My Birth Plan

No, Not like that. I'm going to birth a marathon. I swore that 13.1 was plenty of miles for me and there was no need in life to go any further. And I wholeheartedly agree with that statement. But I had to go and open my big mouth to J.

When I was at Illinois, Spencer and I became friends with this fabulous couple. He (J) was working on his doctorate in Music Ed and he and I shared an office. I met his wife and he met Spencer and we all hit it off. 8 1/2 years later we have kept in touch and see each other from time to time. J is a fantastic runner and cyber-trained Spencer for his marathon last spring. After the race, J turned to me and said, "You're next!" He even offered to come to Louisville to run with me. I agreed to this sillines because I was 99% sure it would never happen. See...J is fast. And he had a qualifying time to run Boston in 2012. I was sure that he would be selected and run that race and not be able to come to Louisville. But, OF COURSE that's not what happened. Insert other random things here, and J decided to wait until 2013 to try for Boston. Which means he was all free and clear to come to Louisville. Which means you know who has got some training to do!

So J sent me a running schedule that started in September and runs (ha!) all the way until April 28, 2012. Three to four times a week I wake up, put on my running shoes and my Garmin and head out the door. I then record my times on my little chart hung up on the bathroom wall. This morning I was looking at my chart and I started counting how many weeks I have left. 26. I have 26 more weeks of training. Strangely, this is comforting to me because I am going to need every bit of it. And then I started thinking about pregnancy weeks. (Why not? I've had three babies and run zero marathons. So when I count weeks I think about babies.) If I had 26 weeks left in a pregnancy I would be 14 weeks along. That's so early! At 14 weeks you are just barely starting to show. Most moms are just feeling their first flutters inside. The room is not ready. The clothes are not bought. The name has not yet been decided.

And that's kind of how I feel. Like this race is so far off that it's not even real. But I'm hoping that as I check off each of those little boxes my body will be more and more prepared for the craziness of the Louisville Derby Marathon.

(The master list of mileage is on the right and the calendar where I fill in my times is on the left)