One of the more random things I've done in my life. I found out about this the night before, and must have agreed to it in a moment of desperation. The boat pulled in to Sydney's Darling Harbour at 7 a. m. The run began at 9 a.m at Hyde Park, which is only a few blocks from downtown and the harbour and ended at Bondi Beach. We weren't registered, so we just had to jump in with the other 70,000 runners. We walked a few blocks away from the starting line and jumped in at the end of a pack. Oh yeah, there were four of us: Joel, Thomas, T.J., and myself. All muso's (musicians). We set out together. It was a beautiful day for a run. Sunny and in the 60's. The first kilometer was pretty good after I got warmed up. The beginning is always a little rough. We stayed together until about the 2nd K when Thomas had to stop for a bathroom break. He told us not to wait for him, so we kept on. The worst part about running is thinking about running. Any distractions are always welcome. At around the third mile we came across a line of shops and a hair-metal band playing "Live and Let Die" on the roof of a theatre. Sometime after this Joel decided that he was being held back by T.J. and I and took off ahead of us. T.J. and I stuck together. At the 6K mark we had to run up Heartbreak Hill, which didn't end until somewhere after the 7K mark. There was a great overlook of the skyline here. After we got to the top of Heartbreak Hill it seemed like things should be getting easier, since it was a race to the ocean, things should go downhill, right? At around the 8K mark, the ocean became visible, and I felt like I was going to make it, no problem. At the 9K mark, there was a big downhill section, and I thought about pushing the last K, but decided to stick with T.J. We could hear the glorious sounds of music coming from the 10K mark. There was a brass band playing on the side of the street. We reached the 10K mark. No sign of a finish line. Everyone still running. T.J. and I continued on. We passed the 11K ,12K, nothing. The twelfth kilometer was luckily all downhill. We finally got down to the beach at 13K, at which point we had to run on a road parallel to the beach for 1K more. T.J. and I turned the final corner and could see the finish line and gave it all we could. We crossed the finish line 1 hour and 22 minutes after we began. Joel had finished 5 minutes before us, and Thomas 5 minutes after. Joel found T.J. and I at the finish, and Joel and I went down to the beach. It was beautiful. We hung out for a while, let our legs rest, then went exploring. One side of the beach is lined with rocks that you can climb on. We perched atop a rock and watched the waves crash against the shore. We got burritos and Corona's for lunch, and then had to head back to the boat. The four of us decided that we are going to do a half-marathon within the next year in another part of the world. I'm going to have to buy better running shoes.
P.S. Thanks to those of you who are reading this and leaving comments. I hope you are enjoying it. I love receiving email, so if you want to my address is jonmerzwastaken@gmail.com. Hope everyone is well.
Jon
Friday, August 15, 2008
Isle of Pines
Aug. 6 2008
Port: Isle of Pines
Woke up late today, which isn't uncommon these days. It's easy to keep an irregular schedule when you have to make a special effort to see the sunshine. My cabin doesn't have a window, so there is no way to know what time it is except by checking the clock. Went and got some lunch with Joel. It's his birthday. We started celebrating last night after our set, which is another reason why I woke up late. (The drinks are pretty cheap at the crewbar!) We went down to the gangway and met up with Rachel, the lead singer/dancer and the rest of the band. Isle of Pines is a small island that is part of New Caledonia located directly southeast of the mainland. It is too small for our ship to dock, so the ship drops anchor a little ways away and uses smaller boats (tenders) to transport people. There is usually a wait involved with this for the crew because they allow the passengers first priority. We had to wait 45 minutes before we could get on. It was a beautiful day. Mostly sunny and 75 F degrees. There isn't much to do on this remote tropical island except swim and lounge on the beach! There is coral which you can snorkel around. It is the first place that I have snorkeled around coral. It is absolutely amazing! You have to swim 20 feet out and then you reach the coral. There is a different variety of fish everywhere you look in the most ridiculous colors you could imagine. Next time we get here, Daniel and I are planning on climbing the mountain!
Port: Isle of Pines
Woke up late today, which isn't uncommon these days. It's easy to keep an irregular schedule when you have to make a special effort to see the sunshine. My cabin doesn't have a window, so there is no way to know what time it is except by checking the clock. Went and got some lunch with Joel. It's his birthday. We started celebrating last night after our set, which is another reason why I woke up late. (The drinks are pretty cheap at the crewbar!) We went down to the gangway and met up with Rachel, the lead singer/dancer and the rest of the band. Isle of Pines is a small island that is part of New Caledonia located directly southeast of the mainland. It is too small for our ship to dock, so the ship drops anchor a little ways away and uses smaller boats (tenders) to transport people. There is usually a wait involved with this for the crew because they allow the passengers first priority. We had to wait 45 minutes before we could get on. It was a beautiful day. Mostly sunny and 75 F degrees. There isn't much to do on this remote tropical island except swim and lounge on the beach! There is coral which you can snorkel around. It is the first place that I have snorkeled around coral. It is absolutely amazing! You have to swim 20 feet out and then you reach the coral. There is a different variety of fish everywhere you look in the most ridiculous colors you could imagine. Next time we get here, Daniel and I are planning on climbing the mountain!
Isle of Pines
Aug. 6 2008
Port: Isle of Pines
Woke up late today, which isn't uncommon these days. It's easy to keep an irregular schedule when you have to make a special effort to see the sunshine. My cabin doesn't have a window, so there is no way to know what time it is except by checking the clock. Went and got some lunch with Joel. It's his birthday. We started celebrating last night after our set, which is another reason why I woke up late. (The drinks are pretty cheap at the crewbar!) We went down to the gangway and met up with Rachel, the lead singer/dancer and the rest of the band. Isle of Pines is a small island that is part of New Caledonia located directly southeast of the mainland. It is too small for our ship to dock, so the ship drops anchor a little ways away and uses smaller boats (tenders) to transport people. There is usually a wait involved with this for the crew because they allow the passengers first priority. We had to wait 45 minutes before we could get on. It was a beautiful day. Mostly sunny and 75 F degrees. There isn't much to do on this remote tropical island except swim and lounge on the beach! There is coral which you can snorkel around. It is the first place that I have snorkeled around coral. It is absolutely amazing! You have to swim 20 feet out and then you reach the coral. There is a different variety of fish everywhere you look in the most ridiculous colors you could imagine. Next time we get here, Daniel and I are planning on climbing the mountain!
Port: Isle of Pines
Woke up late today, which isn't uncommon these days. It's easy to keep an irregular schedule when you have to make a special effort to see the sunshine. My cabin doesn't have a window, so there is no way to know what time it is except by checking the clock. Went and got some lunch with Joel. It's his birthday. We started celebrating last night after our set, which is another reason why I woke up late. (The drinks are pretty cheap at the crewbar!) We went down to the gangway and met up with Rachel, the lead singer/dancer and the rest of the band. Isle of Pines is a small island that is part of New Caledonia located directly southeast of the mainland. It is too small for our ship to dock, so the ship drops anchor a little ways away and uses smaller boats (tenders) to transport people. There is usually a wait involved with this for the crew because they allow the passengers first priority. We had to wait 45 minutes before we could get on. It was a beautiful day. Mostly sunny and 75 F degrees. There isn't much to do on this remote tropical island except swim and lounge on the beach! There is coral which you can snorkel around. It is the first place that I have snorkeled around coral. It is absolutely amazing! You have to swim 20 feet out and then you reach the coral. There is a different variety of fish everywhere you look in the most ridiculous colors you could imagine. Next time we get here, Daniel and I are planning on climbing the mountain!
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