So aside from the usual trainer sessions and the few Lake Minnetonka rides at sunrise before work with a couple coworkers, I thought I'd share another training experience that I did while on vacation with my wife down in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
A friend that attended our destination wedding in Playa del Carmen, Mexico five years ago was so inspired by our wedding that he convinced his fiance to plan something similar for their own. Because he attended ours and their wedding date so conveniently fell just one week after our 5-year anniversary, we decided to splurge and figure out a way to make this trip work. The in-laws adopted the three kids for us and we cashed in my hard-earned frequent flier miles and we arranged ourselves an amazing 4-night tropical getaway.
I won't get too much into the general atmosphere of our resort's location and my opinion of the state of the country (definitely apparent that this country borders 3rd-world Haiti), but I'll highlight our trip here.
We arrived mid-afternoon on a Thursday after getting to MSP airport at 3:00 am for an on-time 5:30 am departure, one uneventful 45-minute layover in Atlanta with an on-time arrival, then an hour-long transfer to our hotel on a tour bus. It was down-pouring when we checked in and we learned that they don't like to advertise the fact that we arrived during the middle of their rainy season. I suppose it's fairly obvious, but the couple who planned the trip were not made aware of this at all during their meeting with their travel agent. Just one of many complaints they planned to share with that agent upon their return, but I digress.
We spent the evening having an arranged dinner with the entire group that night. It was a so-so dinner put on by the hotel staff. We noticed that there really weren't very many meals that were fresh; most of the food had been frozen, particularly the seafood. Odd considering we're in the Caribbean, but another sign of the state of health in the country.
Not much for drinking or partying that night since we really hadn't slept for over 24 hours, as a few of the others in our group also experienced, so it was a quiet night.
I had a goal of trying to get some sort of workout in 3 of the 4 days we were there, and I started off on the right foot that Friday morning. There was a well-advertised running trail around the resort campus that I decided to check out. I remembered to bring our little point and shoot camera solely for the purpose of this blog. I logged both of my runs with my GPS watch as well, but haven't been able to download the data, for some reason. I'll update this post with the maps when I finally get them off of the watch.
From here on out I'll pretty much report by captioning the pics.
The guilt trip sign that everyone faces as they walk out of the building.
Turn to the left and you see this:
To the right (For what it's worth, that'd be a 19 minute/mile pace):
The path had markings every 50 m or so, so to get to the start I turned right and found it pretty quickly:
The path went around the outside of the resort property, so if I turned my head to the right I saw the fence and "the other side," which was quite literally straight, untouched jungle for about a half mile on either side of the resort:
Standing on the starting line left me with my first big decision of the trip: do I go straight, or do I turn and run the other way:
It was an easy decision, so I took off down to the beach. Right away the sand was very fluffy and unpacked, which really made it difficult to run, but I made it down to the shore and the sand became perfect for running. I started running to the right (East/Southeast) down in front of the resort. The beach is flanked by large signs disclaming any resort responsibility for any members going past, at which point the beach turns from gorgeously raked and kept to this:
I dodged the incoming tide as I ran around the small point, then went another quarter mile or so and stopped to take a pic of the point that I just ran around:
Like I said earlier our resort was flanked on both sides by about a half-mile of jungle. Well, that half-mile was bordered on each side by abandoned resorts. This is the first, Nouvelles Frontieres Hotel - Club:
I walked up a bit closer to the property but it was really, really creepy and I didn't know how far I could go before I was trespassing. There were still a few sunshades and blinds open in some of the windows, and this resort didn't appear to be deserted very long so I didn't feel like tempting fate at exploring after being on the island for less than 24 hours so far. The wife and I walked up a bit farther the next day on a morning walk and peeked at the pool area a bit more. Not much else to see but it was very clear that it hadn't been vacant very long. The grounds still appeared somewhat taken care of and there was even still clean water in the pool (though it was only half full).
Back down to the shoreline.
After about another half mile of what looked like very untouched shoreline:
Then, out of nowhere, the beach suddenly turned into an fossilized coral reef. I'd seen one just like it in the Bahamas during an ecological field trip, so I slowed down and explored it for a bit (note the very straight, almost man-made line of mangrove bushed up on top of the beach that I didn't notice until just now as I uploaded this pic *foreshadowing*).
As you can see, there's a ton of footprints in the sand right along the edge of the coral, but that only lasted for a hundred more feet or so, then it was all to myself:
Stuck into the reef were a bunch of bamboo poles. It seemed that they were at somewhat regular intervals, so I figured it was just some bored beach combers that were having fun with them. Here you can see the reef a bit better, as well as a few of the upright bamboo poles:
There were little ghost crabs all over the place, magically disappearing into the sand as I approached and quite a few were climbing up these poles. No, this isn't a frog, it's just a weird knob on the pole, but you can see the crab peeking around the corner of it. Very camera shy:
Hey buddy:
I got a bit further up the beach and around another small point and suddenly there were two excavators and a big ol' hole in the beach with these piles of sand all over:
The white piles are broken pieces of coral; the same pieces that are used around our resort for landscaping borders/edging.
