by Diane Bosley
In January of this year we spent two weeks in Costa Rica. The
main reason for this trip was to relax and spend quality time with my family, including
my first grandchild! So my goal was to get in some training runs without
disrupting other activities.
Costa Rica is pretty close to the equator. I love opportunities
to catch Vitamin D rays when I can. The sun feels really good, but you can be
frying in just a few hours. Also,
daylight is pretty much 6am to 6pm (give or take an hour) year round. In
Moravia the temperature averages 60 overnight and 80 during the day. At the
beach those temps rise to between 70 and 90. Needless to say, living in Ohio, I
am used to running in less predictable and often cooler weather.
When I run 3-5 miles in Ohio I don’t worry about carrying
water. I can also run strategically so that I have access to water in many of
our local parks. In Costa Rica many
downtowns have parks, but water fountains are nonexistent.
When we were in Moravia, I was running at altitudes near
4000 ft and then at the beach it was basically 0 to 200 ft of elevation. Even
though I have lots of hills in my workouts here, somehow it does not compare. In
Costa Rica there is very little flat ground, few sidewalks, and many narrow and
uneven streets.
On my first day of running, my son Michael went out with me for
about a five mile loop. Since he lives
in Costa Rica he now talks in kilometers, so as I am running, I am converting
this information in my mind to miles.
Recognizing landmarks and committing them to memory is very important,
because there are very few street signs even in bigger cities. The postal delivery
system there is a topic for discussion all its own. In the map of our route you
can see my son kept it very simple, lots of left turns and pretty straight.
Next time, running on my own, I had a loose plan of 10-15
miles- starting with that same loop and figuring out the rest from there. I
knew there was a college (didn’t notice the name) down our street and a corner bar
(no obvious name) where I made my first turn- but I could go left or right. I thought
that I had correctly gone to the left. When I got to the main intersection and I
started what I remembered would be a long downhill. I remembered the fire
station just before the bridge and that I would pass a McDonalds and KFC. I had
to cross one very busy intersection by a gas station. Then I passed a downtown
and my next turn to the left would be at the Ricky Pollo. Next I passed a local fresh juice store and
then another intersection, but I was looking for the home improvement store to
my right. I didn’t see it so I continued on downhill. When I got to 3 miles on
my watch and was seeing more of a factory district and none of the landmarks I
was expecting were showing up I got a little flustered. So I started back
uphill trying to just retrace what I had done.
You can see on the second map, I started out ok running the straight
horizontal line and then taking a left.
However it’s the lower left where I took the FIRST wrong turn.
After a few other missteps, I made one extra turn and managed
to get back to the Tibas downtown and the same road I had run down. After
passing several of the same landmarks going back up, I started looking for a
Superbattery place to be on the corner where I would turn back into our neighborhood.
I got all the way uphill and hadn’t seen it and then saw the Automercado grocery
store that was at least a half mile beyond where we were staying. I tried a few
things, starting back down for a short distance on the next right. I turned
down one street thinking I had to be close to our apartment and ended up
outside a church that was open. I walked inside and said a prayer. Then I went
back up to the main street I had turned in from.
I got all the way back to the Automercado and looked up and
realized there was a billboard for a college- 5 minutes away. I was thinking it
had to be the one on our street so I went down on the left side thinking I
would see another sign letting me know I was closer or where to turn. I didn’t
go far enough and turned around again, started back down the hill to the right
and went as far as the fire station.
(These are the loops on the right side of the second map) I was pretty much walking at this point, and
now out for more than three hours. So
as I started back up that hill again, I finally noticed a small sign saying
that a university was 800 meters. I
turned down the street, RECOGNIZED the corner bar and then I saw the college straight
ahead!
Since I was still
short of ten miles, I decided to keep running because I was sure
I knew the way to my son and daughter-in-laws apartment complex. You can
see on the last map, where the lines are much straighter. I was
now running on roads I remembered! All I needed to do was cross to the other side, pass the new Lincoln shopping mall and go straight uphill again until I got
to the corner where the Blue school was. Then I would go down that street to get to the beauty parlor, and make one more turn and I would be there .
I made it to the apartment complex, but like much of Costa
Rica it is gated in. I rang the buzzer for their apartment, I even yelled out
for Laura and stood there for a few minutes. A man who was working inside the
property came to the gate. My Spanish skills are pretty poor and at that moment
I could not think of a single thing beyond hello or thank you. He spoke a little English, and let me know
that the Americano- my son was not there. I said I knew that Laura and the baby
were. I pointed out her car, so he went
and knocked at the door. Nobody answered.
I tried again with
the house next door, remembering that it was where their landlord lived. He came
to the gate and also spoke to me in English. He dialed Laura’s cell phone and
still got no answer. I thanked him, he gave me some water and then I started
back towards our apartment. What I later found out was that Laura was
interviewing a nanny. She had let her take care of my granddaughter for a short
time while she took a shower. She told her not to worry about the door or
phone, to concentrate on the baby. So my timing was just lousy!
Looking at the
Garmin maps I can see that there were actually two Universidad’s very close by.
I should have started out turning right
and then it would have been all lefts going around on the original loop. I was
correct in knowing that a battery place was on the corner of our street but on
the opposite end.
I learned too many lessons that day. I walked out with only
a key to get back in our complex and a small amount of water. I carried no
colones (money), no id, no phone numbers and did not put on sunscreen. My
husband was upset with me, but didn’t realize how long I had actually been out!
Even though we were staying in an area that I know was safe, my mistakes took
me to an area that I was less sure of. I was also relying on people being able to
speak my language. I should have let my
family know more clearly my plans.
I did run again a few days later at the beach
with my son and then on my own. During those runs I stayed on just the main
road from out the gate of our condo community. I ended my vacation running a 9k
race back in Moravia. A lot of that course was familiar from my “lost”
adventure.
