Land Ho!

Land Ho! We cruised into the docks in Ushuaia right around 0700 and disembarked around 0800. There was a lot of good-byes being said for those that were not doing the Fin Del Mundo marathon. I used Mike’s phone to call Linda and was sad to hear two things: one was that Trinity, one of the show-dogs had died quickly and unexpectedly of a virus just before she left for the US, and the second was about my US based expense report being held up for some questions. Kind of back to reality.

I said good bye to Mike and thanked him for coming and him vice versa. We then boarded busses to the hotel and getting all of our luggage and stuff straightened out. We had to wait a long time for the rooms to be sorted out and we all kind of hung out in the downstairs area, either around the fireplace or the coffee shop. I was hoping and tried to get a room by myself, but that was either not possible or I did not try hard enough. I ended up with a guy named Dan Powell, who at first would seem to be ok, but later would prove to be a nightmare (literally!).

After getting settled in and kind of unpacking, I took a trip into town and bought a warm set of mittens (to prevent frostbite/frostnip) and a extra woolen hat (both too late?).

I went to dinner first by myself to what was supposed to be a great place called Kuar on the beach, but then joined up with the father/daughter couple of Karen and Paul. They are and were very nice. I ordered King Crab (the specialty) and was disappointed, while their steak and chicken looked really good!

Later that night, we went out with a small group including Susanne and Adam. We (they) drank some at the local Irish bar and then we went to a local casino where I played poker. I had so many great hands, but when I did, the dealer did not stay in or vice versa. I ended up losing around $25, but could have won about $100, but it was fun anyway.

It was a late evening by my standards and ended up getting in at 230 am (!), only to find Dan SNORING loudly and continuously. Despite being totally tired and late, I could not hope to drown out his snores from his twin bed just 4 feet from my own twin bed. I ended up putting on headphones and the iPod, which only worked when I cranked up the volume and ended up going to sleep maybe an hour or so later. Arrggggg!

Saturday March 5th

A completely beautiful weather day with full sunshine and warm (15c) temperatures. We were all hoping this was the race day (of course it was not), as the day before had seen sideways rain, cold and massive wind. Many of us went on a guided tour of the national park which was completely beautiful. Something like 150,000 acres of protected park and woodlands underneath jagged snowcapped mountains, meadows, lakes etc. So beautiful beyond words, really put Yosemite to shame if you can believe that. We took a couple of hikes in the forest and I forgot how nice that was. It reminded me a little of California with the clean air and high trees and soft trails.

We also got a view of what our run would start out at as we were at the “end of the road”, where Route 3 ends at a late. It was something like 10,000 miles straight up to the end of Alaska and 18,000 kilometers. We drove along the gravel road and tried to assess the race for the following day.

Afterwards and after the non existent sleep night, I came home and took a long delicious nap from around 300 pm until just after the planned dinner start at around 745 pm. It was great and Dan left me alone. We had the traditional carbo load dinner of some kind of pasta and mystery meat sauce, not that good but filling.

The main speculation was what to wear! Would it be warm or cold, rainy or not, cold later etc.???

I tentatively decided to wear my turtleneck cotton warm top and thin windbreaker top, polypro pants without long underwear, bring wool hat and ski gloves, and wear my Gore-Tex trail running waterproof shoes. But we would all see what the weather was when we woke up and decided to count on the worst and hope for the best!

Another non great sleep night! I decided to try to beat Dan to sleep and I kept trying to rush myself and of course the more I did, the less I succeeded! We watched stupid shows that he liked including The Bachelor, where he commented on how hot the chicks were and other such sublime comments.

I tried to race him to sleep which obviously does not work and I almost made it, before he was loudly and terribly snoring again. I did manage to go to sleep off and on before awakening again at 330 am, wide awake and no way able to go to sleep there. So I went downstairs and laid down on the benches around the firepit and got another hour before crawling back to the room and getting another hour in before the 0545 wake up call. ARGGGHHH!