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| "don't overthink it." |
~ shakespeare (or was it spock? i don't know. let's go with "shakespock" and call it good)
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i'm not a list person, but i have a marathon coming up. and since it's my first marathon, i have a list.
it's got some weird-sounding stuff on it: injinjis and altras and zoots. oh, my. it also has some normal-sounding stuff: shirt, shorts, hat, sunglasses, chia seeds, lime...what?
i'm guessing many of the items on "the list" are completely superfluous, and will be left in the hotel room. but, you know, better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it. i'll make a different list next time.
at the top of "the list," in red ink, is the minutes-per-mile pace i'll have to run to finish under four hours. it looks kinda like this: *9-minute miles = 3:56
also up there is the time i'd have to beat to qualify for the boston marathon. it looks kinda like this: *BQ = 3:30:00 ha ha
i left off *marathon world record = 2:03:02 because, you know, there's only so much room on a post-it note.
according to another list, of sorts ("16-week training schedule" @ marathon rookie.com), today was my last pre-event training run. three miles was prescribed, but that seemed short. so i ran 3.5. not sure what impact this transgression will have...if i fall down a half mile short of the finish line, unable to continue, i'll know.
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existential dilemma: headphones or no headphones?
there was a time when i wouldn't go for a run, any run, without some kind of sound being pumped into my head. for months it was the music in my itunes library, which eventually evolved to a random pandora mix. after a few months of that i switched to pandora stand-up comedy. i would literally lol while i ran, which may have scared people as i passed by.
that was a long time ago. with a couple rare exceptions, i haven't run with headphones in over a year. then again, i haven't run a marathon before. come mile 18 will i curse myself for deciding not to bring them along? will they distract me so much that i forget to stay hydrated and fall down a half mile from the finish line?
f*ck it, no headphones.
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the race-day forecast for lake chelan and vicinity...
Day Sep 7
Few Showers
- Chance of Rain:
- 30%
- Wind:
- N at 5 mph
- Humidity:
- 73%
74°F
High
High
this is fantastic news. daytime highs in chelan can range into the 90s this time of year. so, assuming there's no hair-igniting lightning associated with these showers, we can stay focused on important topics, such as why there was no rain gear on "the list."
(note to self: add "rain gear" to "the list." then figure out what "rain gear" means in this context.)
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packet pick-up and pre-race dinner will be at the vin du lac winery in chelan. they'll be pouring $5 glasses of wine for the occasion. woo hoo, cheap-but-good wine! which i will totally be foregoing. mutter*mumble*murmur...
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my first marathon put up a fight. i was all trained up in april ahead of a may 5 target event (vancouver, BC!)...but life happened, that window closed, and months went by. come to find out there aren't that many (road) marathons scheduled during summer, and fewer still that synchronized with our family schedule.
but an obsessive scouring of the internet turned up a race that fit the calendar, was not too far from home, and was not insanely expensive. when i signed up it seemed far in the future. now, in the blink of an eye, it's upon us. so it goes.
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as someone said (i don't know who), "you run the first ten miles of a marathon with your head. you run the second ten with your legs. and you run the last 6.2 with your heart."
standing here, t-minus three days and counting, i have a good bit of confidence in my legs. in my head, not as much. it's time to find out about the heart.
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"when I run, the world grows quiet. demons are forgotten, krakens are slain, and blerches are silenced."
~ matthew inman
on my feet and moving.
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