I did it!

Now I can say I ran a marathon!  It took 3 hours 55 minutes and 58 seconds.  I beat my goal of four hours.  I'm happy with the results.

So what's it like running a marathon?

More exciting and painful than I imagined.  It was very pleasant for the first 23 miles or so.  It's a big event with a lot of people in the street.  There´s a sort of energy and excitement you get from all the commotion and the special access to the city.  Especially a city as beautiful as Bilbao.  I wish I took more pictures, but the majority of the city was seen as I was running.  The race started in downtown and made its way down the river to the old industrial zone of the city of old worn down warehouses with broken windows.  We crossed a bridge to the other side of the river and then followed it up to where I saw a historical bridge that transports people across the river in a vessel suspended by cables connected to the bridge above.  Before we started heading back towards downtown we were running on the boardwalk where old mansions and homes face the ocean.  Many people on the boardwalk were clapping and saying words of encouragement as you passed by.

After mile 23 it was quite dreadful.  My legs were on fire and didn´t want to keep the pace.  My average 8 minute and 30 second mile plummeted to a 11 minute mile by mile 25.  I stopped twice to walk for about 20 seconds or so, but quickly realized I was just prolonging the inevitable.  I was going to finish.  Plus it made things more difficult.  Once your start walking you then want to stop entirely, but then when you start running again it´s more painful than if you just kept going in the first place.

Coming around the last corner and seeing the finish line was a feeling of relief and joy.  Relief that it was over and joy that I just accomplished a difficult feat.  I would like the express my gratitude to everyone who has read my blog and shown their support.  I hope you all find gratification in supporting charitable works such as GHA.  For me this has been a very special experience.  A special thanks to Rocio for making Bilbao a wonderful trip; for being my encouragement and support while I was there and throughout the whole training process.

There will be more posts soon!  Don´t disconnect just yet!   

How to let your voice be heard

The marathon starts in exactly 9.5 hours.  I need encouragement.  Luckily for you this is very easy.  If you are an American then you already know your voice is equivalent to money; if you don't believe me just ask our supreme court.  When I see donations and your name next to it I can hear your voice loud and clear saying "I know you can do it!",   Everything helps.  Thank you so much for your support and wish me luck on my run! 

I'll be posting some pictures on Sunday or Monday of the beautiful trip in País Vasco and of the run!      

Barak's take on running

I'm a bit weary of my owner these days.  I don't know if he's calling me to go do what we normally go do or if he's going to drag me along on one of his "runs."  Seriously, it has to be one of the most senseless things I've seen him do.  He yells at me when I chase my tail, while he frequently goes outside to run in circles for long periods of time.  I really don't see much of a difference.    

Consequences of Training

I'm not a doctor but I don't think marathons are the healthiest thing you can be doing for your body.  After my long run what hurt most were my joins and my feet.  I know running on the sidewalk is probably the worst for my joints, unfortunately I don't have much of a choice, but when there is grass lining the sidewalk I run on that instead.  Still, it doesn't completely prevent joint pain. 

I can't believe it's already May 19th.  That means we have to move out of our flat within a week and a half, and a few days after that drive north to Bilbao for the marathon.  Yesterday we made reservations for a place to stay.  We are going to start the twelve hour drive to Bilbao Thursday night and start driving back Sunday afternoon when I finish with the marathon.  Barak will be coming along for the ride as well, but will be sleeping in the car. 

I've been told the first three objectives when I get to Guatemala.  First we need to find a place for me to live that is also be suitable for our office.   I will be meeting with our local connections, and most exciting, I'll be building home #3 within the first week of arrival!  This blog will continue as GHA's blog where you can follow our projects and experiences!  Maybe it will encourage you to come volunteer and build a home : ) 

I want to start translating this blog into Spanish.  If anyone is interested in helping me out with this please write me an email with your expressed interest!  

Downhill from here!!!

