My To-Do List

Go to the Race Expo - check
Get my number (3735) - check 
Get a bag full of free stuff (the part I'm most excited for?  The free socks.  And the fact that most of the stuff says Pittsburgh Marathon on it.) - check
Buy a sweet head band - check (it's basically florescent zebra print - no one should be surprised)
Sleep as much as possible Friday night since I'll probably be too nervous on Saturday night - check (all the cool kids go to bed at 8:30 on a Friday night)
Eat LOTS OF CARBS!!! - this one is in an ongoing process of being checked off 
Look at the race map and have a mini heart attack - check


Looking at the above list, I feel pretty accomplished.  I do have a lot to do before tomorrow (including but not limited to buying a shirt to wear, figuring out exactly how I'm getting to the race, buying headphones, and hanging out with my parents who are awesome and coming to visit me to watch me race), but most of the hard work is behind me.  Wow.  I can't believe it's been 17 weeks since I started training.


21 hours and 49 minutes to go.

Rock Out

Since the marathon is a little over 4 days away, I figured I should start looking things up (you know, where I have go to start, parking, what I should have received in the mail by now - mildly important things).  As one may guess, I did not find out anything important, but I did get distracted and excited by the "Bands 2011" page.  There are 61 bands and djs that are in some way associated with the marathon.  


http://www.pittsburghmarathon.com/Left_Nav/Neighborhoods__Entertainment/Bands_2011.htm 


Not gonna lie, I'm super stoked.  Lady Ag Ag, Semi-Super Villains, The Damaged Pies - could life get any better?  Okay, you might argue that it could get better if you could listen to these bands (which are sure to be fantastic) without running 26.2 miles.  


According to the website, headphones and music players are discouraged.  I'm seriously considering running without music, since there will be a lot of activity along the way.  I haven't decided yet, but it is tempting to carry as little as possible.


4 days, 4 hours and 58 minutes to go.  It's on.

Spring is Here!

I'm in the tapering off phase, so my long run this week was only 6 miles :)  It was wonderful, not only because I didn't have to run an obscene distance, but I also didn't have to devote half of my day to a long run.  In fact, I kept putting it off and didn't run until this evening (thanks to the big brunch I had sitting in my stomach).  Even though I waited about 6 hours after I ate to run, I could still feel brunch sitting in my stomach for the first 3 miles.


The best part about my run was seeing all the people out in the park.  There were picnics and barbecues, a group of kids playing sand volleyball, lots of other runners and walkers, and a playground full of kids.  There were also a lot of people walking around with (who I assumed to be) their moms.  It made my heart really happy.  I was also a little bit sad that I didn't get to spend Mother's Day with my mom, but I will get to see her next weekend because she will be coming to cheer me on during the marathon.  Love you mom, you're wonderful :) 


This whole marathon thing feels extremely surreal.  At this point, I expected to feel more "ready."  I don't really know what that would feel like.  I definitely feel like I'm as ready as I will be, but I don't feel like a marathoner.  I guess that's similar to when I graduated from college - I thought I would feel like a college graduate, but I still just felt like me.  Getting jobs and living on my own, I thought I would feel like an adult, but again, I still just feel like me.  I guess that's the same with the marathon - I thought I would feel like a runner or something, but I'm still just me.  Hm.


6 days, 5 hours, 25 minutes to go.  (I feel the need to count everything as it gets closer...it's like the 4 year old who makes sure to tell you that she's not just 4, she's 4 and 3 months).

The Countdown Begins

10 more days.


17 weeks of training have come down to this.  If I'm not ready for the marathon, 10 days aren't really going to help.  It's terrifying and liberating all at the same time.


I decided to pretend like I planned this on purpose, and make my 25th year a really big deal.  So far I'm running a marathon and I will be skydiving this summer.  I can check two things off the bucket list that I haven't even created yet...I'm that good.  If anyone has more bucket list suggestions, I'm all ears.  It's definitely fun when things kind of fall into my lap, but I'm not against seeking things out as well.  Although before anyone suggests it, I will not be having a baby in my 25th year.  I do have 10 months left before I turn 26 so it's technically possible, but being that I'm currently single and not planning on hitting up the sperm bank anytime soon, that dream is going to have to wait (sorry for those of you who are waiting to have kids so that our kids can be best friends and/or fall in love...not that I think about things like that, that would be weird).


10 more days.  It's getting real up in here.

