Dimtchev RAN the city

Its over. Whew. Let me tell you, running down that final stretch felt good. So let me break down the day for you.

6:45 got to about 3 blocks away from RFK and because of the road closures I had to jog over to the finish line. I then realized that I still had my sweatshirt on, and no one to give it to, so I stashed it over next to a tree.

7Am Off we went. There were a lot of people that I had to navigate through. After the first two miles I finally cleared through the rough patch and had a good pace going.

Mile 4.5: Everything was going fine...but then...my stomach starting playing games on me. Pretty soon, I became aware that I need to make a pitstop. Problem was, there were no port-a-potties. Finally after mile 5 I saw a couple of them about 100 yards off of the running route, so I made a detour. Let me tell you, that was the fastest number two that I have ever taken.

Mile 10: I was doing well and decided that it was time for a Cliff Shot. For those of you that don't know, a Cliff Shot is this goo that comes in a small plastic package that you eat. It contains elecrolytes, sugar, and some other stuff that you need for a quick source of energy. My body did not respond well to it, and -I forgot the name of what its called but- I got one of those muscle crumps on the side of my abdomen. I had to slow down a bit, but then I picked it up after a quarter Mile.

Mile 13: At the halfway point I was feeling fine. Kept up with my pace.

Mile 16: My body started to feel the impact of the course and I began slowing down the pace a little bit. It finally hit me what I had gotten myself into.

Mile 19: This is when I entered hell. It all started with the Calvert Street Hill, which is a pretty damn steep hill. From that point until North Capital Street, my body began to quickly wear down. This was evident as my pace rapidly decreased.

Mile 24: This was the longest mile that I have ever ran. It was only a mile, but it felt like a marathon...a marathon within a marathon...you can only imagine how it must have felt.

Mile 25: The Mile 25 marker was the first time since mile 13 that I felt well. Once I saw RFK in the background, I knew that I was almost done and gathered all the remaining energy that I had to push harder and pick up my pace.

Mile 26: I kicked things into high gear and sprinted through the last .2 miles. Man, it felt good.

When I got back home, I iced up, took a shower and am now currently lying in bed and resting. I checked my blood pressure and pulse, and they are both fine. Besides a big blister on my heel, I don't see signs of any injuries. Its only my muscles that are feeling tight. I am glad I did the race and that I achieved my goal. My final time was not as fast as I would have liked (about 3:50:00), but it was a good learning experience. I am thinking about running the Marine Corps marathon in October. If I decide to do it, I will alter my training schedule and make sure that I do more long runs (I don't think I did enough, and it showed). It will definately help that when I train It will be summer/fall and I wont have to worry about snow and freezing temperatures.

Thank you for reading thins and thank you for your donations! At around mile 20 I passed Children's Hospital, which reminded me about one of the good things that is coming out of this whole experience.

-Petar