I woke up this morning at 4:45 and was out the door running by 4:50.  It's the first time I've run so early in the morning and I think I'm going do it more often.  It was so quiet and peaceful that I wasn't listening to music until cars started to be on the road around 6:45.  The moon was out, the birds where chirping, and there wasn't anyone on the sidewalk I had to dodge.  Another benefit is I never run with my shirt off because I kinda feel like a douche, (no offense to anyone who does) but I did this time until people were on the streets.  The cool 61 degrees with my shirt off felt amazing compared to the 95 degree mid day temperature with my shirt on.   
One thing that was annoying is it was still early enough that when I crossed the bridge there were bats flying all over the place eating their final meal before they went to bed.  It made me a bit nervous running with bats flying past my head every two seconds. 
I ran the furthest that my training schedule requires of me until the marathon, 20 miles!  It's downhill from here baby!  I felt a lot better afterwards in comparison to my 18 miles run.  Reasons I believe why: yesterday I drank A LOT of water, for dinner I ate a big plate of, ok this is going to sound weird, garbanzo beans sauteed in A LOT of olive oil with onions, garlic, scrambled egg, and curry powder.
A convenient thing about running in Cordoba is all the water fountains sparsely placed around the city.  I don't have to worry about carrying any water with me!
Check out some of the new pics I posted!!!  

Movin along

I need to make some adjustments to GHA's description.  First adjustment is that the last house actually cost a little shy of $2,300, not $3,000.  Description of the last home built: Apolonia's new home has 2 rooms. It provides much more protection against the elements than their older home. A nice cement floor, more than just a convenience, it reduces parasites and anemia. A locking door, and 3 windows, one overlooking the beautiful Lago de Atitlan. GHA worked along with the family!  This description came from facebook, so I encourage everyone to follow GHA by clicking here. I hope we're not installing those doors that lock automatically.  I don't like that my door locks without me locking it.  A couple weeks ago I had to ask my neighbors if they would let me on their balcony so that I could climb over to mine because I locked myself out, for the second time.  I'm sure a locksmith in Guatemala would charge quite a bit to hike out to their home....     
I've encountered a problem...  My dog is too big for any kennels I've found online and at the veterinarian hospital.  Technically he needs to be able to sit and not have his ears touch the top of the cage.  The vets. advice is that I'll be ok.  Besides that I'm looking for a bigger suitcase to carry my stuff to Guatemala.  I ran 12 miles on Friday, took the day off on Saturday, and I'm going to run 5 today.  The big 20 miles is tomorrow.  I'm not really looking forward to it to be honest, it's getting hot here now.  Tomorrow is suppose to get up to 95 degrees with a low of 71 degrees at 3 in the morning!  I'll let you know how it goes.  Or maybe I won't.  I may die from heat stroke.  So if I don't blog anything by next Wednesday you'll know what happened.   

Why GHA, Part III

I came back from Guatemala in early May of 2005 excited to tell everyone about my trip only to find out that no one really cared, expressed by some relatives, "welcome back to reality, it might be difficult getting use to it."  Of course my friends were interested about the trip; for about two minutes until they wanted to talk about something else.  It only took a few days before my excitement to come back home diminish and the "traveler itch" started manifesting itself.  The trip opened my eyes to things I've never seen, heard, or really understood.  Poverty of course is the most apparent thing you first notice leaving the airport, but there was more people were talking about.  Remember, I went on this trip alone with a small backpack with sandals tied to it and a lonely planet; with no plans, only to take a taxi to Antigua with the little Spanish I learned from two years in high school (trust me, that's not much). I was talking with strangers from all over the world and eventually once I could speak a bit with Guatemalans.  People discussed the history of the country such as the Guatemalan civil war that lasted from 1960-1996, politics, and culture.  This had a lasting affect on me and influenced what I would study when I decided to return to college.   Traveling by yourself is something I think everyone should do before going to college.

