Running Ruminations

I’ll quickly skim over how horrible a blogger I am since I rarely write these days… I seem to have way more ideas than I do willpower to sit down and write… but at any rate, it’s pretty hard to believe that Houston is just a hair over a week away (precision, yes, I know).

In the past 6ish weeks, my training has taken me to two weeks in Ohio, visiting family, to a week in San Francisco, to another 2.5 weeks in northwest IL (again, visiting family), then back to Ohio for a week (where I am now), and come Sunday, my final runs will be back in the Chi.  It has been awesome to have all this travel under my belt, in terms of getting a change of scenery, but it has also been bad in how it has thrown off my routine a bit (and here, I’ll blame my lack of writing on my travels… haha).  The good thing, of course, is that runners can run anywhere, so my running hasn’t suffered at all.

Anyway.  Houston!  Super exciting!

I’ll soon begin to stalk the weather.com extended forecast for race weekend, but until then, I’m suspiciously cool and collected–while also really effin excited–about this race.  I’ve heard favorable things about it, particularly that it’s flat and fast and therefore well-suited to PRs, so that’s my plan.

Remember when I wrote that 2013 is going to be the year that I go balls-out and shoot for a sub-3:30?  Something I never thought I’d even be physically capable of doing?

Well…

a) I am

and

b) Houston will be my first go at it.

When I initially admitted to myself (and my online running community) that I wanted to push for a sub-3:30, I got butterflies, and maybe even a wave of nausea, admitting that aloud.  Granted, don’t get me wrong, the butterflies are still a-flying, but the nausea has pretty much gone away at the thought of this goal.  At this point, just 8 days out from race day, I feel about as calm as I did before the Illinois Marathon, when I was going to try to BQ and PR with a 3:35.

Lots of things, mantras, are running through my head these days, as I’m now knee-deep in taper madness, that blessed time when I need to run less so as to preserve some energy for my race… which just makes me jittery… and of course I can’t run off these nerves… so I’m a bit stuck.  I’m sure I’ve been a riot to be around of late.  Anyway, these mantras I’ve been talking to myself about?  Yep, they include the following (my favorites):

There will come a day when you can no longer do this.  Today is not that day.

All it takes is all you’ve got.

“You have brains in your head.  You have feet in your shoes.  You can steer yourself any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…” [c/o Dr. Seuss’ Oh, the Places You’ll Go!]

and perhaps my personal favorite, something that I often tell myself when I need to remind myself to slow down, be patient, or take a breath…

Keep calm, and rock the fuck* out.

  *(or eff, depending on my audience)

It’s pretty awesome that race day is practically here, considering that it has been nearly an affair seven months in the making, thanks to the NYC marathon not transpiring in November.  I don’t think I’ve ever really trained this long for ONE marathon (with the exception of my first, back in 2007), so suffice it to say that I’m curious… and cautiously optimistic… about how things will go.