Go big or go home!

With my longest training run of 20 miles coming up tomorrow, 24 days left until the marathon and my 40th birthday coming just a few days before that, it's definitely feeling like a now or never time in my life in a lot of ways. The upcoming milestones are looming rather large on my horizon and I find myself feeling very introspective these days (okay, maybe not all that out of the ordinary for me but nevertheless, it's quite an interesting time in my head!). 

It hasn’t been a very easy training week thus far. Monday’s challenges of low energy and physical discomfort carried over to yesterday’s 10 mile run which was a little discouraging. I did luck out on one front though because Sporty came along to offer some much needed encouragement. If you look closely at the photo you can tell that said support had to be offered from the sidelines vs. running along next to me as Sporty is currently sporting a lovely cast/boot thing which was acquired during a softball game (clearly the name Sporty is for a reason!). 

I’m definitely experiencing some anxiety about tomorrow’s 20 miles in regards to how I will do physically (who knew toes could cause so much drama) as well as my ability to keep my head in the right place for that many miles. I’ve been doing what I can to prepare with all my regular stuff (liquids, nutrition, stretching, blah, blah, blah) and tomorrow my plan is to start as early as I can (maybe if I’m still sleepy I can get in some miles before I’m awake enough to realize what’s happening), stay on top of my hydration and fueling and remind myself every step of the way that I can do it… I can run 20 miles just like I ran 18 and just like I’ll run 26.2 (and if that doesn’t work I’ll start bribing myself with images of post-run prizes from Lululemon). 

So here I am at the final push with a fading propensity towards negativity, an ever-growing inclination towards positivity and the realization that I’ve come a long way and am ready for the rest of this journey... As Sporty would say, it’s time to “go big or go home” so 20 miles, here I come!

10miles, 1hr 45min 32 sec, avg 10:32

Cheers,

SF runner in training