Ulaanbaatar, MongoliaSunday, November 15, 2009
Last week Frank became the first person to sign up for Ulaanbaatar's first marathon in June 2010. It took three trips to the marathon office to actually get him signed up, but he's on the list now.
Frank also entered the Tokyo Marathon lottery and "won" a spot in the Tokyo Marathon which is scheduled for late February. There were 330,000 entrants for 30,000 spots, and he was pleased to get one.
So, now the challenge is on: how to train in Mongolia's freezing winter temperatures.
This afternoon Frank passed an important test: he did his first run (8 miles/13K) in sub-zero F temperatures (-17° C).
He's been reading up on cold-weather running and among the more useful tips was to smear Vaseline on exposed skin (like the cheeks) to cut down on wind burn. Frank reports that this helped a lot on this latest run.
Frank has noted with some pleasure that one of the advantages of our somewhat isolated living situation is its proximity to some low-traffic running roads. We are also somewhat outside the city's main pollution core which makes breathing on these runs a bit easier.
Despite the freezing temps, Frank took his glove off to document his route along the Tuul River with his camera phone.Looks chilly, no?
