The Beautiful Finale

For some reason today, I am feeling totally at ease.

I woke up this morning feeling well-rested and peaceful. There was a gentle flurry and a light dusting of snow on the ground. It was something these Miami eyes have not seen in over 6 years and I was in love. Even though there was barely any snow and it soon melted, it was beautiful nonetheless. I was instantly happy.

I spent the morning and early afternoon running errands and cleaning the house so I could relax and focus on the marathon for the rest of the weekend. I always feel so much better after my entire house is clean. After all that cleaning, I made time to head out for one final run.

I decided to not worry about mileage and time and simply run up Main Street and back. Since I live in Manayunk, this run takes me on miles 18-22 of the marathon course. The turn around for the marathon in Manayunk (mile 19-20ish) is literally a quarter mile from my house.

This could either be a really good thing, or a very bad thing come gameday.

It's good because I have run it so many times (as well as the remaining miles of the course) that I know exactly where we are and how far we have to go. But it could be bad since we all know that by mile 19 I will be exhausted and knowing my house is so close and EXACTLY how far we still have left to go could backfire on me. I'm hoping that the strong crowd support on this part of the course will help take my mind of it.

Since the temps were so cool when I headed out (36 degrees, feels like 30) I decided to use this short run to test out my final outfit for Sunday, right down to the underwear and earrings. So here it is. This is what I'll be wearing before I check my bag in the morning. When I check my bag, the jacket will go too. If you are wandering around before the race (or after) and see someone who looks like this, come say hello.



During the race, I'll be wearing black capris, a black singlet, and a lavendar long sleeved tech shirt. Also a black earband. Oh and BLUE gloves. Totally does not match, but if you see someone running in a lavender, Easter-egg colored shirt with BLUE non-matching gloves, run up to me and say hi.

Here I am practicing for Sunday. Look how fast I look!



I also made a final decision not to take anything that goes around my waist, which means I have to pin my Gu to my body. Since my singlet is super-long, it covered up the 5 Gu's that were pinned to my waistband and kept them from bouncing. I wore the Gu's on my run to make sure they wouldn't bother me and it was fine. I barely knew they were there and when I need one, I can just rip it off the pin. Brilliant!

It looks weird here, but when I pull down the shirt, you can't even see them.



It was a beautiful afternoon for a run and since I was going short and slow I grabbed my camera as I headed out. I was happy I did so I could capture some pics of my final training run for Philly and also so those of you who are running this weekend could get an idea of what those miles look like during the race.

This is right by my house headed towards Main Street. I jog on the Towpath below by the canal and hit Main right after the big bridge.









Do you see what I see??









This looks like the opening sequence from "The Office".









It was a great run. I ended up running a nice, short 3.35 miles. As far as slow goes...woops. I ran it in 29:35 for a 8:47 pace. But when I was done, I literally felt like I had barely run at all. I was meaning to go at a much slower 9:45 pace, but I really have a hard time when it's so cold out. My body felt great. For the first time in weeks I wasn't feeling lethargic and my legs felt like new, which made me happy with my decision to only run twice this week so my legs could rest. Those 3.35 miles were just the boost of confidence I needed to get my mind back on track for Sunday. Now I can't wait.

Tomorrow we head to the expo around 11am and then to the Reading Market to fill up on Chicken Noodle soup for lunch. Those of you from out of town looking for a place to eat, I highly suggest heading there. You can get there from inside the convention center and they have every kind of food you could possible want.

I'm sure I'll post again tomorrow night after the expo (cause I am in kooky, marathon-mode) but for those of you who don't have computer access tomorrow, J and I will be hanging out before the race by the huge fountain in front of the Art Museum steps (when we aren't in line for a port-o-potty). If any of you are around, wander by and try to find us.

Good luck!!! :)