Wow. Where have I been?

I think it’s no coincidence that I stopped blogging after my office moved. With a longer commute, I have to leave significantly earlier in the morning. Which means I have to go to sleep earlier at night.  There goes my computer time!

I ran a bunch of races in September that I wanted to write about. How my relaxed pace at the Virginia Beach Rock ‘n’ Roll Half Marathon was so much more comfortable and fun than my just-failed attempt to go sub-two hours last year. How my first trail half marathon was A LOT harder than I expected, and I was actually happy with my 2:50 finish.  How fun it was to race and party in Nashville at the Women’s Half Marathon.

But I probably won’t get around to that.

Instead, I wanted to write about my marathon goals. Because holy cow, I’m running a marathon tomorrow!

A few months back I wasn’t sure the Baltimore Marathon was going to happen for me. But my foot got better, and I pretty much caught up with training.  Only one 20-miler and not as many as I would like in the 15 – 18 range, but I should be fine.

I’ve got the Marine Corps Marathon in two weeks, so I’m not planning on running too hard tomorrow. If I happen to feel comfortable at a fast pace, well that would be fabulous! But I’ll be taking walk breaks — definitely through all of the water stops, and possibly up hills.

I won’t go so far as to blog or tweet during the race … that’s too distracting. But I want to have a fun race tomorrow, where I don’t stress out about my pace. I’ll wear my Garmin, but I don’t have strict time goals.

I’m not planning on chasing last year’s 4:22:22 PR that blew my mind. If I can get in the 4:30 range, that would be awesome … but really, anything under five hours would be great too.

And if not, whatever. As long as I finish smiling!