Well, it’s been awhile since I started writing about last year’s trip to Tibet. As I approach the 1-year anniversary of this trip, it seemed time to come back to finish the report for the second week before the details slip from my mind. This post covers travels through the rural towns of Tibet.
Earlier this year, after political unrest in Tibet, China has closed this region to foreign tourists. Makes me glad I got to travel there while I could, though I am concerned of the impact of these events on the people there.
Links
- Tibet trip report, part 1 – Beijing to Lhasa
- Photo Highlights
Leave Lhasa and drive in Range Rovers to Gyantze. Drive includes a side trip to Kamba La pass (4794M / 15,700ft) with Views of Lake Yamdrok, Lunch at small, basic Tibetan restaurant
After 4 days in Lhasa, Tibet’s capitol, it was time to move on. Our group split into 4 Land Rovers, and we left the hotel for the scenic drive to Gyantze. Our group consisted of 12 tourists, our Belgian guide, our Tibetan guide, and 4 divers. The mountains rose up on the other side of the river that paralleled the highway. I have never paid much attention to the angle of rock layers that form mountain peaks, but here such angles were very much profoundly vertical. In many places, the sand had been blown up out of the valley floor and formed sand dunes upon the mountains. It was a unique sight to see. 
After a bit, we had a photo stop (smoke break for the drivers) along the river. Our guide pointed to a development up on a mountain pass off in the distance and explained we were driving to that mountain pass next. We could see where the highway was cut into the side of the mountain, and it also appeared surprisingly steep. The drive up the mountain was impressive. The road that looked to go straight up from a distance was actually a very winding road that went up several thousand meters in elevation. At several points we could look down into the valley below and see crumbling ruins of old dwellings. Along the road up in the mountains there were herds of Yak and sheep.
We arrived at the top of what I think was Kamba La pass (4794M / 15,700ft) and were treated to a beautiful view of Lake Yamdrok. There was a short hike further up the hill to get away from the tourist crowd. There were a few rock pile mounds Tibetans had left from earlier pilgrimage.
Then we continued on back down the mountain the way we had come and then stopped at a rural restaurant along the highway. Our guide explained that often in these small family the kitchens could get overwhelmed a bit if everyone ordered the same things and take forever to cook each dish separately. If people coordinated and multiple people ordered the same dish, things would be cooked up to together and it would go faster. The typical dishes we would find at such restaurants would be a choice of rice or vermicelli (chow mein) dishes. Then there would be variations such as egg-fried rice, veg-fried rice, chicken fried rice, or yak fried rice and similar choices for the chow mien. There was a regional specialty called “Momo” which were dumplings with various fillings such as vegetables, apples, yak meat. Sometimes the restaurants would add create a western dish such as pizza or veggi burgers, and sometimes these were some interesting local interpretations. At one restaurant the hamburger was a patty of crushed vegetables (standard veggi-burger patty for this area) with a slice of ham on top. 
After lunch the drive followed a dry river valley. The area was very much a desert. After a little while we stopped for a photo shoot / smoke break excuse at a place with good overlook of the dry river bed and desert that had taken the place of the river bed. Then we left the highway and got onto some dirt roads that took us to a stop with sand dunes, where everyone got out and went climbing to the top. The dirt road then took us into the hills, past a few small farming/ranching villages. There were a few low water crossings. I was in the lead car, and we had no problems. But some of those behind nearly got stuck in the water. Then we returned to the highway (or maybe it was a different road, I’m not sure), and followed it to Gyantze.
Gyantze is supposed to be one of the most purely Tibetan of the sizable cities in Tibet. By that I mean with some of the least Chinese and other foreign influence. Our tour group took a walk around the town past the Gyantze Dong fort to the gates of Pelkhor Chong temple and back to the hotel for dinner. Someone brought up the fort was the site of a battle with invading British army. It had not occurred to me that any western armies had at one time penetrated this far from India.
Morning walk up to the Gyantze Dong fort (unguided), and tour of Pelkhor Chong temple and Gyantze Kumbum. Afterwards drive from Gyantze to the town of Shigatse, and tour of the Tashilhumpo monastery.
In the morning before breakfast, several of us went to the fort, unguided. It was a good climb up to the top, but we were rewarded with excellent views of the surrounding area. 
After breakfast, we went to the Pelkhor Chong temple. Next to the temple was the Gyantze Kumbum, which was a multi-story building. There were 108 chapels on four floors, each filled with statues and had walls covered with mural paintings. At the top it gave some good view of the city and courtyard below, were we could see some of the locals go about their daily business, including washing and gathering water from community pump. Some of our tour group were playing with the little kids in the square while they waited for those of us who liked to linger and take pictures to finish.
Then we left Gyantze for the drive to Shigatse. On the way, our smoke break excuse was a stop at a local flour mill. This was a true low-tech mill. A donkey cart was parked out front to deliver the barley that would be milled. Then we were off to Shigatse. We reached the nice hotel with plenty of time for lunch.
Then we went on a tour of the Tashilhunpo monastery. Our GAP guide 
negotiated with a local man hanging around the entrance to be our tour guide through the monastery. The tour guide did a better job of explanation than our first guide in Lhasa. Regrettably, by now all the monasteries were starting to look the same. Afterwords, we took a walk along the pilgrimage path around the monastery, which was again lined with prayer wheels. Some of us climbed the steep hill behind the monastery to the top where there was a great view of the town, a ton of prayer flags and a prayer site. Unfortunately, I had left my camera on a setting for the low-light indoors, and my pictures from the hilltop did not come out well. Eagles were soaring around this peak.
The next morning we drove toward Sakya. The first smoke break excuse was a stop at one of the high mountain passes. Each such pass, as well as any bridge and mountain top was covered with prayer flags. There was a short climb up to the top of a hill for a better view. At the top, there was a large number of rock cairns that previous visitors had left.
Sakya is a small town, but it had a big tourist hotel. We had lunch in the hotel which had a typical menu that we had become used to in Tibet. There were a couple of local kids playing in the dining area. In China, instead of diapers the little kid wore pants with a an open slit in the bottom. In front of us, one kid left a big puddle on the floor, giggled, and went back to his play. Some in our tour group thought it amusing that no-one bothered to clean it up until after we left. 
