RUNNING...
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| Winter Storm Q's trajectory into the North East |
Up until two days ago, I was planning to run the Hyannis marathon. The race is tomorrow. As I did when I was planning my wedding, I started watching the forecast about 2 weeks out. For a few days, I was relieved that conditions were looking good. That was pretty stupid of me as we all know weather is fickle and can't truly be predicted 2 weeks out. I mean really, why do they even
HAVE 10 day forecasts? The reports started to change rapidly as WINTER STORM Q, which was stirring in the the mid-west, began (and is still) threatening to blow through New England on Saturday and hang out until Sunday night. Not awesome. In my mind, I was ready and wanted to run this race. At the same time, knowing how hard I have worked over the past four months, the thought of running 26.2 miles in a rain/snow mix with winds up to 40 MPH was slightly devastating. What to do? On Thursday, my running partner and I weighed out our options. We could wait and see and decide the day before with the risks being 1. the race is called off (which it still might be at this point) or 2. that we're running against Storm Q.
Or......we get online, find another marathon, and try to get ourselves there as cheaply and quickly as possible. We opted for plan B. I scrambled for hours online, first finding a marathon - thank you Albany, GA - second, finding an affordable flight - thank you USAir - and third, finding a decent hotel room. This one didn't work out as well as we have to share a bed the night before the race. But, we have a bed and that's better than nothing. Oddly, I just posted last week on how these marathons are
"marvelous journeys and unexpected adventures." We are flying down to Tallahassee, FL on Friday afternoon, renting a car and driving 80 miles north to Albany, picking up our numbers that evening, hitting the hay, and waking up to run a marathon that starts at 7:00 Satruday morning. Talk about adventure. Am I nervous. Hell yeah. I already tapered. Is there such a thing as a re-taper? I was ready for tomorrow. Can I be ready again in a week from tomorrow? It's hot & often humid in Georgia and I trained for four months in temps colder than 20, and sometimes 10, degrees. Can my body handle it? I don't know. All fair questions, right? So, yeah, I'm a little anxious. Or maybe a lot. But, I'm also excited, relieved and fired up for something new. To be honest, this is is kind of what it's all about. Because really, when you toe the line at a marathon, it doesn't matter where you are; at that moment, you are facing the unknown and the journey has just begun. Aaaaaaand, we're off!
...AND MUSIC.
Listen to this:
Cheated Hearts - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Oh yeah, I hear you about changing plans. I hope the new event works out really well for you. This is the first year that I qualified to go to Adult Nationals in skating (not as hard as it sounds, they have it broken up by age and test level, I just had to get to the minimum test level). So of course I wanted to go! But I stupidly missed the sign-up deadline, managed to register for Sectionals instead. Which is a whole month earlier, thus one month less to get ready. All kinds of shifting gears there, and I've been hustling to get my program ready, my dress, plane flights, etc. My event is in just under two weeks, I hope we both have a good time out there!
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