I’m so happy today is Friday. Not only do I not have to go to work tomorrow, I get to go to the Women of Faith One Day conference in Loveland:
The website description: You’ve seen Women of Faith before . . . but you’ve never experienced it like this! Women of Faith ONE DAY is a brand-new event unlike anything we’ve ever done before. New format, new focus, new depth . . . you’ll connect on a whole new level. This empowering event could set your life on a new course or give you additional tools to continue what God has already started. What if one day could make all the difference? Find out at Women of Faith ONE DAY.
I’ve been thinking about going to a conference like this for a while, so when my friend Sheri talked about going, I told her I was in. And it just happened to fall on the one and only Saturday in my 4.5-month-long training plan that I wasn’t planning on running (since I’m racing on Sunday) – talk about God’s providence! My other good friend, Cathy, is going too, so I’m really looking forward to having a girls’ day.
The fun continues with a celebratory dinner tomorrow night – Travis is taking his Professional Engineer exam today! We won’t find out whether he passes until the middle of June (the bureaucracy of education continues) so we’ll just be celebrating No More Studying! And hopefully we’ll get to celebrate again next weekend, since he’s planning to defend his Masters Report this coming Tuesday (I say planning because his advisor hasn’t gotten back to him – which has been a major source of frustration through this whole process). Anyway, I’m going to let Travis choose the restaurant we go to (although I would definitely prefer something not Chinese or Mexican – they’re my least favorite food to have when we eat out. I guess I just like my own Americanized version better?)
Then Sunday morning, I will be up bright and early to head down the race site, pick up my race packet and prepare for what I hope will be a new Half Marathon PR. I’m a little bummed about the weather forecast though:
Although that’s better than what I had been hearing (high in the 30s and possible rain/snow). Bah! I just might be running another race in my obnoxiously bright yellow jacket…
On the bright side (no pun intended), I am feeling a lot more confident going into this half than I was before my last one – then, I felt like I had done everything wrong leading up to race day. Even though my runs this week haven’t been the best ones ever (just feeling tired and out of breath), I’m still maintaining an average pace that will let me easily PR – my 6 mile run yesterday had an average pace of 10:54 (I need to run 11:30/mile or faster to PR).
And I’ve been really thirsty this week so I’ve been drinking water like its my job (good). But I’ve been so tired that I refuse to get up and go to the bathroom during the night (bad).
Anyway, my strategy for the race is to just do exactly what I have been doing in my long runs – run comfortably but strong, stay hydrated, fuel around miles 5 and 9, and enjoy the experience.
Oh, and FYI, I discovered the secret to making coffee do its house-cleaning trick: drink it on an empty stomach. Because race mornings are generally so much different than my normal mornings, I have tended to drink my coffee with breakfast or on the way to the race instead of right away when I wake up like I normally do. Now I know better. Empty stomach = gears churning. Sorry if that’s TMI for you non-runners. Runners are kind of a gross bunch.
Just like my feet right now. I’m starting to think that my new Nikes are too narrow in the toe box because I’m getting blisters on the outsides of my big toes and balls of my feet. Does anyone have any tricks to prevent this from happening? I do wear drifit socks (Nike or Smart Wool brands) and put Body Glide on those areas to prevent rubbing so I’m kind of at a loss of what to do besides getting new shoes. And finding shoes wider than my Nikes will be a challenge, since I already tried on 15 or so pairs before I found these. Do you think using something like Nu-Skin would work?
I’ll be back on Sunday with hopefully a very positive report! Enjoy your weekend.
Life, Really Blog 