Before I forget about these moments, Thought it’s best to document them. The days preceding the marathon are super emotionally charged. They’re filled with tears, laughs, pain, support and love.
Why did I choose to run 42.195KM? to escape anxiety attacks..
What am I having lately? Anxiety Attacks.
I decided to label them “Good Anxiety Attacks”, meaning they’re the good kind, the one that comes with a lot of readiness, preparation and boost. Someone compared them to anxiety you get before a final exam, one you prepared for really well. At 31 I realized I never had the good kind of anxiety attacks before, meaning I never really studied for an exam before (Go Figure!)
Psychology plays a big role on Marathon week, it sometimes succeeds to manifest itself in actual physical symptoms. Unfortunately for me, the physical symptoms turned out to be real ones, no matter how much I tried convincing myself they’re not real..They are real.
5 days before the marathon, on a casual 8KM run, I felt an excruciating knee pain. After having it checked it turned out I have patellofemoral pain syndrome and ITB. I still don’t know what all this truly means as I don’t have the luxury of time to thoroughly research it ( Big google fan ), but in a nutshell, the pain in my right knee is very much real with no time to heal before the marathon.
To keep my mind away from the pain that awaits me on Marathon day I decided to sleep early on Tuesday night, only to wake up with the worst flu on Wednesday morning.
Let’s not panic Safa- I told myself as I went to the pharmacy to get some extra med on top of the meds and vitamins I am taking
I know this is all super sad to read, but now the cool part begins! See, all the days marathoners don’t talk about are similar to the whole experience of giving birth ( not literally)- No one tells you about the pain, the drama, the tears. Just looking at this gorgeous newborn will make you forget about the whole screams and shouts..
The medal is a baby…It will be my baby at least:)
Oh, I forgot to tell you about the tears..There will be tears! I cry every day, but I also call these salty water drops:” Good motivators”. I mean think about, why would you cry over something meaningless? So the marathon means a lot, training for the marathon meant a lot.
Some Pre Marathon day advices, according to the #Happyturtle
- Quality time with the team!
The team you trained with for the 3-4 months before your marathon are the most important people in your life at the moment. They’ve seen you at your worst, your best, your good running days and bad running days. Plus they are with you on the course, You need familiar faces, actually you need lots of familiar faces on the run
2. Remember your training days
Even though it’s been 2 days since your last training run, and though it’s still somehow training mode, but the tough training days are over. All that horrible speed work where you wanted to just drop dead and quit are now behind you. Somehow, you find yourself remembering those days with lots of happiness. Your coach screaming “Yallaaaaa”, your teammates cheering you on at the end of a 5K fast paced run, Your facebook friends liking your training photos, your mom saying ” I can’t believe you’re still waking up at 4:30am, thought you’d have given up by now”..All these moments made today happen, all these moments contributed to your readiness today to face the 42KM
3. Find your mantra
I am a big fan of two lines. One my coach uses : ” FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED” and one Maryanne keeps using in her comments on my photos : ” YOU GOT THIS”. I love both these lines and I keep repeating them to myself every single day!
4. Find some Love
To me, it’s family and friends. I remember alot of people who made a difference in my life on my long runs, and can’t wait to dedicate my kms to each and everyone of them this Sunday!
5. Watch “Friends” reruns
Laughter helps alot in easing all the worrying, any friends season would do, Phoebe and Joey are awesome and do a great job in making me forget all about D-Day
Till Nov 8!
