{"id":15036,"date":"2017-08-30T12:12:46","date_gmt":"2017-08-30T16:12:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=15036"},"modified":"2017-08-30T12:12:46","modified_gmt":"2017-08-30T16:12:46","slug":"august-27-2017-the-bali-marathon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=15036","title":{"rendered":"August 27, 2017 – The Bali Marathon"},"content":{"rendered":"

August 27, 2017 – The Bali Marathon<\/em><\/p>\n

You meet some people on the road… and that was again true on the Road to Bali.<\/p>\n

I got\u00a0a bit lost hoofing it from my hotel to the Bali Collection shuttle stop.<\/p>\n

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Somewhere in the dark, I bumped into Matt, a guy from Adelaide who was here with his family (albeit they wisely were sleeping in and would catch him after the race). As we and several other runners stumbled about the partially Lot resort looking for a shuttle stop, a friendly guy called us over and said this non-description area was the stop. Dee Jay was his name and he was sure of it as he had run it the year before.<\/p>\n

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Along the course itself is meet Stefan, a European ex-pat living in Jakarta. We met up around mile 16 or 17 and ran together for a spell. He too had run the race previously so filled me in on some stats. The five events that comprised the marathon weekend was up to 9500 participants from last year’s record 7400. The full marathon course merged with the half much sooner than in previous years, leading to some congested ducking and weaving through walkers\/slower paced runners earlier in the event. He said he didn’t mind as he was really undertrained this year. Plus he said if he were serious he’d probably have to give up his one big vice: smoking a pack of cigarettes a day. “But,” he said, “you have to live, yes?” I would’ve questioned the paradox of better living through smoking but then he figuratively smoked me, breaking away from me around mile 19 as I faded to an ever slowing pace.<\/p>\n

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At the end of the event, I once again had issues with the shuttle buses. Olivia, a woman who was back visiting her sister and mom in Bali but who was told she’d have to get a hotel room as neither wanted to be woken up by her for her race departure!, helped me find the bus back to Nusa Dua.<\/p>\n

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These were a few of the individuals I met along the way. That doesn’t take into account the many volunteers and spectators who cheered us on. The Balinese… the Bali-Etics? The Balinesians? They are Indonesian but there must be a local name a la Angelenos, Texans, Cornhuskers, Michiganders, etc. The people of Bali were enthusiastic and ever smiling. High fives were doled out, as were rose petals. Fragrant incense wafted through the air, the better to mask the exhaust from scooters and trucks on the open roads. It was a sensory overload at times.<\/p>\n

Here is a gallery of photos from the day. I’d say maybe 65% of the photos turned out through the iPhone’s waterproof pouch with maybe the usual 10% shots of any quality being in the bunch. I however will as is my custom post far more than a properly curated and culled gallery would merit!<\/p>\n

You can click on the photo and get a non-cropped “embiggened” view.\u00a0 Or you can just scroll through superquick.\u00a0 Reader’s choice.<\/p>\n