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
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- McDonald’s con Queso
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- Santiago SUNRISE
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- Patagonia 🇨🇱
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- Diego De Almagro Hotel
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- afternoon START
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- 6 laps out-n-back
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- Day 7: South America
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- Just ONE remaining!
Southern Cross Marathon
9-11 Memorial
Bigger, bolder, brasher. Not the Colorado Rockies, but good to be USA home.
What I learned from my 50 State journey (twice), no matter the accent or our politics – Hawaii, Texas or Maine – we’re American. We ALL stand together 🇺🇸
Trans-Atlantic flight, Amsterdam to JFK. Customs, luggage retrieval. Rental van to our Saturday nite sleeps. All the years I NYC-worked, never ever on Long Island.
Hampton Inn. American TV. Food Network! Thirty minutes more, downstairs with the Questers – PIZZA nite! SOAKING in the junk food. Nothing more American than pepperoni pizza & 2-liter Coke. U-S-A! We’re not the healthiest bunch of folk. LOL>
BUSINESS CLASS sleep – and a FULL nite on Long Island. Despite the massive time difference, ZERO problem staying unconscious ‘til the morning alarm 😊
Breakfast, shower. Luggage at the Front Desk. Goodbye, first Half adventure. Ash & Tom (already in New York) exchanging marathon totes while I’m running in nearby Eisenhower Park. Goodbye sweaty shorts, hello Antarctica sleeping bag. YES!
Registration, bib pickup. Soooo many runners. Triple 8 story back-burner’d this day. New Yorker accents, fancy run shoes. Thin guys to the front – winner’s breaking 3 hours today. Photo opp with the Six, then crowd bunched close at the Start. Kinda overwhelming, sheer amount of people. Weather? Couldn’t be better. Legs? Heavy.
Lap 1, Ashton. Lap 3, Sis. emotion OVERLOAD.
Sis saw yesterday’s Amsterdam post & booked a New York flight, same day/hours later. Just WOW. Reason I ran my first marathon (Alaska 2013). Reason I ran all 50 States TWICE (her Hawaii Birthday ultra). And today, will be the reason I FINISH all 8 continents.
[I mean, once you finish six… the last 2 – with no time cutoffs – should be a cake walk. It’s just another 52 miles, right?]
More walk than slog. More slog than jog, but Sis stayed with me. Six-hour course limit. Slow-n-steady. Legs moving (or not) – she’d make sure I’d hit the time. Well until lap 8, then… see ya. 2pm. Plane to catch, work in the morning. Absolutely SERIOUS!
Clocks a sub-10 5k, medal/finish pic, husband waiting with the car. CRAZY proud! & sooooo very appreciative ❤️
LAST LAP. It’d be tight. 16-minute walk pace. Certainly, wasn’t setting any speed records – but FINISH I did.
6 continents, 6 marathons, 6 days. Anything is POSSIBLE… with FAMILY.
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- Triple 8 New York
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- Day 6 START
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- Eisenhower Park, L.I.
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- SIBLING Day
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- love ya Ash ❤️
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- Garden City USA
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- 6-hour cutoff 😬
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- Day 6: North America
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- TWO to go!
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- 8 laps ’round
Icebreaker Marathon
“It doesn’t matter whether you come in first, in the middle of the pack, or last. You can say, ‘I have finished.’
There is a lot of satisfaction in that.” ~ Fred Lebow
Woke early cheerleading myself; only 3 to go. Little bounce day-over-day. Legs stopped moving day prior – think ‘lead legs‘ the new norm. No real recovery. Lack of sleep taken its toll. Trained for ‘miles‘ & throwing multi-day distance. Never foresaw sleep deprivation. Mind fuzzy/cloudy, nothing’s ever crisp. Reality/dream states blurred. And emotional. Even at Christmas, my family… we’re not huggers. Certainly not weepers.
Suck it up buttercup, it’s Race day 6 – and today, this day I’m running 26.2 in the Red, White & Blue 🇺🇸
Sunday. BIGGEST race field of all 8. Hundreds of participants. Flat course & NYC confidence. Crazy fast field. End of Lap 1: Ash & Tom. Taste of HOME, my Colorado FAMILY. Lap later, had it settled in my head. I got nothing to prove. I’ve got folks who love me. I’ve been to Chile, marathon’d in Antarctica. Nothing left in the legs, spirit dinged. Finish the Half & heading HOME. 5 continents in 5 days. I can live with that.
Lap 2, no Ash. Text’d to meet at the tennis courts. It’s just ahead; they were geocaching. Got it! Thankful they weren’t hanging idle while I’m slow-slogging ‘round Long Island. New York State not… ‘the City’.
Ahead on the right. There they are. Smile. Short wave.
Left. Look LEFT. Tunnel Hill mirage. So weird. Same headband, same hydration vest. Smiling, laughing. Talking. No, it’s REAL. Half-a-country away from her St. Louis home. She’s HERE. HOW?
Long embrace. TEARS. No words. Sis – in Garden City, New York ❤️
And Ash. And Tom. And my in-law bro, Paul.
They’re all here.
Run, walk, crawl but finish. I can do this. Triple 8 FINISH.
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- Sis SURPRISE
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- Triple 8 BOOST
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- Taste of HOME ❤️
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- marathon STRONG
NY Sibling SURPRISE
