Yes you read that right. Despite not ~loving~ to run, I was convinced to do it. It all started a couple of months ago, in August, before Kyle and I had ever been to Siem Reap. We both hadn’t gone on our trip with Alia yet, nor had we gone with our parents. So when the advertisement popped up for the “International Angkor Half Marathon” I asked if Kyle wanted to go. I specifically asked if she wanted to go run the 5k (which seemed manageable for me). However, as she looked at all of the courses to run, she said that the half marathon “had a cooler path” and that we should do it. Honestly, that convinced me enough and we decided to run the half marathon as part of “the plot” (aka now I have a fun fact that I ran a half marathon).
As the months passed, I continued to put off training because I decided that was a problem for November. Then November came and I decided not to train either, so when we pulled into Siem Reap last Saturday, I had the magnificent plan of running this half marathon with no training (and also no love for running either). Nevertheless, we picked up our race numbers and spent our Saturday in anticipation for the next day.
Getting Our Numbers
The Night Before
We woke up the next day at 4am (oh did I mention that the race started at 5:30 and we had to get there by 4:45 because traffic was bad). Because of pure adrenaline, I was awake, as well as fearful for my future. The race started when it was still dark outside and we were off with the pack of other people. I with my headphones in and Kyle running the whole half marathon not listening to any music (to me that is crazy). I got to see the sunrise at the temples for the second time (which is one too many times I thought I would see it) and got to see the exit gate for Angkor Thom as the sun rose.
In the beginning, it wasn’t too bad. I was awake, and kind of energized, and so when we hit 3km I was feeling fine. By the time we hit 5km, we decided to walk 1km. (Also as a reminder we were not running fast at all). We then decided that would be a good pattern: run 5lm, walk 1km, etc. etc….. oh how that did not go as planned. The further we ran, the more draining it was and when we hit 10km (so we ran 4km) we walked again (this is also where I discovered I think I could do a 10k, but that is my running cap). Thanks to Kyle, she kept me motivated throughout the whole thing. Closer towards the end I was for sure losing steam. At 18km, I had to walk again because I was struggling. At this point, the national park was open to tourists. While walking I said out loud “almost there were got this/I feel like I am dying” and a man in a tuk tuk (a tourist) said “the body is weak but the mind is strong” and then proceeded to take a sip of his hot coffee. I swear I am not making this up and honestly I laughed a little at the situation we were in. When we hit 20km, we decided to run the last 1km, but at this point my legs hurt so bad, it was more of like a hopping walk than it was actually running. Nevertheless we actually finished (in 2 hours and 54 minutes —> for those who are runners you know this is super slow but hey! I finished). We got passed the finish line and I could barely walk, it hurt to sit down and stand up. Another funny side story is that everyone who runs gets a medal, and I posted on Facebook the medal we got and all of the teachers at my school thought I WON the race and I was like “absolutely not I got that medal because I finished”. Anyways, I am proud of us finishing, and also shoutout to my fellow PCVs who also ran the half marathon (we saw 3 others there!)
My weekend journey, however, was not done. Once getting back to the hotel (painfully) we had breakfast and changed, and I waited for my taxi. My taxi came 2 hours late because he was waiting for two older people who were coming from the hospital. We got in the taxi and I was in-and-out of sleeping the whole time because I was dead (physically dead and also dead from no sleep). As we got closer to my town, the other lady in my taxi figured out that I can speak Khmer, and so she asked if we could drop her off at her house first (despite her being 10km further from my house in the other direction) because she said she wanted me to go see her house and meet her family (I know some people would say this is stranger danger, but my taxi driver was still there and I know him). So yeah, I ended up at this lady’s house in a rural town down the highway from my town (also still feeling like my legs were about to detach from my body). While at her house for 15 minutes I…. Met the grandma, met her husband, met her 10 year old son, became Facebook friends, got her phone number, ate some Khmer food, and talked about how she wanted to learn English. She also said she wants me to come back to her house to hang out anytime. (Also side note she called me yesterday while I was in Phnom Penh to ask to come pick me up to go eat lunch but I was out of town/ also asleep when she called me). Despite planning to be home at 1:00 the day of the race, I did not get home until 4:30 and slept very well… just to then get up at the normal time the next day to teach all day Monday.
On Monday, it hurt so much to walk and all my students asked why I was walking funny and I told them I ran 21 km, and that if they did that they would know how I felt.
Main takeaways from this:
-Kyle was right, the pathway was much cooler (despite it being more painful)
-The random tourist was right, the mind is stronger than the body (I could have given up, but I didn’t)
-I am grateful for Kyle not ditching me to run a faster pace
-I am not running a half marathon again, but I am willing to run a 10k
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