no kidding). Great job all around, I think we will soar past the 500-mile-week barrier this week.
During the second week of March we spent most of our time in Panama. About the only thing I knew about Panama, other than the canal, was the extradition of Noriega in 1989 ("God bless him and his drug money."). It turns out it is the fastest growing economy in Central America. Real estate and tourism are booming due to the low cost of living and the fact that within a single day you can visit white sand beaches on 2 different oceans, mountains, and rain forest.
Much of their economy is based upon commerce, largely due to the aforementioned Panama Canal, a project that was discussed for centuries, and attempted several times, before finally being completed. It is estimated that 27,500 lives were lost during the project, mostly to malaria and yellow fever.
We currently are hacking our way through the Darien Gap, a 100 mile stretch of undeveloped swamp and rainforest that represents the only break in the Pan-American Highway. It has remained undeveloped for ecological and political reasons, and it is home to several fascinating native tribes. Ian Hibell, a British Adventure cyclist, completed a ride from Cape Horn to Alaska from 1971 to 1973. He and 2 companions crossed the Darien Gap. If any of you think you have crossed rugged terrain with a bike, you have to watch this video. Crazy, crazy stuff.
We also totaled 16 water miles this week. We will need to pick up the pace a bit on the water miles, so all of you that have been avoiding the pool, come on in, the water is fine.
I was hoping we could total 500 miles this last week, and we managed to put in 499.9 (no kidding). Great job all around, I think we will soar past the 500-mile-week barrier this week.
During the second week of March we spent most of our time in Panama. About the only thing I knew about Panama, other than the canal, was the extradition of Noriega in 1989 ("God bless him and his drug money."). It turns out it is the fastest growing economy in Central America. Real estate and tourism are booming due to the low cost of living and the fact that within a single day you can visit white sand beaches on 2 different oceans, mountains, and rain forest.
Much of their economy is based upon commerce, largely due to the aforementioned Panama Canal, a project that was discussed for centuries, and attempted several times, before finally being completed. It is estimated that 27,500 lives were lost during the project, mostly to malaria and yellow fever.
We currently are hacking our way through the Darien Gap, a 100 mile stretch of undeveloped swamp and rainforest that represents the only break in the Pan-American Highway. It has remained undeveloped for ecological and political reasons, and it is home to several fascinating native tribes. Ian Hibell, a British Adventure cyclist, completed a ride from Cape Horn to Alaska from 1971 to 1973. He and 2 companions crossed the Darien Gap. If any of you think you have crossed rugged terrain with a bike, you have to watch this video. Crazy, crazy stuff.
We also totaled 16 water miles this week. We will need to pick up the pace a bit on the water miles, so all of you that have been avoiding the pool, come on in, the water is fine.
Friday, March 13, 2009
Lauren's Swim Meet
I meant to pass this along earlier in the week. Lauren competed in a Master's Swim meet (because she is old) this past weekend. Her results are as follows:
200 IM: 2:39.87
100 IM: 1:13.26
100 Free: 1:02.37
50 Fly: 32.01
Congratulations to her, and if anyone else has recent results to pass along, we would love to see them.
200 IM: 2:39.87
100 IM: 1:13.26
100 Free: 1:02.37
50 Fly: 32.01
Congratulations to her, and if anyone else has recent results to pass along, we would love to see them.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Dominical, Costa Rica
Wow, we really went by some cool stuff last week. We passed through Nicaragua and most of Costa Rica, covering 421 land miles in total, and 19 water miles. In Nicaragua we passed numerous volcanoes, several large fresh-water lakes, and got our first close view of the Pacific. Did you know that you can see the Pacific from Lake Nicaragua, but it is considered an Atlantic port due to its connection through the San Juan river? Well, you do now.
More spectacular sites in Costa Rica, including numerous national parks. Costa Rica is one of the world leaders in biodiversity and ecology. Not only that, but they abolished their national military over 60 years ago. That's right, all of that biodiversified goodness could be ours, they are nigh defenseless! Maybe it wouldn't be that easy to take over their country, I am sure they could slap together some sort of resistance. Besides, they seem to have a pretty good thing going sans military, they have been one of the most stable central American countries over that time span.
We rode over the Mountain of Death, so hopefully everyone got in a little hill work last week. We came to rest in a fishing village on the Pacific that is also famous for its big waves, attracting surfers from around the world.
We are just over 500 miles from reaching South America. I think if we made a big push this week we could get there. So crank out those miles, Punch-N-Pie is counting on you.
More spectacular sites in Costa Rica, including numerous national parks. Costa Rica is one of the world leaders in biodiversity and ecology. Not only that, but they abolished their national military over 60 years ago. That's right, all of that biodiversified goodness could be ours, they are nigh defenseless! Maybe it wouldn't be that easy to take over their country, I am sure they could slap together some sort of resistance. Besides, they seem to have a pretty good thing going sans military, they have been one of the most stable central American countries over that time span.
We rode over the Mountain of Death, so hopefully everyone got in a little hill work last week. We came to rest in a fishing village on the Pacific that is also famous for its big waves, attracting surfers from around the world.
We are just over 500 miles from reaching South America. I think if we made a big push this week we could get there. So crank out those miles, Punch-N-Pie is counting on you.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Honduras
We cranked through 2 countries last week (Guatemala, El Salvador), and came to rest in a third (Honduras). The weekly total was 416 miles (395 on the ground, 21 in the water). As a team, we broke the 1,000 mile barrier running, and the 2,000 mile barrier biking. Katie Green made her triumphant return after a few weeks off following knee surgery. Welcome back, Katie. Everyone keep up the good work, and keep those finger crossed for some warm weather.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
