Pinch me!!!

Editor's note: Bobby Bostic, aka Baselbutt, is currently on his way to the North Pole, where he's running a marathon and competing in a bike race. Here's a report he filed earlier today on YourRunning.com. While some of his report is about the marathon, he also talks about the bike race. Over to you, Iceman...

There's something to be said about the calm before the storm. I have to say that as fast as the last two months have flown by, the last 12 hours have gone by glacially slow (and that's not because I'm surrounded by glaciers)..

My body hasn't adjusted to the time difference (and probably won't). I was up at 3am yesterday morning (Thursday) and just before 4am this morning. The sleep I have got has been excellent - just limited - but sufficient I think. Everyone seems tired and generally ready to get going with the race.

So let me set the stage by letting you know where I am now and what I'm doing. I'm sitting in the lobby of the hotel in a pair of tights, my 2xu thermal top and socks. My Sorel boots are sitting next to me and I have a hot cup of Pixie Mate' and a Powerbar to keep me going. I'm one of the 22 people on the second flight up to the Pole. The Antonov AN-72 has room for 30 people and cargo so roughly half of the field and all of the photographers are on the first flight and the runners who have less aggressive travel schedules after the race are on the second flight. Basically the plane flies the first group 2 1/2 hours to the Pole, unloads, and then returns 2 1/2 hours to Longyearbyen to pick up the second group. The first group was set to leave this morning at 10am, but weather at the Pole delayed their departure until at least 2:30 (meaning the earliest we'll be leaving will be 8:30 tonight). It's 1:30pm right now. Meanwhile, we were forced to check out of our rooms so we have no place to go except for the lobby restaurant/lounge. I'm just happy I'm not in the first group.. They've been waiting at the airport for the past 3 hours, while we're cashed out on comfortable Skandinavien-designed leather sofas with a roaring fire going in the fireplace. Having overnighted in a sleeping bag in front of the urine-soaked train station in Amsterdam, I can take this level of "suffering" any day.

So now that you know where I am, let's work backwards...

SKYPE ROCKS!!!! Thanks to Jennifer (my sister) and Christopher for the tip. When I woke up this morning, I had a nice little video chat with my wife and her sister. If anyone has SKYPE and wants to chat, my ID is "PonyExpressRun".

Now that I've made a shameless plug for a company I just learned about last week, I'll get back to my story. Yesterday was very cold. The outside temperature was -15 degrees with wind chill pushing the temperature down to -40. Now I know it doesn't sound THAT cold, but believe me, if you turn face first in to the wind without something covering your nose and eyes - instant burn. I found this out first hand when I went outside to get "captured" by one of the five Longyearbyen webcams (see picture). Even though all the buildings here look more or less the same, I was able to find one of the cameras, while my room-mate John kept hitting "refresh" on my computer until I popped up.

At 7pm we had our race meeting. It was great to see everyone in the same room. Over the past two days I've met most of the competitors one by one, but to see us all in the conference room was pretty neat. All in all, there are 21 countries represented - 44 runners and 14 bikers (all 14 of the bikers are also doing the marathon - myself included). Richard Donovan (the Race Director) walked through the next couple of days and how the exact timing of the marathon is dependant on the conditions at the Pole and will be run at the earliest possible window. It could be that the marathon goes off the moment the second plane lands. It may also happen the next day - once he's satisfied that everything is safe, the race will start. As we're finding out now with the almost 5 hour delay in getting the first plane off, the entire event is at the mercy of the weather gods.

NEWS FLASH! The plane just took off... 6 more hours (roughly 9pm) and it will be back to pick us up.

Right after the race meeting, those of us doing the bike race went to the buiding across the way where the apartments are to assemble our bikes. I say "assemble", but it really was just putting the wheels and pedals on and then adjusting the brakes. A quick spin the parking lot was all I needed to prove to myself that I can ride a bike in the snow. The bike tires have little steel spikes on them, which will be great for snow, but awful on the streets of Oakland and the hardwood floors in my house (mental note to self - don't ride bike in the house with steel spiked tires).

So.................

.... about five seconds after writing the word "tires" above, I put my head down (I relocated from the lounge to the floor of the conference room where our pre-race meeting took place) and passed out for about three and a half hours.. I woke up in the middle of an update by Richard's assistant. Here's the scoop - the plane did not take off when I thought.. It left at around 3:30pm (5 1/2 hours late) and just landed. We are to be ready to head over to the airport at 9pm sharp (for a 9:15-9:30pm departure).. That would get us to the Pole a little after midnight (essentialy "noon" because it's daylight 24/7 this time of year). Based on that, they guess we could be running as early as 1:30am..

I COULDN'T BE HAPPIER!!!!

Here's why - As I mentioned above, I've been waking up fresh as a daisy at 2-4am since getting here anyway! All I need to do is extend my inability to conform to local time by one more day, and I'll be running at what would translate back to 4pm my time.. That's the exact time I normally would head out for a longish mid-week run. My body CAN run at that time!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anyway, there is a lot of energy in the group now that we know that the plane is there and shortly will be returning to pick us up. Hopefully there won't be any more delays and all the running nonsense will be over and done with by tomorrow morning (or, 8-9pm Friday night back home in Oakland)..

Sorry this entry has been a little disjointed. I don't think there is a member of the group who is thinking completely straight and is not distracted somewhat. With just about 2 hours to go, I want to make sure everything is packed correctly and that I get a good hot meal in my stomach before boarding the plane. I figure we'll all have benefited from good food and some good rest over the group that went up first (who are right this minute freezing their tail off while I'm nice and warm on the heated floor of the conference room).

If I don't find time to write a few more lines before I leave, I want to thank the folks at YourRunning.com (Steve, Brad, Simon, Neal, Yann - among others) for the amazing experience and the wonderful platform for airing my running-related rants (that would be a good name for my blog after all of this is over...). It goes without saying that without you, I wouldn't be here. Second (and certainly NOT second), I'd like to thank my beautiful wife Dee who is home with our kids right now. I love you very much and can't wait to get home (and at the same time, I wish this trip would never end!). Third, I'd like to thank my sponsors with include (but are not limited to) Pixie Mate', Kahtoola Snow Systems, GoLite, Bite Footwear, Powerbar, and Ted (for the loan of the amazingly warm "Kenny jacket"). Last, but not least, I'd like to thank everyone else who played any part in me getting here. It's a pretty long list. You all know who you are - even if you didn't help, but you think you did, you can think quietly to yourself that you're part of this list..

With that, I'm off!
Talk to you all later.
Bobby

P.S. Rather than clog up server space, the link to all of my pictures to date can be found at: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AbtGjVq4atWLy4

P.P.S. I just got back from the "Pub".. I wolfed down half a pizza and did a brief interview with Neal from YourRunning.com. Hopefully he gets that edited and posted soon. All is (still) looking good for a 9:30pm departure!