Grandma's Marathon: Here I come Ready or Not!

Grandma's Marathon and my first time racing 26.2 Miles is now just 42 hours away! To say I'm excited is an understatement. I literally had a dance party the last 10 minutes in the car before Ryan dropped me off at the airport, but don't let this statement fool you prepping for my first marathon has not been a party every day.

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A few weeks ago I started a blog that I wish I had finished to post. I had titled it "Getting into a training groove for 26.2." This fit at the time the way I was feeling. It started "Despite the Ups and Downs I have been struggling through the past weeks with marathon training I feel like I am finally hitting a good groove the past two weeks. Perfect timing since I really only have a few more weeks to gain as much fitness as I can before tapering for June 21st!"
Since then I probably had the roughest 7-10 days of my entire training cycle. I suffered my second "run, walk, cry." (A catchy name for a not so pleasant experience) I have only experienced this feeling while training for the marathon. I had one a few weeks into training when I stranded myself out too far on a long run the Sunday after a big travel weekend and just felt awful and couldn't imagine how I was going to race 26.2 miles when I couldn't even get myself to run over 14 miles that day. My second "run, walk, cry" was brought on by my hip/hamstring majorly flaring up. Even though I was seeing a chiropractor who felt he could finally fix my hip after the misplacement he believed was caused in March 2011 when I was hit by that truck while running it was feeling particularly awful that week and pulling with every step. Those 7-10 Days I felt physically broken down and mentally I couldn't seem to get myself to a good place about training.

Luckily after a few talks with my coach, some easy running days, and a fantastic sport massage my body came back. And then this week my mentality has now jumped from a good place to an awesome place! (It doesn't hurt that after seeing my chiropractor again my my hip/hamstring is feeling much better and we think we've finally figured out how to make the "fix" stick).
I honestly can't wait to see what I can do Saturday. I think part of this excitement comes from the peace I have made with the fact that I can't change my preparation now. Training for my first marathon is now over. It was what it was and it will have to be good enough for Saturday.
So physically ready or not I am mentally ready to enjoy pushing myself through racing 26.2!
Now if I can just manage to run the first half smart...
Find Your Strong.

During my Training I ran a few Half-Marathons as workouts. Just wanted to share a few pictures below.

The Start of the CRC Half Marathon
Ran a smart progressive effort. 1st female, 2nd Overall 1:24:48

The Patriot Half-Marathon
Where I learned that Rockwall, Texas is HILLY!
1st Female, 5th or 6th Overall, 1:25:24

My Mom came out to cheer at the Patriot Half even in the rain.