#huskyalaskantriing

 

So I, in my vainglouriousness, decided to do the Alaska Ironman Triathlon. It is a grueling 2.4 mile open water swim in the frigid Auk Lake, 112 mile bike along the Juneau iconic coastline, and then an absurd 26.2 mile marathon. I’ve never attempted anything near this in my life. I decided in August of 2021 and the race takes place August 7, 2022. Currently I am about halfway through the training and feeling ok but the daunting idea of my first ever open swim, then my longest ever cycling trip followed by the longest run I have ever completed is, to say the least, overwhelming. The cost alone was also unexpected as the race registration was ~$1500, then supplies, bike, training etc the cost is in the tens of thousands. But as I see it, I am investing in my own health. I find it frustrating that I haven’t lost any weight and I’m constantly tired but the prospect of eternal gloating rights for competing a full Ironman drives me forward. 

Why? Well, it all started with one of the social workers at the hospital. Sarah is a super triathlete and gave me 3 reasons I couldn’t argue;

1. It’s in Juneau so I could train on the actual course, 
2. Being in Juneau I wouldn’t have to travel or have travel expenses, 
3. The most compelling argument, I’m without kids and the youngest I’ll ever be so if I were EVER to attempt one, now is the time.

Also, at the time Emily and I had just finished training for her first half marathon so I was in the mindset of, “anything is possible”. Sadly I had a bit of ‘buyers remorse’ when I signed up as everyone one I told looked me up and down and asked, “really? You?”  But again, I view this as a self investment. 

So here I am, doing 1-3 hours of various training every day. Besides the tiredness I feel stronger. Though still struggling with diet, it’s next on my list to tackle. Wish me luck as I go forth on this insane endeavor. #huskyalaskantriing

Quarantine…

Day #2: I awoke this morning alone. The room was quiet as the warm sun rose over the cityscape and lit my room. Emily has successfully returned to the US and had been updating me via WhatsApp. Still mostly symptom free except an improving sore throat. The last three days were nice with relaxation but I had started to worry about my training for the Ironman and general sanity. The hotel staff have been amazing with any and every request I made. Today I finished a 90 minute yoga session. Luckily I was able to order food via Uber as the room menu was severely limited. The reminder of the day was filled with books on tape and movies. I did get to see my pups and Emily at home before crashing for the night. 

Day#3: I started to get into a monotonous daily routine. Woke up after a great night of sleep. Did 90 minute Bikram yoga session. Watched multiple movies and listen to my book on audible. The exciting portions of my day consist of position changes on the bed or, and brace yourselves, moving to a chair! It’s Sunday so everything was mostly closed. I am getting tired of the delivery food already. I don’t have very many healthy options. Fortunately, my spirits have remained somewhat neutral. I’m not super depressed, I’m not currently sick, however I cannot wait to leave this room. The staff again has been phenomenal at this hotel. I did break the rules a little bit and snuck out last night for a 10K run at around midnight to avoid people. It was warm in the dimly lit city at night with ‘youths’ occasionally spotted skateboarding. It felt amazing. Although, I think there’s heavy smog here because I had coughing when I came back that I believe is not Covid related.

Day #4: Given that it’s Monday I worked to complete as many tasks as I could including emails, setting up a physician to meet with me at the end of my quarantine to certify me to go home, I took a repeat Covid test that was positive again luckily these are the cheap home tests I brought with me. I was on the phone for nearly 2 1/2 hours rearranging flights to try to get back early and start working. The amount of loss revenue is pretty significant, I will have to repay lots of shifts over the next two months. Continue to watch movies, yoga, I think I might try for another run tonight.

Santiago Chile

Day 1: Wow. What a night of sleep. This hotel is amazing. This was the beginning of the vacation portion of our trip. Not a lot to report today as we slept in, had an amazing breakfast, and sat at the poolside drinking and snacking. The weather was perfect and we tanned and swam to our hearts content. 

