…fun to live.

There was an event, “Relevo por la vida” (Relay for life) from the FANLYC foundation (http://www.fanlyc.org/).The event consisted in a 24 hour race, from the Saturday 16 at 7:00am to the Sunday 17 at 7:00am.

I had in mind to show up for one lap that Saturday at 5:30pm, after the sun was down. But right at that time, a great storm started, and lasted up to 7:40pm. At that time, I was no longer thinking about the race, but rather my stomach.

About 5 minutes later, my mobile phone rang; it was my sister inviting me for a family dinner. Timing could not have been any better. So we went to this place called Don Pascual, and had a funny evening. We laughed so bad, that there was a moment my sister stated that her tummy hurt from it.

After dinner, we went to her apartment, and I gave her a hand installing the TV on the wall.

I arrived home by 11:30pm, and I was thinking about the race. Is not big deal, but I had promised myself to go for one lap.After thinking for another couple of minutes, I determined that I was not going to wake up at 5am, to go run 1 (3.5km) lap.And since the place is so close to my house, I decided to go right away. But of course, I had a cup of coffee before leaving.

At around 00:30 I was jogging, and feeling so good. The trail on this park has many uphill and downhill’s that makes the jogging a bit more challenging than my usual flat terrain jogging. Twenty three minutes later, I had finished the lap. And I had such a big smile on my face. I felt so happy that I kept my promise to myself.

As I was drinking my water, I saw one of the kids smile at me, probably because I had my happy boy smile as well, and it did it. Right away I thought about doing a second lap. I went to my car to take some money out (there is a $5.00 donation per lap), and registered for a second lap.

Leslie was at the counter and asked how many laps? (apart from being a happy boy, I was sweated as if I had just taken a shower with my clothes on). I said only one!, I have just arrived. I planed for one, but feel like another one.

As I finished that lap, the previous process repeated. I think that running on a purpose (seeing the kid smile, knowing you are helping, and running with the name of a kid on a band on my wrist) gave me so much motivation, that I didn’t really feel that tired, so I went for a third one… and a forth one.

By then I thought, this is it. I already had plenty of fun, and I am starting to get some pain on my knees. I’ll just hang around for a while now… Well, Leslie offered me some food, some “Sancocho”, and it was great. I felt pleased, and after about twenty minutes… I was jogging again…. Obviously each lap I did it slower than the previous one, and on this last one, I barely hear the heart monitor complain.

This time, on the arrival line, I congratulated the girls that where checking the times, and left, happy.

As I was driving home, I was thinking… o boy, I won’t be able to walk for a week, I have never jog so much in my life (my “record” was 2 laps). So I arrived home, and as I was taking a shower… ARGGGGGGG IT HURTS!!!, apparently the rubbing of the t-shirt fabric had peeled off the skin on my tits. I would have never guessed this as a side effect for long runs, maybe next time I’ll put some band-aid on them to protect them, before running.

My life is a comedy… fun to live.