Marathon Number 2 - Luxor Egypt

Early morning breakfast, then a 45 minute bus ride to the start. Sunshine. Low of 50, high of 82. Sorry about all you people back home enjoying the snowstorms. The marathon started from a temple in some beautiful sunshine. (I'm really tired right now, so please excuse me if my lack of enthusiasm shows through.)

The course is a short (around 1K) out from the start/finish to a loop we would repeat four times. Turning right we went out past a variety of alabaster factories for the first kilimeter or so. To the right were some traditional Egyptian houses, similar to adobe houses. After about 3-4K was my favorite part of the course. We ran through a winding section, with the ruins of an old temple to the right, and small houses and shops to the left. Goats, sheep, a bull, and lots of donkey carts, and people going about their daily lives. A grandmotherly woman sat beside the road each time I passed in a black dress including head covering, only her face exposed. She smiled at me each time as I ran by and said good morning to her. Children joined us at different points along the course. "Welcome to Egypt." "What's your nationality?" "United States." "Ah. Good people!"

The kids made the marathon fun--running, asking my name, introducing themselves. About 8K into the first loop, I was joined by Nikki who is from England but teaches school in Cairo. She was running the half marathon, but we stayed together all the way through my second loop. When asked her name by some of the children, she said "Nicola." Turns out Nikki doesn´t translate very well into Arabic, but since there´s fifth graders reading this I won´t elaborate. On a short out-and-back, I saw my new friend Geoff, who was only a little bit behind me.

Into the third loop, I came upon Ali, another new friend who plans to do five events in the next short time to raise money for a charity. He was in his fourth and final loop, but had pulled a hamstring so was moving pretty slowly. After passing him I slowed down to do some video in my favorite little neighborhood. Geoff caught up to me and we ran together for a while, on and off for most of the rest of the race. Soon we came upon Robert, who was running on his seventh continent, but moving slowly as we were 8K into our last loop. I was feeling good and moving along well, encouraging him as I passed. Just past the 40K mark through the last aid station, I was still feeling good. The heat was taking a toll, but my body was reacting well. The last 1K as I turned toward the finish was full of traffic by this time, with all the tour busses and taxis. The finish line was a welcome site, as I crossed the line at 4:47:06 on my watch. Marathon number 2. Continent number 2.

My next challenge is to get up in time for my flight to Spain tomorrow.