Hola again!
After not quite enough time training coming back from some serious knee issues, and some very late Buenos Aires nights, I ran in the Buenos Aires half-marathon on Sunday morning. It was an, um... interesting experience.
In my last post, I mentioned the cool, wet weather we've had during the Argentine winter. Well, that ended just days before the race, and Sunday went up to 78 - the hottest weather all year -- perfect for running 21 kilometers. The race started at 8:30 a.m. in the city center (called Plaza de Mayo) with 5 thousand Portenos (residents of BsA) pushing, shoving, tripping over each other, and shouting in Spanish I couldn't understand - and that was before the race even started! Getting to the start line was never this hard at VCP!
Last year in Philly I ran the half-marathon in 1:23:36, and my goal was to beat that time. It was ambitious since I hadn't done as much training, but I was feeling good in the week leading up. They don't have mile markers down here - just kilometer markers so instead of shooting for 6:20 miles, I was aiming for 3:56-4:00 per kilometer.
A crowded start meant weaving through all the 70 year old grandmothers who had pushed to the start line in front of me, for the first quarter mile. I passed, the 4 minute mark - no sign of a kilometer marker, 4:10...4:20...4:30... ok, either i missed it or it wasn't there (I was hoping that they didn't only have them at 5k,10k etc...) I got to the second one in 8:13 - a bit slow, but not awful given the start, so I sped up just a little. The next one was 4:11, huh? How did i go slower? Then I missed another one, and hit the 5k with only 7:27 for those 2 kilometers... the next kilometer - 3:50.
Something was seriously f---ked up. The times continued to oscillate from a low of 3:33 to a high of 4:40 for each kilometer. Someone had put them all in messed up places, so the times (except for the 5k, 10k, etc... which seemed accurate) were worthless. That made it harder.
Compounding my problems, due to the heat I had consumed an excess amount of water pre-race and was constantly fighting some natural urges related to that throughout the race. I ended up passing bunches of people for the first 10 miles, while only getting passed by two wheelchair racers (c'mon... they have wheels - that's no fair!). However by mile 10 (kilometeter... whatever) I was gassed, and the last 5k was rough. I knew I wasn't going to run a particularly fast time, or beat my previous time, so it was hard to keep pushing. A dozen or so portenos went by me, but I caught 3-4 in the last half mile with my patented sprint.
Final time: 1:26:34.
5k- 19:52
10k - 39:56 (20:04)
15k - 1:00:25 ( 20:29)
20k - 1:22:06 (21:41)
I'm happy that I pushed myself to the finish and didn't give up, even though I knew it was my race. Just remember, you're only running for 20 minutes, so there's no reason to ever give up! Good luck at Briarwood!
t