The main monastery on our itinerary was closed for renovations, so instead we walked over to a local nunnery. The nuns do not seem to get too many visitors, and seemed very happy to visit. They were particularly interested in seeing the pictures on people’s digital cameras of the other monasteries we saw in Tibet, which they don’t get the opportunity to travel to visit.
In the evening I walked around a bit on my own. Kids were all around playing having just gotten out of school. One really young school kid had a small bag of potatoes chips he just purchased at the store. When he saw me turned the corner he came running out of the store to me and offered to share his chips. I wished I had some little trinket to offer in return, but I did not even have even a pen or souvenir U.S. coin on me to offer. In other countries I have visited recently, I had become so used to touts and little kids trained to act cute and then solicit handouts that it was nice not to be constantly harassed as in the other places I visited. Maybe this kid was hoping for a gift, but I felt more like he was just trying to be friendly, welcome the stranger, or maybe just play. A lot of places we went there were kids eager to just play with any tourist who was willing. Once in Gyantse we were solicited for pens, and someone from our group was able to produce a couple of disposables. I wonder how long it would before this relative innocence is lost, and weather someday these tourist stops would develop into something more trashy, more commercial, with more touts. Hopefully the Tibetan culture would limit that, but change will be inevitable. Technologies and new communication links will expose Tibetans more and more to outside influences, as evidenced by all the monks walking around with cell phones. The new rail link between Lhasa and China will encourage Han Chinese to immigrate to Tibet which could eventually led to Tibetan culture pushed aside, much like Caucasian Americans replaced the Native American culture during our migration west. Even if Tibetan culture survives such migration, Modernization will change things as Tibet is pulled from the nineteenth century into the present.
Next post on this subject will cover the rest of the trip to Everest base camp and Nepal.
Photos from the places visited in this post:
- Album #3 – Gyantse
- Album #4 – Shigatse and Sakya
Related Posts
- Part 1 – Beijing to Lhasa
- Part 3 – Everest Base Camp and Nepal (to come)
Other Trip Photos:
- Highlights Album
- Album #1 – Beijing and the Train ride
- Album #2 – Lhasa and the river raft trip
- Album #5 – Rombuk and Everest Base Camp
- Album #6 – Nepal and Kathmandu
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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Tibet Trip, Part 2
Thursday, June 19, 2008
Mexico City
I stopped off in Mexico City over Memorial Day weekend on the way back from spending 2 weeks in Peru. The Peru trip was excellent, but it deserves a few posts of its own when I catch up with this blog. If I had come straight home from Peru, it would have put me in Austin on the Friday before Memorial Day. Since it was a long holiday weekend, I started looking for someplace in South America to add on a side trip while I was in the region. But it was so much more expensive to tack on a side trip in Central America or elsewhere in South America (well, there were a few cheap flights to Central America that required overnight layover in Bogota or Medellin, Colombia I opted out of) and it was only around $120 extra on the airfare to add a stopover in Mexico City so I went to Mexico city.
My flight from Peru left at midnight, and after a stopover in Houston I arrived in Mexico City around 11am. The customs agent complemented me on my weight loss since my passport photo was taken 3 years ago, which was weird since I have gained weight since then. Maybe he was trying to be nice. I took a taxi to the hotel which was 2 blocks from the Zocolo main square and then went to lunch at a nearby diner. The waitress was very accommodating with my inability to communicate except for very rudimentary Spanish. I thought I was ordering a $5 combo platter with tacos al pastur, soup and water (agua). But what I did not understand was that it was really flavored water and she went to some extra effort to come back with samples so I could choose the flavor.
After that I walked around the Zocolo. The plaza was filled with Aztec dancers, some of whom were performing cleansing rituals on people. Next to the Zocolo I toured the Templo Mayor, which is the ruins of an Aztec pyramid demolished by the Spaniards in the 1500’s and re-discovered in the last century and excavated beginning in 1978. Only the foundation remains, but it is easily seen several layers of construction as different generations built larger pyramids on top of the earlier ones. There is 5-ft channel carved straight through the site, where a water line was laid before it was realized the significance of the site that was cut through. There was also an well done museum attached to the site.
After walking around for a couple of hours, I went back to the hotel for a catnap before dinner, but I slept through the alarm and did not wake up until almost 11pm. By then many of the restaurants around the hotel were shut down. Within a few blocks, I found 3 7-11’s, a couple of other convenience stores, and two McDonalds. So I picked the quarter pounder over the 7-11 hot dog. I had eaten much healthier than normal over the prior two weeks, so I did not feel too guilty. After quick dinner, I went back to catch up on sleep after the flight the previous night.
The next morning I signed up for a $30 day tour to the Pyramids at Teotihuacan which I had signed up through the hotel lobby. We had an excellent guide and a tourbus that fit 12. We first stopped at the Plaza de las Tres Culturas (Plaza of 3 Cultures) which symbolizes Mexico’s unique heritage. This contained ruins of the Aztec city of Tlatelolco, Colonial Cathedral of Santiago, and the modern Foreign affairs building. It is the site of 3 terrible events: Last stand of the Aztecs,
1968 massacre by army of student protesters, and a building collapse during the 1985 earthquake. Then we visited the Basilica de Guadelupe, the main Church of Mexico. Then we had the obligatory stop at tourist trap craft shop that made figure carvings of obsidian and tequila. All such tours stop at some sort of craft shop, where no doubt our guides gets a nice commission. Perhaps it helps keep the tour price down. At least we got an interesting demonstration how tequila is extracted from the agave plant. Never realized how big those plants were. Finally, we got to the ruins at Teotihuacan. These pyramids had been overgrown with vegetation, so the Spaniards would have thought they were hills and did not destroy then like so many other structures.
The next day, I started out with breakfast on the rooftop restaurant of the Hotel Majestic, overlooking the Zocolo. There was a running race finishing in the Zocolo. By the time, I am guessing it must have been a half-marathon or maybe 10K. One difference I noticed with the running culture in Austin was that everyone was wearing the event’s tech t-shirt. The etiquette at least in Austin is never to wear the event shirt at the event, but only afterwards. At the time I was a little mad at myself for not looking ahead and getting in the race. It would have been a good excuse to go for a long run, but it was a good thing that I did not run since I am supposed to be recovering from a twisted ankle and needed to stay off the feet.
