“Se Va a cansar”

There is a marathon held in a nearby town in May, I really want to participate to motivate me to get up and exercise, and also to test my ankle and make sure it is back to normal. There are a couple things you should know before I continue.

1. No one in my town ‘intentionaly’ exercises or sees the point in it.
2. If you are crazy enough to go running, you have to go in the morning, most people recommend 5am (I will give you a second to be shocked and appalled). The reason for going in the morning is the drunks are not awake yet and neither are the rude men who shout comments at you as you go by (most often they are one in the same).
3. There are lots of guard dogs everywhere and if they see a person running, they assume it is a threat.
4. I got a puppy last week

So I had been talking about running for the whole month of January, not a new years resolution but more of “its about time to get my butt in gear” type of resolution. I had been making excuses as well and as I was rather nervous about going running in my town for the above reasons. There are so many cultural cues for women about where not to be, what not to do, what not to wear if you don’t want negative attention, also I am not a member of this community yet (though I am trying) and my community is pretty big, I felt I did not know enough people to get out there and wave “adios” to as I ran by, I was not sure if I had enough people ’watching out’ for me.

So I set to work on research, which basically involves a lot of talking! I have found this to be the best way to be successful at anything I do here. Even though you all know I am a great talker, it is rather different in Spanish and I sometimes I lack the patience it involves!

I walk everywhere I go and saw a lot of potential routes, but most of them are really rocky and muddy and looked like great places for me to sprain my other ankle! In December I walked with one of my counterparts to the lake, where the government is helping build an area for tourism with food and drink stands. It is along the main flat road, lots of hills, and ends at a beautiful point. I thought it would be perfect, but it is really far away from where I live, and I don’t know anyone. Partially by coincidence I started meeting people along the route. Through my kids bank I met some of their parents that live there. Through my biodigestor group I met some people who live right on the lake. So it went on like this for the months of December and January.

I kept saying I was going to go every evening. 5am would come, I would hear my neighbors wake up with the rest of the town and I would roll over and go to back to sleep for another couple hours.. But! Last week I was home and I really wanted to go for a run, and my host sister was hanging around looking bored, so I asked her if she wanted to go, and we ended up going for a “nica jog” which involved stopping at two different corner stores to buy phone minutes to recharge your phone. We turned around after we had finished our errands…not sure if it was bad communication or she just had errands and thought she might as well have company and do them running!

However, it did get the ball rolling, and I went the next morning by myself. I think the biggest reason I went is because my new (adorable) puppy woke me up at 5am, biting at my feet, peeing in the house, just wanting to be awake! So I took him outside fed him and then left him in the house for some much needed alone time (that puppy kept me up all night)!

The run was beautiful. I felt so empowered and fit and healthy it was wonderful, until the way back. I turned around at the top of the hill and as I ran past the first house, a woman ran across the road repeatedly, screaming “the power of Christ is more powerful” and when she had reached the door of her house she started slamming the door screaming “the blood of Christ” over and over again, until I could not hear her anymore. I obviously, did not stop running but I was pretty tweaked out!

Naturally, I told everyone I could think of about it. Some answered it by saying “oh, those crazy evangelicals…” others said she might have just been scared and not known what I WAS, this weird foreign girl with red hair all dressed in black running past her house in the morning. I told as many people as I could, intentionally, I asked if that family was evangelical, if I was offending their religious beliefs, if there was a mentally insane person near that area, I repeated the story and questions, in hope that it would get back to them- and that for whatever reason it had been that she thought I was the devil, that she would learn to understand I mean no harm, religious or otherwise.

It appears, that I had created kind of a fad- two mornings in a row I had gone running. Another young 14 year old girl, the daughter of a corner shop owner, wanted to go with me- which I encouraged because I wanted to point out the house to her so she could give me more information on the ‘crazy’ family.

She also did not have the desire to run the whole way, when we started to run, she sprinted, tired herself out and walked and later threw up, and then we walked and talked (I doubt she will come again, but I tried to give her tips on not eating before hand, going at your own pace, breathing correctly- all the things my mom taught me when I had to run the mile in gym class) The best part of it all was, when I went with her, the crazy woman looked at us but did not shout!

I did not run Monday because Sunday is the day the drunks get really drunk and sleep naked on the streets…I thought it would dampen my whole independent women attitude to have to deal with drunk naked men. Tuesday morning, my puppy woke me up at the reasonable hour of 6am. I let him out, fed him and then went for my run! 6am here is a lot different then 5am, there are a lot of people out and about, people were greeting me, my counterpart was out taking his cows to pasture and shouted from the top of the hill “That’s it! Your running!” Everyone who saw me, had this shocked look on their faces, and did a delayed smile and wave! It was so fun running by everyone, I felt so integrated saying good morning to everyone, I think it is a good way for me to have a reason to get up in the morning and get outside. People see me in the morning and know I am home and come by in the afternoon for a visit. I braced myself as I saw the ‘crazy’ woman standing outside her house, but as I ran by she shouted “You will tire yourself out like that!” and then told me to “travel well!” I shouted back “thank you but I am not tired” and went happily on my way. At the lake I saw some elderly fishermen who go to the chapel, I greeted them asked how they slept, and confirmed their attendance to a meeting for Wednesday. There was no need to stand awkwardly and look at each other (which usually is the case), because it was the morning! People had things to do they had to fish, I had to run! As I ran back past the ‘crazy’ lady’s house she smiled at me and repeated “you will tire yourself out like that!” I shouted back “ I am already tired!- Adios!” Kids walking to the mill with their mom’s amusingly watched me and shouted the same “You will tire yourself out like that!”  I had never heard anyone say this to me before, sometimes they tell me I will make myself sick in various different ways- but like I said the purpose of exercise is lost on the majority here- I guess they think it is better to conserve energy and not look for ways to expend it, if I look at it from their perspective- going for a 5am (or even 6am) run does not make very much sense when you know you are going to be working all day, walking from home to field, home to river, whatever it may be. Why would you by choice- go on a run with no purpose but to tire yourself out!?

I realized the ‘crazy’ lady probably tells these same stories to her family, only I am the crazy ‘running’ lady! J

Adios!