Chippewa Moraine 50k Race Recap

I have been sitting here staring at my blank screen, trying to think of the best way to convey my experience in yesterday's 50k trail race.  How to really describe and get you to, as closely as I can, evoke the experience in you just by reading. But with me level of exhaustion and post race day 'stupids' as I call them, I'm struggling with it.  So I'll just start from the beginning.

Day Before Race:
My boyfriend and I started our drive north around 1 Friday afternoon, and it felt great to get on the road.  I was anxious and excited from the moment I woke up, and knew I wouldn't settle down until we were well on our way.  I nervously chattered, played eclectic songs from my iPod, and eventually we saw signs for Eau Claire and Chippewa Falls. 

Fun car ride! :)

I wanted to get my race packet first so we continued north, as the race was about 25 miles north of Chippewa Falls.  I didn't have the actual address of the nature center so I just put the name of it in my GPS and trusted the directions.  After a looooooong drive down a moderately treacherous dirt road that went past nothing that looked like a nature center, we stopped and I asked a woman who was feeding her horses for directions.  She was really friendly and helpful and before I knew it we were pulling up to our destination. 

The volunteers were great and I happily took my race packet and looked at the blown up course map to show my bf where I'd be running.  That's when I noticed that two of the aid stations were crossed out.  What??  Originally there was to be 4 aid stations on the way (two of them - the now crossed out ones- were not to be manned with volunteers, just water out there in jugs) and one at the turn around, so a total of 9 stops along the 31 mile out and back course.  Now just 5.  Yikes - that made me a little nervous. Thankfully the weather wasn't supposed to be hot at all so my one bottle I had for my waist belt should be efficient to get me to each aid station. 

From there we quickly checked into our hotel, and then drove to Draganetti's, a little Italian restaurant on the outskirts of Eau Claire.   At this point I was HUNGRY so we ordered a couple appetizers, and I had my traditional race eve glass of white wine.  The service was wonderful, the food was perfect, we had great conversation, and my race nerves were calmed.  Our meals were incredible - I had grilled chicken and spinach on capellini pasta with pomodoro sauce. Yum!
 
 Next we went back to the hotel where I showered up and organized all my things for race morning, hydrated a little more, and finished up the night by watching a couple episodes of How I Met Your Mother with the bf.  I crashed hard, but soon after started my cycle of waking up every 20 - 30 minutes or so.  I was getting excited, and was nervous that I'd over sleep, or that I wouldn't wake up in the middle of the night to hydrate and eat a snack like I always do before a big race.

Race Morning:
I finally jumped out of bed ten minutes before my alarm was set to go off and started getting ready.  As soon as I got my racing clothes on I was much more calm.  After my traditional race day breakfast and two small cups of coffee, we were off.   

It was right around 40° at the starting line which was crisp but nice.  I added a light North Face long sleeve to go over my tank top and sleeves just to be safe.  I had a drop bag set for the turn around point so I could ditch it there if I needed to.  The field of roughly 225 people were chattering nervously, which I honestly don't like, so I went to the edge of the group near the few people that weren't talking about their nerves.  I like quiet time to focus before the start of a race instead of getting swept up in other people's nerves.  I knew I trained well, and I knew what my goals were (to listen to my body, walk hard up the up hills, and run the rest, and ideally negative split), and that's all I needed to think about.

The Race - First Half:
The race started about 7 minutes late, and I was ready to roll.  The first part was a steep, winding down hill (that we would be crawling up at the end to the finish ling - cruel!  But I'd wait to think about that till later) and then around a prairie type area.  We wound back around by the parked cars and then filed into the woods.  I settled in behind two guys, one who was a cyclocross racer, and the other was a long time runner who did the Chippewa 50k last year. I enjoyed their conversation, and at the same time tried to tune out the people behind me.  A man with a big booming voice was enjoying stating the obvious about everything, and I just don't like hearing a lot of words when I'm working hard.  The first aid station was about 3 miles in, where I quickly downed a Gatorade and cruised out of there in less than ten seconds or so.  I wanted to drop that group behind me and hear some other conversation. 

