Tag Archives: Marathon/Festival de la Luz

Peer Pressure

15267703_10210798921186234_466070210640050474_n.jpgWhen you move to a new place, what makes it become home? I had the good fortune of moving to Mazatlán with my two main men, and having compadres who live here that we’ve known for decades. Plus, I’d been in love with our port city for decades myself, as had Greg, so calling it home was pretty easy.

However, the key when you make a new place home is creating community, and that takes friends. Like-minded friends, differently-opinioned friends, intelligent and fun-loving friends, friends who enjoy some of the same pastimes as you. And, I believe, the older we get, the more selective about those friends we get.

Thus, I am very grateful on this Thanksgiving Day weekend for the good friends in our lives. And, I am enormously grateful as well for the “peer pressure” of living on the malecón. I’ve written before how the malecón is the world’s largest gymnasium. In the nine years we’ve lived here, Kilometro Zero, the Bosque de la Ciudad, and the malecón, have been converted into one great race, marathon and triathlon event after another. Greg and I can’t help but be susceptible to the contagion.

Picking up our packets
Picking up our packets
Picking up packets with El Maromero

Tomorrow morning Greg will run the 21km in the Gran Maratón del Pacífico. I am so proud of him, recovering from his broken leg and nerve damage from two years ago. This year, as last year, I ran the 5km. The big news for me this year was two-fold: FIVE of my local girlfriends did the 5km with me! Better yet, they  brought their families! Second, despite the fact that I have a horrible head cold, and didn’t sleep well at all last night due to my coughing, I made a personal pace record this morning.

I’m slow, there is no doubt. But, hey, it’s my personal best for the 5km, despite the head cold and lack of sleep, and I’m happy about that! It was tempting at 6:30 this morning not to get up. It was tempting on the way back around the Bosque to quit, to say it wasn’t meant to be, as I couldn’t breathe. It was tempting at the 3km mark to join the 3km people. My lungs hurt, my nose was running, I kept coughing… But, I didn’t quit. I persevered. Me, who hasn’t run since being state champion in the 100 and 500 yard dash in junior high school, has started running again at 55. Woot woot. I still prefer swimming and zumba, but it’s nice to be able to run. At least a 5k.

Coming up to the finish
Love the medal this year!
With Asami and family
With Lilzy
Personal best despite the head cold. Yes, it’s slow…

We move to a new place in the hopes of creating a healthy and fulfilling life. I am grateful for the peer pressure I feel in this city of athletes, grateful that Mazatlán has become just such a city, and that we live in the middle of the athletic zone. I am grateful that Greg has led the way, running for so long and enjoying it so much that he eventually motivated me to start. My cousin Mary helped with that motivation, too. And, I am very grateful that I have a group of middle aged “Bellas Mazatlecas” girlfriends whose smiles light up rooms and who are healthy and motivated enough to join me in the “marathon”!

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God bless friends who love life!

Good luck tomorrow, Don Goyo! You’ll do great! Viva Mazatlán! Una meta más cumplida mis Bellas!

Festival de la Luz

01_90One of our favorites every year, Festival de la Luz/The Light Festival sees the launching of fireworks from 15 locations along the malecón, this year along 4 kms from Playa Norte on the southern end to the Don Pelayo Hotel on the northern end. It will happen on Saturday night, 29th November, at 8:00 pm, as a lead-up to the Maratón del Pacífico on Sunday morning. Thank you to the Tres Islas Hotel and Motel Association for this terrific annual event!

This year’s 25-minute show, expected to be attended by 50,000 people, will also include laser lights, four LED-illuminated flyboard (those cool waterjet-propelled thingies that they practiced with a couple of weeks ago) acrobatics, and four LED-illuminated paramotors (like we used to see at AeroFest). 10424298_851467651559611_582996139347249912_n

Full schedule will be:
  • 5:00 Turtle release
  • 6:00 Waiter race
  • 7:00 Mascot race
  • 8:00 Light show
Launch sites will include:
  1. Don Pelayo Hotel
  2. Insurgentes
  3. Coral Island Hotel
  4. Las Gavias
  5. Olas Altas inn
  6. Secretary of Tourism
  7. The aquarium
  8. The Sands Hotel
  9. Lola Beltrán
  10. Aguamarina Hotel
  11. De Cima Hotel
  12. Playa Marina Hotel
  13. Rotarismo
  14. Fishermen’s Monument
  15. Playa Norte

See you there!

Gran Maratón del Pacífico 2013

1.P1080136GREG!!!

We LOVE marathon. And the triathlon. And all the numerous other huge and wonderful sporting events Mazatlán hosts. We live right in the middle of it all. Most the events start and end in the City Park, right behind our house, and take place along the malecón, right in front of our house. They bring huge numbers of people to town, athletes plus their families from all over the country and internationally. Mouseover any photo to see a caption; click on it to view it larger or see a slideshow.

