Rachel's Marathon Blog

Tackling the first marathon...

Saturday, May 21, 2005

day at the beach


day at the beach
Originally uploaded by rachelita2.
One week until I leave for an extended trip... to Morocco. I've been going to Morocco ever since a study abroad program got me hooked in college more than ten years ago. I went to grad school to study Morocco further, and lived there for two years while doing my fieldwork. I met my husband there, on an earlier visit. Now we have his family to visit, and I have some research to do-- so my trip is going to be equal parts work and pleasure.

When I lived there from 2001-02, running was a bit of a challenge. We didn't live in one of the more cosmopolitan cities (Rabat or Casablanca), where the sight of a female jogger would not be out of the ordinary. There was one place in the city of Fes to run, an abandoned race track for horses, and I had to get there very early, say, 6 a.m., when the heart patients who'd been told by their doctors to exercise were walking around. Any later than seven and the unemployed stoners would already be up in the bleachers, and I might have some unwelcome company on my run, some guy trying to pick me up.

Morocco is not a country where most of the women are veiled. On the contrary, a visitor would see just as many women in jeans or short skirts as women wearing headscarved. You can see from this picture a typical day at a very crowded beach-- where women are in bathing suits just like they would be here. Women and men now attend college in equal numbers, and women are a significant presence in the workforce.

Yet still, there's something about running that women just don't seem to do in equal numbers as the men, which is too bad, because as you know, some of the best runners in the world are Moroccan. So sometimes I'd get tired of fighting off the men who thought I was out to get picked up (wearing sweatpants even in the summer, and modest t-shirts) and I joined an exercise club, where I could run on the treadmill to my heart's content. There were lots of exercise clubs in Fes, but the newest sensation when I lived there was American Steel Fitness. The owners were Moroccan-American, and they'd imported all their equipment from the US at great cost. (The funny thing was that many of the female members didn't want to use the weight machines because they were convinced they'd get big muscles like a man, no matter what they were told). There were aerobics classes, too, although for the most part, they were never as tough as exercise classes are in the US. I had a lot of fun at that club, though, so I plan to check it out when I go back and see how it's doing.

Unfortunately, I may not feel like braving the harassment to get much running done, unless I can convince my husband (who has knee issues) to go with me. I may take a lot of walks with my mother-in-law. But my running is going to be winding down considerably for the summer now. Maybe that's a good thing-- give everything time to heal, and while all of you Northerners are enjoying your full running schedules, I'll live vicariously through you. I'll try to report back whenever possible, although I may be doing more cooking and eatingthan running for awhile...

5 Comments:

At 1:42 PM, Blogger David said...

Sounds like Morocco is very important to your mental and familial health. Dwell on that and don't worry about running too much. We'll be here when you get back! Have fun.

 
At 9:35 AM, Blogger Mia Goddess said...

Heavenly! Sounds like a beautiful balance. In fact, does that not seem to be a theme in your life? It's definitely the snapshot I get of you here - you seem to balance your food (yummy pics, btw!) with your running, your job (work hard all year) with your family (play hard all summer), etc. I don't know. I don't know if that's how you see yourself, as balanced, but from here, it's pretty inspiring!

Enjoy and come back safely.
Mia

 
At 6:38 PM, Blogger brent said...

very interesting post. i didn't know that stuff about Morocco. speaking of which, have a good time over there!

 
At 8:16 AM, Blogger Jon (was) in Michigan said...

Wow, that's sounds pretty exciting! Hope you find a chance to update from there.

And how did I miss the food blog?! I almost died when I saw the cheesecake. OMG. Now I know what I want for lunch! :)

 
At 2:58 PM, Blogger April Anne said...

Have a wonderful time and ENJOY the food!

 

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