I don't like to talk much at all when racing trail - it distracts me and feels draining to me at times, and I knew I'd be breathing harder in the tricky sections so I wanted to save my breath.  I pictured myself as a 'ghost runner' - not talking, quiet feet, quiet breathing, and I'd pass them later on.  It helped to stick to my game plan!  I was now behind two guys that reminded me of listening to Trail Runner Nation, so I really enjoyed them.  Both were very experienced ultra runners, and have done multiple 100's.  They talked about how good they felt, and how they wanted to run the second half faster than the first.  I was a little intimidated by that, and the fact that one of them had been racing ultras since 1992, so I thought I best to let them pull ahead shortly after the 10 mile aid station.  I felt like I was running their race instead of running mine because I liked their conversation so much. I needed to re-collect myself and fuel a little extra as I was getting a little tired by then, and there was a LOT of race left.  I felt good slowing down a bit and eating and drinking extra.  I felt like I took the first half harder than I needed to, and to top it off I had 5 hard ankle rolls up to that point.  3 rolls on the right ankle, and two on the left.  The outside of my right ankle leading up towards my knee was burning quite a bit because of the severity of the last roll, so I was trying to play it safe and really watch my footing. 

The leaves on the trail made it hard to know what you were stepping on, and made the narrow, winding down hills pretty slippery.  Overall there were a lot more runnable sections of trail than I remember and that helped to give me more of a rhythm. 

After mile 12 I was really fixated on getting to that turn around point.  I had a Red Bull and an Aleve in my drop bag, and I really wanted them both.  I never take meds of any kind while racing, but with the added possibility of falling, ankle rolls, and early onset soreness in my quads I put that Aleve in there just in case. And I was SO glad I did.  After a few more miles, hopping a fence, a couple narrow bridges, and some gorgeous views I heard the cheering and knew I was just about there.  Seeing the top of the tent through the trees put a huge smile on my face and I was SO relieved to be there.  I took off the long sleeve I wanted to ditch 14 miles earlier and slammed down the Red Bull and took my one Aleve. I then topped off my water bottle and ate a mini Pay Day, and I was back out there.  I had been counting the places of the women in front of me and I was right around 27th overall female at that point.  I wasn't 'racing', but wanted to know where I was at in the standings.

The Race - Second Half:
On the way to the turn around the runners headed there were to yield to the runners that were heading back to the finish.  That disrupted my rhythm on the way there, so once I was heading back on my second half it felt great to have the other runners move off the trail to let me through.  I started feeling my Red Bull and Aleve kick in and I was feeling gooood.  Just to give you a mental picture, there really aren't any parts of this course that are truly flat.  There are at least mild grades on what eventually feels 'flat' compared to the rest.  As you can imagine, it takes a toll on your quads quickly, and the downhills you looked forward to so much in the beginning, are now what feels the worst. 

I didn't want to roll my ankles any more so I was intensely watching where I was stepping.  I didn't have an more ankle rolls, but I kept catching the end of branches with a toe, then lifting it up and tripping myself with it.  I collected a couple good scratched on my calves because of those. 

Just after mile 20 I started seeing people's wheels really falling off, and I was feeling great by then.  I had been running behind a woman for about 15 minutes and then we came up on another group of 4 or so people.  At that point the path widened and got really muddy.  By then most people were walking slowly trying to avoid getting any muddier, so I took this as a time to start pressing.  I hopped through it the best I could and took off.  I decided to count 'road kill' to keep myself busy and pushing forward, so in that move I collected 5 road kill - I collected a few soon after the turn around as well so my total at that point for the second half was 8 or 9.  I felt a true second wind (which was really more like a fifth wind) and was cruising.  I was surprising myself by how quickly I was going and how much energy I had to power walk up those climbs.  I had two mantras in my head - the first was 'tough as nails'.  The other was 'run the runable'.  I knew if I would stick to my plan of only walking on the uphills, and walking powerfully, I'd do well, and possibly negative split. 

Coming up on people who were obviously slowing down, falling, stumbling, and stopping fueled me even more.  I remember thinking in that moment that this was what I LOVED to do.  I loved that feeling, the silence of the woods, the power I had within to move my sore legs and keep my cadence pretty high. I loved the stillness of my surroundings, the sound of my breathing, the smell of the pine forest sections.  I wanted that part of the race to go on forever.  It felt like... home.  It was the most myself I could ever imagine feeling.  It was glorious. 

During that surge that lasted about 6+ miles I road killed 25+ people, and even passed the two really experienced ultramarathoners who had intimidated me a bit in the beginning. The last three miles were tough, and I found myself running with two other women, two other tough as nails, badass, amazing women.  I felt fortunate to be suffering with them near me, talking a little bit, and encouraging one another.  I didn't care if I passed them or not, I was just happy to have other people's strength to inspire me and keep pushing me through to that finish. 

