INTERGULF 2026 – Main Event

It was a hot one . . . like 7 inches from the mid-day sun! We had a short bus ride out to the run site this morning, and as we popped out onto the parking lot . . . it was hitting 36+ C (but running on the pavement reflected a lot of heat, so it must have been over 40 C ) . . . So Hydrate Damit. There were only two trails, and they were explained as the RUNNER’S trail of 17 kms, and the WALKER’S trail of 7 kms. Since it was so hot, I just thought I would run the walker’s trail . . . but they said no. So I did it anyway. I was about 2.5 kms in, and could see the projected ending point and knew it was not going to be 7 kms. So next I came across the second R/W split, and went Runner’s.

I was all by myself at the point obviously, but there were no checks. Only concern was cars parking on the marks, which constitutes “Lost Scent” which happened a couple times, but still finished the trail at the intended boat dock. We were supposed to get a boat ride. No one else was around, so I started running backwards towards where the walker’s were going to have a beer check, and good thing I did. The hares called an option, and made the runners take the walker split and they all met the busses there. I came in just in time to meet them all up as they were boarding the busses.

We then drove about half an hour to the second half of trail, which was supposed to be 1 km walk or 3 km run. Most of us took the walk, but since the marks disappeared, we ended up still getting 3 kms. Total for the day for my mix and match trail was 10 kms of smoking hot trail. As we finished, we pretty much all went straight into the pool with a beer. Ahhhh, that felt good. Dinner soon was served, and life was good.

We’ll have a short hangover trail tomorrow, then it is back to the airport and onward to the next adventure.Read more