I am so not prepared for you. Yes, there are still eleven weeks left until you find your way onto my calendar, but I usually start training in October. Here I am, eight whole weeks behind. The timing is funny because I asked Josh just a few days ago if it would make me a total wimp for not registering this year. I know myself, though, and I’ll be profoundly disappointed. I’ll mope about being that girl that ran it two years in a row and then turned into a quitter.
Race Day // 2013
As fate would have it, our office decided to put together a men’s and women’s relay team to run the full marathon and I was asked to take the long leg. It’s broken into 5 sections – two 3 mile legs, two 6 mile legs and an 8 mile leg. I tried to convince myself that I would be just as happy about the 8 mile leg as I would have been about the half and maybe this was my out. The more and more I thought about it, though, the more it felt like a cop-out. After a little more research, it seems I can run the first 6 mile leg of the relay with our team and then go on to finish the half. Add to it that we have two teams and I can work to out-pace the man running leg one and I’m finding my competitive spirit kicking in.
Race Day // 2014
I’ll be honest. I’m a little bit nervous approaching you with insufficient training. I know in my head that 11 weeks is plenty, but it’s still a little scary. I’ve taken so much time off to deal with my stupid ankle and I’m worried that I don’t even know what I’m doing anymore. It has to be like riding a bicycle, right?
Today is my official start day. I’m planning to tackle a 3-4 miler at lunch and see how things go. How my ankle holds up, how the weather feels, if my pace is pathetic and if I’m forced to walk at all. When did I become such a wimp?
Ella’s Training Runs
In other news, those two tiny feet belong to Ella. She’s running the Kid’s Marathon on Saturday of race weekend and we are all so excited for her! We’ve been getting our practice in on short runs for several weeks and she’s working hard to accumulate 25.2 miles before race day, where she’ll run the last mile to get her medal. Her goal is to be able to run the entire mile without stopping. I’m hoping I can convince her to jump on the route with me about 3/4 of a mile before the end of the race and cross the finish line again with me on Sunday. I can’t wait to take a picture together in our bibs and medals and hope when she gets a little older that she’ll run the half with me.
Okay, wish me luck today.
