Final Pre-race Reflections

I'm about to take my sedating (hopefully) shot of Nyquil in preparation for my 8:30pm bedtime, and tomorrow's 4am wakeup call. Before I enter into that altered state of conciousness, I wanted to get in one final blog post.

Today was incredible! Seattle is such an amazing city. I could definitely see myself living here!! Spent the day with my parents being touristy, including Pike Market (awesome breakfast, browsing flowers and produce, witnessing fish throwing in action), an official Duck Boat tour that was lots of corny fun and showed off several other must see spots like the house from Sleepless in Seattle, and the filming points for Seattle Grace (but not Frasier, what's up with that?). A monorail ride back to Pike Market where I had the most amazing Mac n Cheese at Beechers (thanks for the tip, Meredith). Also several more food places I'd like to check out there tomorrow at some point. (So many carb options, so little time). Then to wrap up the evening I met up with one of my greatest friends and mile sponsors, Gerard for coffee and dinner. Fantastic day all in all!

The reality of running 26.2 miles up and down these Seattle hills is slowly starting to set in. This being my 4th marathon, I'm not nearly as nervous as I was for the first few- though I don't think even the most experienced marathoner ever gets completely comfortable with the distance. It's a generally accepted phenomenon in marathoning that math doesn't really work out as it usually does. 13 miles + 13 miles does not really come out to 26. It comes out to about 21 or so. Regardless of how much preparation you put in, you're just never quite sure how your body will handle those last 4-5 miles. This is where the marathon really begins. Generally it's about this point the tears will come and you get a lot of opportunity for reflection and time to really look deep inside yourself to find a way to get to the finish line. By that point your body has put in all it's capable of, so those last few miles tend to be run on just pure guts and determination. In short, those are the miles that make the finish line such a valuable experience! I'm excited to see what tomorrow will bring. Thanks to some incredible friends and supporters I have successfully prepared for this race. Now I'm very excited to see how the Seattle marathon story will go!

26.2 miles, and as always, it's not about the running. Something I have a feeling I'll need to keep reminding myself on those hills tomorrow. :-)

Thanks again to each one of you for your support and making all this possible!

LET'S DO THIS!!!