Seven Continent Marathons
Seven Continent Marathons
Santiago Marathon April 10, 2005
Two weeks before Santiago marathon, I checked the race website and found out that less than 100 marathoners run this race. The city of Santiago is about 2000 ft above sea level and the the marathon course was very hilly. This made me panic so much that as a backup plan I signed up to run the Sao Paulo Marathon the very next week.
I arrived in Santiago on Friday afternoon. I checked in at the hotel and went on a walking tour of the city. Santiago is at the foothills of the Andes and is one of the finest cities in South America. Within 60 miles of the city, there are snow slopes as well as awesome beaches. April is fall season in the southern hemisphere and I was hoping for a nice weather on the race day.
I went to the runners expo on Saturday and met other runners that came from US and Europe. Most runners were from Chile, Brazil and other cities in South America. Race Director Rodrigo Salas was kind enough to translate the race regulations for me as they were written in Spanish.
Sunday morning, I took a cab to the race start at O' Higgins park. It was a beautiful morning with a few clouds in the horizon. It was 45 degrees and I was hoping for a great race. We had about 200 people at the start line that included runners in the marathon, half marathon and the 10K race. After we left the park, we ran on Bernard Higgins Avenue and found out that the roads were not closed for the race. They had one lane available for the runners and vehicles were on all the other lanes. At some places, it got really dangerous and we were waiting for the local police to direct the traffic.
The first half of the course took us to vitacura lagoon and then on to Avenue Juan XXIII. The half marathoners finished at Las Condes. By then the temperature went up to 70 degrees and the sun came out too strong. I was doing the run/walk with a 5:1 ratio and it took me 4hrs and 20 minutes to get to the 20 mile mark. We ran by Avenue Grecia and I was one of the last 2 runners who were still running on the course. I was having severe lower back pain but decided to continue running. The traffic was getting heavier and I had my own police escort for the remainder of the race. People in Santiago thought I was some kind of celebrity - running with a police escort.
As I reached O'Higgins park and I could see the finish line. As I raced through the finish line, I noticed that most of the runners who finished ahead of me were still at the finish line, cheering for me. My finish time was 5:42. The elevation difference, back pain, inadequate training, the heat and the pollution caught up to me on the race day but I still managed to finish a marathon in Santiago, Chile. I can move on to races in other continents now.
I reached Stockholm on June 2. My friend Lisa was waiting for me at the Airport. We took a city tour by the boat and then went to see "Aida" at the Royal Opera. The next day, We went to the Expo and picked up my race packet. The race committee had a pasta party in the evening and it was a lot of fun. On Saturday, I went to the Olympic Stadium at 12:30 pm. I ran in to a group of runners at the baggage truck. They are soldiers from the US army and are stationed in Germany and were happy to see me. It was a beautiful day in Stockholm and a perfect running weather. After the first mile, someone shouted 'GO TEAM'. I looked back and was surprised to see 2 other runners wearing the purple singlet. Patrice Davies and Daneen Aquina were from the Illinois Chapter of TNT. They both trained with the San Diego team but ran the Stockholm marathon on their own. It was so nice to meet them in Stockholm. They are currently training for the Chicago Marathon with TNT. Stockholm Marathon, Sweden June 2005
The race was basically a two-lap course through the central parts of Stockholm. The surroundings varied from the woods of the Royal park "Djurgården" to the streets of a big city. The course passed buildings such as the Royal Palace, the City Hall, the Royal Opera and the Houses of Parliament. The course is one of the most scenic in the world. Much of the race was run along beautiful waterways.When passing the "Västerbron" bridge, we saw a fantastic view over a city with buildings ranging in age from the medieval times to the present day. The bridge was very hilly and it was the only tough part of the entire course.
