Do you ever get the feeling, when you have a big race looming, that your life is now divided between everything that led up to the race (especially the immediate torture of waiting) and everything after (none of which particularly matters)?
I spent my day at work making little Outlook appointments with myself, convinced that as soon as I walked out the library doors everything work-related would flee my mind to such an extent that I'll make lots of silly mistakes next week (missing meetings, forgetting deadlines, maybe just not showing up). My work week is Sunday through Wednesday (I'm 3/4 time). Tomorrow evening, after a normal Thursday home with my kids, I will get in my car and drive. The Top of Utah Marathon is behind every action and thought I've had today. It's amazing I was able to function on the reference desk!
Here are some new developments:
1) I have a cold (cue Darth Vader music). Dratted work (the kids aren't sick so I can't blame them this time). I'm downing water and Zicam, and I skipped my easy 30-minute run today in favor of a 30-minute walk. The symptoms aren't too bad so far. I hope I can keep any really wicked stuff at bay until after approximately 10:45 a.m. Saturday morning.
2) I found out the marathon will have pacers. This is huge! The only problem is they have a 3:40 pacer and a 3:50 pacer. My BQ target time is 3:45. Dan thinks I should run with the 3:40 pacer for the downhill part in the canyon and then allow myself to slow down and let that pace group go if I need to for the final 8 miles, which are flat to slightly rolling. And indeed this is the strategy many of the pacers on the TOU site recommend for this race. I tend to think of Dan as my running Zen master. He's never given me bad advice. Does anyone out there disagree with him?
I still honestly don't know if I can go as fast as those 3:40 pacers will probably be running in the canyon. I know I can stick with the 3:50 pacers. But then I risk not getting my BQ....
3) The weather: predicted high of 74, low of 49, possible thundershowers. Sounds good to me!
