MOVE; Stay INSPIRED!

White Continent do-over.

Day 9.  First FULL rest day since New Zealand.  Three meals.  No travel.  And a bag of groceries purchased in the airport.  Woke REFRESHED.

8am hotel lobby.  Tent 5 – that hadn’t changed.  Buses outside.  Same drill.  ‘Don’t get over excited, don’t get your hopes up.’  Heard the words, let them talk.  TODAY’s the day.

Ticketed.  Gate One.  Flight DELAY.

Tell ya… just wasn’t worried.  Race clothes readied – wearing ‘em.  Layered up.  Multiple bathroom tries – I remember last year.  Black pot & a white pot 💩  YUCK!

Coke, HUGE bag of chips, bar of chocolate.  Crazy to yo typical Antarctica traveller – I’m marathoning today.  26.2 miles of trail, no formal roads.  Provisioning for SUCCESS.

Group Announcement.  Plane’s fueling up now – 15 minutes, on our way.  GATE ONE outpour of EXCITEMENT!  Pilot say they see a window.  It’s a GO!

Lotta introspect.  Soooo much more than running.  Push, push, push.  Think I’ve experienced every HUMAN EMOTION.

WHITE.  3 hours in, first sight of land.  Jagged, volcanic rock.  Patches of coloured moss.  Antarctic SUMMER!

Landed with a BANG.  SHOUTS of excitement.  Whatta journey!

I’ve literally travelled AROUND the entire GLOBE.  ONE to go!

All SMILE.  I’ve got this.  ANTARCTICA Day! 🐧

 

 

Touchdown Antarctica

 

 

No air traffic controllers on the White Continent.  It’s all visual.  Radar.  Close watch on weather.  Cloud cover, SNOW.  Stories of flying to Antarctica… not landing, diverted 3 hours back to Chile.

1am meeting cancelled.  Weather window closed.  Back to sleep.

6am downstairs.  Luggage tent-tagged, 2 buses awaiting.  Small plane.  FULL flight, every seat.

Airport check-in.  Ticketed.  BIG bag on board.  Sunshiny skies, body tired but this is it – LAST DAY!

In theory, a small fee & I can run the Punta Arenas Marathon, day after Antarctica with Black Ice (group from Atlanta).  Thanks, no thanks.  I’ll cheer y’all on – 8 marathons all I signed for.  LOL>

9am: DELAY.  New departure 10:15am.

HIGH energy at Gate One.  Lotta selfies, lotta groupies.  Whole lotta pics in general.  I remember my excitement last year.  Antarctica, bottom of the World.  AMAZING adventure!

11:30am: Flight CANCELLED.  Mix of rain & snow.  Window closed.

And… that was that.

Quiet grieving amongst the Group.  Hour before hotel transport secured.  Punta Arenas Day.

So… what’s the plan?  Notta lotta communication.  iPhone readied, everyone a meteorologist.

Maybe… move Black Ice’s Punta race to tomorrow – but, if our window opens at noon… folks would be pulled off course, packed up, flown to Antarctica and expected to run again, soon after landing… with no surety they’d get the 2 Continent finishes they registered for.

Me?  Pulpo risotto & back to sleep.  Strangely a-ok.  Let the others explore town & nightlife play.

Marathon tomorrow.  Sis did a penguin SACRIFICE; Antarctica SUCCESS or the ‘middle penguin’ goes next 😬

Triple 8, now 8-8-9.  Eight marathons, eight continents… NINE days.

 

 

Day 8 FAIL

 

Save Jan 🐧❤️

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Goodbye New York, hello South America.  Journey to the Bottom of the World.  With only 2 marathons to go, spirits CRAZY HIGH again.  It’s not only possible, it’s gonna happen.

BUSINESS CLASS to Santiago.  Stretched out & logged most my sleep hours.  Customs, bag retrieval – the BIG bag, my new NYC-export full of Antarctica supplies… but first, Chile.

Scored McDonald’s Americana while transferring to the Domestic Terminal – ‘Cuarto de Libra con Queso’.  QUARTER POUNDER!  Calories, calories, calories.  Burning 4000+ a day 🍔

Touchdown: Punta Arenas.  Crowded 4-hour flight to Patagonia, the land of Magellan.

13-mile ride into town.  Hurry, hurry, quick.  Change of clothes – it’s race day in 15 minutes!  Today’s 26.2 would be a 3:30 AFTERNOON START (after spending 16 hours in the air).

Airplane stiff but SUPER EXCITED.  Know what to expect; I’ve been here.  Bike path ‘longside the Ocean.  6 laps.  Sun won’t set ‘til almost MIDNITE.  Bottom of the World.  YES!

Hotel lobby PACKED.  GREAT energy!  Tomorrow’s White Continent runners there to greet us.  THEY have their own Quest – most African Americans to race Antarctica, EVER.  Majority from the Deep South.  My PEOPLE.  20 would join the afternoon marathon.  AWESOME!

Sis yesterday; Southerner run-company Day 7!  God gives us exactly what we need.

High 5’s & shout-outs every lap… whatta SPIRIT BOOST.  Out, back.  Out, back.  HUGE SMILE.  SOAKED in every second.  WIND.  Cloud cover.  Sideways RAIN.  Sunshine.  WIND again.  Patagonia summer 🌞

Two days ago, armor dented/spirit broken/no more.  Today – a 5th place FINISH!

Auckland, Perth, Singapore, Cairo, Amsterdam, New York, Punta Arenas.  Just ONE remaining!

Shower, quick nap.  1 a.m. team meeting.  Antarctica Day! 🐧

 

4th Annual Southern Cross Marathon

Punta Arenas, Chile

January 27, 2020

 

Keenan Haga   Louisville, CO U.S.A.   Marathon   5:49:47

 

 

Southern Cross Marathon