Marathon

by Gunnar Engblom April 25, 2010 1

In 2010 I will go birding in…..

….a lot of places …and I like you to come with me.

This past year immersing myself into social media, has been amazing getting to know so many birders on line. I would like to meet all of you. Although my year is not completely staked out, I’d like to give you an outline the birding trips and events I have lined up for myself. Maybe our paths shall cross somewhere. Or maybe you want to come along joining me on some of these adventures. I shall write more detailed blogposts presenting each of them. Let me know which you would like to hear more about in the comment section below and I will prioritize.

I have already knocked off a North Peru trip and two Tumbes itineraries with Pelagics in January. In February I was in Colombia with the family and managed to see a couple of nice new birds. (Blog post is practically ready, but need some photos – maybe someone can please lend me photos of Golden-ringed and Black and Gold Tanager?). I am planning to get a Colombia tour together for Januay 2011 if anyone is interested. Here is an old draft of a Colombia Tour, but I certainly will change some as there are now new exciting reserves that can be visited.

Marathon. May 2 and July 18

First on my agenda is Lima Marathon. One may ask what that has to do with birding, but it does. Last year I ran it for the first time and turned it into a fund-raiser for the community on Satipo road. A marathon for conservation. This activity made Rain Forest Partnership interested in starting a small project here. My training has not gone the way I wanted this year, but I am still running the Marathon. I shall be happy if I make it all the way around. So here is a pledge – the same as last year. I will run the Lima Marathon 42.195km on May 2 after sporadic training the last 10 weeks (interrupted by 2 weeks sickness and an injured knee) at 4h13min or less. 4 hours and 13 minutes makes an average speed of 6:00 min per kilometer, which is more or less the speed that I have managed on the long runs I have done so far.

Sign-up in the comment section. And if you have not made the donation from the pledge last year available yet to Rain Forest Partnership, let me know.

My personal goal is to qualify to Boston Marathon. It will not happen at this race, but I have already a new Marathon in my mind where I shall much better trained. Rio de Janeiro Marathon on July 18. That is one week before I turn 50. I have to run in 3:35. I have 14 more weeks to find my top form.

Pelagics

I guess it is the viking in me that always take me to the sea. Contrary to our Peruvian guides, I never get seasick – so I guide practically all of Kolibri Expeditions’ pelagics. Pelagics from Lima are very good with up to 5-6 species of Storm-Petrels seen regularly including the localized Markham’s and Ringed (Hornby’s) Storm-Petrel. The Critically Endangered Waved Albatross is seen on practically every trip. So far the following pelagic tours have clients booked and will thus surely run: May 6, July 19 and 26, Sep 9 and 25, Oct 2, Nov 13 and 26. There are a couple of more dates in the tour calendar but without bookings. Most of these dates have been put there because they are at the beginning or the end of a scheduled trip. Since all trips in Peru begin or end in Lima it is easy to add a pelagic tour – providing we get enough people to run it.

May 17-24 Young Birders Manu community Tour

This is an idea that struck to me recently. Why not offer some tours that needs more assessment to people who would not normally come on birding tours, but are highly motivated birders. When testing new things, there may be things that will not work 100%. Therefore a pre-trip to the community lodges in the Manu area that are promoted this year with the help of bloggers ,will get a jumpstart by young birders on a promotrip.

The gain is on several levels.

Young birders get some guiding in the most difficult habitat to bird. The Amazon rainforest and at a reasonable price.
Our company keeps staff busy and paid, and while the revenue for the company is not great, there will be lots of important pieces of information of what works and what doesn’t on this pilot trip – to be implemented on the coming trips.
The communities get some revenue and the chance to set all right for more comfort demanding clients.

And it will be fun to bird with intense young birders up to 25 years old. I bet we shall make a monster list of birds seen – and that there will be very little sleep! There are 4 vacancies on the trip. Max age 25 years old.
If you don’t qualify age wise, check out all the fixed departures that supports the communities in the Manu area. Still very good value for money and a good cause.

