San Francisco Marathon, here I come!

It has finally hit me that I will be running the San Francisco Marathon in the morning. Honestly, it is odd how little this has affected me. I know I’ve been going to Saturday morning long runs and doing more running in Golden Gate park, but I didn’t realize what it was leading up to. I blame this on the fact that all of my previous races have been “destination” choices and I’ve never gotten to sleep in my own bed the night before.

But here I am, heading off to bed at 9:30pm so I can be prepared for a 4:30am wake up. I spread out my clothing on the floor (which got some entertaining remarks from my roommate) and made sure I had all of the necessary pieces (think 8 gels is enough?).

I’ll admit that I’m scared. I know that I’ve run on these hills before, but that doesn’t alter their severity. I’ve changed up my strategy for this run, deciding that I will stick to my 6/1 intervals regardless of my pride.  But in addition to that nervousness, my friends will be manning a water station at mile 19 and I’m embarrassed that they will see how slow I am.   It doesn’t help that I also have a head cold (thanks coworkers!), thank goodness it is just above the neck. Here is hoping that these nerves and aches will be gone by the time I cross that start line.

And as I prayed before - Running Gods, please keep my feet from throbbing, my calves from cramping, my knees from aching, my tummy from churning, my chest from chafing, and my mind from straying from a positive outlook.

Best of luck to all the other great folks out there running and racing tomorrow!