Great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body. That's me, apparently.

Yesterday I ran my last long run of marathon training.  The 8 mile run was a bit painful, as my shins have decided to be grumpy again. I've been icing the left one especially. I think that it's partially psychosomatic, because I didn't work out at all on Friday or Saturday, so one little 8 mile run shouldn't have much of an impact. Here I am before yesterday's run:

I wore my marathon shirt :D It's very bright lol.

My husband and I drove the marathon route yesterday. It took us quite a while; over an hour. I guess I didn't really think the course would be that long, but I can do it. I just have to focus on moderating my pace. I'm a little worried that I'll run too fast and wear myself out quickly. In the SoS half, my first mile was a 9 minute mile because I was so excited. That's roughly 3-4 minutes faster than my normal pace, and I'm running slower now than I did then because of the angry shin. Hopefully I won't give in to the adrenaline and can at least hold myself at a 12 min pace. The hills on the course aren't too bad-there is one bridge that looks terrifying because it seems almost straight up, but it's 2-3 miles in, and is therefore over quickly. The rest are manageable. There's one stretch of the course where they are doing construction on the road, and the part that we'd run on is very rough. The concrete is literally crumbling, and it was hard to drive on. I really hope that they fix that before Sunday. If they don't, I'm going to walk that portion.

Last week I had full-fledged taper madness going on. My anxiety level was through the roof, and I compensated by working out. A lot. After the 12 mile run on the 13th, I did a leg workout. I did spin before lifting weights on Monday, the 15th. I did another leg workout on Tuesday after I ran 7 miles. Then on Wednesday, I did a full leg day (kickboxing, leg day in weights, ran 3 miles, and spin). All of that was probably a mistake (as my shin is reminding me), but I needed it for the mental health. Working out was the only thing that made me feel better. I ran 3 slow miles on Thursday and then didn't work out again until my run yesterday. I feel much calmer (and more rational) now. I was all prepared to go lift weights this Friday, just to take the anxiety edge off. Now I think I'll still go, but I'll just sit there and chat while they lift weights and I fold towels. I'm still going to go to kickboxing and leg day on Wednesday, but I'll modify the exercise so that I'm not really doing much. A week from now, I'll be able to say that I'm a marathoner. :D

Oh, and my gym Coast 2 Coast Fitness Challenge team won! We reached 3000 miles about 2 weeks ago. I'm super excited to be a part of the winning team, even though my team members were a little crazy with their competitiveness. Need an example? I sent an email on Monday of the week before we won, saying that we were almost there and how exciting that was. The team captain sent back a reply saying that my ferocity surprised him. He called me, and I quote: "a great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body. You are smelling blood and want to viciously bite off the legs off of the poor Weapons of Mass Reduction surfers while they are just now content to catch a wave once in a while." All I said was "yay we're almost there," and he got vicious competitor destruction from my email. See? They're crazy. And I want to make a shirt that says great white shark in an innocent happy clown fish body.