Marathon Training Week 17

I am now at the point where I am ready for the marathon and scared to death of the marathon. Everyone keeps telling me I should have no problem reaching my goal of 4:45. It seems like it should be doable - that's a 10:52 pace, a mere 8 seconds faster than I've been training at. Surely I can do that - all the race calculators say I should be able to do that. But, there are so many variables that we just won't know until race day.

I love this upcoming week's mileage - 3, 4, 2 two days off and then 26.2. Seems like quite a jump from our last long run of 8 miles. Speaking of the last "long" run, it was cold - cold as in high 30's and actually a few flurries, as in snow. Foolishly I thought I wouldn't need gloves because I always took my gloves off during my winter runs even when temperatures were lower than that. But that was way back when my body was used to such frigid temperatures. Not so on Saturday. My hands were so cold it took me sitting on them for several minutes before I had enough feeling in them to turn the key to start the car.

Part of me wants to fast forward to this weekend - but in an effort to remain mindful, I remember that this whole journey is part of the fun. I'm actually enjoying this feeling of expectation (at least a little bit). I know I put the time in my training. I know that I can do this. But there is so much more to be done this week - relaxing, knitting, running some really short runs, decorating for Halloween, figuring out how people sign up for runner tracking (BoA why do you make it so hard?), finally deciding what I'm going to wear, going to the expo (!). 

This time next week I'll be so happy it's over, but also eager to start training for another race.

Stats for the week:
Miles run: 21
Miles left to go: 35.2
Raised so far: $1135.20
Left to go: Nothing - just seeing how much I can raise now.