Jambo Sana

Jambo,

Greetings from beautiful Kenya.

I am staying at Lornah Kiplagat's High Altitude Training Camp in Iten, just as I have done on my previous 5 visits to here. The pool which was being built when I was here before is now finished, and the coffee shop which overlooks the pool is due to be finished in the next week or so, making it a very special place to stay. The food here is excellent, and I am really enjoying the chapitis and the ugaili. It's the first time that I haven' t craved food from home (though a bit of cake wouldn't go a miss), and soon there will be mangos to add to the mix. Heaven!

The pool at Lornah Kiplagat's HATC

with the new coffee shop in the background

The weather has been somewhat mixed, but at least the rain that we are having at night is keeping the dust down and is not affecting running, though I did stupidly get caught out in a hail shower on my first day here - 'drowned rat' doesn't even begin to describe what I must have looked like when I finally made it back to the camp. When it rains in Africa, it really does rain.

For the first week I was napping twice a day most days (one of the side affects of altitude), but now I'm acclimatising again, and actually getting some other things done in addition to just training, sleeping and eating (like updating my blog for example!).

On Tuesday we took a trip to the track at Moi University Campus where all the athletes from Iten are training at the moment (the track at Kamarini Stadium is being renovated, or rehabilitated as the locals put it). The Matatu trip there wasn't the most comfortable, especially when we had to stop because we had run out of fuel, but one particular moment almost made the trip worth it. Just as we approached our drop-off point, the silence onboard the packed vehicle was broken by one of those text message alerts that loose their humour after the second or third time you've heard them, but on this occasion had me in stitches. Out of nowhere, a very British accent stated 'excuse me please, you have a text message'. Obviously it was the situation, rather than the actual words, that tickled me most, and myself and Dave started into a fit of giggles that lasted for minutes. Everyone else was completely oblivious of the humour, and I'm pretty sure the Kenyan with the phone didn't appreciate our childish laughter.

A 'small' number of Kenyan athletes rising some dust directed by Robin Williams look-alike Italian coach.

The satellite TV stations disappeared the day that I arrived, and only came back yesterday, so unfortunately we have missed most of the Commonwealth Games. I have been hearing some of the results, and as the Kenyans have being doing well, they have at least being showing small clips of the distance races on the news headlines. Congratulations to everyone that I know that was competing, and a special well done to Louise and Jo on their gold medals - well deserved by both.

Training has being going well, though my hamstrings are now paying the price of being overenthusiastic, and doing the 'secret' Kenyan hills on Wednesday. The hill is so steep that running down was almost as difficult as running up, and yesterday when I got out of bed, there wasn't a single part of my body below my ribs that wasn't sore. But as they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, and if it works for the Kenyans...

That's all the updates from Iten at the moment, but before I sign off I'd like to give a special mention to my Mum and Dad who, on Monday, will celebrate their 35th Wedding Anniversary. Sorry that I couldn't be there to celebrate with you both. Congratulations!!!

Greetings from Dubai

Ok so it's been a few weeks since my last blog - that's because I've been at home for a few weeks catching up with family and friends, running a few races, and earning a bit of cash to keep the travels going.  Oh and there was a wedding reception to attend - more about that later.

And so, phase 3 of the travels has just commenced.  I'm sitting in Dubai International Airport waiting for a connecting flight to Nairobi and making use of the free internet access (probably the last reliable internet access I'll have until December).  I set off from Birmingham late last night, and managed about 3 hours disturbed sleep on the plane.  Despite the lack of sleep I feel surprisingly awake - maybe the 30 degree heat that hit me when I got off the plane woke me up, or the excitement of being on the road again is energising me.

This time I'm heading back to Kenya, and though I've been 5 times before, I felt that I had to come back as part of this trip, and put to rest the demons of my last visit.  Apart from home, the sleepy town of Iten, in the Rift Valley is probably my favourite place in the world.  However, when I last visited in Dec 07/Jan 08, our trip came to an abrupt end, when, following post-presidential-election violence, running there became unsafe.  And so, following a police escort from Iten to Eldoret airport, we left behind a country that was on the verge of self destruction.  During my previous 4 visits I couldn't have felt safer; in 2007 I was actually scared for my life.  And that's why I need to go back.

