192 miles

In the past 3 months I have run 192 miles to prepare to run 13 miles tomorrow and have spent 36 hours and 47 minutes running to run for about 2 and a half hours. 


I am prepared.


My amazing friend Julia and I went to the Rock and Roll Expo last night to pick up our race bibs. It was so cool to see all the vendors, taste all the yummy samples, and be around so much running energy. One thing that really stuck out to me was how skinny, fit, young, and skinny all the other runners looked. More than once the thought raced through my mind that I was too big to be doing this, but then I remembered that


I am prepared.


One of the booths that we went to was for the pace runners. Before yesterday I had no idea what a pace runner was. There are people who actively choose to run a consistent pace during the race to help you finish in your goal time. Someone is going to be out there who will be running just right to meet my goal of 2 hours and 30 minutes. If everything works together, I should be able to meet this goal. I'll just squeak in, but I can do it. To be honest, I haven't thought about my pace a lot during training. For me, it has really been about finishing. There were a few runs where I was starting to get faster, but then I irritated my tendon and that dropped away. I'm going to keep my eye on that pace runner, but not worry about trying to match her exactly.  I know what I need to do to meet my 2:30 goal. 

I am prepared.


Running this 1/2 marathon has become so much more about the mental toughness and commitment to get out there day after day, follow my training program, and trust my body to perform as I think it should. I am excited, anxious, terrified, and ready to run. I've done the work and now it's time to reap my reward.


~Kari