One week from now...

I will probably be crying for a foot massage.

I will probably be crying because I am so sore.

I will probably be crying because I finished.

All I know is that, for some reason or another, I will be crying.

A marathon'll do that to ya.

ONE WEEK!

Coming down the home stretch

Less than three weeks until the marathon, and I can barely stand it. I remember waaaay back in January when I made the goal to run a marathon this year.
I remember lying in bed before I went to sleep and getting little jolts of adrenaline as I imagined myself approaching the finish line. Seriously. I am so weird.
I even had dreams about running the marathon, and they were always nightmares that included sleeping through it, getting a broken leg halfway through, not finishing...seriously, those dreams were horrible.
I remember telling everyone that I was running one, and I could also remember how nobody really thought I could carry through. Nobody said it straight out, but I could tell. It wasn't until I started training in May that people could see how serious I was.
I remember the feeling when I got the email saying I got into the St George Marathon. Total happiness and excitement!
I remember waking up every single Saturday this summer at 5 or 6 in the morning in order to do my long runs. Didn't particularly enjoy that part.
There are a lot of things that I will always remember from this summer, but training for a marathon will be at the top of the list. I seriously cannot wait- only 19 days and I will be standing at the starting line, ready for the adventure that is the marathon; 26.2 miles of self-discovery!

20 fetching miles!

I mean good crap. It will be nice to say I ran a full marathon, but these training runs are hard! I just barely finished my big 20-miler, which is the farthest I'll go for training. Luckily for me, the weather this morning was amazing! I woke up at the obscene hour of 4 a.m., and I was out the door by 5. It was still pitch black so I stuck to the streets until it started to get light, then I cut over to the greenbelt. It was so stormy, at some points I was kind of scared for my life because the lightning was out of control! And, I got rained on three seperate times! After only 2 miles it started to rain, but it didn't last very long. Then when I was running by Freestone Park the heavens opened up and I got soaked, but it was glorious! I'd rather have cold and rain on a run than hot and sunny. Good thing I had my Camelbak so I could stow away my iPod, because it poured buckets! That one lasted about 15 or 20 minutes, and it cooled things off really good. Around mile 16 or 17, the storm started to get really bad and scary, I almost wanted to burst into tears because although I love lightning and thunder, being out in it with no shelter and miles from home was pretty stressful. Anyway, the last two miles it rained on me again, but I was glad to get home and out of the elements.

Well, now what? I have 4 weeks until St George, which will give me plenty of time to recover from this run and be in tiptop shape at the starting line. Maybe I should focus on working my abs and back for these next four weeks, because I start to slouch after awhile. Now all I need to do is eat healthy and cross-train a lot for these next 4 weeks, and I will be ready to take on the marathon!!