Sunday is the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon. Yes, I was one of the very fortunate 20,000 women chosen at random by a lottery to participate. This is the 5th year of the marathon/1/2 marathon and it is definitely a "to do" race for Bay Area female athletes. This is the race where you get a tiffany finisher's necklace handed to you by SF firemen dressed in tuxedos. I actually have never done this race, but entered the lottery last March (about a month into my 1/2 iron training).
The problem with registering for a race seven months before the event is the fact that you don't know where you will be in the future. A lot can happen over 7 months. Take me, for example. Since March of 2008 I have: had a total career change into the non-profit world; trained for a crazy endurance event; found out what my core was and tortured it; bought my first house with the hubby; had a half marathon PR; raced another 1/2 a month later NINE minutes slower; became obsessed with Gossip Girl; swam to the Presidio from Alcatraz; went back to my (almost) natural hair color; completed 7 triathlons only to crash my bike at my BIG one and received a mild concussion mixed with my first DNF; and FINALLY finishing a half-ironman and now...
I am kinda tired.
Tired of moving. Tired of packing my tri-backpack and fretting over whether I packed the right shoes. Tired of eating weird food like chicken broth with sirachu sauce and peanut butter check mix the night before a race. I am wondering what the hack happened to my mojo.
Thursday I had my last workout of the year with coach Heidi and she (as usual) had very helpful words:
"I think you should take 6-8 weeks off from racing. And that includes training. You can do yoga, go for a bike ride...but you are raced out."
And she is so right.
Unfortunately...I have this Nike race on Sunday. And the Catalina triathlon in November. So, basically from November 8 to the end of the year I will be a race-free Jill.
At first I was doubtful. I always loved doing the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Would it be horrible to miss it this year?
The answer: of course not. Do I need ANOTHER turkey trot t-shirt? nah. If I really want to be a part of the race, I can always volunteer.
This Sunday's race, however, I have NO clue how it will go. My training has been either sporadic or non-existent. The last time I ran over 6 miles was at the Big Kahuna and that was more of moving my legs to avoid passing out then it was running. I have decided that this race will be my "casual attitude" race. I am not going to stress about it and just feel fortunate that my name was picked to run 13.1 miles for a tiffany necklace.
There are worse ways to spend a Sunday morning, right?
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