La vie pure et l'ultra-paradis

Yes, the title is French. Yes, this is about TCC again. My 8th post on this adventure. A never-ending race report...

A long-due post although it did take a couple of months after coming back from the Coastal Challenge for me to write this ultimate article on my journey through Costa Rica, in French this time. And a few more weeks for it to be published in the ultrafondus magazine (issue number 51, April 2008).
I did not want to just translate one of my post, or even the article which I wrote for UltraRunning magazine. It has another flavor, a content which aims at attracting the francophone and overseas audience to come for some ultra-tourism in Central America. And, among many other good reasons, to take advantage of the strong Euro! The format is a series of thematic snap shots illustrated with post cards.
The article is the result of great team work, leveraging pictures from Andres and Tim and the talents of Romuald, ultrafondus's graphist, for the layout. Andres was the event official photographer and Tim the event director and founder.
For the Francophone readers and the other ones who are not afraid of this foreign language, I have posted the entire article on line (thanks to the ultrafondus magazine team for sharing).
For more information (and praises!) on this magazine, you can read this earlier post.

Ironically, I share this story about pure and cool life, at a time I need to remind myself about being happy and focusing on the present moment. The injury from last week 50K race at Skyline last week worsen during the week. Friday was finally better, then the pain came back on Saturday, making me limping. The quads got quite damaged and I believe they have hard time eliminating dead blood cells and other waste from the edema. At least the swallowing is almost gone and I am close to have regained full flexibility and being able to bend the knee as much as before. But not quite there (15-20 degrees still missing) so it is too early to resume running. When I should be training full speed, two weeks before Headlands 50K (the US 50K trail nationals) and three weeks before the French 100K road championships. As for work, I am still wondering how the Big Blue elephant will scoop us at the end of the year. Some people on both sides claim there is no reason to worry, yet, I can't prevent my analytical skills to kick in and make me think. And worry... But, Pura Vida, right? Besides, the family flew back home from Spain this week and everything is wonderful on this end. So life is perfect after all, Pura Vida!

Hope you enjoy your summer, wherever you are. And a special hello to the ultrafondus and all the TCC 2008 participants!