Michael: Speaking of Volcanoes...

Taps on the key board,
Buzzing of the fly, creaking couch;
Where is there silence?

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Kimme and I have both made the Bull Dog 25/50k one of our annual to do events. Since we’ll miss this year we thought we’d look for a substitute race/adventure in either Panama or Costa Rica. In August, the same month as Bull Dog, the North Face runs a race in Turrialba, Costa Rica.

Turrialba is an active Volcano. I didn’t know how active until we were on our own nearby dormant volcano - Volcan Baru. There, while we were cleaning up the trail, we asked an expat, John, who has property in Costa Rica, if he was familiar with Turrialba. He told us at the moment many people in Costa Rica are familiar with that volcano because it’s been spewing ash for a couple of weeks now and is threatening to blow.

That could make running a race there a problem.

I’ve had races cancelled because of mud and fires, and almost had one cancelled because of an earthquake, but a volcanic eruption would be a new one.

It just never occurred to me that these things go off once in a while. Even after reading and watching the news while Mt. St. Helens was erupting, volcanoes just seemed like other worldly or primordial events that don’t really occur in these modern sophisticated times.

I do hope the activity dies down in time for the race to take place. Running around a volcano that’s just been subdued by whatever the locals do to appease the earth gods would add another dimension to the race adventure.