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P a u z a
not that kind of person),
and you'll be tired most
of the time. But, this is
the point at which you'll
want to pay the 70 Euros
(early registration fee) to
more formally bind you
to the process. If you
wait until after September sometime you'll have
to pay 100 Euros! After
that point, training was a
whirl of running and
nervousness.
The run
I'm not going to tell you
about the run so much.
You can look on the
website to see that the
first 16 miles are uphill
and you can be scared by
the comparison of the
course to the Boston
Marathon and you can
hear horror stories. I'll
say only two things here:
it's a great idea to have
someone in the crowd to
look forward to seeing
and it's a great idea to
meet as many people as
possible while you're
running. I spoke with an
old Greek man, an
American military guy,
five Frenchmen in
matching gear, a Japanese-British woman and
most importantly, a fellow PCV who jumped
into the race at km 32 to
run with me. They kept
my mind off the fact that
my body wanted to stop.
And I finished in 4 hours
and 49 minutes.
Over the six real months
of training, time literally
flew by! Overall it was
the best 6 months of focus and solid achievement I could have asked
for on a personal level.
In addition, so I didn't
feel so selfish, I did a
fundraiser at home for
development projects in
my community. I am
now waiting for funds
through the PCPP to
build a playground in the
central area of Delcevo.
I also spent a lot of time
in the hills of Delcevo.
People saw me running
everywhere and were
curious why I would do
it. I got to talk about
health and fitness. I got
to be healthy and fit. It
kept my mind out of the
pitfalls of over-stress
and the tendency for us
volunteers to "get caught
up in the bull----."
I had five great fans (2
from PC Bulgaria, and
Mak-8s Krystal, Carla
2 0 0 5
and Heather), one other
runner (Daniel from
Mak-8) and all my
friends from Delcevo
and America down there
with me in Athens.
When I returned, my
local TV station asked to
interview me and my
office threw me a congratulatory party.
There was a point when
I wanted to quit and I
didn't. And sometimes
we want to quit and we
don't. When it's rainy
outside and the run is
horrible, you wake up
the next day and you try
again. Sometimes it's
better sometimes it's not.
However, just like in
Peace Corps, some days
you fly down the street
and feel like no one on
earth is more capable
than you and you feel
like a million bucks.
And it's all worth it.