Next I took the subway to the Coycoacn neighborhood for a walking tour recommended by a friend and expained well in my guidebook, Mexico City – An opinionated guide for the Curious Traveler
Walking through the neighborhood outside the museums I ran into a religious parade. I do not know what the celebration was for, but there was a marching band, fire crackers, and a religious icon that was carried for a few blocks until the parade came to an end. Then I walked over to the Leon Trotsky museum. It was a fortified house where Trotsky died when Russian agents assaulted the compound. Bullet holes were still in the walls.
I returned to the subway and went to the Museum of Anthropology. But the line was a few blocks long and I decided not to wait. It turns out that admission is free on Sunday, so everyone goes that day. I went back to the hotel, and spent the remainder of my last couple of hours of the last afternoon on vacation relaxing and reading on the roof top balcony. I went to the Café Tacuba for the final dinner of this trip. Very nice and large 100 year old dining hall. Then I went over to Plaza Garibaldi to hear some of the mariachis bands before turning in before my early flight home the next morning.
Mexico City Photo Album
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Sunday, April 13, 2008
Malibu Creek 25K
I visited Los Angeles for a weekend. I saw the Body Worlds exhibit (recommended) and also did the Malibu Creek 25K. The Malibu Creek trail run was in Malibu Creek State Park just outside Los Angeles. The route ran through areas used in the filming of the television show M*A*S*H. The run was organized by Pacific Coast Trail Runs offered 8K, 25K and 50K distances. The 50 K was 2 loops of the 25K course. The 25K look had total climbing elevation gain of 2970 feet.
I came into this run after taking almost 2-month break from regular training after the last Austin Marathon. Having done the longest run of 10 miles on flat trail in the previous month, I knew going in I was not in the best of shape, so I had no expectations. This was a run I signed up for to jump start my return to training for the Rogue Trail Series. My plan was to push the hills starting out hard, burn out early, fall into zombie death march mode towards the end, and then look forward to the soreness that would follow the next day which would remind me that I did not sit on my butt the next day. 
At the start line, I took a place near the back of the pack. The first half mile was on park road, which gave some time for the crowd to thin and fit into pace order. By the time we entered single track, I was not too fast or too slow for most the people around me. I passed a couple of people on the first small climb. There was one knee deep stream to cross and then the 1st aid station 4 kilometers in. I grabbed some sugar candy and then started the 1st real climb of the run. I alternated running and walking as I tried to keep forward momentum to the top which was reached around the 12km mark. Then there was a little reprieve from hills as we ran along a dirt road at the top of the ridge. 
After a bit, we started climbing again. After passing through a section damaged by fire a couple of years The dirt road gave way to sandstone. Then we were up and over an interesting sandstone peak just before reaching the 2nd and last aid station. 
Up until this point, I had been surrounded by other back of the packers. After the aid station I did not see anyone until the last 2 miles. We went up over the last high point, and then it was several miles of down hill. After a few miles the downhill flattened out for the final 5K. The route passed a couple of rusted out army vehicles, which I guess signified the area where MASH was filmed. 
A mile later the route hit some more popular hiking trails for the last 1.5 miles. I was not quite in death march mode, but I was starting to fade. Made it to the finish where they were serving some chili and soup.
After a stop at the campground showers, I drove back to L.A. I grabbed lunch at Rosco’s Fried Chicken & Waffles, which made for a tasty combination after this run. Then I went straight to the airport for my flight home. I was a bit sore the next day, but in a good way.
- Link to picture album
- GPS records:
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Saturday, December 15, 2007
Runtex-2-Rogue 20 Mile
Today was the Runtex-2-Rogue 20 mile training run with the Rogue training group. It was the best run of this distance in a long time, especially after having a bit if a sucky running season the last couple of months. It started at Runtex Gateway and ended at the location of the future Rogue store. I started at 5:30, 30 minutes before the rest of the group. I figured this way I would get there before the breakfast taco's were gone. I grabbed a map when Ruth got ther to setup and took off alone before anyone else had even arrived.
It was very peaceful running in the dark through the neighborhoods along the 3M route for the 1st few miles. Lots of deer. Normally these long runs have about 200+ people clumped at the start, but for a change I got to run alone and it was relaxing. at 4 miles I turned off Mesa onto North Hills Drive, which coincidentally is the name of the street I grew up on in Tennessee. There I realized I had dropped my route map. But I was not worried. I had a water bottle, a few dollars, and enough nutrition to last me. I knew the first 6 miles of the route and the last 8, so I figured I would not have any problems making it to the end. I found Panther's water stop and mile 6 when the fastest runners started catching up to me. There I got to look at his map and memorize the rest of the route, which was not too difficult without too many turns. As faster runners passed me over the next few miles, it motivated me to run a little faster.
Last week's run was painfully hilly, so it made this mostly downhill run feel easy. I had reached the Town Lake trail at the 12 mile mark before long. Normally I get rather de-motivated on this trail. I guess I have come to associate it with the last 2 miles of so many long runs that I feel in that depleted state whenever I run there. It is like pavlovian conditioning. But not today. There was even a rare Ultra Ho sighting. All 3 of them, together on the trail. I made it through 7 miles on the trail without any problems except for picking up rocks in my shoes. The last mile or so after leaving the trail I had gotten familiar with last month in Brownie's Pub Run, so I knew it would be longer than expected. I got there just with the tail end of my running group, feeling good, and with plenty of time to grab some taco's before they ran out.
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Sunday, October 07, 2007
Cancun Ironman 70.3
I completed the Cancun Ironman 70.3 Triathlon. Apparently races of this distance are no longer officially called “Half-Ironman” distance triathlons, but instead are branded as “Ironman 70.3” triathlons. The six of us who were racing arrived in Cancun on Friday, two days before the race. Three more spectators would arrive the next day. Belle and Russ had found us a good deal for a week long stay in two rooms at the Royal Caribbean, beginning Saturday. But for those of us who needed to get down a day early for packet pickup, we got a room next door at the Royal Islander. We had brought bikes with us, checked on the plane, and began to assemble them on the balcony as it started to rain.
