RACE WEEK

The weather watching has begun! Just need that storm to hit Friday/Saturday and leave Sunday dry!

Well, I am inside of a week until my first marathon in three years. The nerves have started! Luckily they are just when I start thinking about the race, which includes typing this post. Eek! Otherwise, it is not the 24/7 impending feeling of doom which tends to crop up the last few days leading up to the race. That'll start the moment I land in our nation's capitol.

I can take comfort in the fact that I am ready for the race though. I had a highly successful training cycle; and, while running 26 miles at the pace I am going to try for sounds near impossible, I know from experience it can be done. I've done it before and I can do it again! The only thing left to do is shuffle along at my final two easy runs and get to Washington DC healthy and rested.

In preparation for the marathon, I have woken up early the last two days. Up at 8:00am on Sunday and then 7:30am this morning. I'm going to try to keep waking up a little earlier each day so I can make the adjustment to east coast time more easily. My flight on Thursday is at 8:15am, which means probably like a 5:45am wake up. Maybe I'll wake up even earlier just to make sure I am extra tired Thursday night. Hopefully that one day will get me into the east coast groove, I can get my eight hours Friday night, and then try my damnedest to salvage 5 or 6 hours Saturday night before the race.

Luckily the race doesn't start until nearly 8am, so much more reasonable than going east to do one of those Disney races or something. We're also pretty close to the Metro station, so I'm thinking we'll probably wake up around 6am. Not great, but better than my Miami wake ups and hopefully I'll also be much more acclimated to the time zone. I'm happy I'm actually following through on trying to adjust my schedule. It's always all talk and no game for me in that area. I know I can bullshit a half sleep deprived but a marathon is a whole different matter.

The weather forecast has improved somewhat from the last update. It appears the bulk of the predicted rain is now on Saturday. Now, that can shift right back of course, so not celebrating yet. They are predicting nearly a half inch, so a pretty decent amount. For now, Sunday looks like chance of sprinkles but otherwise just overcast. Overcast weather would be PERFECT. Even in colder temperatures the sun can zap you. So if it could be overcast and dry, that would be ideal. Right now the predicted temperature at race start is 46 with a high for the day of just 54. That would be IDEAL. Fingers crossed!