In 9 days I will be leaving for the Disneyland Half where I am running the Dumbo Double Dare. I have been training especially hard for this race and am OH SO excited!!
Some of you reading this (you know who you are) run a half or a full marathon as part of your regular weekend plans. You will find this post silly and irrelevant but perhaps entertaining. For the rest of you, ESPECIALLY if you’re getting ready for your first half or full, you might find this helpful. So here goes – The Top Five Things I’m Doing Nine Days Before the Disneyland Half Marathon!
1. I am obsessively checking the weather. Because if you check it every day, it may change to something you love from something you don’t love. And the counter is also true – if it’s looking good right now and you DON’T check it every day, it could change. Watch the weather.
2. I am mentally packing every time I have any down time at all. This may include during a boring meeting, in the middle of the night when I get up to use the bathroom or wake up from a stress dream where I forget my running shoes, or while the men in my life are watching Band of Brothers or Lord of the Rings (again).
3. I am walking more cautiously through my own workplace and house and not engaging in physical labor. Yup, you read that correctly. Because I didn’t put in all this training to hurt myself scrubbing a toilet or slipping on some water spilled in my kitchen. In fact, if I owned a walker I would use it right now.
4. I am reading every blog, listening to every podcast and watching every YouTube video that I can get a hold of about the race I’m running. I’m also looking at the map over and over again because that totally helps you on race day. (in case the sarcasm wasn’t obvious there, it doesn’t help you on race day at all to have studied the map. It’s sort of like that Lamaze breathing they taught me to do during labor. Didn’t use it even once . . .)
5. I am going back over every run recorded in Run Keeper and checking it against my training for my last few races to see if the odds are good that I’ll PR. Did I run more or less than last time? Was I faster or slower for my last 10 miler? The data is extremely important. Because come race morning, if I haven’t gone over this and completely understand the data, I will fail on race day. My body won’t have the foggiest idea what it’s doing!
Yes, these are the things I do 9 days before a big race. It’s weird and obsessive and nutty as a fruit cake. But I am OH SO excited and can’t wait to get on the airplane Friday morning!! See you there!!
Happy Running!
Jen 