This last Sunday I participated in my sixth race in the Puerto Rico 10k Challenge, the Aibonito Junior Runners 10k.
Aibonito is a small town high up in the mountains, where it’s always at least 5 degrees cooler than in San Juan. Since I signed up for the race, I kept thinking it was going to be a pretty relaxed race because of the weather and most of the memories I have of being in Aibonito when I was younger were during Christmas when it was cold.
I never took into consideration that it’s a mountain and it was not going to be an easy flat surface race, we would mostly be going up and down hills. I quickly realized that when we started the race running down hill and most of the beginning was downhill. I usually like to walk downhill but I like to start the race running so I was a little confused at first but I ran slowly. Later, people were telling me to loosen up and jog going down, that it was better for my knees; but I wasn’t worried about my knees, I was worried about falling.
I was trying to run for a mile, then walk for three minutes but it was a little difficult to keep that pace because I ran up every time there was a hill, and there were more than any race I have ever been to, and I tried to walk every time I was going down.
Along the route there were people cheering us on and they kept saying the next hill was the last or we had passed the last one. The first time, I got really excited but it quickly broke my heart when I saw another one.
Up until now, I thought Guatibiri del Otoao 10k in Utuado was the worst, but that was nothing compared to Aibonito; this was a whole new challenge. I went into this race thinking I could maybe beat my 10k personal record of 1:17:32 because of the weather, but I wasn’t even close. The reason wasn’t even going up all those hills, it’s not easy but I can do it; it was my ankle again. I still did the best I could do and kept going running even though the pain, but it still hurt a lot. I have been using the Tens 7000 and putting ice on it, taking Tylenol and resting.
But, even with my ankle pain, it wasn’t even close to being my slowest 10k either and I finished about a minute faster than Guatibiri. I finished in 1:24:18, seven minutes apart from both my fastest time and slowest 10k.
Apart from being very proud of myself, my friends and fellow Freddy’s Runners and everyone else who finished the race, I also have to congratulate the whole team who put this race together. This is only the second year this race has taken place and I’m very impressed at how organized it was. There were 10 different parking locations for participants, music at the beginning, different locations throughout the race, as well as the finish line.
There were 2,228 participants, and they were able to successfully organize them in corrals according to their finishing times in previous races to begin the race, clear the streets, have more than enough water available for runners in the many oasis along the route, as well as more have water and fruit available for all of us once we got to the finish line. This was better organized than some races that have been taking place for years.
I don’t think I will run in Aibonito again, I feel more tired after those 6.2 miles than I was after the 16 mile race, but I’m glad I did it. It was a very good experience with great weather, good to see Aibonito from a different perspective and it was more proof to myself that I can do more than I ever thought before.