After Kenya, I'll be visiting Ethiopia for the first time, and plan to run the Great Ethiopian Run on 21st November, before returning home to get a new passport so I can travel some more.

As all I've seen so far is the inside of Dubai International Airport (which while for an airport is not completely unnoteworthy, it's still just an airport), today's pictures come from Patrick and Tatiana's wedding reception - nothing to do with altitude of course, but I thought I'd share the photos of this happy occasion none the less.

Even the rain wasn't going to dampen our spirits that day.

The boys doing a Russian dance as ransom for the kidnapped bride - a Russian wedding tradition.

Patrick going through his stretching routein before the First Dance.

Tatiana flexing her muscles before the First Dance.

The First Dance.  It looks like all the preparation paid off!

It's an Egan celebration; of course there is more than 1 cake!

Sunsets

Just 1 day left in the Sierra Nevada before I head back to sea level for a few weeks.  Unfortunately training hasn't been so good this week, and some of the great progress that I had made in Font Romeu has been undone.  None the less it's been a descent week.

As I mentioned in my most recent post, the sunsets are amazing here.  I've tried to get some better photos.  Here are a sample.

I thought that since a measly salamander was the best I could do on the animal spotting front in Font Romeu...

...that I should do better here.  Here are a couple of photos of one of two goats (Spanish Ibex) that I saw today when walking down to the village.  It was a bit of a random sight in the middle of a built up area.

So that's all now for this leg of the journey.  I'll hopefully be back with more updates soon.

Sierra Nevada

I had a very big smile on my face Monday morning.  Partially because I'd managed to sleep most of the way on my overnight train journey from Barcelona to Granada without getting even the slightest bit of motion sickness, but mostly because, despite an unplanned change to my journey, I still managed to arrive in Granada on time, and without the least bit of stress.

The little yellow train - my mode of transport from Font Romeu to VilleFranche.  The 45 minutes journey by car takes over 2 hours by train.

My total journey from Font Romeu to here was scheduled to take 22 hours, and include changes at VilleFranche (with only 5 minutes to spare), Perpingnan, and Barcelona.  However, given that I was travelling such a long distance, with different train companies and across 2 countries, I could not buy a ticket the whole way.  After making the change at VilleFranche without any hassle, I arrived at a very busy Perpingan station to be told that the train to Granada was full (there is only 1 train per day), but that I could give a ticket as far as Barcelona, on a slower train, that incurred an additional stop.  Unfazed by this, I took the ticket to Barca, optimistic that once I got there I could blag my way onto the train to Granada.  Worst case scenario, I figured an additional day in Barcelona wouldn't be the end of the world. 

Beautiful blue skies as we leave Font Romeu behind

Some hours later I reached Barca, and sure enough there was space on the train to Granada, but only sleeping space.  At an additional cost of just 15 euro from what I was originally quoted via the Internet, I happily took the bed, and thanked myself for not wasting energy getting stressed-out about the situation.  If quiting my job, and spending all my savings on travelling the world achieves just one thing, I'm happy that I've found optimistic Eliz again.  She makes a much better travelling partner than the stressed-out version.

It occurred to me yesterday that I haven't seen a single cloud in over a week now.  Font Romeu warmed up nicely just before I left, and reached 30 degrees on my penultimate day.  And here, at 2,400m above sea level in the Sierra Nevada, the temperatures reached 32 degrees.  Nobody that works at the camp here can ever remember the temperatures getting that high before, though temperatures in Granada regularly reach 40 at this time of year.

View of the Sierra Nevada from the camp

While the temperature is almost too hot, it's the lack of cloud that makes this place so amazing.  The camp is almost at the top of the mountain, surrounded by other peaks of the Sierra range to the North, South and West, and overlooking the Granada plane in the East.  And on clear evenings like we've been having, that means one thing - amazing sunsets.  I've tried taking some photos, but they dont' quite do it justice.

View of sunset from my bedroom window.  It's much more spectacular in real life.

Unfortunately, while the mountain-top position means beautiful views, the training is somewhat tough.  There are not as many trails as at my previous destinations, and so steep are the roads that it makes Font Romeu look like a plateau.  I'm still managing to get some running in, and spending a bit of time working on my core.  Who knows, I might even develop that six-pack that I've been talking about for so long.

