I'm running in the Chicago Half Marathon on September 11, 2011. I'm running for Team Red White and Blue (TeamRWB), a charity that helps reintegrate wounded veterans into civil society, and the race happens to fall on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
Even though the race is just 12 days after the end of Ramadan, I can't pass up the chance to do something meaningful on this solemn date. I've experienced a lot and changed a lot over the last 10 years because of the terrorist attacks of 9/11. I don't want to forget 9/11. This seems like a reasonable way to remember this national and human tragedy.
I ran a half marathon last Saturday (7/23). That's 13 miles run 7 weeks before the 9/11 Half Marathon. This weekend I'm going to run another 13 miles. Normally I wouldn't run my max distance (I've never run more than 13.1 miles - yet) but I know that hitting this distance during Ramadan will be very difficult and rather than forego this long run, I'm going to suck it up and run it now. One either 8/31 or 9/1 I'm going to run another 13 miles. That will be one or two days after Ramadan is over but it will give me a good 10 days to rest up for the race.
During the month of Ramadan I plan to run either first thing after breaking my fast (which is at sunset) or about 1 hour before breaking the fast. I'll experiment during the first few days to see which works best.
I probably will not run more than 60 to 75 minutes at a time, so in order to get myself conditioned for the 9/11 half marathon I'll try to up my total miles. Last Ramadan I ran 30 miles in the last 10 days of the month to raise money for charity. Maybe this year I'll try to set a tougher goal. We'll see.
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