Common Sense Life Lesson #452

The better care that you take of yourself, the better you feel.

I stayed up late last night, drinking wine and eating french fries.  It was a fantastic evening, and I figured that if I didn't feel up to running this morning I could just wait until tomorrow.  I woke up earlier than planned and felt great.  Then I started running.  I don't know whether it was the lack of sleep or the late night food and drink (probably both), but I felt terrible for most of the run.  Today's run rivaled the "all you can eat Indian buffet" day (which, strangely enough, was also a 12 mile run.  Apparently I am not meant to run in 12 mile increments). I continued, partly because I didn't want to have to try again tomorrow, and partly because I decided that it would be a great day to test out my mental strength, since the physical strength thing wasn't working out so well.  I finished (slightly slower than normal, but I'm giving myself huge kudos just for running) and magically felt a million times better.  I'm just happy it's done.


Today's run was 70% mental, 25% the musical stylings of Lenny Kravitz and The Backstreet Boys, and 5% physical (really, just the fact that I was conscious).  I should make that into an inspirational poster.


14 days to go.  Not gonna lie, I may have started hyperventilating when I saw that.

If you reach Chippewa, you've gone too far

Those that know me know that I have a terrible sense of direction.  I also have a terrible sense of time.  Typically, this works out fine for me and I just wander through life, slightly oblivious but happy.  

I planned to run my 20-mile run in Buffalo, since I'm visiting my parents for Easter break.  My dad and I mapped out a route the night before (and he tried to make the route as simple as possible, due to the aforementioned lack of a sense of direction), and I even wrote the route down to carry with me just in case.  I felt pretty confident in myself.  About 3 miles in, my mp3 player died (you would think I would have learned my lesson by now, but yet again I forgot to charge it) so I was stuck listening to the sounds of the traffic and my brain.  After awhile, I got the sinking feeling that I may have missed my turn.  I wasn't sure though, so I just kept running.  I knew the turn was about 40 minutes into the run, but since I didn't have music as a reference point for the passing of time, I had no idea how far I had gone.  So I just kept running.  It eventually dawned on my that I was carrying my cell phone, and therefore had a clock the whole time.  I had been running for over an hour and a half (you know, only 50 minutes past where I was supposed to turn).  Whoops.

As I debated what to do, I decided to turn up Chippewa (for those Pittsburgh people, it's similar to the South Side).  I ran past beer bottles, piles of trash and an old man who started yelling at me.  The entire street smelled like beer and it was actually pretty depressing.  I was able to get myself turned back around and headed toward home.  On the way back I found the park that I had completely missed before (mind you, it's not a small park at all), and started to run around the track at the park.  At that point I needed water, and thought I remembered drinking fountains at the park.  Those that have gone camping with me know that I become slightly hysterical at the thought of being without water.  Food?  Fine, I can live without it.  Water - that's a different story.  When you don't drink water, you die.  So I ran around the park, saw that the bathrooms were closed for the season and started to get freaked out that they might have turned off the drinking fountains (mind you, I was in the middle of the suburbs, I was not going to die of dehydration).  When I finally found the drinking fountain I joyously filled my water bottle and looked at it - the water was nowhere near clear.  I thought about this for a minute, then dumped out the bottle and tried again.  This time it was closer to clear - worked for me.  I decided that if it was going to kill me, it was better than dying by dehydration (did I mention I get slightly dramatic 15 miles into my run?).

The rest of the run was relatively uneventful.  It was strange not actually knowing how far I was going.  I kept trying to calculate how far I had gone based on time, but every time I tried to add the numbers I got a different answer.  So I just headed for home and decided that I would calculate it at home, then run more if necessary.  I put my route into the map - I had run 22.5 miles.  This will be the only time in my life that I can say I accidentally ran 22.5 miles.  

21 days to go.  You know, I'm beginning to think I can actually do this thing.

Here goes

Alright kids, I'm trying to pump myself up to go outside and run 20 miles.  Here are some of the drawbacks...


It's 20 miles...that's a lot.


It is nice and warm inside my parents house (and inside this fuzzy bathrobe), and dang cold outside (my 'welcome to Buffalo' present yesterday was snow).


I'm on vacation mode...so the motivation to do anything is pretty much nonexistent.


The good thing is this is my last long run...you know, before the reeeeallly long run.  I'll let you know if I survive :)  


22 days to go.