I wanted to travel more but unfortunately I was broke.  Luckily for me I found work. I was hired by Syd again to help build his new home on his blueberry farm.  I was there from the beginning; from transplanting the blueberries, pouring the foundation, to installing the roof. He taught me as much as I could absorb, even the importance of investing, making me purchase my own tools with a certain percent of my check he withheld.  Then I started working in the oil refineries again where I learned the basics of accountancy and book keeping.  Both of these job experiences will serve me well in Guatemala in the office manager/ project director position.

After some traveling to Europe and working in long beach CA I decided to go back to school at the age of 21.  I started in Boston, moved to San Luis Obispo, and finally graduated from UC San Diego with a degree in International political science/history with a regional focus in Latin America.  During my time at UCSD I went to Spain to study abroad in order to improve my Spain and that's when I met Rocio.  I moved Cordoba after graduation to teach English and be with her. 

So why GHA?  Why Guatemala?  Because at this point in my life it seems that everything I've done has prepared/led me to make this decision to work for GHA.  From my experience building homes, my trip to Guatemala, my almost fluent Spanish speaking skills, my office experience, and specialized knowledge of politics and history of the region are all skills that I will utilize in Guatemala.  What's even better.....  It's a beautiful thing we're doing at the lake.  Because although I won't make enough money to pay down my $18,500 in school loan during my time at GHA, seeing the faces of the families who receive the homes that we build, and the excitement of the children going to school who once couldn't...  It's enough for me.  Please, support us any way you can.  We will put that support to good use.  (Like us on Facebook, tell your friends, donations)

It's going to be a long week

Where to begin...  Have you seen the new pictures I posted?  There are a few pictures of home #2 that was recently completed as well as some photo's depicting the living conditions of the family who will potentially live in home #3!  I also posted a picture of me and my girlfriend Rocio, the beautiful courageous women who will be joining me in Guatemala.  Her knowledge as an agricultural engineer will be put to good use in Guatemala, and she will be a great help to GHA!  I'm an incredibly lucky man to have her at my side.

This week is the most difficult week of training.  Total, I'll be running 43 miles or 68.8 km.  It's going to be a long week...  After this week it gets easier and easier until the marathon.  This three months of training is going fast!  Only a little more than three weeks left! 

Not only is the marathon coming up soon but also the time I depart to Guatemala.  This week I need to buy a cage for my dog so that I can take him on the plane.  Another possibility is a company that might transport him from Spain to Guatemala.  Does anyone know of a company that does that? 

New Toys and my Longest Run EVER

I got a new toy!  It's a Garmin Forerunner 405 CX.  This watch tracks my time, heart rate, but most importantly it has GPS capabilities and tells me how far I've ran.  It tells me things that are disappointing to know like what  I thought was a seven mile loop was really a 6.6 miles loop, thus during my long runs I've been off .8 miles.  It syncs wireless to  my computer and upload the data and then the online program spits out a graph plotting all my stats and also a map of where I ran.  It also tells me my elevation which is interesting when I look at how it has affected my speed.  Thanks uncle!

I ran 18 miles on Monday and in all honesty I felt pretty miserable.  I think it could be due to the course I ran (part of it had a lot of hills) and the prior four days of over eating and drinking with relatives who came to visit from Washington (not complaining one bit). Once my watch said 18 miles I just went straight to the ground to stop the burning, unfortunately to no avail.  I stretched well and then went to shower.  Rocio came in the bathroom and found me in the fetal position holding the shower head over me with one hand.  She laughed while I was telling her to be quite and that I was in pain.  No sympathy what so ever.

After the shower we went out to dinner with my aunt and uncle and their friends who were in town.  The glass of wine eased the pain and at least for the time that I was sitting I had forgotten about the lactic acid in my legs.  Today was my first run since the long run on Monday.  A quick five miles. I'm feelin pretty good now...  I'll be ready to run 20!!!! 

Why GHA part II

I had very little contact with Syd throughout high school.  Toward the end of my senior year I was thinking about my best options for work during the summer.  One day when I passed Syd´s house on my drive to school in my little grey hatchback 1989 ford Festiva I was reminded that Syd had his own construction company.  After school I decided to visit and ask for work.  For two reasons it was a very memorable experience.   Not only did I get a job for the summer helping build a portable building for Linden high school I was also bitten by his new dog.  Although I left his house in pain I was also smiling.