I explore a bit around the big pit and go maybe 100 yards farther or so when suddenly I see a large gray animal out of the corner of my eye, maybe 20 yards away that was behind a mangrove bush. I stop, look around a bit closer and:
Not 10 seconds after I took this photo a little mixed breed spotted dog comes flying out of one of the bushes barking like crazy at me. Fight-or-flight kicked in at the sound of his bark and upon seeing my foe I planted my feet and made myself bigger. He stopped but kept barking at me. About 100 yards even farther down the beach there was a small tin shack and I see a native come out to see what's causing the commotion. He had what I assumed was a rifle slung over his shoulder and he started shooing me away with his hands. Quite universal language asking me to leave, so I waved back feigning my apologies the best I could and obliged my way back up the beach without any further ado. The guard dog kept his distance but followed me back until I came to the last upright bamboo pole in the beach that I passed on the way down, where he abruptly stopped and turned around...feeling satisfied for protecting his herd I'm sure. I stopped and settled down a bit, then actually walked back down the beach a quick bit to take a picture of the last bamboo pole that I passed. In the background you can see the two excavators I mentioned earlier. My footprints down the beach are down near the water. I actually ran back up through that seaweed mess on the left as the dog chased me. I don't know why:
Here's a close up of the pit, used mainly to get nice beach sand and sell to the resorts to replace the erosion, I'm guessing. You can see that I'm standing directly on coral and they excavated it away, hence the white piles of chunks of coral along with the nice sand. What I didn't notice on the way down was another native in that small yellow hut. One can assume he had a rifle as well, but he just waved and nodded as I went by:
The run back wasn't as eventful, but I stopped regularly just for photo ops. A small island straight out from the beach:
Looking back down the beach towards the end of the reef edge again, which I walked out towards this time to find that it was actually quite the drop off into the water (about 10 feet. Hard to tell in this photo, but the water was really crashing against it):
My prints going out and coming back, and a cool triangle raft that was likely used by a drug smuggler that swam to shore in the night (seriously). I thought it was a good little metaphor for my triathlon training:
I ran back past our resort and decided to keep going a bit longer to make the run get a bit over 3 miles. I go past the other disclaimer sign and head up the coast towards the other deserted resort. I pass a native on the beach that has a sign that read "Souvenirs" with an arrow that pointed towards the jungle area behind him. He didn't bother me but just waved, but another guy in our group said he had a bunch of sea shells for sale later in the day and offered to sell him drugs. A few hundred yards farther around another point and I started to approach the other resort. This one was a lot more overgrown, and as I got closer I saw people moving around on the grounds. There were actually a bunch of lean-to shacks built and quite a few people living there, or so it seemed. A couple glanced up at me as I approached, but I decided to stop and turn around before I took any pictures. I turned pretty quickly and forgot where I was on the beach and was immediately smacked by a wave, soaking my shoes. I stopped and figured, eh, what the hell and decided to run barefoot back to the resort. It was about 2/3 of a mile back and it was honestly one of the greatest feelings I've ever had while running.
I'd tried running on the beach a few years ago and I hated every step of it. Really sloggy and squishy and my calves killed me as I tried it.
But that was with my old gait. Since I've started running with more of a "barefoot-style" gait, (still with shoes but landing on my forefoot rather than my heels) my calves and overall strength in my feet and ankles have improved dramatically. I've noticed, especially during this run in the sand, but not nearly as much as when I took off my shoes and went barefoot. Feeling the sand between each toe with every step was really, really rewarding. I even just let the ocean hit me a few times without trying to dodge it, never missing a step. Absolutely amazing. Proof:
I got back to the resort and there was a local police officer in the hut right on the edge of the property. He asked to see my hotel key or ID. I didn't see him before so maybe he just came on duty, but either way he saw my dripping shoes and camera in my other hand and asked if I wanted my picture taken on the beach. Here I am with the disclaimer sign. The second "abandoned" resort is behind me, directly around that point:
I went back to our room and showered and was back out on the beach by 8:30 am for our first full beach day. As you can see, the clouds were already rolling in and it was raining by noon. We spent the rest of the day under the tikis during the showers and in the pool when it let up.
That night we had an official groom's dinner in one of the resort's restaurants then just hung out in one of the lobbies and watched some of the entertainment.
The next day was Saturday, aka Wedding Day. The entire group met out on the beach at dawn and we were able to get a few more sun rays in before the clouds rolled in at about 11 am. I went for the same run again at about 11:30, but I didn't venture very far past the excavation pit this time. Came back and chilled in the pool for a little while, then got ready for the wedding which was at 5 pm.
Everything went pretty well. From the bride's point of view, things could have gone a lot more smoothly but she is going to go home with some amazing photos from their ceremony and reception.
Our final full day on Sunday was spent going into town for an excursion which was guided snorkeling followed by a booze cruise up the coast on a glorified pontoon boat. The snorkeling was great. Really mature reefs, but a lot of them were visibly dying or dead. There was still a lot of fish and other creatures to swim around though, and the excursion also included the power blades to use for half of the the dive, so that was pretty cool. I was able to free dive to about 20 feet with the snorkel and power blade and got to see some of the lurking life in the nooks and crannies of the reef. We didn't bring or buy a waterproof camera, unfortunately, but it was still really cool.
Spent that night just hanging out and watched a big bonfire on the beach at about 10:30 pm, then went back to pack our bags so we could catch a couple more hours of beach time before catching our bus back to the airport at 11:30.
It was really a great trip. Four nights for us to reconnect as husband and wife instead of parents and we got some good itinerary/plan/care-free time. Despite the cloudy sky on that first day, we both still got some pretty severe sunburn through the clouds, from which my legs are still peeling as I sit here almost three weeks later.
It was good to come home to the kiddos again feeling refreshed, but even better to be able to just turn on the faucet and be able to brush our teeth and drink the water without worry. I don't think we'll be going back to the Dominican Republic before checking out some other countries first, or until we hear some better reviews from somewhere else on the island.
