Maraton de La Montana Jarabacoa

The big race has come and gone! I've been looking forward to the one race of the year here in Jarabacoa. My good friend Jessica and I made a training plan for the last 7 weeks and were so ready to face the heat of running at 3pm, getting loads of water from the ditch dumped on us, and looking out for runners who cheat by catching a ride on a motorcycle! Here are some pictures to recap the eventful race!

Notice how the poster doesn't have the time, place or where to register... basically no details?

Our awesome team of foreigners!

(left to right: Jessica, me, Deanna, Rachel, Leslie)

One of the many speakers (literally 30 minutes worth), delaying the start.

Waiting and waiting.... I had no clue who or what the speakers were talking about!

Praying before the race started.

The kids category ran first. If you look closer, the girl in the green shoes on the left and the little boy on the far right both go to Anija and both won prize money!

So the Women's Race finally started. At 3:30 PM! It was so hot but no need to worry...

They made sure to hand out water by driving around on their motorcycles. The water came in little plastic sacs that you had to break open with your teeth.

We not only saw this horse but a group of horses that were blocking the road at one point.

Apparently Jessica was really enjoying herself. Either that or she was laughing off the fact that she almost got hit by the car or motorcycle, seeing as how they didn't block off any roads...

And we made it to the finish, all of us soaked from head to toe from a mixture of ditch water that was thrown on us and sweat! Although we didn't win prize money, Deanna and I ran about a minute and a half faster than I ran last year, about a 7:37/mile pace for 7.45 miles (12K).