On Saturday, there was a 7:00am gathering at the swim start we planned to attend. At 5:30am I woke to the sound of what I thought was one of my roommates showering. But it was not the shower. Instead it was rain. So we slept a little longer and after the rain stopped we went to check out the swim start area and have a brief swim. Then we checked out of the first night’s room and put the luggage in storage, and then went to the Expo for packet pickup. There was a mandatory information session, but it had been split into two meetings. One session for Spanish and another in English. While we were waiting for the English session, checked out the expo and picked up the obligatory event T-shirts and caps, which we would need after the event to discretely show off the feat we would accomplish. There were not a lot of stalls here. I went to the bike shop stall to get some CO2 cartridges, which we could not bring on the plane, but they did not sell those here. Another in our group was more persistent and managed to get them to pull out their last 4 cartridges which we bought and spread between us. After the info session, we returned to the hotel, had lunch, went through a little hassle to get our bags transferred to the new rooms, and finally left to check our bikes into the transition area. The rains all day left some big puddles in the roads, so we did not want to ride to transition and risk problems. We took out bikes out to the main hotel zone road, and then got on the public bus to get to the transition area, which was in the parking lot in front of the Wet and Wild water amusement park. I lucked out and found that my assigned space in transition was right next to the Bike in/out access, which could not have been better. Only the pros were closer to that entrance.
Three weeks before, I did the Austin Olympic distance triathlon. I put together a spreadsheet where I extrapolated my Austin Tri times to the Cancun distances, and then added a 10% buffer in case I was slower over the longer distance. This showed me I could make the cutoff times at the end of the bike and run, but it only gave me 20 minutes or so to meet the cut-off time to complete the bike section. This meant I did not have time for flats or other problems.
Finally it was race morning. We took a taxi to the race start and put out stuff out in transition. We were not allowed to leave bags in the transition area, so we had to check them getting our stuff set up. The swim course was a rectangular 1.2 mile single loop. It was wave start with waves leaving every 2 minutes. I was in the 4th wave. The storms the night before had knocked over part of the gate that had been erected for the start/finish chute. The water was clear and not too deep. The roughness of the swim came more from being battered by other swimmers than from the waves. 
About 1/3 of the way through, we swam past a buoy, and saw scuba divers below holding it in place. Maybe it’s anchor got damaged in the storm before? The course was a rectangle. I found my self drifting way outside the rectangle on the ocean side, so I tried to correct, but I ended up sighting off the wrong buoy and ended up a little too far inside the rectangle and had to go back out to avoid cutting the next buoy. Around the half-way point, the course got very shallow, and I suddenly had to swim around people in front who were standing up in knee deep water. I think the current was behind me more coming back, and I finished the swim in 47 minutes, 8 minutes ahead of my prediction. As I ran out of the swim, I had forgotten there would be people I know on the course, and so was a little startled when Brenda and Belle were there to cheer us on.
Hurricane Dean one month earlier had damaged a pier that been intended for use in the race. The result was the swim start/finish had to be moved down the beach a ways and now we had a 400 meter run to get to the transition area, and about half was on the beach. There were some showers set up as we left the beach (half-way through the run) to clean off the salt water, and then we ran through the amusement park to get to the bikes. I had forgotten to bring my race belt, so I had pinned it before the race on my bike jersey. When I tried to put on the jersey, the number ripped off. Since I did not need the number for the bike section, I left it in transition under something heavy. But since I was wet, my jersey started to roll up in the back as I tried to put it on. After I spent a minute or two trying to deal with that, a couple of volunteers in the transition area came over and helped fix the shirt from the back side. I then put an extra tube in the back pocket of my shirt and took my bike towards the exit. I happened to leave transition right behind Laura. We yelled cheers to each other, but then 30 meters from the bike start Laura turned around and Asked where my helmet was. Crap! I left my helmet in transition after my routine got interrupted with the Jersey issue. That was a major rookie mistake, thus continuing my streak of being unprepared or doing stupid things at races. So I turned around and went back for it. I left my bike outside transition, and they let me back in avoiding the timing mats. I grabbed my helmet and sunglasses, and then was off. Good thing my transition space was next to the exit. I wondered if maybe someone tried to tell me as I was leaving the first time, but if they spoke in Spanish I would not have have recognized it. Laura saved my race with this catch.
Starting the bike, with and without my helmet.
Bike Course - Start/finish is on the far right. There were two loops of the last large straight section on the left before returning to the transition area.
The first stretch of the Bike course was a 14 mile route out to a particular highway where we would do a two loops up and down the same stretch of road before coming back on the same route. Except for a couple of highway overpasses, it was pretty flat. I managed to average 19mph during this first stretch. There was one brief section with light rain and then it was sunny again. Then as I merged with the loop section, there were already people starting their 2nd loop. Two miles into my first loop, a heavy rainstorm came through. Visibility went way down. I have never rode a bike in such heavy rain, but it was past within 5 minutes and then it was sunny and steamy again. JAZ caught up to me as I hit the turnaround at the half-way point of the first loop. At each end of the loop, there was a water bottle exchange. I nearly wiped out when I missed one bottle pickup. 
My bike jersey identified me as being from Austin, so some other Austinites, I think with T3 group, offered encouragement as they lapped me on the bike. During the back-half of the first loop, I made sure to take nutrition and finish a bottle of electrolyte drink. There were several large pelotons that formed, as many as 3 across and up to 30 or 40 bikes. I did see the course officials on motorbikes appear to be taking down numbers on a couple of occasions, but there was so much drafting there was no way to catch everyone. I let the pelotons push me off into the highway shoulder as they blew past. This may have led to a flat 2 miles after the end of the 1st loop. I did not notice my flat right away. I did notice my speed was dropping compared to the energy I was putting in and so I looked down and saw my rear tire was not full pressure. I stopped and first tried to pump it up with my hand pump in case it was not a real flat, but it turned out the breach was in the tire valve and so I had to replace the tube. Within two minutes of stopping, the neutral course support mechanic had stopped to help and he changed the tire real fast. So I did not loose as much time as I could have. The rest of the 2nd loop was a little lonelier since I had fallen behind and most of the faster bikers were already headed back towards transition. At the bottle exchange, some bottles had the Gatorade logo, and others had the Cancun Ironman 70.3 logo, so I held out for the 70.3 souvenir bottle. After finishing the 2nd loop, I turned back for the 14 mile ride to the transition. Immediately the rain came back and it rained for the rest of the bike ride. My average speed dropped over the last 10 miles, which had more up-hill than I remembered from the ride out. I finished the bike with almost the exact time from my Austin triathlon prediction.
