Patience; the new endurance sport.

I have been having a very interesting stay. Because of my husband's business they've been putting us up in thje fanciest hotels in town. I never visited Chile this way. The hotels are standard Marriot or Hiatt fare, and so for the most part I've been warm. The thing I remember most while I'm out during the day is how they don't heat public spaces. So the gymnasiums where my husband is holding training camps are COLD. I don't know how they stand to wear shorts--even to train. The temps outside are perfect--but it's often colder inside of places than outside. I remember that going to church on Sundays was like sitting in hell (oh the irony) for 3 hours. You really knew if someone wanted to become a member of the Mormon Church if they were baptized in winter--not only was the water just above freezimg, the room temperature was so low their bodies and breath would steam up after they were done. I think we are in the 56 or 66th parallel which is the same as British Colombia. Anyway, after getting dragged around for days, braving street dogs, gawking/whistling groups of men, and pounding rain--I relented and used the elliptical yesterday to recover from the pavement beating I took a few days ago, and used the on the treadmill today. It counts in Km per hour--all I know is I ran 12 KM and it took me a little over an hour. I sweat more than anyone else in the room. There I was again--the giant, loud, sweaty American--leaking all over the machines. Regardless of my effort, I will gain 10 pounds on this trip. Every friend of mine from my mission, every family member of my husband greets us with "once" which is like English Tea--meat sandwiches, cookies and small cakes with hot herb tea or postum-like coffee. And then we have business dinners Spanish style late into each night (10:00 pm to midnight) for business with the press, the team owners, the trainers and other investors. Funny- I never thought of myself as a trophey wife because I'm so indelicate and unschooled in the ways of manners and femininity in general--but here, if I keep my mouth shut, and they all see me as that crazy Ameican marathon runner wife---I'm actually a marital asset for once. It's refreshing change. Tomorrow, I get a day off and wil get to run far out into the countryside where we have a large family dairy. Love the germans and their cattle, fresh honey and homemaded cheeses. Did I mention 10 pounds??? Make it 15. I would have to run 10 miles a day to escape the damage. It's spectacular fun though. Wouldn't miss any of it for the world.

I am so far out in the country at my husband's cousin's house. The closest town is Panguipulli or Los Lagos. They own hundreds of acres and have a dairy. We've ridden horses out on the pampa (cleared mountain meadows) out to the waterfalls and around the cattle. We saw how they milk the cows and looked inside the enormous vat of fresh milk. Because of the country guard dogs, I ran around a field 6 tomes. I ran about 40 minutes, but I didn't have more time. We're riding to to the falls of Huillo Huillo to have an evening picnic Gaucho style. They keep me up so late, stuff me full every second, and I can not keep a decent schedule. But my kids are riding horses with their cousins, and I am in heaven outside. Fresh air. Fresh country cheeses, honey, homemade bread. It is so beautiful here I can hadley take it in. The running however is....well, I'm doing what I can. It's been fun, and I'm way outside of my comfort zone, traveling deep muddy roads in 4x4, a real adventure.

This morning I was literally thrown out of the side of the bed because of 4.7 grade earthquake at 6:00 a.m.  I was on my side, almost at the edge and had no idea what was going on.  The sound of the constant rain drowned out any earthquake noise (like I've heard before in California), all I knew was that I was waking up falling to the ground and my husband was asking if I could feel what was happening.  They are still having aftershocks from the huge 9.1 earthquake they had in February.  Today I tried to get outside to run, but when I ran down the dirt roads, they were spotted with deep puddles, and within 1 K either direction, I'd run into the guard dogs of the farm workers.  I was running with the cousin's black lab, he held them off for me, but it's scary when two or three dogs start snarraling at each other. I then tried to run in a huge field behind the house where there were cattle grazing, but once I got about half way around the field, my shoes were soaked by the wet grass and 40 cows were gathering speed to follow me.  It's underving to have  heard to young cattle run toward you and then follow you in circles.  The cousins laughed when I told them about the cows, they just said the cows are gossipy and like to see what's going on.  Still, yucky running, so I ended up just walking an hour and running about 20 minutes.

We got to my husband's family's town today where my husband knew the owner of "Life-Fitness  24 hour gym".  Standard Gym fare.  They had spin and yoga classes going on and at least 12 ellipticals, tredmills, and cycles.  I ran 8 KM on the treadmill and did another 25 minutes on the ellpitical while I watched telenovelas and New Adventures of Old Christine with subtitles.

I ran 25 K on a treadmill.  I was supposed to run 20 miles today, but it will have to wait until I run with Catherine next week.  I'll just tack on a few extra to our 16.  I wanted to run outside this morning, they sky had cleared the temperature was perfect, but I never lived in this town and I don't know my way around Temuco.  It's a bigger town than any that we've visited so far (Puerto Montt, Valdivia, Osorno, Los Lagos).  I meant to write this down last week about running out into the Isla -- the cool weather or the rest, or something was giving me an extra lift.  I'd run 7 miles before I looked at my Garmin to notice I'd been averaging 9's.  All this summer, I just resigned to the fact that I'm not accostomed to running back to back marathons and that out of sheer exhaustion, I was resigned to running 9:40's the rest of the summer. But that cool weather and the excitement of running by the ocean and being in a new place had me sailing right along.  Running on the treadmill just isn't the same, but it got the job (at least part of the job done).  Just two more days of shorter runs that I can do around town.  Those will be fun to find a few miles around here and enjoy looking at Temuco on foot.