Meet-up / Tweet-up in Lima May 29

@Burdr tweeted a few days ago that it would be wonderful to meet every birder that one has been connected with via Twitter, Facebook or the blog and I could not agree less. When I said so in my tweet-reply, @Burdr said: Let’s all meet in Peru. It clicked as an idea. Dawn Fine has arranged meeting with birders all over the US arranging meet-ups for birders that blog, tweet or chirp. We could do something similar in Lima.

Both locals and visitors and even clients – can meet up for some birding one morning every month. I am considering Saturday mornings when my wife works. That means that my two daughters (and our maid) would be joining us. Join Gunnar, Luciana and Anahi for the first birding meet-up on May 29. I hope to be able to do a meet up once every month or other month.

The training of a new Peruvian guide.

June 15-23 there is scheduled a trip to North Peru and the land of Marvelous Spatuletail. Santos Montenegro is a local campesino who has become interested in birds and in particular the Marvelous Spatuletail. He was the guy who found the displaying Spatultetail that was recently filmed by the BBC on land that was purchased by Santos with funds acquired by Kolibri Expeditions. I recently interview Santos to feature a blog about him and how he got interested in birds. Through help from our clients we have provided Santos with birdbook, binoculars and birdcalls so that he has learnt all the birds in the area so well that local conservation organization ECOAN employed him full time. In June he has holiday and time to join us on a full tour and in July he has to decide whether or not renew the contract with ECOAN or opt to become a bird guide. June 15-23 will be crucial. If you want to be part of forming a new local guide now you know.

British Bird Fair

August 20-22 it is time for the British Birdwatching Fair. Kolibri Expeditions have participated here every year since 2002 together with PromPeru, so we are sad to learn that PromPeru will not be putting up the stand this year. There may be stand for us anyway. I am waiting in anticipation for the decision by the organizers. In any case, I think I will go. It is a unique chance to meet up with clients and business partners. Especially after the Social Media boom, this event has the potential to become a giant meet-up, where you put person to a Facebook profile. Are you going to be at the BirdFair? Shall we meet up?

The biggest day!

September 1-13 . When I write this it is spring in the northern hemisphere and teams are forming to do Birdathons and big days all over for grand causes of bird conservation. Lots of fun, lots of coffee, adrenalin and speed birding.
How about transforming the idea to a business model in the bird richest area of the world? Is it at all possible? The Biggest Day tour!
Ted Parker and Scott Robinson set the world record of 331 species from Manu in 1982 – without motorized vehicle. The idea is to try to beat it or at least get very close to it at Amigos research Center between Manu and Tambopata. The trip will work as birding workshop where the participants will learn to seperate the Amazonian birds by sight and especially call the first 8 days. Day 9 is dress rehearsal, we form teams with the leaders who include guides Antonio Coral, Alex Durand and myself. All the teams should get over 300 species . The results are collected and analyzed before the gran finale on day 12. An attempt on the world record. Now the guides form a team together with one of the participants (a raffle will be made to select the person), while the rest form one or two teams to compete against the guides. Day 13 will be dedicated for the highlights once again and to see some of the elusive vocal species. Day 14 it is back to Puerto Maldonado and flight on to Lima or Cusco. Sound like fun?

Birding in Manu with Rick Wright

Rick Wright former editor of Winging-It and director and guide for Wings, hosts the Community Manu program in September 17-24 – together with me. Rick blogs at Aimophila Adventure. This shall be a fantastic trip with the possibility to add a pelagic in Lima on September 25 and Satipo road/Carpish Community on Sep 26-Oct 3 hosted by Chris West.

Photographic project with Hadoram Shirihai.

All through October to November Hadoram Shirihai and David Beadle will travel in Peru with us on a private photographic expedition. I shall be guiding the first part in Puno, while Alex Durand does all the Manu area. At the end of the period, I shall be guiding again in Central Peru (Carpish and Satipo road).

