Pacasmayo International Marathon

July 5th – 7th, 2008 Pacasmayo, Peru

Pacasmayo International Marathon

Mario is my counterpart but also my best friend in Peru. I have always tried to arrange for him to join me and the other volunteers on vacation sometime but it never worked out until recently. A couple months ago we signed up to participate in a 10K race on the beach of Pacasmayo. Two volunteers organized an international marathon there as well as other races. It was very well run and I think the community plans on organizing the marathon again next year.

Mario and I only trained for about two weeks before the 10K (1/4 marathon) race. Thus our expectations were not too high. In fact Mario was just concerned about finishing because he had never run 10 km in his life. We didn´t do so badly. I finished fourth and Mario not too far behind me. The three men who beat us are all part of a runner´s club in Lima. Mario said he wasn´t exactly sure where he got the energy to finish the race.

I had a couple of friends who ran the entire marathon. Pete had trained pretty extensively and ended up finishing third. My friend Ryan had only trained up to 13 of the 26 miles but crossed with pride still intact. Casey was the first woman to cross the line and received a cool trophy as well as a S/. 500 prize. Way to go Casey!

The rest of the weekend everyone kind of just hung out. Mario said it was a really cool experience. I am glad he got to join me.