I was tired of school so I quit to go to work for Matrix Service, an industrial contracting company.  The job was in Shell's oil refinery and my responsibility was tracking job costs.  The hours were long 12 hour days 6 days sometimes 7 days a week.  After the job I was sitting on what I considered a small fortune of $3,000, but with nothing to do.  I went to Syd's and asked him for some advice.  He asked me why I don't travel Guatemala saying that it was a beautiful country with lots to see, and that my $3,000 could last me a long time.  That evening we went upstairs to his office to purchase the ticket.  In February 2005 I went to Guatemala for three months.  My life would never be the same. 

Another lesson learned

In one of my previous posts I mentioned the cata de vinos and how I decided to run before the cata anticipating that I wouldn´t want to run my five mile recovery run if I didn´t run before I went to the festival.  It was a good thing that I did run before the cata because there would have been no way in hell I would have been able to run after the cata.  What I didn´t anticipate is how it would affect me the next day.  All I know is I got home before sundown and I woke up butt naked in a bed with no sheets at 3:30 a.m. wondering where I was (the bed had no sheets because they were being hung to dry in the house). The good thing was I was at home butt naked in MY bed, bad thing is I wasn´t really up to running 17 miles (27.2 km) that day.  So I switched with Tuesday and only ran 7 miles. 

Another lesson learned I guess...

Why GHA?

Someone asked me the other day the simple question, why?  Why are you doing this for GHA and not a different non profit.  What is your motivation?  The simple answer is I´m going to be working for GHA starting June 17th when my plane departs from Madrid and arrives Guatemala city thirty hours later.  The more complicated answer starts when I was just a little 4th grader delivering newspapers...  Here we go...

Before the Bellingham Herald changed my schedule from day shifts to morning shifts I would come home from school to find a large stack of newspapers waiting for me at my doorstep.  There were somewhere around 35 newspapers I had to roll and wrap, turning my hands black from the ink.  I checked my route to make sure no one cancelled or if I had another home, put on the fashionable newspaper bag holder and off I went.  Like most classic newspaper delivering stories I was harassed by a gigantic terrifying dog with a bark that would make you crap yourself.  I remember like it was yesterday when this Burmese mountain dog mix came up to me, standing almost eye to eye.  I knew better to run from a dog, but I remember it being a terrifying experience.  His name is Buster and his irresponsible owner who lets his dog scare children is named Syd.  I was welcomed to his home to meet the dog.  I've always been one to work, and he employed me to work in his garden and other odd jobs around the house.  That's how the relationship began.

There's much more to the story.  Stay tuned 

Bets are on!

Javi left a comment saying that he bets I can't run the marathon in 3 hours and 45 minutes.  So, how much is that bet?  For every one minute I get below 3.45 I get 7 euros from you?  I encourage people to make these types of bets because it gives me incentive to train harder, and makes it a bit competitive which I always like.

Training is going well.  I've been keeping up with my workout schedule this week and plan on going for a five mile run today, which I better do soon because I'm planning on going to the cata del vinos today.  Cata del vinos (wine tasting) is a neat festival event in Córdoba where you pay an entrance fee of 7 euros, and in return they give you a wine glass and enough tickets for five glasses of wine or a whole bottle of your choice.  There is a wide selection of wines that are new to me, such as finos and vino dulces (sweet wines).  I like the sweet wine, but the finos smell too much like paté to me.  There are also tents that sell delicious food like cochifrito (fried pork) and jamón serano.  I better go run, because I don´t imagine I´ll want to run drunk and full even if it´s only five miles.  Today is the short run because tomorrow I'm going to run 17 miles.  I would tell you how fast I complete those 17 miles but inside betting is illegal!

Future plans for the blog:
 I intend to keep this blog going after the marathon while I am working in Guatemala so that you can all read and see where your generous donations are going!