Scarlet-banded Barbet in Sira Mountains

I have a request for a Scarlet-banded Barbet expedtion from David Matson and Dave Sargeant around Oct 22. There is a new Barbet from southern Sira mountains yet to be described – whether species or subspecies status remains to be seen. Our expedition goes from Puerto Inca further North, where there is access to the highest peaks and from where Kolibri Expeditions already has a good set-up with local contacts. Obviously we don’t know that there will be a Barbet here but since it is the same mountain range as the southern population and our site is right between that and the original site of Scarlet-banded Barbet, there is a very good chance. We get a good gradient of habitats as we reach the highest peaks of over 2000m. Other species that can be seen on this trip include the endemic Sira Tanager, (Peruvian) Horned Curassow (good species based on voice and genetic isolation soon to be split), Sharpbill, Rufous-brown Solitaire, Rufous-webbed Briliant, Creamy-bellied Antwren, White-plumed Antbird, Blue-headed Macaw, Curl-crested Aracari, Chestnut-crowned Gnateater, Wing-banded Wren and many more.

15 Antpittas – and hopefully Banded Ground Cuckoo.

In December I have set up a program that runs from Tarapoto in Peru to Quito in Ecuador and is aiming to pick up 15 species of Antpitta on the way (actually there are 17 species, of Antpittas possible I don’t want to press my luck). We already have three bookings on this trip, which include well known bird book author Klaus Malling Olsen. This will be an epic trip, with lots of endemics. It is especially suitable for those that birded Ecuador in the 90s and want to fill in the gaps as more and more sites for then elusive species have emerged. It is a completely different Ecuador for birding today. Many places have Antpittas feeders – following the success of Angel Paz and his by now world famous Giant Antpitta Maria. The tour runs Nov 28 to Dec 17, with the option to add an eastern Amazonian lowland program of 3-4 days.

That is it. Well not really… because I am also spending a week in May with the family at the beach in Piura as well as a likely holiday somewhere abroad with the family in July or August to be determined.

If you can’t join me, but still want to be birding in Peru during 2010, I suggest you take a look at our tour Calendar, where there are loads of different bird tours scheduled that you can choose from.

by Gunnar Engblom May 29, 2009 2

Physiology of a Marathon – race strategy for Lima Marathon

Boston Marathon 2008. Photo: Paul Keleher

In this blogpost I shall not speak a of birds at all. So if you are a birder, with absolutely no interest in the physiology of a marathon race, leave now and come back next week, when I shall be blogging about birds again. If you have done your homework (that is reading my previous blogposts), you’d know I am about to run a Marathon on Sunday to raise money for conservation of cloud forests near Satipo in Central Peru. If you have not been so diligent, check out that post and make your pledge to support me and the forests near Satipo. Most of the information in this book is in one way or another derived from the brilliant science based Lore of Running by Tim Noakes, MD. Dr. Noakes presents a scientific approach to running and explains the physiological processes in the muscles, blood stream and respiratory system. Not only that, it treats psychology, training, training, injuries, running for women etc. It is a bible of over 900 pages! Other books on running have borrowed much of explaining physiology from this book. Highly recommended!

A bit of history

As you probably know, the distance between Marathon and Athens in Greece is approximately 25 miles and Greek legend lies as the base to what today is known as Marathon.

The name marathon comes from the legend of Pheidippides, a Greek messenger. The legend states that he was sent from the town of Marathon to Athens to announce that the Persians had been defeated in the Battle of Marathon.It is said that he ran the entire distance without stopping and burst into the assembly, exclaiming “Νενικήκαμεν” (Nenikékamen, ‘We have won.’) before collapsing and dying. – From Wikipedia.

For the Olympics in London 1 mile was added with royal permission to make an undisturbed start along the Long Walk avenue leading to Winsdor Castle. To accommodate the Queen (Alexandra, wife of Edward) to get a splendid view of the finish of the marathon 385 yards on the track on the Olympic Stadium at Shepard’s Bush in London was added. The fixed distance of the Marathon 26 miles 385 yards (42.195 km) was set from this day, even if there were to be some variations in the next coming Olympics until settled onwards from 1924.

