Moscow International Peace Marathon and 10k

Upon leaving for Moscow I could not help myself but to look for any possible races that would be held while I was here, and to my surprise, I discovered one that would be held September 13, yesterday.

Of course I did not want to go alone though, and so my dear friends Rick and Leah chose to go race too. They did the 10k, and after very much debate, I did the marathon.

Now, for those of you who know how much I love running, you can understand why I wanted to do the marathon so badly. I mean, it is Moscow, Russia! It was a once in a lifetime opportunity. However, I did not run more than 7 or 8 miles this summer in one single day, so that kind of running does not prepare one for a marathon.

Well, the first 6 miles were good. In fact, as expected, I actually went a little faster than my easy pace. Then, starting at mile 7, that's when I was consistently at a pace a little slower than easy pace for the rest of the race. Also, at around mile 7 was when I thought, "maybe this wasn't a good idea." However, the miles started to just run together, and despite the ickiness and soreness I felt yesterday and the soreness that I am feeling today, I am pretty glad that I ran the race.

There were a few interesting things about the marathon that I have to mention. First, instead of gatorade and gu, warm tea and salted bread were served along with water. These things did not settle well with my stomach, but I knew that I had to get something in me besides water, because I usually cramp up really bad after races due to so many electrolites being lost. It's miserable. Fortunately, I didn't cramp up yesterday though- a huge blessing. Another interesting thing was some of the people we saw at the race. One man was barefoot the whole marathon. There was another man who Leah said had a tu-tu on in the race. I saw a few men using the restroom as they were running (not too uncommon in US races either I guess). There were all kinds of shoes that would be miserable to wear in a race being worn. Oh, after the race we saw men just drop their droors right out in the open to change! I could go on...

Then, there was the course. Although the course was pretty repetitive, it was very neat to run in central Moscow. The race started and finished in Red Square by St. Basil's Cathedral, and we got to run by Christ the Savior's Cathedral as well as all along the Moscow River and by one of the Seven Sisters. Plus, there were people from all over running the race. A few people tried to have conversations with me, but most of the converstations ended pretty fast ha. I DID see a few Americans though, so that was neat.

All in all, it was a really fun experience. Leah, Rick, and I are glad we did it, soreness and all! Oh, and we even got to see some friends from church there as well who were participating.