The past two open marathons I’ve done, I had no idea whether I had trained up to hit the goals I had set for myself. I had no concept of what pace I could maintain, no concept of whether I could run the entire distance. This time… I know I’ve put the work in. It’s an incredible feeling. I’d say it’s zen-like, but I think the only reason I think that is because zen was the answer to a crossword clue today. But whatever the feeling is, it’s quite relaxing. I want to kick ass at the race on Sunday, and physically and mentally, I’m ready to. Should something go wrong, it’ll go wrong and I’ll deal with it. I may not hit my goals in that case, but it won’t be due to a lack of fitness or speed, but rather a lack of luck. My Achilles is still quite tight, so I cut the track workout short tonight (one mile at threshold which was very very easy). Want to be confident before a race? Train up for it and have faith in your training.
My preparation for Marine Corps in terms of knowing about the race has been fairly laughable. My buddy Shane from high school and I were talking during the Jaguars game on Monday night as we tried to figure out where he should meet me after the race to watch the Jags game.
Shane: oh right
what time does your race start?
me: that’s a good question
i should check, huh?
Shane: haha
me: (i really have no idea)
Shane: just show up and start runnin’
me: 8 am
Yeah… I’m on top of things. I’m normally not so lackadaisical about knowing the details of a race, but given how busy I’ve been and how familiar I am with the DC area. Looked at the course for the first time today as well (not that it would have changed my training beforehand at all). It’s actually incredibly familiar: all of the streets are streets I’ve run on or biked on numerous times when I lived in DC. It’s gonna be awesome.
Update to the last post: Coach Steve elaborated on his tweet.
