Cyclist, triathlete or runner?

Or all 3? Apparently I like to do random (pretty big) races on a whim...

If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, the triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise. ~P.Z. Pearce

So I was super crazy this weekend and ran 31k all together. I know. PSYCO. The 7th annual Buenos Aires Was this weekend. My friend Amanda (from CU) called me on WEDNESDAY MORNING and asked me if I wanted to do the 8k with her on Saturday morning. I agreed since I had been running pretty much everyday and it wasn't going to be an issue. So we went Wed night to register. While I was there, I got really motivated, and decided that I'd run part of the marathon as well on Sunday. Loco.. I KNOW.

Saturday was awesome. Amanda and I did the 8k. Wasn't a race or anything, so we just ran for fun. We pushed ourselves a bit, so Saturday afternoon I was second guessing myself about running 1/2 a marathon the following day. Whatever. I figured out the route, which bus I would take in the morning, made my new playlist, and went to bed.

Sunday morning I woke up and headed out for an amazing day. I got on the appropriate bus, and told the bus driver to tell me when we got to this specific point (it was way on the other side of town, so I didn't know it well at all). He told me that his route was totally different today because of the marathon, but he'd do what he could for me. Fine. So the point he told me to get off at was a little earlier than I expected. It was at the 19k mark. I wanted to start 1/2 way through, at the 21k mark. Whatever. So I got off the bus, turned on my Ipod, and started running with the mass of people already running through the streets. It's like I just pressed "go" on my body, cause it just went. And it didn't stop!!! I was impressed. I kept hydrated and took 2 gels during the run. I kept a really steady pace, and did 24k in 2:15. Not bad at all!!

I had a great time, and I got to see parts of the city that I've never seen before. I started in the far south of the city, near BOCA. This is the place you DO NOT GO at night. But we ran past the touristy part, BOCA stadium, and past some pretty shady areas, shanty towns at their finest (they call them villas here). I ran through beautiful Puerto Madero, which is the nicer and newer part of the city, and it's on the other side of the docks. Then we ran past the airport, and the back way out of the city. We finished up at parque de los niños. It was a huge park. But one problem, we weren't in the "ciudad" anymore. We had left the city. Fortunately I found a collecitvo (bus) to take me back to the city. Fun times.

The coolest part was running with all different types of people. There were mostly men, but a fair amount of women. All ages. I loved the fact that there were like 80 year old men there. Freaking awesome! I just felt like I was cheating a bit since I was doing 1/2. Whatever, I wasn't even planning on running this. I don't think a full marathon is out of the question in the near future at all.

Next weekend is the Nike 10k. There are 25,000 people registered. That should be a sight to see. Let's just hope my soreness that I'm sure I will be feeling tomorrow is gone by then!

"Cuánto más corro, más chicos se hacen los problemas"
The more I run, the smaller my problems become.