As I’ve said all the time – sleep is everything.
I’m used to working 7pm – 5am… in California (so 10pm – 8am Ohio time). It was actually a very hard choice to know if I should try to sleep during the day, stay up all night, and treat the half marathon as a workout before bed – or just do my best to sleep at night and wake up in the morning.
I went for sleep at night, knowing I’d feel better rested. I went to bed around 9pm, woke up around 11pm. I laid awake, doing my best to fall asleep – looking at the clock about every hour until I ended up going to sleep somewhere in the 3 o’clock hour.
Basically, all that to say sleeping like a normal person = so rough. But, I woke up and the adrenaline/excitement was enough to make it work.
I’d won an entry to this race, so I used it as a great excuse to visit my family. My dad drove me to the race. (It’s always nice to be chauffeured – especially by your dad.)
As I waited for the race to start, I saw that the trash cans along the starting road had all be saran-wrapped off hardcore with signs that they were temporarily out of service. (If people come across this post years from now and don’t know what that’s about – there was a bomb by a trash can at the Boston Marathon less than a month ago.)
Security was out and about in full force. I even saw a guy with gear that said bomb squad. I tried to take a picture of him, but he was too fast for me! He was walking along the sidewalks, being super alert, talking to people on his walkie.
The Cap City half was incredibly serious about security. There are almost always a lot of police officers at races, plus a big medical staff. But there was so many police officers, firefighters, and medics – I felt like I was the President of the United States running this race.
Before the start of the race, we took a moment of silence for the victims of the Boston Marathon, and then they played Sweet Caroline, which I thought was a really nice touch.
And the crowd was riled up! As we started, I heard people chanting “USA! USA!” I also heard some people say, “We are not afraid!”
The energy was absolutely incredible. And I felt a little emotional with all of that going on. Intellectually, I know that just running a race isn’t doing anything for the people of Boston (not unless you’re fundraising for them while doing it, which I wasn’t (though I did donate to 6 fundraising pages)).
Even though I knew that it wasn’t going to personally affect any Boston people to run this race – I still felt the energy of “We are doing this, remembering those of you who can’t right now.” And, “We are doing this to continue to show your strength and that we are not afraid!”
(Even though the Boston tragedy is really not all that super personal to me since I wasn’t there, it will always feel a little personal, since I lived there 3 years ago – right there, only about 2 blocks away. And I loved seeing the runners. I even complained the day before the Boston Marathon this year of how badly I wished I were staying in my old apartment, walking over to the finish. I walked in the spot of the bombing almost every day when I lived there. And I had so many friends in the city, or involved in the race. So, even though it didn’t directly affect my life, it, of course, hurts my heart. Back Bay will always feel a little bit like home, as will marathon-running. So, the whole thing is just…(no words))
But back to our race at hand – and the insane energy of the runners and the crowd! The people on the sidelines were absolutely incredible. I even saw a bunch of people in Boston gear. It felt very much like a really loving, strong, fearless, awesome community out there. And I appreciate every spectator so much!
And I will pick up here tomorrow.