I met Björn Serving at a water stop after mile 12. He was running his first marathon with some ankle injuries and wanted to drop out of the race. I offered to help him out and ran the rest of the marathon with him. Lisa and Björn's family were our own cheering section in the crowd. After 5 hours and 45 minutes, We finished in the world famous stadium built for the 1912 Olympic Games. The Olympic Stadium has been the site of numerous memorable athletic performances, with no less than 83 officially recognized world records in track and field. I was happy to finish the marathon. I ran this marathon in honor of my dad, a cancer survivor for 25 years.
Sydney Marathon, Australia September 11, 2005
I left for Sydney on Wednesday, September 7. After the bike incident the previous week, I wasn't quite sure what will happen on the race day. Not only the marathon had a cut off time of 5 hrs and 30 minutes but there was also 5 intermediate cut off points at miles 13 (2:45), 16.5 (3:35), 19.6 (4:15), 21 (4:35) and 24 (5:00).
I reached Sydney on Friday morning after surviving a 14 hr flight. I reached the hotel and met with the other 3 runners who traveled with Absolutely Amazing Travel. I was delighted as well as surprised to find out that David Parrish, Rasha Prince and John Prince are TNT alumni. Rasha and John are running the Long Beach Marathon for the third time with TNT next month and David ran the Rock N' Roll half marathon in Phoenix.
We went to the race expo to pick up our race kits. After that, we walked to the Sydney harbour bridge and spent some time taking pictures. I went to sleep when we reached the hotel as the jet lag finally kicked in. For those of you curious to know, Sydney is 14 hrs ahead of the eastern time zone. In the evening I watched "La Boheme" at the Sydney Opera House. Saturday morning, we went for the city sightseeing tour and had a great time visiting some of the most famous landmarks in the city.
On Sunday, September 11, we arrived at the starting area at 5:30 am as the half marathon started at 6:30 am. (David and John were to run the half and myself and Rasha were to run the marathon) Rasha chose to run with me to help me finish the race. As we waited for the marathon to start, at 7:15 am it got very cold with slight rain showers falling on to the ground. The rain stopped as soon as the race started and it turned out to be a beautiful day.
The first part of the race was a gradual climb to the Sydney Harbour Bridge and then on to the city streets with rolling hills. We were able to keep a steady pace of 10 min miles for the first 3 miles. I stopped at a water stop and stretched but asked Rasha to move on. I kept running on my own but at a much slower pace. The next part of the race took us to the eastern suburbs and then on to the Centennial park before heading back to the city. This section had some flat sections but also some up and down hills.
After I finished the first half, I felt some serious pain in my left shoulder. Because of this I started to run/walk with a 5:1 ratio. That seemed to have eased the pain a little bit. The next part of the course took us to the darling harbour flyover and then on to the city west link highway with some major hills. Because of this, I slowed down quite a bit but made the next 2 cut off points in good time. I lost my focus due to some serious mental games and reached the Glebe Island bridge (21 miles) at 11:45 am.
The next 5 miles took us back to the darling Harbour flyover before climbing up to the Observatory Hill and down into the Cahill Corkscrew and on to the Opera House forecourt finish line. I now had less than an hour to finish the marathon. As I struggled through the thought of running another 5 miles, I happened to see Rasha on the turn around and talked to her. She reminded me that I am celebrating my honored teammate's successful completion of the active treatment for Leukemia. That's all I needed to get back in to a very positive attitude. I ran the rest of the way and stopped only after I crossed the finish line. I felt great and finished very strong.
Marine Corps Marathon October 30, 2005
When I returned from Australia in September, I made plans to run the
Singapore Marathon in December. But things changed and I ended up running the Marine Corps Marathon in October.I first read about Claire in Brandon's website in June 2005. Since then I had been reading Claire's caring bridge website every day.
http://www2.caringbridge.org/md/clareschmidt/
I never met Claire in person, but like many others I was amazed by her fight against Leukemia. 2 weeks after I returned from Australia, Claire died. At first, I was so shocked and devastated. Then I decided to run the Marine Corps Marathon in honor of Claire.
