{"id":293,"date":"2013-05-03T03:14:44","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T03:14:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=293"},"modified":"2013-07-18T19:41:41","modified_gmt":"2013-07-18T19:41:41","slug":"the-final-countdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/?p=293","title":{"rendered":"The Final Countdown…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The final hour is now upon us.\u00a0 I leave for Vancouver in the wee hours of the morning.\u00a0 I\u2019m packed\u2026well, sort of.\u00a0 If you count an open suitcase on my bedroom floor with a pile of stuff\u00a0thrown in that general vicinity over the past few days \u201cpacked\u201d.\u00a0 Should I be sleeping right now?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Although, the chance of that being very successful tonight is unlikely. \u00a0Steve and I have been texting and the challenge is on to see which one of us will be asleep first when we get on that plane.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m ready for this.\u00a0 I\u2019ve trained hard for this race.\u00a0 And now it\u2019s time to trust my training.\u00a0 I\u2019m bib #2423 and I\u2019m ready.\u00a0 Did I already say that?\u00a0 I need to keep reminding myself.<\/p>\n

As is usually the case during the last week of the taper, I have begun to doubt myself.\u00a0 I feel slow.\u00a0 I go between feelings of \u201cI can totally do this!\u201d and \u201cCan I really do this?\u201d within a matter of seconds, it\u2019s like\u00a0the runners version of Bi-Polar.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve seen all of my running peeps this week.\u00a0 I\u2019ve heard \u201cYou got this Girl\u201d and \u201cI believe in you\u201d more times than I can count.\u00a0 I\u2019m gathering all the good vibes and mojo that I can.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been getting emails and texts wishing me the best.<\/p>\n

My friend Katherine stopped by the store the other day with a present and a note.\u00a0 The present was a pair of socks that say Badass.\u00a0 Her note read: \u201cLindsey, Just a small reminder of all the hard work you put into training for Vancouver.\u00a0 You have done all you can and you are ready.\u00a0 Run strong, have fun and best wishes for a great race\u201d.\u00a0 I hope some of her speed rubs off on me.\u00a0 This girl just ran a personal best of 3:17 at Boston, finishing early enough to claim her medal and get clear of the finish line before the nightmare began.<\/p>\n

I got to run with Liz on Tuesday, who celebrated my last PR in December 2011 with a ballet slipper Christmas ornament (she couldn\u2019t find a running shoe) since she was my Secret Santa.<\/p>\n

Faith and I met this morning at Starbucks for our standing Thursday coffee date before we opened the store.\u00a0 She had a present for me that included some of my favorite treats, an Awesome journal (seriously, it\u2019s called\u00a0The Journal of Awesome) and sticker labels of inspirational quotes to put on my GU\u2019s for the race.<\/p>\n

Marxkors came by the store today, just to give me a good luck hug and rub some of her speed on me.\u00a0 And I finally had her sign my copy of her book, The Lola Papers, which I plan to read on the flight tomorrow, if I can stay awake.\u00a0 I’ve read her inscription a couple times, but it keeps making me cry.<\/p>\n

I ran with Nicole after work.\u00a0 It seemed appropriate for us to run together one last time before we head off to our separate marathons in different parts of the world, since we did so many of our training runs together.\u00a0 We got in a quick 3 miles this afternoon in the humidity.\u00a0 We talked race apparel, nutrition, strategy, pace.\u00a0 We\u00a0both feel just a little better knowing that we\u2019ll be running a marathon on the same day, even though with the time change I will be starting about the time she is done.\u00a0 \u00a0Both of us running in matching red Riders.<\/p>\n

I think the only person who I didn\u2019t see this week, that I felt like I should have, in order to bring the whole thing full circle, was Nick, since all of this started at his birthday dinner back in December when Steve said, “I think I’m going to run Vancouver for my birthday”.\u00a0 Unfortunately, I don’t think Steve will even be able to run me into the finish, but he’ll be waiting to celebrate with me when I’m done.\u00a0\u00a0Nick’s and my\u00a0last text exchange went like this:<\/p>\n

Nick: Rock that marathon.\u00a0 You\u2019ve trained hard and earned a PR.<\/p>\n

RRG: I haven\u2019t earned it yet, but I\u2019m gonna give it my best shot.<\/p>\n

One of the best things that any of my friends said to me this week was \u201cIt\u2019s impossible to really feel pain when you\u2019re smiling\u201d.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to hold on to that at Mile 17, or 18, or 19, or 20, or whenever I hit the wall.\u00a0 And I\u2019m going to smile.\u00a0 Because that\u2019s what Rambling Runner Girl does when she\u2019s running.<\/p>\n

I ran 16 in the rain, 17 in the cold with some sleet, 18 in a blizzard, 19 in wind and 20 in heat and humidity.\u00a0 Welcome to marathon training in the Midwest! \u00a0I\u2019m ready for any weather Canada decides to throw at me.\u00a0 Of course, I\u2019ve said that before\u2026thanks, Hurricane Irene. \u00a0The forecast in Vancouver is calling for much warmer temps\u00a0than the average for this time of year, a high of 75!\u00a0 What?!\u00a0 55 and sunny at the start, let\u2019s hope it doesn\u2019t heat up too much.<\/p>\n

This 26.2 means a lot. I’m going to push myself. It\u2019s going to be hard.\u00a0 But it\u2019s supposed to be hard.\u00a0 If it was easy, everyone would do it. I\u2019m prioritizing my goals as good\/better\/best.<\/p>\n

Good: A PR, anything better than 3:47:11.<\/p>\n

Better: Beating my old BQ time before the BAA dropped the times, anything better than 3:45:59.<\/p>\n

Best: BQ, faster than 3:40.\u00a0 That\u2019s a tall order.\u00a0 But this is a new day.\u00a0 I\u2019m a new girl.\u00a0 Both figuratively and literally, since this is my first marathon ever as Lindsey Jacobs.\u00a0 Ultimately, I just want to go run a great race and be happy crossing the finish because I laid it all on the line.\u00a0 In the words of Pre, \u201cTo give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift\u201d.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the big question\u2026what do I have to lose by believing that I can accomplish all that I want to in this race?\u00a0 Even if I don\u2019t<\/em> accomplish all of it, it doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t<\/em>, it just means I didn\u2019t this time.\u00a0 So I will believe that I can.\u00a0 And I will go after it.\u00a0 With all of my heart and everything I have I will go after that 3:39:59.<\/p>\n

Today, as I left out the back door of the store, sweaty from my run with Nicole, I heard Faith yell \u201cGet \u2018er done!\u201d and AJ followed that with \u201cBreak a Leg\u2026are we supposed to say that?\u201d\u00a0 The point is this\u2026regardless of what the final result is on Sunday, I have never felt so loved and supported in any of my marathons before this one.\u00a0 I have a phenomenal cheering section.\u00a0 And that is better than any race shirt, or finisher\u2019s gear, or medal I could ever earn.\u00a0 My people\u2026that\u2019s my real PR.<\/p>\n

\"Some<\/a>

Some of the items to go in my carry on<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The final hour is now upon us.\u00a0 I leave for Vancouver in the wee hours of the morning.\u00a0 I\u2019m packed\u2026well, sort of.\u00a0 If you count an open suitcase on my bedroom floor with a pile of stuff\u00a0thrown in that general vicinity over the past few days \u201cpacked\u201d.\u00a0 Should I be sleeping right now?\u00a0 Probably.\u00a0 Although, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"aside","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-aside","hentry","category-lessonsfromrunning","category-randomthoughts","post_format-post-format-aside"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4eO4v-4J","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=293"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":403,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293\/revisions\/403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ramblingrunnergirl.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}