That's THIS Weekend?

I think it finally hit me today that I have to run a full marathon this Saturday. I haven't even really been thinking about it. I'm sure it's because I'm not counting this one as my "real" marathon. This is just my last long training run before my real marathon in St. George in two weeks.

This marathon training experience has been completely different from the last one.
First of all, I'm training with different people. My friend and neighbor that I've run with the last year, introduced me to this group at the beginning of the summer. I've really enjoyed getting to know them, and they are crazy fast, so that's really good for me. I like to run with people who are better than me. I like to be pushed to my limit.

So, I've been training significantly faster than my last marathon. I'm not Boston fast, but there are people in my group who can consistently qualify for Boston year after year. I admire them. That is like the ultimate accomplishment in my eyes.

I've decided that maybe I'll wait to try to qualify for Boston until I'm a few years older. Then the qualifying time is a little easier.
At my age (30) I'd have to finish in 3 hours and 40 minutes to qualify. That's a 8:30min/mile pace. To put that into perspective, my last marathon I finished in 4 hours 28 minutes. I'd have to shave almost a whole hour off my time to qualify.
My goal is 4 hours. I think I can do it. Actually, I really want to do it in 3:59.
Then I can say I did it in the 3 hour mark.

So, this Saturday, I'm running the Top of Utah marathon in Logan. I've heard it's a gorgeous run, and is downhill for the first 16 miles. I love running downhill. I've learned how to just let the hill carry me down, and with minimal effort and I can "fly" down the hill. I love that feeeling. Then it goes back uphill the last 10 miles. I can do short, steep hills pretty fast. It's the long, slow climb that kills me.
I run up Gordon Ave. at the end of all my runs. And I still hate it. It the kind of hill that if you're driving in a car, you don't even notice that it's a hill. But, running at a shallow incline for 1 mile and a half can be really, really demoralizing.

I've given myself "permission" to walk the last 3 miles, if I absolutely have to. But only because this is my training run. I probably won't. Because I get in race mode, and my competitive nature kicks in, and the adrenalin pushes me to try my hardest.

So, today, I am going to go stock up on my GU (caffeine is my friend), take it easy tomorrow, and then have a nice, relaxing, fun run on Saturday.

But, for now, I have to go drive to preschool, volunteer at 1st grade, babysit my neice, do laundry, vaccum, drive to Karate, drive to soccer, cook dinner, go to bed, start all over again.

Thus is my life.....