Sunday, July 30, 2006

1 hour, 10 minutes

Today was the sixth annual Bogota Media Marathon. Andrea signed herself and I up for the 10 km run (there was an optional 21 km run also) and the day couldn't have been nicer to be outside, bright sunshine and very clear skies. I had run one other 10 km (it's actually 12 km) for competition, it was the Bay to Breakers while I lived in San Francisco (I recall finishing in under an hour. 50 minutes, I think). For this run, neither Andrea nor I properly trained for this event but I knew beforehand that she would finish ahead of me. The 10 k race started precisely at 11am, which was a bit strange for around here, and Andrea and I were immediately separated. We expected that to happen because she and I have different paces.

So after about 10 minutes of winding our way through the historic downtown streets of Bogota, the race opened up and the men were separated from the boys. I exerted a little too much energy weaving my way through the human walls of people and by the time I got to the third km I started to feel tired. But I pushed on and settled into a nice rhythm. I had to slow down to a walk a few times but I eventually reached the home stretch. This is where it got stupid.

So there we are thousands and thousands of people running in the same 10 k race at roughly the same time and the finish line was at a park called Simon Bolivar (the photo really doesn't do it justice as to how large it actually is). The home stretch was about 500 meters long, downhill and the you could see the finish from the top.

I had this vision at some point during the final stretch of me crossing the tape in some dramatic fashion like Jesse Owens in the Olympics in Germany or in the movie Chariots of Fire. Not this time. Not today. By the time I woke up from this fantastic finish I was envisioning, I saw that there was this wall of thousands of people trying to cross the finish at the same time because the space by which to cross was reduced to mere 7 meters (20 feet) in width. Whoever designed this finish line needed to crack open his industrial design books once more.

So me and thousands of my closest friends and I stop on a dime and my muscles immediately tense up. And for those of you who have ever competed in a running race, or have even done treadmill work or have run outside for exercise know that when you stop exerting so much energy, you need to slow down gradually, either at a slower running pace or a fast walk so that your muscles don't tense up. Again, not today.

So I march amongst the sweaty runners for another 10 minutes until it opened up to this enormous amphitheater filled with music, gatorade and water stands, food, and tens of thousands of people. I find Andrea (who finished about 10 minutes ahead of me) after playing phone tag with her and we quickly left.

Chalk off another thing from the 'to do' list in Bogota. Photos to come later.

Saturday, July 22, 2006

For Those Watching Their Food Consumption

Jumping on the fast food nation bandwagon, Andrea recently found a website that you may want to remember next time you are pressed for time and want to grab lunch or dinner (or breakfast as the case may be) on the go. It lists all of the major fast food chains in the United States, their menus, and nutritional information such as: number of calories, fat, carbs, and proteins in each serving. Everything from the Breakfast Burrito at Burger King to the steamed lowfat milk you put in your Starbucks Iced Cappucino (tall). Take a look. It's not a 100% complete menu list in some cases, and may not have promotional foods, but at least it gives you a good idea.

(Without going into too much detail, you can do a rough daily calculation of how many calories, proteins, carbs, and fats you can consume, based on your lifestyle (i.e. sedentary to extremely active), your age, height, current weight, and your goal (i.e. to maintain, lose or gain weight). There are tons of websites like this, all with more or less the same information.)