The Fear of Racing

Fun title, huh?

Okay-first of all, I don’t really have a fear of racing…most of the time. This year I have done 8 races and was only really nervous for the first one. I think part of that has to do with the fact that most of the races were “training races” in preparation for one big race: the Marathon!

I will be honest and say that my training has had its ups and downs. The first 8ish months were fabulous. I followed my training plan to a T! No missed runs…everything was dandy. I felt great and couldn’t wait to run after work.

The last six and a half weeks have been another story. Ever since my half-marathon, things have been weird. Something about that course really did a number on my left knee and I have been struggling with it ever since. I have axed some of my workouts, taken 5 days completely off of running, cut out miles from long runs….and pretty much thrown my plan out the window (kinda). On top of that, I now have a cold which makes running seem about as fun as breathing out of a straw

.source  Okay-who does that?

Yes, I did get a 20+ miler in on Sunday and a 50 minute hike/run done yesterday, but the quality was lacking. My body was not super thrilled to be doing anything!

You can imagine my horror surprise when I opened up my email Sunday night and there was a confirmation letter for my marathon….in less than 3 weeks.

My face went from to this    to this .

People keep telling me that I will be fine. That I have a good amount of miles on my legs and I could race tomorrow. But I am a planner…and I have a plan…and my plan is not going according to plan!!

So now I will try to go the next 2.5 weeks trying not to freak out and get in as many of my scheduled runs without killing my knee. And wrapping my head around the insane number of people that will be at the race! At least the mini concerts will be good!

I am thinking my goals will be changed too…at this point I will be happy to finish. My initial goal of 3:45 to 4:00 hours may or may not come true and I think I am going to have to be okay with that.

Hopefully this will be me at the end….finishers medal baby

 

okay it really looks like this….

source

Fingers crossed!! Off for another little hike/jog with the pup…and a whole lot of foam rollering tonight!