Run Course - start/finish is on the left. There were two loops of this out-and-back course.
The storms had really blown stuff around transition. I think the transition area volunteers had helped keep stuff in place because I found all my gear, some of which (ex: race number) might have blown away, were instead wrapped up in my towel. I pinned my number on my shirt. The cute transition volunteers came over to ask if I was OK, and then I was off. The sky was cloudy as I entered transition, but as I left the sun was out and the first mile was pretty humid. Belle, Brenda, and Russ had a cheering station setup with the Texas flag just outside the transition area. 
The run course was two loop out-and-back run along the Hotel Zone highway. During the first mile out, there were a lot of tables set up for water, Gatorade, and power bars and gels. Water was handed out in little plastic bags. You tear off a corner and drink some. It was a little more water than I need at a water stop, so I poured the rest over me to cool off. Aid stations were every 1km. At first I thought that would be too frequent and I would be skipping every other stop, but in the heat I at least took a bag of cold water to pour over me and cool down at each stop. In the first loop, I saw everyone in our group coming the other direction. The second loop was not nearly as crowded since many people had finished by now. As I approached the 8-mile marker, my garmin beeped to tell me I had just completed mile 65 since I turned it on at the start of the bike. I have never had such a long distance recorded on that device. I had to take a couple of extra walk breaks, but after the last turn-around, I was able to keep a more consistent pace, although it was not much faster than my walking pace. 
Some support tables had started to shut down, but the stops always had frio water. Approaching the end, there was about ½ mile after the 13-mile marker to the finish where I was expecting 0.1 miles to end the 13.1 mile run. I stumbled across the finish line with 19 minutes to spare before the cutoff. This was 2 minutes slower overall time than my calculated prediction. I got the finisher’s medal and T-shirt, and then bypassed the food tables because I did not feel like taking anything yet. The fire department had a shower set up and so I got cleaned off. Then packed up my stuff from transition, and grabbed a cab back to the hotel with my partially disassembled bike in the trunk. This was a very well organized race. I would recommend it. 
Five of the Six finishers from our group
That night I had steak for the first time in months and lobster tail. Then most of us stayed the week in Cancun to relax. We drove to Tulum one day, and then I did some snorkeling and scuba diving on other days. We stopped at an lagoon for snorkeling near Acumel (spelling?). I was not expecting much, but it turned out to be some great snorkeling. Calm water. Lots of fish. Some of them pretty big. Fresh water was merging with the salt water, creating this weird oily looking barrier. I kept noticing when the schools of fish disappeared and I stopped, the fish would suddenly be swimming by from behind. I realized they ware drafting off of me! I then started swimming backwards, kicking with my fins. Sure enough the fish fell in behind. Others fell in as we swam on. When I turned, they followed. Some bigger fish swam along for a bit inches from my face for a moment. But after a couple of turns the fish lost interest in me and I could not get them to follow anymore. On the scuba dive trip, we visited a shipwreck and the reef off the Cancun coast. A videographer followed us. I don’t normally buy such videos, but this turned out to be extra well done. I found myself critiquing my swim form from the video afterwards. I have not been successful getting my PC to recognize the DVD, otherwise I would try to capture some images for this post.
Photo Album Link
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Thursday, July 26, 2007
2007 Tahoe Rim Trail 50k
EDIT: 08-AUG-07, Added report
I went to Lake Tahoe for the Tahoe Rim Trail 50k.
Info:
- My Tahoe Photo Album
- Event website
- Course Description
I tried to save some vacation time by flying out of Austin on Friday evening after work and returning on the Saturday night red-eye. First, I got held up getting out of work. Then traffic was backed up on Hwy 183. I got to the airport with only 30 minutes before the flight was to take off, which meant I had less than 20 minutes to the gate. I quickly re-packed only my essentials into my carry-on so I would not have to check a bag. Since I already printed my boarding pass online, I went straight to security. But my bag kept setting off alarms in the x-ray machine, so they took everything out and scanned it again. It still registered something the looked like a weapon, so they scanned it a couple of more times. The security guard was scratching his head trying to figure out what was setting off the alarm. After the 4th try they figured out there were some souviner magnets in a pocket left over from my last trip that were the cause. I re-packed my bag, and ran to the gate, 2nd to last to board with only a couple of minutes before they closed the door.
I got into Reno around 8:30pm Pacific time, and drove into Carson City, NV. At 9:30pm, I stopped by the Albertsons to get breakfast for the next day and a few items that did not make it into my carry-on in the last minute re-packing. The store was nearly empty except for me, but there were 3 people playing slot machines in the mini-casino at the front of the store. They looked like they were going to be there awhile. I don't know why they chose Albertsons over the casinos down the road.
I got up early, but since I was still on Central time it was not so early to me. I drove 20 minutes to the race site and took the shuttle from the parking lot to the 
startline. Here I realize I forgot my flashlight when I was transferring essentials to my carry-on, but I managed to stubble around following glow-sticks and other peoples lights to get to the startline just as the 100 milers were taking off. I saw HCTR member Fagan there. Then it was another hour until my start. I picked up my race packet and then took the shuttle back to my car to drop off the packet. I took the shuttle back to the start line, and then realized I forgot to pick up my GPS watch which was in the car. Fortunately I was wearing my regular watch.
