Today was the CONREDE track meet. It pits the doctors, lawyers, engineers, nurses, accountants, etc. against each other on the track and field. I went into the 1500m planning on winning the event since I can usually run it 10 or 15 seconds faster than last year's winning time. Unfortunately, I got an asthma attack about half way into the event and didn't even finish. How embarrassing! For the last two months I've been forced to quit really hard runs because I can't breathe. I've seen a lung doctor and even did a treadmill test with a cardiologist and it appears to be exercise-induced asthma. I guess I'll have to stick with the longer, slower runs or the really short ones (100m to 400m) that don't give the asthma time to close my bronchii. Our team coach had been encouraging me to throw the shotput at the event, so I was signed up for it. I've only thrown the shotput once before in my life at a school 'Parents Olympics', so I don't really know what I'm doing. All the other competitors signing up for the event were bigger than me (not a very common occurance in Peru). I was chatting with a team mate before the event who looked like an olympic shotputter. "I'm not very good, he said. It's all technique." I was dubious. He looked like he could throw me 10 meters and a shotput probably much further. God has a sense of humor. I won the event. I'm not convinced it was due to my great technique, as you can see below:
