{"id":3327,"date":"2016-06-16T08:58:09","date_gmt":"2016-06-16T12:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=3327"},"modified":"2016-06-16T08:58:36","modified_gmt":"2016-06-16T12:58:36","slug":"june-11-2016-last-days-of-peru","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=3327","title":{"rendered":"June 11, 2016 \u2013 Last Days of Peru"},"content":{"rendered":"

June 11, 2016 \u2013 Last Days of Peru<\/strong>
\nI\u2019ve scribbled out notes on slips of paper and in the iOS Notes App for the past few days but I haven\u2019t finalized most of the blog posts. That\u2019s on the agenda soon \u2013 the hardest part will be sorting through the photos and picking out the ones that tell the stories best. I overshot I\u2019m sure\u2026 and at the same time undershot. There are A LOT of image files but hopefully more than a few great images. That\u2019s the point of digital though \u2013 shoot and shoot some more in the hopes of capturing that one moment.
\nThis has been a lazy last day in the city of Cusco. There\u2019s a huge celebration \u2013 a festival honoring the founding of Cusco. And so various groups have been marching around the city with dance troupes, bands, floats, all sporting elaborate costumes. It\u2019s like the Philly\u2019s Mummers Parade meets Mardi Gras meets the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, minus any alcohol on the parade route proper. The participants don\u2019t seem intoxicated but they are\u2026 enthusiastic. I think the last few days I\u2019ve seen some on-street rehearsals in street clothes \u2026 or maybe would-be flash mobs are common here in Cusco.
\nI did rally last night and then this morning to go out for some short runs. Wound up doing SLOW 4 milers. This morning I had a running partner \u2013 a cute little black dog with a single white paw. At first he thought we were playing and kept trying to trip me up. But he quickly realized we were out for a run and he would race ahead, lie down and wait for me, then rejoin me. I want to say it\u2019s the altitude and the overly indulgent foods (and that\u2019s part of it) but I\u2019m just no match for this natural born puppy runner.<\/p>\n

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But the altitude IS still affecting me. The first two miles were more or less downhill and so to get back to the hotel, well, it\u2019s a climb. And the thin air had me huffing and puffing like a cigar smoking wolf in a tale of three little pigs. That\u2019s a terrible simile but, shrug, it\u2019s what you get.
\nAfter a leisurely breakfast, I packed up and checked out of the hotel, leaving my bags at reception so I could wander the streets. I snapped a few more shots of the Cusco Celebration, including this weird \u201cDanger\u201d sign on the crowd bleachers. I assume it means not to climb through the scaffolding but still \u2013 as I said in my Facebook post of the photo, \u201cMy Spanish \u2018es muy mal\u2019 but even I know what \u2018peligro\u2019 and a skull mean.\u201d<\/p>\n

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I took a stroll back down to the Incan statue to get a better shot in the daylight\u2026 but sadly One Pawed Jack the dog was nowhere to be found.<\/p>\n

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Heading back up the street, I noticed a series of buses with route markings \u2013 there was one decorated with the Road Runner (Spanish Name: CorreCaminos). But the one I was most intrigued by was BATMAN RTA 23. One has to assume it requires exact change AND the proper amount of brooding:<\/p>\n

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\nI wasn\u2019t in the mood for anything per se for lunch but it was going to be a while before I ate on the plane from Lima to Bogota (there MIGHT be a snack on the Cusco to Lima hour flight but who knows?). I ultimately went with an empanada. Once again I was disappointed in this traditional \u201chot pocket\u201d-ian snack food. It\u2019s rare that the empanada rocks my world \u2013 it\u2019s really more of a \u201cthis\u2019ll do, I guess\u2026\u201d food. I should\u2019ve gone for something else.
\nBut after purchasing one final Coke Zero from the local market, I\u2019m down to 90 centimos of my Peruvian money. I briefly considered trying to lowball the women who wander the streets with goats in tow offering tourists the chance to snap a photo for 1 sol. But to be honest, I\u2019m a little photo\u2019d out. As a result, I\u2019m currently sitting in my hotel\u2019s lobby tapping away on a few blog posts. My ride to the aiport is due in about an hour and I thought an hour\u2019s writing was in order given how lax I\u2019ve been these past few days in keeping up with this project.<\/p>\n

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As a side note to the running aspect, I double checked the Rapa Nui Marathon results. It\u2019s entirely possible that other people\u2019s times are wrong (this wouldn\u2019t surprise me in the least given how this race was run) but based on the finishers around me at the time and on my real finishing time, it looks like I came in 5th overall and 2nd in my age group \u2026 which means I should\u2019ve gotten a medal and a bottle of water at the award ceremony. I really don\u2019t run these races for accolades or acknowledgments, but I still would like the results to accurately reflect what I did. I haven\u2019t heard anything back from the race director when I first raised the issue earlier this week; nor frankly so I expect to. He was the worst organized race director I\u2019ve encountered in all my running.
\n***
\nAs a preview of tomorrow\u2019s post, I have a long layover in Bogota\u2019s airport. I fully intend to do the second in my series of Midnight Half-Marathon Walk-A-Thons.<\/p>\n

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June 11, 2016 \u2013 Last Days of Peru I\u2019ve scribbled out notes on slips of paper and in the iOS Notes App for the past few days but I haven\u2019t finalized most of the blog posts. That\u2019s on the agenda soon \u2013 the hardest part will be sorting through the photos and picking out the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[751,109,745,750,187],"class_list":["post-3327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-change","tag-dog","tag-festival","tag-puppy","tag-walk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3327\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}