Paco has does some investigating and found that the Córdoba airplane was 300,000 Euros! Check our some of the videos of the airplane and news article here.     

I would like to thank Nancy for sending me the blog post.  That was very kind of her.  Safe travels Nancy!

Guest Speaker by one of the founders of GHA, Nancy!

Nancy is one of the founders of GHA.  She is currently working in Guatemala.  Here´s what she has to say.

Hello friends,...an update...

        San Pablo is a town of 7600 on the south shore of the beautiful Lago Atitlan.  All here are indigenous Tz'utujil maya.  There is not a bank here, or ATM, or even a restaurant;  such is the economy.  San Pablo is the poorest, least developed town around the lake. The coffee has just begun to bloom, and the avacado harvest has started.  Our waking view is of volcanos and lake, flowers and banana trees. Tz'utujil is one of over 50 mayan languages spoken in Guatemala.  Some people speak Spanish as well, a language learned in order to unite and defend themselves during the genocide that robbed some 200-250,000 indigenous lives.  The mayans are at the bottom of the economy here.  Agrarian workers, campesinos, when there is work available, earn 25-30 quetzales a day...less than $4.

      We are here birthing an organization...known in English as Guatemala Housing Alliance (GHA), and in Spanish as Constryendo Alianzas...Building Alliances.  Within a few days we'll complete our second house.   It is humble---15x18', 2 rooms---but for a family that now lives in a home made of cornstalks.  Apolonia, the mother in the family, is particularly happy for the security she will finally have, with a strong, locking door.   Now she can't leave home all day, having to stay to guard the little they own:  a radio, blankets, pots, and a pile of dried corn in the corner.  They have been robbed a couple of times.

      Soon they will have a cement floor to replace the dirt one that turns muddy with the rain.  Everyone's health will improve.  There will be fewer parasites and the resulting anemia and diarrhea.  Studies show that a student´s health improves so much from a cement floor that their grades improve on average 9%.

      Moises is the father, and remains extremely poor although he works hard in the steep mountain fields.  He is a really sweet guy.  And strong.   I've seen him carry 8 cement blocks on his back wearing a tump strap.  The families we'll help with construction are responsible for getting materials to the site.  In this case,  that will be over 700 blocks and 50 bags of cement and many cubic yards of sand and gravel....all carried the equivilant of a city block along a path through the high coffee bushes.

     It sems an incredible honor to be here.  Mac and I are the only foreigners about.  We soak in the smiles as we walk up the mountain to work each morning, passing produce and firewood vendors, and children on their way to school. 

     Many can´t go to school for lack of funds.  Fees, books, and uniforms are required.  Another ambition of GHA is offering scholarships.  This year our fledgling org has granted 31, all to children living in extreme poverty (less than $1/day per person in household)., most with single parents, a couple with none.   Last weekend they all gathereed for 1 of 2 lake clean-ups they'll do this year as partial requirement for receiving the funds.  14 of the kids lost their homes and all belongings last year in landslides during tropical storm Agatha.   One mom told me that her kids' receipt of the scholarships was what gave her the will to go on.  

      So we begin, with baby steps, guided every step of the way by strong mayan women leaders in the community.   We hope in the near future to build with compressed stabilized earth blocks, building beautiful home both durable and sustainable.  

happily here, happily yours,

nance

Spanish ¨pork¨

The training is starting to get a bit difficult.  Instead of one long run a week my stupid chart is asking me to do two long runs a week.  Today I ran for one hour and fifty two minutes, a distance of 14 miles, or according to my super high tech watch 1500 calories worth of running.  The chart says this Sunday I need to run 17 miles.  I´m beginning to dislike my chart.  I mean really, it´s on my fridge staring at me every time I go to get some food, and now that it tells me I need to run more I´m eating a lot more, which means I´m reminded over and over again about the long runs on Thursdays and Sundays.  Damn you chart!