Avoiding the wall. Glucogen loading.

Anyone can run half a marathon, but what is so special about the full distance? You burn close to 3000 kcal during a marathon. Most of the energy used is stored as glycogen in the liver and in the muscles. The glycogen in the liver breaks down simple sugars to feed the brain and the glycogen in the muscles is used by the muscles supplemented by simple sugars and free fatty acids in the blood stream. Normal storage is around 1500 kcal worth of glycogen. But with training and diet it can be raised to over 2000 kcal. Unless, you train for a marathon you will run out of glycogen and the last part of the race the body starts to rely completely on burning fat. Since the fat is more complex in structure it is also not as accessible as an energy source. The result is that you have to slow down and you hit the famous wall.

Fat as fuel.

While you train, and especially after doing long runs that depletes the glycogen stores, your body gets used to replacing the glycogen fast and little by little make you better and better prepares. During the last week before the marathon it is a good idea to slow down intensity in training to fool the body to keep on storing glycogen – just in case. Doing a good job at it, eating carbohydrate rich food (70-80% of the diet), the glycogen deposits can increase to about 2500 kcal. This is the reason why marathoners eat copious amounts of spaghetti prior to the race.

On raceday however consuming a lot of carbohydrates just before the race will increase sugar in the blood stream and immediately set off an insulin release that will lower counter the high sugar content and make it more difficult to metabolize the energy. So any additional energy consumed on raceday ought to be taken around 4 hours before the race. Great! The race on Sunday start at 7 AM. I am really looking forward to a 3AM breakfast! Not!

The funny thing is that actually eating something very fatty an hour or so before the marathon will actually raise free fatty acid levels in the blood stream, which would serve as energy delaying the breakdown of the stored glycogen,which will this way be preserved for later in the race. I am not going to try to eat anything greasy sleazy before this Marathon because I don’t know how I will react, and should have tried this during my training if I had read up on physiology of running.

Another more normal way to increase free fatty acid levels in the blood stream, is taking caffeine. Caffeine is not permitted in large dosis, but normal coffee intake is fine and within the allowed limits. Peak values set in after 1 hour and remains up to 4 hours. It should only be tried if you are used to caffeine. As a keen coffee drinker, I should have no problem. I plan to drink coffee instead of sportdrink half an hour before the race. Best to drink it without sugar since the sugar would delay the effect.

Hydration during the race.

A normal person would lose 1 liter per hour in the race by sweating. In a four hour race he would lose four liters. Fortunately, he does not have to drink 4 liters to compensate, since the breakdown of glycogen to glucose releases as much as 2 liters of water during the same time. With a water-hole every 4 km it means that I should aim to drink 200 ml at each station to get enough if I run at a 6min/km pace. Grab two cups! It is hard to drink in fast speed from plastic cups, so if friends can help out providing liquid in plastic bottles instead that helps. (Volunteers…please speak up!).

What should you drink?

Water and Powerade is supplied. Unfortunately and contrary to belief, taking sugar during the race, will not prevent from depleting the glycogen stores in the leg muscles. The stores are consumed at a steady pace. When they are gone they are gone -and that is when you find the wall. You will have to slow down.
But the sugar does prevent glycogen depletion of the liver. So at least your head shall remain clear and you will not faint if you consume carbohydrates during the race.
There is only so much sugar you will be able to absorb. Some people have trouble absorbing the liquid if it contains too much sugar. To drink sportdrinks during the training makes it easier to absorb during the race. Some people should stick to water and occasional powergels or dilute the sport drink. But don’t wash down your Powergels with Powerade. It will not work. The liquid will not be absorbed and it will cause trouble during the race.

