Sunday, May 12, 2013

Running in Hawassa

Today was one of those hot days where you don't sweat, your skin just gets tight. So of course I sign up to do a race.

The EveryOne race was this morning and I did the 7km. I can't believe I did it, it's not like I trained for it, just did my regular twice a week workout.  But I managed to do it in 44 minutes!

It wasn't a bad run. Fought with a tree at the start line and got scratched up enough where a girl gave me Kleenex to stop the blood, and 7km was a lot longer than I thought it would be.  But by the second half I got into a stride, stopped to walk less often.  Might have had something to do with the fact that part was on a cross-country trail along the lake. Shade is awesome, let me tell you.

Running here was weird, most of the volunteers stuck out. I got so many people passing me saying bravo or hitting me on the back.  I could do without the touching, there was even one guy who tried to get me and his girlfriend to hold hands while running. Got a lot of attention from kids, they liked running with me. Some of them were impressive, they did the kid run in the morning and then had no issue merging in with the 7k runners.

I had wanted to sprint across the finish line, but the homestretch was a slow incline and I really couldn't bring myself to much for than an extended stride. I was so spent, one of the volunteers gave me two bags of water.

And really bags of waters are kinda crazy.  And when the half way water point isn't really at the halfway point, you get your hopes up so much.

I have to say, being in a hotel room higher than I would normally pay was nice just for the extra large shower. Best shower ever.

For not really training for this, I feel really proud that I did it. NaNo during finals season proud. I might only have a t-shirt and a 'congrats you finished' pamphlet instead of a 50K novel, but it's the same type of accomplished feeling.

We'll see if I do it next year when the time comes, but I'm glad I signed up.

1 comments:

J.R. Johnson said...

Sounds like a good event. BTW, I just enjoyed some harissa with lamb burgers last night. Do they have harissa in Hawassa?

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