Day 2: Another award winning night of sleep. More amazing time by the pool today. We were supposed to dine at one of the world’s top restaurants (#37) but as we took our COVID tests, I tested positive…  It took a while for the realization of being quarantined in Chile for another week set in. One of the big issues is that there are no easy points of contact here in country for advice. Emily tested negative. So we went to our room to make arrangements. We have great colleagues who were willing to cover for us, a sign of a great work environment. We were extremely saddened that there was no dinner, wine tasting, or easy return home. We weren’t too preoccupied with having COVID as we were both healthy, vaccinated, asymptomatic, and had access to good healthcare if needed. After some information gathering we found that Emily was eligible to fly home but I was not…🤔 Given that we need babysitters for our pups and it would be easiest to have someone home we opted to have her fly back alone. Leaving me, here, in Santiago in a small hotel room, that I can’t leave despite amazing weather…. Get ready for some interesting blogage. 

Penguins and Seasick

 

For some odd reason I have a strong urge to dance this morning. It could have been due to the sick beats all last night… Without breaking dad’s tradition of planning early morning events, we were all up at 6 am to go see the penguins. We piled into a bus and drove to a submarine-looking boat to take us 1 hour out into the Magellan Straits to see the mythical creatures. As the boat gently bobbed towards the island we engaged in a very lively discussion of travel with an animated Chilean while dad (who is HIGHLY susceptible to sick sickness) concentrated on not vomiting. The winds picked up just before we arrived giving us a glimpse into what sailing in these treacherous waters would be like. If you closed you eyes and someone said, “imagine the treacherous Magellan straits”, it would be how you imaged it (or at least how I thought). We landed safely on the penguins’ island and were immediately inundated with thousands of squawking penguins covering this barron plot capped by a red and white lighthouse. For how funny these little guys look on the discovery channel, it is nothing compared to how funny they are in person. They each have their own little personalities and quarks. These were temperate weather penguins that have one of the longest migrations. They normally reside in Brazil but come down here to feeds on sardines, mate for life, and produce offspring. Interestingly enough the females choose their mates based on how well constructed their burrows are. Needless to say the entire island looked like Swiss cheese with all the dug burrows. We slowly followed the pre designed path occasionally allowing some self righteous penguins to cross and roamed throughout their colony. The wind picked up even more and now there were 1-2 meter waves around our island. After an hour with the impeccably dressed birds we returned to the boat to go see sea lions. I’ve been in some rough seas in my day by the ocean chewed us up and spit us out repeatedly. Several people hit their heads on the ceiling as we crested waves. I did not know there were so many different shades of green that a single person could turn but dad managed to hit the full spectrum. With frequent sighs and loosening of clothing an eruption of vomit was imminent. We finally pulled into the island and when the captain came down to inform us that the seas were too rough to continue so he had returned us to the busses instead of another 3 hours on the ocean I don’t think I had ever seen my dad so happy/green. While disembarking I could have sworn I saw him kiss land. After a small snag of my phone getting wrenched out of my pocket on the boat and not realizing until we returned to the hotel the trip was a success. Luckily the tourist group was amazing and found my phone and got it to me! 

Emily and I have been having issues with the airlines in country and found out they canceled our return trip so we rescheduled to fly out that evening a start our poolside vacation in Santiago early. We left the adults in good spirits and flew to Santiago where we crashed in our luxurious hotel for the night. Best sleep of the trip! 

The Tip of the Civilized World

What a hike! Now that the daily ritual of getting up early and hiking is over we found ourselves looking for more adventures in the various pueblos. We left Puerta Natalas in the morning and we took a drive to Punta Arenas, the last drivable city south of the world. Ironically we drove on a road called “fin del mundo” (end of the world).  The drive was initially very boring but as we started to stare out at the expansive flatlands we started noticing whole wild herds of Guanacus (lama-like creatures) and “flocks” of ñandus (ostrich-like creatures). I mean, for a termporate desert, this land was filled with all of these wild creatures from eagles to albatrosses and foxes to pumas. Our driver was super nice and patient with my Spanish and we chatted vigorously during the drive. Dad did an amazing job of finding these cute boutique hotels for us to stay in and The Albatros (spelled like that) was no exception. After settling in, we wondered in search of food. Chile has been, let’s say, overly cautious about COVID. Most of their restaurants have been closed down and the few that remain have strange and idiotic rules. That, and the fact it was Valentine’s Day made the search for food extremely difficult. Every restaurant we came to had a line out the door like it was the most exclusive club in the city.  There were not street food options either. Luckily we stumbled into a hidden gem that many were passing up but served us some incredible sesame seared salmon. Dining in South America is not a rushed event. For the simple lunch it took round three hours to complete. After that, we followed the culture and all took a much warranted siesta.   It was refreshing. We awoke late in the evening and decided to try our luck again with the restaurants and again we were rebuffed by the entire city. Never in all of my traveling experience have I ever had so much trouble finding food. We searched high and low for hours without success. Finally on our way back to the hotel with growling bellies and low hanging heads we again stumbled upon a little eatery where the matron took pity on us and allowed us to dine… at three separate tables because the new law states that only two people may share a table at a time….. we all paired off leaving Viv to hilariously sit in culinary isolation in the dead center of the restaurant.  We all ordered cervezas and air-toasted laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation. After dinner we retired to bed to the sweet rhythmic sounds of, not one, but two dance clubs competing to see who could play music the loudest and longest. I only had to retrieve our bedside table once as the bass vibrated it across our room. 

