One more week

A week from now I will be on my way to San Luis Obispo to run the first marathon of my life. I'm not particularly excited, I don't feel very different than I did before I started my training, I'm not concerned, anxious or scared, either. Not sure if that is just due to my general relaxed attitude before significant events or thanks to the perfect training plan and coaching of the Team in Training coaches. Either way, next Sunday, April 27, at 6am you can find me at the start of the San Luis Obispo Marathon. When I get up at 2.30am my friends who want to come watch will probably come back from their night out and wish me a tipsy "good luck" before they pass out for the next several hours. While I'll be running for the next several hours.

I really don't feel very fit. In fact, when I run with my roommate, he's always a few steps ahead of me and I'm having trouble keeping the pace. However, the longer we run, the better it gets. He gets tired when I am all warmed up and ready to run more. I truly am a long distance runner. I was never particularly fast and never really liked sprints (unless in a car or on a motorcycle). But long distance works. I don't have to torture myself to keep running. I just keep running. Admittedly, the last run was really hard, 19.5 miles. I was not able to complete the 20 miles. I called my father who was waiting for me half a mile away and asked him to pick me up. There was no way that I could run the additional 0.5 miles. Unthinkable to run additional 6.5 miles!

But, someone told me that you run the last 6 miles with your heart. Well, that sounds nice. My head is usually stronger than my heart  (unfortunately not often enough) but when I think of how utterly confused and useless I was after those last long runs, due to exhaustion, I don't think that my head will be in a position to make any decision or get my body to do anything once the 20 mile line is crossed. It will shut down the more complex areas and focus on the more essential task: "Don't die!" Furthermore, I keep telling myself that the main reason for me being that exhausted was an unfortunate combination of jet lag, lack of sleep, exhaustion from work travel, and the fact that there was almost no wind, it was relatively sticky, and I drank water mixed with energy gel which eventually made my mouth very sticky. But the latter wasn't bad enough for me to actually stop and get some fresh water. All in all, enough to hope that the elimination of these factors and the added race atmosphere will be enough to get me through the last 6 miles of the race. And, of course, the reason for the run. Go Team.