Our Corre Story

Many weeks ago, we mentioned that we were hard at work training for the Nike 10K, a race held throughout Central and South America on the 12th of November. Our host, Carlos, talked us into entering with him and––not wanting to seem like total wusses––we grudgingly agreed. We’re now just five days away from the big event, so I thought I’d post with an update about how we’ve been progressing with our training.

The place where we’ve found to run is a small park just a few blocks from where we’re living in Belgrano. We know from cryptic signs and Carlos’s assurances that the park is exactly 1.3K in circumference, and we’ve tailored our sessions accordingly. On the weekends the park plays host to a lively feria, which means that we have rabbits on leashes, tents with leather goods, and bad reggae blaring from loudspeakers to help keep us company. Other evenings, our only entertainment is dodging the heaping piles of dog shit.

Now, although Emily has a long history of running competitively, those who know me know that I am happy to hike, bike, and swim great distances, but that running’s not really my bag. That said, the mortal fear of keeling over dead in front of thousands of screaming portenos has inspired me to be diligent about getting my laps in. For a while we were running 7 and 8 kilometers every other day or so, but last week we experienced a mysterious tapering off. Some lethal combination of rain, laziness, and $2 bottles of wine at El Viejo Lobo kept us away from the park for over a week. This morning, when Carlos popped his head into our room and announced that he had just finished running 12 kilometers, we knew that it was time to get back on the horse.

We just finished six laps around the feria, with plans of running a couple of more times before Sunday. On the way back home, we ran into Carlos on the street. He was pleased to see us sweaty and sore, and interrogated us about how many times around the park we’d gone. We told him only six, and he looked kind of disappointed, but Emily quickly assured him that we had done so in record time. In all of our previous conversations about running, time has not really been a factor. I’m worried that Emily is broaching dangerous new ground here, but we’ll see how it plays out.

All said, I think I’m swearing off the Lobo for the week. The vino tinto can wait; I’ve got my dignity to maintain. -NSH