the pencil runs

We ran on the main road by the honking cars and grazing cows until we got tired of it; we ran on the inside kampung paths where everybody stared and dogs barked and chased after you; and we ran on black sand that glittered in the sun.

One of the cottage industries in this area is the collection of the perfectly smooth pebbles that was everywhere on the beach for export. There were many women on the beach collecting these pebbles and carrying them in gunny sacks on their heads. The black sand is also supposed to have healing qualities, which I hope explains the large number of naked local men we saw along the way.

It was really an eye-opening run. We didn't take a picture of any of the naked men, but my buddy took one of this guy standing on his head on the beach.



Along one of the kampung roads heading back to the beach, we saw a sign warning people what to do and what to look out for in case of a tsunami. The sign says that you should run towards higher ground when the sea starts to smell like "cooked salt". I realised that I was such a city girl that I wouldn't know a normal sea from an abnormal one, let alone sniff out the "cooked salt" tell-tale sign.



We had to cross 12 rivers this run. Everytime, we would take off our shoes and socks, wade through the stream, walk a bit, and then plop down to shake the sand off and put our shoes and socks back on. TWELVE TIMES! Some of the rivers were so strong that you could see large smooth pebbles rolling down.


Accessing the river.


First step.


Half-way. Man, this water is fast!


Almost there..


Waving at my buddy.

We got to Sanur, had a lunch of fried fish and rice, bought a kite, and headed back.

On the way back, Smole lost her glasses in one of the rivers when she stopped to wash up and cool down a bit in the water. She didn't even realise until quite a distance later when we stopped to put our shoes back on. We went back to look, but it was swept away a long time ago.

It was a difficult run for me at the last bit because I had a bad stomachache. The sun also got to me at the end, and at our last drink stop, it felt like we were at an oasis in the middle of the desert. The man at the drink stop said to us that we could stop and fly our kite there because the wind was good, but we had to say that we had many more miles to go... Thank God it was closer than the 2km we thought we had left, because I think another 30mins in that sun would have given me heat stroke.

We are only young (and foolish) once.

(Thanks Smole for running with me and taking the pictures I was too scared to take!)

I haven't done anything for four days. No cycling, no walking, no running, and there was the freakish long run this weekend looming over me like a curse. I squeezed into my sports clothes -- I hate running bras even more when I'm burnt -- brought a bottle of water, and tried out Yasso's 800. (Yasso's 800 is a pretty nifty way of training for the marathon. Basically you want to train to be able to do ten 800m in the same "time" as you want to do for the marathon, for example a 4:30hr requires you to do it 4:30mins.)

I chose a straight stretch with a short hill at the end of it, and I estimated 800m to be two laps of that stretch. So I started running... and felt weird straight away. My muscles weren't co-ordinated and I felt like I couldn't sweat properly. I thought I had just lost muscle mass and fitness because of the last four days so I perservered. First lap 4:55; Second lap 4:42; Third lap 5:07. I was pooped.

And then I noticed them. Hundreds of water-filled bumps all over my arm, my shoulder, and the back of my legs. The sweat had collected under my burnt skin and was unable to get out! The skin was slimy to the touch.. horrible! So I went home immediately, got into the shower and scrubbed myself with a wash-cloth, which left me looking like a multi-layer scratch-and-guess-what-colour-you-get-for-a-prize card.

(I have a picture of the bumps, but to keep this blog from becoming a compendium of awful pictures of skin abnormalities, I'm refraining from posting it.)