Well I will start by saying this is long overdue and I am sorry but believe it or not we have continued to be pretty busy. I am going to start with an exciting event for both Cisco and I. Cisco wrote an article on this event for the Peace Corps Belize Newspaper and I am going to copy that directly in because it is of course beautifully written from his perspective on the event. Since this was written for Peace Corps Volunteers (PCV's) I will add a few points of clarification. All names in the story are pretty much those of other PCV's. A triathlon moves in order of swimming .9 miles, biking 24.8 miles, and running 6 miles. The distances change depending on the triathlon. One last point TT stands for Toucan Times is our newspaper, so to speak, it is actually a quarterly published book on all things Peace Corps Belize.
Sunday September 5, 2010, Belize City awoke slowly beneath the amber sheet that covered her. For participants of the 11th annual Lionman Triathlon, the morning tranquility belied the ensuing strain, exertion, and fatigue. Just before 7am, somewhere near sixty competitors gathered on the shores of the Caribbean Sea for the commencement of a truly grueling feat of athleticism. This is my story.
I awoke shortly before 6am. My wife Kathryn, Shannon, and I had spent the night bunked with Erin and Cyrus in an apartment that belongs to Cyrus’ sister. It’s on the third story of a hardware store, which, I assume, belongs to her as well. The night had been peaceful and restful, but nervousness was palpable as we each took our respective breakfasts—ranging from my granola bar and coffee to Cyrus’ ham, eggs, and toast. Despite instructions to be present at the staging area by 6:30, we didn’t arrive until about 6:45. I, being the only swimmer out of us, made my way directly to the registration desk, not waiting for the others. “You’re late,” stated the very observant official behind the registration desk. “You were supposed to be here fifteen minutes ago. You’ll have to hurry now.” Thanks, I thought to myself, now if you don’t mind registering me instead of berating me for my tardiness, I may still make it in the water in time to hear the starting gun. After being tattooed with my team’s number “10” on both arms and calves (which are still there, consequently, since the marker acted as a sort of sunscreen), I hustled into the water, stripping down to my bright blue jammer—think boxer-briefs made of spandex—and donning my bright orange swim cap. Finally in the water and in the starting position, I begin to wonder just what I’ve gotten myself into.
It was during the hurricane drill that Erin asked if anyone swam. I had heard about the triathlon prior to this, but only in passing. She gave some sob speech to all of us about needing a swimmer for her team. *Tear*. I did swim in high school, though. And I’ve never been in a triathlon. And she mentioned something about being granted access to the US Embassy pool. Kathryn and I live in Belmopan; I could certainly get over there to train. So, after we were dismissed, I volunteered myself for the job. True to form, after agreeing to participate, I began to procrastinate. I think I sent one e-mail to the Aaron, from the embassy, who would be granting me the pass to the pool. I didn’t hear back from him for two weeks or so. Then I forgot about the whole thing. Finally I e-mailed Matt Cain to see if he couldn’t procure the necessary information to get into the pool. He did. It was already August. Then I got sick. I thought and thought about trying to swim, but always told myself it’s terrible to swim when sick. It only makes things worse. Instead of two months of training, I had two weeks. So sue me; rarely have I ever been accused of being a responsible adult. I did get a few laps under my belt, though. I even swam the full distance of the race once—1.5km, just short of 1 mile. I had hoped that would be enough.
The water was warm, salty, and a bit choppy. As I pulled the goggles over my eyes, I realized that, though I had considered the differences between pool swimming and sea swimming theoretically, I had failed to consider them practically. Whoops. And then the race began. I heard afterwards that one racer quit five minutes into the race because she had been kicked in the face. I can imagine that the start more resembled a feeding frenzy than anything else. We were to swim two laps around a triangle just off the shoreline. I ducked my head underwater and began my freestyle swim. When I raised my head to breathe after my third pull—that is, the stroke of your arm—I inhaled not the much-needed oxygen I had hoped for, but rather salty seawater. Awesome. I gasped, took in a bit of O2, and tried again. Same deal. Apparently if you try to breathe while a wave crests around you, the result is similar to that of my first two attempted breaths. For the first few moments, I really wondered if it were possible that I could drown. That would be terribly embarrassing. Plus, if I started to drown and then happened to be saved by the coastguard, who were patrolling the race, Kathryn would never let me near any body of water on my own again. To avoid all this, I reverted to swimming breast-stroke. It’s definitely my favorite stroke and feels the most natural. It also has the added perk of allowing you to breathe after every pull, although it is significantly slower than freestyle. This I attempted until I rounded the first corner of the triangle. Then I began to wonder about exhaustion. Breast-stroke requires much more effort physically than freestyle. So I tried free one more time. This time I breathed every two pulls instead of three, and I noticed that within 30 seconds, I had passed three people who had been ahead of me the entire race. At this point it dawned on me that for the first portion of the triangle we swam directly into the sea current. As the race continued, I realized that that first 300 yards of the race was the most difficult. So I pressed on, I passed other swimmers but was never passed myself for the remainder of the race. I still don’t know what my time was or where I finished, but I pride myself on the fact that I did finish. Job done.
