Going For It

I did some hotel booking today for two big events:

1) Bec and I are officially going to Nevada on November 1 & 2 to talk to voters.  I think Adam's coming too and maybe a few more.  I'm pretty excited but need to study up for some tough questions.  I will also start practicing my nice persona.  I've already been working on this with my students and it's going well in my 1st and 2nd period classes...3rd and 4th make it harder to be nice.  They are so chatty!  Granted, some of them have diagnosed reasons for this, but it's still harder.

2) After my long run today, I bit the bullet and signed up for the Eugene Marathon on May 3 (despite the old logo here, it will be in 2009).  I've been thinking about doing this since last May and the rate goes up in a few days, so I thought, why not just sign up now?  So, I'm going for it.  Am I being patient?  My PT would say that I need to be able to do 100 single leg squats before I run it, so I'll get back to that soon (right now, it's all I can do to just get my run in).  

My run today was great.  I did 14 and felt like I could have run 18 (I say that since I run the 4-mile loops around Stanford campus and I had another lap in me for sure...hence, the signing up for a marathon).  Although, I almost didn't survive.  Around halfway through my run, I tripped and did a slow-motion-flying-through-the-air fall to the ground on the trail next to "Lake" Lagunita (has this ever had water in it?).  I was in my running skirt and so the worst of it is right below my hip where my skirt flew up and left me unprotected.  I have a huge bump there and "trail rash" up my whole left leg (similar to my Mt. Yale tumble in the summer of 2004).  I can totally "see" where I fell on my NikePlus profile...it's a big dip down in pace.

Barring any more disasters, I think I'll be able to tackle the marathon training (which officially starts for me on Dec 29...the type A in me has this already planned), but first I need to figure out how to best use the 10 weeks in between the half and that start date to keep my fitness up without burning out.  The last few training days have been tough and for the first time since I got back to running, I didn't want to go out.  I got it done and did well, but I started this training program when I got to Nicaragua.  Doesn't that seem like a long time ago?  I was 27 then.