The Original article is posted on the website of Ro Maraton Club in Romania, It is a competition about writing an essay about a special race experience.
Unfortunately, it is in Romanian Language so a lot of friends were not able to read it.
You can find the original text on the link below and I added the translation under the link:
http://www.maraton.info.ro/un-context-special-pentru-cel-mai-linistit-maraton-al-meu.html
Races are like fingerprints, they do not look
like each other and each one has its own characteristics, specificity, feature
and memories. In addition, your favorite race may not be necessarily your best
one, some think that their best races are the ones in which they struggled and
suffered to finish while others think their favorite is their first one and so
on.
As for me, I have run quite a number of races
ranging between 5km to full 42km marathons. And as I mentioned before, I
do remember each race and I do have a lot of memories about each single one,
and of course I have my Best and my Worst races.
My last race was “ThePetrom Bucharest International
Half Marathon” (PBIHM) 2014. At a personal level, I did not have a lot of
expectations about it. It has been long time since I had participated in a long
distance race and my training was not enough, so I just wanted to finish in a
reasonable timing. While at the beginning I targeted 01h30m after some time I
was sure my training was not enough so I targeted 01h45m (I finished it in
01h43m eventually).
Hence, my story with this half marathon is not
the race itself but what I can call it “my adventures” before and after the
race, with an unexpected participant coming from my country to participate in
the Half Marathon.
The story started few months ago when I
received a call from a friend living in Beirut, his name is “Ahmad Ghoul” he is
an “Adjutant” in “Beirut Fire Department”, he is a sportsman, he acts as a
trainer, and he is on a wheelchair because he had an accident few years ago,
but this did not prevent him from continuing his life and moving forward.
Ahmad confessed to me his desire to run the
PBIHM since that will be his first marathon abroad. He asked me what the
conditions to participate in the race are. This is whyI contacted the
“Bucharest Running Club” and they offered him two nights free accommodation as
a token for his participation. The only thing he had to do was to start his
papers for visa approval.
What happened later is that due to certain
circumstances he did not contact me again; I thought he dropped out the idea,
so I did not contact the “Bucharest Running Club” and I totally forget about
the subject.
But, on the night of Thursday May 15th,
and why I was preparing to sleep, I received a call from Ahmad informing me
that he finally got the visa and he will be in Bucharest in the morning of
Saturday 17th, one day before the Half Marathon. At this exact moment,
I knew my race had started.
On Friday morning I contacted the organizers of
the race, and I was glad to hear that they will offer the room but they had to
reserve it first which was the real problem because in that period of time
there were a lot of events going on in Bucharest and almost all the hotels were
fully booked, so they asked me to help in the search in order to save time. I
spent Friday running in the streets of Bucharest going from hotel to hotel; all
the hotels that had rooms with special needs facilities were fully booked, it
seemed impossible to find at least one room and I started thinking of other
possible alternatives.
Finally, at 08:30 afternoon I passed by a five
stars hotel in the city center and by chance there was one and only one room available.
I contacted the “Bucharest Running Club” and Mrs. Valeria Van Groningen the
president of the club gave me the approval to reserve the room. The first
problem was solved.
Ahmad arrived Saturday morning, at the airport
and he was equipped with his “handcycle” bike which was about two and a half
meters long so we have to go by bus and it was a nice trip where he was able to
see the city through the long way the bus usually takes. We checked in at the
hotel, and then went to the Race’s exhibition area where we got his BIB number
and went to rest after a long journey preparing for the race.
The day of the race started with an unexpected
incident, as the day before I agreed with him to meet at 07:30 am in order to
go to the race, for our good luck the hotel was within a walking distance from
the start line I think about 20 minutes would suffice to reach the starting
point. For some reasons he was late during his preparations for the race and at
07:50 am he was still in his room while the race supposed to start at 08:20. I
was with my wife and she was getting worried because she thought we will miss
the race, you know that kind of fear that is mixed with anger? Ok, just try not
to be with someone who is feeling like this especially if that someone is your wife.
I told my wife to go to the race in order to
find a place to sit and I went up to Ahmad’s roomsto check if everything was
ok, apparently he was ready and he was preparing to get down, the thing that
happened with him is that he was confused about the timing of the race. We got
down to prepare the “Handcycle” and at 08:05 am we were still in the front of
the hotel just 15minutes before his race started.
The adrenaline at this moment was to the
maximum, I was scared to miss the race but what we did was going to the race
with our full speed, we considered as a warming-up for the race, everybody on
the streets was looking toward those two weird persons, one running as if he
was chased and the other with a strange bicycle but to me it was really my best
warm up.
We arrived 08:15 amjust five minutes before the
race, the “Special needs” racers were already preparing to start.Although we
were late, running on the streets, arrived directly few minutes before the race
but Ahmad was really pretty cool and calm and this gave me a feeling of satisfaction
that our mission was almost accomplished successfully.
The race ended with Ahmad winning the first
place, it was really a nice surprise for me I felt that his result was my prize
for all the effort I did and the adventures we had. As for me, I was able to
achieve my target of 01h43m, I ran with the pacers of the “Ro Club Marathon”
who were amazing partners during the race I do not think I would have been able
to achieve this timing without them.
If I have to describe the PBIHM 2014, I would
described it as my “Smoothest &
Unforgettable Marathon”, I was not prepared to do my personal best but I was
ready to finish with a good timing. It also enriched my knowledge of Bucharest
and also enriched my experience in working with “Athletes with special needs”.
I had worked with Ahmad before in Beirut, I was an assistant coordinator for
Special need in the Beirut Marathon Association andAhmad was the coordinator.
During the PBIHM 2014 I knew all the entrances and exits for special needs, I
knew all the metro stations with elevators and those that do not have, I knew
how they use the bus, what hotels to book, where to go, how to go, what taxi to
call, museums to visit, and a lot of other things which seemed so difficult at
that time but now they make me smile when they come to my mind…
Unforgettable Marathon”, I was not prepared to do my personal best but I was
ready to finish with a good timing. It also enriched my knowledge of Bucharest
and also enriched my experience in working with “Athletes with special needs”.
I had worked with Ahmad before in Beirut, I was an assistant coordinator for
Special need in the Beirut Marathon Association andAhmad was the coordinator.
During the PBIHM 2014 I knew all the entrances and exits for special needs, I
knew all the metro stations with elevators and those that do not have, I knew
how they use the bus, what hotels to book, where to go, how to go, what taxi to
call, museums to visit, and a lot of other things which seemed so difficult at
that time but now they make me smile when they come to my mind…
And now, to restate my question: do you know
why “PBIHM 2014” is my “Smoothest Marathon”?
