Marathon finish: Participants find multiple ways to recover over the weekend after dancing 26 hours

Sitting cross-legged listening to the closing speeches of Dance Marathon, Omar Arce couldn’t help but fall asleep.

It happened so quickly that paramedics standing by came over to check his vitals.

“I remember thinking, “˜Don’t go to sleep, Omar, don’t go to sleep,'” said Arce, a second-year international development studies student.

As the clock struck 1 p.m. on Sunday, 26 hours of standing and dancing officially came to a close. More than 800 Dance Marathon participants collapsed onto the floor of Ackerman Grand Ballroom, exhausted, muscles aching and beads of sweat on their foreheads.

They had raised more than $450,000 to help fight pediatric AIDS. After that, Arce and the hundreds of participants in the 11th annual Dance Marathon, put on by the Pediatric AIDS Coalition at UCLA, spent the rest of the long weekend recovering.

After composing himself and gathering his belongings from the storage room, Arce trekked back up to his dorm room in Sproul Hall. There, he showered and immediately went to sleep.

Other participants living on the Hill also had to make the long walk back to the dorms before they could rest their sore bodies.

“This was one of the more grueling times walking up Bruin Walk (to the Hill),” said Stephen Kraman, a second-year business economics student.

Before heading back to his dorm room in De Neve, Kraman walked into Westwood to get a foot massage. Kraman said he wanted to sleep more, but instead spent all day Monday studying for a midterm he has today.

But some students living off campus found ways to shorten their walk.

“I feel bad that other people had to walk back on their own,” said Kerryn McDonough, a fourth-year English student whose roommate drove her home after the event.

She then showered and fell asleep without eating. McDonough, who has scoliosis, said she planned to go to the chiropractor Monday to receive a saltwater treatment to help relieve her muscles.

Other students managed to balance their normal activities with their recovery from Dance Marathon.

Fourth-year civil engineering student Pavlo Chrysovergis, who also got a ride home to his apartment, went to a potluck for the American Society of Civil Engineers before getting some much-needed sleep.

“I’m doing OK,” Chrysovergis said. “I mean, I couldn’t do another Dance Marathon again today, but I feel better than I thought I would.”

Zoe Filippenko, a first-year environmental science student, said she immediately went to sleep after showering, but woke up a couple of hours later to go out to dinner with her family.

“I had never stayed up for that long,” she said. “So I was just in total funk.”

After waking up Monday morning, Filippenko said she almost felt back to normal.

Most dancers returned home to recover right away. But fifth-year psychology student Darren Hong and those who had helped plan the entire event ““ members of the Pediatric AIDS Coalition at UCLA ““ stayed behind for cleanup. Through emotional and physical exhaustion, committee members spent three hours sweeping, picking up trash and taking down decorations.

Hong, an executive director for the Pediatric AIDS Coalition, has volunteered at Dance Marathon for four years. He said he slept for about 17 hours after getting home.

Third-year biochemistry student Damond Ng said he slept for about 16 hours straight, only waking up to eat dinner.

When he woke up on Monday, Ng was in good spirits, even though he said his body was still very sore.

“In the end, I’ll probably end up with some rock-hard calves,” Ng said, laughing.