I had enough training runs in the summer, so running another marathon did
not seem like a problem. Plus, the TNT fall season was not over yet. I did some more training runs with the team and I was ready for the race. Of course, I can't seem to run a marathon without a major drama these days. A week before the race, I had a bad toothache. The low dosage of pain killers did not help me, So I had the tooth extracted just 3 days before the marathon.
Sunday, October 30 was a beautiful day. This year's race also happened to
be the 30th anniversary of the Marine Corps Marathon. There were more than 30,000 runners signed up to run the marathon. The race was organized in 2 different waves. I was in the Gold wave, which started at 8:45 am.
I walked to the Rosslyn metro. I ended up meeting Shannon, Rich and a few
other TNT runners. We reached the pentagon north parking lot by 7:15 am. The national capital area chapter met very close to the baggage trucks. I met with coaches Jim, Cindy, Craig and Chip as well as other teammates.
The race started in Rosslyn and went through Lee Highway and then on to key bridge by spout run parkway. We then ran through Georgetown, Rock Creek Parkway, Kennedy Center to get on the Mall. We then ran up to the Capitol, and then ran by the Tidal Basin to Haines point. The course then went by the 14th Street bridge followed by Crystal City and the Pentagon. Then we ran through route 110 to finish at the Marine Memorial.
I ran at a good pace for the first 10 miles of the race. My friends Kevin
and Yvette met me at mile 10. Yvette decided to run with me for the next
6 miles. My legs gave up after 12 miles and I decided to walk the rest of
the way to the finish line. Yvette stayed with me until the very end. Kevin met us again at mile 25 and walked with us to the finish line.
Claire gave me the strength and the courage I needed to run this marathon
and Yvette helped me finish it by staying with me for the last 16 miles. More than 700 TNT runners and walkers crossed the finish line with just one goal in our minds - To find a cure for blood cancers.
I reached Singapore on Thursday night after a 20 hr flight from Washington DC. It is one of the smallest tropical islands in southeast Asia. Mainland Singapore is 26 miles in length and 14 miles in breadth and the land mass is only 250 square miles. The outside temperature was 85 degrees at midnight and it was very humid. Friday morning, I went to the race expo to collect my race packet. There I met some runners from my friend's local running group. They were leading the 5:30 pace group in the marathon and invited me to join them. I thought about it for a minute and agreed. The pasta party on Saturday was amazing. The race authorities had invited all of the elite runners to participate in the pasta party. It was nice to meet with some of the best runners in the world. Sunday morning, I reached the esplanade park at 5 am in the morning. It was very hot and humid and I was sweating so much even before the race had started. The gun went off at 6 am. The first part of the race took us on the Esplanade Bridge to Raffles Quay to Marina Park. Someone in the crowd yelled 'GO TEAM' and I looked around to find another TNT alumni running the half marathon. From Marina Park we went on to Prince Edward Road to Nicoll Highway. By then the temperature had gone up to 90 degrees and the humidity was near 95%. I stopped at every water stop and poured some ice cold water over my head. It was my first experience running a marathon in such extreme conditions. The next 7 miles took us to East Coast Park, which was shaded in most of the areas. It really helped the slow runners because we were on the course for more than 3 hrs already. Most of the elite runners had dropped out of the race by then. We saw some elite runners wrapped up in Ice at medical stations all along the way. From the park we headed towards stadium drive and then on to Marina Promenade. We then ran by St.Andrews Road and finished by the Padang area. The crowd support was incredible all along the way. I am so happy to have achieved my goals this year. I ran races in 5 continents - met new people - made new friends - met a few TNT alumni in 3 different continents. I am very inspired by all of my TNT friends - coach Cindy, Shannon Mitchell, Jim Rauer, Mark Shipley, Daryle Lademan, Bruce Barishman and others. Thanks to all the patient heroes - Alex Flowe, Kathi Mcneil, Claire Schmidt and Peggy Goode, to name a few. You guys have taught me more about hope and perseverance than any one else. I arrived at Johannesburg on Tuesday morning and met David Kenney (New York), Steve Middleton (Queensland), Noelle