Tuesday, June 1, 2010

After thoughts




Last night, I had to drive to Ottawa for a course I am taking. My drive took me over the Pretoria Bridge and as I looked down, I was once again flooded with memories of the run. I have been on cloud 9 since Sunday and I haven't wanted to come down from my high for fear that returning to day-to-day life will feel like a big letdown. I'm also afraid that if I come down from my high, I will lose the strong emotions that have carried me since the race, and that I will be left feeling empty. In short, I'm experiencing the post-race blues.

In honour of my achievement, and to try to keep the feelings alive and strong in me, I have decided to put my medal on the wall in front of my desk. I've given it a place of honour in a room I spend a lot of time working in, and I hope that seeing it day after day will continue to give me the inspiration, the self-confidence and the drive to take on new challenges, spread my wings, take a leap of faith and soar. When I intently look at it, or when it catches my eyes, I hope it reignites the feelings I have that I can do anything in the world, and I will remember all the moments that still make me smile. These include: 

- Holding hands with Tyler as we started the race. Sharing this experience with my husband will always be one of my top moments. Running together has brought us closer and I am so grateful for his unconditional support and faith in my abilities;

- Talking with Yolande: An older lady we had never met, who asked us for directions to the green corral. She must have been in her seventies and with a bib on her shirt was also getting ready to take part in the race. I regret that I didn't ask her if she was walking or running it, but I thought of her many times during our race.

- Taking a moment to look and take in the picture as we ran past Parliament: Running past this landmark was very symbolic of the journey I have taken in my life from moving to Canada to study, to becoming a Canadian citizen. And on race day, Parliament was truly mine. How many people can really say that they stopped traffic and forced road closures so they could take a stroll in front of Parliament? I can :)

- Seeing a Poutine truck on the route: If I hadn't  been so set on my goal, I would definitely have taken a moment to chow down a Poutine! Who needs energy drinks after that?!

- Running on bridges: This one might  be silly, but there is something quite amazing about crossing a river while running Bridges have always fascinated me (I had to have a wedding picture taken on a bridge) and crossing two bridges while running the half-marathon was like icing on my cake. Not to mention the incredible panorama of the Ottawa landscape seen from the bridges.

- Wolf Pack Man: While running on the Gatineau side, I spotted an elderly gentleman running in front of me. He was hunched over from age, but his legs were going strong and I never caught up to him. I'm not sure how old he truly was, but his t-shirt made me laugh: in big, bold, black letters he was annoucing that he belonged to the Wolf Pack. How cool is that? And though it may sound like a Twilight/Jacob reference to some of you, I swear I wasn't thinking about it at the time :)

- High-Fiving the kids: No matter how much pain I was in, I couldn't help but run to the kids lining the sides of the street who were stretching their hands out and hoping for a high-five. They were as eager to high-five us, as I was to feed off their energy. And thank God for their energy! It carried me the last few kilometers.

- Clever signs: People can be so creative with their signs of encouragements. A few come to mind: "Free high-fives", "Suck it up Princess", "Marry Me!", and "In my dreams, I'm Kenyan." There was also a very inspiring quote that almost brought me to tears and really inspired me to keep going. Unfortunately, I don't remember the exact words but I'm determined to find it. The essence of it was that success is not necessarily crossing the finish line, but having the courage to start.

- Catching a sight of the finish line: While that one might be obvious, it really does have a powerful resonance. Nothing compares to seeing the finish, hearing the crowds, catching a glimpse of the clock and trying to make one final effort to race against time.

- Post-race photo and stretching: I'm very excited to see the photos of the race and I'm so glad we got one of the photographers on site to take our picture with our medals. This will be the official picture once I get my hands on it. Stretching afterwards felt so amazing and such a reward.

- Showing my medal to Jaime: When Jaime caught glimpse of my gold-colored medal, her first reaction was: "Oh my God Mom, did you win?" So I replied: "Yes, I did! and so did all the other runners."

I'm sure more moments will come to mind but these really stand out as my favourites. I would have loved to have my camera and to have taken pictures of those moments so I could share them with you, but racing and taking pictures at the same time is one type of multitasking I'm not sure I want to venture into.