This week’s Marathons+Moderation guest post comes from the amazing Taylor, who trained for a marathon in more difficult conditions than I can even imagine! Not only did she train while volunteering with the Peace Corps, but she also did it while serving in Paraguay. Be sure to click over to her blog to learn more about her experience in Paraguay!
The Peace Corps has three official goals:
1. Helping the people of interested countries in meeting their need for trained men and women.
2. Helping promote a better understanding of Americans on the part of the peoples served.
3. Helping promote a better understanding of other peoples on the part of Americans.
Those three goals are the best way to describe my job as a Peace Corps volunteer, however most volunteers also come to service with a "4th Goal," a personal goal the volunteer hopes to achieve during their service. From reading over 100 books during their time served, to learning the guitar, these goals are diverse. In my case, I got it into my head I was going to train for and complete my first marathon while serving in Paraguay. While I’m happy to report that I achieved my 4th goal last August, I think like most marathon novices I had absolutely no idea what I had gotten myself into. Compound that with trying to navigate life in rural Paraguay and it was quite the journey.
Life in a developing country is exciting, but at times it’s also just weird. When in a new culture, things don’t always make sense, and that brings a degree of stress. Being active has always been my stress outlet, but when confronted with the reality that there was no local Yoga studio or climbing gym, I knew I had to turn to running as my activity of choice. Life is slower here in Paraguay, so I figured clocking the miles would fill my free time and keep me occupied, but like all marathoners time and motivation were major challenges.
While I was in my town I had enough free time to get in my miles, but part of life in Peace Corps Paraguay requires frequent travel for work, cultural events, medical, and friendly visits. As I started getting higher in mileage it became increasingly difficult to manage. That’s a large part of the reason I went with timed runs rather than mileage when creating my workouts. Instead of a set number of miles to complete, I would have a time goal. 1 hour run, 2 hour run, ect. Furthermore, without access to reliable maps making longer routes was near impossible. If I were visiting a friend, I would literally ask them to point me down a long dirt road and just run out and back. Maybe it’s not the most fun run, but it allowed me to keep up my training no matter where I was. (To be honest the long run into the country side and back provided beautiful views and allowed me to see more of the country than I otherwise would have.)
With long dirt roads, I became a complete slave to the weather. Heavy rains would make the roads impassible until they dried out. Sometimes at the first hint of rain I would drop everything and squeeze in a run just because I knew I wouldn’t have another chance for a few days.
While in the winter it’s the rain I had to battle in the summer it was the oppressive heat. I swear the sun is closer to the earth down here. For long summer runs 4:30 am wake ups were required to get a good run in before it was too hot to do anything. While it would be cool enough during this time of morning, the street dogs didn’t take kindly to a person running through their territory during the pre-dawn hours. On more than one occasion I had to fend off packs of dogs before finally learning which streets were safe. Then there was explaining to my local friends and neighbors exactly why I running in the first place. People would ask if I were training for the Olympics. They just couldn’t understand that I was doing this for fun. Even after everyone knows that I ran a marathon, they still are in awe that I’ll run for 30 minutes without stopping.
I really didn’t think motivation would be so hard. I figured I’d be working out anyways, but marathon training is a different beast. Not only was getting the motivation to run every day grueling, but just the total stress of living in foreign country was starting to get the best of me. I was tired of strange looks and cat calls from locals as I ran. I had started throwing rocks at dogs, which while necessary at times, never makes you feel good, and knowing that a long run would perhaps be the only thing I would do that day, made lacing up even less appealing.
To combat my lethargy, I made a inspiration poster out of butcher paper on which I would write PRs, and inspirational sayings to try to keep going. It became a great place to remind myself of how far I had come. I must say however, the best motivator was family and friends both here and back home. Locals started to recognize me, and started cheering me when I would pass rather than leer. People from the US sent me quality socks and new running shorts, a book about marathon training, and energy chews. And every time I was on the phone with a friend at home or in Paraguay, they all wanted to hear how the training was going. It made me feel like I had to get my runs in our I would have nothing to tell them.
When the race finally came, I knew I had already achieved my 4th goal no matter the outcome. I didn’t run the whole way, having to start walking at kilometer 35. But even then my great network of volunteer friends were the support I needed to finish. They found me handed me a cup of terrere, Paraguay’s typical cold herbal tea, and walked the final stretch with me, delivering a cold beer at the finish line.
I was the last person to cross the finish that day, but after all the work I sure as hell felt like a winner.
