Second, while I am fortunate enough to have crushed the minimum requirement, some of my fellow TNT participants are fortunate enough to NOT have a direct connection to a cancer patient, and they're having a little trouble meeting the minimum. My running buddy, the lovely Audrey, is one of those teammates. This girl has provided me with companionship, sanity, encouragement, and amazing support through some of the toughest runs of this season. She is running for patients and families she doesn't even know, all out of the goodness of her heart and the generosity of her spirit. If you have an extra $10 or $20 lying around, even if you've already donated to me, please consider donating to her. The link to her site is here: http://pages.teamintraining.org/nyc/rnr10/ayoung206j
Third, I hurt my ankle! It's nothing serious and I'm confident I'll be fine for race day, but I am experiencing some pain on the outside of my right ankle. I wanted to ask my coach about it but I couldn't exactly describe where it was hurting, so I made this handy diagram:
He was impressed with my amazing Microsoft Office skills, natch. Anyway I've been cross training since Sunday, and he cleared me to do tonight's tempo run, so I'm optimistic it'll be all good.
Fourth, this past weekend was my last weekend of drinking alcohol until race day. Today is day 3 of "dry life", and thus far it has been a struggle. Just to put it in perspective for you, on Monday night we went to the Cardinals game, and sat outside in the freezing temperatures while it "misted" (I won't say it "rained", but it felt like we were sitting in a cloud). Not drinking beer at a baseball game - particularly at BUSCH STADIUM - is just absurd, let alone when you're freezing your butt off, surrounded by imbibing co-workers and friends. Then yesterday we had a team outing/dinner (aka free drinks), followed by a Consultant Appreciation event at the Westin (aka open bar), which had a live band, strobe lights, disco balls, and awkward middle aged people dancing to the Black Eyed Peas whilst wearing suits and donning nametags. Believe me when I say drinks are necessary in that scenario - and I drank soda water with a lime. P-A-I-N-F-U-L. Tonight, I have volleyball, and this is less of a competitive league and more of a "beer in one hand" league. I'll be sippin on water. Awesome.
Last, I am running the Brooklyn half marathon this Saturday, and I am AMPED. I hate the course though - we have to do 2 laps around Prospect Park to cover the first 7 miles. What's with that? We then run down Ocean Parkway all the way to the Coney Island boardwalk. I'm going to run it at my training pace, and use it as a dress rehearsal for the big race in June. Hopefully I'll have some lessons learned coming out of it to help me develop my race plan for San Diego!
Countdown to San Diego: 18 days
Current status: Freaking out
You are not just doing something amazing, you have also ALREADY done something amazing. No matter how the marathon goes, you are absolutely a champion and an inspiration. Right now, that race is just the icing on the cake to an amazing and completely humbling journey.
ReplyDeleteAll my love