The one woman that had been ahead of me for a few miles pushed forward, as she was really driven to get her goal time of 6:23 (a full hour faster than her time there last year) and I stayed with the other woman who was near us.  I felt a burst of energy when we got out of the woods and circled back by the parked cars.  My bf was on the hill next to there waving and taking pictures - I couldn't wait to collapse into his arms and be done, so I pushed.  I started picking up my pace to get some space in-between me and the woman I was talking with, but got over zealous and overshot the turn. She was nice enough to yell and get my attention and so I backtracked and kept pushing.  A woman I had passed at the aid station at mile 28 had pulled in front of both of us and I didn't want to just give her that place.  She was pushing hard but I stuck to running tangents to move as directly as I could and it made up some time.  I added some kick to help drive me up some of the base of the hill before I started power walking my way up to the finish and it gave me some distance between me and the other two woman.  This was by far the worst I felt the entire day. The climb was steep, you could hear the crowd at the finish line, I knew these two other woman were on my heels, and I was starting to look like the people I passed deep in the woods.  I could hardly move my legs so I tried to use my arms as hard as I could to help propel me up that damn hill. I was groaning and breathing hard - so much so that the guy in front of me turned around to make sure I was okay.  I somehow broke into a run at the top so  could run across the finish line, and some woman even said 'wow - she's got some kick left!'  The clock was about to turn to 6:27 and I wanted to cross before I got there, so I finished with a final time of 6:26.56.  19th overall female, and 5th in my division.  And I did negative split by about ten minutes. 

This race was an amazing experience.  After training to run this one in 2009, and then getting injured on the course during my last long run (and then not being able to run for 3 months after that) it felt wonderful to settle that score.  I am happy with how I executed the race, I feel fortunate to run with such strong and inspiring competitors, and I am content with taking some time to recover.

On a side note, I kept laughing at myself last night as I was falling asleep.  You know how sometimes you dream that you're falling and startle yourself awake? I did that over and over and over last night - I spent so much of my day tripping and trying not to fall on the trail I was dreaming about it!

Thanks everyone for your support and encouragement while I trained for this event.  It was wonderful.I'll post pictures of the event this week. :)

 

Quite a different facial expression in the car on the way home than on the way to the race!

 

 

T-24 Hours

In 24 hours from right now I will be in a nature preserve, suited up in my version of running armor (hydration belt, gaiters, sleeves, my favorite/lucky running tank top), taking a deep breath and doing my best to stay as relaxed as possible.  I will be surrounded by nervous energy, and incredible natural beauty. 

It's hard to wrap my head around that as I sit on my couch listening to the birds outside my patio door, leisurely drinking coffee.  But today is the day that I look back to the last 4+ months of training and reflect.  This has been, hands down, the most difficult training cycle I have ever dealt with.  Winter was long and harsh, with incredibly long streaks of below average temperatures, arctic wind chills, and a layer of ice over everything.  The second treadmill in the row at Anytime Fitness and I had a very intimate relationship.

Elevation chart and water stations for tomorrow.  (Nope, not a PR course.)

One thing that kept me pushing through those long, brutal weeks was the connections I have with the people around me.  The athletes I coach, the people I've connected with on Twitter, my good friends, my boyfriend, and my family.  I had a great group of people who support my love of running and the time I put in to push my own limits.  That's one thing I love about this sport of ultramarathoning - people support each other, help each other, and are human. 

Plenty of people ask me why I do these things - what possibly could be so great that it gets you to sign up for, and train for this stuff?  For me it's two things -

1 - Nature.  I am renewed and peaceful when I'm surrounded by natural beauty.  I love the quiet, the smells of the pine trees, the views of the lakes, the wildlife, and the meditative aspect of hearing the footfalls and rhythmic breathing.  No phones, no email, no one needing anything of you. Sure, technically you're in a 'race' and there are people around you, but it truly feels like it's an internal journey to not just cover a ton of miles on your feet, but also to get really deep into yourself and dig deeper than you thought possible to get yourself across the finish line.  That component leads me to the second reason I do this -

2 - Authenticity.  I often tell people that it's impossible to fake it after 20 miles.  There's no acting.  You get to a point that you have no choice but to be who you are - the good and the bad mixed together in a truthful representation of who you really are as a person.  And I think it's beautiful!  It's gritty and raw and you come to see the most beautiful moments of really broken down people.  Someone who is exhausted offering words of encouragement to someone who is debating stopping.  Someone who hit the wall ten miles ago offering their extra gels to someone who ran out or lost theirs.  I's humankind being themselves, in a situation that is unfettered with outside influence, just enjoying the natural drive to push limits and come together in times of difficulty. 