I've got just less than a week left here now, and then I'm back home to Wexford for a few days.  After all these hills, the sight of Curracloe beach will be a welcome one, though I'm guessing the temperatures will be somewhat cooler.

Caption Competition Winner

Since it seems that Nic is never actually going to be inspired enough to contribute to the caption competition, I have decided to announce the winner.

Runner-up spot goes to Mike for his contribution: The one on the left (let’s call him Bud for whatever reason!) is saying to the other (let’s call him Bob!) “this group is juuuuust magic and has massive potential”. If you know Bud and Bob, you'll know what he means!  unfortunately Mike there are no prizes for 2nd place.

But the winner, and the opportunity of a career in the humorous card caption business goes to Alex. Alex's entry was: 'The snake impression that Bob produced wasn't exactly what Tracy had been hoping for.' 

Some of the other contributions were:

Future Employer: Congratulations Ms Egan, you are the successful candidate, however I must inform you the job is 9 to 5.

Eliz: One is not amused!!!

(Fair point!)

And

Eh, who pinched my bum?

Congratulations to Alex, and thanks to all those who contributed.

Barcelona By Pictures

Barni, the B10 Mascott trying to get the crowd going.  Bless him, he tried, but Berlino was always going to be an impossible act to follow.

A view of the city from inside the Olympic Stadium

The track as the sun is setting

Barcelona's Olympic Port, reginerated for the 1992 Olympic Games

The detailed Navity Fascade on the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona.  Gaudi's masterpiece is only 60% complete, but what is done is amaging

Detail of the 3 wise ones on that fascade

Stained glass detail from inside the church.  The interior is due to be finished later this year

Detail of the interior support and roof structure, designed to represent trees and branches in the forrest.  Gaudi was a bit of a nature lover

The work inside continues

Probably the worst buscar in the world.  To be avoided at all costs!  Scott and AnnMarie can vouch for that.

More of Gaudi's work

The National Moseum of Art of Catalunya as seen from the Placa d'Espanya

The Magic Fountain desplays that light up Mountjuic at night.

And no photo collection of mine would be complete without an animal of some sort.  This is a wild parrott that we saw in the hills above the city.

Font Romeu Update

Greetings from Font Romeu, where the daily average temperature has fluctuated from single figures to something a little closer to 30. When it's nice, it's very, very nice, and when it's not, well it's pretty horrid!

I've put in a decent week's training over the past 7 days - made easy by the fact that I've had my little brother to train with, and because he always manages to find the best trails. As he hired a car while he was over we also managed to see a bit of the country. We even took a trip to Andorra last week - I'd love to say that it's a beautiful country, but quit frankly we didn't see a bit of it. So covered by cloud and fog, all I can actually tell is that it's got roads which are very windy and steep, and that the petrol is very cheap! The rest you'll just have to read in a guidebook.

That's me doing a little spot of training.  Ok, that's me posing for the camera!

Frustrated by the cold, and by the great weather reports that we were hearing from home, after training in the clouds (literally) we decided to head for the coast and a bit of sea-level yesterday. Thankfully it was sunny there, but by the time we had filled our stomachs (where John and myself are concerned that can take a while), bought a beach towel, purchased the world's most expensive pick-and-mix (17 euro of jellies that barely even gave us a sugar rush), and found a space on the beach, it had clouded over there too.

Somebody has a little bit too much time on their hands.  I'd love to say this is one of my creations, but even I'm not that artistic.

The good news is that today the weather is considerably better, and the beautiful blue sky is visible again. I may have even got a little burnt in places, but nothing as bad as the heat that John is going to feel radiating from himself later.

Just 6 more days in the Pyrenees, before I head to the Sierra Nevada in Spain (as apposed to Calafornia where I've already been) for 10 days. Then I'll have to dust off my limited Spanish again, and try not to say Merci and Bonjour all the time.

But for now it's au revoir, adios, chao, laters, take-it-handy, or whatever way you say goodbye where you come form.

Two Mini Adventures; Two more Olympic Stadiums

It's Tuesday 3rd August 2010, and stage 2 of the altitude adventures has just begun. Yesterday afternoon I arrived by train in Font Romeu in the French Pyrenees, but before I update on what this venue has to offer, I thought it would be an appropriate time to update everyone on what I've been up to over the summer, how my brief track season fared, and how attending the European athletics Championships has given me even more motivation to train like hell over the coming weeks.

