Five weeks until race day

I used to think running four miles was an inhuman feat. The first time I ran a 10k I thought it was ridiculously long and torturous. And yet somehow along the way I still ended up thinking that doing a half marathon would be fun. In theory, and from other people’s race pictures, it does look fun, but setting out every other day to run the same route over and over again is wearing me down a bit. The thought of how many miles I have to do as I lace up my shoes before my run can be completely paralyzing. But after finishing 8 miles last weekend, a distance most certainly deemed impossible while double knotting my shoes, for some weird reason 9 doesn’t seem so bad and 13.1 doesn’t feel all that far off.

I’ve reached the point in training where I know I will finish. I won’t break any records and my pace won’t be spectacular, but we are going to have a blast. We are going to walk when we are tired, take pictures, laugh, and enjoy every single one of those 13 miles.

Now when I lace up I think about how I’ve already done 8 miles and I have more than 75 miles behind me since I started training. When I get tired and I want to cut the course and walk home, I think about all of the times in the past three months that I kept going and keep putting one foot in front of  the other. When I think about how bored I am running the same places, I imagine what it’s going to be like to watch the sun rise over San Francisco and start our run with thousands of other people at one of my favorite running spots, a place that feels like home. When I get home and have to shove my feet into my freezing ice bath (more on that fun soon), I think about how accomplished I’m going to feel when I cross the finish line and how amazing my celebratory meal is going to taste. In 5 weeks I’m going to cross the finish line with a huge smile on my face and from now on I’m practicing that smile on every run.