Five Days and Counting!

Well, it is now just FIVE days until my first half marathon! I remember when I started training officially for this FIVE MONTHS ago! Now it is just 5 days away...unbelieveable how time flies.


I remember back in November/December, trying to decide if I should go for the half marathon. I remember saying OKAY, and instantly signing up before I could think too hard and change my mind. Off and on through the last 5 months of training, I've had ups and downs, which I now know is part of being a runner. I've had the 'what the HELL am I THINKING?', and more often, an underlying giddy excitement of 'I think I can actually DO this.'


After reading many race reports over the last nine months, I also know that despite everything we can do 'right' in training and on race day, there really is no predicting how things will go or what the outcome will be. All I know is that I will give 150% on race day, because that's just how I roll. I hope to finish in under 3 hours. My good friend Shosh will be running along with me, and she just ran the Nashville half in 2:41, so she will be a good pacer for me!


By the way, Shosh is a BLOG SLACKER these days, but she is very active on Facebook, so feel free to look her up and give her some flack! ;-) She is deep in Tri-Training, and doing great with Weight Watcher leading, and generally just a busy chica - but I keep telling her to get back to her blog! So everyone feel free to ping her on her blog and give her some friendly shiz and see if we can't get her back to posting!


Anyway, She's flying in on Friday morning, we are then hitting the expo to officially kick off race weekend. I am so flippin' excited!


Of course, I have my share of 'anxiety' over the distance. 10 miles was hard, and although I know why it was hard, I still wish I could have done it again. But I am keeping a positive spin going and to help me, I've reviewed my running log back to January when I started training for this. Take a look at my average pace progression over 5 months:


January 13:44 - 14:01

February 12:45 - 13:00 (huge jump in progress here)

March 12:30 - 12:45

April 12:19 - 12:28

May 12:04 - 12:20


These are my paces on my weekly runs, not long runs. Also, I could barely eek out 4 miles in January, and now I am about to go 13.1. That is really, really cool!


In other news, Mother's Day was awesome. Alison got me this book :

Here's a little description:

Editorial Reviews
Review
"One of the greatest athletic achievements I have witnessed in 20 years of extreme sports."—Chris Kostman, race director, Badwater UltramarathonProduct Description

The story of the woman who shocked the running world in 2002 when she won the sport’s most grueling race—135 miles from Death Valley to Mount Whitney—beating her closest competitor by 5 hours! One year after her astonishing victory at the Badwater Ultramarathon, Pam Reed again made distance running history when she braved the hottest weather in years—135 degrees—to successfully defend her title.

How does this 100-pound mother and stepmother of five muster the endurance and courage for the 28-hour climb from the hottest desert floor on Earth to the shadow of the continental United States’ tallest point?

In The Extra Mile we watch this ultramarathon champion seek balance in her life as a wife, mother, athlete, and entrepreneur. With astonishing candor she tells of her 15-year-long battle with anorexia. And she helps us to understand her passion for ultrarunning—to discover how far the human body can be pushed. The success of Dean Karnazes’s book, Ultramarathon Man, and Reed’s TV appearances have demonstrated the public’s fascination with this growing sport. Reed’s book will be an inspiration to women everywhere

And inside Alison wrote this:

I was just very touched by her acknowledgement of 'my running'.

And from my Gracie-Lou:

And from Chris, an awesome sea green Danskin hoody and a matching Adidas tee.

I am truly blessed and just thankful for my wonderful kids!

That's all I have for today. A quick little run on the books for this evening and because I have a very busy week ahead (4 softball games, two school concerts, an 8th grade dance....), it will fly by for me but I plan to hit the bed early every night and I am watching the food intake very carefully!

Woot!