EEEEKK!

That seems to be my sentiment lately about a lot of things, but since this is my "running" blog..my latest "eek!" is the impending Bass Pro Marathon. It is almost upon me, in 2 weeks to be exact, and I am already feeling the nerves!

Yesterday was our 12 miler with the LRM Group, meeting at the Harvest Foods on Cantrell. Cheryl picked me up, per usual, and promptly stated how "frigid" it was outside. Now, you have to know up front that Cheryl hates, no, HATES winter...and since it seems like we have completely skipped over having a fall...she tends to be a bit testy about cold weather. I went outside and thought "hmm..doesn't seem colder than yesterday"...and I was quickly informed that I should "just wait"...I decided to grab my vest, just in case...

We headed over to the meeting place with no issues (aka the roads were not blocked off yet for the Race for the Cure, going on that morning) and met Kimbo. Tom and Hobbit were out of town this weekend, setting up a booth for the Little Rock Marathon at the Kansas City Expo, so some other people were managing the runners this week. We decided to go ahead and get started. It was still dark, of course, but that usually makes running down to Murray Park much more bearable. At this point, I was VERY glad that I had worn my vest and was getting comfortable warm about 1 mile into the run. The route is very flat, and I was pleasantly having a much better run than I did on Friday. I'm sure the lack of hills was most of it, but my butt/sciatic was not bothering me like it did then.

Somehow the miles flew by...and we were keeping a pretty fast pace, that became a little challenging for me about halfway through the run. We didn't take as many walk breaks, so my legs felt like lead, but when Cheryl stopped to use the bathroom, I got a short break and got my second wind to finish out the last 2-3 miles at a decent pace. In light of the marathon coming up, we knew we were going too fast for the goal pace of around an 11:00 min/mi but I quickly reminded myself NOT to do that on race day. It will probably be a good thing that I'm not running with the girls, so I am not tempted to do that, because I can tell that it definitely costs me later in the run. I would love to have a negative split, because I saved my energy and made the most of my short walk breaks. This is pretty impossible with Kimbo and Cheryl, as Kim pretty much stays a steady pace and keeps going and Cheryl always has some invisible speed watch in her head that makes her take off like a bat out of hell. However, you never know what race day will bring and I hope that I am rested and have a good running day.

We are pretty much tapering now and that usually freaks me out..especially when the runs closer to the race seem less and less easy. This week we will have to do our workout early, because we are going to Conway for the required volunteer meeting for the Soaring Wings Half Marathon. Kim is running the race (because she is a bad ass) and Cheryl and I are volunteering. I knew I couldn't run a half the week before a marathon (!), but last year I enjoyed this race so much, I wanted to be a part of it somehow. I signed up for food prep or packet pick up. I guess we will find out when we go to the meeting Tuesday night. Next week we will be really be cutting back on mileage, and modifying our speed workout with Dennis. As race day approaches, I'm sure the "freak outs" will increase...there is nothing that I can do about the whether my "special friend" visits me on race day as scheduled, or the weather itself...so there's no point in worrying myself to death over it. I do want to try my best to plan as well as I can and get plenty of rest and eat well.