Michael: Night and Day

The fragrant lily;
It’s blossom a soft white star
In a field of green.

Saturday, November 5, 2016

The day after a race, so I either don’t get to full of myself or drown in my own tears, I look into what’s next up on the calendar. Right now that happens to be a 50k in Costa Rica and the difference between  yesterday’s 10k and next month’s 50k is pretty comical.

For brevity’s sake I’ll refer to yesterday’s local race with a “P” for Panama and our next race with a “CR” for Costa Rica.

How did you find out about the race?
P - Bump into someone that is Panamanian and somehow knows about the race.
CR - Online.

Start time:
P - Sometime in the morning.
CR - 5:30 a.m.

How do you sign up and pay?
P - Show up the day of the race with cash in hand.
CR - Online with credit card.

Course information:
P - Run it.
CR - Map, reports, and profile are online.

Directions:
P - Walk to the river.
CR - We’re still trying to figure that out. We know where the race is but the hotel where it starts and the next nearest hotel are sold out. Without a car that leaves us taking a bus toward San Jose and waiting for the lodge where we made reservations to get back to us as to whether taxi service is likely to be available. If it’s not, it’s very likely that we’ll cancel our reservations and not do the race. A rental car is a possibility, but I’d prefer not to.

Regulations:
P - Try not to get hit.
CR - The usual yadda, yadda, yadda, with the exception that the sponsor’s race shirt must be worn during the event.

Awards:
P - Cash for top three in each category.
CR - Cash for overall top three and plaque and bottle for top 5 male/female.

I wouldn’t want to extrapolate from the contrasts in these races about all events in Panama or Costa Rica. It’s just kind of amusing how distinct almost everything is about these two races and that they happen to be so close together on our schedule.