Apprehension

Today I got my race bib, info packet, and time chip.  It is official!  No turning back now.  And I am terrified.

Over the past couple weeks I’ve gotten numerous emails from the race officials, giving race day tips as well as official business stuff.  Each one though contained something about switching races and the deadlines associated with that.  The last one was like “last time to switch to the half-marathon, now or never!”  Now, I understand the reasoning behind this, they have lots of people who wimp out and don’t want to run the whole thing as it gets closer, but for people like me it’s like someone is jumping in my face saying “Quit! Quit! Quit!”  I know of course that is not their intention, they just want everything to run smoothly on race day, but it’s really starting to freak me out!

I ignored each one of those emails.  And today my mom picked up our gear at the Expo.  I have a bib, number 1096, which I will carry pinned to my shirt for 26.2 miles.  I have a time chip, which I will attach to my shoe to time this test of endurance.  And I have an information packet, complete with race day and course info.

Here is the course map:

That's a long ways!

Here is the course elevation profile.

(It's the top one) There's a 100-foot climb at mile 25.7!

I spent more time dreading my last 20-mile run than actually running it, and it wasn’t even that bad.  I’m hoping this marathon is the same, though to some extent no matter what I do it’s gonna suck.  I really am looking forward to it, I think…  I’ve already got the Dory mantra going in my head… just keep running, just keep running, just keep running, running, running…

Oh my goodness! Today is Thursday (and it’s almost over)! Tomorrow is Friday!! And the next day is Saturday!!!! Those 1000 little purple people* jumping up and down and up and down and up and down are back and it is not in pure joy in which they are jumping!

Here goes nothing!

*In case you missed them the first time and have no idea what I am talking about here, see this post