Waiting is the hardest part.....

To quote one of my favorite singers, Tom Petty, "The waiting is the hardest part" and this could never ring more true than right now for me.
After 4 long, hard months of hill training, tempo speed work, fartleks, track work, and long Sunday runs the only thing that I can do now is wait until Sunday.

I did a nice 9K run with one of my friends on Sunday and just finished doing some light cardio at the gym for just over an hour today. With the weather being so nice outside it is so hard not to lace up my running shoes and go out for a run.

Between now and Sunday morning I will be fighting my own personal demons. Not only will my training be close to non existent, I will also have to eat twice the amount of food that I'm used to.
When I was doing cardio today I was talking to one of my friends and she thought it was funny that I had to hold myself back from training this week so that I can be at my best for Sunday. For someone who rarely takes a day off from doing something physically active, it will be a real challenge for me not to do anything physically active from Thursday to Sunday. I often talk to my clients about scheduling in at least 1 hour of physical activity per day to help them reach their weight loss/maintenance goals. This week I will have to take the opposite approach and stay off my feet as much as possible.

I will be in touch with my close friends often this week as they do a great job of keeping me grounded and focused. Most of them are also running this marathon and it will be such a nice experience to have them there with me.
They also have all run fast marathons and know what I'll need to do on Sunday to reach my goal. I can't thank them enough for the support they have given to me (Nancy, Theresa, Miriam and Ken you are all amazing!)

This week I'm going to do my best to keep myself focused on the marathon and that will include staying away from negative thoughts and feelings. I will probably run the race in my mind about a dozen times between now and Sunday. I will also read some inspirational books on running and watch some "underdog" movies such as Rudy, Rocky and Remember the Titans.
I'll also put the final touches on my music for the race on Sunday.

I know that this is all part of the pre-race strategy that I have employed in the past and you would think that I would be used to it by now. However, I've never trained this hard for anything in my life and I'm looking forward to Sunday more than any race that I've ever done. Now I'll I can do is count down the days....and wait!