By the time of the 50M/50K start, the sun was up and it was light out. I started near the back of the pack and took it easy for the first few hill climbs. About 3-4 miles in we got the first good view of a lake. At around 6 miles we got to the first aid station, which was well stocked. Most of the trails were smooth and not too rocky. This was nice after training on rougher Texas terrain, although I was not as used to running on the sandy surface that was found in places. A couple of poeple commented how nice the Bandera T-shirt looked before they realized it was a race shirt.
After the aid station, the trail went up towards Marlette peak. The trail took us up past the treeline and around the side of the mountain. This gave us the first real look at Lake Tahoe. The runner ahead was trying to take his own picture, and so I stopped and we quickly took each others picture at a good vantage point. The runner explained the first, smaller lake next to Lake Tahoe was a man-made lake some towns get their drinking water. Then I took off on a slight down hill section. This was a little rockier, so I concentrated on footing and passing people who slowed down for this terrain. Then there was a slight up-hill to get to where the event photographer was taking pictures. I wondered why he picked this point since there was beautiful view 3/4 mile back. I had not bothered to look back to realize I missed some of the best scenery while running. I would figure it out 10 miles later when I got back here on the return trip.
Last two photos purchased from event photographer
Click to enlarge
After about a mile up the steep hill, the course came to a Jeep track that flattened out for awhile. But my legs were a little spent after all that, so I walked for a bit. There were 1.5 miles on this jeep track. I tried to start running, but each time I would start getting into a coughing fit and had to stop. Each time I coughed, it felt like someone was throwing a heavy medicine ball and hitting me in the chest. So I did not make if very fast through this section. Then I got back to the steep up-hill that took me back slowly to the Tunnel Creek Aid station. The 100M/50M course takes another out-and-back loop to add 18 miles at this point that the 50k course skips.
After the aid station it was another two miles up-hill along the same route that I had run out on. Here, the lead 100M and 50M runners coming off their extra loop started passing me from behind. It was another 2 miles uphill. I had been taking a bunch of E-Caps, and now my stomach was starting to turn and that made it hard to run consistently. Many people who passed offered encouragement, or asked if I needed assistance. A few suggested as they passed that more training would have helped me, and they were right. The steeper it got, the slower I got. I think altitude may have affected me here, but it is hard to tell if it was that or lack of fitness or both. In this stretch it gave me lots of time to think about the choices I made that got me here in this shape. I choose to go on a two week trip, 4 weeks before this run when I should have been peaking my training. I took a Friday night flight to save vacation time when I should have come a day earlier and had a good night sleep before the race. After getting back from my travel, I choose to cut a run short after encountering flooded areas in the greenbelt, when I could have found a safer route to get in the distance. I did not run enough in the last month before this run. I don't regret most those choices, but I should have been better prepared. I knew better than that. I guess the slow hike up the mountain gave me too much time to think here.
One of the consequences of spending the last month traveling, and then rushing to catch up with things at work and life after returning before the race, and then rushing to pack and get to the airport on time--- was that I had not studied the course map in over a month. So I had forgotten that there was a different route back. Also, I remembered incorrectly that the last aid station was around mile 19 when actually it was closer to mile 17. Since I had forgotten my GPS watch, I did not have the distance measurement to pull me into reality. With any time goal out the window, I figured I could make the cut-off time with a few hours to spare, so I took some time to enjoy the scenery and take some pictures along the way. Around mile 20 (at the time, I thought it was 24-25), I got back to one of the prettiest parts of the course. I realized I missed some of this the first time out because I did not happen to look back. Meredith, who was running one of the longer routes, caught up to me here at one of the best views and so I had to take a picture. I was going to try and take it while she was in motion so it wouldn't interrupt her momentum, but she stopped instead to pose. We chatted for a very quick visit. She asked if I had seen other HCTR runners, I either had not seen or did not know the other HCTR runners out there sicne I saw Fagan at the start. I think she tried to tell me I mis-understood how far it was to the finish, but I did not quite follow what she said over the wind as she moved ahead and out of earshot. I figured it out two miles later when I got to the aid station and realized there were 10.5 miles left instead of 6. Upon that realization, I put the camera up and pushed on with some renewed motivation.
Within the next three miles, there was a long climb up to the highest point of the course, and again I had to slow down to a crawl. Some mental calculations with the correct distance told me I might be in danger of missing the cutoff at this rate, so I tried to push faster, but started feeling sick each time I increased exertion. Finally I got to the aid station at the top, and the volunteers said the next 7 miles to the finish were all down hill. These miles went faster, but my legs were spent so I could not take full advantage. Quite a few people passed me but I did not see any 50K bibs, so I started worrying I'd be DFL (dead f-ing last). I must not have looked good towards the end. Just after mile 30, another runner passed me an made the comment "It helps if you train." Thanks buddy. Although accurate, it was not the motivating comment I wanted to hear at the moment.
Anyway, I got to the end with plenty of time, and I was not last. Although it was a couple hours later than my estimate. As I crossed the finish line, I was handed a large beer and a finisher's medal. The medal was actually a bottle opener. The beer was a local brew with a special label just for the race. I drank my beer, found a hose for a quick shower, got a little dinner, and drove back to Reno for my midnight flight home. The lesson learned here is to be better prepared and not rush the travel arrangements to be well rested. I did several things wrong here where I should have known better.
Here is a video from the race I found on the internet:
Two weeks later I did a sprint triathlon. I was a little bummed out after the 50k for signing up for more than I had made time to train for. Towards the end of the bike, after an up-hill section someone passed me and commented that I didn't even look like I was sweating. At the time, I took that to mean I either was not trying hard enough or maybe I was not drinking enough water, but later I figured maybe it was meant as a compliment. During the run I felt I was just barely moving. I did not push the speed, and just wanted to keep moving and get it over with. Afterwards, I saw the bike section ended up being one of my fastest average times ever in a tri. I was surprised to see that for the run I was less than a minute slower than the last couple of 5K's that I actually raced without biking and swimming beforehand. Considering I did better than I thought at the time without trying too hard, maybe the trail training I did before got me in a little better shape than I thought. If I had tried a little harder instead of just trying to finish I wonder what I would have done.