Overheating

The combination of losing too much water, too hot climate and too fast speed makes overheating a serious risk in Marathon running. Climate and speed are the most important factors. In Lima there should be little risk, since the cold season has set in. Most likely temperature will be slightly below 20ºC (68ºF) and maybe some coastal fog. The race provides free T-shirts in synthetic breathable material. This is good. It is not a good idea to wear a cotton T-shirt. The sweat produced during running is supposed to cool down the body which happens when it evaporates from the body. A sweaty T-shirt could prevent the cooling process.
Overheating forces you to slow down. If the temperature in the air is above 23ºC you will have to run slower.

This is how my day looks like on Saturday-Sunday.

Saturday: 9 PM bedtime!
Sunday: 3 AM. wake-up and immediate breakfast. Probably do peanut butter sandwiches in hope of having some free fatty acids in the blood by the time the race starts. Coffee. Two glasses of water.
3:30-5.00. More rest.
5.50 take taxi to Race start at “Pentagonito” in San Borja. It is close to here – only 5K, but I don’t want to waste energy if I don’t have to.
6.10-6.40 some stretching a bit of warm-up.
6:40 Coffee. Toilet
7 AM Start.
The first part of the race is mainly downhill (110 meter drop from km 4), the second part has to gain 80m back to Pentagonito. I will drink Poweraid throughout. At km 30 I will have some coffee, that I will carry with me.
At control 36.5K I hope to have someone handing me a bottle with 300ml Powerade and will run with the bottle sipping up to 39K. This way I can skip the last control at 40K which is too close to the finish to have any effect on performance. I ran the last 12k of the race course last Sunday as dress rehearsal. I think this will be very important to mentally be able to finish in good form.

Lima Marathon on Twitter.

I shall be tweeting every 10k with hashtag #Lima42K, so you see how I am doing. Follow me on Twitter. If you are in Lima come out on the streets and cheer.

2010 update: A marathon for Conservation 2010.

Lima Marathon Lima42k adidas physiology of maraton

by Gunnar Engblom May 25, 2009 2

Dress rehearsal. Last long run before the marathon for conservation.

: Go, Gunnar Go!

If you wonder why I am writing about running on my birding blog, it is because I have made the marathon on May 31 to a fundraiser for Conservation along the Satipo road. If this is new to you, I suggest you check out my previous blogpost on the Marathon for conservation.

Long runs

Last weekend I ran a 32km run, which was the culmination of building kilometers in the short time (only 5 and half weeks in total) I had to prepare for the Marathon. The mileage and long runs prepare the body to endure and to get used to burning fat, when the glycogen stores become depleted. Depleted glycogen stores in the muscles is the physiological condition of the famous “Wall” that sets in around 30-34km for many runners. At this point you just have to slow down. The long runs have been deliberately slow at around 6min/km or more and gradually accustom the body to be able to endure a run that lasts more than 3 hours. Here are the long runs that I have logged prior to today:

Apr 26: 22km 2:20H @ 6:21min/km speed.
May 3: 26km 2:31H @ 5:48min/km speed. Training with Juan Liziola, who is also running the Marathon
May 11: 30km 3:03H @ 6:05min/km speed.
May 17: 32km 3:11H @ 5:57min/km speed.

Training for Marathon speed.

During that last long run I threw in 4 intervals of 2 km with 5min/km which is a speed I can maintain for quite long, but probably not a whole marathon. It is also the speed needed to qualify for Boston Marathon for my age group (45-49). The idea was to practice race speed in small portions during a very long run. After that long run I needed two days of rest for my muscles to be again ready for training. On Wednesday I made a 14.5 k marathon speed run at it went very well. I managed to hold the sub 5min/km speed through-out the course. The plan was to also run a marathon speed training session of 10-15km on Friday, but when I set off I noticed my legs were heave and stiff. I turned around at 2km and thus only made 4km. It was clear I needed more rest. Today it was dress-rehearsal. I had decided I should try to do a half marathon at 5min/km speed. Running a marathon is just as much running with your head as with your legs. If you know exactly how the course is laid out, it is easier to motivate yourself during the race.