On the malecón, at dawn, signs directing 5k runners to turn around
Sunrise over the finish line
The moon (setting) and the Pacífico blimp
This year there are “banda” playing every 2 km along the race routes
The starting line
View of the starting line and the runners
The Pacífico blimp over the starting line
So excited to get started!
The crowd waiting to begin the run
Some of the winners this morning
The licuado shops and taquerías were hopping early this morning!
On Insurgentes, a sign directing runners which direction to head
Helicopter over Deer Island
Helicopter over the race route
Viewing and purchasing photos of the race
The estuary, part of the race route, looked so peaceful afterwards.

Today’s marathon, however, was different. Greg decided he’d run the 10k, and our niece, Arely, has been working since January to be able to run the 5k. And they did it! My most hearty congratulations to both of them! They will be in partying mood this evening for the fireworks display on the bay (10+ launching locations, starts at 8 pm).

Before the race (sleepy at 6 am on a Saturday)
Greg running to the finish!
Happy at the finish line
Receiving his 10k medal
Closeup of the medal
Our two champions!
In front of the route guide
After the race, the runners and cheerleaders
With the Eagle of Recycling, who ran in his costume to build awareness of ecology
The champion with his son and compadre, Jorge
The spectators and cheerleaders of the morning’s event!
Pretty eerie to leave home this morning and be greeted by an ambulance. It was just waiting on the race route, just in case.

I am always so impressed by the competitors in wheelchairs as well as those on crutches! This year, I also noticed lots of children running with their parents or aunts and uncles. I’m guessing in previous years I’ve watched the marathon runners come in, so this year with the 5 and 10k, I naturally saw more children. Some people love to dress up. This year there was a guy who’d made an Eagle costume out of trash. He ran with the whole get-up on, dragging trash behind him, with signs on his wings, in order to raise awareness of ecological responsibility. Bravo!

A competitor in a wheelchair
A competitor on crutches (one leg) and another with a stroller
Mom and son?
Son and his dad?
The Eagle, made out of recyclables, running the race
Some runners like to dress up
Closeup of the eagle
Competitors in wheelchairs after the race
Competitors in wheelchairs after the race

Despite the crowds during these huge international events, Mazatlán remains a small city, and it’s fun to hug and get hugged by friends who are also competing.

With Chris from the running club; we never did see the rest of the club
With Guy, our neighbor and MZT icon
With Guy, our neighbor and MZT icon
With Danny’s old schoolmate, José Raúl
My favorite barrista from Looney Bean

Congratulations, Greg and Arely! Congratulations to everyone who competed this morning! What a great group of healthy people! Tonight will be fantastic, and the half- and full marathons tomorrow even better! ¡Viva Mazatlán, home of the athletes and their fans!

Below I post a very short video compilation of the morning.

Mazatlán: Pulsating Center of Atleticísmo

malecón aerial view

You already know how much we love living in Mazatlán, and that one of our favorite delights is living in the center of the world’s largest and most beautiful gymnasium — the malecón.

For a couple of weeks now, during our morning walks, we have been accompanied by runners we don’t see the rest of the year. We know they are people who have come to acclimate and train for the marathon. They are also loads of locals, often accompanied by their children and friends, who decide to heighten their training this time of year in order to be prepared to participate in the shorter runs or the marathon itself.

42k marathon routeToday as Danny and I were out walking I was reminded how this, the day before El Gran Maratón del Pacífico, is so incredibly delightful. The space between the Bosque de la Ciudad/City Park and the baseball stadium pulsates with music, dancing and tents filled with running gear, as busloads of runners and their families and friends arrive from every corner of Mexico and beyond. They register, take a look around, and then fan out across the city. Nearly every restaurant, coffee house or juice stand we see is filled with healthy, excited, friendly people, eager to run and test their skills along Latin America’s largest bay. It is, truly, delightful.

marathon runners ocean viewTomorrow, non-runners that we are, we will awake to the sounds of that same music, plus the sounds of cheering, as the first runners glide by the front of our home. We will make coffee, get dressed, and go out to the street to join in the cheering. People compete in the 5k, 10k, 21k half-marathon, and 42k full marathon. Festivities will continue on the malecón until about 1:00 tomorrow afternoon.

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Then, tomorrow (Saturday) night, our bay lights up with fireworks launched from FOURTEEN different, coordinated locations around our beautiful bay. And, poor us, we are, again, right in the center. Gotta love it! On our beach the fireworks have been set up and ready to go since this morning. That’s different than in prior years, when they set up on Saturday morning during the run itself.

So, athletically speaking, we’ve got:

And, of course we have the normal daily, weekly and monthly athletic events of our good city, such as

I often imagine how it feels to live in the city that hosts the Olympics. Obviously it’s not a fair comparison to these events, but I can imagine the energy, the buena vibra, the buena onda, is very similar. And here, we get to experience it at least several times each year, rather than once in a lifetime (hosting the Olympics).

Mazatlán, a working port, center of tuna and shrimp industries, famous for its beaches, banda music and sport fishing, is becoming quite the hotbed of healthy, athletic living! And we are loving every moment of it!