26.2!

I did it! I finished my first marathon. The greatest part of this picture is that it was taken at mile 23. I somehow managed the energy to jump for a random Peruvian who was working at one of the water stops. I saw him pulling out the camera and something in me told me to do something silly and the flash went off right as I was in mid air, I knew that would be a cool picture but I figured I would never see this stranger again and not get to see the picture. As I was sitting at the bus station to go back to Lima later that night, a guy came up to me with his camera and this picture. So I gave him my email address, took another picture with him and two days later he actually sent them to me!

My whole marathon weekend was amazing. The event was organized by a fellow 9er Peace Corps volunteer at his site. His site is an old fishing town with a pretty sea front, good surf and not much else. The Marathon was designed as a way to bring in visitors and help boost tourism. There were around 150 participants running the 5K, 10K, 21K and marathon. About 50 of those were Peace Corps volunteers. So naturally, the race was especially fun for me, not only because it was my first marathon, but because I knew half the runners and the volunteers working it. Running a marathon is a long process (it took me just over 5 hours), but every two kilometers there was a water stop with a few Peace Corps volunteers there to give me encouraging words and a cup of power aid.

I had been training with a friend in Lima for over 4 months. My friend was back in the states for a wedding for during the Peace Corps marathon, so she ran a race in Seattle. Unlike Lima where we had been training, Seattle was hot and hilly and the race ended up being tougher for her than she would have liked. Lucky for me, my race course was flat and the weather was a perfect, overcast 65 degrees for the entirety of the day. I was rightfully nervous before the race. I had done a really good job training up until the end when I kind of slacked off. I felt great during the race up until mile 23-24. It probably took me 45 minutes to finish my last 3 miles. I was certainly happy to see the finish line.

Aside from lots of PC friends, 4 friends from Lima came down to hang out and cheer me on. When I finally did finish, I had a huge crowd of friends cheering me on. They made me speak in Spanish on the microphone to the crowd a minute after I was done. I had to ask my friends afterwards if what I said was remotely coherent. They said it was, but I can´t remember a thing I said.

I really look forward to next years race. Whether or not I will run the marathon again, time will only tell. I am so proud of steve and ashley, the two volunteers who worked tirelessly to put on such an amazing event and thank them for the great things they are doing their community.