The aforementioned championships concluded on Sunday in the Olympic Stadium in Barcelona. Having long been on my hit-list of venues to visit, I wasn't going to turn down the chance to visit Spain's second largest city. Attracted to the city for it's architecture, the legacy that Gaudi and his contemporaries left behind did not disappoint. The magnificence of the world's most famous building site (the part completed Sagrada Familia), the wonderful views from Gaudi's Park Guell, and the magnificent nigh time magic fountain displays would have been more than enough to make the trip worthwhile, but 6 days of action packed athletics within the stadium and on the streets of the city centre made this a truly epic experience. The athletics was made even more memorable when I knew people taking part; the tension of waiting to see if Hannah England has made the final of the 1500m, and the excitement of seeing Hatti Dean battle for (and subsequently just miss out on) a podium position and knock a massive 8 seconds from her personal best in the 3,000m steeplechase were about as much as my nerves, and my vocal cords, could handle.

 

There's something special about Olympic Stadiums, and Barcelona was only the 2nd one that I saw in the past month. Earlier in July my brother Patrick married the lovely Tatiana Bogdanova in Moscow, and the wedding provided us with the opportunity not only to view the beautiful Red Square, but also to witness the venue of the 1980 Games. The wedding was a great event, and despite serious lack of sleep, lost luggage and swollen feet, the action-packed 48 hours were some of the greatest of my life. Russia was definitely a pleasant surprise and the food was great (always a bonus!). Let's hope that it's not too long until the next family celebration.

 

And so to the track season. I always knew that it was going to be difficult to get close to my personal bests given the complete lack of track sessions in the past 2 years, but it was going to be interesting to see how I responded to the first block of altitude training. As expected, for the first 10 days I felt great, and I'm really glad that I spent a small fortune to get to Watford for a steeplechase race in early June after the chase had been cancelled at short notice at the Northern Ireland Championships. Despite the lack of speed in my legs, I felt amazing. The benefits of sea-level oxygen pressure soon wore off though, and less that a week later, I felt like crap. This is a normal reaction to returning from altitude, the magnitude and time delay vary depending on the individual and the duration of altitude exposure, but I had forgotten from my previous visits just how difficult this slump can be. I definitely won't be scheduling a race for 2-3 weeks after returning from an altitude training trip!

This track season was always going to be about returning to some level of fitness, getting some races in to inspire me for the coming winter, and implement some positive hurdling technique. All of these targets were achieved, but somehow there is a feeling of a missed opportunity, and a sense of what might have been. An opportunity of a national steeplechase title was practically handed to me on a plate, and I messed it up. Nerves, a lack of confidence, and a slip on the final waterjump denied me the chance of being in a 3-way sprint for the title. In the end, bronze (the same position as I finished in 2006) and a season's best performance was all I could do, as I watched my rivals excite the crowd with a very tight finish just meters in front of me. On reflection, disappointed as I was, a small part of me is glad I didn't win. In the grand scheme of things, a national title in 11:15-odd would mean very little to me, and the hunger generated by just missing out this time round should take me a long way into winter training. And so, with this year's goals achieved, I drew a line under this year's track season, took a week off training, and set about building up for 2011.

After 2 weeks of moderate volume mileage, here I am in Font Romeu where thankfully it is a lot warmer and sunnier than it was yesterday (not that I'm completely solar-powered these days, but sunshine definitely helps. I'm about to embark on a few weeks of high volume training in preparation for a half marathon in September. The target for that is simple: my first PB over any distance in 6 years.

Apart from my quest to find fresh milk (the frenchies love their UHT crap), and a proper tin opener, my biggest challenge now is trying to exchange my Spanish vocabulary (which no extends to si, mucho, hola!, gracias, por favor, and verde), for my equally limited French one. Inept as I am with foreign languages though, 'si' is still very much 'yes', and I have used 'gracias' instead of 'merci' on at least 5 occasions now. People who fluently speak 3 or 4 languages without getting mixed up between them amaze me. Ah well, I guess I just can't be good at everything.

How can you call this a tin-opener?