Two days ago I ran in the annual San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta "Race of Friendship". The 11km race started in a town called Rodeo and finished in San Rafael. As I was warming up for the race, a very nondescript fellow runner came up to me and asked if I was a Peace Corps volunteer. Shocked, I asked him how he knew. "Well," he started, "Out here, we don't get too many gringos. So I figured you were either Mormon, but you don't have a backpack and name tag. Or you were with the C.I.A., but you're too young. So that left me with one option...you must be a Peace Corps volunteer." I laughed and introduced myself, stunned at both the fact that he was worldly and at his deductive reasoning abilities; both a rarity in rural Guatemala.
The race itself was grueling and awesome. Grueling in the truest sense: the 11km (6.87 miles) were all straight uphill, literally. My body yelled at me to stop, but I knew I couldn't and wouldn't, especially because this was my race in my town; I couldn't be seen walking at any point because people in town would start talking about how the gringo couldn't handle the San Rafael race and I would lose all street credibility as an athlete. Awesome in the truest sense because the entire race climbed up the bocacosta (refers to altitude range in between the coast and highlands) to San Rafael, which provided for incredible views of the two largest volcanoes in Central America: Tajamulco and Tacana.
When I entered San Rafael for the final 300M stretch, the rafaelenses (as they're known) erupted and started hollering and cheering me on. It was great. Of course this got my adrenaline going, so I kicked it into third gear (having been in second for pretty much the whole race) and passed three people in the final stretch, which also caused more erupting and cheering. It was one of the most rewarding sports events of my life. It also showed me that the community had embraced me to a much larger extent than I had previously thought, another real spirit booster.
This whole week is our town fair. It started with the race and will finish on Saturday, October 24th: the day of the town's patron saint, San Rafael. So far we've had the election of the Reina de la Feria, which is more or less a beauty pageant to crown a local girl as the symbolic "queen" of the fair. These elections are a surprisingly big part of Guatemalan culture and for almost every major holiday (Holy Week, Christmas, Independence Day, etc) the town elects a queen.
Right now there is music thumping outside in the park in anticipation of our big parade. So far, it's running an hour and half behind schedule...
GREAT race story !
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