One more day!

May 2, 2014
One More Day - Dedicating the Race

This has been a tough week.  This was a travel week at work.  I had to be on the road at 4:00 am on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Because I wanted to get eight hours of sleep each night, we were going to bed at 8:00 pm.  I'd fall asleep and then wake up around midnight, thinking it was morning.  My sleep schedule was totally off.  I did the taper runs that my coach assigned.  Both felt sluggish.  But, I remember from swimming, that I always feel sluggish while tapering.

Today is my husband's birthday.  He is a saint.  We opened cards and presents in the morning, but given that my focus is on the race, there wasn't much birthday celebrating.  I will need to make up for that when the race is over.

Last night, I laid out everything that I wanted to take to the race.  This morning I put everything in my suitcase and sport bag.  I almost forgot the plug-in to charge my Garmin watch.  Phew.

This morning, I decided that I wanted to write words to remember on a piece of paper to carry with me for inspiration during the race.  The first few phrases were from my coach in various text messages.  The second is from an email from my cardiologist.  The third phrases are from my sons.

I decided to dedicate my run to three people and I wrote their names on the paper too:  1) our granddaughter, Emma Kate, who will be born at any moment, 2) her older sister, Harper, and 3) a young man who I have never met named Tom Morris who I find to be incredibly inspiring.  

I read a post on my coach's Facebook page that said how much he admired Tom.  Then I went to Tom Morris' Facebook page to see what was so admirable about him and I was blown away.  Tom is a strength coach at Indiana University and a cyclist.  In March 2012, he had a catastrophic mountain bike accident and laid paralyzed on the ground for three hours before anyone found him.  He entered a rehab facility in Louisville and worked his tail off.  He regained the use of his arms, chest and torso, but not his legs.  That didn't stop him.  He resumed his job as strength coach at IU.  His attitude, perseverance, dedication, strength, courage are so inspiring.  Simply amazing.  When I am doing runs, I always take Tom's story with me.  When the runs get tough, I think about all the rehab Tom did and the progress that he made.  I think about how lucky I am to have two legs that work.   That makes my temporary discomfort seem so insignificant and I push on.

We left for the hotel around noon, checked into the hotel, and then went to get my race packet.  I wanted to keep off my feet, so we didn't spend much time viewing the booths.  Then we drove the course one last time, went back to the room, watched TV and had room service dinner.

I am still not sure  what to eat the night before events.  I ate ramen noodles in V8 juice (mmmm) and eggs fried in olive oil that I brought from home.  I didn't have any way to heat them, so I ate cold fried eggs.  Yuk!  I worked on hydrating all day.