Deck Wars

Dan makes it up to Deck 15, home of the "Fitness Track" on the Good Ship Marina. He thinks that by starting his run at 5:00 AM sharp, he can get at least a few miles in before they start swabbing this part of the deck. Not so fast. Just as he gets a few of the 1/10 Mile laps done, the Swabbers begin to do their thing here as well. Dan could dance around their routine efforts, but he hates to get in their way, so he moves down a level. Deck 14 has a shorter loop of around 13 laps per mile, but he can make it longer if he extends the sides and turns around each time. They are about to swab this deck as well, but Dan stands a better chance of staying out of their way here because the track is wider. If there's a true emergency, he can possibly run on Deck 12, which is around the pool only.

It's foggy, windy, and rainy. And it's cold - probably in the 40s. And it's not at all dark, despite the fog and the early hour; that's because the Marina, now navigating between Svalbard and Iceland, is still above the Arctic Circle. Why the deck needs swabbing during a rainstorm is beyond Dan's meager understanding. He runs two miles on 14, then moves back to 15 for two more, with the hope that the deck swabbers will be done. They aren't.

It's now 6:00 AM, and the Fitness Center will be opening up, so Dan migrates over there for some warm, dry treadmill miles. Yesterday, he managed to get ten decent mill miles in whilst watching part of Bridge over the River Kwai. Hey, maybe there will be another good movie to watch today, thinks Dan. His hopes are dashed when he sees that every single one of the good treadmills are already taken. The one that's left has a malfunctioning TV. Dan turns around and goes back outside. At least the Deck Swabbers are finishing up.

Dan needed a long run and had hoped to get at least eighteen miles in today. More outside miles in the elements will make this more difficult. Somehow, Dan manages to bang out another sixty laps on Deck 15. That rain and the high winds certainly make things challenging. But now he's pretty darn beat. He heads back to the Fitness Center for a second attempt at some mill miles.

Now, more than an hour after its opening, the room is fairly empty and all the treadmills are free. Dan chooses the one that he used yesterday. The TV works well on that one. This time he watches Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. The movie is enough to distract him enough for another hour and a half or so - and the mileage he needed to get up to eighteen for the day.

Been a decent run, given the conditions. The other running that Dan's been doing has been similar, although shorter. Dan will be happy to run on dry land once again. Warm, dry land.

2015 run in the sea near French Polynesia: Same Dan, same ship, same deck, different weather

Modern Day Dan on a not-so-nice day

For more about this trip, see the travel blog post.