Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Nov 16, 2014:
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Sunday Nov 16, 2014 #
7 AM
Run 2:00:00 [3] 23.0 km (5:13 / km)
First proper long run of the trip (and since early September), apart from races, heading out northwest from the centre of the city to the parklands around Palermo. These parklands are extensive and most of the run was done in or alongside them. Settled down pretty well and had a good first half-hour. Started to fade a little towards halfway but taking on some water (on a warm, but not especially humid, morning) helped - steady from there for a while, then had a very good patch around 18-20k. Couldn't quite bring it home at this level, but as a run this was still definitely in the top decile of 2014 performances - pleased that I've still got my endurance (although a dead flat course wasn't the most searching test for it).
There would have been no shortage of races to do had I felt so inclined; I saw two in action (or, to be more accurate, about to start) and two more advertised (all were billed as "Maraton" but the term seems to be used pretty loosely in these parts). The we're-definitely-not-in-Kansas-any-more one of these was the Maraton por Malvinas, which would have provided some interesting souvenir T-shirts had I felt so inclined - though I suspect there will be plenty of further opportunities to purchase souvenirs relevant to this cause in more southern parts of the country. (This is one I'll be watching - it's clearly still a very live issue here and it certainly wouldn't be the first time that a government facing a difficult election embarked on a military adventure, although it's hard to imagine a 2014/15 result being any different to the 1982 one).
Lots of people out and about in the parks early in the morning (even apart from those associated with the races). Other sports also featured in different ways en route; towards the far end was a queue camped outside the River Plate stadium, presumably in search of tickets to tonight's game (as it turned out they probably shouldn't have bothered), and earlier on there were numerous signs in honour of Juan Manuel Fangio (their location explained by this being the venue of the 1950s Argentine Grand Prix. He was the first great F1 champion, and also had the distinction of living to a ripe old age when most of his contemporaries (except for those who were "lucky" enough to suffer career-ending injuries instead, like Stirling Moss) died on the racetrack.
This didn't flatten me for the rest of the day in the way that long runs sometimes do; I would, I think, have walked about 10km in the remainder of the day taking in various Buenos Aires sights, including the Sunday markets at San Telmo and the Recoleta cemetery (a somewhat bizarre place where all of the tombs are above ground - high water table, apparently - and you can still see some of the coffins). It was rather fitting that the day's unscripted moment, on the way to the latter, was to find myself in the middle of the Buenos Aires march of the zombies (I'd say at least 10,000 of them). I'm assuming it was a cultural event and not a political protest (despite there being a few signs that looked political), if only because there were hardly any police to be seen.
All in all, this was an enjoyable day of absorbing myself in the life of the city.
There would have been no shortage of races to do had I felt so inclined; I saw two in action (or, to be more accurate, about to start) and two more advertised (all were billed as "Maraton" but the term seems to be used pretty loosely in these parts). The we're-definitely-not-in-Kansas-any-more one of these was the Maraton por Malvinas, which would have provided some interesting souvenir T-shirts had I felt so inclined - though I suspect there will be plenty of further opportunities to purchase souvenirs relevant to this cause in more southern parts of the country. (This is one I'll be watching - it's clearly still a very live issue here and it certainly wouldn't be the first time that a government facing a difficult election embarked on a military adventure, although it's hard to imagine a 2014/15 result being any different to the 1982 one).
Lots of people out and about in the parks early in the morning (even apart from those associated with the races). Other sports also featured in different ways en route; towards the far end was a queue camped outside the River Plate stadium, presumably in search of tickets to tonight's game (as it turned out they probably shouldn't have bothered), and earlier on there were numerous signs in honour of Juan Manuel Fangio (their location explained by this being the venue of the 1950s Argentine Grand Prix. He was the first great F1 champion, and also had the distinction of living to a ripe old age when most of his contemporaries (except for those who were "lucky" enough to suffer career-ending injuries instead, like Stirling Moss) died on the racetrack.
This didn't flatten me for the rest of the day in the way that long runs sometimes do; I would, I think, have walked about 10km in the remainder of the day taking in various Buenos Aires sights, including the Sunday markets at San Telmo and the Recoleta cemetery (a somewhat bizarre place where all of the tombs are above ground - high water table, apparently - and you can still see some of the coffins). It was rather fitting that the day's unscripted moment, on the way to the latter, was to find myself in the middle of the Buenos Aires march of the zombies (I'd say at least 10,000 of them). I'm assuming it was a cultural event and not a political protest (despite there being a few signs that looked political), if only because there were hardly any police to be seen.
All in all, this was an enjoyable day of absorbing myself in the life of the city.