The Coastal Challenge
Beaches, Treetops and Rough Seas
Lisa de Speville (Photo: Sergio Pucci.) / 25.01.2005
It is actually day 4 now, as I type this… and it has been a long day. Alright, looking back at yesterday ...We were up at 4am to be ready for a 5h30 shuttle to the start venue for a 6h30 start. We were up for what was billed as being a tough 43km stage – first on beach and then dirt road hills in the later half.
I woke up with my tummy feeling a little unstable, which fortunately eased up within the first 10km. I started off easy, the first 6km rolling dirt road stretch taking us to an aid station and the start of the first beach section. We’d been warned that we would likely encounter soft sand, and it was here that we did.
In stage 1 and 2 we had really good quality beach texture with little camber. But, today this first section had us running lopsided, legs almost buckling on contact with soft sections.
The sand too was also coarse and gritty, absorbing the energy from every step. I was amazed at the number of crabs and crab holes on this section, something we hadn’t seen on the other beaches – probably due to the softer sand texture? As we approached the crabs would scurry into their holes.
Thoughts on the Run
One thing people often ask me, and others, is “what do you think about out there running on your own for so many hours?�. Here it is ...
When the crabs nip into a hole to get out of danger, do they go into their hole or any available hole? Or, are they ‘allowed’ to go into the holes of family members? And, if they go into a hole in which another crab resides, does the resident crab fight him off, pushing the intruder out of his hole ... or does the resident allow the intruder to stay until the danger has passed? From a zoological perspective, the later would be more appropriate, particularly where survival of the species is concerned ...
Something else I noticed on this first stretch was a number of turtle tracks. I saw four separate tracks, an indication that during the night females had come to shore to lay eggs. I’d read that this western Costa Rican coastline is a haven for nesting turtles – leatherbacks in particular. There are also numerous tour operations that run outings during nesting and hatching season.
My final faunal observation was of vultures. We passed numerous groups – one group were tiptoeing around a large, dead fish.See All Event Posts
