The Day Before

I forgot my traveling pen. The one I always use to write in my little Moleskine. I love looking back and seeing where my mind was the day before a race, so I figured I'd go ahead and spill the beans out here and see how it goes. The weather forecast has changed from dire to pretty awesome. Low 40s at the start (borderline on the chilly side - we've got to be out there for an hour or more - but perfect for the beginning of a race. Mid (and maybe high) 50s at the finish. Let's hope it's closer to mid. The sun will be up by then and, I found out today, it's a hot sun. Forecasts as of when I left were for good temps but for steady winds of 30mph gusting to 45-50. Directly into our faces. Yikes. That's total death. Wind forecast now? Max of 3-5 for the whole course! I'm very psyched about the weather. Not so entirely psyched about the course.

I've made the decision several times to run a particular marathon based on a "favorable" elevation profile. By that I mean: net downhill. Each time, I forget that the race directors have a product to sell and that the do their best to make their race the most appealing. They do things like show you the net elevation change for each mile. This does not, however, take account for the rolling or sometimes massive hills. If you go 500 feet up and then 500 feet down in the same mile, the net can still be naught. This is definitely the case for this course. There are several very intense hills. Mountains, you might say. This will, no doubt, be quite a test.

This is my excuse. Already. It's like I can't help myself. I'm setting the stage for when I don't achieve my goal. I really have vacillated though. When I chatted with the Clif Bar Pace Team (the guys that run a specific pace so that you can just follow them and not worry about pacing) at the Expo, I got really charged and KNEW that this would be the one. It's happened several other times randomly. I am in shape. I've got a little niggle in my left calf, but even that is much better than it has been recently. There's the aforementioned awesome weather. There's really a lot going for me this time around. So if I can just beat the course, then this time will be it.

Me against the course. Always me against the distance. Me against that little voice in my body telling me to stop.

I can't tell you how much I want to be writing another post here tomorrow brimming with post race ecstasy. If you've ever met me, you probably know. A coworker of mine predicted my time as 3:08:54. My response "If I run 3:08:54, I will buy you dinner." I've never wanted to buy someone dinner more.