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China-Tibet Trip, Part 1
I joined a 2-week tour through China, Tibet, and Nepal. It started out in Beijing, and then took a 2-day train to Lhasa, Tibet. After a few days in Lhasa we traveled for the 2nd week in 4-wheel drive SUV’s across Tibet, visiting several towns and Everest base camp before exiting through Nepal.
My flight plan called for a 22 hour transit time, excluding delays from Austin to Beijing via Dallas and Tokyo. The first flight out of Austin was delayed almost an hour due to weather, and so I arrived at the exact time my next flight was supposed to take off. But it was also delayed. As I stepped off the flight I was prepared to make a mad dash to another terminal. I have never had a connecting flight in the same terminal at Dallas. Instead, as I was looking around for the screen that displays departure gates, I noticed that the gate next to me was in fact my flight to Tokyo. My discount ticket meant I ended up in the middle seat of the 5-seat across section. But due to the delays a lot of people missed the flight and I had empty seats on either side so that I only had to climb over one person to get out to go to the restroom.
After another delay in Tokyo, I arrived in Beijing two hours late. I was expecting to experience an immediate culture change, but instead the first thing I saw before I left customs was the Starbucks coffee shop and KFC restaurant in the airport. I took a taxi without incident to the hotel, which was only a few blocks away from Tiananmen square near several shopping malls. This taxi drive gave me my first encounter with the smog. Visibility seemed like around a kilometer. There were lots of tall buildings, some with interesting architecture, but you cannot see them until you are practically next to them.
I arrived with 20 minutes to clean up before meeting the tour group for dinner. We walked a few blocks to a restaurant in a quiet residential neighborhood. It was excellent food. Unfortunately, we were told the neighborhood was scheduled to be torn down and replaced with more modern large buildings and the residents would have to move. There were 12 people in the tour, and 4 of us had met earlier on a tour through Egypt. The tour leader from GAP adventures would stay with us for the whole tour, and local guides would join us along the way.
We were bussed out a couple of hours to a section of the Great Wall. We had to climb up some hills to get to the wall from the parking lot. We had a little less than two hours free time. I took off on my own to reach the end of this section that was open to tourists a few kilometers away. 
The wall had some rather steep sections, and I started to fall into the mindset on the hills like I learned in trail running over rocky surfaces. That is letting go on the down hills and keeping a steady pace on the uphills. This became my only workout during 
this trip really applicable to the Tahoe Rim Trail 50k less than one month away. There were some high school students who appeared to be doing a cross country running workout across the top of the wall.
Before I knew it, I had reached the end where there was one final climb with a 45degree angle that switched to 60degres for the final staircase. At the top, there was an observation platform. 
The wall beyond had not been restored, and was overgrown and crumbling. Smog here was not as bad as Beijing, but still made for an overcast day. I took a few to many pictures along the wall. I returned to our entrance point. I had bought earlier a ticket to descend via an alpine tourist slide from this point back to the base of the mountain.
In the evening, we went to visit a theater to watch a live musical about Kung Fu fightin’.
We took the subway one stop from our hotel to Tiananmen Square. We walked across the square, fending off the Chairman Mao Watch sellers, and then toured the Forbidden City. I was disappointed to learn there was a Starbucks coffee shop in the middle of the Forbidden City. But I heard it was closed after protests a few weeks later.
We took taxi’s to lunch, and then visited the Temple of Heaven in the afternoon. On the way back we stopped at the Pearl Market which was a 4-story market with all sorts of goods. In the evening we boarded the train to Lhasa. 
Our group had two compartments each sleeping 6. There was a restaurant car, but there were several tour groups competing for the restaurant space so it was hard to eat there except at off hours. At the occasional stop we could get ramen noodles as alternative meals.
On the second day, we woke up to snow on the ground as we passed though one of the highest passes of the trip. The train was pressurized and oxygen was pumped in to reduce altitude sickness among the passengers. Then we went across Tibetan Plateau to Lhasa.
Upon arrival in Lhasa in the evening, we boarded a bus to the hotel. One of the first things that was evident was most of the signs were written with large Chinese characters, with smaller Tibetan translation printed below. Although the tour guides were not supposed to discuss such topics, we learned this made some Tibetans feel as foreigners in their own land. The railroad that had transported us to Tibet was also an opening for increased migration of ethnic Han Chinese into Tibet.
Several nights, we received calls from the front desk waking us up after midnight. The first night, the person asked "are you mas-sa-jay" to which I responded "No, I am John." It turned out the hotel was trying to line up massages in their spa for the next day.
Although little of the 7th-Century Lhasa survives, the 1600s saw a second stage of renovation and development, which included the building of the Potala Palace. Perched on Red Hill overlooking the town, this massive structure dominates the landscape with grace and dignity - a true architectural wonder. The Jokhang Temple is the spiritual heart of Tibet and also the most active. Prostrating pilgrims circle the temple endlessly, day and night, some of them traversing the extremes of the Tibetan landscape by foot to celebrate and express their faith. Nearby are the huge monastic universities of Drepung and Sera are still active institutions.
Begin with a tour of the Jokhang and make a kora (circumambulation) of the Barkhor, the holiest devotional circuit, which surrounds the Jokhang and houses a market bazaar where people bargain for Buddha images, yak skulls with ruby eyes, woodcarvings, carpets, prayer wheels and the odd goat's head.
Altitude= 11,800ft/3700m.
A short walk from our hotel brought us to the 1300 year old Jokhang temple. Inside it was rather crowded so the group split up as we walked through the shrines that surrounded the main hall of the temple. The roof offered good view of the surounding square and Potala palace. Our local guide was around, but did not explain what we were seeing unless we specifically asked a question. Many in the group were a little upset and wanted more forthcoming explanation of the places we visit. Eventually, our European tour leader had the local guide replaced, but that would not come until we left Lhasa so we ended up standing on the periphery of other tour groups to hear the explanation of some of the things we saw.
After the temple, we walked around the Barkhor pilgrimage circuit. The circuit is a clockwise walk around the vicinity of the Jokang temple. We were told to always pass certain collums at the corners of the walk on the left to respect the local custom. The walk is lined with markets, street stalls and small shops, selling mostly tourist stuff. After the walk we visited a couple of other temples in the downtown area before lunch.
