Armed with confidence but also a cold!

It seems like everyone this week has come down with some kind of flu and unfortunately I'm suffering from one as well. However, I'm not going to let something like a cold stop me from running tomorrow.

Yesterday I had a great tune up run with one of my best friends and she instilled some nice words for me about my training. She feels that I will have no problem reaching my goal of 1:40 and even suggested I might do better than that. I'm going to do what I did for my Jacksonville Marathon race in December which is just to run for "feel" and let the chips fall where they may.

I didn't get as much sleep as I wanted to last night but thankfully I don't have much planned for today so the couch will be my best friend.

I'll try to watch some inspirational and/or funny movies to get me ready for the race. The race is later than usual (12:30pm) so I don't have to get up extra early tomorrow. I'll try to get there about 1 hour before the race to pick up my bib number and timing chip. There will be one final trip to the Pickering Running Room today to pick up some gels and talk to the staff. This puts me in a good frame of mine.

My running bag will be prepared tonight and I'll make sure it contains my running clothes, extra socks, a change of clothing, extra batteries, my gels, my 2 pace band and directions to the race site. I'm sure the bag will be checked about 1/2 dozen times just to make sure that I haven't forgotten anything.

Today is my last day of carbo loading (thankfully) and I'll be eating mostly pancakes, potatoes and white pasta today. My last meal will be around 6 or 7PM and this will consist of a large bowl or two of pasta with some parmesan cheese. In the morning I will have a blueberry bagel with peanut butter and honey. On the way to the race and about 1 hour before the start, I'll have a banana.

I discussed my running strategy with my friend yesteray and I've decided to run the first 10K, take my gel with water and then run the next 11.1K. I'd like to run the first 10K in 50 minutes or less and then try to duplicate or better that pace for the final 11.1K. My training runs during the week are at least 10K in length and I never stop during these so there's no need to do so during a race. I'm only sorry that more of my friends won't be there to run with me but I know that they will be there in spirit. I do feel like I've trained pretty hard during these last 6 weeks and although me "goal" race is still months away, this race will give me a good barometer of where I am and where I need to get to. Thanks to everyone who has inspired me and given me the confidence to believe in myself. Expect a full report from the race tomorrow!