These are the two things I will think about tomorrow when I start to struggle.  Thanks to all of you for your support through this training - I draw a lot of inspiration from the wonderful people in my life. 

“And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with love like that.
It lights up the sky.”  

Tomorrow's internal and physical journey will be fueled not just by my own thoughts, but the connections I've cultivated, and the interactions with those around me on that trail.  Our true selves will shine through, we'll push each other with encouragement and sincerity, and we'll each light up the sky in our own way.  I'm fired up about the love I have for those moments, and thankful to have made it through the training while staying healthy.  Okay Chippewa Moraine 50K.  I'm ready for you.

Inspiration

All of us runners had to start somewhere.  At some point there was a person, or an event, or a book, or a movie or whatever it was, that got us to say 'you know what?  I can do that too.'  And then you laced up your shoes, put on whatever clothes that seemed most athletic, and went out the door to try and really run.  Those initial sources of inspiration are things we never forget.  We hold them dear to our hearts and look at them as the roots of the running we have grown to love. 

I clearly remember this day as the first day I KNEW I waned to be a runner.
Don't I look nice in my brother's letter jacket? :)

Through everyone's evolution in their running there are additional sources of inspiration along the way - friends that are running further or faster than you, people that are 'zen runners' and can get out there without a watch or a game plan and just run for the sake of running, people like Scott Jurek or Dean Karnazes or Ray Zahab, a podcast on Trail Runner Nation may have really resonated with you and inspire you to train for a 50 miler.  Each person has had key things in their running journey inspire them to take things to a different level, and those things are always kept in a special place in their memory.

On the flipside, you, as a runner, have very likely inspired someone else in your life to also tie their shoes and head out the door as well.  I bet there's more than once you've been running down the side of a road and someone in that car driving by that was smoking a cigarette and eating French fries out of a paper bag from McDonalds and looked at you and said - 'yes, I can do that.'  And afterwards, they did in fact do that.  They ran.  And they ran because they saw you out there. 

A great gift to us runners is that the running community is so accessible.  You can pretty easily get in touch with any elite runner out there, can often find out where they will be racing or doing a book signing and go there, and because of that can often talk to or meet the person who has inspired you to do so much more than you thought you ever could. 

A great gift in that accessibility is that we, as mere humble runners, can thank someone that has inspired us.  And that is a very personal thing!  Dean Karnazes is someone that helped push me from running road marathons to ultra trail races.  His endurance, positive attitude, and willingness to open up about his passion (while being a natural introvert) motivated me to do push further, and at the same time tell people about what I was doing.  That's a priceless piece of inspiration to me, and I was lucky enough a few years ago to meet Dean on a few different occasions.  I was very excited to finally be able to tell him, the man that I would think of is the darkest times of my running to help push me through, that he was my inspiration, and how grateful I was for that.

I was running with Dean towards the end of a group run that was coordinated by a local North Face store, and I was able to get out the words of appreciation for doing all that he does, and how he inspired me to push further in my own running.  His response was a simple 'thank you', and then quickly asked me a question about Madison.  Yes, my compliment was acknowledged, but it didn't quite give me the satisfaction I was looking for.  I mean, for a few years this man is what mentally pushed me to bring my A game, run further than I ever thought I could, and be much more open with my friends and athletes with something that I previously held close as incredibly personal. 

I didn't think much about that interaction again until yesterday. I was running with a friend of mine who is training for her second marathon.  She's only been running a few years, but is working hard on increasing her endurance while having fun, involving her friends, and is very mindful and open about the positive role running plays in her life.  We were in the second half of our long run when she told me that I was an inspiration of hers to push herself further when she was running.  It was such a nice compliment that I didn't expect at all, and I, like Dean had done to me, said a brief 'thank you' and wanted to quickly change the subject.

I see many runners (and people in general) brush off or even deflect compliments, especially ones that are meaningful - not just a 'you look nice today' or 'cute dress' compliment.  By nature I think we as runners are just humble, hard working people that are more than happy to do our hardest work in the darkness of night, by ourselves, away from being the center of any sort of attention.  But the reality is that our hard work is not unnoticed.  One of my favorite quotes is 'Work hard in silence, let success make the noise.'  And that 'noise' inspires people around us without our even knowing. 

