The Road To Bali was longer than you might have imagined. After walking the 2 KM to the shuttle pickup, we rode out to the start line… sorta. We rode out to a holding pen for the buses and then were told we’d get on minibuses that would take us the rest of the way… only ours weren’t there when we arrived.
A nice guy from Indonesia, I think his name was Dee Jay as that was on his bib… but that obviously could’ve been a nickname… or his occupation, helped translate for me. Dee Jay said we were better off just walking it because who knew when the mini buses might arrive. So we walked. In a little while a mini bus did pull up and people piled in… including my friend from Indonesia. Unfortunately, as is often my luck, I was the “just behind the last person to board” and the mini bus was full up, as people were already dangling off the sides. I figured I’d just walk if it wasn’t too far… but it was.
And there was little to no help from the various volunteers I did stumble across in the darkness of 4:07 AM; my Indonesian is worse than my Vietnamese and the volunteers didn’t have a lot of English. I tried gesticulating the difference between near and far, a lame approximation of the classic Grover sketch from Sesame Street to ask if it was a long way to the start as I’d been walking for quite some time. Maybe Grover isn’t big in Bali. Or maybe I’m no Frank Oz. Scratch that — I’m DEFINITELY no Frank Oz. If only!
Eventually a shuttle bus did stop and pick me up… and drove me 20 meters to the drop off point. Swell.
I was in a snit at the start… and even more in a snit as the minibus drop off was still a good kilometer from the start line proper.
All told, I logged probably 5 miles before the race even started.
All of this is just a preview of coming attractions for when I do sit down and try and bang out the summary. It got better. Honest.
To prove it, here’s a shot of me at the finish.
Hey Mr. Parrot. You and I have a lot in common. You like to talk and I like to prattle on to the point of losing the plot. Say hi to your mother for me.