Dos Botellas

There is no visiting Beijing without seeing the Great Wall of China. If I could run it, I would cover more ground. The search for the Great Wall run was on. Googled Great Wall marathon. Bam, perfect. As I looked further into it, this requires all participants to be on their 2-wk tour. Shacks. Going down the Google list, I ran into another one – Great Wall of China Marathon. Yet further research and contacting the organizers confirmed that GWCM had no tour requirement. What's more, the course was almost entirely on the wall whereas the other one runs, for the most part, through villages. Even more, this one took place in more scenic section of the Great Wall. Perfect, I'd be able to run it! Sightsee with water support, a brilliant idea! It would be ... read more

Just one week after our successful run at Matagalls Montserrat in Sept 2011, Bertrand threw an idea of Eco-trail de Paris 80k. The race high is always followed by the low point. It’s like losing purpose. It comes just about one week following the event. The harder the event, the lower the low point, the most dangerous and vulnerable time to sign up for the next adventure. The idea of finishing at glowing Eiffel tower captivated me. And all that baked goods I'd eat afterwards?? The thought of regret outweighed the work. It was going to be a completely different game from Mm with time limit cut in half. What the heck, I’ll figure out the running part after registration and airplane ticket. Despite my motto of “no cold, no injury”... read more

The day before: How quickly I forget - length, difficulty, the pain. Here I was again, on the way to airport for Mm11! Matagalls Montserrat, a 52-mile route from Coll Formic on Montseny mountain outside of Barcelona to the monastery of Montserrat. Cumulative incline, ~20,000ft. Last year was my first attempt. Finished at 17hrs with the last 5hrs of pure pain. This year's goal - to finish without 5hrs of that pain. When Raúl told me that the registration opened, I had no hesitation - sign me up please!!! This year, the rule changed from first-come first-serve to giving priority to those who have completed before. I was so glad I did it last year. Raúl and I were two of 1800 ppl who pre-registered. 1200 spots were open for lottery. Of >2200 ppl who entered, ... read more

Mon - 7 solid hrs on foot: Pastel yellow stations and digital info board disappeared from the platforms. Instead stood rusty and airly stations. The train crossed Austria-Hungary border 1hr from Vienna. Right on schedule. The train arrived at Budapest Keleti station at 1p. It was a smooth ride. Finding Anna was smooth too, thanks to her detailed instruction. After dropping off my backpack at an apartment, Anna took me for lunch close by for typical Hungarian fair - paprika chicken rice and paprika sausage potato couscous-like grain. Lots of paprika for a great start! She ordered them with this fermented cucumber that tastes like pickles but they were not pickled. It's like cured with bread or yeast - interesting. The dishes were ginormous and the restaurant kept the leftover for us during our excursion - ... read more

Reward #1 - Toast with cava!: After one full easy day, I was able to walk faster and pain was less going up the stairs. I wasn’t gonna sit around anyway. I’ve never seen the cava country mentioned in any guide book of Barcelona but it sounded like an awesome idea . Sant Sadurni d’Anoia is ~1hr train ride west of Barcelona. The day started out early but not smooth . It's just that nobody was going that far out of the city and people had no idea where this place was. First I took the wrong train cuz I couldn’t remember the name of the final stop. I got on and after I asked the ladies around me, it became a discussion of the isle. Somebody finally knew how to get there, phew. People went ... read more