california

Cali has always been one of my favorite states - right behind the home state (GA)... and now I'm doing one of my favorite things in one of my favorite places - I'm running the San Francisco marathon on Sunday. :) I'm pretty excited. If you could measure excitement, multiply that by at least 2 or 3, and that's how nervous I am. I've never run a marathon really by myself. My first, Chicago, was with Team in Training. The other 2, I've run with my training buddy, JH. This one, its just me and the race. And the hills. And the view. And the xx000 other runners. We'll see. Because its just me, I can run my race. I just don't really know how to do that. Training alone has been a journey - I definitely feed off of other people, so pushing myself is pretty hard. I hope that being around so many other runners will give me that source to feed from. In the past, I've been impressed with how friendly runners are - I hope that that holds true on Sunday! I'm looking forward to meeting new friends - even if I'm only in contact with them for a little while.

Yesterday, JH pointed out that my nerves might be coming from the fact that I have more pressure on this marathon. I don't have anyone else to blame or look at in the way of an excuse if my time isn't what I want or what other people seem to expect. Oh... the pressure. I feel like its been so long since I've done a long run (it can't have been too terribly long ago, but it feels like it was in another lifetime), it just makes me worry that I'm not adequately prepared. Agh. We'll see. That's what I keep saying. We'll see.

I want to have fun. Will I have fun if I don't do as well as I want to? I don't know. Can I do as well as I want to? I don't know. We'll have to see. Actually, I hope that we don't see. I want to do as well as I want to. sub-4 hours. or at least right at 4 hours. eh... here goes!