 |
| Huyana Potosi |
Well It seems that I haven't blogged in a while so I thought I would try to write a little something about what I have been up to lately. I haven't been traveling anywhere since I went to Peru or The Death Road. I had a few things in the plans but with being busy with things at work and all kinds of other things going on, sometimes you just got to change your plans. But hopefully soon I will get to go somewhere interesting. I'm hoping to walk the Choro Trail soon to Coroico which takes about 3 days. Also I'm hoping to go to the salt flats near Uyuni soon and see all the amazing stuff down there. From what I hear it is beautiful and should also take about 3 or 4 days. Then in May I'm hoping to climb the Mountain Huyuna Potosi for my birthday. What better way to spending your birthday then standing on top of an almost 20,000 foot high mountain watching the sun rise over top of the Andes mountains. I'm really excited about doing that. It will be about a 2 or 3 day climb to reach the summit and Will be very cold. I'm always down for a good challenge and adventure.
Since my last trip I have just been here in La Paz working and living the day to day. We did have carnival which was pretty interesting. The most interesting thing is that for days, people are riding around with spray foam, water balloons and super soakers. The goal is to get as many people as possible. I finally got fed up with getting hit all the time so we decided to retaliate one day. We bought many water balloons and some water guns and walked down the road getting all the people responsible. As cars went buy and people threw out water balloons, we threw some back... We ended up having a war with the neighbors in front of our house. When we went to the market, we had to always be on our guard and defend ourselves. Nowhere was safe!.. I've been working out in the mornings before work trying to get back in shape so I'll be ready for some of my more difficult adventures. I also finally started playing some basketball recently. I have been meeting with some of the guys from the neighborhood down at the court and playing on Saturday mornings. It has been almost 8 months since the last time I played in the states. Just got to work on my shot a little bit but it's been going well. I also have been practicing for a half marathon lately. Well it was this past Sunday. The bad news was that Saturday during basketball I drank some bad water. The whole afternoon Saturday I was feeling a little ill. During the night I didn't sleep well and tossed and turned all night.
 |
| We kind of got crazy during the water war with War Paint and what not.... |
The next morning (the morning of the race) I woke up with diarrhea. Never a good thing to have the morning of a race. I still didn't know at this time that I had drank bad water the day before. I thought that maybe it was just my nerves. So I got ready for the race and me and the others took a taxi to the plaza where the marathon would begin. As the clock ticked closer to 7am, we lined up at the starting line and got ourselves syked up for what we were about to do. We were about to take part in the highest marathon ever to be held in the world. 13,500 feet above sea level. It was the second year of the marathon but the first year of the half marathon. So we were about to be in the first ever half marathon at this altitude. For those who don't know, a half marathon is 21 kilometers which is a little more than 13 miles. The most I had ever ruin in the states before coming here was like 3 miles. A big difference! But I have been practicing for this race and had already run the distance a few weeks earlier so I knew it was possible. Seven o'clock finally came and we all began the race. It was between 6 and 8 thousand participants in the marathon. I think... After the first kilometer we began to spread out a bit. By the time I got to the 4th or 5th kilometer I knew that something was wrong with my stomach. I continued running because I had been waiting for this race for months and had to finish. I continually got a cramp in my stomach the whole race. Many times I thought I wasn't going to make it. Though I was slower than normal I continued to press on as I watched each kilometer pass by. Before I knew it I was with 5 kilometers to go, then 4, then 3, then 2. It may have been the longest last 2 kilometers ever. I had already been running non-stop for over 2 hours. As I neared the finish line I picked up my pave because I was ready to be done with the race. I gave it everything I had to make it across that line. With people cheering on both sides, I finally crossed the line. After crossing the line, I stepped to the side hunched over with my hands on my knees trying to catch my breath. About 20 or 30 second later I heard the crowd cheering and I looked up to see the winner of the marathon come barreling across the finish line. I was shocked. In the time it took me to run 21 kilometers, he ran 42 kilometers. What kind of man can run a marathon in 2 and a half hours? My goal was to finish around 2 hours with only the half marathon. I'm sure if I wasn't sick that I could have finished in that time, but I wasn't with such luck.
 |
| Me finally crossing the finish line. I thought I was going to fall out at this point. |
 |
| All of us who participated. We all completed! |
Now I think my stomach is finally better. I'm sure I have lost a good bit of weight, not being able to eat and what not, but there is no time to slack off. I have to get ready for the next race in just over a month. My goal is to not be sick for just one race here. I have participated in 2 organized races and both times I was sick... I just need to be more careful before the race I guess...
