unstoppablemaria

This weekend was my fourth race in the Puerto Rico 10k Challenge, the Del Carmen 10k in Hatillo. I had no idea what to expect from this race, how many people would be there, if it would have hills or mountains, absolutely nothing. I did hear that it was a great race, but I didn’t realize just how popular it was, until we got there and immediately found traffic. Regardless of this, my friend who…

This year I have been signing up for a lot more 10k races than 5ks. Last year I ran three; this morning I ran my fifth this year, so far, the San Juan Bautista 10k. I started at an easy pace, still unsure if I wanted to take a quick walking break after reaching every mile  or half a mile. I couldn’t decide so I kept running until I got to the first oasis. After that I walked for about a…

My coach had the whole running group in suspense when he announced this Saturday’s long run would be a surprise. I was a little scared, thinking maybe it was a crazy amount of repetitions mixed with something else. We were put at ease when he announced during the week that we were running a 5k with an easy route. It never crossed my mind that there would be any other surprises, I just focused on…

Last week I did something that I had been thinking about for a while but was still unsure about; I signed up for my second half-marathon. This is a big deal, at least to me, because it’s not just any half-marathon; I signed up for San Blas, probably the hardest half-marathon in Puerto Rico. San Blas began as a 3 mile race for Puerto Rican athletes, organized by the fraternity Delta Phi Delta in…

For my Saturday long run, I usually like to go somewhere I won’t be running on the street, so I usually went to Viejo San Juan, the path by the river in Bayamón, and even the old sugar plantation in Canovanas. Some of the other places my group go to were a little scary for me because you run on the street.  This weekend they were going to one of them, Jajome. I had been thinking about going…

Ever since my EEG last month, I have been so sure that I was going to have very positive results, maybe even having the possibility of being able to lower my dosage. It has been stable for so long, I thought maybe the activity had finally started to become less.  I believed and hoped that, until Wednesday night, the night before my appointment to get the results.That’s when I got nervous that he…

I don’t usually make plans on Sunday night, I like getting enough sleep and waking up in time to go to work on Monday, but I was forced to make an exception last night because I had the chance to see Maroon 5 in concert. I was very excited when they first announced they were coming back to Puerto Rico. I had already missed them twice; the first time because I couldn’t afford it and the second…

Like most of my Saturdays for the last year, I went on a long run yesterday, except this one felt even more special than the others . It wasn’t just because I was running for the first time along an old sugar mill in Canovanas, open just for runners, walkers or cyclists. Or because I didn’t have the distractions of cars nearby, and the view of the river was amazing so early in the morning. It…

This month I signed up for three 10k races, three weeks in a row. After I signed up for all three, I got a little nervous that it might be too much for me. I was afraid I might get hurt or too tired and would burnout after the second one, or even during the last one. I was told this one, El Guatibiri del Otoao, used to be a half marathon but was later changed to a 10k because it was too much. But…

Every year in April, Colegio San Gabriel, a school for deaf children, hosts a 10k race in San Juan. My running group gets really involved in this race and most people either run or volunteer to help. Last year I didn’t run because I already had another 10k and thought it was going to be too much so I volunteered giving out the medals after the race.  Even though I didn’t run, the thought of…

After I got the EEG placed (glued) on my head yesterday, I was able to come home where I had to avoid sweating or getting any water on the electrodes in my head. Water makes the image blurry when they are reading the result. Not sweating in Puerto Rico means being in air conditioning and that was a sacrifice I was more than willing to take.  If I was going to be inside without being able to do…

At 11 years seizure free, I still can’t escape one thing, the EEG, but here I am again, sitting at the packed neurologist’s office, waiting for my turn.  I’ve gotten enough electroencephalograms to know the drill. The first part is the preparation, wash my hair well before my appointment but don’t put any products on it; this makes it easier to place the electrodes in it. It’s also better to…

This weekend I completed the Hunger 10k, second race in the 10K Challenge I started in January. We started in El Caracol and finished in El Parque Agroturistico Ecologico (Agroturistic Ecological Park) in Dorado. There were some complications with the parking lot before the race so it started a little late. There were no clouds so the sun was shining, and even though we were running down a road…

I’m very excited to say that as of today, April 8, 2026,  I am 11 years seizure free! It’s hard to explain exactly how I feel but it makes me so happy to be able to write this every year.  As always, I wouldn’t dare take all the credit for this, which wouldn’t be possible without the help and support from my family and my neurologist who prescribed the medications that have made this possible.…

This year for Easter Weekend, my family decided to change our usual destination from the south west of Puerto Rico to the south east to the island of Vieques. This surprise change was exciting because I had not been there for more than a day in almost 15 years. Three days there would give us time to enjoy the beautiful beaches in the island.  Surprisingly, we were able to find rooms in a hotel…

This Sunday I ran my fourth race of the year and my race for the month of March, the San Patricio (Saint Patrick) 5k.. This time, I joined four of my coworkers who had asked me to find a race we could do together. I chose this one because it’s a very well known race and I knew it would be well organized and we wouldn’t have problems.  This was the second time I did this race, but this year was…