Jigger, what?!

So, today was the 7th Annual Kigali Peace Marathon (Contrary to the announcer continually saying it was the "70th").  Naturally, all 30+ of us running stayed up way to late last night, woke up way to early and then proceeded to get to the Amahoro stadium about an hour and a half prior to the actual start of the race.  Why? Because...we tend to run on time/early and everyone else, no offense, doesn't.  Long story short, people started filing in, we all got shuffled outside for a random half hour, we thoguht for forced warmups, and then got funneled back into the stadium for the race to actually start.  Full marathon started first, then the half/relay people and finally the "fun run" people.  About an hour later, Nora came running in (first leg of my relay) and then I was off.  Now, I've been training, kind of, for this and things were going pretty well.  Then, the last hill came and I wanted to die.  BUT, I finished, ran 11km (about 6.5 miles) and now my feet hurt.  Well, that's a lie, my entire body hurts but it was definitely worth it.

The more exciting part of the day though was realizing this morning that I had a new friend residing in my foot.  Yes, I finally got the infamous jiggers our PCMO's always talk about during training.  And I know where I got it too, when I was stuck in Kigali in a pouring rainstorm for 4 hours in flipflops where my feet turned black and were gross.  Basically, here's what jiggers are:  They are little tiny bugs that burrow into the skin of your feet and then take up residence there and start laying eggs.  It basically looks like a wart except it gets really itchy and hurts.  I caught it early though, so it was only a little bit annoying.  So, me and my jigger did the relay and then came back to the Peace Corps office where Dr. Laurent sliced a nice hole in my foot and evicted said jigger from its newfound home.  So now I have a hole in my foot, but that's okay.

I would love to write you a more detailed, entertaining post about my life and weekend and pictures and stuff but I'm honestly too exhausted to even think/move.  So, all you get it a blurb about the race and an entertaining story.  Don't worry you'll be okay, you won't get jiggers.