Itching to run

Yesterday was my last run longer than an hour before the marathon... and it left me feeling like I'd failed to complete it. I first had just six miles on the schedule, but Wendy had 8, and given our route and Aleks' 18 on her schedule, 9 just made sense. But I was sad to be done, and I didn't feel like I'd run enough. I really can't wait for New York! I don't feel like I haven't trained enough. In fact, the opposite is true. I want to run 26.2 NOW, not a week from now.

A week from now it will be over. I don't want it to be over, but I want to be in the moment today.

I think this is how a taper is supposed to feel.

Anyway, I woke up wanting to run today, but Sunday is family day and the last two were totally not, so I didn't even try. But I did start playing with the idea of running a late-winter marathon... maybe February or March, to try to PR.

See, while all along the idea of running with my friends has been really appealing, now that it's down to the end, my competitive self is rearing its ugly head and saying, "How can you PLAN to run a marathon slower than you ever did before?"

I want to run with Wendy and Danielle, I really do. But I also want to push myself and see how fast I could be on race day.

So the compromise with which I cheered myself up was the idea of finding a winter marathon and running my heart out.

Well, I mentioned it to John over breakfast. Let's just say the reaction wasn't positive.

He's going to have to sacrifice a lot for me to become an Ironman, and I guess he was looking forward to me not racing for a little while and chilling out. In theory, my Ironman training season begins in March.

Unfortunately, I'm not sure I can really chill out until then.

And when I do get back into racing, John really wants me to work hard at the shorter-distance races - running 5Ks, doing sprint triathlons. And those goals interest me, too, but right now I'm about the endurance. He knows for 2007, Ironman Canada is it - he's not trying to change that - but I know he hopes this is the one Ironman event for me, then I go to something else entirely.

Maybe I will. After all, there's just so much I want to do! Multi-day bike rides (like, those really long ones - 600 miles or whatever). Climb Mt. Rainier. Run to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite. Adventure racing.

But right now, I just want to run.

Why isn't Sunday here already???