Viva Panama!

Hello to all from Panama City, Panama! I must say that the trip down here has been worth it. The Panama Canal is just spectacular in its vastness and beauty. Panama City is rich in historical significance and people here are very friendly and proud of thier country. This morning, I ran the Half Marathon that is held each year in the downtown area. Start time was 6am. Temperature....79 degrees with 90% humidity! The course is not to be taken lightly as much to my surprise, there were several hills to negotiate. The first 4 miles or so ran along the pacific ocean and then weaved through the mercado or market place, before making the turn around back down the coast. There was plenty of water and gatorade every mile or so as well as great local support. I was feeling pretty good the first 8 or 9 miles but was having trouble keeping a consistent pace below 610. There were no mile markers either which made it difficult to gage my pace as well. In the end I finished 9th overall with a time of 1h 22m.....not my best but a fun race in a beautiful city. I am thinking that the two days previous, I did alot of walking around the canal area and mercado, or mabey it was the humidity which is higher here than Austin. Oh well. I´m not too worried about my performance and so should not make any excuses. Today I will take a bus over to portebello on the Atlantic side and visit the old staging point for the spanish conquistadors in thier search for gold. This coming tuesday, I will return home to Austin. In closing, I highly recomend a visit to Panama. It will change you.