Costa Rica: The Coastal Challenge 2009
Day 6: Although it was technically the easiest, and by far the shortest day of the week
Jacqueline Windh / 10.02.2009
Day 6, a 23 km “victory lap� through the jungles surrounding the village of Drake, was the shortest and technically the easiest day of the whole race. But most of us are hurting - either with tender and blistered feet or just with general exhaustion (or both), so this day was still far from easy. It was much more social than other days, though, as guests and visitors were allowed to do the course as well.
We started with wet feet right from the start, with a 4 km walk up-river, wading back and forth across gravelly and muddy banks. The entire Project Athena group did this together, about a dozen in all, walking it so that the most blistered ones could still complete the whole route with the main gang (Robyn called it our 6 hour half-marathon). After 4 km of river wading, we finally rose up through the jungle, then descended into a steep ravine and crossed the rapids below yet another stunning waterfall.
I was having a really rough day. Those last few km on gravel yesterday with saturated feet had opened up a whole new set of blisters. My feet had been hurting for days, and now they were hurting even more. It was the first day that I did not feel strong or confident - I was glad that the group was walking, and I chose to stick with them.
Sara Jones, their Athenaship recipient, was back on the course today. She had been off for the last few days on doctors recommendation - because of her chemo, her body had not been able to deal with the heat very well, and her feet had also got badly blistered in the first two days, and the doctors were worried about infection given her weakened immune system. She gave me a hand, both literally and emotionally, as we trudged along and up the hills, and steadied me as we crossed the rapids below the waterfalls.
Since today was such a short and realtively easy route, it was the first day that I had packed only “just enough� food, rather than any extra. Early on the route another racer who had no food asked if I had any, so I shared out the little bag of pretzels I had brought to get me to PC1 (at 13 km).
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