The Final Trek

Up at the crack of dawn, we all surprised each other by how poorly we slept despite the amazing hotel. We meandered over for breakfast and started to mentally prepare for the elevation onslaught. With stiff legs and some mild aches and pains we set out, shadowed by the looming mountains ahead. The theme of the day was ‘up’.  Billygoat Ben led the way.  Step by step we began to assault the ever increasing altitude. Funny enough, we also were hiking in record breaking winds (65mph), and let me tell you, there is no more interesting sensation then rounding a corner on a cliff and receiving such a powerful gust of wind that you teeter on the brink of oblivion. The sun was warm and so was the wind as we trudged onward.  The scene was a deep valley cut by a roaring glacial stream engulfed by razor sharp mountains. The actual towers were obscured from our view until the end.  To start the hike we had to back track a little bit to arrive at the trailhead. One funny moment was when we were most of the way up our first long incline and Emily turned exhausted with a red face glistening with sweat stating, “this is so hard and we’re still only back tracking”. To which I replied that we had finished the backtracking over an hour ago and we had been hiking on the trail nearly the whole time. The instant transition from agony to elation was priceless.  Higher and higher we rose. This trek had two main elevation gains, one in the beginning and one near the top. The middle section was a very pleasant walk through cool wooded areas punctuated by glacial streams. Finally we reached the last hard ascent. It was bouldering more or less; hard, windy, and cold. There was also an odd juxtaposition of blue sunny skies and being pelted with hail blown off the nearest glaciers.  Through sheer force of will; We. Made. It. 

A breathtaking front row seat to the Torres del Paine; staggering mountain peaks dotted by small glaciers all feeding into a small mystical turquoise lake.  Photos first, then we sat in silence eating our packed lunches admiring the spectacle.  An interesting surprise was that we met up with an old medical school housemate of mine, Anna at the top. We chatted and then wished them luck on their reverse trekking. After we drank in our fill we started the decent which went without a hitch other than the trains of tourists hiking up and the quadriceps stain of prolonged and steep downward hiking.  Oh and also, dad persistently grumbling, “if only i was [a half century] younger I’d easily be able to keep up with you [whippersnappers]”. Arriving at the hotel we collapsed joyously in the chairs and ordered beers and empanadas recounting tales of our adventures. 

From there we took a ride out of the park passing lama-like wild herds and salty lakes to Puerto Natalas. Ben took off from here back to the states with promises of more hikes. The five of us remained and scoured the Pueblo for food which, despite a heavy tourist industry, we found difficult as most restaurants were closed on Sundays. Finally settling on a late night pizza we ate then passed out. What a day. 

 

An easy day. (Late entry)

Sorry I did not post this yesterday. Be on the lookout for today’s entry as well.  Not super eventful. After a complicated night of sleep due to high winds opening and slamming doors, ‘youths’ celebrating birthdays via loud karaoke, and occasional nighttime flatus from ‘someone’, we awoke mildly refreshed. Our bodies having recovered from one of our hardest days yet. We set out early and had an uneventful 6 mile trek to meet up with mom and Viv at our final trekking hotel. This place was cool, think hipster-meets-cowboy motif. It sits at the far base of the Towers with free foaming horses and a yoga retreat in the pasture. We all enjoyed beers and cocktails before sitting down to a nice dinner with wine flowing. We were all anxious about, “the hardest hike of the trip”. An underlying theme about this trip has been the woefully inaccurate maps. So we had no idea how long or how high we’d be hiking. After saying good night and planning on an early departure we all crept into bed.