T-1 Week and Counting

Can you believe it? I am on the very threshold of running my first marathon. Never quite thought I'd be here. Wow.

I think back to how this whole blog thing spun up. I wanted to write about learning how to run. From there came a dream of doing a triathlon. And from there, I had my first season that was amazing, to say the least. But it ended in an injury that I thought might keep me from really getting much further. So to think that in a week from Monday I will be running not just a marathon, but Boston... well... its kind of overwhelming.

Overall I feel good. I had a massage today to really work out some of the kinks and tension I have accumulated for these many months of training. It felt good, but it was definitely a tough massage too. I filled in the masseusse ahead of time about what was going on-- injury, marathon, all of it. So she spent a lot of time on my psoas, my hip flexors, my quads and hamstrings. It was heavenly and painful at the same time. And I left feeling good.

And what did I do with that feeling? Well, I went out and ran. Yep. 6 miles. Nothing too long... just making sure I was feeling good. As I looked down at my watch after mile 1, guess what I saw... first mile in 7:23. Seriously. OMG... I had speed. I had to pull myself way back for the rest of the run. In the end, I kept at a 9:45 pace, which is the fastest pace I have run since Sept 2006... the week before the injury. And the only thing that kept me from going even faster was that my heart and lungs just weren't used to that speed yet. But oh god, it was awesome. I cannot wait until I can stay down at my old pace again and maybe even faster. It would be nice to do my half marathon under 2 hours and maybe even one day hit a 4 hour marathon... but thats going to be a long road before I am there. So I am not going to get too far ahead of myself.

I am still expecting 5-6 hours for the marathon itself. I don't really know what to expect for a few things-- I haven't run 26 miles before. I ran 17 and I gutted out 19, but never 26. So we will see. Plus, I really want a chance to crowd surf a little. I will get to see people in my life that I don't get to see often-- including most notably my cousin, who I don't think I have seen since maybe the beginning of high school. So I am very excited. And I want to be able to savor that.

I go back for a little more massage work on Friday before leaving for Boston. This week is back in Hartford and I really hope its not as crazy as the last several weeks have been. The midnight bedtime and 4am wakeups with all work all the time in between has really killed me. It's getting me where I need to be career wise, but its really kicking my ass. So I am praying this week is calmer. A girl can dream, right?

Long range weather for April 21 in Boston appears to be 55 degrees and cloudy. I am praying it stays that way. That, to me, is my ideal. So fingers crossed that my Nana, Edna Mae and Harry, up in the clouds, work their magic for me and it stays that way. I'll try and post at least once more before the big day. But just in case, my bib number is 21540 and you can sign up for the athlete tracking on www.baa.org. But I am gonna really try for one more post. I sweah. I got a lot more to say yet. But its 11pm and I need to be up at 4:45 and, well... I'm tired. So more later.

Happy almost Monday.