Day 14
Apr 14th, 2008 by Alice in Daily Marathon
18km past Tamaili to 4km past Daren on
Highway 9
The price of a great night out with our friends we expected to be steep and prepared to encounter a dog of day featuring short tempers and fiery snapping. The 9.30 train from Taipei arrived in Taitung at 14.00 and, apart from first losing my phone at Taipei Main Station and then, luckily, retrieving it from Lost Property followed by falling asleep on the train and waking to find my phone had vanished into oblivion (this time for good), the day had gone smoothly.
We fetch the bike from the Airport and head back down the eastern coast to begin the day. Surprisingly, Neil’s running very fast, feeling light and spurred on by thought of a good night’s sleep. He tells me he’s going so fast because I (jokingly, for the record) reminded him his PB is 3.14 so why doesn’t he just ‘leg it’ today. So, ‘legging it’ he is.
The past few days have been custard apple days. Every few kilometres there is a shop or four selling nothing but this knobbly green local fruit. I’ve never known such a cornucopia of shops selling the one exact same produce. At the township of Daren, we are faced with a dilemma. The map implies we can take Highway 26 here and stick to the coast, but here we find the term Highway is something of a joke. Neil scouts out the road, which is often under construction, and luckily returns from the pitch black where dogs abundant yap wildly as he passes. Too dark to travel this road, we stay on Highway 9 and Neil’s soon running up yet another mountain. After 5km of uphill, I am in the clouds without a headlight (again) and there is no sign of anything. Due to accommodation requirements and unsureness over the correct route, we turn back and Neil finishes his 42km at 23.45. In the meantime I have found a cheap hotel. We are thankful to find it, we marvel that we did not argue all day and sleep soundly that night.
What are your thoughts? Please comment below.
Totally impressed, gob-smacked and in awe of Neil’s stamina, determination and good humour. What a brilliant experience! We’re following your tour on our map, enjoying the photos & blog.
Good luck with the rest of the run
Boing boing ! (Alice will explain…)
a-wa-wa rentboy!!!! fatigue must be playing a factor now son but being the nam vet you are, im sure your ‘gump jog’ is prob a piece of piss! Mate, goes without saying we’re all proud of you here..keep going squire…life’s all about testing the limits of mind and body and you’re doing both, much kudos. i’ve lined up a 31st marathon for ya at Centenary when you get back for the 10th may. 40 people are gona run a lap each around the park (equal 26.2 miles) and you’ve got the baton for the last leg so don’t drop it lurch
Keep your hammies flexed and your mind on the job. All about the razzle fused with banter bredrin!
4shhooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww
Derrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr aka little bro