One week

Happy Easter y'all!

Yes, one week from this moment I will either be marathoner or the most disappointed person on earth (and no matter what the outcome...I will be drunk as well)!  I can't believe this journey is almost over.  It has definitely not been easy and to be honest I am really tired of running.  I have now been tapering for two full weeks and it is amazing how much energy I have without having to log all the miles I was previously!  By Sunday I will be bouncing off the walls!

I wish I could say the 20 miler was as great as all the other long runs, but it was not!  I was running late that morning and I had to volunteer that afternoon for the Glass Slipper, so when I went out I ran waaaayyy too fast.   I hit the turnaround point, right in front of Aquarium on the museum campus, looked down at my watch; to realize that I still had 5 miles to go.  I cursed extremely loudly and some nice man slowed down and talked to me.  He asked me what I was training for, told me about his running history, and gave me pointers for the big day; he ended up running an entire mile with me.  He wished me luck, and ran off at his pace (much faster than my 9 minute miles) and then I realized I had 4 miles to go.  I honestly didn't think I could do it.  I was in pain, and exhausted.  It was cold and miserable that day, and I had been running at a 8:45 pace....I was then at a 9:30 pace and getting slower by the minute.  I went to all my go to songs, and I still could not shake the feeling of how awful it was.  At mile 18, I thought to myself that I was not going to run the marathon, if 20 was this bad.....how awful is 26.2 going to be?  I was actually tearing up on the path, which is never a good sign.  Then at mile 19, Christina's "Dirrrty" came on my ipod and I remembered Megan Kovach "dancing" around my room at the SK house and crashing into my dresser and actually laughed out loud.  In all honesty, this memory pushed me until the end.  It wasn't easy, but I ran all 20 miles without stopping and I did it in 3:05. 

Up to this point my long runs had been physically hard but I had never been close to hitting the "wall".  Well that changed because I slammed right into it.  I had never mentally felt the way I did running than I did at mile 18.  I know physically I was in pain, but mentally I was a complete and utter mess.  I questioned all my abilities, how strong I was, and more importantly I questioned if I could actually finish it?  I am glad that I was mentally strong enough to push through it and finish, but I can't imagine going through that again....

Since that run I have been tapering.  The next weekend was only a 13 mile run and it would have been just fine, but I stayed out until 5am the night before drinking (yes I caved and drank in the month of April, twice actually), and I was a miserable mess along the path.  Thankfully Ms. Toni Haubert was running with me, and she pushed me to finish, which would not have happened had I attempted to it on my own.  This weekend was only 8 miles, and it was great!  I felt amazing and didn't want to stop.  But I didn't want to push it, so I did stop and now I have 9 miles left to run (3 on Monday, 4 on Wednesday and 2 on Thursday) before the big day.  This week needs to go by quickly...I am ready to do this!!!

I always like to donate my clothing to the Clothes Closet in Liberty, instead of the Salvation Army here in Chicago.  So today I did a full clean out of my closet.  Up to this point I would pull a piece or two out and put them in a bag and when the bag was full I would throw them in my car to take the next time I was College Corner bound.  I had done 2 previous sweeps of pants, but I still had a lot of my old clothes lying around.  Since I am going home this weekend, and will not be returning until after I move; I decided to do a clean sweep of all my clothing. I was unwilling to move clothes that did not fit into my new apartment.  I was hoping it would be liberating, but after seeing all my clothes in a huge pile on my bed I was just sad.  I had spent so much of my own hard earned money on all of these pieces and now I was just giving them away.  Two whole garbage bags stuffed to top with the suit I wore on my interview for my current job, the dress I wore to Lindsey's wedding, my favorite Banana Republic shirt that I have had since college, and the list goes on.  In all reality I could have kept them, but to do what with them?  Keep them?  They do not fit, and in all honesty they were not expensive enough to have tailored, so I will give them all away.  Much harder to part with them than I ever thought it would....

Probably only one more post before the marathon.....  :)