Caracas maratón...medio

Last year we signed up for the Caracas maratón...medio, and due to the instability at the time it was cancelled. Our entries would be good for the next year and I thought- "perfect a whole year to train and get race ready!"

I wouldn't say I was race ready- but I was ready. What a great day. We got to see some areas of Caracas that frankly I wouldn't be smart to drive through on any other day. There were close to 5000 runners in the medio maratón but none as ridiculously good looking as the Simpsons and the Isoms. That might be a stretch- Venezuelans are a very good looking people

Here is the pre race "fresh" photo

okay guy on the right hand side- I see your compression socks and raise you a pair of beer socks

This is Juli Allison- well her stunt double at least. Juli wasn't able to run so her bib (8984) found its way to this gentleman, whom we henceforth called Juli.

Unlike Norte Americano races where you get your shirt after the race, here you get it before and it is great to see most runners wear them to race in.

Hey, everybody else was selfieing
(race note- notice how the race has yet to begin and Lisa is already way ahead of us?)

and here we are post (not so fresh) race


They had statues in the park that summed up my pre and post race feelings as well.
pre:

post:

and one for Lisa

So how did we do? Well downright fantastico thank you very much! I did have a few thousand runners ahead of me but also a few thousand behind. In my age group I was 350th at the 10k mark and finished at 284! Clearly this means I was stalking the other runners like a jaguar or they had clearly started way too hard. Mike almost cracked 2 hours, which after his strict adherence to a no run training -training plan is very impressive. Stacey finished right behind me after spending the whole week with a stomach bug. Juli Allison had a respectable 2:28! And Lisa... yeah she was all right- just finished 3rd out of 300 in her category. Overall 333rd out of 4700. (overall women- 24th out of 1600) You know- give me another year and I might just be race ready to catch her.

Best part of the race? We rode the metro home! Seriously who would rob us- we were smelly! Then we  stopped at a great little arepa joint and had a rocking breakfast. Reina pepiada and bacon!