So next time someone comes up to you, or sends you an email or text to tell you how much of an inspiration you are to them, acknowledge that.  Thank them for the compliment and even ask them a question to expand further.  It is an important moment for them to tell you something that personal and genuine, so do your best to accept it and be gracious.  It is hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I can inspire anyone to do anything - after all, I'm just a runner.  But we are a community of people that are fueled by the way we are inspired by each other, and I think that's pretty awesome. 

 

Race Recap - Trailbreaker Marathon

I am a believer in signs, and I felt like my morning of my race was scattered with them.
     1- I had a pretty good night of sleep. I still woke up a fair amount, but was able to fall right back to sleep, so when my alarm went off at 5am I didn't want to throw my phone across the room, which was nice for a change.
     2 - The first full song that came on the radio as I was driving to Waukesha was my FAVORITE.  (Mirrors by Justin Timberlake, in case you're curious :)
     3 - My textbook hydration made me have to stop at a rest area on the way to the race, and when I got inside the song Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen was playing. Born to Run! Can you believe that??  If that isn't a sign that you're about to have a great marathon I don't know what is.

     4 - There was an older man standing outside the rest area when I was jogging back to my car. I gave him a warm 'good morning!' which he promptly echoed back to me. I noticed he was watching me  run back to my car and he got a big smile and said 'You're so lucky you can jog, I can't any more because of my legs.'  It thought about it for a second, and I thought 'yes - I AM lucky that I can run!'  How lucky that I had a marathon to run where I was healthy, felt rested, and no injuries to speak of.  I really was lucky!

I kept thinking about that man, and other people I know that are limited by their bodies for one reason or another and literally can't run.  I decided that those people would be my source of strength as I ran the impending 26.2 miles.

Packet pick up went smoothly, the temperature was a comfortable 32°, and the breeze was really light.  As we lined up and listened to the announcements and the National Anthem I reminded myself of what my goals were.  - this is just a long run, you're not racing. - run the second half faster the first. - keep eating and drinking even if you don't feel like it.  - listen to your body.  - don't obsess over mentally calculating your splits/pace. 

I originally wanted to finish between 4:15 and 4:30, since the middle 6ish miles were on pretty technical trail, and at the half way point you had to climb a 40 foot tower, ring a bell, and then run back to the start.  Well, mother nature had a different plan and rained like a monsoon two nights before, so for the third time in the history of the race, we had to run an alternate route where we just ran further on the flat, paved, Glacial Drumlin Trail and then head back.  Knowing this, I adjusted my mental time to about 4 hours. 

I had two sleeves of gel cubes with me, some peanut butter pretzel sandwiches, and a bottle of water so I was set for a good long while. I had  drop bag with a Red Bull and more cubes to be delivered to the 4th aid station, so right away it felt good to not be carrying all my supplies at once.  I held myself to 9:37 for the first mile, and then slowly started to move up from there.  The sun was shining, people were chipper, and I felt like I was dressed perfectly for the weather.  I had my iPod with me equipped with a bunch of new tunes, but didn't want to put it on until I felt like I really needed it. 

I like to run with a mantra so it keeps me focused - for this one it was 'relaxed and conservative.'  It really helped me to stay within a comfortable, but not boring pace.  My body felt surprisingly good considering the whole run was on pavement (and some concrete for a few miles in Waukesha) and I was rounding out a 70 mile week which was a lot for me. After just 15 minutes or so I started debating if I should stop for a quick pee break.  It was a true mental struggle to decide what to do - can I deal with this the whole way?  What if I stop and it takes two minutes and then I miss my PR by 2 minutes? (even though I wasn't racing, I was still thinking it would be nice to PR comfortably if I had that kind of fitness level in me.) If I don't stop will I slow down in my liquids and regret it later?  I ran past two empty port a potties, and then decided that I'd stop at the 4th aid station where my drop bag was and get all my 'errands' out of the way in one spot. 

Well, it didn't quite work as planned - the drop bags weren't there yet (which yes, did irritate me), and then a guy went into the porta potty right as I was running up to it.  Considering he was moving fast, and was a man, I figured he'd be fast.  Well, I was wrong.  I could hear him blowing his nose and fumbling around.  I'm not sure if he was making origami swans out of toilet paper or what, but I was not so subtly making loud throat clearing noises right outside the door until he came out.  It was only about 2 minutes that he was in there, but felt like 20, and I topped it off with a dirty look as well which made me feel better.