: Click on picture to see larger size.

During my training I have run on most of the roads mentioned. I know therefore, that after 1km of downhill, then comes two km of uphill, followed by mostly downhill of total 120m drop for 21km. This means that at the half marathon point the my time should be very good as it has been mainly downhill. Then real challenge begin. The last 18km contains total altitude gain of 100m, with 80m constant uphill during the last 8km. Therefore, I thought it was a good idea to do today’s dress rehearsal of the last 14km of the race. This prepares me well psychologically. I know what to expect. In total I ran 22km today fantastically well at 1:44:31 which makes a 4:58min/km speed. I know that I will loose time during the last part of the race, but I am also aware that I could qualify to Boston Marathon if I only could maintain that same speed. I am now mentally prepared to run the Marathon next weekend. Hopefully, I can make a very good time to be able to raise more money for conserving the birds and the forests along the old Satipo road. If you want to help me achieve this, please check out the pledge page.

by Gunnar Engblom May 19, 2009 28

A marathon for conservation

How on earth can a marathon help conservation?

Pledge: I will run the Lima Marathon 42.195km on May 31 after only 5 and a half weeks of training at 4h13min or less. 4 hours and 13 minutes makes an average speed of 6:00 min per kilometer, which is more or less the speed that I have managed on the long runs I have done so far.
But I aiming higher than 4 hours and 13 min and this is where you dear reader come in. I challenge you that I will run faster and you can help me to push my limits. Let’s do this together for conservation. How? I tell you how! No you don’t have to run a marathon yourself, but I am sure you’d buy me a beer if I make it, right? In fact maybe you’d say that you’d buy me two beers if I shave 5 min from the stipulated time. If I shave 15 minutes you’d throw a party. Having a lot of friends and followers on the social media outlets and lists that I belong to, that could amount to a lot of beer for me to drink – and it would probably not allow me to do any more marathons (or birding for that matter) for a long time! Let’s convert your solidarity for my pain and suffering pushing the limit into a donation scheme for a good cause instead . The challange on your part is to donate 1 dollar for each minute I can shave off the 4:13 Marathon. The cause: Habitat conservation and supporting community eco-tourism project on Satipo road in Central Peru. See google map.
View Larger Map

The principal area for birding and the conservation project with the community is the stretch between Mariposa and Carrizales on the map ranging between 1200-3600m altitude.

Background

I am not new to Marathons – the 42.195 km race that represents the ultimate running challenge. I have run 5 so far. My first in 1982 and my last in 2000. My last one I ran after 16 years of absence in 3:37 in a very hot Cozumel.
I have had a dream for a long time to run Boston Marathon – the oldest marathon in the US and the most prestigious. In fact this marathon is so popular that one needs to qualify. For my age-group 45-49 I need to run a qualifying certfied marathon in 3h30min or less to be eligible for Boston. A bit more than 3 weeks ago, when I heard that the Lima Marathon would officially be ranked as an international marathon and thus serve as a qualifier for Boston, I was thinking that in spite of my lack of training I could give it a go. 3:30 makes an average 5 min/km speed. When starting my serious training at that point I was out of shape, but obviously not completely new to running. I had run only about 100km in the first four months of the year and now in only 3 and half weeks later I have run another 250km A week ago however, I realized that I shall not make 3:30 this time. I have got the endurance to last the race, but not the speed. I would need another 5-7 weeks to build speed. My wife asked me: “so why do you run, if you won’t qualify to Boston?” The idea of running for conservation was born (cracked during training of course). A reason to go on in spite of not qualifying for Boston Marathon.

The details of the pledge

I hope to get at least 100 people to help out. You can choose to make pledges according to the following plans.

10 dollars. I think this is a great cause, and will support you no matter what with 10 bucks.
1 dollar/min shaved off from 4:13. You can do it Gunnar! For every minute faster you run I will donate one dollar more. Have this in your head at all times!
42 dollars. That’s one dollar per kilometer. You are crazy Gunnar, but you have my support for each kilometer you run.

