Three students in the Buenos Aires overseas program are heading to Chile this weekend to run in the Santiago Marathon.
On Sunday Zack Jenkins will take on the 26.2-mile marathon while Tyler Arrington and Erin Flowers will run the half-marathon. For all three it is their first-ever attempt at those distances.
The course starts and loops around downtown Santiago which was struck by an 8.8 magnitude earthquake Feb. 27. Although there was some question about whether or not the marathon would still take place the earthquake didn’t stop the event.
“I e-mailed the race committee to check and see if the race was still on; they replied that it would be Jenkins said. My main concerns were if the roads were going to be torn up and the transportation like if the airport would be functional to get to Santiago but Chile is a very organized country. I was there last week for Easter break and you can barely even tell there was an earthquake.”
Jenkins said the earthquake even had some positive outcomes for those running in the marathon. “There was no road or building damage and there is literally no effect or change to the race plans he said. If anything the earthquake helped in lowering the prices to fly to Chile so that Erin Tyler and I could find cheap flights directly to Santiago from Buenos Aires.”
All three runners have different reasons for entering the marathon and are anticipating different aspects of the event.
“I’m pretty excited for the T-shirt Arrington said.
Flowers said she is looking forward to the novelty of the experience. I’m excited to see how a race is run in a different country and to run with foreigners she said.
For Jenkins, the completion of the marathon will be a long-term goal finally met.
I knew when I applied to Pepperdine that I wanted to study abroad in South America Jenkins said, and when I heard that the cross-country runners that study abroad down here generally run a marathon it clicked that running a marathon in Chile was always near the top of my bucket list and this would be a great opportunity to do it. Once I was accepted and decided to go to Pepperdine all I had to do was come here and actually do it— so here I am. I’m excited to do it and have it be the pinnacle experience of my study-abroad year.”
“Originally I wanted to set a new personal record but I wasn’t as meticulous as I should have been in my training Jenkins said. So now my goal is simply to run at a competitive pace and enjoy the experience.”
Flowers and Arrington said they aren’t quite as sure they are going to “enjoy” the experience but are excited nonetheless. “Seeing as how [Flowers] has shin splints and I have Lateral IT Band Syndrome we both just want to finish Arrington said. We had already bought tickets and registered so now we have to go but we are so stoked.”
