Well, it may not be exactly as I imagined it, but I've put in the work and I consider myself to be as trained as I can be and ready to go to complete the distance. Just over one week until day one of races!
Seeing that written out scares me a little. It makes me doubt my training and my physical and mental capabilities. It's going to be tough, I never doubted that.. But at the same time I've been looking forward to this challenge for a long time.
It does make me a little sad to not be doing the actual races with the actual finishers medals at the end, but I am going to be doing the distance which is why I decided to buy myself the above sticker for my car.
I'm really proud of myself for setting a pretty huge goal and sticking to it. Even when things got difficult, even when I felt like giving up and quitting because it didn't feel "real", I stuck with it. The early mornings, the long training runs, the sore muscles, the achey hip, the tired feet.. I made it through to the end and here I am, just over one week away.
I've planned out my courses on mapmyrun and I'm pretty happy/comfortable about where I will be running. There's going to be some parts of the courses that I will see all four days, but it's going to be great. I've trained using parts of these courses and I think the familiarity will help come race day.
5K
10K
Half
Full
Maybe one day I'll be able to go to Disney World and run all four races. Until then I can be proud to know that I did the distance. That I stuck to something difficult. That I accomplished an amazing thing.
And, that's what this was all about the whole time. Sticking to a goal that pushed me to work harder than I ever have and the reward is going to be better than 6 medals.
Plus, I have more than medals. So much more.. I have the amazing support of family and friends, some that are going to be out running with me Sunday for portions of my run, some who have helped along the way with watching Isabel or bringing me water so I can go for a long training run, some who have supported me by believing that I can do it, some who have provided very meaningful memorabilia for me to treasure forever..
I received the above ears for Christmas from my coworker. Her daughter made them for me and I cried when I opened them. The thought behind them and the meaning they carry is worth so much to me. I cannot express my gratitude for the gift enough and I am truly a very lucky person to be surrounded by such amazing people. Between my family, my friends and my coworkers, I have a support system that is worth all of the medals in the world. I'm not running Dopey for medals, or the idea of the medals I would have had. I'm running it for me and for my loved ones.
Here's to 48.6 miles of gratitude and appreciation. I will have many hours out there to think about the positive people and things in my life.
*update: just found out Patrick will be closing the first day of my challenge. I have updated my 5K course to run near my parents house. It will be hilly, but I have completed this course many times and feel comfortable with it.
Main goal is to finish. No time goals, no pace goals. Just finish.
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