To give you an idea of the speeds involved for different finishing times here are some examples

5.00 min/km speed gives 3:30
5.15 min/km gives 3:41
5:30min/km gives 3:52
5.41 min/km gives 4 hours.
6.00 min/km gives 4h13min

It shall be fun to support, because I will be posting at least every 10km on Twitter during the marathon.

I don’t know, but the whole thing may actually get some coverage in Peruvian press if I get it out through some Peruvian media.

Rainforest Partnership

For this to be successful and to channel the donations we need involvement of a recognized (and quite flexible) non-profit organization. Since similar pledges are not unheard of in the US, the US is the best base. Niyanta Spelman of Rainforest Partnership was in Peru last year checking out the Satipo road area making contacts with the community and is well aware of the needs and possibilities. During this coming week, Rainforest Partnership will be informing of ways of receiving donations on their web-page and facebook page. Check them out to keep yourself updated.

What can your donation achieve?

Since 2000 Kolibri Expeditions have run birding trips to this area, but only a few trips per year. These trips have been quite rough, but we have supported the communities by using their communal schools as base for camping. We have brought school material, given talks about conservation, and small donations to install water and a toilet near the school. In spite of our effort, this can hardly sustain any major income for the community. Nevertheless, during these years awareness have increased, culminating last year when 3 community members were invited on a special trip with Kolibri Expeditions to Mindo in Ecuador to see with their own eyes what can be achieved in an area with same geographical conditions as their own. The same year they received visits from Rainforest Partnership and University of Huancayo was granted a conservation and research concession in their area.

Now is the best time ever to start supporting the communities. They have a school building and a communal building that can be used as lodging presently, but there are no beds nor dividing walls. This is what we can achieve with different amounts.

2000$ – Implementing beds and improvements of shower and toilet area in Apaya (2350m) as well as hummingbird feeders. The community can raise the current price per person for lodging of 5 soles per night to 20 soles (7 dollars). That is me running 10 minutes faster than 4:13 and 200 people making pledge.
5 000$ – the above and a Butterfly house/butterfly farm in Mariposa (which incidentally means butterfly in Spanish!!). There is much unsustainable collecting of butterflies near Satipo. With a butterfly farm it can become an important export business and it is sustainable. Later it will become a tourism attraction. I cut 20 minutes and run in 3:53 and 250 people make the pledge.
10.000$. With an additional 5000 dollars would ensure the building material to build a new building at Apaya for tourism and price can be raised for lodging can be raised to 12 dollars per person and night. I cut 25 min and we get 400 people to sign up for the pledge.
With additional funding we shall be able to do some workshop for local guides and how to deal with tourists.

Every goal met will help to lessen the pressure on the forest and allow for an alternative way of subsistence.

This old article give you a little bit more background on the Satipo road project. The trip to Mindo was done in April 2008 and huge success. In a future posting I shall upload the video to You Tube so you can see what we did there.

UPDATE:

I completed the marathon in 3h59min16s. 25 people made pledges. It gives an important addition to the Satipo road conservation project. Donations can be made on https://www.rainforestpartnership.org

Additional later posts about the Marathon can be found here:

The following people are in on the pledge:

Dawn’s and Jeff’s blog

janetzinnphotography.com

Learn spanish online

On the same day of the Lima Marathon I will be running the San Diego Marathon. So here is a deal for your cause: I will pledge the $1/km or $42 no matter what for your marathon. I will also pledge $1/km for my marathon no matter what and $2 for every minute I exceed 4 hours or $1 for every minute I am under 4 hours.

Kolibri Expeditions’s Amigo research station program

RainForest Partnership

Backyard Wildlife Journal

“Life List” about Phoebe Snetsinger.

@yesbabyyes

Picus blog

enperublog.com

25. Murray Honick