August 27, 2017 – The Bali Marathon

August 27, 2017 – The Bali Marathon

You meet some people on the road… and that was again true on the Road to Bali.

I got a bit lost hoofing it from my hotel to the Bali Collection shuttle stop.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

You can click on the photo and get a non-cropped “embiggened” view. Or you can just scroll through superquick. Reader’s choice.

Distances to the Corrals of the Half Marathon

Additional Distances To the Full Marathon Corrals

One of the only times I’d be aheadof the Kenyans!

Local support shot through my water proof pouch at dawn; they can’t all be in focus!

I’m not sure, but I think I may be able to buy the photo this woman took of me in the crowdsource photo app.

Spectator support made a huge difference.

The half marathoners created a lot of ducking and weaving.

I take the lead from Stefan… very, very briefly.

The statues at roundabouts in Bali are amazing.

Dumping water. Not as much as in Danang but definitely needed.

Once again amongst the half marathoners.

The local supporters were great throughout but especially needed in the closing miles.

It could be a bit humid and blurry in there.

The line to get the medal — the HM line was a lot longer than the FM

The lines to get the medals after the finish.

Amongst the people waiting for the medals.

I passed! (Actually, only the elites needed to get tested. But if enough of them failed, maybe I’d get to be tested!).

There are A LOT of people in this finish festival.

I don’t know — it just felt like I should get a photo with this cart.

Bali, your clown is lame. At least compared to Guangzhou.

Oh, you have money? Yeah, it’s no good here. Only points.

Alternate line for Disney: Don’t drink the coconut, Snow White!

This park has a night safari that looks… awesomely dangerous.

The cutest and least effective “no parking” sign

Wrong way folks; Zebra outside should’ve told you.

Where we started and finished the Bali Marathon.

What a charming display of–oh, sweet merciful–!

On the mini-bus to the shuttle bus with Olivia

This sign? People just ignored it and drove their scooters through anyway.

A bit of lunch post-race; this wurang took cash. This lunch? 20,000 rupiah.

The finish line festival once again featured those infernal points and so my money was no good for buying sustenance after the event. Oh, this time I had a credit card with me but not that stupid wrist band. I accidentally tightened it and spent literally twenty minutes the day before trying to loosen the damn thing.

So instead I thought I’d just head back to my hotel and eat there; besides, the food prices seemed exorbitant. The equivalent of USD $2 for a noodle plate? I don’t spend more than $1.13 at Shanghai!

Kidding, kidding. I’m cheap, yes, but I would happily have paid if I could have.

***

I spent a bit of time back at the hotel trying to catch up on my blog posts but failing miserably. At some point I decided to follow up with my hotel about booking a tour for Monday before I left. They offered a half day sunset tour that had a lot of what I was looking for – a temple, the monkeys forest, and a sunset dinner at the Floating Sea Temples at Tanah Lot. It was 1:03 pm and At super short notice I asked if I could book this, hoping to do another tour on Monday as well. There’d be plenty of time to rest later – I was in Bali and might as well see some stuff.

And through a Herculean effort on the hotel’s part, they got me a driver in record time to take me on a tour. Being a single guy made it a little weird but for the most part there were good times ahead for me and my driver Andi.