21.09 km = 13.1 mi.

To kick off the celebrations for the birthday of the saint of Antigua, Santiago de Los Caballeros, there was a half marathon in town last weekend. Already a completely busier place on the weekends than during the week, Antigua was swarming with people. It seemed like everyone was out and about all weekend long - maybe that's one of the affects a canícula has on people!

The medio maraton Las Rosas (half marathon) was held early Saturday morning. About 2 weeks before the big event, Ben got wind of it and decided that he was going to run. He's a natural athlete and has previously run 1 marathon in Ft. Collins a few years back, but he has a bit of a problem over comitting.....usually to work....which kind of got in the way of his training as of laterly. So even though he didn't get many practice runs in, he decided he'd still compete and of course I was there as the support team!

Check out the crowd at the finish line.

I stood on my tip toes for at least 30 mintues, absolutely positive that he would pass by any minute. It didn't take long for me to make friends with a couple of taller Guatemalan men standing nearby and they kept a good lookout for Ben's bright yellow shirt for me (a lot of other people seemed to have had the same yellow shirt idea...not so unique!). Before I even had a chance to shout out a "whoo hoo", he sped by me finishing the race in 1 hour and 37 minutes. Not bad for guy who didn't get in much practice on the cobblestone streets of Antigua.

Luckily I did have time to capture a photo right before he crossed the finish line!

He ran the first half of the race with Brandon, who decided to participate just the night before.
What a great weekend!