One month from today is the marathon. I will be out there hitting the streets of Portland probably thinking about the hundreds of miles I logged, hours of hitting the pavement and trails, preparing myself mentally for that very moment. I wonder how I will be feeling. Probably nervous as to whether I am actually ready for what I am doing. There will be extreme excitement as the months of waiting are finally over. The adrenaline rush will make me want to run my heart out for the first few miles. Will I be able to hold back and save my energy for the rest of the race?
Today I think about the training that I have yet to complete. I am running a half marathon this weekend as a last push of motivation. (Not that I have had much trouble motivating myself to get out and run). I still have to log my 21 miler next weekend. This will be the true test to see if I am ready for October 9th. The long runs that I have done up to this now have went well. As of now, I have no doubts that I will make it through the marathon. I will probably come out of it surprising myself with how well I did. I cannot wait, but I have to as it is still one month away. I have been running all year long knowing that I would be running a marathon. By the time that I am running next month, it will have been 10 months since I registered for the race. That is just shy of an entire year! This does not even count the end of last year when I was deciding whether or not I even wanted to attempt this distance. Well here I am waiting for the time to come. I am going to run the 26 miles and finally put the anxiousness of waiting aside. One month! One month! One month! Soon I will be saying one week.
I am getting an adrenaline rush just sitting here and typing about my the event next month. Thinking back on all of the hours I have logged, I cannot help but ask myself, will it be worth it? Right now I think it will be worth it, but how will I be feeling when I am running those last 6 miles? When will I hit the wall? When will I have to start pushing myself mentally to get through the rest of the race? At what miles will I be thinking about these things? How long is it going to take me? Will my body be retaliating? What does a person think about for 26 miles? Will I hop in that ice bath? Will I be able to move when I complete the race? Will I want to run another marathon again? I guess we all will have to wait to find out the answers. Running, why are you so appealing to me?