Hey y’all!
I can’t believe the weekend is finally here – the weekend of the Savannah Rock N’ Roll Marathon!!!
It seriously feels like just yesterday that I debated signing up for this race. In reality, that was over 5 months ago – June 1st, National Running Day.
Unreal.
Ryan and I are currently on our way to Savannah, GA where we’ll b he’ll be kickin’ up our his feet for the weekend, and I’ll be running the streets and enjoying all of the pretty historic neighborhoods and homes!
Staying true to style, we’re on the “no-plan” plan.
Well, Kind of. I guess we have a tiny agenda.
The only things we have planed are the Expo (Friday), the race (Saturday AM), recovery (um, duh), and of course, filling up on good food (helllloooo carbs). I’m super excited to explore and meet a ton of runners who are just as excited to be in Savannah as I am!
It’s kinda funny. I’m not too worried about running the race. My training cycle this time around has felt different to me. Sure, it’s been just as intense mileage-wise as the first time around, but I don’t feel like it was as “ground-breaking” as the first time. Perhaps this is because I was no longer setting PDRs (personal distance records)? Or perhaps it is because I have felt that my body has taken to these longer-runs much easier, as I experienced way less soreness during runs, and recovered quite quickly afterwards…
Who knows.
Regardless, though, I know training for a marathon is a huge feat. Huge. And honestly? I think the “training” that goes along with a marathon is maybe even more impressive than running the marathon in and of itself. Marathons are not a picnic in the park. Sure, you can get away with not training for a half-marathon and cross the finish line (guilty), and I’m sure you can do the same for a marathon.
But I don’t exactly recommend it.
You see, in reality, marathons take dedication. Training takes time. Your body goes through quite a lot, and you have to be mentally prepared for the pain of those last few miles when you’re feet and legs are telling you to quit because they plain ‘ole just hurt, but your mind knows better. Your mind knows when your body has finally reached that pinnacle of pain. It knows that from that moment on, the pain will not get any worse… so you might as well just push through and finish the damn thing.
That’s what the training teaches you.
And now that I’ve experienced that pain a few times over, I know to expect it, and I’m excited for my mind to take over and give my legs a kick in the ass so that my body can cross that marathon finish line once again.
For this race, I’ll be following the same mantra as I did for my first marathon – as I trained the same way again. I’ll be listening to my body and taking the time to stretch, as I run for me… not for anyone else, or any time.
My expectations for myself are to finish this race without injury, and for me, that means running how I always do – mindfully.
I’m not worried about time, and don’t have a time-goal in mind. To some of you this might not make me a runner in your eyes, but that doesn’t matter to me.
I don’t run for others. I run for me.
I run to enjoy the outdoors, to meet people with my same interests, and to have some time to myself. It’s a wonderful release from graduate school and work, and it’s very relaxing. To me.
Nevertheless, even though I have that same mantra, I have a very different mentality going into this marathon than I did my first. I have zero worries about whether or not I’ll get blisters, or whether or not it’s going to rain (for the record, it’s not going to, but even if it did—I know now, thanks to my 1st marathon, that a race in the rain = a kickass race). I’m also no longer concerned with how painful 26.2 miles “feels” to run. I know it hurts. I guess I got all of these worries out of my system during the Flying Pig Marathon. But don’t get me wrong, I’m not naïve. I know each and every race is completely different, and even with great weather/good training, races can, and do, go sour. Like that time I bit the pavement and slammed my knee into the sidewalk. Yep, shit happens. I know this.
In fact, it wasn’t until ThursdayAM that I even looked up the weather for the race. I’m pretty sure back in May when I ran the Flying Pig, I was all over checking the 10-day forecast. Heck, this time around, I didn’t even begin packing until late last night (had to get some schoolwork done first)… and what’s more? I still don’t know what I’m going to wear to the race.
Hrmph.
Much to Ryan’s chagrin, I brought a lot of my running essentials with me. And yes I say essentials, because when you’re a girl like me, you like to color coordinate and have options. Seriously now, if I’m not flying in an airplane, you bet your ass I’m going to make use of that trunk space. (And yes, this is coming from a girl who lived out of 1 suitcase and 1 duffle bag for an entire year while living in Australia. I guess I’m making up for lost time
).
Yep. Looks about right. Color coordinated and all.
Anyway, I guess the only “true” worry I have is in regards to transportation. As I’ve heard through the grapevine, runners (all 23,000 of us) are being forced to take a shuttle from the Savannah Mall (read: about 10 miles away from the race start) to downtown in order to alleviate traffic and congestion around the course. Sure, this makes perfect sense to me… but I’m just antsy about navigating a city I’ve never been to before. I keep telling myself that there’s no need to fret about things that are out of my control. Like I said before, shit happens. Like getting a flat-tire on the way to the race Expo… Because that totally happened last time. Remember?.
This is taped to my computer at work. So helpful. So needed.
Sadly, we aren’t bringing the Happster along with us, but I know she’ll be just fine, running circles around other crazy pups at The Barker Lounge.
Where the magic happens
We went to this doggie-daycare’s Open House last spring, and really liked what we saw. A few weeks ago, we dropped Happy off for a free-day of daycare, and she pretty much had the time of her life. In fact, Happy was zonked out for about 1.5 days after a mere 8 hours of this place. I can’t imagine what she’s going to be like come Sunday when we pick her up.
Has it really been 8 hours already?! It's only felt like 5 minutes!
Anyway, we’re going to be using this place to board Happy when we head to Arkansas for the Christmas Holiday, so we figured this weekend would make a great “trial-run.” Oh, if only dogs could talk… I’d love to hear what goes on in that little peanut brain of hers while she’s gone.
Anyway, the next time ya hear from me, I’ll be a seasoned marathoner!
Yesssss
And I’ll have another one of these babies in my hands.
It’s time to pound the Savannah pavement, and enjoy the sites this historic city has to offer along the way 
Hope you all have an enjoyable weekend!