After that, things were very easy for me. The first hour of the race had passed, and my job was done. I watched as the remaining swimmers came out of the water and either tagged their biking teammates or changed into bike-wear for the next leg of the race. I also wondered about how one might avoid chaffing when jumping on a bike while still wet. I still haven’t found an answer there. I spoke with the wonderful Peace Corps support crew that came out to, well, support us. Their reports mentioned that Kaitlyn, the only other swimming PCV, was the second swimmer out of the water; an impressive feat after not training at all and having never swam in the sea before. Freaking over-achiever. I then watched with joy as the bikers returned to signal the beginning of the 6.2mi footrace. Cyrus, Erin, Mallory, and Heather Smith all completed their 24.8mi ride, some with more poise than others. Mallory’s weave, pirouette, and eventual fall on the grass median after her ride was particularly entertaining for the spectator, if not so much for the race official who legitimately thought she was losing consciousness. At this point, Cali, Miles, Shannon, Jenna, and Kathryn had begun their respective runs.
Around this time, I began to notice something. It was hot. Hot hot. It was around 10am, and the sun had quite some distance before it reached its peak, but my shoulders and nose already glowed red. I know, I know; this is Belize, where thermometers burst and Satan sweats, but competing in an athletic event for which the winning time is nearly twice the time it takes to play a futbol match is much different than swinging in a shaded hammock sipping lime juice. While there were hydration stations along the race course, there was also a severe dearth of any sort of shade. I had also been out of the water for around two hours by the time the last of the runners began their leg, quite literally baking all the while. I cannot imagine how the runners felt.
In any event, the runners did their thing. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth—the course was a 1-mile stretch of road which they ran six times. We saw a lot of them. Paces averaged somewhere around 55 minutes for the six miles. And that was the race. Or at least that’s what I thought. Kathryn was the last of the PCV’s to finish at about the 3.5 hour mark. We all celebrated the victory that was completing a triathlon. We indulged in post-race beverages—Gatorade and water, mostly—and shooed away children that mooched on our shilling-bags of water. We packed our gear, loaded bikes in the appropriate vehicles, and then… waited. I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that the final triathlete to cross the line did so no earlier than the five-hour mark. Suffice it to say that the shining elation of finishing had worn down to a dull fatigue by the time awards we given. Each of us received a t-shirt and a medal; our team placements ranged from fifth to twelfth. And then we peaced out.
One might be inclined to say that this was a great anti-climax to the adventure. Ah, but the story isn’t over yet! Kathryn, Shannon, Erin, Cyrus and I made our way back toward Belmopan after dining at the luxurious Chon Saan Palace in Belize City. There’s nothing like copious amounts of Chinese food to refuel after a taxing morning. Unfortunately, Kathryn didn’t feel too well. She began complaining about a headache, and during our meal she said her stomach was acting funny as well. Tell-tale signs of dehydration=bad news. She ordered water with lunch in an attempt to replace what she lost during the race, and we left shortly thereafter.
We had one more stop to make, dropping Shannon back in Bermudian Landing. We made it into the village limits before we had to make the first stop for Kathryn. She really didn’t feel well. Not that any of us did, I’m sure, on the “roads” out there. But after driving Shannon in, driving back out to the highway, and getting back to Belmopan, we had stopped on multiple occasions for Kathryn to ex-gest everything she had attempted to ingest. We drove, according to Nurse Jackie’s sage advice, directly to the hospital.
For anyone who has to visit the emergency room of the Belmopan hospital in the future: You will probably not ever see a doctor. You will have to answer questions like, “What ethnicity are you?” and “Have you gone to college?” And you may even be like my wife, whose medical card has her listed as “Katherine,” despite having verbally spelled-out her name as the nurse typed. Big Op to Erin for asking the nurse to treat Kathryn instead of asking inane questions. One hour and 500cc of saline later, we finally made our way home. Kathryn napped for an hour that evening, slept eleven hours that night, and took another nap the following day. It had been a long day.
P.S. – I’d like to take the opportunity to plug Jenna Altherr’s article in the previous TT—which we received the week after the triathlon, conveniently enough—about hydration for athletes. Kathryn, to this day, continues to be baffled by the fact that she had this problem after making a conscious effort to stay hydrated. It happens more easily and more quickly than either of us had imagined. So take care of yourselves and don’t let this happen to you.
This is Kathryn again and just as an update I am doing quite well and did recover after one day off with low exertion. And I did everything I was supposed to starting the day before the race thinking very specifically about my water intake and diet. I
am completely baffled by how this happened except to say it was the hottest I have every ran in and I was in the sun for the whole day before and after the race.
