I mentioned early in the year that I had signed up for the inaugural Tehran Marathon. That marathon is next month (5 weeks from today, to be exact!) and I am really excited about another inaugural marathon! But, I don’t know if I am going to be able to go yet. This has never happened to me before! 🙂
Still Not Sure If I Am Running the Inaugural Tehran Marathon
In my 10 years of running marathons/ultra-marathons, there are a few times that I have not been able to attend a marathon I had signed up for. In those cases, it was normally some scheduling problem or a family-related incident. I have never had the problem of not knowing if I was going to run a marathon based on not having received a visa yet!
Waiting for a Visa!
Yet, that is where I am right now. If I was in a typical marathon training program, this would be a little disconcerting as I would be getting ready to taper in a couple of weeks and then not knowing what was going on or if I was going to look for a different race. But, this training period has been pretty small since I have been working back into a running program. Still, it is a little weird to still not know if I am heading to Tehran in a little over 4 weeks to run 26.2 miles! The Tehran Marathon is April 7 so it is coming up quickly!
I am the kind of person that I need to have something on a race calendar to focus on my training so this has at least been helpful to get me out more faithfully to put the miles in. But, if I am not able to run Tehran, I would still like find something else within the month or so after.
I was told that I should know if I am cleared to go by March 21. If not, that is their holiday so I would not know until the next week – which is 2 weeks before the race! Really kind of cutting it close!
Fingers crossed that I will get my invite for the Tehran Marathon! It is really up in the air with the events going on as of late but it would be a great opportunity for me as I love doing inaugural marathons. Also, I should be able to do a pretty neat comparison post of some inaugurals if I can run the Tehran Marathon and I will definitely have a review of the marathon itself!
So, I continue to wait!
Have you had to apply and wait for a visa for a race before? Approved or denied? 🙂
