Goals

It's 4:30AM. I'm up and ready to go. But in my mind, I've run this race twice today already.

During my first time through the race, I forgot to turn on my Garmin and was all out of sorts. I don't even remember having shoes on. The second time through, everything went perfectly... I was running like a Kenyan. It felt awesome. And then I woke up and realized "Oh no, you haven't even gotten started yet."

After a great deal of thought yesterday, I think it'd be a good idea to put down my real goals for today...

1. Finish without feeling like I've been hit by a truck. This is ambitious, considering how I felt after last year's race.
2. Finish in 2:45. This is my (A) time goal, the one that is a reach.
3. Finish in 3:00. This is my (B) time goal, the one I have a good chance of hitting. It's a couple of minutes faster than last year's time, so if I manage to do this, I can at least say the race was a PR, even if I miss my real time goal.
4. Get past mile 11 without wishing I was dead or wondering why I signed up in the first place. It's just a few more miles, after all. I've done 10 and it wasn't so bad. Another 3.1 won't kill me. I need to maintain perspective.
5. Avoid feeling bad about myself and doing a lot of beating myself up, regardless of my time. This is a tough spot for me.
6. Have fun and remember why I'm out there. It's not supposed to be easy (at least, not for me). I'm doing it because it's hard.

Let's hope the third time is the charm.

T-15 hours

Though it doesn't seem possible, I'm sitting in my house the day before my second half marathon. It doesn't seem possible because I don't feel nervous (really) or excited (really) about it yet. At this time last year, I was already shaking. I felt worried and scared and really really nervous. But this time around, I feel a little disappointed, but that's about it, I guess.

Maybe it's because I'm no longer a half marathon virgin. It's not my first time, so it doesn't come with all the anticipation I had last year? Still, I'd like to feel something.

When I went to the expo yesterday to pick up my bib and whatnots*, I did feel a little excited. It's hard not to, with all the running gear and race advertisements and free stuff, you know? I also felt a little unprepared. Maybe it's because I didn't train at altitude this year like I did last year? Maybe it's because I took those 2 weeks off when I was having foot problems? Maybe I feel like I haven't trained hard enough or have been too lazy with my diet? There were all these other people around, and in my mind, they'd all had a perfect training season with no missed runs, no bad runs, no runs that kicked their butts. They were all perfectly trained and simply waiting for the gun to go off so that they could have the race of their lives. Why do I let my imagination run away with me?

Truthfully, I'm a little nervous because I've set a time goal for myself that I know is going to be tough for me to meet. I'll give it my very best effort, but there is a good chance I'm going to come away from tomorrow with a great big FAIL.

Maybe now is the time to re-frame.

Good luck to all of you racing tomorrow!
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* Speaking of the Denver Marathon whatnots, way to go DM for splurging on technical shirts for all runners this year! My 2009 NewBalance running shirt is FAR better than the cotton print t-shirt you gave me last year. I'm not sure if the logo on the front was supposed to be crooked last year, but mine certainly was.

Does my butt look like meatloaf?

Dilemma.

So last year I did the "Evergreen Town Race", aptly named because it is in the town of Evergreen, CO. This event is a 5K/10K. It is all downhill.

I know what you're probably thinking: "All downhill? Piece of cake!" But, not really. It's more like "All downhill? Piece of knee/back pain the likes of which will make you want to hang up your running shoes forever."

Now for the dilemma: I am planning to run the Denver 1/2 marathon in October. I just did a 5 mile race. Therefore, I should probably shoot for a 10K as my next event. And, though there are about a zillion 5K races between now and October, unless you want to run the race tomorrow, or on some ridiculous mountain trail, there aren't too many 10K offerings. So, it seems I may run the Evergreen Town Race again, just to get the 10K experience.

And in lieu of a formal training plan, I've just decided that I should probably try to run a 10K race and a 10 mile race at some point between now and the 1/2 marathon. Maybe I'm going about this all wrong? Seeing it all in print like this makes me worry that I'm setting myself up for failure (or injury) with a very loosely defined training schedule. Jeesh... Because I sometimes run on the dreadmill, I don't even keep track of how many miles I'm running per week! This is very unlike me. I must build a spreadsheet to keep track of this important data. I must develop a real plan.

