Day #75 update

When we're only 5 weeks shy from the goal line, our team finally reached the top position from Rational Group in Costa Rica. Also, we reached #4 on Rational Group globally.

Very good work so far, team. Lets keep it up! Always remember: are we  there yet? Not yet, there's always more road ahead!

-Your captain.

Pilgrimage to Basílica de los Ángeles, by Daniel

On August 2nd, in Costa Rica we celebrate the day of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles ("Our Lady of the Angels), which is my county´s official patron. It is customary to commemorate such event with the Romería, which is a pilgrimage to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, located in the former capital city, Cartago.

For me, it was a first time, although I wanted to do it from a long time ago. And what a great opportunity to combine my faith, to say thanks for all great things in my life, specially my son, but also to  put myself to a real test of endurance.

I started from my own home, in Santa Ana at 4:45pm, local time (18:45 ET) on August 1st. After a strong start averaging 16':26'' during the first two miles, I started climbing the "Alto de las Palomas", the toughest elevation on my route with the excuse of Cerro (hill) Ochomogo.

Another "romero", Jose, joined my walk as we went through route 27 to La Sabana for a total of 7 miles. Then, I waited for a few minutes while Marvin, PS RoadRunners´ captain cut down the hour and fraction of advantage he gave me. He went out from work a little bit later than I did, so he ran the 6 miles from Forum to La Sabana. 

Then we walked about 5 more miles until we reached Zapote. I had 3:30:13 on the chronometer at that point. My friend Marilyn, who is an experienced "romera" joined me from then as Marvin went home to take care of some family bussiness.

Midnight found us in the middle of Ochomogo hill, as I established a new personal record of 53,923on August 1st.

Around 4k of my record where off road (I had to work that day).

 After a WC stop, Marilyn would not let me stop again until we reached the Basilica, and not even there she let me sat down until we made it inside. The last mile was insane as thousands of people were congregating to give thanks or pray for a miracle.

So, even with the huge amount of people that somehow slowed us down at the entrance of Cartago, we made it barely at the 8 hour mark I calculated from the beginning. The remaining time and steps were standing in line, going inside the Basilica and then going out to look for transportation back home. In the end, I did 23,54 miles and 60,000 steps from my house.

Maybe next year´s goal would be to reduce the time... or going from further... who knows?

 

Day 58: new personal best at halfway the competition, by Daniel

So, it has been already 58 days, we are half way from the goal line. Today I decided to outbest myself. I started walking from work in Santa Ana, through Lindora, crossong through a tiny little section of San Rafael de Alajuela, and then into Belén. Then all across Belén up until Cariari, where I turned around to do the exact route back for a final time of 3:18:02. I tried to keep it under 18 minutes per mile, but at the end I was a little tired I guess, so it's just above the 18 minutes per mile.

Well, once back to work I got back home (this time by car, though) and since I had 4 hours left today and wad pretty close to beat the old record I said to myself, well, I'm not there yet, so, keep on walking!

50,439 steps in total, and I'm very proud of each and every one I took!

-Daniel

Day 4 numbers by Daniel

Closing figures after day #4: 21,398 steps and 115,018 on the aggregate.

My daily average is at 28,754, which falls above the goal I set for the first part (25k), but I will have to work harder to keep it up, since mid week is comming and Wednesdays and Thursdays are my busiest days, so I don't have a lot of time to workout then. I guess I will have to seize those days to the maximum.

Day 5 walk by Daniel

Ok, so it has been 5 days so far and I am starting to really feel tired now, but I just won't stop.

I went for a little walk in Santa Ana with Gabriel, my almost 4 year old son. Although it was barely over 2mi. long, there are two important thinks to note:

#1: As I noted before, the less hilly the road is, the more steps you get over the same distance (perhaps I take longer steps when walking over a hill)

#2: Walking alongside my little one adds an extra challenge, because when he gets tired I carry him in my arms, and that is an extra weight I do appreciate at all times

Day 4, lap #2 by Daniel

Well, I finished the errand that made me go to San Francisco de Dos Ríos and so I took the opportunity to walk back to San José. My intention was to walk all the way to La Sabana, but unfortunately I had no time, as I was scheduled to work.

Therefore, adding up these two laps I walked in total 8.62 miles, which is 13.87km.

Day 4, lap #1 by Daniel

So, I decided to split once again my workout of this day in two laps, mainly because I needed to run an errand that required me to go faster than I could walk (with enough time, I definitely would have accepted the challenge).

So, for this first portion, I started at home in Santa Ana and took the "panoramic-rather long-full of mountains" road. 

I used to do this route often biking, and few times walking or running. When biking, I used to do a round trip starting at my parents house in Guachipelín. But when on my own feet, I just did one way, from Guachipelín to Santa Ana. Because of that and because I hadn´t done it in quite a while, I -lets say decided- to take the external way through Lindora, instead of through Pozos. That made it longer.

 2.4mi. completed, at Lindora/Pozos

 I will try going the other way some other day, because it took me quite a while to complete the entire lap, 1:53 hours.

 Up up up! When you´re down, there´s no other way

to go than up! At Pavicen after an hour walk, 3.74mi

 That was only half of the incline, but the best location for a picture. I will eventually look for an app to determine the altitude.

 When looking at my final numbers, 6.18mi. I couldn´t avoid to think that with all the time and effort I put into it, I could have gone a lot further and marked more steps than I did, if I had chosen a route with less elevation. Well, at least it will work as training for some of my future plans.