I hope this cambodes well: i did not in fact win the marathon...

Exercising is a common part of a PCV's life in Cambodia. Whether it's going on runs, playing sports with Khmer friends or kids, working out with youtube in your room, or most commonly bike riding, all PCVs partake in some way or another. Even if that person was never a regular excersizer in America, the majority do here out of a combination of excessive free time and the desire to move their body to break from the seated inertia we experience throughout most hours of the day. Exercising (hatt pbraan) is not common for Khmer people and I had to establish myself as a regular hatt pbraaner when I first arrived at site several months ago. My family, as mentioned in past posts, is very understanding of my differences and doesn't question my desire to bike just for exercise or go on runs that turn my face bright red. They know that it is good for one's health and couple the immense amounts of rice I eat with my appetite established through regular workouts. The rest of my town continues to be fascinated by my runs which has prompted me to listen to music in order to tune out the attention I draw for a) being a barang and b) exercising. If I choose to walk a block rather than bike, I'm always asked if I'm exhausted ("hot dtay?"=are you tired??) I was able to explain for the past month that I was exercising to prepare for the Angkor Wat International Half Marathon which would be 21 km. Most students, co-teachers and my family would ask me if I were going to win the race. I would always disappoint them with the truth that it was pretty unlikely that I would, but I was sure to finish it. They were fairly uninterested in this answer and were usually left a bit perplexed as to why I would run the race. They did understand that the allure of this race was probably so I could see some of the temples in the Angkor Wat complex as Khmer people understand this to be the central destination for all tourists/foreigners in Cambodia.

The race took place on Sunday, December 2nd, and I was pretty scared as I came down with a sudden knee pain the few days before. As a person who rarely experiences body issues, it freaked me out and the timing was pretty terrible. I was pretty certain that I wouldn't be able to run as I had trouble walking more than a few blocks without pain, but I headed off to Angkor Wat with about 12 other PCVs who were also running the race at 5:30 AM. My friend Meghan, whose excellent blog about the history of our run is below, made sure that I got my knee wrapped with an ace bandage prior to starting. It worked wonders and I was able to finish the race with no pain at all. The stats of my run were the following: finished 449 out of 840 women who completed the race, 1221 out of 1894 overall and completed the 21 km in 2 hours and 25 minutes. I have never been concerned about my time when running, so I was really happy to have this experience running through the ruins and making it all the way through. I took some running shots, as I refused to stop to take a picture, which can be found on my flickr in addition to the few here. This was my first touristy experience in Cambodia so far, and although I did not take my time inside any temples, which I greatly look forward to doing in the future, I am very happy to have been part of this event. My family was also very proud when I brought home my heavy medal that said "finisher". I tried to explain that everyone who completed the race received one of these, but I just ended up telling them that I won anyway. I think they understood I was joking...

Meghan's blog about the specifics of the temples we saw: http://henshallincambodia.blogspot.com/2012/12/chasing-history.html