Why do I feel kinda weird?

This here is a picture of my simian arm. I've never had a number on my arm until Saturday morning. You get a number on your arm if you run a race. That's how I got this number -- I was the 120th person to register for the annual SIS 5K run at Banzai Cliff. My first race ever.

I didn't think of doing this until Friday afternoon, when Russ mentioned it to me. He's got a gimpy hip, so he's down a few notches from his winning triathlete days, and I have a gimpy everything, so we decided to do the run together. It's the first time I've done one of these races. We ran a leisurely 10 minute mile pace, and finished in just under 30 minutes. I got to grab a cup of cold water from one of the race supporters, drink it down while running and throw the cup on the ground, just like on TV!

I never thought I'd be able to run like this. Since my early twenties, I've had problems with my shins. When I'd run more than 5 minutes, or even walk briskly, my shins would cramp up, blood flow would decrease to my feet, and I couldn't lift my feet at the ankles. They'd just sort of flop. I talked to an orthopedic surgeon who told me that the fascia (the sheath) around the muscles had gotten tight, and that if I wanted to run again, I'd have to have a fasciotomy -- splay the fascia open, like a fish (see post below). Recovery time: six months. Apparently, the last eight weeks or so of playing soccer must have loosened up the fascia, because I can run a few miles without any pain or flopping feet. Hooray for soccer. Soccer has given my life back to me. Now, I'm going to give my life to Soccer.

After the race, I came home to find that there was another power outage -- no shower available. So I got my cleats on and headed down for the "mix-up" co-ed soccer tournament. I opted to play forward, and got a few shots off on goal, but didn't manage to score. Our game finished around noon, and I ran out to pick up one of our kids who was in a class.

As I got home and drank some water, I realized that I felt kinda weird -- sort of in a daze. My vision was a bit blurred, sounds were a little distant. It couldn't have been the run, which wasn't too bad. And the soccer game wasn't unusual in any way. And then I realized: I forgot to eat breakfast this morning. This is the buzz of a hypoglycemic brain. I ate a bunch, but was out of sorts for most of the afternoon, even after eating two fistfuls of really good chocolate from Expressions. I hadn't eaten chocolate in about 3 years.

Oh, one very cool thing. Before the race, there were about a dozen dolphins swimming off of Banzai Cliff. They were entertaining the cheering racers, doing flips and everything. I ran over too late to see the flips, but it was a nice sight just seeing them bobbing in the water. It's the first time I'd seen dolphins in Saipan waters.

Hike from Banzai Cliff to Beach

I've been delaying posting this hike because I didn't want to bump the "Old Man by the Sea" Hike to the dust bin of "Older Posts." But it must be done.

My friend Chris Fryling of N15 Architects, and I headed down this trail one morning last week. This hike starts at Banzai Cliff and is an easy 30 minute stroll down to the beach by the old Cowtown. The terrain is all flat, and the trail is well worn.

Banzai Cliff marks one of the spots on the island where hundreds of Japanese residents leaped to their deaths as the American warships were approaching the island. They feared a fate worse than death, and entire families perished in this way. There are lot's of memorials at Banzai Cliff, this being, in my estimation, the most striking, reflecting the Japanese sense of design: grace and simple beauty.

The trail starts at the very north end of the parking lot, by the edge of the boonies. Nothing marks the trail, except for the trail itself.

For much of the hike, the trail is covered by a canopy of tagan tagan trees, so even at high noon, there is some shade. Early on there is this patch that I call, "the Coral Gardens", these large 4-6 feet high spikes of old coral dotting the trail.

Soon after the Coral Garden's there is a complex of caves. It's not marked and it takes a little bit of hunting to find the opening. This is the opening, which is really just a hole in the ground. The caves are in a ring around this hole, so the entrance was probably the roof of one of the caves that collapsed.

The view out of the cave back towards the opening.

Here's Chris exploring a bit. There are active stalagmites and stalactites forming. If you manage to find this cave and go in, please tread carefully and leave these alone.

On this rock, previous explorers have left some of the artifacts they have found -- bullets and bottles and an old salt shaker in this case. Many of the caves on Saipan were used WWII as hiding places for pretty much everyone -- Japanese soldiers and civilians, and indigenous civilians.

Farther down the trail is this old boat. For years, I've heard that this boat belonged to Larry Hillblom, who lived on Saipan and died young in a plane crash on a trip to the Northern Islands during the 1990's. He's the "H" in DHL, and was a multimillionaire who gained some notoriety in this part of the world. The Hillblom Foundation gives away hundreds of millions of dollars to medical research and education.

This building was supposedly part of the offices and barracks for his investment companies. He was a major shareholder in UMDA.

Of all the times I've walked by this building, I never bothered to go inside until today. Some of the stuff lying around seemed to confirm that this was associated with UMDA.

The walking trail eventually hits a grassy road. Just turn left (west) and walk about 3 minutes down to the ocean.

The grassy road turns off to the left (south) but keep going straight down this sandy path.

The water can be really rough here, depending on the winds and the tide. I usually take a swim near the shore if things look calm enough. The edge of the reef is close by as you can see. Right at this beach there is also an old Japanese bunker which is easy to miss, but is right there behind where I'm standing.

We headed south on the rocky coral, because we thought we saw a glass ball floating inside the reef. It turned out to be a rubber buoy. Oh, well.

It's very slightly uphill walking back up the grass road to the trail head. If you get to the stone wall, you've gone too far. Turn around and walk back to find the trail head going back to Banzai Cliff. Enjoy!