Sheridan (California), Ellen Straver (Amsterdam) and Bob and Sue Bundschuh (Missouri) at the Airport. We reached Entabeni game reserve at 3 pm and a ranger took us to our tents. I was assigned tent # 17. The tent was quite fascinating and had all the amenities. My roommate Colin Smith (Houston) arrived along with Maria Wood (New South Wales) at 4 pm. Colin had spent 2 months at an East London township and was very familiar with South Africa. We were the English speaking group and the rest of the runners were all from Albatross Travels based in Denmark. The winter in South Africa was very severe this year. The night temperatures were in low 30's and day time temperatures were in high 40's to low 50's. I did not have any winter gear with me as I had packed all T-shirts and shorts. Luckily I was able to buy some winter clothes at the game reserve. Every night we would meet by the bonfire and exchanged stories while drinking hot chocolate. After dinner, one of the rangers escorted us back to our tents as the lions visited the camp site all the time. The very first night at the tent, we heard some lion roaring at a distance and it was getting closer and closer. In about few minutes we could see a lioness outside our tent. She walked around our tent (aren’t we lucky?) just to tell us that we are in her territory. The next day morning we could see her paw prints all around our tent. The next few days we did some morning and evening game drives. The game drives at sunset and night were spectacular. The night sky was beautiful and we saw so many stars and planets. We saw many animals including lions, leopards, rhino's, impala's, buffalo, wildebeest, elephants, giraffes, jackals, hyenas, zebras and more. The day before the marathon we did the course tour and it took us almost 4 hours. The course had steep climbs and downhill slopes, hard sandy surfaces, gravel roads, large rocks and stones. We were given instructions for the race day. The Antarctica Marathon is in February 2007 and I decided to stay at the back of pack to avoid any injuries. Steve and Sue decided to join me and we called ourselves the 'Tea Ladies' and ran together for most of the marathon. The start and the finish line were both situated at Lakeside Lodge. After the start, the marathon route took the runners past Ravine side Lodge, the Entabeni Monolith and further on to the lower plateau. There were rangers posted at every 3 kilometers and the water stops were at every 4/5 kilometers. Our route took us through the valley. Back on the upper escarpment, the route took us through “The Loop” where we ran through a small valley on a circular route of about 6 km between the valleys' two rock faces. There was a slight climb and corresponding descent as we exited the valley. The running surface was reasonable with scatterings of stony patches. On the lower plateau the route took us to”lion land” and went up to the valley one more time. I saw a leopard on one of the rocks on the hill and froze on the scene. After about 5 minutes the leopard disappeared and I was on my way. We reached the end of the valley at the 39 km mark and entered the home stretch. We ran halfway down the ridge with a wonderful view out over the Plateau's lake. The route climbed steeply the rest of the way towards our goal and the surface was bad, consisting of hard uneven stony ground with plenty of large rocks and stones of all sizes. I had the adrenalin rush for the last 2 miles and started running as fast as I could and finished very strong. Bob Bundschuh finished his marathon in South Africa and became the 152nd member of the seven continents club. His sister Sue was there to run with him to share the glory. Noelle Sheridan ran a good marathon and is trying to become the first woman runner to complete marathons in seven continents in a calendar year. Steve finished well with an amazing finish time of 6:59:08 and Ellen Straver was the 2nd woman to finish the big five marathon. We all bonded well and had an amazing time. All of us agreed to do a reunion run in Australia/New York next year. I had such an amazing time; I did not want to leave South Africa. I do plan to go back there again some day. I loved the simplicity, nature and a peaceful/quiet life at the game reserve. For the 9 days I stayed at the game reserve - there were no outside contacts - there was nothing to worry about. Four years ago I ran my first marathon in memory of some lives lost to cancer. Two years ago I seized upon a moment - I took a chance in my life and made a new goal - to run marathons in all the 7 continents and I have one more to go. I am very glad to tell you all that I have never done any