Less than 24 hours to go!

Well the last few days have been a whirlwind of activity and now we're hours from the start line! Thursday night was such a fun night with my running team! We all met up at the expo at the Javits center, and shopped for our new gear, and talked about our nerves, course strategies, and reminisced about marathons past! I will be running with two of my teammates, Christina and Ariel, and each of us has a reason why this marathon is so important for us to finish! I hope we can motivate each other alon the way and have a great time on the course!

After hanging at the expo for a couple of hours my team headed to a pub for an amazing pasta dinner! The food was amazing, and we got to carb load amongst each other, and do what we do best; talk all about running!!! Being with them that night helped ease lots of nerves, and just knowing I'm sharing a journey with so many friends is a blessed feeling, I'm a lucky girl! 

Yesterday was spent with my sister at the expo to shop and look around! It was so much fun! I ended up getting a new shirt customized to wear tomorrow, picked up some headbands, and had fun at the photo booths! 

After the expo we had pizza for lunch, and then headed to the opening ceremony in Central Park! I walked with the Ecuadorian delegates, and had so much fun seeing other cultures celebrate the marathon and being in NYC. There was music, dancing, and fireworks, the crowd was hyper and ready to party and have a good time! Its definitely the best way to get excited for the marathon, because after it's over it's time to rest up and eat the last meal! 

I already went out on a shakeout run this morning, ran just a little over a mile, and reminisced about why I started running, and how I've come to accept and understand that all the bad things in my past had to happen in order for me to be at the start line. Everything that's happened to me needed to happen because life showed me how hard and dark it can be if you lose control of it. I had to make choices, sacrifices, and learn to trust myself to find the strength to believe that I'm made to run a marathon. It's given me the confidence to believe that I am a marathoner and it was who I was meant to be this whole time. I'm a marathoner and whatever happens tomorrow won't change that, so now I'll rest, and enjoy whatever comes my way, it's going to be epic! 

 

4 days!

Yesterday turned out to be a pretty sweet day! After work I checked out the marathon pavilion set up in Central Park! I felt like it was a sneak peak of the expo, a place to get some of those jitters out and a way to start getting excited for the big day! 

I picked up a shirt and a new Sparkly Soul headband! I posted the first picture of the new headband for the marathon on Instagram, and I won a surprise 12 pack of headbands, which is super exciting since I own so many already! I wanted to buy more gear but everything said finisher on it and I'm super superstitious before a race, and I just couldn't bring myself to buy anything but the headband that said finisher! Technically I am a finisher since I ran last year but still don't want to jinx myself! 

Afterwards I ran in the park, and that's when panic set it. I was really excited and then I started running and felt this pain in my inner thigh I've been dealing with since I ran my 20 miler. It went away with some rest and stretching, but during the last week it's been coming back after every run, and it's worrying me. I'll take care of it after the marathon, but I hope I can make it through the marathon if it begins to flare up during the race. This is one reason I'm more nervous than last year, my body was fine and felt OK during my training, but this year I've had more aches and pains bother me than ever before. I'm just praying it gets better, I'll be there Sunday no matter what, I just hope I have a good race, and make it to the end as strong as I hope to be. 

5 days and counting...

So here we are 5 days out from the NYC Marathon, and I'm a nervous wreck! I feel more nervous than last year, and I think it's because I know what to expect this time around. For some reason I keep thinking of the pain I'll eventually be in, and it's not that it scares me because it wasn't really so bad last year, it's just wondering if I can break through it again this year and not hit the wall.

I'm also nervous because last year I ran with two friends, and this year I'm hoping to run with my friend Christina, but she's actually dealing with a bad cold this week, and we're not sure how she'll be feeling come Sunday morning. So if I end up running the marathon alone, now I'm wondering if I can mentally get through it solo! I know I'm crazy because I've done all my training runs alone, and got through each one, so I should be fine, but it's my head that's going crazy in the final days ahead! 

During these last few days my focus is carb loading, drinking lots of fluids, getting everything I'll need together, and the weather. So far I feel more prepped than last year since I was scrambling around the day before looking for last minute stuff. This year I've been prepping since last week and I think I'll be ready with everything by Friday! (I hope!) 

The weather is driving me nuts too, because it was supposed to be cloudy and high 50's but as of this morning it's now going to be in the 60's and 50% chance of rain! I don't mind running in the rain but for 26.2 miles it really doesn't sound like fun! So I'm torn btw short sleeves or long sleeves and I'm sure I'll be torn up until the morning of, so who knows what I'll do! 

Thank goodness the expo opens in two days, that way I can distract my nerves from the thoughts of actually running and just have fun seeing my teammates at our pasta dinner and the opening ceremonies on Friday! I'll do my best to blog about everything leading to the marathon, but if not I will be posting a recap a few days after! And if I'm lucky I'm going to record whatever I can on my GoPro and make a you tube video!