After the triathlon we began celebrating the many September celebrations because September 21st is Belize's Independence Day, although they celebrate for the whole month instead of just on the day. This was also a special month because Cisco's dad Adolfo came to visit, finally we got to see some family! I attended a play with my friend Sylvia called From Heritage to Settlement about Belize's History and although the quality of things are quite different here I thought it was very nicely done. They ended with a choreographed dance to the song "Wave Your Flag" which you should know if you followed the World Cup even a little, followed by the new Belizean Idependence Day song "I Am Belize" and a music video to accompany it. They make a new Independence day song each year and this one was very nice. Cisco, Adolfo, and I attended a Pan Yaad. Which is kriol for Pan Yard and is essentially a concert with steel pan bands. There were to bands one from Belize City that is a more "professional" group and the pan band from my school which is also pretty good. They played for hours and at the end had the whole crowd dancing to the same two songs I mentioned above that ended the play, that have been used a lot this month. I loved it, I wish you all could get to hear a steel pan band they are pretty great, they should be more popular in the states. I also went with some friends to see the firewords at midnight on the 20th to signal off the Idependence Day, Adolfo and Cisco didn't make up that late but the fireworks were pretty great and they shoot them off like 50 yards from hundreds of people, safety codes don't really exist here so we actually had to look straight up in the air to see them and that made it even more exciting. We also got to see two parades and the second one was the following morning. It was pretty funny because as soon as it started all the police are standing in front of us doing a drill and it starts pouring. I mean seriously pouring so the whole parade line was completely soaked including us it was fun.
We also got to take Adolfo to see our host family in Succotz which was a great treat and they made us dinner and we spent several hours there. The new baby Stephani is growing fast and I love talking to Marisol we always exchange foods, seeds, plants, bowls, so it is always fun to see what I end up leaving her house with. This time it was some homeade soap. When we were living there I showed her my mom's homeade soap and she was so excited I think that inspired her to try it so she actually paid to have a lady come to her house and teach her. She makes it very different than mom and I can't wait to try it out, because she was so excited. Cruz, Marisol's mom had a great time too because she could talk to Adolfo and even though I know she loves having us around conversation is limited because I find her Spanish very hard to understand, so usually we just do dishes together and laugh at my ridiculous attempts at converstation. Marlon is doing well to and I find him easier to talk to and more mature every time I see him. We went back to San Ignacio that night and stayed in a little hotel that Cisco and I thought was great because it was clean and cheap but I think our standards might have been a little different than Adolfos:) We got to explore San Ignacio and of course partake in some sweets at Sweet Tings, our favorite bakery. Adolfo bought us a used Scrabble board and Scrabble dictionary at a bookstore and have been using that quite a lot. Adolfo headed out this Saturday morning with no delays from Tropical Depression Matthew. Although because of the storm all the volunteers that they could get to Belmopan were consolidated, we of course got to stay at our house because we already live here. The storm ended up hitting below us and we got nothing more than a bunch of rain and some wind.
On another note, our work has been going well and finally starting to keep us busy. I have started a choir for my school from Standard 2-Standard 5 which is like 3rd- 6th grade. I auditioned all the kids then decided to accept all of them because I am here to provide opportunities for all kids not just especially talented ones. I am also working on starting a scouts association at my school. Because I was in scouts for 11 years I think it is the most beneficial thing a kid can participate in while they are growing up. Here scouts is essentially the same thing except boys and girls are together in a troop. I have a good amount of parental involvement and more kids then I will know what to do with, now I just need to get some teachers to help which is more difficult. I also am working on assessing the teachers needs through a survey I created to find out how I can better assist them. They are much more resistant to help from me than the kids and the administration so I believe I will have to work on building relationships and trust with them for quite a while longer before they will accept my help. I am also brainstorming ways to increase parental participation at the school events and especially at the PTA meetings. At the last meeting we offered an incentive for the parents to show up and it helped but we need something on a bigger scale so that is my next project. I am also on my school's sports committee and soon I will try to get more sports in our school and more consistency with those sports. I will be recruiting Cisco's help on this too, I think I am going to talk him into starting a girl's futbol team.
Also, Cisco and I are hoping to continue to be involved at Marla's House of Hope a foster home for abused children, primarily girls. We have gone twice on Friday night to chaperone their movie night and provide a snack and it is fun. We would really love to host a game night so we could hang out and talk more with the kids. Last week Adolfo got to go with us to movie night and meet the kids, it was a lot of fun.
Cisco's work is taking off as well, he is riding his bike all over the city to visit with all the school principals and try and get their school involved in the conflict resolution program. I believe he has several workshops coming up where he will present this training to the schools and that has been keeping him pretty busy.
I also forgot to mention that Cisco and I are taking Spanish classes. The Venezuelan Institute offers free spanish classes to people of all ages that apply and take a placement test. We both took the placement test and now are enrolled for 14 weeks of spanish classes, two classes a week. Every Tuesday we have to turn in an essay written in spanish and every Thursday we have an oral presentation on a news related topic. It is difficult but very beneficial.
Well I will post some pictures next chance I get but I hope you all enjoyed the update. I am going to post another post shortly on our wishlist since several people have been inquiring as to what we could most use in a care package.
Paz,
Kathryn
