Angkor Wat 1/2 Marathon

One week later and I find myself back in Central Market, negotiating for a private taxi.  A beat-up Toyota Camry (what other car could it possibly be?) pulls up and Karel (Congo-Belgian, Willis (German-American), Mervi (Finish), and Katie (American), and I squish into the corduroy seats. 2 minutes later, the car stalls. $60 for a stalling car. You never know what you pay for in Asia. Oye Vey. You also never know how many stops you'll make, even though you paid for the car and technically, you can tell the driver when to stop. I think we made a total of 4 unscheduled stops on way to Siem Reap that Saturday. 

1. Stop to pull out the kitty-cat "canin" shades and place over the windows.

2. Snack time: Spiders or sticky rice anyone?

3. Petrol Stop- $10 advance to driver. 

4. Men's roadside natural toilet stop. The women were offered Karama's to cover themselves. We politely declined. 

By 2pm we finally rolled into the Golden Banana and walked over to the Blue Pumpkin for some carb-loading and Mango/Banana Shakes. Then it was on to Angkor City Hotel, to finish registering for the 21K some of us would be running in the next day. Having successfully managed to get the boys registered, despite the "CLOSED" sign ("We just want to give you money and get a bib number...") and after running into half of Phnom Penh in the hotel lobby, we made our way back to the town centre for some evening Angkor Drafts and pre-run foot massages.

 

I love how in Cambodia one foot massage for $7 also includes a head, shoulder and hand massage. Not sure what the foot & shoulder massage includes.   As we reclined back in our chairs, our masseuse girls giggled as they kneeded, slapped, and pounded are cold muscles in unison. All of a sudden a girl squeals and Karel exclaims, "I don't think they've ever seen this much hair on a person's arms and legs before!"  We laugh, ignoring quiet foot-massage time.   An hour later we head over for our second round of carb-loading. By 10pm we're ready to pass out and I do a walk-by the Blue Pumpkin for my morning 5am coffee wake up call (to go).

5AM Wake up call. I dreamed I slept in. So scary. 

5:50AM Katie & I join the boys and head off in a tuk tuk towards the Angkor temples complex with the other 3,487 participants for the day's races.  I'm very much awake and slightly, no wait... Very jittery. 

Karel/Willis:  "Uuh  we can tell you've had coffee this morning... you're eyes are huge!" Hmm... didn't know that was a personal side-effect.

This is the 14th annual Angkor Wat 1/2 Marathon  and by 6:30am my feet cross the Starting line. I press play on my trusty silver ipod shuffle carrying my adjusted new running mix. 

5KM... 10KM...13 KM... 17KM... I feel good as the sun peeks up above the temples that just a week later I had been climbing and exploring. Bayon's faces, the elephant terrace, in front of Banteay Kdei and so on I run, on the forested path at times lined by Cambodian faces, staring and smiling.  Sometimes the kids run up to the side and wait for you to slap their hand's with a sideways hi-five.  A lot of the younger ones run along the edge, picking up and emptying plastic water bottles they can cash in at the local recycling centre. 

The cool morning is perfect for the long run and the country and temples scenes make this one of the most perfect places to be in the running zone.  By 17KMs I can feel it. My braced left knee begins to twinge with pain and I have to adjust the brace every so often to control my leg's movement. By 18KM I'm wincing in pain. Uuuuuggggh. No. no. no.... and a series of profanities run through my brain. I take it slower. Oh well. It's been hurting since Monday even though I've tried to keep off of it. Guess two months of training wasn't enough time.  UUUHH DID THAT GRANDMA JUST PASS ME? No way.  Grrrrrrr....

I finish in a little over 2 hours, having pushed back tears and cheering up a bit after I hear my name called out by a fellow Pehnite near the Finish.   

I find Karel (at 6'3 with shoulder-blond hair, he's the easiest to find) and we get some ripe mini bananas and find Willis before heading over to the free physiotherapy massages provided by the Cambodian Olympic Committee & other donors (including the Japanese Aid Agency because I keep hearing "Arigato Gotziama" on the speaker).   Downing bottles of water, we stand in line, recounting KM stories and I concentrate on moving my feet and not fainting. 

One free massage, 4 bananas, 2 bottles of water, and 1 can of Anchor Beer later, the boys and I drag ourselves over to a tuk tuk to take us to the guesthouse, thoughts of cool showers and food running through our minds. 

At lunch some young street vendors come over to our table. Since most people are touring the temples during the day, we are prime target for these tiny workers. One befriends Karel and challenges him to a game of tic-tac-toe for a pack of postcards.   

By 2pm, we are once again alive, though very sore and are informed by the guesthouse that we are "Soooo Lucky" because the owner of the Golden Banana (a very very very flamboyant Cambodian man with a diamond-studded pink phone) will be driving us back in his bright-red Mitsubishi luxury truck car thing to Phnom Penh. We zoom back to the city, listening to five rounds of "Celebrate!" Cher, and your array of 80s Rock Pop and staring at bobbling penguins and piggies seated on the dashboard. Karel and I count bird species found in Cambodia (which is more exciting than him explaining mosquito body parts). 8 species only?  I swear I saw a flying squirrel. Does that count?  

For the record, my running mix is definitely way better than the owner's.  Also for the record, I have IBS or what one would call, training too hard too fast. Oye Vey... Guess I'll be swimming indoors next month in Chicago.