After lunch we had either a free afternoon, or optional tour of the Depung monastery. Everyone opted for the self-guided tour. We rode the public bus transportation 7km outside the city and then boarded a truck which ferried people from the bus stop up the hill to the monastary. This was a fairly sizable monastery. Prior to the cultural revolution in 1959, there were up to 7000 monks living here. Now there are around 700 and many of the structures have not survived. We observed some of the monks gathered in a courtyard doing their daily spirited debate ritual.
Walking through the city, the Tibetans often had a friendly peaceful smile on their face. This was a bit of a contrast to the passion seen in the debates we witnessed in several of the monasteries. 
In the morning, we visited the Sera monastery near Lhasa. Then after lunch we took a tour of the Potala Palace, the former seat of the Tibetan government. It was unfortunate our tour guide was not very helpful here, and so we were left again to wander on our own. I was able to stand close enough to other tour groups to hear some explanation, but I am sure I missed explanation of the relevance of some of the rooms. Outside the palace there was a pilgrimage walk lined with prayer wheels.
While much of the rest of the group went shopping, I signed up for an all day rafting tour on the free day. We left around 8:00am. It was a 2.5 hour drive outside the city. The drive was very enjoyable. It gave the first up close look and Tibetan villages outside the city. Also the air was perfectly clear, which was a strong contrast to Beijing.
The river was a little low, so instead of the rafts we used inflatable kayaks. These were essentially individual sized rafts. We went for 6 hours down the river through class 3 and 4+ rapids. When we stopped for lunch, there was a quick hail storm, but then the sun came out and we continued on. In the last hour, my hands started to cramp up, but it was OK since it clamped my hands on the paddle.
After we returned to the to the hotel, after 7pm, I skipped the group dinner to do some last minute souvineer shopping. Then I stopped for dinner. I got to talking to a solo tourist at the next table. A college professor traveling on his own. He explained some of the difficulties with paperwork, permits, and delays required for such travel. All this for me is handled by the tour company.
In the second week we traveled by 4-wheel drive vehicle to visit the cities of Gyantse, Shigatse, Sakya, Rombuk/Everest Base Camp, Nyalm, and Kathmandu. For me, these were the highlights of the trip, but I will have to describe them later in another post.
Related Posts
- Part 2 – Travel through Tibet
- Part 3 – Everest Base Camp and Nepal (to come)
Photos:
- Highlights Album
All Photos:
- Album #1 – Beijing and the Train ride
- Album #2 – Lhasa and the river raft trip
- Album #3 – Gyantse
- Album #4 – Shigatse and Sakya
- Album #5 – Rombuk and Everest Base Camp
- Album #6 – Nepal and Kathmandu
Mt Everest
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Sunday, June 10, 2007
Generating GPS Maps
I get a lot of questions how I generate the map images with overlay of routes I ran that were downloaded from my Garmin Forrunner 305 GPS device. I will explain how I do it here.
Example Map Route Image:
(Click the image for full sized map)
The Garmin software that comes with the device does not have a good option to export the routes generated into common formats (such as GPX) which can be read by other mapping software.
I use a program called Get301tracks by Brad Culbertson to download the GPS route information to my PC in common GPX format. This works for both the Garmin Forerunner 301 and 305. This program downloads the GPS routes from the Garmin device and saves it in both GPX and CSV formats. This works well enough for me I have not been motivated to investigate other options. If anyone has found a better solution, share it in the comments section.
Install/Using gettracks:
Now you can load the GPX file into most mapping software and plot the route you traveled over a map.
Mapping software I use includes:
Another program that might do something similar, and maybe more user friendly, is GPS Babel. I have not used it. The last time I looked into it two years ago it did not yet support the Garmin F305, but I think they have updated it since then.
Some tools that look interesting but I have not tried:Example map images from my downloaded GPS routes
TopoFusion Example:
(Click the image for full sized map)
Examples from Google Earth:
(Click the image for full sized map)
(Click the image for full sized map)
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Thursday, May 24, 2007
Running Above the Clouds: Guads 2007
I went out to Guadelupe Mountains National Park in west Texas for a weekend of long runs across the park with 25 runners from the Rouge Trail running programs or from HCTR. We drove out on Thursday, leaving at 6:30 am and arriving around 3pm. The first night our cook fixed up a meal with choice of grilled salmon or steak, green beans, potatoes and corn on the cob. This was the start of some of the best camp food ever.
Photo Album
Friday morning we got up an hour before dawn and paired up into groups of similar speed and distace. We has people training for 50K, 50 mile, and 100 mile races and so everyone picked routes ranging from 27 to 40 miles. It started out foggy, but as we climed up we started to rise above the clouds for some incredible views of the clouds below creeping through the valley. 
As I climbed up each switchback, the light was changing and the clouds below were receeding. I needed to hury to get to the next overlook while the light was still good for pictures. Now I was racing against the rising sun to get in position for a good picture. There is only a narrow window of time where the light is best. Too early there is not enough light, especially for the small point-and-shoot I carried. A few minutes too late, and we loose the warm colors of the early morning sun as the clouds burn off.
We got to Pine Top, the highest point on this first climb, about 4 miles into the route and 2000 feet above the start. We looked down for our final view of the clouds below. Then we ran North down the Tejas Trail for 4 or 5 miles until we hit the McKittrick Trail. As we approached the trail junction, a valley opened up oun our left, and we could look down two or three thousand feed to the flat expanse below. No clouds, so it was a strong contrast to the views on the other side of the park.
As we crossed a ridge heading east on the McKittrick Trail, another valley opened up and this one still had a cloud below. The sun was bright and the cloud layer seemed to be only a few hundred feet below. I do not run with sunglasses, and so the glare coming up from below was a little disorienting. Running along the trail you could not see the ground below the clouds, and it gave an illusion that we were running along the edge of a cliff.
A few miles later we really were running along the edge of a cliff as we decended into McKittrick canyon. This time the clouds helped hide how steep the drop offs were. We reached the McKittrick Visitor's center, 19 miles from the start. If you read my prior post on the Guadelupe Mountains, this completed the route I originally intended to hike over 3 days with a 150lb backpack on my first trip here. I fai