So it was my birthday present to myself to run the Pacasmayo marathon here in Peru. I thought it would go smoothly, although the course is EXTREMELY difficult. All one dirt road in the desert, which is normally preferable - better for your knees. At parts you'd be running along the ocean, but mainly you were in the middle of nowhere desert, or going through farmland. There wasn't a lot of runners doing this one either, so I was alone basically the entire course. Normally I feed off the crowd cheering you on, so I didn't really like this part of the marathon. Anyways I GOT REALLY SICK.
The night before I didn't sleep - diarrhea all night. I was doing the classic "sulfur burps" when you have giardia and knew a parasite in my body was acting up. I didn't want to believe it. Such horrible timing, but it was happening and life kept rolling.
When my alarm went off on marathon day, I woke up ready for battle. I genuinely thought I could still do the full marathon with giardia. I've done a few before - what's a little diarrhea? 30 minutes before the race started, I took an Immodium and said to myself, if it doesn't work, then I'll just run the half. It's just not smart to dehydrate myself like that, especially on an isolated course like this.
Within the first few miles, I started running off the course with diarrhea, but was still hopeful the Immodium would kick in. It didn't.
At around the half point mark, 13.1 miles, I vomited but there was no one around, so I had to keep going until I found someone. The way the course worked, I could not just hop onto the half-marathon course. I was still going to be running more than that at this point, so I had to keep going until I found somebody.
At around 18 miles, I vomited again and an ambulance happened to pass by. I took it as a sign from God and just hopped on. I didn't see it as "giving up" though. I just was sick, period. My body was saying no. There will be plenty of other marathons. I'm not doing this to impress anyone. I run marathons for myself, my mom and my friends. They'd be proud of WHATEVER I can do.
I still challenged myself that day, and still learned the marathon lesson - you can do anything you set your mind to. After I vomited the first time, I wanted to sit in the middle of this desert and just cry, because I was in so much pain and had no energy due to dehydration, but I didn't. Firstly, because of Michelle. Michelle's my best friend here in Peace Corps. She couldn't be there that day but she gave me a letter that I tucked into my bra to open at mile 18, when things get hard for me, but I opened it early. She kicked my ass mentally enough to get me to mile 18. I also firmly believe in how the pain only lasts a couple of hours and in the scope of your life, that's NOTHING but the lesson is FOREVER. I had so many good things to think about on the course. So much has happened this year, and I'm learning how important it is to do what you love. You only live once. Go hard. Hit the ground running. Do it all, even when you have giardia. :-)
The night before I didn't sleep - diarrhea all night. I was doing the classic "sulfur burps" when you have giardia and knew a parasite in my body was acting up. I didn't want to believe it. Such horrible timing, but it was happening and life kept rolling.
When my alarm went off on marathon day, I woke up ready for battle. I genuinely thought I could still do the full marathon with giardia. I've done a few before - what's a little diarrhea? 30 minutes before the race started, I took an Immodium and said to myself, if it doesn't work, then I'll just run the half. It's just not smart to dehydrate myself like that, especially on an isolated course like this.
Within the first few miles, I started running off the course with diarrhea, but was still hopeful the Immodium would kick in. It didn't.
At around the half point mark, 13.1 miles, I vomited but there was no one around, so I had to keep going until I found someone. The way the course worked, I could not just hop onto the half-marathon course. I was still going to be running more than that at this point, so I had to keep going until I found somebody.
At around 18 miles, I vomited again and an ambulance happened to pass by. I took it as a sign from God and just hopped on. I didn't see it as "giving up" though. I just was sick, period. My body was saying no. There will be plenty of other marathons. I'm not doing this to impress anyone. I run marathons for myself, my mom and my friends. They'd be proud of WHATEVER I can do.
I still challenged myself that day, and still learned the marathon lesson - you can do anything you set your mind to. After I vomited the first time, I wanted to sit in the middle of this desert and just cry, because I was in so much pain and had no energy due to dehydration, but I didn't. Firstly, because of Michelle. Michelle's my best friend here in Peace Corps. She couldn't be there that day but she gave me a letter that I tucked into my bra to open at mile 18, when things get hard for me, but I opened it early. She kicked my ass mentally enough to get me to mile 18. I also firmly believe in how the pain only lasts a couple of hours and in the scope of your life, that's NOTHING but the lesson is FOREVER. I had so many good things to think about on the course. So much has happened this year, and I'm learning how important it is to do what you love. You only live once. Go hard. Hit the ground running. Do it all, even when you have giardia. :-)
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