thing like this in my entire life and could not have done it without each and every one of you. Lot of you has asked me about my plans after completion of races in 7 continents. Life is all about taking chances and having no regrets. I will seize upon another one of those moments and will simply follow along and play my part. After all, God does have some mysterious ways. Two years ago when I signed up to run the Antarctica marathon, I was very excited. I don't know If I will ever be able to truly describe my experiences in Antarctica but I enjoyed every moment of my stay. Antarctica is a beautiful place. I felt very humbled after I met all of the other runners in Buenos Aires. Every one of them had a very impressive running resume.After a 3 day stay in Buenos Aires we left for Ushuaia to board Sergei Akademik Vavilov, a state of the art research ship. We had an unusual calm seas as we crossed the drake passage to reach King George Island on the Antarctica peninsula. The race crew from Marathon Tours took off on a zodiac to the Russian base to map the course for the event and we cruised the nearby islands. The day before the race we were briefed on the course and race day instructions. The 6 am wake-up call over the Vavilov confirmed the weather forecast for the day - high winds(25 miles per hour), sub-zero temperatures and heavy snow. Everyone was wearing full winter clothing in preparation for a wet landing. However the idea of taking any of the layers off to run wasn’t particularly appealing. The course was a figure of eight looping backwards and forwards from the Russian base. The course went through the Uruguayan, Chilean, Chinese and the Russian research stations. The half marathoners would run the course once and the full marathoners twice. Within minutes I realized that this was going to be a punishing run, the strong crosswind was carrying snow, which hit my face like tiny shards of glass. The terrain underfoot was constantly changing, deep mud, streams, ice, snow and rocks. The drifts were so deep it was often impossible to tell what was underfoot until your foot plunged into an icy puddle or jarringly hit a rock. Sometimes the snow was so deep I couldn’t tell what was beneath and my foot might sink through to a pool of water of a large boulder. Just a mile into the run and people were already forced to walk. We had been warned about the glacier but the steep hills on the approach were among the most challenging I’ve ever faced. After 3 miles I hit the beach…more like a quarry with large boulders and ravines carved by the glacial runoff. Not a single one of us managed to run up the glacier that loomed ahead, even hiking up left me wheezing and feeling dizzy. It just went on and on for ever, with no protection from the elements. The second loop took us along the shore to the Chilean base and out to the Chinese base. This part of the course was the most strenuous because of the strength of the headwinds and the soft, deep snow. As I approached the half way point it became clear that the challenge was to complete the course and time became irrelevant. I finished the first half in about 3 hours and 15 minutes. I changed my shoes after the first half to avoid any frost bite issues. The second half of the course was hard, the legs were weak, and the weather had worsened with the wind chill getting well below zero.The snow on the glacier had frozen and the glacier ascent and descent became very difficult for me. It took me an hour to complete the glacier ascent and descent. My toes went really numb after running in the icy puddle. I kept telling myself that failure was not an option and moved along, slowly and steadily. I thought about each and every one of you and the honored teammates. Every runner encouraged me by yelling 'GO TEAM' as they ran past me. At times I was in real pain, I have never pushed my body harder and I finished the marathon in exactly 7 hours and 52 minutes. This is one of the toughest marathons that I have ever run and some day I would go back to Antarctica to run it again. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. I could not have done it without your help.Singapore Marathon, December 5, 2005
Big Five Marathon, Entabeni Game Reserve, South Africa
Antarctica Marathon, King George Island, Antarctica Feb 26, 2007
The one mile crossing from the ship to the shore was a challenging start to the day, the high waves lifting the zodiacs out of the water before slamming us back down. There was no changing facilities nor toilets. Everyone was huddled beneath a hut on the Russian base to change; our fingers were freezing as we battled against the driving snow to get changed.