Running in Cancun

As I write this, I’m onboard my wi-fi enabled flight to Las Vegas en route to Death Valley CA, to crew for Tony as he races Badwater. During the past two and half weeks, I’ve learned to appreciate even more the effort that running 135 miles in 130 degree heat will take.

I spent two weeks at Club Med in Cancun, Mexico for a family vacation. The entire two weeks were oppressively hot and humid in just 90 degree weather. It was so humid that my iPod nano bit the dust. Taking it from the air-conditioned room out into the hot humid air caused enough condensation behind the screen to permanently ruin it. I guess people living in Mexico with air conditioning aren’t able to own nanos.

All the running I did there was extremely slow and difficult. It could be due to a few reasons.

Time taken off from my foot injury, which is now pretty must healed, caused me to lose some fitness.
The 6 pounds I gained on the resort from all you can eat and drink.
The oppressively hot humid weather.
A combination of more than one of the above.

Soaking wet shoes stuffed with toilet paper. Dries them out by the next day every time.

Nonetheless, after every run, I came back with my shoes soaking wet from sweat. So wet that I found it necessary to stuff them each with a roll of toilet paper after every run in order to dry them out for the next day. This happens to be a great way to dry out running shoes if you ever run through the rain or puddles. Removing the insoles and stuffing them with newspaper works just as well.

When I first arrived and saw the beach, which stretched at least eight miles, I thought I would be spending the next two weeks running up and down it in my vibrams. Some of my most enjoyable running was done barefoot along the beach in Punta Cana, except for the fact I lost a lot of skin and had huge blisters along the bottom of my feet from the sand. But, with my vibrams, I was really looking forward to this.

Great beach, but just not for running

The first day on the resort I was anxious to try this out so I immediately went for a run. I had suspicions this would go poorly when starting, however, because I noticed the sand was at such a steep grade by the water. At first, I tried running along this pitch anyway because its where the sand is usually the most packed and firm. Yet, it turned out to be surprisingly soft despite the fact. It felt like I was running through quick sand. Plus, my vibrams were filling up with a lot of quick sand each time my foot landed and became fully submersed in it. And the steep pitch gave the feeling of running with a stilt on one leg.

Moving closer to the water felt even tougher. Every time the tide came in, it came up to my knees. Now my vibrams were full of sand and water. Slodging through knee high water with sand filled vibrams proved to be very difficult. I was only 1 mile out and pretty exhausted. Profusely sweating and with the sweat mixing with my sun block, I was now attracting horsefly sized sand fleas. Hardly the euphoric picture that I imagined of lightly running carefree along a tropical beach.

Trying out the powdered sand was the only other choice. I went out one more mile in my wet sand filled vibrams, and headed back for 4 miles. It took me nearly 39 minutes to cover this distance but the effort felt like 7 minute miles.

Nowhere to go but out and back.

The next day, I ventured out of the resort to see what I can do there. It turned out not to be too bad. The hotel strip doesn’t give much choice as to where to go. You can either go north or south, so out and backs were all I did.

Great stretch for 3 miles out

Some of the route had a very nice stretch with a bright red bicycle path. Other parts, the sidewalks were so shoddy filled with cracks and curbs I ran along the side of the street in the asphalt, but the drivers there were extremely courteous.

I was given plenty of room, despite it being a highway. Plus, every driver who needed to make a turn in front of me patiently waited until I past. Not the typical behavior I’m used to of the locals at other vacation spots; Aruba being the absolute worst.

One of the most interesting runs was when I woke up at 3am and decided to go out extra early to beat the heat. It was during the 2 days tropical storm Alex was passing by.

Starting out there was no rain, but I was wishing there was since I felt like I was running through a soup. The air was so humid my Garmin began to dampen the minute I stepped outside. The ipod I previously mentioned was still working on this day, but chose to leave it in the room because I knew it would most likely be raining by the time I returned. And boy, did it rain! I don’t think I was ever in such a strong downpour before. The drops were so big and came down so fast I was questioning if it was hail. I couldn’t see where I was running, but it was a bit of relief from the heat.

casualty of barefoot running on the beach

After Alex passed by, quite a bit of the beach eroded away and some of the steepness was gone, so on a whim, I decided to do a 4 mile run on the beach on a day that would have otherwise been a rest day.

This time it was truly a naked run. All I wore was my bathing suit. No ipod, no vibrams, no gamin. But I knew where the 2 mile marker was from my first venture along the beach. It was better than the first time, but still quite tough. Not wearing the 5 lbs of water and sand filled vibrams on my feet definitely made it easier, but I was left with a nice blood blister after finishing.

A couple of days I tried out the treadmill in gym which were the life fitness models I’m used to at New York Sports Club. Despite the air conditioning, I sweated enough on a 60 minute run to leave the thing completely drenched, along with a nice size puddle of sweat on the floor behind it. Yes, it actually collected from rolling off the belt. For the next 15 minutes, I continued dripping and left a trail of sweat where ever I moved.

Other days, I did some cross training.