Ay Dios Mio-The story of the Ruta de las Iglesias

It is currently 10:30 here in Quito and I decided to write my blog now. Beware, I am physically exhausted and may go on some adrenaline/endorphine induced spiel but that is ok because my writing will reflect how I am feeling.

I left my house at 5:15 for the much anticipated Ruta de las Iglesias. This race is a 10k that takes you many of the most famous churches in Quito. Let me tell ya, there are a LOT of churches here. In the past, I have completed the tufts 10k twice and the philadelphia half marathon once. I decided to do this 10k while abroad because when I get home, I have a half marathon in September, 10k in october and (god willing) my first FULL MARATHON in november of this year. I figured with my distance running experience the 10k would be pretty easy. Boy was I wrong.

I got to the busses and sat next to a man who said (en espanol) that he is from Colombia. We talked about the race and he explained that there are four large hills within the first 5k but the second half is flat. I was grateful that I knew something about the route but as a resident of Philly I do not have so much experience with hills. The busses arrived at the starting line by 6:15 and the race was to begin at 8. I checked my bag and got into my starting place and then waited for what seemed like forever. As 8 o'clock neared, the announcer started calling out foreign countries and people cheered if they were from that area. Quite a few Colombians. A few people from Spain. And a handful of Americans. When they played the Ecuadorian national anthem, I realized just how out of place I was. Nearly everyone sang along-clearly I was the minority. In that instant I thought about something I read last night about home field advantage. The Denver broncos used to be one of the best teams in football, owing to their great success at home. Visitors noted that Mile High stadium (5,280ft) was difficult to play at because they were not used to the lack of oxygen. Keep in mind that when these players are on the bench they have access to tanks of oxygen. So during the Ecuadorian national anthem I thought about Denver and this home field advantage thing. Except all of these Ecuadorians were used to this altitude which is nearly TWICE the height of denver. If a professional NFL player is affected by altitude I figured I was screwed.

And then the gun went off..

I started at a good pace. Things seemed to be going well and then we rounded the corner. Hill number 1. I had a mental battle with myself: look up at the end and watch it get closer. no look down at the ground and pretend that you arent hiking up a mountain (if you look down it is harder to see the angle of the slope). Fine I lived, but I was already panting. This was not a good sign. Hill 2 went similarly. Hill 3 was a nightmare. It was cobblestone so the ground was not level. It was about the slope of a blue square at Loon (intermediate ski slope). And then when I thought I had reached the top I rounded the corner to see that it continued uphill for another several blocks. I needed to walk for a minute because my heart rate was through the roof and my lungs were on fire. After around twenty seconds of walking I was ready to go again.

Walking within the first 3k is never a good sign. I have never walked during a race before because I have heard that losing momentum makes it very difficult to get going. I am not entirely sure how I willed myself to continue, I think it was the fact that after each uphill there was a long downhill that helped me along my way.

With every passing kilometer marker I felt more and more exhausted. My legs were fine but my lungs felt like they were underwater. I walked a few more times during the course of the race. I wanted to quit and go home. But before I knew it we were at the 9 km marker. I kicked it into high gear and prayed that my lungs could hold out for a bit more. As I crossed the finish line at 1:12 I had to fight back tears.

This is the WORST race time I have ever received. But I didn't care. I didn't mind that I walked. I was just so proud that I finished even though everything seemed to be working against me. It was an unfamiliar race route at an ungodly altitude. I had not run once since coming to Ecuador, so I had taken three weeks off from training and had zero experience running at this height. But I finished, and I was not dead last and that, for me, was a great accomplishment.

When I got home Rosita was SO excited for me. She houses anywhere from 1-8 students per month and has done so for the past several years. I am the first who has ever run this race. So she had me take pictures and wants me to email them to her and she is going to send them to the coordinator of the program in California. It was really nice that she was so excited and I was glad that I could do something that no one had done before me.

It was a hard night but it was great. Now its bedtime. Love you all.