On to other things...

Now that I've done the post-NYC laundry, I'm re-packing my suitcase this evening for another vacation! Tomorrow morning, SoxFan and I head out on a road trip to his native Montana. Unlike the trip to NYC, this trip should be very laid-back and relaxing. But like the trip to NYC, I expect it will be a lot of fun. I have a few other expectations for the trip to Montana, as well.

This trip should be:

1. Much less expensive than the trip to NYC - No hostels/restaurants to pay for, no expensive museums or broadway shows for which to purchase tickets.
2. Much cooler (temperature-wise) than the trip to NYC - Luckily, the climate in Montana is more similar to Colorado than it is to NYC. Therefore, everything we do outdoors (read: everything we do) will be minus the layer of sweat that we carried all around NYC.
3. Much more conducive to running - This is really only true because I expect to have a bit of free time in Montana, which I certainly did not have in NYC. I hope to get in a few good runs while I'm there, provided that I can find my way around in the wilderness without being eaten by bears.
4. Much more conducive to dieting - I haven't really brought this up a lot because... well, I'm not proud of myself for it.... but when we were in NY, I totally fell off the weight watchers wagon. I mean, seriously... I had pizza (fantastic NYC pizza, but pizza nonetheless), I had hot dogs (from street vendors, because they were cheap), I had hot pretzels (again, with the street vendors), I had delicious deli sandwiches... During the bike tour, we stopped at a Polish restaurant, and I ordered meatloaf. And this wasn't your momma's ordinary meatloaf. I swear to you it had been deep fried. Needless to say, I went a bit overboard, even though I had sort of planned to allow myself a few culinary indulgences while on the trip. This trip to Montana, however, is much more similar to my ordinary life and my ordinary routine, and therefore I expect to stay on plan.

We're driving to Montana tomorrow and Saturday, so I hope to be able to post again early next week. I'll be taking my camera and my garmin (and perhaps even my fuel belt) along, obviously. I hope you all have a pleasant 4th of July weekend! Be safe out there.

Holy crap, watch out for that car!

2.2 inches. That's how much clearance our taxi had on either side while driving 50 mph through the crowded streets of double parked cars in rush hour on our way from the airport. I only took a couple of taxi rides in my last trip to NYC, so I'd completely forgotten just exactly how exciting (and life-threatening) they are.

Once we finally made it to our hostel (Jazz on the Park) and got all situated, we did a rush rush rush trip across the city to get to the New York Road Runners office where I had to pick up my bib for Saturday's race by 7PM. We took subways most of the way, but we had to run the last 3 blocks. And... well,... if that's a preview of Saturday's race, it's going to be a VERY depressing race report. We did make it there in time, and I'm happy to report that my race t-shirt (which is a lovely navy blue with a cool logo on the front, rather than some hideous lime green atrocity forced on participants of the Denver Marathon) is a LARGE rather than an X-LARGE! And it actually FITS! Yay. Oh! And my green singlet (that's just a fancy word for technical tank-top) is LOOSE, whereas it used to fit so tightly that I would ne'er be seen in public in it. I plan to post picture-proof of this come Tuesday.

Other good news: I am officially not the only slow runner in NYC. On the way back from picking up my race packet, we walked all the way across the park, exposing us to a LOT of runners. Some of these runners are MY PACE! I know it's irrational, but for some reason I'd figured that everyone in NYC must be fast and thin and fit and PERFECT. Now I know that just simply isn't true.

The bad news: It is hot like the devil's butt here. The humidity is definitely going to play a big role in my performance (or lack thereof) on Saturday. In fact, just while waiting to use this computer, I ran across an article that said that NYC is one of the "sweatiest" cities in the country. Apparently, if every person in NYC took an hour long walk on a typical summer day, they would produce 1.3 million gallons of sweat. Well... NYC doesn't know from sweat yet. That's all I've got to say about that.

Tomorrow morning we head out for our bike tour. I think it's going to be a lot of fun, really. I just hope I can still walk/run on Saturday.

More updates to come! Have a great weekend!