For those who don´t know me, which I´m sure just about everyone who visits this blog does, I like politics.  I studied them at UCSD and I continue following them even though it does me no good other than it makes me laugh from time to time.  If you look back to the pictures I took the other day during my run you will see a picture of an airplane.  You might ask yourself why there´s such a big old airplane in the middle of the park?  Well I´ll tell you...  Every so many years Europe chooses a city to be the cultural capital of Europe.  If a city is granted with this title they get money to restore historic relics.  Córdoba´s government got the idea to advertise on the airplane, Córdoba 2016 Cultural Capital of Europe.  There are two reasons I find this funny.  1.  Córdoba has an airport that was built for commercial flights, but after a short period of time they realized it was losing a lot of money and was forced to close.  Not only that, Córdoba has nothing to do with the history of airplanes.  2.  Córdoba lost their bid to be the cultural capital.  I don´t mean to be offensive to this great city that has a very important historic and cultural heritage, but in comparison to all the other cities who have won this award  I would say there wasn`t much of a chance.  Now Córdoba has an airplane in the middle of a park doing nothing and that says something irrelevant.  It´s only going to cost more money to turn it into something useful or to get rid of it.  Talk about a waste of money!

                 

      

Sunday´s long run

Lesson learned.  Don´t eat a hamburger for lunch if your going to run 12 miles the same day.  It was horrible!  Within the first 15 minutes I was suffering, (not exaggerating), and did what I promise myself I wouldn´t do, stop.  I  thought to myself that I should just go home and run early Monday morning.  After about five minutes of walking I started to jog lightly and when I arrived home I was feeling o.k. so I convinced myself to keep going because who knows, this might happen during the race.  It was an agonizing 7 more miles, but I did take advantage of the situation.  I stopped for a second to take pictures with my Itouch (apple you can send me a donation for the advertising, your stocks are looking pretty good these days...).  One of the pictures I took is of a statue that I think resembles the man on the cover of Ann Rands book, alas shrugged.  The photo's caption reads "Barak's worst enemy," and that's because my dog, Barak Obama, is scared to come near the damn statue.  One time when I wasn't paying much attention he almost knocked me over trying to run away from it.  My precious but temperamental perro is not what you would call a people person.  He's scared that everyone is out to get em'.  Not from how I have treated him of course, but from his unknown dark past in the doggy pound.  Who knows what they did to him......      

Meeting a running partner

The other week I was at the park with the dog letting him do his things before we began to run when I started talking to an acquaintance, Pedro.  He began by asking me about running and I mentioned that I´m training to run a marathon.  Turns out he has ran quite a few marathons and asked if I wanted to join him and his friend the following morning.  Last week I ran with them three times.  It was nice because they showed me other routes I can take around the city, and I realized how nice it was running early in the morning because there was hardly any traffic.  I need to remember to take some pictures because some of the scenery was really nice as we cross the river. 

He told me about a race in Ronda, Spain where he ran/walked a 100 Km race!  That´s 62.5 miles!  He told me it was a bit ridiculous and that when he finished his feet were just one big blister.  I don´t think you could donate enough money for me to do that!

My first post...

It's week five and training seems to be going well; at least according to the schedule I'm following. It says that I'll be prepared on time, but I don't know how much I believe this one piece of paper since running a hour and forty minutes seems like an eternity. I can hardly imagine running three and half to four hours!

While I smoked (I haven't had a cigarette for six weeks now) I ran, but just not very far. My usual run was two and a half miles to the park and back. It was my lungs that always tired me first, taking rapid deep breaths to try to get oxygen into my lungs never seemed enough and I would always stop at 2.5 miles. Now it's my muscles that tire and tell me to stop. What am I trying to say.... This might sound a bit crazy, but I think smoking 10-15 cigarettes a day for seven years and running 2.5 miles every once in a while will make running long distances while not smoking seem like a piece of cake. Seriously, I feel great when I'm running (most of the time). It's encouraging to run with such ease. For this reason and the fundraising aspect of this marathon keeps me from smoking again. I would prescribe a marathon for anyone who wants to quit.