Camobodia Half Marathon

December 5, 2010

I made it across the finish line, and I was able to keep up with my running partner! Well, barely, and she'd never admit it but I suspect she took more breaks to accomodate my knee.

But, let me start at the beginning. My running group's picture is the first one above. Let me first explain that I've never been a running group kind of runner. I don't even join a friend to run back in Brooklyn. Running has always been a way to clear my head from the socially overstimulating, at times, world of NYC. Me and my dog, that's how I've always run.

However, in Kuala Lumpur, I would never have been able to train for a half marathon without my running group. They not only showed me safe places to run longer distances, but they also made me truly train for the first time. They taught me how to do tempo training (slow then really fast running, then slower) and hills. They slowly built up my distance running. And, by the end of training only 6 of us remained to train long distance, out of an original 20 or so. They gave me the resources, physical (remember, they got me two of our babysitters!) and mental, to adjust to my life abroad. The first picture above is of me with Alida, a New Orleanian who got my Abraham's sitter, my running gu, and my Angkor Wat tour guide and my tuk tuk driver.

The organizers of my running group are two women who are stay-at-home moms who could be CEO's back in the US. And, they are leaders, unpaid, in two organizations here, and they run them very well. One of them Kari (rest of photos above), has become my running partner in the running group, and while none of the other runners like to chat during long distance runs, we are very chatty runners, in fact, we need it to make it through to the end.

So, when I hurt my IT band on my knee and had to slow down the last few group runs, I was sad that I not only couldn't improve my time that I'd trained hard to do, but I also was sad that I'd have to run without Kari chatting all the 13.1 miles of the half marathon.

Before I describe the race, I need to mention that this half marathon was to raise money for prosthetic limbs for victims of landmines here in Cambodia. The picture above of the racers on sit-down bikes is of landmine victims who did the half marathon via bike. Sure puts my aches in perspective.

Our running group huddled before the race and Kari and I started the race together. I ended up running the entire race with her. She decided to stop often, to take pictures of the Angkor Wat temples and the huge number of adorable Cambodian village children lining the race course with their hands out to high five us. I could stretch my IT band easily during those breaks. Such stretching and slow running worked for the first 6 miles, with pain only coming by the 4th mile.

By the 6th mile, my knee was in pain and I was nearly limping again. I'd forgotten the ibuprophen I'd diligently packed for the race, and I asked some of the running group if they had any ibuprophen. Then an angel seemed to appear out of nowhere in the form of an old man from Canada running the race as a marathon. He said he'd had someone during the Boston marathon give him some desperately needed ibuprophen for his injury, so he brought some extra, just in case someone needed it at this race. He saved me.

I ended up running the last 4 kilometers at a sprint, right next to Kari to the finish. We were exhilirated. I ran my slowest time of the few half marathons I've run, but it didn't matter. I ran it like a real runner, knowing I sprinted with wings from my running community.