Pre-Race Jitters

My marathon is coming up. Sunday. 7 a.m. San Francisco. Breathe in, breathe out.

I have certainly trained for this race, and I'm as ready as I'll ever be. So why don't I feel ready?

I was doing OK until I watched the runners go past at mile 21 of the Twin Cities Marathon, and then it all came flooding back. The fatigue. The heat. The pain. There shouldn't be any heat in San Francisco, and I haven't had any pain on any of the training runs. The fatigue I felt on my twenty-milers, but I did feel like I could continue.

I want to run well, which I arbitrarily set at a 5:15 finish because a 12 minute mile pace is easy to keep track of. I want to reach the point where the marathon doesn't pistol-whip me. Yeah, people at the finish line look tired, but they don't look like they have to crawl to their car, trailing blood.

I've only had two marathon finishes and neither were stellar. My running has improved since that horrible Grandma's 2006, and I need a victory. I guess that's why I'm nervous. I want to feel victorious.

This marathon training has taken so much of my time--everything came second to my training. It took its toll on me mentally; there were times when it was all I could do to hit the road. Once I started running, I was fine, but it took some will power to get dressed and out the door. The problem wasn't just the mileage, but also the time commitment; a ten mile run meant over two hours on the road.

I expected to be living in California by now. I expected my house in Minneapolis to have sold. I thought my move would be over and I could focus solely on my marathon. Instead I had to deal with keeping the house looking like a model home, manage the completion of my new house, and figure out how I was going to get my stuff out there. I don't multi-task well.

But I got to run in some cool places, including a 12 mile run along the Paul Bunyan trail in north-central Minnesota. I also saw more of the local trails, revisiting my favorites, such as the River Run, and also exploring trails outside the city. The fall foliage has been beautiful. And I got to explore my new area in California, including a 17-mile run along a winery-laden road.

I had a nice 8 mile run on Saturday with AmyBee. She's in incredible shape and much faster than me; we were only able to run together because it was her first run since the Chicago marathon, so she was taking it easy. We ran along Minnehaha Creek, one of the best places to run in Minneapolis. Afterwards I had my favorite post-run food: pancakes with fruit and real maple syrup.

So now I'm in taper mode. I'm focusing on eating well--plenty of carbs and protein--and resting. I'm flying to California on Friday and looking forward to meeting up with Michelle, Juls, and Irene. And participating in the same race as my sister.