Am I Ready? Sure, Why Not?

Today I ran twelve miles. And for twelve miles it felt pretty good. I ran a totally new route through three surrounding Albany suburbs. The weather was just right- cloudy with a slight breeze. I wanted more Vitamin D but I still got to be outside for about three hours breathing relatively fresh air (I ran along some pretty well traveled roads with TRUCKS!) I was afraid of my hip acting up because when I planned a 9 mile run my hip starting twinging at 6 miles and by mile 8 I had pain like never before and called it quits after 8.5- not a huge cut I know but the route I planned made it that way. I had to do today's run since the half-marathon in Philadelphia is on Sunday and I've been a terrible weekend warrior. So I had to do it to make sure I'd be okay. And to see how my hip would hold up.

Turns out it held up well, actually. I realized my shoes probably played a bigger role than I thought when my hip started to hurt after one hour of simply standing in them. I had another pair that I use for my triathlons since I don't care if they get wet and I realized I probably didn't put in as many miles with that pair as I did in the pair I've been using. I figured I'd give the triathlon pair a go today and if my hip hurt well then I would be simply screwed. I looked for the telltale ache around 3.5 miles and there was a little but nothing as sharp as before- so I worked on my form to see if moving a different way would help. I think it paid off because I only experienced the normal aches and pains. I know I won't take three hours for the race even though it will be another 1.1 miles. The adrenaline will help carry me through, I'll have a running buddy and it will be a totally new route that I can't landmark (that way I can't focus too much on distance and just run.)

Since it was a running route that I'd never done I made sure I knew where my three turns were. Well, I forgot that there was an additional turn I could've made. I couldn't remember if I ran until a street stopped and then turned or if the street continued and I had to turn before it ended. I found myself at a literal cross-roads asking little old ladies if I had to go straight to a street or if I was standing on the street. The first car gave me two answers (which were both right but I asked the wrong question- how to get to the grocery store when I really needed to know how to get to a certain street.) So I asked another nice old lady. I felt like such a creep! But they were all really nice and strangely all had a hard time opening their automatic windows.

All in all I'm no longer so terrified of Sunday. I think it will be good. The weather should be temperate and the crowd amazing. There's thousands of people doing these two races so it should be super exciting! And then Mike can drink beer again and I can stop feeling guilty for not sticking to a training plan. Sweet!