The end or the beginning?
Ok, so I am done. It is a great feeling and I want to thank all of you who sponsored me. In addition, a few brave souls came down to DC just to cheer us on. Thanks Nidhi, Godfrey, Rachel, and others!But it was not without event. I had a million things wrong go wrong before the race.
1. I left my shoes in Calgary and could only buy a pair just before so I did not have a chance to break them in.
2. I had the worst head cold.
3. We could not find the Asha marathon tent and so had a panic session.
4. My shins hurt!!!
But!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That did not stop me from having a lot of fun during the race. There were so many people. The atmosphere was incredible. It started by a V22 Osprey fly-over at the starting line. (This is one of the few vertical take off and landing aircrafts in the world beside the harrier jet. (http://www.navair.navy.mil/v22/) It is often touted as one of the most flexible aircrafts in the world.) Symbolic?
I did not have any set running partners but instead, I found a great running partner at the beginning of the race whom I had my first Asha run with. His name is Lok and he is the Asha NYC/NJ Treasurer. His time and expectations were very similar to mine. The most important thing was just to finish. If we came in at 5:30, then that was ok, but just finish!
At the beginning of the race, they divided the runners into two parallel roads. Lok and I went on the left road. Before merging, I noticed that the left road went up a little hill and down again whereas the right road did not. I chuckled to myself at that point because I thought - what else could happen?? At the end of the split, there were a couple of heavily armed army units next to a truck that had metal sidings on it. These units had incredibly big rifles and ski masks. They scared the bejesus out of me.
Ok, enough small talk, I will keep the rest of the story high level. The first couple of miles were not a problem. I was getting into the swing of things and we made it a pledge to start slow. Remember, that our goal was to finish. The first part of the race included a big hill. That was a piece of cake. The time it started getting more challenging was on mile 9. For some reason I became very hungry. My stomach started to rumble. I chugged some of the goos a little early but figured that it was better this way. Then, at mile 13, I hit my wall. What????????????? In practice, this happened at mile 18-20. Lok also was having a little trouble but we managed to push each other on when needed. Thanks Lok. Also, we had the Asha people cheer us on in strategic locations. I saw a "Go Yesh" sign at mile 10 (?). This helped me quite a bit.
I chugged through up to mile 18 and then felt awful. We went through a park and noticed that there were no spectators to watch or cheer. It was just us with our thoughts. The good thing is that the few spectators that did exist were very loud. We walked/jogged this part but made sure that we were always moving or stretching.Nidhi and gang then met us at the beginning of the bridge. This was bittersweet. I knew that it was the beginning of the end but it also had some vertical points to it. They ran us over the bridge and during it, we saw the new monument that Bush inaugurated. I am not sure what it was called and was not focused that much on it but it looked cool. This marine beside us was telling us all about it.
We then went through the Target tunnel at mile 22. Incredible. My sister's favourite store came out with my favourite item. As you ran through the tunnel, there was loud music playing and there were pictures of people running. Incredible.
On mile 24, I got my second wind. (A little late Mr. wind!!) With the end in sight, I kicked it into 5th gear. I was passing people left, right, and center. I was so excited, that I ran over a grass spot that was covering a hole. I did not have the energy to keep myself upright and so I fell to the floor. The person whom I was passing helped me up. That was very nice of him. He asked me if I was ok and all I could say was "I will run it off". I thought to myself, I will hurt later but just finish this thing now. The last half mile was very painful but the most rewarding. I saw the finish line and finally the end of the four months of training was over. I swore to never ever do something as foolish as this but now, I am undecided whether or not I will do it again.
Thanks everyone for their support and donations. I can honestly say that everybody I know helped me to finish this in some way.
posted by Yesh at
10:37 AM
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