30 seconds later I was back on my way and glad I stopped, even though it took more time than I wanted.  A volunteer assured my that my drop bag would be there when I came back so I figured it was good that I waited to have my Red Bull until mile 16 or so, and I had enough gel cubes to last till then so it wasn't a big deal. 

Getting to mile 13 felt good - I checked my watch and was right around 2 hours even, so I was glad I could do easy mental math to shoot for my negative split.  Leading up to the turn around I had a ballpark idea of how many women were in front of me, so I decided to slowly try and overtake as many as felt reasonably comfortable.  Most people slow down in the second half so I was banking on that, and was feeling good about the pep I still had in my legs. 

I kept with the 'relaxed and conservative' mantra, though once I'm running for a long time I get really forgetful, so I kept stumbling over the 'conservative' part.  I'd think 'relaxed and... comfortable? cozy? cucumber?  umm..... oh yeah - conservative!'

Thankfully, my drop bag was at mile 16 so I quickly took my jacket off and threw that along with my sleeves in there, and took my cubes and Red Bull with me.  I was starting to get just a little tired, so the boost of the sugary caffeinated goodness instantly helped. I figured it was also a good time to throw in the iPod and kill two birds with one stone.  Some F.Stokes got me into cruise control mode, and off I went.

I slowly crept up on a handful of women and felt good about that.  Right after mile 23 I looked ahead and saw a woman walking that I thought could be the first woman in my age group (granted, it's hard to tell ages of women runners since we all look so youthful and vibrant) but I thought she might be in my 35-39, so I turned things up a notch.  The faster pace felt a little tougher, but not overly taxing, so I just tried to keep it up to put as much distance between me and her as I could.  At this point we were overlapping with the half marathoners that started an hour and a half after the marathoners.  Passing them and also telling them 'good job!' kept me going. 

And then there was mile 25.  I decided to really try and push my pace...   and after just a couple minutes got really nauseas and scaled back a bit again.  The last 1.2 miles were that same pattern repeating - feeling alright and wanting to be done, pushing my pace, churning stomach, and slowing back down a bit.  Over and over and over.  Eventually my 'thank yous' to the volunteers became grunts and pleading stares for them to move the finish line closer.

Finally I made it there and was happily met by my mom who had a nice fleece blanket and sour cream and onion Pringles.  Exactly what I needed.  I finished in 3:50.03, less than two minutes off my PR (THANKS A LOT SLOW GUY IN THE BATHROOM!), and felt surprisingly good. 

After pavement marathons I typically feel pretty crippled, but this time I felt relatively good still.  I can only attribute that to two things - I ate and kept eating immediately after finishing.  And I started adding in weight room workouts the last month or so. My legs just felt stronger this time around and I definitely think it was the leg work I have been doing.

I felt good as I drove home with my medal and award for being second in my age group (7th overall female) and was glad that I had the discipline to run a negative split by ten minutes.  Now I get to taper in preparation for the Chippewa 50K that is coming up on April 26th. 

My recovery has just been resting, grazing on food, and trying to not wear shoes along with gentle stretching.  A longer walk with the dog will be in order later this afternoon, along with a nap. :)

You Know I Am Coming Up On Race Weekend When...

It has been quite a while since I've pinned on a race number, but I am going to be doing just that this weekend.  I am running a marathon, but using it as a training run, not racing it.  Even though my intention is not to race, I can't help but still prepare this week like I would if I was going for a PR.  Which leads me to....

You Know I Am Coming Up On Race Weekend When:

I try to wear flats instead of heels so my calves get some rest.

I start picking out my running clothes for Saturday on Tuesday.

My race prep for the Nike Women's Marathon in 2007

I conveniently use the race as an excuse to take naps any chance I get.

I compulsively check the forecast every few hours just in case anything changes.

 

I can turn the direction of any conversation to running. (okay, I do that anyway)

 

I study the course map at length, know the distance between aid stations, and exactly what will be at each one.

 

I eat everything in sight saying ‘it’s okay – I have a marathon/50k/Ragnar relay this weekend!’

 

My house/apartment is picture perfect because I don’t want anything to go missing.

 

Whenever I look like I'm deep in concentration, I'm really just visualizing my race.

 

I actually stretch.

 

I have anxiety dreams that I wake up late, get lost on the way to the starting line, have to race through parking garages and alleyways but my legs can hardly move so I end up running on my hands, and can hardly even catch up to the back of the pack runners.

 

 

I must have just had an anxiety dream! :)