Cherry Blossom 10 Miler

Five days before the Cherry Blossom -10 miler (http://www.cherryblossom.org) was supposed to take place; I was offered the opportunity to run the race in someone else’s place.  “A friend of a friend” was not able to participate in the race, so I bought his bib for $40.00.  The Cherry Blossom is one of those races that sold out right away and to make it worse you enter through a lottery.  I hesitated for second; checked my agenda and noticed that my long run that weekend was 11 miles.  In addition, to participate in the run you must finish within 2:20 minutes with a pace of 14miles/hr or a bus will pick you up.  That was a lot of pressure. I decided to do it and told myself to treat it as a regular run and not to become competitive and run faster than I am used to.  In the past, I would run fast and burn out quickly but with my training lately I have been going slow (11 miles per hour) in order to have more endurance.  

Saturday night arrived and I could not sleep at all.  It was frustrating but I have always been like this on the night before anything big (e.g. first day of school, a new job etc.).  I finally gave up around 4am when Safa woke up for nursing.  Fed her and started getting ready.  My friend Lily came around 6:00am, parked her vehicle at our place and I drove to DC.  We were worried that we could not find parking but we got lucky and found the perfect parking spot which meant we had plenty of time to stay in the cold.  OMG it was freezing but as soon as we started running it was much better.

The race did not start till 730 a.m.  There were approximately 15, 000 runners, it was nice to see so many different people with one common goal.  Runners were assigned to a color-coded starting corral based on previous race times.  Colors on bib numbers matched starting corrals.  There were six waves of approximately 2, 500 runners each.  The waves started at three to five minute intervals.  Lily and I were little over the half a mile mark when we saw the first person (a Kenyan) coming back from his run.  OMG they are like machines!  I saw a shirt someone was wearing with the slogan “run like you’re a Kenyan” but there is no way I could ever run like that.   I was so proud of my African brothers. How in the world do they do it?  We all started shouting and clapping.  The support and encouragement we got from the volunteers and people on the sides was sweet and motivating. Half of the time I was busy reading the signs of encouragement and made the task of running so much easier. 

I cannot lie. It was hard.  I was feeling it by mile seven and on the back of my mind I was thinking “how in the world I am going to do 26.1 miles when I am having such hard time at 7miles??”  I was true to my goal and stayed with the 10 -11 minutes per mile pace.  If I saw myself going faster I would slow down and if I was going too slowly I would pick up the pace.  Lily stayed with me the whole time although I think she could have gone faster if she wanted, that was really sweet of her.  We were not talking at all expect once in a while.  I was listening to my book and she was listening to her music.    I started feeling pain on the inner side of my foot right near the big bone.  My feet were also burning.  I ignored the pain and focused on my number one rule “DO NOT WALK”.  Lol, seriously it is amazing how some times the mind is the one that needs the controlling in order to ensure goals are achieved.  Too bad I cannot use my mind to stop eating sweets.  Maybe I will practice that this week. …

Finally we finished the race.  Lily did warn me to save some energy for the last part as it is a hill and thank God she told me because it was brutal.  Two things that stayed with me the most were seeing a girl on the floor being helped by medicals.  She had so much blood all over her face. Not sure what happened to her.  Maybe she was pushed or cut off by someone who was cutting around others.  I hope she is okay.  The second thing was that close to the finish line a guy was on his knee proposing to his girlfriend.  It was so sweet and touching. She was crying and he had the ring and on his knee.  Near them on the side was what I assumed to be their friends and family and they had signs with them.  How sweet was that?  Who would ever forget such proposal?  Our time was 1.49:37 and at a pace of 10.58.  I was happy with the results.

I got home and right away had to get Safa ready for her swimming class.  I did not really think much of the race or the pain on my feet at that point.  While Safa and her dad where in the pool I applied ice to my foot (inner side was the most pain).  We got home, after a bath and lunch Safa and I both went to sleep.  I twisted and turned for a while and text messaged friends who were sweet to send messages of congratulations, and finally slept for few hours.  I was out of commission for the rest of the day. 

This morning I woke up and no more pain on my foot but my thighs are sore. If I sit for a while getting up is painful. I am going to see if I can schedule a massage for today or tomorrow.  No workout for me today.  Going to enjoy my rest day and run some errands at lunch. 

My friend Ahmed sent me a documentary about marathons to watch and I watched it last night. It was so emotional that it made me cry but at the same time also made me aware of the difficult task ahead of me.  Doing a marathon is not easy and the physical and psychological aspects can be overwhelming.  If you guys have time I strongly suggest you watch it. http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/marathon-challenge.

p.s. my darling daughter is walking. It is so cute but now that she discovered walking that is all she wants to do.  Love her!!!!