The final payment has been made, the Magical Express tickets have arrived. According to the Run Disney website, I have a little over 41 one days until race day. I am in crunch time. It is now or never. I must increase my distance if I want to accomplish my goal of completing the Princess Half Marathon at the end of February. As I sit in my cozy warm chair, I am psyching myself up for a big run in the morning. Last week I ran seven miles, which honestly still surprises me. Tomorrow the plan calls for eight miles. Eight long miles. I try not to think too much about how far that truly is because I don’t want to sink into negative thoughts. If I think for too long, I begin to picture the route I will need to take to complete the full eight miles and then little voices start up reminding me how mile seven felt last week and how in the world am I going to make it that eighth mile. So I am NOT going to dwell on the distance as much.
I am going to think about my new toy that I got for Christmas. My grandmother gave me a Garmin Forerunner to help me with my training. I love it! With a simple glance at my wrist I know exactly how far I have gone (or more importantly how close I am to the end!), my pace, and time. Last week I was able to use the watch for the first time and I found out that I had been shorting myself ½ mile or more. That is, thinking that I had gone five miles, when in fact I had gone a little over five and a half. I was mapping my runs on the internet, and while that is a close estimation, it wasn’t exact. I have really enjoyed watching my pace. I am easily maintaining a 10-11 minute mile. For hard core runners, this is slow, but for me it is awesome! Remember, a year ago I had never run more than two miles at a time and that was only on a treadmill. I had a hard time pacing myself and was always out of breathe if I tried running on the street. I worked out the pacing issue by getting my former military husband to run with me. I get into my “zone” and watch his feet and I have learned where my comfortable stride is. The breathing part was solved with a trip to the Asthma doctor. I found out that I have exercise induced asthma that was not discovered sooner due to the fact that I had never pushed myself to this level of exertion. The watch has also given me a more accurate time. I press the start button when I begin and press stop when I am done. Before, I was trying to remember the exact time when I left and then, if I remembered, I would check the time when I was done and then did a little mental math to guesstimate my time. I like the preciseness of the watch much more. It fits my Type A personality perfectly!
So in the morning, I am hitting the pavement (unless it is raining, I am not going to run in the cold rain). As race day draws closer, I find my excitement level increasing. This is going to be a lot of fun! I may not love running, but I love Disney World, and that is going to make the running part fun. I can’t wait!
Sounds like U R getting closer & closer to your goal. U can Do it!!!!!!!!!!!!